Animation Revelation Reviews

Goodbye Blogger...

2011-12-14T23:26:00.000-05:00

Now that we've got legitimate hosting(!) and a domain name(!!), I figured it was high time we moved on over to a self-hosted WordPress page.

Check it out, update your bookmarks and RSS stuff, and stay tuned for more animation-related articles!

Maggots In The Wound (Higurashi Kira, Episodes 1-3)

2011-12-13T19:48:00.005-05:00

Did you like the first season of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni and its follow-up, Kai? Did you grow to love the main characters and get sucked in by the constantly evolving but always mysterious storyline? Were you looking forward to seeing some light and fun everyday adventures involving the relatively large cast post-srs bsns time loop drama? Well then,

Mion tells it like it is.

Death Note fans will no doubt be surprised to learn that the word "kira" actually means something akin to "glitter." And like glitter, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kira, Studio Deen's latest attempt to milk this cash cow for all it's worth, is tacky, aggravating, and cheapens the value of the original product it's applied to.

First of all, look at Mion in the above picture. Just look at her. She looks like a fucking K-On! character. Studio Deen apparently decided that it'd be a good idea to change Higurashi's art from the cutesy yet creepily deformable style of past seasons to a low-rent KyoAni riff. Brilliant. Does that make it easier to masturbate to? You're about to be the judge!

Episode 1 is probably the most insipid thing to ever come out of the When They Cry franchise. It's also the only part of this new OVA series that's taken directly from the visual novel, which actually makes it worse because it adds more fuel to the fire of my Ryukishi07 hatred established by Umineko and Ookami Kakushi. Fanservice, an aspect of anime that the first two seasons tactfully avoided, is the name of the game here. This episode is filled with tasteless shots of underage girls doing things that men far older than them seemingly find arousing.

Ooishi is apparently a pro at fantasizing about little girls.

I could deal with this if it was just Keiichi and Irie. But no, according to Kira, Tomitake and Ooishi are pedophiles and have been all along. I know this is supposed to be a comedy episode, but the whole situation just doesn't sit right with me. Of course, it would probably help if even one of the jokes didn't fall flat. To put it bluntly, this episode's humor is about as funny as forcibly receiving an enema of your own diarrhea. Anyway, roughly 2/3 of the episode is spent watching Keiichi, Tomitake, Irie, and Ooishi jerk it to the thought of the major female characters in compromising situations, with a little surprise at the end for KeiichiXSatoshi shippers (these people actually exist, apparently).

MY DICK IS SO HARD RIGHT NOW

The fanservice shots are gratuitous and more than a little creepy. Really, did anyone ask for this? There are already at least 10 different doujins in which Hanyuu gets a train run on her by an entire football team and a dozen or so where a giant squid thoroughly explores all of Satoko's orifices. I'm sure someone out there can hook you up with a 50-page comic where Shion grows a penis, kills Keiichi, and skull-fucks his corpse while Mion watches and masturbates. And there's gotta' be at least one using Rena's maggot-infested wounds as a basis.

Ahem. My point is, people who would want to fap to Higurashi in the first place are probably incapable of getting turned on by the (comparatively tame) stuff in this episode, and the rest of us just have no desire to see that shit at all. It's out of character, morally reprehensible, and worst of all... boring. I got absolutely no joy out of watching this episode, and that includes the fanservice-less third act.

Yes, this is something that actually happens in this episode.

The last bit of this episode moves out of the "underage kids in erotic situations" camp and firmly into one of self-parody. Unfortunately, Higurashi has proved itself to be absolutely terrible at parody in the past, and it fares even worse when it's trying to make fun of itself. Basically, it ends up being Scary Movie 4 when it could have easily pulled off Shaun Of The Dead had it been penned by a writer who had even the slightest idea of what constitutes a good comedy. There is no wit, just "wacky" and poorly executed slapstick antics; the kind that plague every single goddamn modern anime that tries to be funny. The worst part is that there's actually quite a bit of potential for excellent satire here, it was just squandered by a clearly incompetent writing staff and awful direction.

There are no words to properly express my sorrow.

Episode 2 is equally terrible, but also thankfully less offensive. In it, Rika and Satoko wake up in a parallel universe where they are magical girls. Needless to say, it's pretty fucking stupid, but I will say that as a whole it feels a lot more sincere than the first installment. While the voice actors and animators were clearly just going through the motions and trying to make a quick buck with the previous episode, you can tell that they're actually having fun this time around. Of course, professional critics have informed me that my ability to have fun while playing Duke Nukem Forever is a bad thing, so I'm going to echo that sentiment here and say that the staff having fun working on an anime episode is not necessarily a good thing. Make no mistake, part 2 of Kira is still an abomination, even if it wasn't obviously phoned in like the first one.

Episode 2 opens with some intelligent philosophical discussion.

According to a description posted online before the OVA's release, this episode is a parody of that new Madoka Magica show. Now, I haven't properly watched Madoka, but I'd honestly be surprised if that were in any way true judging from what I've seen of it. This seems to be no more than just your standard magical girl anime parody episode; the kind that gets made about as often as "MARIO FARTS LOL XD" flashes are submitted to Newgrounds. The jokes are fairly standard to the genre -- everyone inexplicably thinks one of the magical girls is super cute, the transformation sequences are purposefully lame and over-the-top, the villains' costumes are ridiculous in a bad way -- and, unsurprisingly, the plot doesn't really go anywhere. In fact, it ends on a cliffhanger... thank God there will never be a continuation.

The whole thing is just weird for the sake of being weird and never really attempts much in the way of comedy. In fact, aside from a few brief scenes, it actually seems to play the whole magical girl concept fairly straight. It's not particularly entertaining to watch and is pretty generic, all things considered. While I did not want to kill myself as often during this episode as I did during the first one, that alone does not make it worth a watch. To simplify things, they're both total dog shit, but this particular lump of feces doesn't have as much of an odor.

A question you will likely ask yourself multiple times should you choose to watch the second episode.

Before I continue, I'd like to take this opportunity to point out how much I hate the new OP. I know, I know, music is the most subjective thing ever (except for Nickelback; they're undeniably shit), but I find it to be obnoxious and more than a little grating. I do not feel happy, lucky, or whatever the fuck "dochy" means while watching/listening to it... in fact, it causes me physical pain. Rei's opening was pretty lame, too, but at least that one didn't make it seem like Studio Deen was trying to turn Higurashi into the next "cute girls doing cute things" phenomenon. It's just another aspect of Kira which proves that Deen doesn't give a shit about the series' 10th anniversary, they just want to make as much money as possible off of it by appealing to a completely different fanbase from the currently existing one.

You should be.

With that out of the way, we can now move onto the final and most shocking part of this review. Originally, I was going to wait until the fourth episode came out and then write a humongous diatribe detailing the ways in which I wanted to see every person working at Studio Deen die. But after watching the third OVA of Kira, I decided it would be worthwhile to write and post the review ASAP [part 2 detailing my thoughts on episode 4 will be released sometime in early February]. What is the reasoning behind this decision? Was it so terrible that I needed to bash its brains out immediately? Did it give me irreparable brain damage? Or maybe... maybe it was...

Good. Episode 3 is good. Surprisingly good. The story was interesting enough to fill 30 minutes. Some of the jokes were actually funny. Most importantly, there were no stupid gimmicks and the characters acted like themselves. The truth is, despite the second act being overly silly, this is the first episode to treat the source material with any sort of dignity since Kai. I have no idea why it took Deen so long to produce an episode in which the kids and high-schoolers do nothing more than simply act like kids and high-schoolers, but it finally happened. It's not exactly glorious, but it's legitimately watchable and kind of fun. Finally.

the pimp said angrily.

The basic plot here is that the three main girls who have actually hit puberty make known (in their various different ways) that they have feelings for Keiichi, but he's too much of a bro to ruin their friendship by going through with dating one of them. Or maybe he's just gay for Satoshi. That'd make all the female Higurashi fans happy, I'm sure. Yeah, it does sound like some lowest common denominator harem bullshit, but it's a legitimate unresolved plot thread that's been there since day 1, and it's actually handled in the tasteful fashion you'd expect from the lighter episodes of the first two seasons.

It's not the best storyline Higurashi's ever had, but it ditches the fanservice of the past two episodes, and as long as Tomitake isn't getting hard over Rika rubbing her ass on a window, I'm happy. There isn't much of a resolution present in this episode, but it's pretty obvious who our good buddy Keiichi will probably end up going for if you pay attention.

TIP: It's one of these three.

The humor is pretty hit or miss, particularly in the second half. It's almost certainly the funniest episode of Higurashi that's ever been released, though... which isn't really much of an accomplishment, but I digress. You'll probably like it if you're a fan, and that's what's important. Things get pretty silly, but it's still more grounded in-universe than any of the other OVAs (Nekogoroshi-hen aside). If the rest of Kira had been like this, it would have easily surpassed Rei. Unfortunately, it won't even come close to that series' mediocrity unless episode 4 can perform just as well as or better than this one. My hopes are not high, but at least Higurashi fans can rest easy knowing that the fourth series won't end up being a complete waste.

TL;DR
Episodes 1-3
Art/Animation: 7/10 - It's like a low-rent KyoAni production, but it isn't bad at all. I can't decide if it deserves to have a point deducted or added for the hilarious scene in episode 3 where Shion's boobs start freaking out as if they have a mind of their own.
Voice Acting: 8/10 - The performances are less enjoyable and effective when the series doesn't attempt drama, but they're still damn good.
Episode 1
Story: 0/10 - There are definitely pornographic Higurashi doujins with better plots.
Characters: 1/10 - Out of all the male characters, only Irie acts like himself. None of the female characters do anything of note aside from degrade themselves.
Overall: -1/10 - I wish to forget I ever witnessed even a single frame of this aberration.
Episode 2
Story: 3.5/10 - It's a generic magical girl anime plot.
Characters: 3/10 - The characters are now generic magical girl anime characters.
Overall: 3/10 - It's pretty painful to watch, but it's still far better than episode 1.
Episode 3
Story: 6/10 - Unresolved plot thread that sadly doesn't really go anywhere.
Characters: 9/10 - I love the main cast, and they more or less act like you'd expect them to. It was great seeing Kasai and Grandma Sonozaki again.
Overall: 7.5/10 - It's not the best Higurashi episode ever, but it is the best Higurashi OVA ever.

--Foggle

One Piece 517: A Great Start to a New Era

2011-10-16T20:21:00.000-04:00

So, right off the bat you must be wondering what the hell I'm doing writing-up about a single episode of an EXTREMELY long-running established series such as this (as opposed to reviewing some DVD set for it or something of the sort). Well, to be frank, this series’ length is actually a big part of the importance of this entry, and why I'm even writing about it in the first place. For those unfamiliar with Eichiro Oda's insanely popular long-running series One Piece, let me just briefly clue you in on what exactly this particular episode is: Its basically the tried and true inescapable concept that is found in almost all long-running shonen series, simply known by many as the "time-skip." Even for a series with as many unique quirks as One Piece, this sort of plot-device was inevitable (though, to the series’ credit, it was extremely well handled in this case). Normally that wouldn't qualify it for an entry on the list, but for this to happen so late in the run of such a long series, and due the huge plot-points that build up to this, its almost like an event among fans of the series, so let's just say that this entry is an exception.

Now, I should mention that Toei animation isn't exactly known for their quality. In fact they are known for quite the opposite, usually cutting as many corners as possible and producing cheap productions values where they can to cut costs, but even they decided to put some effort into the premiere of One Piece's so called "New World" arc.

The episode opens with a brief little prologue building up to Monkey D. Luffy's grand return on the television screen since....like, a week ago (but this is after a 2 year in-series time-skip so it still carries an epic feeling to it....sort of). I must say that I quite enjoyed how even such a little thing as showing the face of the main character who every fan of the series already knows so well is built up to like its a big deal, as it honestly does effectively build an effectively impressive atmosphere around him. In fact, this whole premiere is basically a series of character re-introductions, and in the case of newcomers to the series who decided to jump in here, they can be considered first time introductions. This may sound completely pointless and sound like it makes for a boring slow-paced episode, but if you know anything about shonen and the concept of their larger than life characters (well, only so few shonen can be bold enough to claim that their characters achieve such status), then this actually makes for a pretty grand opening, and in many ways it reminded me of other classic anime that used such techniques, such as Lupin III in the first episode of the Red Jacket series.

Well, to be fair there is a fair amount of plot happening in the background. The series’ narrator goes into brief detail recapping the events leading up to this episode, which should no doubt be helpful to any newcomers to the series. After the short prologue piece the anime starts off with a brand new opening song sung by the Golden Team who in fact sung the original opening for One Piece which is now all but iconic in Japan, even among people who aren't fans of One Piece. The episode continues on Saboady Archipelago which fans will know as the site in which the Straw Hat pirates agreed to reunite at. Over there people are buzzing about the return of the Straw Hat pirates after having been missing for years, except (as we the viewers find out) it just so happens that a group of imposters claiming the famous name of the Straw Hat pirates have been using their infamous status to higher the toughest pirates in the area to work under them in their conquest to the new world. This may sound completely ridiculous, and it is, but so is a Skeleton that plays rock music and sings "Bone to be Wild," an overly-cheery talking Reindeer, and a sun-glass wearing Cyborg among other things. If all of this sounds completely ludicrous to you, you clearly must be unaware of the strange, strange world of One Piece, in which crazy stuff like this is the norm. However aside from just comedic effect, the episode manages to hit some serious notes the imposters show their cruelty by mercilessly killing other pirates and innocent bistandards.

In the middle of this all, the real Straw Hat pirates start appearing on the island one-by-one as they begin making their way to their destined meeting place. This of course effectively sets up the scenario of some inevitable ass-kicking that you know will be coming as the series proceeds from this point.

One Piece is a series that has had a long and healthy run with maybe some hitches along the way. Nevertheless, the fact that it can still to this day capture such a grand feeling of excitement is a testament to its quality as a series. The main question is whether or not this is a good starting point for anyone who has watched little to none of the series beforehand and does not feel like doing so. Admittedly while One Piece as a series is a slow-starter, most of the fun of premieres such as this comes with the rewarding feeling of having followed the characters of this long-running story right from the beginning. Originally they were all no-name pirates who had to struggle their way through much weaker seas. Seeing the series opening with all of them having achieved world-famous status elicits a sense of accomplishment to the viewers who had spent so much time just watching them do it. I doubt that a newcomer would enjoy this premiere nearly as much as a fan. That said, if one were to jump on the One Piece bandwagon from this point in the series, I can say that there are worse places to start, and for all intensive purposes the minimal references to past events so far would ensure that you could generally follow the story elements present at least from this point. That said, I would only recommend it to newcomers if they absolutely refuse to invest too much time in the series by starting from the very beginning.

Overall though, for what its worth, this is a great premiere for what's supposed to be the 2nd half of the series (assuming that its even half-way done to begin with), and a fantastic way to start off an entire brand new era to such a renowned, long-running series of this nature.

"Don't you think this world is better than you expected?": Usagi Drop Series Review

2011-09-24T17:47:00.000-04:00

When people say “anime,” the types of shows that come tomind are usually something including robots, people punching each other, and/orgirls in sailor suits. Usagi Drop,while not the best anime out there definitely stood its ground in a time when moe is dominating the market.

Enter Daikichi—he’s not exactly a bum, but he’s not exactlythe picture of perfection either. He’s single and in his thirties, holding up areasonably good job, and he’s just fine with that. You’d expect that lastsentence to be followed with something starting with an “until,” but josei don’t really work that way.

Enter Rin—the six year old illegitimate child of Daikichi’srecently deceased grandfather. The rest of Dai’s family isn’t exactly pleasedwhen they find out such news following a death in the family, leading Rin to bein quite the situation until Daikichi makes the snap-decision to tend to who istechnically his aunt.

What follows is a series made of some of the mosttrue-to-life and heartwarming moments in a time in television when childhood isstarting to take a backseat to the more appealing yet still awkward angstyteenage years. You’d assume that Daikichi and Rin are both at a loss forsomething that the other is able to complete, but to say that would cheapenthings significantly. Daikichi is in a position in his life where raising achild wouldn’t drastically hurt him, nor would it benefit him, either. Ifanything, one would think Rin to be the needier of the two, but upon actuallyinteracting together, she comes off as the more independent one. Bothcharacters don’t necessarily need to rely on the other, but they do so anyway,making for an interesting relationship between caretaker and child.

As the series progresses, the duo is faced with day-to-daychallenges, such as the daily commute, grocery shopping, and basically gettingthrough life as a whole. It’s not exactly “slice-of-life” in the way thatsomething like Lucky Star isconsidered. Rather, it relies on how the two act as a unit to surpass theirproblems, giving warm-fuzzies to anyone watching. I wouldn’t exactly call thema team, but it’s not like the two are lone-wolf types that set theirdifferences aside for the greater good, either; it’s a portrayal of real lifeproblems in a realistic manner, which I found enjoyable enough.

Where the series starts to flounder, however, is in itssupporting characters. With Daikichi’s parents and sister, his co-workers,parents of Rin’s classmates, not to mention Rin’s real mother, there are justso many possibilities for how the story can progress, yet so little actual useof the supporting characters themselves besides the one time they wereintroduced. You’d think that with the source material manga being over and donewith by the time the anime began that some liberties would be taken in somecharacters and story-progression, but no. Instead, what we get is an animatedversion of the first four volumes of the series, nearly verbatim (or whateverthe manga to anime version of that word would be). While I do applaud thedecision to stop the series early in favor of avoiding the more awkward latervolumes, I would have enjoyed the decision a lot more if the anime tried harderto become a separate entity from its source. I mean... it worked for Yu Yu Hakusho.

As a whole, UsagiDrop isn’t the best series in the history of anime, but at 11 episodes, itdoes provide as a nice dose of something new. And with the live-action Lserving as the live-action Daikichi in the movie version of the series, youmust admit that you’re at least somewhat curious about it.

(For more of my Episodic Reviews of the series, check out my personal blog. It's like my own personal spin-off of the AR Blog.)

Warning: Contains Problem Solverz: by BlackCatula

2011-09-01T14:44:00.006-04:00

Heh, kind of difficult to be objective about something like Problem Solverz, since you've got a 95/5 split for a fandom...and what a small, isolated fandom they are.

Anyway...Problem Solverz started airing on Cartoon Network earlier this year, coming off the heels and in the heat of the big reform they've been making over the past few years. Folks had just started migrating back to CN to partake of its new smashing successes (namely, the bizarre and imaginative Adventure Time and the surreal work-com, Regular Show).

On opening night, the well-advertised show was instantly decried by the cartoon-consuming masses and decreed an epileptic plotless mess (not a quote). The ever-vigilant /co/mrades of 4chan's esoteric cartoon circle were quick to rip it to shreds, as they often tend to. Toonzone, TVTropes, you name it, they hated it. This was possibly a bigger hate than that generated by Nickelodeon's CG series "Fanboy & Chum-Chum".

And this seems to be fully expected from the writers' standpoint. From the ground up, the show seems intentionally built for people to hate it. The rudimentary animation (think about as advanced as Aqua Teen Hunger Force), plus the obnoxiously clashing colors and the MS paint-blatant use of gradients make for a truly rainbow-vomiting visual experience (hey, some people like that kind of thing, I guess). The main characters' personalities are excruciatingly exaggerated and their voices are grating (save for Horace, the Only Sane Man, and Tux Dog, the playboy millionaire slash omniscient secret agent). Every episode is built on a slapdash, impossibly weird plot that starts nowhere and inevitably ends up nowhere, after first going everywhere. Naturally, this show seems tailor-made for fans of YouTube poop and those spastic, colorful things Japan seems to like so much. However, most of them seem quick to dislike the Problem Solverz as well.

But, as with everything they've contracted, CN has stuck it out for the duration of the 11-episode first season and even continues to do so now with a second season (running on Thursday nights instead of its hallowed Monday night slot). Commercials for the show are less frequent now, though it's still better advertised than the ill-fated Robotomy that came before it.

So why continue to air a series that garners so much hate? A few theories...first of all, probably most importantly: low budget. Since Problem Solverz is made entirely in that cheapest of animation mediums (Flash), animation is incredibly cheap and quick to produce. This leaves extra room in the show's budget for special guest voice-overs (George Takei, Mark Hamill, Jaleel White, Vincent Martella to name a few), advertisement spots, and even a small panel at Comic-Con. The low budget may also be helping to cushion the blow CN sustained from wasting money on CN Live a few years back. Spending less on new material to fill in the empty spaces was a smart move for the company.

Another plus for Problem Solverz is its quick turn around time in production. Normally, one episode of an animated show takes (roughly) 9 months from conception in the writing room to storyboarding to animation to voice acting to music and foley mix down to cleanup to post-production to airing. With Problem Solverz, most of that can be done in a matter of a few weeks. This ensures that new episodes arrive on time, and that any cultural references (or even meta-references among the hatedom - yes, these exist) aren't already 9 months old by the time they hit the air. The in-jokes are fresher, longer.

Finally, perhaps the most optimistic theory: CN has been doing everything they can to experiment with new shows, and new types of shows. While sometimes similar in content, all of CN's latest ventures employ a slightly different method to their collective madness. Where Adventure Time brings childhood fantasy and heroics, Regular Show brings 20-something humor that younger crowds can still laugh at. MAD provides the pop culture parody, where Gumball combines different film styles (2D animation, live-action, CGI, puppetry and MORE) for its presentation. Problem Solverz takes the "Flash videos on the Internet in the early aughts" combined with a sort of "urban pothead" approach. This experimentation thing (whether successful or not) may be the key to and the driving force of Cartoon Network's revival as the go-to network for animation.

Bottom line? Few people like the new show The Problem Solverz, but it does serve a few unique purposes for the still-evolving, ever-revolving, problem-solving Cartoon Network. It certainly doesn't appear to be going anywhere for a little while, neither in terms of dropping off the network or gaining many new followers. Only time will tell if it becomes another odd footnote in CN's long-running saga of short-lived cartoons or if it goes down in the Animation Book of World Records as the statistically most hated cartoon on broadcast television.

Either way, you can always change the channel on Thursday night. Problem Solved!

A Fairly Odd Movie- Grow Up, Nickelodeon- By Kiddington

2011-07-10T20:14:00.003-04:00

Hey guys, Avaitor here. We've been hoping to do guest reviews for a while, and our good friend Kiddington, an AR board regular and all-around cool guy, was the first to send in a review, this time for the live-action Fairly Odd Parents movie, something no one on staff wanted to watch and review for ourselves. Hopefully this won't be the last we see of Kiddington on the blog, or of other guest contributors. Stick around!

Ten years. My word, 10 years. Can you believe it? Here we sit, a full 10 years later... and Nickelodeon's animated series, The Fairly OddParents, is still alive and kicking. Playing the role of red-headed stepchild to a certain aquatic seasponge for the better part of a decade, this... show... about a 10-year old boy and his magical fairy godparents has quietly (in so many words) lumbered along through eight seasons, over 100 episodes (with a good 30 or so still unaired), seven (!!) movies, and a couple of horrible Jimmy Neutron crossovers we best not speak any more of.

It's quite astounding, really; a series that Nickelodeon has shown almost no desire to merchandise (couple of shovelware video games notwithstanding), and one that was never any kind of real "hit" right out of the gate, is still limping along, after all this time... and I can't highly emphasize "limping" enough. New episodes are sporadic enough to make the casual fan assume that it's already been cancelled, with a paltry offering of one or two new adventures premiering every few months. Nick doesn't advertise, nor is it (usually) anywhere to be found on that daily smorgasbord of SpongeBob and iCarly reruns. Almost makes you wonder why they would continue to invest money in a series that they don't even really care about. Television ain't free, after all.

...and speaking of money, I cannot possibly think of any worse use of the ol' greenback than what I'm about to break down here today. For a series that is so clearly on its last legs, choking away at a dying breath with each passing day, you'd think the smart executive decision would be to burn through the catalog of unaired episodes that they greenlit years ago, and quietly put it out of its misery. But no... somewhere along the line, circa 2009-2010, somebody at Nickelodeon had the bright idea to actually greenlight a full-on live-action adaptation. Of this. Live-action fairies. God help us all.

We all knew it'd be bad. All indications up to this point were that this movie was the be all, end all of suck, and that it'd simply further drive a stake into the heart of a series that wasn't really all that great to begin with. The fairies were to be rendered in CGI. Timmy Turner would be played by an aging Drake Bell. Baby Poof would be voiced by Randy Jackson, of all people. All of it true; all of it equally horrifying.

Things get off to a rolling start. Within the first minute of this absolute monstrosity, we are already treated to our first glimpse of CGI fairies... and yes, they look just as bad as you might imagine (think Fanboy & Chum Chum-esque quality; by the looks of things, the animation studio responsible for THAT is also running the CGI show here). The voices of Cosmo and Wanda are unchanged, provided by their regular VA's from the series, Daran Norris and Susan Blakeslee, respectively. As previously mentioned, live-action Timmy Turner is portrayed by none other than Drake Bell, an aging child star that still hasn't cut ties with his former employer. In this instance, Timmy, now 23 years of age, is portrayed as a bit of a loser; a manchild still clinging to his past, still living at home, and still riding the wish train of his fairy godparents (whilst laughably bucking the trend of series continuity in the process; he SHOULD have lost them at age 18, but who even cares at this point).

As the fun continues, we are treated to all sorts of camp... all of it so bad, it'd be worth an Emmy in an alternate universe. Right out of the gate, we get our first shot of toilet humor, as Baby Poof rings off a belch right in everyone’s face as he tries to speak for the first time. I wince at the thought. But wait... there's more! Strap yourselves in folks, it's time for a good old fashioned PIRATE BIRTHDAY BATTLE!!!!! Today is Timmy's birthday, and what better way to celebrate! By the use of magic, lame pirate fighting sequence ensues, with acting so wooden, so forced, and so incredibly lame that it's enough to make your head spin. All within with first MINUTE of the film. And we've still got 59 more to go. FML.

Shortly after this concludes, we are introduced to Jorgen Von Strangle, Fairy World's resident Schwarzenegger mask. Live-action Jorgen is portrayed by some guy named Mark Gibbon. All I know about him is that he's Canadian, doesn't have much of an acting resume... and that he absolutely SUCKS in this movie. The scenes with Jorgen are probably some of the most cringeworthy moments of the entire thing, and for a movie this bad, that says something. He spends the entire film running around, shooting love arrows at Timmy so he'll fall in love with stuff... because apparently, if he falls in love, he loses his fairies. Which Jorgen wants, because he's a big flaming bastard. Whatever.

Timmy's parents are next on the scene. In a rare instance of casting not gone horribly wrong, Daran Norris is actually playing Timmy's live-action dad, the same character that he voices in the series. He's dabbled in the live-action department before (Ned's Declassified, Big Time Rush... basically, he's buds with Scott Fellows, aka the sick bastard also responsible for Johnny Test, who, surprise surprise, wrote this horrorfest), so I guess he wasn't afraid to show his mug on screen. Susan Blakeslee's a bit more camera shy, though; she's nowhere to be found. Timmy's mom is portrayed here by Teryl Rothery. Like Jorgen, they're both on a on hellbent mission focused on the Tim; in this case, they're trying to get Old Man Turner to move his ass out of the house, in the most not-so subtle of ways. Yawn.

Hilarity ensues (not really) with the Turners, as the try and convince ol' Timmeh to leave with an elaborate set of unfunny, job-related birthday gifts, before we move on to our next character intro. Vicky's up to the plate, and man oh man... if there truly is a Magnum Opus of suck in this movie, it might just be her. I've never heard of Devon Weigel, the actress that portrays her; apparently, she's Canadian (hey, just like Jorgen!), and her acting resume is just as small as the other guy. And by the looks of things, it's gonna stay that way. Her role in this quote unquote "movie" might just be a career killer... no, make that a career annihilator. The whole thing is already an acting nightmare to begin with, but somehow... SOMEHOW, this girl actually manages to stand head and shoulders above the rest in the worst possible way. I can't even really get into specifics, because it's all that bad. All of it. Everything; every line, every action, every literal motion... just, EVERYTHING. Should anyone ever decide to watch this out of moribund curiosity, praise your deity of choice that Vicky only has a small, almost bit role in this movie; any more of her, and it might drive you clinically insane.

More character intros. Mr. Crocker's up next, Timmy's nutso Elementary School teacher. Manchild Timmy's been in his class for 13-years, and this old fool's had enough. Determined to expose Timmy's secret of eternal childhood (which is, of course, his FAIRY GODPARENTS FAIRY GODPARENTS FAIRY GODDDDDPAAAAARRRRREEEEENTS... yes, that tired old gag from the show is very much used in the movie), he serves as Primary Antagonist Numero Uno. Well, for now anyway, until the next baddie shows up on scene later.

I'll say this much; in a movie riddled with so many bad casting calls, this was actually one of the very few they got right. Played by some guy named David Lewis (again... another Canadian, never heard of him, hasn't been in a whole lot), he does an absolute spon-on impression of Carlos Alazraqui, Crocker's VA from the series. I'm not making this up, either; it's actually really good, and one of the few high points of the movie. If I didn't know any better, I'd say they almost dubbed Alazraqui's voice right over Lewis; it's that close.

Couple of ill-conceived fart jokes later, we move on to our final set of character intros. As Timmy bicycles home, he spots a hot girl (played by one of Nickelodeons own, Daniella Monet) walking, gets distracted, and runs into a mailbox. Cue laughter. Needing to know just who this Adonis is, he follows her. Segway to Dimmsdale Park, where slick-suited supervillain Hugh J. Magnate (portrayed sadly, and terribly, by Steven Weber) stands at a podium, unveiling his plan of pure, delicious evil; to tear down a giant tree, and in-turn build a giant oil rig in its place... right in the middle of the park. Yeah, that's the exact same reaction I had when I first heard it. You can't make this stuff up, folks; this is Grade-A bullshit at it's very finest. And thus, we are now introduced to the real primary antagonist of the movie... which is this guy. I still don't know how in the Sam Hill they actually convinced an established actor like Steven Weber to take part in this madness, but it happened, and he's here.

Final noteworthy character intro; hot girl from three minutes earlier plays the role of "concerned citizen", stands up to suit-guy Magnate, tells him how horrible he is, and reveals herself as Tootie; the insane, ugly girl from the series that has a mad crush on Timmy. In the series, she's also Vicky's sister, but no mention of that is made here. Oops. Anyway, now she's no longer ugly, and lovestruck Timmy watches her noble act from afar. She then proceeds to tie herself to previously mentioned big tree, following through with a tired cliche that's been done a thousand times over. Suit guy can't possibly tear down the tree now, riiiiight? He'd be a killer in the process! Unfortunately, because he's a bastard and all, he goes through with the destruction of said tree anyway, assuming that Tootie will just move out of the way at the last second (because, in his own words, "that's what they all do"). She doesn't, and it's up to Timmy and his fairies, with the use of some quick-thinking magic, to save the day. I won't spoil what goes on here, but rest assured; nothing that really happens in this next sequence is funny in the least bit. Tootie is saved, though, and suit guy appears to be defeated. Rejoice.

...oh, and I almost forget to mention; somewhere in all of this, we are introduced to Chester and AJ, Timmy's two loser childhood friends, rounding out the absolute FINAL (yes, I'm serious now) in character intros. But I really don't want to talk about those two. At all. They suck. The characters suck, the actors playing them really suck... everything about these two just sucks. The less said, the better.

Moving on, we cut to Magnate's limo, as he rides off in defeat. Being the smooth operator that he is, he concludes that there is no possible way he could screw up this badly on his own, and that his presentation was sabotaged. It is, at this point, that he receives an anonymous phone call, whereby the person on the other end (revealed in mere moments to be none other than the films other villainous scurge, Mr. Crocker) reveals to him that he knows who screwed him over, and that they should meet later that night in "The Alley". The Alley, as it turns out, is not a dark, insidious crevice between two buildings at all, and is instead a fancy, upscale Chinese restaurant. I'm ashamed to admit, that little joke actually did get a chuckle out of me. My standards must be slipping. Anyway, they meet, Crocker reveals it was all Timmy, and the two basically team up for of a common goal; to DESTROY TIMMY TURNER.

Timmy, meanwhile, is quickly falling in love with a now de-uglified Tootie. They frolic, they laugh, music plays, and his CGI fairies become increasingly worried that he's falling in love with her... and you know what thaaaaat means! In an attempt to sabotage Timmy's romance so they don't lose him forever, the duo decide to transform into actual human beings. Animation no more; everything is now running on live-action, for a few brief moments anyway.

Confession time. I'll freely admit; this next sequence was the one and only part of the movie that I legitimately enjoyed. Everything else about this abomination is completely insulting to my intelligence in every sense of the word, but this one scene was actually somewhat enjoyable. Cosmo and Wanda, now in live-action (a concept that works a lot better than you'd think), are portrayed by Jason Alexander and Cheryl Hines respectively. No, I am not making this up; George Costanza (or Duckman; your call, really) and Larry David's TV wife are in this movie, and they are now playing Timmy's very own fairy godparents. You know, on the one hand, it's a shame to see two actors that I admire so much be so criminally miscast... but on the other hand, I'm kinda glad they are here, as they actually made one small scene out of this flaming disaster fairly enjoyable to me (which is more than anyone else has managed up to this point). Yep, it's official; my standards really ARE slipping.

After the both of them torture Tootie for a good minute or so in a feeble attempt to scare her off, Timmy demands that they not "screw this up for him", and instead has them both use their magic to restore Dimmsdale Park. Boy, Drake Bell really knows his way into a woman's heart, doesn't he? Tootie loves it, more frolicking ensues, and our sitcom vets wince in the background, as it surely looks to be all over for them now. Timmy and Tootie are about to lock lips for the... ahem, second time (I don't remember this ever happening in the show, but apparently it did), making this storybook romance official, and marking the end of an era... or ARE they? Without spoiling the juicy details, the kiss doesn't happen, and Tootie runs off in disgust. It's not the end of an era, but unfortunately, it is the end of live-action fairies, as the duo decide to transform back into their CGI zombie form for the duration of the film. By far, the most enjoyable scene of the movie, and it's already over in less than five minutes. Fare thee well, George; you gave it your best.

As we close in on the home stretch, things of the "evil" variety finally start happening. A visually disgusted Tootie is kidnapped by a group of Magnate's lackeys, while Timmy's extended magical family is captured by Mr. Crocker. All of them return to Magnate's underground lair of unhinged villainy, where Steven Weber basically proceeds to make an ass out of himself for the final 20 minutes of the movie ("RESPECT THE PECS, FAIRIES!!!"), while also harming Cosmo and Wanda in the process by making bad wishes. It's up to Timmy to save the day, and this unfortunately calls for the help of Chester and AJ. Oh yeah, Vicky and Jorgen also show up again as well, but who cares. Hijinks, hilarity (again, not really), disco, and badly choreographed fight scenes are soon to follow, none of which I'll get into the full details of here. Rest assured, though; it's all just as bad as you could possibly imagine.

I won't spoil the ending either, but I will say this much; it's a sappy, feel good cop-out of epic proportions that a monkey could probably see coming from a mile away. Not that I actually expected the ending to be any good, mind you, but still; everything about this movie is just so damn insulting on every possible level, it almost hurts reminiscing about it. They could have, at the very least, given us a decent ending... but I guess it doesn't even matter now. Almost everything else about this movie sucks, so why not make the ending suck just as much? It's only fair to the audience, right?

We've all come to know by now that live-action adaptations of animated properties simply do not work. Be it the Flintstones, Yogi Bear, *gasp* Inspector Gadget, or that upcoming Smurfs movie that makes me sick to my stomach... they're all equally terrible. It's a concept that just doesn't mesh, no matter what you possibly try to do with it. And yet, Hollywood still doesn't seem to get the picture. It keeps happening (hey, we've got Looney Tunes adaptations on their way!), and the Fairly OddParents would appear to be their latest victim. I guess if it's any consolation, you can say that no childhood memories were really harmed in the making of this disaster (because honestly, who even likes this show that much anyway?), but still; it still happened, and it's still here. I still watched it, and the things that I've seen, the dialogue that I've heard... I cannot go back.

Oh, sure; as I mentioned, there were a few mild bits of good to come out of this mess. Daran Norris (as live-action Dad, not as Cosmo; he still sucks as Cosmo), David Lewis, Jason Alexander and Cheryl Hines all turned in decent performances, despite having almost nothing of remote coherence to work with. It wasn't all bad... just about a good 95% of it, give or take. In making this, they've actually managed to take an already winded and browbeaten series that needed to just go away to begin with, and succeeded in making it that much worse. Bravo, Nickelodeon; had I not just subjected myself to that most unholy form of mental torture, I'd tip my hat to you. Actually, no, I wouldn't; you guys suck.

...oh yeah, and one last thing I probably shouldn't forget (as much as it pains me to bring it up again). I had mentioned earlier in the review that Baby Poof talks in this movie, and was voiced by the one and only "YO DAWG" Randy Jackson. It's all true, and does indeed happen. It comes up at the very end of the film, and the actual scene couldn't have lasted any longer than 10 seconds... but... oh my, I don't even know what to say, really. The lasting impression this will leave on you is surely not a good one. I warn you, this next sequence is frighteningly bad. The complete transcript of Baby Poof's first words is as follows:

YO MAN ITZ GONNA BE SO COOL MAN WE GONNA BE BUMPIN MAN AND TRYIN TO HELP THE BOYZ OUT YOU KNOW HOW WE DO IT. YOU FEEL ME DAWG? *wicka wicka*

Mouth agape, I am speechless. I am simply without speech. As if the ending to this... thing... wasn't already bad enough, they go and close the book on it with this. Butch Hartman, you'll be taking this one to the grave, my friend. THE GRAVE.

End

Kung-Fu Panda 2- Double the Po, Double the Pow- by Avaitor

2011-05-30T17:29:00.005-04:00

My word, Dreamworks has done it! They have made a sequel that not only is quite good to the point that it surpasses the original, but have made a film that can easily give this year’s Pixar entry a run for it’s money. Creatively speaking, that is.

But seriously, Kung-Fu Panda 2 surpassed all expectations it had, and comes out as a damn fine film.

The film follows after the first one, with Po (voiced by Jack Black), the titular panda, living up his role as the Dragon Warrior. Alongside the Furious Five, Po helps protect his village from attackers, and the six take on a raid early on.

After some exciting action, sidestepped by well-placed gags, Po has a flashback to when he was a young bear, which he’s never thought about before. Po visits his father, the geese Mr. Ping (voiced by James Hong), who explains, and here’s a shocker, that Po was adopted. This leads Po to question who his parents really are, and when Master Shifu (givien life by Dustin Hoffman), the sensei of Po and the Furious Five, discovers that a couple of high-powered kung-fu masters have been captured, and sends the warriors to China to rescue them, Po realizes that he has a chance to find out who his parents are.

The person in charge of this kidnapping is Lord Shen (here voiced by Gary Oldman), a vicious peacock exacting his revenge on Gongmen City, which he was planned to rule. All seems well for the warriors when they head into the City and face off against him, but the feathers of Shen remind Po about the flashback from earlier, which traces back to when his parents had to leave him. Even when Po has the chance to stop Shen, he gives up, and lets him loose.

Without spoiling the rest, other than saying that the ending is very sweet, I’ll go over to the qualities of the film.

The perks of the first Kung-Fu Panda comes from the lack of pop culture references, potty humor, or half-assed “adult” jokes that plague most Dreamworks productions, and a better focus on heart, genuine humor, and story. Great CG character animation alongside an impressive hand-drawn opening sequence also helped to make the film a winner.

A clever poop joke aside (even that barely counts, though), all of this continues to be true for the sequel. The writing is still solid, with a good balance of cute dialogue and funny slapstick for the comedic side, and strong character development and an engaging story to hold everything together. One of the biggest problems with the first film was the lack of use for the Furious Five, Angelina Jolie’s Tigress aside. Here, they get more screentime, more time to shine in combat, and a couple of strong lines each. Seth Rogen’s Mantis and David Cross’s Crane in particular have some good stuff, but I still feel like Jackie Chan’s Monkey is sadly underused.

The first film relied on the chemistry of Po and Shifu, but that was sidetracked here for the Furious Five getting more time to shine and Po’s character arc. Even then, there is some good stuff between the two characters at the beginning and near the end. Their meeting together at the beginning is especially poignant and important to the overall story.

Shen was a worthy foe for the warriors. He was ruthless, clever, and held his own against Po and the Furious Five. There wasn’t much to separate him from Tai Lung, the previous film’s antagonist, but he works here for himself.

I saw this in 2D, but was still impressed by the animation. Similarly to last year’s How to Train Your Dragon, I was blown away by the fire effects, and the character animation remains as crisp as ever, Po in particular moving delectably rough. The film also used methods of animation other than computerized, starting off with a Chinese puppetry introduction, and converting to a similar hand-drawn look from the first one’s opening for flashbacks. It works well, as each use of animation is impressive.

The action was very well done. Each warrior has their own distinctive form of combat that looks and feels vibrant and is sharply detailed. The more intense the fights become, the sharper the choreography proves to be. The fireworks-filled finale shows this off in particular.

The ending leads up to a potential third film, which isn’t too surprising, since the franchise is ordered for six parts. Between the next potential four films (that is, if Dreamworks doesn’t back out on that order, like they did when they canceled the fifth Shrek) and the upcoming Nickelodeon series, not to mention potential specials, like the holiday special which aired on NBC last November, it’s possible that fans can be Panda-ed out before long.

As someone who greatly enjoyed both films and the first special, I hope that’s not the case, and we get at least one more film. Kung-Fu Panda 2 was funnier, had better action and more character moments than the first, and didn’t feel too long or short. It’s more or less the perfect sequel, especially by Dreamworks’ standards. If they could pull something like this off again, I eagerly anticipate whatever comes next for Po and the Five.

In a world where the 90s never happened - The Avengers: United They Stand Review -by Desensitized

2011-05-13T15:02:00.009-04:00

We all know about Avengers: United They Stand. A legendarily bad show they barely lasted a full 13 episode run on the old FOX Kids' block before being quickly binned and forgotten by everyone who experienced its lousiness first hand. But now, we have a new Avengers show out, so a look back at the previous animated incarnation of these characters seems like the most sensible idea at this point in time. If you thought this show was bad for the standards of the time, then you can imagine just how well this dated. Which is terribly.

The main problem with this show is that it was a cartoon made in the 1990s that was made is if it was still the 1980s. Standards had changed in the decade since poorly written romps like Thundercats and He-Man originally hit the air, Batman: The Animated Series had changed a lot of the rules, and it seems strange that Marvel of all companies did not seem to realize this. I take that back, there is ONE thing that takes inspiration from the 90s, and that's the absolutely pointless inclusion of transformations as if the Avengers were the freaking Power Rangers. Why superheroes need to wear Power Ranger armor is beyond this reviewer, but as far as excuses to make toys go, this was poorly implemented into the core show as the armor is nothing but a pointless (and poorly designed) cosmetic change that just makes the characters look even more ridiculous. Superhero costumes alone can be considered outlandish, but imagine adding on a thick layer of armor on top of that. Yes, it's as ridiculous as it sounds, and sometimes they where other suits on top of that, making the whole look of the show absolutely dumb.

In a related story, I often wear two hats on my head.

And Hawkeye wears a suit over his armor on his suit.

But this is not where the poor decisions end, as the writing is quite possibly some of the worst you will ever see in not just a Marvel show, but probably the entire decade. Not only swimming in dozens of cliches at once, but managing to have the most confusing plot development possible for these simplistic plots featuring dialogue out of a fourth grade creative writing assignment. How something like this was deemed acceptable for the standards of the time is mind blowing, and it results in a series that was not only awful when it was released, but has managed to age even worse into an absolute joke of show.

For example, the very first episode primarily deals with stuff indiscriminately blowing up, the president being attacked by robots, and the Avengers saving him... only to be chewed out by the government for no real reason. Hawkeye leaves the team because, well, it doesn't really make any sense, actually. The plot is forced through the typical cliche motions for reasons that don't have any coherent reason for happening, the show just expects you to accept this stuff happening because it just does. If that isn't the formula for a fourth grade level story, then fourth graders must be better writers than I originally thought. Actually, they probably are.

The series doesn't get any better after this point either. You get to see the most boring interpretation of Kang The Conqueror yet, watch Hawkeye leave the team at least three more times (and have just as many voice changes), more cornball acting and confusing as all get out direction and dialogue - Hell, maybe that's why Hawkeye keeps leaving. It's almost like the show wants- no, needs- to remind you of everything going on all the time because the writer couldn't be bothered to. It's a tough feat to write something that is simplistic to the point of being insulting AND managing to be incoherent at the same time, but United They Stand pulls off this balancing act flawlessly. It really is an accomplishment. Oh! Don't forget those out of nowhere toy plugs! Why integrate it into the plot when you can just show them off out of nowhere? Plot or toys, what do you think an action show should focus on front and center? Exactly.

Toys! You aren't gonna find the plot over there, Falcon!

Watching the first episode and the first question on everyone's mind is "where are Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man?" Well, they aren't here save for a cameo each in a random episode (Thor doesn't even appear at all), even though they go out of their way to show them in the opening theme. The leader of the Mighty Morphin' Avengers is Hank "wife beating" Pym AKA Ant-Man AKA the most boring Avenger ever. Why was this change made? I don't know, it's probably the same reason the animation and direction is ripped straight out of GI Joe and the voice acting is two steps away from a parody of 80s action cartoons. But it's most likely because Marvel Animation clearly has no idea what anyone wants out the Avengers. Don't believe me? Well, how about the fact that not a single voice actor fits their character? Hawkeye doesn't even sound like he's in the right show, its like he's voicing a Rob Liefeld character. Scarlett Witch has the most overly cooked accent I've ever seen, Tigra (A tiger/human hybrid) is afraid of water for no reason, Wasp barely ever does anything except randomly scream for Hank (Or Henry depending on the episode) and Falcon frequently engages in missions in which his power is totally useless. Are we expected to relate with these characters when Marvel themselves can't figure out how their own characters are supposed to behave?

Because of this instant disconnection from anything happening (the most natural voice is the damn robot, which makes no sense), and poor direction from the wrong decade, watching United They Stand is like fighting the urge to wonder out loud if someone secretly wished the 90s never happened and kids still swallowed the poorly written junk they were being fed a decade ago. That thought is almost as insulting as how this show ended up being, but I rather believe it was because whoever made this simply didn't care. Why do I get this impression? Well, let's look at the characters:

For instance: Hawkeye is the cool guy that doesn't take no guff (and is more or less Wolverine), Ant Man is Duke from GI Joe just as Wasp is Scarlett, Wanda might as well not even be there as she's totally inconsequential and literally offers nothing to the team except a goofy voice (really, really goofy), and the rest, well, are just sort of there. The characters are the most boring I've ever seen in a superhero cartoon from the 90s, they give us no reason to cheer for them or relate to their trials -if they even have trials, and most of whom don't even really do anything except occasionally destroy a robot in a badly directed manner, because they rarely ever seem to fight humans except sometimes knocking them over by tossing a rock or something. The action sequences are also frequently the same basic thing every episode with the same characters performing the same moves in almost the same way, making the show a real chore to watch even from a mindless action perspective.

They should have just made the show about him.

Eventually Captain America and Iron Man guest star on the show in separate episodes (Thor never appears), however they fail to save the show from the boring bland-fest that it is in every other episode. They might as well not even be there -which they aren't for the other episodes neither of them appear, as they add nothing to the show much like every other character here. Oh, and their plots are quite possibly the worst in the entire show's run including Iron Man barely even being a factor in his own episode. While many blame their lack of presence for the show's failings, they really are a non-factor here.

The absolute worst aspect here, is that the show not only doesn't get better as it goes along, it is that it gets worse. The first episode was one of the worst pilots of a show that I have ever seen, with poor voice acting, direction, animation, and the a plot that made me long for GI Joe. How does it get worse from this point? Well they actually make the characters dumber for them to work, with characters getting themselves into completely illogical sticky situations, and plots that the real Avengers would have seen coming a mile away. Not only is it an insult to the original characters by making them really dumbed down from their comic book versions, but again, it makes the resulting show an absolute pain to watch. There is no hyperbole here, United They Stand is most likely the worst superhero cartoon of the 90s, and probably ranks in the top ten worst of all time.

Thankfully, Marvel weren't entirely incompetent here. The show was canceled rather fast and completely buried and forgotten, as even Marvel knew this was a real stinker. Eventually the Avengers would get a real chance at animated glory with the more recent Earth's Mightiest Heroes, a FAR more faithful adaption with a staff behind it that clearly cares for their characters. If anything else, it should hopefully replace the existence of this from the minds of Avengers and superhero fans and leave this crap where it belongs- Forgotten in the mists of time.

Yes, Wanda, I agree. At least it's finally over.

Now I want to see a show with a giant inflatable dinosaur fighting crime with a giant gun in his mouth. Good job, Avengers!

Puella Magi Madoka Magica - On the Contrary, Is Not Suffering by Dr. Insomniac

2011-04-26T00:28:00.006-04:00

What I expected.

In the not-too-distant future, there lives a girl named Madoka Kaname who wishes that she could overcome her submissiveness and be something in this world. And luckily for her, this world is full of magical girls who earn their worth by killing monstrous beings known as witches. With the help of her animal companion, Kyubey, Madoka must make her wish and become the strongest magical girl to--

--OH MY GOD, THAT GIRL JUST GOT HER HEAD BIT OFF.

What I got.

You remember how Narutaru started out just like any other Pokemon knockoff? Or how Now and Then, Here and There's first episode was the same as those of the endless hordes of shonen series? Well, this trend continues with Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Shaft’s demolition and exploration of the magical girl genre. And if you know so much as a single detail about how deconstructions work, chances are you can tell where things are going to go for poor Madoka.

Directed by the guy who developed Nanoha, designed by the creator of Hidamari Sketch, and—what most defines this show—written by the man who did Fate/Zero, Madoka Magica is a conundrum of a concoction. Initially starting out as saccharine as your average episode of Barney and Friends, it instantly shifts into almost Lovecraftian territory before you least expect it, with the monster-of-the-week style quickly losing its linear format in favor of becoming something akin to Evangelion (with the origins of the witches possibly being even grimmer than those of the Angels). The very concept of the magical girl gets shoved through a woodchipper as we see every single one of their tropes completely turned on its head.

And don’t worry. It’s not ultraviolent or exploitative like Elfen Lied. While it’s dark, it handles those themes with subtlety instead of going “LOL WE’RE BEING MATURE!” Though death and tragedy definitely go hand-in-hand with this series, it’s only played for shock once before being portrayed in a finer manner.

What sets this show apart is the utter intricacy that went through it. It’s stuffed with so much subtle foreshadowing and symbolism that going back and watching the early episodes feels like a completely different experience altogether. Originally unremarkable and vague scenes gradually gain more weight as each episode passes. With each arc, we get hit right in the face with plot points that in retrospect turn out to be thickly rooted into the show’s mythos all this time. The scripting is done with such concise care, having very few moments that feel like filler. In fact, it occasionally leaves itself little time to breathe. It’s one of those shows you have to watch all at once and then some in order to get the full effect.

The direction for this show is utterly insane. Ignore the fact that the character design makes the cast from K-ON! look realistically proportioned, it’s everything else that gives this series its distinction. Shinbo fills the scenery with allusions to works such as Goethe’s Faust, Guernica, Mephisto, The Little Mermaid, and even other deconstructionist shows such as Bokurano and Revolutionary Girl Utena. Each and every one of the battles shift the style from standard moe into oblique and avant-garde, with the witches resembling something out of Henry Selick’s sketchbook. To see such basic character art combine with the otherworldly nature of the witches makes for an absolutely nice contrast. As for the animation, it varies. Sometimes, such as the last two episodes, it is glorious to watch. But on other moments…

Alas, for such an intriguing plot, it’s not complemented well by quite a bland cast of characters. Despite the fact that it’s in her role to be as such, Madoka’s too pure for my taste. She just feels like a slightly more self-adjusted Shinji Ikari. Sayaka, while a bit more rounded, ends up being more like a satellite for other characters than someone who could stand by herself. Other cast members get more evident personalities, but plot reasons mean that they get little time to express them. Really, out of all the Puella Magi, Homura was the only one who struck me as sympathetic. To elaborate would be a massive spoiler, so I’ll just say she serves as the epitome of what this show’s aiming for.

Instead of the protagonists, most of my interest lies within the supposedly adorable albino weasel thingy, Kyubey. And it's precisely because of how our basic morals simply don't make sense to him. He's a completely inhuman being that simply cannot understand the concept of empathy. And yet, the series makes it clear that just because he's a Faustian dealer doesn't necessarily make him evil. It just makes him amoral, a completely neutral being that views its relationship with the Puella Magi as farmers do with cattle. And the show does a superb job characterizing him as such.

That’s not to say the characters are bad by any means. The show does a good effort in analyzing some of what makes them tick. It’s just that they don’t have much depth to them, which could probably be chalked to the series’ brevity than to the fault of the writer’s ability.

The voicing gives you a well-done grasp as to how much desperation the characters are going through. It helps that they got an actual teenager to play the titular character, as well as a large case of averting typecasting here, such as one of the cast originally known for playing Fuuko playing a grisly antihero here. My only complaint would be that Kyubey’s actress could have changed her tone a bit. And if you’ve seen .Hack//Sign, you’ll have a pretty good idea as to what the soundtrack’s like.

Overall, Puella Magi Madoka Magica is a refreshing shift from the usual. While the ending’s a tad polarizing, and the drama does become rather excessive, it’s certainly something I’d recommend.

Rating: 8/10

Naruto: A Journey Unlike Any Other - By Ensatsu-ken

2011-04-01T00:53:00.001-04:00

The issues involving Naruto has been a popular topic amongst scholars for many years. The constantly changing fashionable take on Naruto demonstrates the depth of the subject. Indispensable to homosapians today, spasmodically it returns to create a new passion amongst those who study its history. The juxtapositioning of Naruto with fundamental economic, social and political strategic conflict draws criticism from the upper echelons of progressive service sector organisations, whom I can say no more about due to legal restrictions. With the primary aim of demonstrating my considerable intellect I will now demonstrate the complexity of the many faceted issue that is Naruto.

Social Factors

Comparisons between Roman Society and Medieval Society give a clear picture of the importance of Naruto to developments in social conduct. I will not insult the readers inteligence by explaining this obvious comparison any further. When blues legend 'Bare Foot D' remarked 'awooooh eeee only my dawg understands me' [1] he created a monster which society has been attempting to tame ever since. A child’s approach to Naruto helps to provide some sort of equilibrium in this world of ever changing, always yearning chaos.

Did I mention how lovely Naruto is? Clearly it promotes higher individualism and obeyence of instinct. As soon as a child meets Naruto they are changed.

Economic Factors

Do we critique the markets, or do they in-fact critique us? We shall examine the Fish-Out-Of-Water model, which I hope will be familiar to most readers.

It is apparent from the graph that the influence of Naruto is strong. What is the secret to its strength? It goes with out saying that interest cannot sustain this instability for long. The financial press seems unable to make up its mind on these issues which unsettles investors.

Political Factors

No man is an island, but what of politics? Placing theory on the scales of justice and weighing it against practice can produce similar results to contrasting the two, equally popular approaches to Naruto. If the reader is unaware of these, they need only to turn on the television, or pick up a newspaper or popular magazine.

In the words of the uncompromising Vatusia T. Time 'Man's greatest enemy is complacency with regards to personal and political hygiene.' [2] What a fantastic quote. It would be wise to approach the subject with the thought that 'if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all'. However this can lead to missing out important facts.
Where do we go from here? Only time will tell.

Conclusion

What can we conclude? Well, Naruto is both a need and a want. It enriches, 'literally' plants seeds for harvest, and statistically it's great.

Here with the final word is Hollywood's Elton Hanks: 'It's been nice educating you.' [3]

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[1] Bare Foot D - Classic - 1967 Stinton Records

[2] Time - Yes Indeed - 1987 Indegro Books

[3] It Magazine - Issue 302 - Spam Media Group

The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya: And Being All The Better For It By Dr. Insomniac

2011-02-21T14:36:00.000-05:00

Yes, everybody else blogged about the movie months ago. Yes, this probably won’t change whether or not you’ll go and watch it. Yes, none of us except for DaemonCorps or Desensitized like Haruhi that much to give anything resembling an informative review. But in the end, does it matter?

Well, yeah. But alas, fuck it. Let’s get to the review.

It’s Christmas time for the SOS Brigade, and what a better way to celebrate the holidays than to loosely enact the It’s a Wonderful Life trope? Our dear narrator Kyon wakes up in a world where Haruhi and Itsuki don’t attend his school, Yuki is still a bespectacled bookworm, Ryoko still exists with no signs of the murderous entity we saw in the past, and Mikuru is exactly the same. Having actually grown rather accustomed to this schoolgirl of a god, he tries to seek her out in order to set things right. However, this glitch in time and space will prove harder to solve for Kyon than he could possibly imagine.

So after the backlash against Endless Eight and its sheer amount of “Kyon-kun, denwa”, KyoAni decided to throw its fans a bone by adapting what is apparently considered the best that the books have to offer. And is it able to satisfy fans that have been waiting for at least four years to see this?

Yes, but don’t expect to enjoy it as well if you’ve been out of the loop. One roadblock in this movie is that you’ll need to have seen the previous forms of the series in order to understand it. I originally thought having watched the first season a few years ago and a few snippets of the second would have sufficed enough, only to be utterly confused by a plot twist involving a previous adventure with Kyon time-traveling to the past under the identity of John Smith (Does that make Yuki the tin dog of the group?). While I wouldn’t consider this a major flaw by any sort, and actually rather refreshing in comparison to how film installments in anime are usually free of continuity, it still makes this film an odd watch for those who haven’t brushed up on their Haruhi.

Now, the real problem is that this movie is so long that it makes Ron Jeremy look like an utter chode. At the total length of 163 minutes, or about as long as seven episodes if you cut out the openings and endings, it is not an easy thing to get through all in one sitting. It doesn’t help that the shifts in scenes during the film, up to and including the “search for Haruhi” plot changing into something entirely different involving Future Mikuru, feel more fitting for episodes than that of a fluid movie structure. Just when you think the movie’s reaching its conclusion, there’s another plotline introduced and we get an hour more of things to do. You just start getting fatigue after all this. However, when the plot gets going around half an hour in, the film becomes really good and grabs you by the seat. But alas, when it starts slowing down, it loses that momentum and becomes quite a slog.

If it weren’t for Kyon, Yuki, and maybe Tsuruya, the Haruhi series would suck worse than a whore with jagged molars. And quite thankfully, the movie does its best to give prominence to the former two while putting Haruhi and Funbags into the sidelines. With Kyon, he’s the one out of the whole cast that interests me the most. His place and initial characterization shows him off to be kind of an everyman, but then you peel back the layers and get someone who’s not so different from our title character despite being in insistent denial over it. He also shows a high level of tactlessness, such as earnestly asking Mikuru to take off her top and show him her birthmark as proof that he knows her (context is for the weak), which combined with his narration, create an interesting array of character flaws for him. And for Yuki, I like how the film expands her so she’s more than just yet another emotionless girl. I’d elaborate more on it, but as always, spoilers.

As for the voice acting, while I don’t think he displays the right form of deadpan that Crispin Freeman did back in the dub, Tomokazu Sugita does well as Kyon. Although his tone is monotone throughout, he definitely captures the anxiety in being a fish out of water. I also thought Minori Chihara did a great job in playing the stoic, regular Yuki as well as the simpering, alternate-universe Yuki. Once again, she’s monotone, but it’s in different types of monotone for the two.

And when it comes to the animation, it’s flows rather nicely. The darker shade of everything helps show a more somber tone as well as contrasting the bright colors of the last two seasons. We also see an improvement in the character design, with a return to that of the first season in comparison to how K-On!-ish the designs of the second were.

Now for those who skipped to the bottom, moderate scarceness of the titular character, somber tone, vague resemblance to a bunch of Dr. Who episodes, and character development hit all the right points for me. However, poor, uneven pacing and an inability to stand on its own without over-relying on continuity bog it down. Still, it sets itself as a major improvement from Melancholy by focusing more on Kyon and the sci-fi/mystery element of the series rather than the “keep Haruhi entertained” and “failed attempts at comedy” parts. So overall, KyoAni delivers.

Rating: 8/10

"Cats Don't Dance" (Here's Proof That They Should) Review -by Desensitized

2011-01-24T06:00:00.000-05:00

You know, they don't make them like this anymore.

I'm not just referring to animated 2D movies like Cats Don't Dance as they are made today today. Big budget 2D animated films might be a rarity today, but back in the 90s (even the late 90s) they were still quite popular. But in that the old hacky phrase was essentially the same one used to describe the film when it originally came out in 1997.

I mean this twofold, in that as a fully 2D animated major motion picture about a cat who wants to make it in Hollywood(land) circa the 1930s era of motion pictures would have been weird even during the early 90s or late 80s, nevermind 1997 which was two years after Toy Story began to change everything. The animated landscape was changing and 2D animation was on the way out (Disney apparently thought so as well, considering how uninspired their 2D output became around that time despite a few exceptions, while Pixar began its rise) in favor of 3D CG animation. So not only did the film come out in the wrong year, and with a concept based heavily in the 1930s era to an audience who didn't really have much knowledge (and most likely, interest) of that time period, it also was stuck inside a merger between Turner Animation -this was their only film from the division- and Warner Bros. which led to it getting no support from the studio and left to die at the box office.

Normally, this would be the end of a much weaker film. It would be as forgotten as most of Don Bluth's excruciating 90s material or mundane pap like Quest For Camelot or The Pagemaster. But, over the years, people have begun to discover the film for what it is and have started to appreciate it's unique approach and the ideas it has. As many are discovering, Cats Don't Dance is a great movie that deserved more than it got. It is now no longer strange to see this film discussed among enthusiasts of animation and film, as well as kids who just simply love the film.

As I pointed out before, Cats Don't Dance is a story about a cat named Danny who comes to Hollywood to make it big. The plot is simple and straightforward, and is merely a set up for all the ideas it wants to play with. Directed by Mark Dindal (who in turn directed one of Disney's last 2D efforts before the revival, the similarly playful Emperor's New Groove), the animation has personality and the art direction pops. Watching this movie, you can truly feel the love for not only the 1930s' golden age of film, but for classic 2D animation as well. Every character is animated with such personality that you can't help but get engaged in everything they do, and with musical numbers as good as these, you can't help but keep your eyes glued to the screen. One particular number has the characters in desaturated colors due to their depression over not having work, but Danny lifts their spirits with a highly engaging musical number which brightens the whole area up. Every musical number is filled with ideas like this so that even those who might not like them in most movies, would be hard pressed to look away when they came on here. Outside of the musical moments, there is another fantastic scene where the characters are trapped on an ark from a film set and barreling downtown on it on top of a giant flood of water. Not only is there a lot of activity going on here, but a bunch of set pieces and jokes are blasted by during this crucial moment of the film making it true highlight.

While it is a musical, Cats Don't Dance is not really a "Disney-style" musical. The songs are more in line with 1930s era music and are usually used as plot points instead of Disney's approach of using their music to enhance the plot and characters. The film's soundtrack is explosive, featuring some of the most memorable musical numbers of the decade -and considering I'm speaking of the 1990s, this is no small feat. But the music isn't all the film has going for it, the characters are all very fun and well written in their personalities, leading to some fun chemistry between them. For all intents and purposes, this feels like the type of movie a lot of studios were trying to make to compete against Disney (including Don Bluth himself), but were never able to quite do.

If there is one criticism that can really be lobbied at the film, it is that it is 70 minutes long. Yes, children animated features are typically not much longer, but in Cats Don't Dance's case, the extra time could be used to improve the pacing a little. The film is a bit fast, as you would imagine, and sometimes feels like it could use a bit of breathing room from the high spirited pace of the animation, music, and plot. It all just feels a little faster than it should be, and if you aren't paying close enough attention, you might miss something important or a really great moment in the action and not even realize it. This might not seem important, but some kids who might not have the best attention span might get lost from simply missing a minute or two and lose attention fast. It's not a deep flaw or anything, but it might be an issue for some. Tight pacing can work great for most, but sometimes pacing that's too great can have it's own set of flaws as well.

Otherwise, Cats Don't Dance has a lot of spirit, a lot of inspiration, a lot of charm, and is just a joy to watch. It might not be one of the best animated films ever if you prefer the thoughtful and pondering works of Pixar, or the more traditional and straightforward approach of Disney, but on it's own terms few films succeed quite as well as this does in creating its unique atmosphere and style. There are few animated films (especially from the 1990s) as off the wall as this one is, while still remaining accessible to mainstream audiences. If you're looking for something a bit different from the usual animated fare out there and with its own unique approach, you can't really do much better than Cats Don't Dance.

Angel Beats! – Hell Is an Ensemble School Dramedy?! I Knew It! By Dr. Insomniac

2010-12-21T00:57:00.000-05:00

About as a vibrant as a set of used markers.

We of the Animation Revelation are a rare breed, as in we utterly despise any show adapted from the visual novels of a studio by the simple name of Key. Sure, they have pretty good animation and some decent, if diabetes-inducing, music, but we can’t just comprehend the cries of “BEST ANIME EVA!” when seeing reviews or discussions about Kanon, Air, or Clannad. While others may see them as emotionally rich shows that portray relationships in such vibrant ways, we view them as melodramatic monstrosities that have the depth of a Nicholas Sparks novel or a season of Degrassi. So when I found out that they put out a show that was about something other than relationships, I figured there might be something interesting to it. And dear god was I wrong.

For the layout, a kid named Otonashi wakes up to find himself in the middle of a high school. And soon after that, he gets stabbed by an albino girl with Protoss abilities. But the morning after, he wakes up yet again to realize that his wounds have disappeared. With no idea who he is or how he came to be here, a group of students known as the SSS Battlefront take him in and explain that he is in a purgatory of sorts. Nobody knows the details, or what is bringing them to this place, but all they know is that they must go on a campaign against God to find out. And through there, they must take down the being simply known as Angel.

Where shows like Baccano! end up being the well-grilled steak of anime, or how most shonen fulfill the role of fast food hamburgers, Angel Beats! is week-old slurry dumped all over a fungus-laden trough. There’s nothing that can grab the average viewer, with the only demographic that could possibly enjoy this being the moe fans who have been devouring Key’s work for years. What serves as a somewhat interesting premise ends up being wasted due to pandering and random drifts to tedious slice-of-life antics. Even with only having a baker’s dozen of episodes, the series can’t even keep a plot lasting for a third of that length. And once it leaves its first cycle, it proves to be impossible for it to climb back up and create a coherent story.

The greatest flaw in this show—and really, all of the shows adapted from Key games—is that the characters have nothing to define them other than their single quirk and/or tragedy. To note, there’s the ambiguously gay character who suffered from steroid abuse! Here’s the bitchy team leader that has dead brothers and sisters hanging on her mind! Here’s the guitar girl who inexplicably got a stroke because of a cranial injury from her parents! How about the other ambiguously gay kid that had to live up to the standards of his dead brother? Aren’t these interesting character descriptions to you?! But really, that is literally the amount of depth any of these characters, and that’s if their lucky. Most of the cast literally only provide one single character trait and nothing else, like the girl who thinks she’s a ninja, the guy with the axe, the tall guy, yet another ambiguously gay kid, that guy with the glasses, the kid who wants everyone to call him Christ, the guy who randomly spouts out out-of-context English phrases, and the pink-haired girl whose presence will make you want to claw at the screen. That is literally all there is to these characters. Maybe the cast would have more depth if there was more than a meager 13 episodes, but it’s more likely that there would just be more characters with even more dark, troubled, and quite stupid pasts.

And just to show exactly how stupid these pasts are, let’s look at the tragedy of one of these characters. Our example here, Yuri, who you’ll know as the girl who looks like Haruhi, lived life with upper class parents and three loving younger siblings. But one day, when her parents went out, thugs randomly broke in and tried to take whatever they could. But despite being at least semi-wealthy, the family’s place had nothing. So the burglars force Yuri to find any valuables for them, and if they don’t, they will execute her siblings one by one every 10 minutes. No matter where she went or what she scoured, there was nothing she could find to appease the thieves. Fortunately for her, the cops came in. But unfortunately, they came in at 30 minutes. And with that, Yuri suddenly decides that it’s God’s fault for this and spends the rest of her time on the show fixating on this event.

On the surface, the above might come off as heartbreaking or extremely depressing. But when looking further, fridge logic reveals itself and a tragic story ends up coming off as poorly maneuvered storytelling. From how the cops came at the most completely ironic time, to how the burglars just happen to be sociopaths, this past is calculated to create the most negative impact on the subject with the least effort used in providing layers to the matter in hand. In short, this is a grand example of laying it on thick.

The writer, Jun Maeda, seems to be under the idea that tragedy automatically creates a character, but it doesn’t. All it does is give them a vague backstory and something to angst about. A character needs to have an array of events, both good and bad, to define them. The development of a protagonist requires natural growth, not sudden fury to make it happen. And the same goes for quirks. Making a character randomly dance and act like an inverted minstrel turns them into a caricature than an actual part of the story. And that’s what a good 80% of the cast is: nothing but caricatures. The core cast could be completely limited to just Otonashi, Angel, at least any one of the SSS Battlefront to provide some mentoring for Otonashi, and the story would remain mostly unchanged.

And to further this problem is that Otonashi is the blandest of the roster. Sure, he ends up getting the most history out, with dead sister and all, but none of that adds up to depth. You remember that part of The Phantom Menace Video Review, where Mr. Plinkett asked a bunch of people how they would describe the personality of random Star Wars characters? I tried doing that with Otonashi, and the closest I could think of was that he was somewhat selfless, if misguided. But really, how many main characters don’t fit those two adjectives?

Also, the show often forgets its own premise. Very few of the characters actually seem nonplussed about the fact that they’re dead, with the façade only being cast aside once a character has to spout out their tragic backstory of the day. Whatever mission for the crew ends up dovetailing into something about baseball, or fishing, or singing, or cheating tests, or some other task that’s ends up being utterly trite, especially given how the SSS is shown multiple times to have enough arms to take over several third-world countries.

As for the music, which seems to be the main draw of the show given how shoehorned the band is, it’s… passable. There’s really nothing wrong with any of the songs. It’s just that the show is so hellbent on interspersing into the main plot. Never mind how those in purgatory probably aren’t in the right mental state to play J-pop music, yet alone acquire instruments to do so. It gets to the point where the series could be an entire episode or two shorter if they just cut out all of the band scenes.

In other words, fuck this show and all of its ilk. If you want a series about misguided teenagers trying to make their mark, go watch Misfits, Inbetweeners, Press Gang, or hell, even any of that CW shit. This is a prime example of how not to do what boils down to a teen drama, but unfortunately, most of the audience will ignore the plot holes in favor of how “catchy” the songs or how “deep” the characters are.

Rating: 2/10

Oreimo Review... It Gets Weird -by Desensitized

2010-12-17T22:04:00.000-05:00

You know, Oreimo (or "Ore no Imōto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai" or "My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute" for you people who like stupidly long names that invoke disturbing imagery) is really easy to like or hate depending on your tastes in anime. While watching this anime, the only thing I could think of was how it could easily cross the line into either quirky awesomeness or into the usual moe awfulness. The weird part is that it's actually both of those things. Which lead me to try and think how I was going to approach this piece without either dogging on it or cautiously praising it. I think I'll try both this time.

I'm not going to slight it for being a moe show despite it still carrying all those usual tropes that I will not get into here (if you want that, go and read my K-On! piece), both because that's redundant and because this show is actually at it's best when it's not a moe show. You see, Oreimo is a show about a cute girl named Kirino Kōsaka who likes anime at a depth defying, disturbing, mega-otaku level and simply struggles to come to terms with it with the help of her brother Kyōsuke who is just a normal guy trying to live a normal life.

And that's pretty much it.

There's no high concept like The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya, no pointless randomness like Lucky Star, and no meaningless and unexplored gimmick like K-On!... It's really just a slice of life show about someone with an addiction and trying to come to terms with what it means to be an otaku and how to fit into society with the help of only her rather normal brother to help her. Now, in my opinion, this is when the show is at its most interesting- when it explores how other characters in her life deal with it when they find out this girl actually likes this weird stuff that only "pedophiles" and "NEETs" can possibly enjoy. Yes, otaku are described as both and many more in the show. Her parents' reactions to this discovery is actually quite hilarious in how they react to it (Kyōsuke's attempts at explaining what an otaku really is to his father is easily the best moment in the show) and can be quite disturbing when someone who doesn't understand it at all attempts to "fix" them. It can get interesting in these moments.

Yes, this scene actually was pretty amazing.

The best part of this is that those characters (while obviously are tropes for the otaku crowd) are actually fun to watch without being full of empty headed gestures and stupid reactions to the situations in the story. One of her friends named Ruri Gokō is a gothic lolita (and is actually made fun of for dressing like an idiot, which is nice for a change in one of these shows) and actually has fun anime-related discussions with Kirino that usually devolve into an argument. One where she calls Ruri a "post-Evangelion biter" for liking the stupid nonsensical philosophy and fake depth of many anime nowadays, and she in turn mocks Kirino for liking retarded moe shows that are vapid and empty is one of the highlights. It was in this moment where I realized that the people behind this show know exactly what they're doing. They understand full well the tropes and problems with anime nowadays and are not above calling them out on how shallow anime has gotten as a whole in recent years. For a moe show, this is beyond surprising.

Beyond the characters and story, the music is phenomenal in this show. The majority of it is well placed and performed ska music that really adds a layer of charm to the proceedings and is just fun to listen to... Unfortunately the opening and closing themes (well, when there is a closing theme) are pretty generic and forgettable, but at least they aren't totally awful and take nothing away from what great music the show has. Sound effects are loud and punchy without sounding tired or cheap, and in a moe show, that's quite the accomplishment considering how chintzy they usually are. The animation is pretty standard, unfortunately, but considering the budgets theese shows tend to run on, it works surprisingly well. It's also directed in such a way to hide any flaws in the budget that might normally arise, (most moe shows don't even try) but it's also directed in quite a punchy manner without having those boring scenes where nothing at all happens... and when it does have a slow scene, it is purely for dramatic effect. A lot of care went into Oreimo, and it shows.

You might be thinking at this point that this is all a good thing and that Oreimo surpasses all the problems of the moe genre to become something special that transcends it's classification... but there are problems that hold it back, and unfortunately quite hard. First thing's first, while I said most characters are actually fun to watch such as Ruri (despite being a trope, she "plays" the trope which is actually quite amusing on its own) and the main pair's father (who is hilarious in how much of a curmudgeon he is), the main characters are actually the biggest problem with the show. Kyōsuke is a boring dork who adds no flavor to the show and is basically just the "generic main character who the girls want for no real reason" guy, and the show hurts for it because if he were a better character, the show would hold itself together in a much more consistent way. If he even had definable personality, that alone would pull the show up from its bouts of boredom, however he just doesn't have much to offer. But even he's not so bad in comparison to the show's real issue; Kirino Kōsaka herself.

What a moron.

This is the main issue with the show, and the one that really holds it back from achieving its goal; Kirino is an annoying shrew who couldn't possibly ever be popular in real life despite how the show tries to tell you she is the most popular girl in school. She has no social skills, she has no personality besides "lash out at people for no reason", she never sticks up for herself despite that (the way she makes her brother fight her battles is really aggravating), and yet she's supposedly the most popular girl in school? Sorry, I just don't buy that. Sure, in real life the popular girls are usually shallow idiots who get by on their looks, but... they also usually have some semblance of social skill mastery that leads them to BE that popular in the first place. Kirino can't even carry a conversation without screaming pointlessly. There is no way she wouldn't already be a social outcast, despite constantly worrying about becoming one. It kind of ruins the point of the show's plot. In addition to how awful Kirino is as a character, EVERYTHING in this show centers around her, so EVERYTHING is dragged down by her presence. Which is really a shame, because I know there's a good show in here, but it really does get smothered by its problems of Kirino's awful personality and the usual moe tropes that the show can't quite overcome.

Yes, I know I'm avoiding the elephant in the room. Judging by the title of the show and the whole brother-sister relationship, one would think it was about incest. It's not. Yes, they play with it a bit in certain points (mostly the early episodes) which leads to some weird and tired jokes, but neither find each other attractive at all and they have the usual brother-sister relationship full of fighting and begrudgingly acknowledging them when they do each other a favor. It's a pretty standard relationship... though I'm sure there are talented artists who would be glad to prove me wrong. Ugh. The point is, the show is more about a brother trying to help his sister through a hard time in her life. The title is (thankfully) misleading and largely inappropriate for the show, and was obviously only used to hook in the moe audience.

All in all, Oreimo was a decent watch. I didn't enjoy it as much as I like Haruhi, but I didn't outright hate it as much as I hate K-On!- it was merely fine. The problem is in how it fails to meet the potential it shows in certain spots; both in its attempt to really skewer and parody the two big current genres in anime (empty headed moe VS philosophical idiocy) as well as being an engaging slice of life show that deals with trying not to lose your place in society- and instead relies too much on the safe moe backdrop that too many lesser shows revel in. Oreimo did surprise me in how it wasn't as bad as the description (and stupid title) made it seem, and how it managed to actually have a plot beyond "cute girls doing cute things" while simultaneously exploring why otaku like things like that and how they deal with it in such a suffocating society like Japan's is. Unfortunately, it does sometimes fall victim to its problems like an awful main character and how we are supposed to empathize with the twit, as well as how it can sometimes go overboard with its moe-leanings (though obviously, your mileage may vary here), but above all it is a decent watch.

... Or maybe you feel differently.

If you're a moe watcher, then you really should watch this and appreciate how someone is actually trying something new in this stagnant genre and attempting to twist it into itself a bit. But if you hate moe, I don't think you'll be able to overcome your hatred over its issues in order to see the good it's trying to do. It's a shame because it isn't poorly written or executed in its basic format, but the few issues it actually has are just so overwhelming that it is sort of infuriating to watch at certain times. When Kirino is not screaming like a moron and her brother isn't blanding up the screen, the show can be enjoyable. Despite sometimes falling into the moe-boredom trap; the writing pulls it up, the production feels like the staff actually give a damn, and the music will keep you from falling asleep, but I don't think it'll be enough to catch the non-moe audience.

Either way, I actually enjoyed what I saw, yet can't really recommend it unless you either enjoy the genre or have a really open mind. It's... a weird watch, and it's something I'm going to have to deal with.

Arakawa Under the Bridge: Or “What the hell is this?” by Dr. Insomniac

2010-12-04T14:09:00.000-05:00

So, uh, there’s this guy called Kou Ichinomiya, or as he’s known by the local crazies, “Ric”. One day, he almost drowns in a river only to get saved by some weird girl named Nino. Because of this, he’s indebted to her and must start a close relationship to relieve himself of said debt. And by living with her, he has to spend the rest of his life under a bridge with a bunch of people off their meds. There’s also a plot somewhere hidden in there, but you’ll have to wade through at least half the season to realize it.

Going in for the first episode, I had never previously watched a show by SHAFT, had no idea what it was even supposed to be about, and was frankly confused enough by the opening as it is. Suffice to say, this show is fucking weird. It’s the kind of weird that could stand toe-to-toe with Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, Axis Powers Hetalia, or anything Gainax cooks up. Honestly, any attempt to comprehend this show in logical terms would result in tragedy and cranial trauma. Though admittedly, it does get a bit more coherent once the characters get more familiar and the plot reveals itself.

And as the inanity goes hand-in-hand with the main humor, your mileage will massively vary on whether or not the jokes stick or not. Pretty thick cultural barriers lead to most of the jokes coming off as confusing rather than funny. Many of the visual gags are quite blunt and lead to more awkward laughs than genuine ones (a guy who always wears a star on his head being one of many examples). By all means, even the most hardcore weaboo will have a hard time getting the majority of the show’s shits and giggles. That said, there are a few pieces that hit rather than miss, like how the opening randomly changes to highlight a minor character singing about how worthless her secret admirer is. Granted, it’s still just as strange as most of the other jokes, but the level of the absurdity is so high that it goes to being funny based on shear WTF-ness. But once again, your results will vary.

With the characters, Kou initially plays the straight man in everything, only to quickly unravel and show a “one is a genius, the other’s insane” dilemma regarding him and the rest of the cast. While he’s unquestionably the most intelligent of the characters, he’s also the most manic and easy to crack. On the other half, you get Nino, a strange young woman who spends most of her times fishing and believes herself to have come from Venus. She mostly ends up being an inversion of the usual “magical girlfriend” cliché, by being much more stoic and mundane compared to the usual fare such as Belldandy or Lum. Unfortunately, the series underutilizes the whole yin yang conflict and eventual accordance between the two in favor of having Kou interact with the rest of the cast, and most of them don’t really share the chemistry that he has for Nino. Everyone else is one-note and usually serves purely for gags rather than anything else. And because of this, the tolerance for the cast varies, with a man cross-dressing as a nun, nicknamed Sister, as well as the misanthropic farmer Maria being the most entertaining, while others such as the Iron Twins or Stella just being pretty annoying.

For production values, the music is pretty good. Really, the opening and ending are pretty interesting to watch and listen to, if only for the art directions and how the song of the former inexplicably tries to rhyme “Venus” and “Jesus”. The animation’s typical of most other anime, though it randomly shifts into different styles throughout the season. One gag even shifts the art to resemble Matt Groening’s.

Also, the “to be continued” spots make the habit of setting the series in live-action, naturally leading to massive uncanny valley. And at one point, you can also find a bit of rotoscoping in one of the episodes.

So in other words, this show is an acquired taste. You’ll either love it for its eccentric style, or hate it for its nonsensical ideas. Either way, you won’t be bored watching it.

Rating: 6/10

Young Justice - Here's To A New Age by Dr. Insomniac

2010-11-28T01:20:00.000-05:00

First off, Robin, Aqualad, and Kid Flash decide that they’re sick of being the Garfunkel and go off on their own in order to fight evil. And what a better first mission than to go face-to-face with Cadmus? However, the three have bitten off more than they can chew as they discover secret projects with mind-controlled staff and armies of artificially created beings. And above it all, they uncover a plot to usurp the Man of Steel. Thus, the former sidekicks have to take things in their own hands and learn how to fight off everything without the help of their benefactors.

And despite it sounding like a sausage fest, don’t worry. Future episodes won’t have any of that.

So that’s the first episode of Young Justice, DC’s latest venture into animation, as guided by Greg Weisman and Brandon Vietti. If the synopsis sounds familiar, it should given how it has a few ties to the original Teen Titans comics. If you consider that a detriment to the show’s quality for being even vaguely connected to the series from a few years ago, then you will be vastly mistaken, because it serves to be much different by lacking super-deformed scenes and the penchant for theatrics in favor of something more encompassing. Though admittedly, the Robin here could fit rather well in the former series.

Those familiar with Weisman’s work know full well that this show is absolutely assured to be good. With a diverse ensemble cast (the premiere already introduces more than twenty characters), decent animation, and an already interesting interpretation of the source material, the opening explodes at the viewer with the scope of a supernova. From seeing the heroes fight off ice-themed villains, to showing the Justice League in their entire splendor, this show is affectionately sprinkled with characters and references from the DC Universe without it being contrived like in Under the Red Hood or in Superman/Batman: Apocalypse.

So far, my only gripe is that Robin’s acting is a bit off, with the character giving a rather dissonant Jokeresque laugh in his opening scene. With that aside, the rest of the voices are pretty good, such as Khary Payton giving a pretty stoic performance as Aqualad and how Nolan North does pretty good playing both the inexperienced Superboy and the weatherworn Superman. As for the actual characters, Robin’s behavior and actions are a bit reminiscent of Ed from Cowboy Bebop, with lucidity and shoes being the only things keeping him from being a complete mirror in personality. Aqualad and Superboy come off as quite distant and a bit submissive, while Kid Flash gives off a few undertones of previous Wally West interpretations. Also, the Justice League is portrayed in a pretty balanced way, being protective of the characters while not being too stuffy about it. As for the main villains—enigmatically known as the Light—it’ll be interesting to see how they quickly reveal themselves as the episodes go on.

Overall, it’s a well-done start that shows great promise for the series at large. I really—and I mean really—hope that this show will last a while. Weisman’s never been known for pulling off a hat trick, so it’d be nice for that habit to be broken.

Tangled: 50 and (Almost) Fabulous- By Avaitor

2010-11-27T15:14:00.000-05:00

The production history of Tangled, Disney's 50th animated classic based on the classic fairy tale Rapunzel, is as tangled as the title itself. This time i want to get straight to the review, so I'll just say that if you're interested in discovering how the making of this movie went down, look it up. you're sure to find some interesting info if you take a look around. The basic gist of it is that Tangled was Glen Keane's(animator of Ariel, the Beast, Aladdin, and other classic Disney favorites and son of Family Circus creator Bill Keane) baby, and the movie has been in production for at least 8 years getting the kinks fixed on it.

After John Lasseter's recent winning streak as the head of Walt Disney Feature Animation but the disappointed box-office results of The Princess and the Frog, a lot seems to be hanging on the success of this movie. A lot of that seems to come from the lack of support from the male demographic, so Disney changed the title from Rapunzel to Tangled, and gave it's male lead equal attention in advertising. Disney seems stressed enough to the point that they hid the fact that this is a musical in the traditional Disney sense in their advertising.

For instance, here's the US trailer.

And to contrast, let's compare it to the trailer for another country. Let's say... Japan.

Yeah, pretty big difference there.

Despite that, word has been good on it since day one, and Tangled has already broken records in theaters, so all should be good. How is the movie itself, though? It's kind of a step down from Disney's recent return to hand-drawn animation, but there's more than enough good for Tangled to hold it's own as a future classic.

The movie begins with an opening narration straight out of American Beauty when Flynn Rider(who I'll delve more into later) talks of how he died, taking us back to eighteen years beforehand. In a forest, an old hag takes an enchanted flower and uses it to hide the effects of age from her body. At the same time, the queen of the land(where, as usual for Disney, is undetermined, but since the original author of the story came from Germany, that's probably they are) is sick while in labor, and needs the magic of the flower to survive. Guards search and find the flower where the hag, now transformed into a younger-looking woman, hid it. The help turn the flower into a type of drink and have the queen drink it, and she gives birth to a daughter peacefully.

The woman comes to the castle and finds the child, whose already long, blonde hair(guess that's not going to stay on her...) seems to be glowing. The woman cuts off a lock of the princess's and discovers that when you do that, her hair turns to brown. The woman kidnaps the princess and takes her away to a giant tower to raise the girl as her own.

The king and queen are so distraught by the kidnapping of their child that they have their kingdom light up a bunch of candles and throw them up into the sky every year on their daughter's birthday.

We jump forward up to just a few days before the narration begins, at the tower. The girl with the enchanted hair, named Rapunzel, starts her day off by cleaning the house, practicing her arts, and playing with her pet chameleon Pascal, when her mother, Gothel returns to the tower. Rapunzel's hair is as long as anything, because Gothel refuses to risk the potential of losing her hair's power. Gothel still uses Rapunzel's hair as a deaging device, as whenever Rapunzel sings, her hair glows and magically heals Gothel's signs of age.

As Rapunzel's 18th birthday approaches, she tells Mother Gothel that she wants to escape the tower to see the light show that happens every year on her birthday. Gothel, disgusted at the idea, tells her that there is no way that this will happen, which depresses Rapunzel greatly.

This is when Flynn Rider comes in. The not-so-charismatic young thief and his two accomplices steals a crown, presumably the lost princess's, from the castle. Rider and his followers already have a huge bounty on their persons, and are on the run from the royal guards. Rider gets to escape with the crown in tow, but leaves his men behind. Still on the lam, Flynn escapes all but an angry horse, known as Maximus, who continues to chase Flynn until he makes it to this strange tower.

I'll end the synopsis here, as this seems like a good cut-off point. If you're a fan of Disney animation, or at least have seen enough of their fairy tale movies to tell them apart, you can probably guess enough of what will happen at this point so that you won't need me to tell the whole story. A lot of the basics of a classic (warm slapstick humor, a couple of cute romantic moments including a kiss fake-out, a complicated misunderstanding, a run-in with the villain before the final confrontation, and so on) are present, and the characters are a little derivative. Mother Gothel is a combination of Lady Tremaine from Cinderella and Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame with a little of Madame Medusa from the original Rescuers added in, Flynn combines Aladdin's street-rat tricks with Prince Naveen from Princess and the Frog's arrogance, and one of my friends who saw the movie with me said that Maximus reminded him of Prince Philip's horse from Sleeping Beauty. but that is, to an extent, the Disney charm: familiarity with enough heart and love to make it all forgivable. By the end, you should be entertained enough to forgive at least half of the tropes you can instantly recognize.

Now to the meat of the picture- the entertainment value. The American trailers promise a lot of humor, and the movie delivers. Although Tangled isn't really built like a Dreamworks movie like the trailers would make you suspect, there's plenty of laughs in it, and I'd even argue that this movie is funnier than any of the animated features from Katzenberg's new house are. A lot of the movie's humor comes from it's animal sidekicks, Pascal and Maximus, who are the studio's funniest comic relief characters in years. Their biggest appeal is that since both of the characters are silent, they don't have to speak to get their point or a laugh across, so you don't have to deal with something as useless like Pumbaa's gas jokes or Louis's buffoonery. Pascal reacts through his character animation, which is very responsive and smooth, while Maximus and Flynn have a strong chemistry between each other. Neither character are happy to have each other tag along, and their arguing is reminiscent of older buddy comedies then anything.

There's also a group of vikings that look like they come straight out of How to Train Your Dragon. They are all unnamed but contribute to the story by helping Rapunzel and Flynn out during a few times in the movie. Each have a couple of decent lines and a cute, if not especially well-written song, except for a smaller, older fellow who is reminiscent of Dopey. Granted, they're not particuarly hilarious, but they add more to the story than Maximus does(Pascal's greatest accomplishment throughout the film is being Rapunzel's shining ray of hope during her time in the tower, something that isn't addressed, but easy to assume).

The actual characters aren't meant to be as funny(although Flynn has some great lines), but that's not their purpose anyway. Rapunzel is a great character. She's an assertive female in the modern sense without being too pushy or the least bit self-righteous, but is also still very contained. She's been trapped in a tower that is very hard to access for the entirety of her life, and never got to experience the joys of life that most of us are able to. When she exits the tower and walks on the ground for the first time and breaks into one of the reprisals for "When Will My Life Begin", her solo number, it's one of the most strikingly beautiful moments of the film. The attention to detail of the land Rapunzel gets to walk on for the first time, on top of the emotion of the scene and in Mandy Moore's voice(yes, THAT Mandy Moore, but trust me, she does a good job), is very powerful and expressed perfectly.

Another thing that makes Rapunzel stand out is her interest in art and music. From her first performance of "When Will My Life Begin", we already know that she can sing beautifully thanks to Moore's performance, play guitar, and paint very well. She asks for painting supplies as a back-up wish for her birthday, paints the kingdom's crest when she arrives, and seems to have an artistic knack during the rest of the movie. Rapunzel is a smart girl with a lot going for her.

Flynn Rider is a solid love interest for Rapunzel. He's a charming, funny fellow, like Disney men before him, and Zachary Levi of Chuck fame gives a very good performance of the guy, but the character isn't perfect. Personally, I believe that Flynn doesn't have enough character development for him to stand his own, and his change from common thug to Rapunzel's lover is a little short notice. The only bit into his character that we delve into is when he tells Rapunzel why he came up with the pseudonym of Flynn Rider(earlier, he reveals to her that his real name is Eugene Fitzherbert). As an orphan, the young Eugene used to idolize a storybook hero with a similar name, and retooled said character's name into something he can use to hide his true identity. Other then that, Flynn's life is basically a mystery, and his motives are fairly vague.

Mother Gothel makes for an engaging villain, even if she isn't quite up there with Maleficent, Cruella De Ville, Scar, or Dr. Facilier as one of Disney's best. Her motives are mostly blank, typical for a Disney movie. Gothel keeps Rapunzel as she needs her hair's magic healing powers to keep her young and beautiful. If she is away from the hair for a while, Gothel's face grows increasingly wrinkled, her hair becomes white, and her body drastically weakens. The chances of her surviving to the point in time the movie takes place without the powers of Rapunzel's hair or the flower are next-to-none.

Mother Gothel and Rapunzel have a bit of a complicated relationship with each. Gothel mostly sees Rapunzel as a reason to stay alive, but tries to treat the girl with as much care as she can. There is definite warmth between the two characters, but Gothel often runs that by saying some incredibly hurtful things to Rapunzel, even sometimes acting like she doesn't mean them. As the movie progresses and Rapunzel becomes increasingly free however, Gothel's true colors begin to become apparent, and she becomes less caring right to her face. It's that touch of snarkiness and bitterness that makes Mother Gothel as engaging of an antagonist as she is.

The animation is another high point. This is the first computer-animated Disney fairy tale, and while it's not quite as visually impressive as Princess and the Frog's return to hand-drawn animation was, the movie is still very good looking. Rapunzel's hair especially is very responsive and sharp, which is amazing considering how much of it there is. You can almost see every follicle of hair on her head. The land looks very good, and reflects the original hand-drawn layouts very well. I went to see this movie in 3D, not knowing if my local theater had a regular showing or not, but I don't regret the $10 purchase. While the visual effect wasn't used especially well, the movie looked stunning in the glasses.

The music, however, I'm a little conflicted on. The score itself is outstanding. I swear that it's Alan Menken's most inspired since Hunchback of Notre Dame almost 15 years ago, but the songs themselves aren't as impressive. I think the lyrics are to blame, as they're often a little clunky. Rapunzel's "When Will My Life Begin", Mother Gothel's "Mother Knows Best", and the vikings' "I've Got a Dream" especially suffer from this. The first adds too many activities into it's first performance which spoils the recipe and makes it become needlessly wordy, while the other two aren't as clever or funny as they think they are.

I think the soundtrack's highlight is "I See the Light", Rapunzel and Flynn's duet during the light show. While some viewers have compared it to the "Kiss the Girl" sequence from The Little Mermaid, I think this is a much sweeter scene and stronger song than that was, and this is probably going to be the strongest contender for Best Song at the Academy Awards this year.

Another problem I have is the lack of an overlapping theme in the movie. I can't seem to find one, at least not one as effective as the power of money and it's effects in The Princess and the Frog, discovering where you belong in life and your destiny in The Lion King, or freedom and accepting who you are in Aladdin. You don't necessarily need a moral or theme to make a great movie, even a Disney movie, but I'm kind of disappointed in the lack of a common theme between the main characters. I can see a little bit of a repeat of Aladdin's lessen in Tangled, but that's mostly since Flynn is derivative of Aladdin.

That said, even with it's biggest flaws, there is more than enough in Tangled for me to recommend to just about everyone. Fans of Disney will more then likely be satisfied(especially before the movie starts, as we get a little easter egg celebrating this particular milestone), and people who aren't as big on Disney should find enough to connect with to not regret their ticket purchase. Disappointments aside, I can't wait to see the movie again and see how it clicks for me in repeat viewings.

Before I end this review, there is one thing I want to point out. The movie is rated PG, so some parents may be wary of taking their younger kids to see this movie. I personally say that if you children are old enough to see Beauty and the Beast or Sleeping Beauty, they should be more than able to handle this movie. The only time I think it was worthy of it's rating is a particular scene at the climax of the film involving the stabbing of a particular, but again referring to Beauty and the Beast, if your children can handle it when Gaston stabs the Beast at the end, this should be fine for them.

Trigun - It's About Damn Time by Dr. Insomniac

2010-11-24T02:40:00.000-05:00

Yeah, I’ll admit it. Until last week, I never saw a single episode of Trigun. And for that, I have no excuse. This is coming from someone who was addicted to Toonami and Adult Swim Saturdays since grade school. Certainly, you’d expect a kid who was raised on shows like Outlaw Star, Tenchi Muyo!, Yu Yu Hakusho, and Rurouni Kenshin to have at least seen the Humanoid Typhoon in action. But alas, it somehow escaped my radar. Therefore, it’s time to get rid of past mistakes by taking a look at the series about the $$60 billion man and the land of Gunsmoke.

If you match my previous description and never saw the show, then here’s this: Two insurance agents known as Meryl and Milly are trying to seek out and investigate the rampaging outlaw known as Vash the Stampede. Through their efforts, they locate a spiky-blonde man with a red coat, sunglasses, a love of food, and a penchant for pacifism. Initially laughing him off as just some random poser, a succession of mishaps with the law and duels with desperate civilians looking for bounty and revenge lead them to slowly realize who this gunslinger is. And seeing that Vash is doing good instead of the chaos he’s known for, Milly and Meryl join him on his journey throughout Gunsmoke, encountering glow-in-the-dark raiders, preachers packing pistols, cats, and all sorts of adventures. Oh, and then this guy called Legato shows up and makes Vash’s life a living hell…

Now if you read the above and thought “A western? Fuck that shit!”, then…

With that out of the way, Trigun holds its own pretty well. It has most of what makes a good show: likable characters, a pretty good soundtrack, cool animated scenes, the works. It utilizes the typical character archetypes (the “thou shalt not kill” protagonist, the gang of quirky minions, the misanthropic antagonist wanting to rid society of its pain by killing it, and the two onlookers caught through it all), combines them with surprisingly heavy Christian overtones (which are also surprisingly subtle, despite having a main character carrying a giant cross), and presents an enveloping mixture of action and symbolism. And given the setting and themes more typical for American works, it’s a perfect gateway for anyone looking to get into anime.

Then we get to the acting, which is some of the most natural sounding I’ve ever heard from a dub. Johnny Yong Bosch gives his all for one of his first voice-acting roles. From being silly to being somber, he absolutely masters playing Vash. Wolfwood has a well-done pitch that screams “sleazy, yet well-meaning”, which is a pretty good achievement for the guy whose previous role consisted of shouting “Super Shocker!” all the time. As for everyone else, they give fairly good performances. And due to the time it was being dubbed, there’s a bit of dissonance in hearing a large chunk of the Digimon cast here. But with how ubiquitous several of these actors have been in more recent dubs, especially the aforementioned Bosch, that’s not really much of a matter.

And since the show was made over twelve years ago, it’s quite interesting to watch it and see how it has influenced the stuff that came after. The coat and shades that Vash sports obviously foreshadow leads such as Alucard. The prosthetic arm and the flashbacks showing his childhood remind me a bit of Edward Elric. His Angel Arm makes him heavily resemble the main character from Saikano. And then you see how many other shows like Black Cat and Desert Punk clearly borrow many of Trigun’s themes, with the character of the former being almost exactly like Vash in terms of personality. It’s kind of like how Dragonball Z has entrenched its tone and style in most shonen shows.

However, the main problem is that the show just didn’t have compelling villains for me. Legato, while being perfect at being unsettling and absolutely antithetical to Vash, just doesn’t have much beyond that. I mean, we get little back-story for why he’s a misanthropic sadist, so it feels like he’s just evil for the sake of it. (Yeah, I know the manga is supposed to explain this, but the show’s still at fault for not including it) But for all my complaints, he still serves as a good villain. It’s just that the lack of in-show explanation kind of sullies things. But even then, Legato is still well-developed in comparison to the main villain of it all, Knives. While he has somewhat of a reason for being what he is, he doesn’t carry the charisma that Legato does. There just isn’t that much that differentiates him from other villains that go “EXTERMINATE ALL HUMANS! WE ARE THE SUPERIOR BEINGS!” And given his history with Vash, you’d expect someone more layered and detailed. Instead, Knives just feels rather one-note.

So that’s the series in a nutshell. Previously out-of-print for a while, FUNimation recently got it back to the shelves. The special features are non-existent, and the DVDs are pretty vanilla as they come, but it’s at a relatively decent price for anyone willing to try. But if that’s not enough to satiate yourself, there’s a film just recently made—called Trigun: Badlands Rumble—that’ll probably be released here in the near future, though rumors suggesting that the original cast won’t reprise their roles (which aren’t helped with how Nimoy gave a statement saying FUNi got a new guy instead of him to do Wolfwood) don’t bode well. And of course, there’s the manga—Trigun: Maximum—that’s readily available in your nearest Borders or whatever. Overall, if you’re looking for a show full of action that doesn’t talk down to you, watch Cowboy Bebop… but after that, watch Trigun.

Rating: 9/10

Eden of the East: Watch It or the Johnny Hunter Will Get You By Dr. Insomniac

2010-10-19T19:59:00.000-04:00

Straight from the director and staff behind GITS (as in the show, not the Belgian village, the punk rock band, or the loud-mouthed brats at the subway), Eden of the East is a short, but sweet thriller leaking with cyberpunk and mystery. We start off with a girl named Saki Morimi on the middle of her post-graduation trip. And while at Washington DC, she finds herself face to face with a naked man and his gun. Said naked man, who we shall know as Akira Takizawa, has no memories or idea what’s going on. And after a roundabout chase consisting of discovery, dick-flashing, and lost IDs, the two find themselves together in a quest to crack conspiracy-laden events and find out who’s the puppeteer pulling their strings.

I’ve been hearing all these comparisons to the Bourne Trilogy, which also features an amnesiac agent fighting against his superiors to find out what’s going on. Having not watched any of the Bourne films, I instead see a EotE to be reminiscent of another work. And while I might be making wild guesses at this point, but the set-up and characters feel very much like the first season of Doctor Who. You have this bored girl trying to find more in life, an eccentric and mysterious man who just escaped an immense event where he had to play the bad guy, the unrequited hypotenuse who thinks this man might be a threat to everyone else, as well as a malevolent higher-up who wants to bring about mass destruction in order to create his own paradise. How one of the characters described above, Ohsugi, spent most of his time wearing an outfit similar to the Tenth Doctor doesn’t help things. Now, this isn’t a criticism but more of an overlook at how this series mirrors another. That’s like saying Firefly sucks because it just happens to resemble Cowboy Bebop.

But as for the actual quality, it’s good. Quite good. It has an edge that should be nothing less expected from Production IG. It contains a cerebral feel without being too contemplative, while having enough action without being Bayesque. With only 11 episodes, the show stuffs each one with great amounts of suspense and wonder. Any other show that did this would have godawful pacing or be forced to double the amount of episodes to keep it fluid, but Eden of the East thankfully manages to escape this stigma.

Now for the characters, Akira fulfills the usual traits of an oddball lead: Charm (enough to convince a guy to give him his pants), the occasional film reference, an utter lack of shame, and the drive to do the greater good no matter what people might think of him. Saki carries an everyman vibe to her, with the urge to find purpose in the world but little ability to truly express that feeling. The supporting cast consisting of Saki’s friends, despite not having enough time to truly shine, has a decent dynamic going on between them and the main two. And just as with them, many of the other antagonists and side characters really only have a couple episodes at the most to make their mark. However, they’re quite distinctive. Even the vocal-only support for Akira, Juiz, has somewhat of a personality going for her.

The animation is smooth and vibrant, with much of the scenery, especially the opening scenes featuring DC, being paid great attention to. It’s akin to Ghibli or how Durarara!! accurately portrayed Ikebukuro. And the designs of the characters, while more in line with the usual anime norm in comparison with Kamiyama’s work on Ghost in the Shell and Moribito, definitely have their charm. One thing that interests me about this is that the characters look rather young for their stated ages of 21. There are plenty of shows, such as Yu Yu Hakusho and Bleach, where characters who are 14 or 15 instead look like they’ve long since finished high school (I’m looking at you Kuwabara), so it’s provides a nice contrast to see the opposite occur (and not in the fetishistic “let’s draw an 8-year-old girl and say that she’s 18!” way). It also helps add to how the characters, no matter how many feats they’ve pulled off, are more or less immature and just starting out in the grander schemes of life.

So to wrap this up quick, the show is a roller coaster ride that sadly ends too quickly. But fear not, for there are two sequel movies furthering the adventures of Akira and Saki. I have not seen them yet, but word of mouth suggests that you should expect them to feel more like a second season rather than feature films.

Rating: 8/10

The show’s currently out on DVD and Blu-Ray. But if you’re a cheapass like me, just go on FUNi’s website or YouTube to watch. Movies’ aren’t out yet, but expect reviews once they do.

Superman/Fight Scene/Batman/Fight Scene/Wonder Woman/River Tam/Moar Fight Scenes!/Fanservice: Apocalypse by Dr. Insomniac

2010-10-03T02:15:00.000-04:00

Months after the previous film, with opening dialogue alluding to Luthor being impeached, a ship crashes through Gotham City and is revealed to contain a Kryptonian named Kara Zor-El. Because the bonds of family bind both ways, Superman decides to trust her. Unfortunately, Batman and Wonder Woman don’t. Through a series of scuffles and character exaggerations, Kara gets captured on Darkseid’s orders. With help from Big Barda, the Big Three are off on a rescue mission to face the legion of Apokolips and rescue Supes’s cousin. However, Kara has a different say on this…

For those expecting an improvement from Public Enemies, don’t. Like its predecessor, Apocalypse is filled with overblown fight scenes and barren with plot. Whatever little story elements are done via idiotic and out-of-character moves from the cast, with even Batman’s paranoia becoming grating. Also, we get fanservice. Lots of fanservice. The production staff seems hell bent on trying to get Kara either naked or in something revealing any chance they can. It’s akin to Code Geass in shoehorned cleavage shots. Hell, the last part of the title sequence is a goddamn tit shot.

As for the fight scenes, this movie would probably be barely an hour if they were gone. I know a fight between an army of Doomsday clones and Amazons might look awesome, but what’s the actual point? The build-up to most of them is fairly thin, and the end result isn’t really rewarding to say the least. The last one was particularly gratuitous, since most of the plot had already been resolved before that point and really only seemed to be there to fill up more time. Where a good movie would have fight scenes complement the plot, it gets inverted here.

The characters, Supes and his cousin aside, just don’t make much of a mark. Batman has little part to play in the grand scheme of things, and Wonder Woman doesn’t fare much better in plot relevance. Darkseid and his particular plan to take in Supergirl as one of his champions doesn’t exactly have any grounding, and just seems like a contrived way to give this movie any conflict. And like I said in the previous paragraph, Doomsday doesn’t have much reason to be here other than “Hey, we need a really strong DC character and we already used AMAZO last time.” Like the fight scenes, the characters don’t so much carry the plot so much as the plot carries them. For example, Wonder Woman shouldn’t normally assault Superman and kidnap his cousin in order to exile her to Themyscira (after all, we haven’t seen her do that to many other superpowered female characters), but since the plot demands this action to stretch whatever story this film has, this apparently must come to pass.

And this might be nitpicking, but Darkseid’s voice is awful. The voice actor, Andre Braugher, just doesn’t have that intimidating tone to him. Instead, it just feels dull. You don’t feel like you’re hearing the scourge of the New Gods from him, just some guy reading the script with a somewhat low tenor. On the contrary, the rest of the cast do fine. Daly and Conroy are as good as usual. Eisenberg hasn’t changed since the days of JLU. And while age has limited his range a bit, Asner is still menacing as Granny Goodness. After gathering up a good chunk of the previous actors to reprise their roles, having Darkseid played by someone other than Ironside just feels weird. It’s like the Brady Bunch Variety Hour in how jarring it feels.

Then we get to Summer Glau, who does a fairly well done job as Supergirl. What’s interesting is that the writers aren’t particularly subtle about who’s playing the role. We have a girl who is found at a mysterious container, naked and confused. She has mental lapses as well as a relation to one of the main cast, who is also the only one she’s on good terms with. This girl has powers she barely knows about as well as a strangely high intellect, given that the film shows her learning English in under a week. And suddenly, a mysterious organization is out to hunt her down and use her as a super-soldier. It’s like the writer listened to the Fruity Oaty Bars song way too many times while typing this up.

And like all of the other DC films, the animation’s still consistent as always. The art looks quite wooden though, with Batman looking more like a carved marionette than an actual human. Other than that, it’s just as unremarkable as Under The Red Hood. Nothing that makes you amazed or cringe, it’s just not something that needs that much discussion.

So in short, unless you’re the kind of person that can only watch a movie if it had random fight scenes and fanservice (if you are, then you probably didn’t have the attention span to read this review), stay away from this and go watch something worthwhile. And since the film seems so adamant on mirroring one of its characters, go watch Firefly instead.

Rating: 4/10

But on the contrary, the Green Arrow short accompanying it is very good, having fights that actually flow with the plot, characters that actually have reasons to be there, and no reliance on Loeb source material. It definitely has a short but sweet feeling going for it, kind of like how Tartakovsky's Clone Wars managed to be a hundred times better than the prequels. It's still not worth buying the entire DVD for, but it still manages to be ten times better than the main course while being one-eighth of the length.

Summer Wars: Familiar, Yet Awesome by Dr. Insomniac

2010-09-29T10:35:00.000-04:00

In these past few years, we have undoubtedly noticed that anime, aside from some few exceptions, has been lacking. For every Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, there’s at least a dozen K-On! clones. Whenever we see an original, genre-breaking show premiere, it’s always drowned out by the legions of pandering moe shows. But at least there’s something going on for TV when you compare it to how Japanese animation has fared recently at theatres. The tragic passing of Satoshi Kon means we won’t be seeing his post-modern presence anymore (though there’s supposed to be one posthumous work coming out soon). Studio Ghibli hasn’t been able to find a successor to Miyazaki or Takahata. And when you get right down to it, most of the output just consists of film spin-offs of already established shows like Evangelion or Pokemon. But like all mediums, you will, one way or another, find a gem among the pit. And for this review, we will be discussing a certain gem by the name of Summer Wars.

A timid math prodigy named Kenji Koiso finds himself living among his high school crush Natsuki and her gigantic mess of a family. On the first night there, he gets e-mailed an encryption code, and with curiosity killing the cat, ends up cracking it. By the next day, Kenji realizes that he’s been duped, having actually deciphered the code to break into the virtual reality world known as OZ that literally everybody’s connected to, and now the one who gave him the code to translate has taken his account and is wreaking havoc throughout the digital world. And given that everything’s online, this being has the ability to send all technology into disarray as well as even launch a nuclear missile just for the hell of it. Kenji, as backboneless as he is, doesn’t stand a single chance of fixing the mess he helped cause, but luckily for him, Natsuki and her family have some connections of their own.

And for those who think this sounds a bit familiar, it should. In many ways, this movie is an expansion of the Digimon short film “Our War Game”, by sharing a main plot about a bunch of kids having to stop a virus from ending the world, as well as having Mamoru Hosoda direct both movies. But it would be rather short-sighted to cry “Rip-Off!”, with Kenji being as far of an opposite of Tai as can be in terms of character (though he does share a few traits with Izzy). Where “Our War Game” served as a short after-series treat with the Digidestined saving the world once again, Summer Wars is a wide-ranging coming-of-age story featuring people forced out of their comfort zone and having to improvise like hell in order to stop Armageddon. And besides, WarGames did it first.

For the characters, the movie goes to great lengths to give even the most insignificant characters a distinct personality. Speaking as someone with an annoying extended family, the film definitely captures how awkward, yet interesting it is to be part of one. There are the judgmental aunts and uncles prying into your private lives, the older, overprotective cousins who think they know what’s for your own good, the grandparents who are very old-fashioned, but are usually the only ones able to moderate everything, as well as the submissive black sheep who end up being the most interesting members of the family tree. In any other movie, they would’ve been shoved into the background with only a couple getting any dialogue, but here, this clan is utilized to become one of the most endearing and realistic portrayals of what a huge family is like. It gets to the point where Natsuki just seems kind of bland in comparison to her relatives.

The art and animation is something that only few anime ever succeed at. The scenes in the virtual reality, OZ, are just an absolutely sight to behold. It’s all very stylized and vibrant. From the designs of the characters to the whole look and feel of the digital world, Hosoda pours truckloads of imagination into it. Even from the opening scene showing how OZ works, there’s definitely a sense of whimsy to it all. One of my favorite scenes is when the main villain absorbs millions upon millions of accounts and turns into this gigantic monster with its entire body being an amalgam of hordes of avatars. Just watching it move helped show the absolute desperation the main characters were going through when facing it. And the film’s no slouch when it comes to the scenes in the real world, with fluid character interactions and quite detailed scenery.

The voice acting is pretty good, having the benefit of not going through the usual talent pool (because God knows how many roles Hiroshi Kamiya or Kana Hanazawa already have on their resume). It also helps that they cast actual teenagers for the two leading roles. They give their characters a sense of authenticity that is seldom heard in other animated films. And everyone else fits fairly well in their roles, with the point where the grandmother and head of the clan narrates how her family should accept their aloof half-sibling Wabisuke no matter what being one of the most moving scenes in the film.

So overall, this is the best anime I’ve seen in over five years, putting Hosoda right up there among Miyazaki, Oshii, Anno, and Kon. Yes, I’m probably overrating it. And no, I don’t care. If quality were measured in height, Summer Wars would be among the bloody Himalayas. It’s so good that it makes me hate other anime more for how they can’t be like this. Whether you’re a click away from torrenting it or waiting for FUNi to release the DVD, every anime fan owes it to themselves to watch this movie.
Rating: 10/10

MAD the Animated Show: First Impressions

2010-09-27T23:07:00.000-04:00

I remember a time back when MAD magazine was pretty much everywhere. Back when magazines were hip and new, MAD seemed to be in the forefront of things, giving a less serious opinion on recent pop culture. From the handful of issues I leafed through, its tone alone was very tongue-in-cheek in that it was a compilation of short written works as well as comics and the like all compiled for the sake of mocking what we as a society have deemed the latest “it thing”—it was like some kind of precursor to the internet. Coupled with the rise of grunge and alt music during its high point and it’s no surprise that the generations growing up with the magazine have spawned some of the most interesting of people in our pop culture today—just IMDB any writer or director born in the ‘50s to see what I mean.

So with a magazine under their belt since the ‘50s and their own TV sketch show from ’95 to ’09, what more could be asked of the magazine?

Well, how ‘bout an animated series?

With the somewhat edgier shows coming out of the woodwork from Cartoon Network, it makes perfect sense for MAD to join CN for some shenanigans of their own. But does it work?

As expected, the series is done very much in the style of Robot Chicken, stringing together a series of animated sketches which are apparently part of some kind of paper world where MAD is law. That said, one would think that Robot Chicken more than fills in that particular spot for Cartoon Network, leading one to question just how necessary MAD is.

For a good number of years now, but especially starting post-millennium, more and more television shows and the like are coming out of the woodwork showing a clear influences and even nostalgia for shows as far back as thirty years ago. Parodies on Robot Chicken, online videos such as The Angry Videogame Nerd and pretty much every movie Michael Cera’s been in rely heavily on not just pop culture knowledge from years past, but specifically childhood pop culture from years past. Whether it be a major focus or just a joke in passing, one can definitely tell that the generation who grew up on Ninja Turtles and the Super Nintendo have developed into quite the interesting man-children, creating entertainment for their fellow kind.
This still leaves something of a problem, however.

As much as I appreciate shows making reference to childhood memories, one can only go so far with memories alone. As the case is with Robot Chicken, the number of parodies they do with old cartoons and the like end up rather well done for the most part, the viewer knowing that the people in charge of that particular skit fully appreciate the source material they’re working with. However, every now and then they try to appeal to a slightly younger audience, making reference to things like anime... only to fall completely flat on their face. The anime boom hit the states around the late ‘90s/early ‘00s, which I think was a bit too late for most people currently working in the entertainment industry to have truly grown up on it. As man-childish as they have become, their opinion on anything past that time period will only come off as something an adult would say to their kid while watching TV alongside them—it just comes off as fake, is all.

Enter Grey’s In Anime, a skit from the third episode of MAD. For the first time ever, I’m actually able to see proper references to anime on something other than YouTube. The number of in-jokes and particulars that only someone born in the ‘90s (er, I guess ’89 for me) could get and appreciate are all there in their glory. And it’s not just that episode. So far all three episodes of MAD have done an excellent job of pandering to the new generation of man-children, ripe with references old enough to be appreciated by a slightly younger audience than the [adult swim] Cartoon Network block.

With the fourth episode airing tonight, I think we can all assume that MAD will be here to stay—one of the only, if not the only, new cartoons out there I’ll be keeping up with.

The Brave & The Bold is a genuine thrill! - DVD Review by Desensitized

2010-09-25T22:23:00.000-04:00

How does one even start to describe a show like The Brave & The Bold? If you aren't familiar with the Silver Age of comics, the Superfriends, or the old Adam West Batman show, then I can't imagine how anyone could explain to you what it's like. The best way would be that it's about campy superheroes of all kinds of shapes and sizes cracking one liners and doing battle with the forces of evil. Just imagine those old 80s action cartoons only with great writing and execution and instead of the headache inducing cliches, you get a fresh and original take on everyone's favorite bat-obsessed hero.

First of all for those of you "purists" out there who have never seen this show, let me just say this: The Brave & The Bold is not Batman: The Animated Series, and that is a very good (no, it's GREAT) thing. While BTAS is considered by many as the best action cartoon (or just show) off all time, B&TB is not trying to be that show. Instead it is written as an epic adventure with a crazy cast of characters, perfectly crafted humor, and surprisingly strong writing. B&TB benefits so much from not having to outdo the great show from the 90s, that in many fans minds it is it's equal for purely being high quality on it's own merits without aping what has come before. High praise indeed.

It even separates itself from the older campy material by throwing in rather dark turns and some high quality performances you might not expect from a show of this type, making each episode a truly unpredictable experience. So what you get is an unpredictable mash up of everything that is great about superheroes, adventure shows, and comedy in one tight package. In summation, if you're not watching this show, you really are missing one of the best shows of the past decade.

In these episodes you'll see Batman team up with the Blue Beetle to rescue an alien world full of cute globs, fight against a giant planet controlled by Despero with Guy Gardner in a giant suit of Green Lantern armor, become a spirit and possess Speedy (Green Arrow's sidekick) in order to save his body and stop the Gentleman Ghost, turn into a giant bat monster and kick the ever loving stuffing out of a giant warship and an evil ninja shadow clan, and travel to a parallel dimension to rescue the Red Hood (?!) from himself (!?)... And that's only the tip of the iceberg.

The adventures themselves are spectacular, but what really works is the fact that Batman rarely goes through them alone. Every partner (ranging from Deadman to Aquaman) Batman teams up with is terrific in how they all vary tremendously from each other and have their own distinct personalities. Truthfully, this is as much their show as it is Batman's show, and helps really make it unique from not only other Batman shows (barring one season of The Batman that was... pretty sub par) but most other action shows currently on the air. Personally, I think if you ever were a kid or have the spirit of adventure in your heart (No, I'm not apologizing for that cheesy line) then there really is no way you can dislike this show, and you should look into it ASAP.

This DVD set includes the first 13 episodes from the show's first season. There are no actual bonus features, and the packaging is pretty much frills free. However, the entry price is low and EVERY SINGLE episode on here is worth the cost. Normally it would be hard to recommend something like this if it was a weaker show, but the amount of entertainment and replay value on this set is so high, that it really doesn't matter. The video and sound quality is crystal clear, meaning the only negative against the set itself would be the lack of extras.

So what you've got here is a high quality show for a low price meaning that it's pretty easy to see that I give this my fullest recommendation. I guarantee you will not be disappointed. Just don't expect anything extra other than the episodes on this set.

Black Rock Shooter: Not Nearly As Badass Or Manly As The Title Implies

2010-08-01T23:14:00.000-04:00

Going in, I expected an awesome action extravaganza about Samuel L. Jackson running around Tokyo with an unrealistically large assortment of firearms and explosives blowing shit up with a soundtrack composed entirely by Motorhead. After all, what else could an hour-long OVA entitled Black Rock Shooter possibly be about? The friendship shared by two middle school girls, apparently.

This pretty much sums it up.

What we've got here is a slice of life school drama masquerading as a trippy fantasy action movie. It doesn't help that the trailer is composed almost entirely of fight scenes or that there is pretty much no fan or official art depicting anything other than the characters' alternate reality personas.

So...
The title is misleading.
The trailer is misleading.
The art pertaining to it is misleading.

But, disregarding all of that, is it any good? Well... yes and no.

The story begins with rejected Magical Touhou: Lucky K-On Witches' Kindergarten - A's character Mato Kuroi getting ready for her first day at a new school. Yes, this is yet another "moe" anime, though it actually makes sense in this context, since the characters are in Junior High and not college. This, unfortunately, does not stop the producers from throwing some (thankfully light) fanservice into the mix on occasion (really, guys?). It isn't long before she meets Yomi Takanashi, and they become good friends very quickly.

The scenes involving Mato and Yomi being best buds would serve to make the rest of the OVA more effective if they didn't feel so rushed. More than half of their friendly interactions are shoehorned into a montage, removing any and all relatability from these situations that could be emotionally charged under other circumstances.

Soon, the inseparable pair begins to drift apart. While this is extremely abrupt and there is almost nothing building up to it, these scenes are easily the best in the feature. Mato, though she is unaware of this, begins neglecting Yomi, and once the latter disappears from the picture, she becomes horribly confused and begins feeling isolated and regretful. The raw emotion compounded into these segments is conveyed very well and would have genuinely constituted a few wonderful moments had the establishment of their friendship earlier on not felt so amateurish. It's also too bad that this topic was already covered this year (and to better effect) by Toy Story 3.

This is all supplemented by numerous, random, and very brief sequences of the main characters' alternate world selves fighting over... something. The action scenes are all fairly lame with the exception of the last one, which is suitably over the top and fun to watch. It is unfortunate that these alternate world segments - for which the OVA is named - are all entirely inconsequential and have a total running time equivalent to that of the movie's ending credits. One of these is literally a three second shot of a desert spliced in between two school scenes for absolutely no reason. Several of them feature a character whose alternate persona does nothing whatsoever aside from stare off into the distance for 15 seconds or so.

The ending and moral have both been done before... in Pokemon: The First Movie. Black Rock Shooter basically tells you that if you cry hard enough, your missing and/or dead friends will come back to you. This would be relatively easy to ignore if all the loose ends were tied up by the conclusion, but that is not so. There will likely be a sequel sometime in the near future (though nothing has been announced yet, as far as I know), and I can assure you that I will not be watching it unless it fixes all the problems from this episode.

The art is fine if you like the generic "moe" style. Nothing too spectacular, but nothing really awful, either. The animation varies greatly; some scenes are amazingly fluid while others are choppy and terrible. Ironically, it is usually the supposed "eye-candy" action scenes that get the short end of the stick.

The voice acting in Black Rock Shooter is pretty good. Mato's actress especially does a great job of making her character's emotions seem "real." While the others' voices aren't quite as excellent, it's all very professional-sounding and the performances are enjoyable. The music doesn't fare as well, however. I only really noticed two songs in the entire OVA (outside of your standard ambient background soundtrack), neither of which I liked. The first, played during the friendship montage, is a teary-eyed, nostalgic piece and, as far as I can tell, is sung entirely in Engrish (and I hate teary-eyed, nostalgic pieces - especially when sung in Engrish). The second, played during the ending credits, sounds like it was recorded by a Japanese Green Day cover band (and I hate Green Day - especially when played by cover bands).

Overall, you could do a lot worse than Black Rock Shooter. There's not much that's actually wrong with it, even though all it really boils down to in the end is a great story told poorly.

TL;DR
Story: 6/10 (It had a chance to really connect with the audience on an emotional level, but instead felt like it was hastily slapped together at the last minute)
Characters: 5/10 (While we're offered lots of interesting insight into Mato's life, she's the only character who really develops at all)
Art: 5/10 (Standard "moe" style)
Animation: 7/10 (Can change from awesome to awful in a matter of seconds)
Voice Acting (Japanese): 8/10 (The voice cast did a really good job with what they were given)
Music: 3/10 (Nothing really memorable)
Overall: 6/10 (Feel free to watch it if you're bored; it's nothing amazing but you might like parts of it)

--Foggle

Batman: (I Bet He's Compensating For Something) Under The Red Hood

2010-07-29T02:50:00.000-04:00

First of all, I haven’t read the comic and have absolutely no plans to do so whatsoever. I couldn’t give two shits about Jason Todd. And frankly, I haven’t particularly liked a DC Animated Movie since The New Frontier. So even before I start the film, my expectations for this are pretty much six feet under.

A mysterious vigilante by the name of Red Hood goes into the streets of Gotham to stick a middle finger up the ass of mob leader Black Mask. But unlike the altruistic methods of our Caped Crusader, this guy has blood on his hands. With the clashes between Red Hood and Black Mask spilling out into the open, Batman has to put a stop to it all. However, this newcomer may have more of a history with the Dark Knight than previously thought…

So yeah, it’s yet another one of those “Batman has to stop some guy from offing mobsters” plots. And at this point, it seems nonchalant. It’s like every new villain that comes along has to kill some gangsters in order to gain entry into the Rogues’ Gallery. But unlike the Phantasm or the Holiday Killer, there’s no mystery to who’s doing this. Even if this is the first piece of Batman media you’ve ever seen, you’ll know that it’s Jason Todd. Because of this, it just feels like an utter slog having to wait for Batman to put two and two together.

Our titular character had potential, but there wasn’t enough to his personality that made me care about him. The movie intersperses some scenes of Jason Todd’s past to show what he used to be, and even those didn’t work. It might be because those scenes are just glimmers in comparison to how many times the average viewer has probably seen Dick Grayson, Barbara Gordon, or even Tim Drake. A few minutes of flashbacks just aren’t enough to garner sympathy. The corruption of Jason Todd doesn’t make a good film when, comics aside, this is the first time we actually see him, and especially when you only have 75 minutes to work with. You can’t just milk the drama of a character falling to the dark side when you just introduced him a few minutes ago. Also, his dialogue didn’t help. “Evil death-worshipping garbage!” sounds like something out of the bloody Adam West series.

Nightwing just didn’t work here either. During the whole fight with AMAZO, he seemed like he was just there for exposition more than anything. Not even Neil Patrick Harris, who gave an oddly baritone performance, could dissuade me from noticing how unnecessary he was to the plot. And given how he disappears halfway through the film, it makes one wonder why he’s even in this in the first place. Preferably, I would have had Tim Drake replace him. It would’ve been more interesting to see how the former Robin would feel seeing the current one in action.

But on the other hand, Bruce Greenwood is quite good as Batman. His voice feels like a combination of Kevin Conroy’s and Jeremy Sisto’s. The tone is quite somber, yet still has a tinge of rage to it. It’s perfect for a Batman that’s forced to come to terms with a fallen friend.

And while he’s no Mark Hamill, John DiMaggio captures Joker’s essence quite well. Instead of going for a psychotic trickster feel, he has more of a mundane insanity to him. No outlandish schemes or flamboyant minions, just a bunch of bombs and whatever else he has on hand. He’s rather reminiscent of Ladd Russo from Baccano. There’s a brief, but notable scene that shows how far the Clown Prince of Crime is willing to go: Where he asks for a cup of water, only to break the glass, use it to slice a guard’s throat, grab his gun, and shoot down everyone else. It harkens back to his want of a phone call from The Dark Knight. And along with his vicious murder of Jason Todd, we’re looking at a much more grisly Joker than usual.

For the rest of the characters, they’re inconsequential. Characters like AMAZO and Black Mask are just here to appease DC fanboys, when generic brutes and mobsters could have easily replaced them. Ra’s Al Ghul is only here due to the Lazarus Pits being a plot device. The Fearsome Hand of Four looked like they were more at home trying to break into the Xavier Institute. And Alfred just kind of stands there all the time in the Batcave. Really, Batman, Red Hood, and the Joker were the only characters who didn’t feel shoehorned into this movie.

And about the animation, it’s passable. Nothing particularly outstanding or off-model visual-wise, though the CG is pretty evident. It’s probably since all of the DC movies have had such consistent art, that it’s gets to a point where it’s just unremarkable.

So other than a well-done version of the Joker, it’s nothing to write home about. Unless you’re desperately looking for a Jason Todd fix, there just isn’t much to this film that a handful of B:TAS episodes couldn’t offer instead.

Rating: 6/10

- Dr. Insomniac

K-On! or "Lucky Star with a new hat!" by Desensitized

2010-07-28T17:40:00.000-04:00

Oh boy, this is going to take a while.

I'm going to keep this family friendly, because I'm told by several sources that this is a family friendly show, and being that this is a family friendly site (right, Foggle?), I feel it's only right to review it from that angle.

K-On! is a show about the "Light" Music Club at some high school in Japan. The four members sit around and eat snacks while talking about nothing (while also playing as little music as possible) while nothing at all happens of any importance in their lives whatsoever. I should clarify... The first 6 or so episodes focuses on the band getting together and getting ready for a concert. Supposedly. I mean, very little actually happens in any of these episodes to give you the impression that any sort of plot is being worked towards. One of the main characters tries to learn guitar... That's basically it. She somehow masters the instrument in a few months somewhat degrading the challenge of learning such an instrument - but let's not get into that, we have a non-existent plot to get to! Most of the show is spent with the characters avoiding doing anything music related at all, and is spent instead doing things you see on every other moe show out there which is... Y'know, nothing at all. This is a music show, by the way. Just thought I should remind you of that.

The characters are all tropes you've seen before, the main character, Yui, is the clueless ditsy type with no talent. Mio is the popular girl who gets embarrassed easily. Ritsu is Tomo (Azumanga Daioh character) clone #163. Mugi has no personality to speak of like every other character I haven't listed, except that she's from a wealthy family. There is a fairly important (by this show's standards, I guess) character that appears later, but she's really pointless and inconsequential, so who gives a care?

There are several technical problems with this show that really hamper it beyond the fact that it's cliched pap that's been done 100 times prior. First is the editing is really herky jerky and random. Scenes frequently end with no rhyme or reason and some of which have absolutely no purpose and should not have been put into the show. The sound is awful, and for a show about music this is unforgivable. The background music is typical 'Casio-keyboard sound effect' level that you've heard in almost every other moe show about nothing, and the sound effects... I swear there's just a dartboard of moe sounds and the anime industry just throws apples at that wall or something and sees which one sticks and uses the one with fewest apple chunks on it. But, the biggest problem with the show is everything is paced like a glacier. More often than not one episode could fill like three episodes of this show, because the pacing is so freaking bad. This entire plot could probably be done in like 6 or less episodes if they didn't have a director who loved looking at long cuts of scenery with NOTHING HAPPENING. Not even mentioning the barely there animation that even puts the ladder scene in Higurashi (look it up) to shame. This is one terribly paced and put together show.

If you would like a better description of episodes, I can handle that! There's the one where they have to buy a guitar and get jobs to pay for it that somehow takes up a whole episode. You know what the job consists of? DOING NOTHING! I'm not making that up. There's the episode where the main character fails a test and spends the whole episode distracted from taking a make up exam. Exciting, huh? But there is an episode where they play at a festival! But first we have to sit through over half an episode where nothing happens! The song they play there is actually pretty decent... Too bad it is capped off with a joke that is really, really lame and really poorly edited. Later episodes are your standard fare for this type of show, such as a Christmas episode, a new member joins (this seems to take two episodes somehow- or three if you're picky), and there's a summer beach episode. Do I need to go any further here? Again, the problem with all of these episodes is that barely anything happens in them. The pacing is beyond poor, and any enjoyment one might get from this show (how fleeting that feeling might be) is sure to be squelched during the long periods of blank space happening on screen.

The only real positive I can think of to add to this is that the opening and closing themes aren't too bad, music wise, and the songs in the show (what little there are) are passable pop music songs. However, content wise there is nothing redeemable about this show or worth remembering.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not putting down slice of life shows when I criticize this show. One of my favorite anime is Chromartie High, and that's as crazy as all get out but still grounded in simplistic every day plots in the end. School Rumble and Azumanga Daioh are also not bad for the type of show they are. They feature a pretty sizable cast of characters, all of which who share pretty complicated (not always complex) relationships and are usually capped with a clever character related joke. This is just dull. In every way.

Okay, you might be reading this review and pegging me for a KyoAni hater. Let me be upfront about this - I am not a KyoAni hater. I do like The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya (even though the Endless Eight is the stupidest idea since Han shooting first), and they also did a little show called Full Metal Panic! that I know a few fellow staffers are big fans of, and it has earned it's place as a reputable animation studio. I know there are those who would argue with that, but my feeling is that while they may not always be top notch, they're at least competent at what they do.

That being said, I really hate Lucky Star and everything it has done to anime.

Ever since the show came out, everything has been attempting to copy it's success by featuring schoolgirls with "quirks" who lead normal everyday lives. All these shows about schoolgirls who look around 10 years younger than they're supposed to be and doing meaningless things, with "interesting" (try "overdone") quirks with the same darn 4 repeating plot-lines over and over again somehow stretched over 13 (or even 26+) episodes. Yet, somehow, otaku keep swallowing this tripe over and over again. And yes, I mean otaku, because there is no one else who could possibly find this stuff amusing. Why do they find this amusing?... Use your imagination. There are things I can't say on a family site, after all. (This is a family site, right Foggle?) This show is no different than all of those generic clones.

Now, I'm a music fan. Music is pretty deeply embedded into my DNA and even though my tastes are constantly changing, I don't think I will ever not love it as much as I do. So as an animation fan and music fan, I get giddy with excitement when there are shows based on music. In fact, they are frequently some of my all time favorites. Let me list just one of them and tell you why I like it. Don't worry, I'm going somewhere with this.

The show was called BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad. The anime is not as good as the manga (due to sheer length), but this is the perfect show about music. You have a group of characters that want to play music simply because of the passion they have for it, no matter how hard life kicks them in the face. You can understand why Taira's bass is so funky, why Ryosuke is such a deep sounding guitarist, why Chiba is a tongue-twister with words... It all shines through their characters and perfectly matches with their music so when it comes together, it works on a whole other level. In K-On!, music can be replaced with basket weaving and it would have the same emotional attachment it already has. Which is none. Geez, is anyone even reading this anymore? You could be sleeping or staring at paint dry instead of reading about K-On!

To be fair, I'm not saying all music shows have to be like that, because they frequently aren't. But while music shows like Detroit Metal City, BREMEN, Nana, and BECK may all be totally different from each other, they all have respect for music in the same way they have respect for characters and the universe they reside in. This is why they are all highly regarded and recommended, and will most likely be looked back at for years to come. I severely doubt this will be remembered outside of a few select circles, and no, I don't mean on the family friendly market.

Why did I go on about music shows and Lucky Star clones, you might be wondering? Because K-On! is both a music show (it's what it's marketed as), and is also another Lucky Star clone that we've seen a hundred times in the last few years. It's too bad it fails at each of the camps it's targeting and falls right off a cliff as far as... Well, as far as EVERYTHING about it goes. This is only a review of the first season, because I severely doubt the show will change after this point, and because if I went any longer I would probably lull myself into a deep, vegetative coma... And as tempting as that is after watching this cerebral bore, I have things to do... Like finish this review. *sigh* The irony hurts.

I can not recommend this show to anyone reading this review. If you like slice of life, stay away. If you like music, stay away. If you like moe... You should probably watch this to see what you've done to the anime industry. If you like anime, please don't watch this. And that's pretty much all I have say about K-On! and it's genre. Now go watch rain roll off your rooftop or something. I guarantee that doing that instead will offer far more entertainment value per raindrop than this entire worthless show does per episode.

Oh wait, this family friendly show's ending theme has the four underage teenage girls topless? Yeah, that's what I thought.

Fuck this show.

(PS: Most of my notes for this review consisted of "Nothing is happening" written over and over in various different ways. Seriously, don't bother with this show.)

Something Godawful This Way Comes: A Review Of Ookami Kakushi

2010-07-23T20:53:00.000-04:00

Yes, this series was finished months ago. Yes, no one heard about it or cared enough to watch it. Yes, I'm going to post a review for it.

Have you ever been having sex and as you were nearing orgasm an obese hobo thrust himself into the room and ejaculated all over your face? No? Well, neither have I. But that theoretical semen... that semen would be Ookami Kakushi. This series not only proves that Ryukishi07 can rehash Higurashi, it proves that he can turn it into utter shit in the process. Had I been working at the network which aired this catastrophe, not only would I have had it pulled from the schedule, I would have fed every print, every storyboard, and every concept drawing to the wolves - pun absolutely intended.

Let's start with the story (1/10). At first, it merely seems like a pathetic and shameless knock off of Higurashi; reminiscent of what Friedberg and Seltzer (don't know them? look 'em up) would probably do if they were given the opportunity to produce Cicadas Movie. But no, this is just the tip of the shit iceberg, because it gets worse. It begins with a flash-forward to a point later on in the series (OH GEE WHERE HAVE I SEEN THIS BEFORE), which is painfully stupid without the proper context and even worse once you know what's actually going on.

The story really starts with our hero, Hiroshi, moving to a new town with his father and lame sister. "Lame" has a double meaning in this case, by the way, as not only do her legs not work, she is probably one of the least interesting characters in the show (and that's really saying something). Hiroshi is the new kid on the block, but it isn’t hard for him to make friends; in fact, every character in the show save the ubiquitous creepy Furude Rika-lookalike seems to crave the taste of his dick. See, this is due to a special pheromone his body unwittingly produces that makes the local yokels hungry like the wolf. There are multiple scenes involving one of his (or perhaps his only) male friend(s) trying to make out with him. Under normal circumstances, I’d consider this blatant wish fulfillment on the part of the writer, but after seeing how big the boobs were on EVERY FUCKING CHARACTER in Umineko, I’m convinced that it’s just fanservice.

Chaos erupts throughout the city. Citizens begin slowly turning into wolves like honest, hard-working Americans turned into dirty Commie bastards during the Cold War. Not that the show really gives a shit about the outbreak, as only about a minute per episode is devoted to these scenes. There's some secret, ancient society devoted to exterminating these furry pests, but we wouldn't be able to focus on the supah kawaii antics of Hiroshi and his mini-harem if the story decided to expound too heavily on their history or their work, so it doesn't. Eventually, some guy - who might as well be sporting a curly mustache and evil smirk - randomly stumbles into the series and announces that he will be the antagonist from this point forward. I'd compare him to Takano Miyo, but that would be too easy, since they're pretty much the exact same fucking character (except this guy is completely one-dimensional with tacked on motives and makes Genocyber look like great literature).

I've already talked quite a bit about the characters (1/10), but there's something I need to make perfectly clear; as you may have noticed, there is a recurring theme throughout this review: aside from Hiroshi, I haven't mentioned any characters by name. This is because every single character was so terribly written and developed that I was never able to actually learn any of their names or differentiate between them by anything other than their voices or looks. Let's do a quick break-down (with the aide of MAL to help me match names to faces):

Hiroshi - Our protagonist. Accidentally castrated instead of circumcised at birth, which explains his appearance, voice, and lack of courage or assertiveness. One of the least likable characters in the entire series due to his bratty attitude and general stupidity.
Mana - Hiroshi's sister. Cries a bunch. Probably wants to fuck her brother. Unimportant story-wise.
Masaaki - Hiroshi's dad. Loves to tell stupid stories. Probably the best character in the anime, but not because he's interesting; he's simply less uninteresting than every other character. Unimportant story-wise.
Isuzu - Shameless Rena clone, personality-wise, but without any of her good points. Probably the worst character in the series.
Kaname - The smart one. Has no personality to speak of. The most boring character in the series. A piece of cardboard would be more interesting to talk to.
Nemuru - Anti-social girl who acts like a prick to everyone.
Kannon - Anti-social magical girl who acts like a prick to everyone and kills wolves in her spare time. Has the same voice actor as Nemuru (see where I'm going with this?).
Kaori - Plays music. Has some kind of terminal illness that is never really explained. Disappears from the series without much explanation near the end. Unimportant story-wise.
Issei - Gay for Hiroshi. This makes him a bad guy. Way to reinforce the anime being homophobic stereotype, guys. Isuzu's brother.
Sakaki - The bad guy. Has stupid plans that never really amount to anything and is incapable of using a gun properly.

Detracting from my enjoyment (1/10) even further, the final episode is a comedy special. That's right, not only is the story slow-paced and mind-bogglingly boring, it can't even fill up an entire half-season. This episode is about as funny as being force-fed a popsicle made of frozen diarrhea. If you thought Higurashi's comedy was bad, well, just imagine it without the lovable characters. Now make it ten times worse and add in some poorly-done fanservice. That's the final episode of Ookami Kakushi in a nutshell.

The art and character designs (1/10) are so unabashedly generic that you won't be able to tell the difference between this series and every other half-hearted, mediocre anime out there. The animation is about on par with Filmation or Studio DEEN on a bad day.

The sound in general (5/10) isn't anything to write home about, but none of it is bad. The OP and ED are unmemorable but inoffensive and the voice acting is fairly standard.

TL;DR:
Story - 1/10 (Beyond awful)
Characters - 1/10 (Boring enough to put you to sleep)
Enjoyment - 1/10 (Not one bit)
Art/Animation - 1/10 (Walt Disney is rolling over in his grave)
Sound - 5/10 (Passable)
Overall - 1/10 (I'd marathon Umineko in its entirety before I'd subject myself to another minute of this bullshit)

--Foggle

How to Train Your Dragon and Make a Good Movie Too by Avaitor

2010-03-30T00:51:00.000-04:00

Typically I like to start my reviews off by giving a brief history of the people behind whatever I’m reviewing, but I believe I’ll keep this particular retrospective a bit briefer than usual.

DreamWorks, Disney’s greatest rival in animation during the past 10 years, formed in 1994 as a merger between world-renowned auteur Steven Spielberg, former head of Disney’s animated feature department Jeffrey Katzenberg, and film producer David Geffen in order to continue making successful Hollywood movies. As a studio, they’ve made such well-liked and artistically successful features as Sam Mendes’ 1999 Best Picture-winning debut American Beauty, Cameron Crowe’s semi-autobiographical Almost Famous, and Spielberg’s own influential Saving Private Ryan. Along with fellow Best Picture winners Gladiator and A Beautiful Mind, these movies have proven to be critic and crowd pleasing hits, reflective of our modern movie-making abilities.

However, when one thinks of DreamWorks, it’s their animated features that come to mind. While DreamWorks has been making computer generated animated movies since Antz in 1998, as well as enjoyable albeit lesser talked about hand-drawn efforts such as The Prince of Egypt and The Road to El Dorado, what really gave life to the studio’s animation department was 2001’s Shrek, a fractured fairy tale that could be interpreted as an anti-Disney stance, and given Katzenberg’s history with the house that the Mouse built, this wouldn’t be too far off. Shrek was lewd, crude, and occasionally not as clever as it thought it was, but otherwise, was an hilarious change of pace from the typical Disney and Pixar type of movie. More importantly, it was also a major critical and commercial success, making more than four times it’s budget back domestically, and beat out Pixar favorite Monsters. Inc at the Academy’s first award for Best Animated Picture.

So it’s fair to call Shrek a hit. So much so that DreamWorks has helped to make the green ogre one of the decade’s biggest cash cows, a modern cultural icon. After the first Shrek’s incredible success, other CG animated films were to follow, most of which earning at least a lean $100 million at the box office, and helping to put the studio at the top of the modern animation food chain. DreamWorks has shelled out at least one animated feature a year, each usually following an audience-approved comedic formula in which a group of eccentric goofs go on a wacky, typically pop culture and flatulence-laden adventure(Kung-Fu Panda is one of the few that cuts down no these aspects for humor, and uses character and physical comedy at the center to earn a laugh for a change. This reviewer highly recommends KFP as viewing if you haven’t given it a spin yet.)

Next to be mentioned should be Chris Sanders. With fellow co-director Dean DeBlois, they made Lilo & Stitch for Disney, one of their biggest and most entertaining animated hits of the aughts. The story of an alien experiment gone horribly wrong that leaves it’s home planet to find shelter on the planet Earth and finds comfort in a fellow outcast of a girl touched the hearts of many fans of animation in an era where Disney’s all-mighty touch on the audience was starting to fade out. The little blue Stitch, who also was voiced by Sanders, became so well-liked by the people that he and his little girl partner would star in three sequels and a popular TV series together, while for years on end Stitch proved to be one of Disney’s best selling characters, with various bits of merchandise, Disney theme park attractions, and even a Japanese animated series dedicated to him. The movie’s lasting appeal still continues to shine with a long-anticipated special edition DVD making it’s way stateside, containing an over two-hour-long documentary showing us the process of making such an endeavor.

As any filmmaker who made a successful entity should, another film was already in plan for Sanders. He had another feature planned for Disney, American Dog, which in 2006 he was booted from after disagreements from newly-minted head of animation John Lasseter, who believed that the story, which supposedly took elements from future Pixar releases Toy Story 3 and Cars 2, was going nowhere. Sanders then left and joined DreamWorks’ animation department. A few tweaks and a new director in Chris Williams later and now we have the movie known as Bolt.

Here he and Lilo co-director DeBlois reunited to work on an animated movie that had similar development issues, How to Train Your Dragon. The movie was originally intended to follow the book more faithfully, but under Sanders and DeBlois’ direction, was spiced up a bit to appeal to older children and even people over the usual demographic for animated features. Usually DreamWorks animation staff doesn’t think of what someone like yours truly will think of their movies, but will instead add a risqué joke or two to keep parents from falling asleep. However, the idea of constructing a story with thought, merit, and character development like Pixar makes doesn’t always come to the studio’s mind.

It looks like that trend is broken with How to Train Your Dragon, which has entertained and even moved this reporter a bit.

The movie takes us to Berk, a village where fighting dragons is as common as making pie. We show up in the middle of a dragon invasion where our lead character, Hiccup, announces to us by narration that slaying dragons is a way of life for the Vikings of Berk. Hiccup is the son of Stoick the Vast, the chief of the village. Stoick is a big Viking, like most of the people of Berk, which Hiccup can’t admit to being at all. Compared to most of the Vikings in the village, Hiccup is a small potato. He’s also awkward and gawky, and proves to be unable to stand out among his peers.

Hiccup’s dream is to prove himself to his father and to slay a dragon. After the glorious looking opening battle, he finds a Night Fury, a dragon that is next-to-unknown to dragon researchers, in the woods and keeps an eye on him. After their secret encounter, Stoick realizes that it’s time for Hiccup to learn how to slay a dragon, and sends him to dragon fighting classes. Here, he and a group of fellow kids are taught by the stern but charming Gobbler the basics of dragon slaying. This is where most of the humor comes from in the movie, when Gobbler has the Vikings-in-training go through intense obstacles to practice the art of dragon slaying. As Gobbler, Craig Ferguson has a bit of fun with the little Vikings, staying true to his late night persona while also adding in some warmth into the story when Hiccup needs to hear a kind voice. Celebrity casting over personal actors tends to be a weakness of DreamWorks animation department but Ferguson is a highlight for the cast. The rest of the cast of Vikings are also fun, but the real bread and butter of the story comes from Hiccup’s encounters with the Night Fury.

Hiccup learns a lot about Night Furys, maintaining dragons, and about himself in general with Toothless, which he names after it hides it’s teeth while not eating. After each meeting Hiccup adds things into the official dragon manual about Night Furys, and learns some new techniques to keep himself alive in training. Hiccup eventually becomes the toast of the town and the desired student to slay his first dragon in front of an audience. However, the more time he spends with Toothless, the more Hiccup regrets the method of slaying dragons. But Hiccup still wants to appease his father.

I’m not going to say anymore on the story, or say that the movie ends in predictable form. While the ending will seem expected, Sanders and DeBlois take some liberties with Hiccup’s fate that you wouldn’t see in an average kids movie, and helps to make the movie a more powerful experience than your typical kids feature being put out.

And that’s probably why I liked Dragon so much. It’s the first computer generated DreamWorks animated feature that comes to mind that instead of bashing Disney, follows their blueprints of solid family entertainment more closely, making a family-friendly drama that also happens to have humor in it. Instead of adding goofy sidekicks that add to cheap laughs more than to actual story, the humor comes from the junior Viking’s squabbles and confused dialogue, which works more for belly laughs than harder laughs, but the humor meshes into Hiccup’s story well.

Hiccup’s relationship between Toothless feels realistic and emotional, like a kid who finds a pet he knows he can’t have but loves all the same. This effect isn’t surprising, considering that Sanders and DeBlois made us feel similarly about an oddball and their unusual pet a good eight years ago with Lilo & Stitch. Seeing Hiccup control Toothless on his first flight is a staggering piece of CG animation, which should look breathtaking on standard definition, let alone movie theater 3D. It’s also a key point of the film. Here Hiccup has learned enough about dragons and Night Furys to find a way to make it stay up in the air with him on it. Hiccup finally proves his resourcefulness and Toothless shows that it completely trusts Hiccup. The rest, with Hiccup losing his notes while up in the air and seeming to just not care, is stunning.

The animation is probably the best this reporter has seen of DreamWorks to date, and probably the best use of 3D in recent years. Effects such as a burning fire, waving water, and lifted dirt are brought to life with such attention to detail that the effects animators deserve the highest praise possible. The human’s desings keep up to DreamWorks usual look, but the designs of the dragons deserve equal praise. Toothless looks incredible, a nicely painted black fitting into a more colorful world, while the other dozen or so dragons used in the feature also have little subtlies that make them look equally as thought-out and desirable. For example, this reporter went to McDonalds to get one of the movie’s collectable toys, and came home with a Hideous Zippleback, a double-headed thing that calls to me as a cross between reptile and a less, well, hideous take on the double-headed dragon from Warner’s forgettable Quest for Camelot.

That‘s one reason why I seem to be so positive towards the .movie. Dragons happen to be a love affair for this reporter. One of the Disney sequences that called back to me when I was younger was when Maleficent transformed into a dragon with the powers of all hell in Sleeping Beauty, I had an addiction to American Dragon: Jake Long that lasted long after the show’s final episode aired, and I tend to pick dragons over other creatures when given the chance. I tend to eat these mythical creatures up with arms wide open, and seeing yet another world where humans and dragons interact touches my creativity like few others can.

This would mean nothing if the source material that these dragons come from was weak. Sleeping Beauty has a power antagonist in Maleficent that sucks up screen time whenever she appears and also has a fun bit of chemistry in the fairies, while Jake Long gave us a lead character whose hopes to be an average teenager were shattered by expectations that only his stern but loving grandfather could see in him and have us follow him on the way as he discovers his abilities and the pain of loss and heartache that he experiences because of them, and Dragon has an awkward kid find a kindred spirit in an undiscovered beauty, which eventually helps him understand the merits of a little known about species. Like Avatar without jamming the message our visual effects down our throats.

DreamWorks seems to be selling itself thin now. Between this and a hugely popular animated series based on the penguins from the Madagascar movies, we have a fourth spin into the world of Shrek, a more typical DreamWorks feature in the Will Ferell-lead Megamind, and a series based off of Kung-Fu Panda this year alone, not to mention a sequel for Panda next year. As of right now, I’m going to call How to Train Your Dragon the DreamWorks project of the year to see, and an early forerunner for the Academy’s Best Animated Picture. Maybe it’s time for another movie of theirs to win the award, so the first Shrek won’t feel so lonely. I’d give it a nomination, at least.

When I Cry (Because This Shit Sucks)

2009-12-25T00:19:00.000-05:00

Hello, everyone! Foggle here, back with another anime review! Unfortunately, there are no pictures this time, because I am far too lazy. Anyway, enjoy!

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Umineko no Naku Koro ni is a mystery with no intrigue, a romance with no soul, and a story with some of the most uninteresting characters and appalling plot twists ever created. Not since Hannibal Rising have I been so shocked by such a putrid sequel (or spiritual successor here, I suppose) to one of my favorite series. Perhaps Higurashi was just a fluke, since Kai was markedly worse and Rei was just straight-up bad. Beginner's luck, I suppose.

Let's start with the story. "Story." Haha, you're killin' me! It starts out promisingly enough; the Ushiromiya family arrives on Rokkenjima for a family meeting, and things go very bad very fast. A few episodes of terrible animation, retarded boob jokes, creepy laughs, and mysterious yet violent incidents later, the entire family ends up dead. Sound familiar? It's not as solid as Higurashi, but expectations run high.

And then we meet Beatrice.

The unconventional but wholly intriguing "tea party" happens. Viewers everywhere are pumped up for the next arc. "This is going to be amazing!" I remember thinking. How wrong I was.

I knew from the moment the ambiguously gay Dickens-esque urchin child randomly sprouted a laser sword with which to fight off a bunch of goat-men that things were about to go downhill. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. From this point on, the plot-points become increasingly more stupid; so much so that you'll be actively wondering what the hell everyone was smoking when they green-lighted this catastrophe.

The mystery also completely falls off at this point in favor of inane magic fights, the worst "torture" (and I use this term VERY loosely) scenes ever put on video, and one of the most contrived and possibly most idiotic romance sub-plots I've ever seen in an anime series. This garbage is so rancid that I had to drop it after 16 episodes (though I did skim the rest to see what I was missing, which almost made me puke in disgust).

Next, let's talk about the characters. After all, you can't have a good story without good characters, and the characters in Umineko are about as good as the story. Meaning? They're horrendous. There are so many characters it's hard to keep track of them all. Not that it matters, as their "development" (another term I use loosely) is outclassed by the likes of Italian Spiderman and perhaps even Ninja Gaiden 2. It seems throughout much of the series that their only purpose in life is to die. This raises some thoughts of Existentialism. No, I don't mean that the philosophy is present in the anime itself, I mean that Umineko is so bad it makes me want to kill myself.

Worse still are the characters introduced midway through the series. The Siestas and the Seven Stakes Of Purgatory would merely be a bad idea in any other anime, but here they're just vomit-inducing. One of this series' crowning moments of awful is the synapse-destroying scene in which the bunny girls (the former party mentioned in this paragraph) shoot one of the family members with their magic bow, a dramatic and completely-intended-to-be-serious moment in which DEEN felt like it was a good idea to parody The Terminator. My face damn near smashed my keyboard in half at this point while my accomplice with whom I watched this monstrosity proceeded to vomit on my shoes. They were pretty nice shoes, too. Fuck you, Umineko.

Of course, it is impossible to discuss the flaws of this anime without mentioning the downright horrible art and animation. DEEN does it again with this one, from giving the characters disproportionate heads to actually forgetting to fully draw and color in one of the character's suits at one point.

The only redeeming aspect of this series is the audio. I really like all the music used in it, especially the tracks ripped straight from the VN, as they're wonderfully atmospheric (when you can hear them). The OP and ED are also quite catchy, and perhaps my only solace during my unfortunate stint of watching this miserable pile of shit.

The voice acting is also pretty decent. Not the best in the world, but it definitely gets the job done.

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Story: 1/10
Characters: 1/10
Art/Animation: 1/10
Music: 8/10
Voice Acting: 7/10
Overall: 2/10
The Verdict: Don't watch this show. Ever. If you really want to dive into the story, read the VN. It's much better, but, IMO, still not all that impressive. At least I can actually see why people would like it, though.

--Foggle

And It Only Took 130 Episodes, 4 Specials, and a Movie- Avaitor Says Goodbye to Ed, Edd, n' Eddy

2009-11-10T00:22:00.000-05:00

My childhood is over. It took 19 years for it to happen, but it’s time to let my carefree years of youth go past me and prepare for the “joys” of adulthood. I just watched the last adventure of Ed, Edd, n’ Eddy, the cartoon which I invested more time in than any as a child and still kept up with through it’s decade-long run on Cartoon Network.

It’s funny and kind of sad to think about it, really. I never got to spend too much time with my mother as a kid, never liked my sister, and while I’ve had my fair share of friends, they seemed to of came and went throughout my life, with a few notable exceptions. It was the continuing adventures of the Ed boys, three best friends who shared the same name and passion for jawbreakers, and a good deal of other animated series that would keep me company when I couldn’t be or just didn’t want to deal with people. While a lot of the series I loved either ended too soon, like Sheep in the Big City or Invader ZIM, turned to crap in the long run, like Dexter’s Laboratory or The Powerpuff Girls, or would just come and go due to having already finished runs, like Rocky & Bullwinkle and Yu Yu Hakusho, I still had Ed, Edd, n’ Eddy to rely on to keep me entertained from age 8 to 19, with even the series I kept up with as I got older taking a step down towards it. I still enjoy all of these shows, but in the long run the only three animated series I’ve found to impress me as much as the Ed’s have would be Batman: The Animated Series, Gargoyles, and King of the Hill, which also just recently ended a massive run of it‘s own.

Still I was rewarded for my patience as a kid. The moment I saw the debut promo for it in 1998 around the time The Powerpuff Girls was set to air on CN, and saw who I’d soon to grow to love as Ed, Eddy, and Double D, run around the screen for a minute with their multi-colored tongues sticking out in the air, I could tell already that I’d love this show, and couldn’t wait for January 1999 to come. The vibrant colors used in not just their tongues but in the character’s themselves, and how detailed their movements are as they race each other were like an orgasm for my 7 or 8-year-old eyes. Granted I had no idea what an orgasm was at that age but I knew I needed more of it.

I also remember the night it aired, on a Monday, before Cartoon Network had the absolutely brilliant idea to air all of their original series together on Fridays to broadcast new episodes. I got giddy waiting for CN to air the first episode of this new show. Powerpuff didn’t disappoint two months earlier and with Cow & Chicken and Johnny Bravo still airing new episodes, I had a feeling that CN could do no wrong. The whistled-and-jazz tinged intro which has now become as integral a part of my subconscious as my mother’s voice or the soft coating of my dog’s fur, arrived on the television screen, and I was instantly introduced to three characters I’d recognize for the rest of my life as kids of my own; Ed, the lovable oaf who’s with his pals every step of way, just waving and smiling to the television screen; Edd, or Double D, or Edward, the intelligent perfectionist whose verbal and grammatical corrections and OCD tendencies ring true to me this day, fixing the intro screen to a T; and Eddy, the man with the plan, the “brains” of the operation, if you will, standing in front of the intro, gazing at his bad self.

Only a simple open, but in thirty seconds we get to learn just about enough of the characters that we needed to

As for the rest of the episode, I remember the first of two shorts involving the Ed boys interrogating the neighborhood kids after a small percentage of the kid‘s materials were stolen, and the second introduced the Ed‘s to the Kanker sisters, a trio of horny girls whose goal was simple throughout the show‘s run: to make the Ed‘s their boyfriends if it kills any of them in the process. I later learned that these were far from the best the show would have to offer, but were still great introductions, as they introduced the basic themes of the show, and got a grasp of why I wanted to stick around for so long. The Ed’s want money for jawbreakers and will go to great heights to earn a few quarters, but what they really want is to fit in with the rest of the kids in the cul-de-sac.

Most people remember the show as a group of kids with the same name making a bunch of scams to get cash for jawbreakers, but watching some of the earlier episodes again, it looks as if the Ed’s just want to be accepted by the “cool” kids, which doesn’t seem to happen. They get mocked constantly, aren’t invited to parties, and get pushed over for insignificant events. The only people who seem to accept them are the Kankers, whom not even the Ed’s don’t want to deal with, and occasionally Johnny 2x4 and Rolf, the other oddballs of the gang, but even they have given the boys their fair share of beatings. It seems that as the show goes along the Ed’s wanting to be accepted by people who treat them like crap is less of an issue and they’re more willing to go with the flow, but that the alienation still hurts them. Eddy especially takes the blow the hardest, as we can see how boldly he’ll fib to impress the guys and that he‘d basically lick Kevin‘s feet to be invited to his house.

The Ed boys have continued to entertain and develop throughout the course of the show. Ed is a naïve lummox; while his grasp of reality is virtually non-existent, he’s such a sweet and lovable character that his lack of common sense doesn’t subtract from his enjoyment as a character. If anything, the fact that he can barely speak a logical sentence only seems to add to his enjoyability as a character. He spews out illogical nonsense which he finds to be of great importance, and sometimes is able to save the day by saying nothing.

His love of science fiction is another notable feature. Some of the most memorably episodes of the series are “The Day the Ed Stood Still”, when Ed gets to enact his favorite monsters and scares the neighborhood kids into thinking he’s become the real thing, and even traps them all in his room, “It Came From Outer Ed“, in which Ed makes up what he finds to be the ideal scam, but only turns out to be an arbitrary calling for a curse, and “Knock, Knock, Who‘s Ed”, when the boys just try to find an adequate TV to watch Ed’s monster movie marathon. The big guy steals the show from his friends by just being Ed and stating how his lasagna hurts, that he forgot to wear underwear today, or just whatever comes through his mind.

Possibly his greatest episode though is “Little Ed Blue”, when the big guy trades his sunny disposition with a grunter, rougher attitude. Considering how big he is, that he isn’t in a good mood is a very bad thing, as it could very well mean the end for everyone around. The episode works so well because of Ed’s strong, random delivery. He sounds angry when he says “BIG TROUBLE”, but his voice actor and director is obviously having fun messing with his character’s status quo, and let him add his own twists to an angry big guy. Never mind the ending that would only come from a show as well-timed as Ed, Edd, n’ Eddy, the entire episode is comedy gold.

Double D is the typical brain of the group, but he’s proven to be more than just that. He’s a perfectionist through and through, fixing minor errors to seem as tight as possible in his ideal world. He’s also a major clean freak, polishing anything with moderate dust or stains on it, and prevents germs from entering the area he‘s in. And don’t even speak out of line, or he’ll throw a dictionary or thesaurus at you. His little quirks bring out the best and worst in him, which is why he finds good friends in Ed and Eddy but the rest of the kids don’t seem to get him.

His shining moments tend to have his pretentious little butt kicked, like how he tries to teach the cul-de-sac than acorns grow to trees in “Dim Lit Ed”, attempts to teach Ed and Eddy proper behavior in the appropriately titled “My Fair Ed”, and deals with becoming the local bully in the classic “final” episode “A Fistful of Ed”, where a series of misconceptions have the others fear him Double D’s sincerity in friendship and equality make the pain he endures in these episodes all the more unbearable to deal with, but at the same time rewarding as his inspired intellect gives him the notion to try to set everything straight. On rare occasions he’ll snap due to the pressures Ed and Eddy put on him but he’s always back to help his friends when they need it, which is why the writers come back to him.

And we have Eddy. Probably the most controversial character on the show, some people seem to not be able to deal with him because of how heartless he seems to be with his friends, but to me it seems that while he’ll ditch Ed and Double D when he can gain in particular, he acknowledges that they are the best friends he’ll ever have and losing them would be the worst thing he could ever do. He’s saved or at least repaid his friends back nearly enough time to justify the stuff he’s pulled on them.

Eddy’s lack of respect also seems to be a key factor in his erratic attitude. While we never get to meet his parents in the show it seems apparent that they never seemed to keep a close enough eye on him and cared more for his older brother, who treated him as the baby and nothing more. The after effect that would of taken place would have been enough for Eddy to not know how to at in front of people which would explain his tendencies to freak out in big crowds and push others aside for his wants.

Together the Ed’s make an unlikely and necessary trio, and one of the strongest groups of friends to be put together in entertainment in a long time. Without Ed, the two lose their brawn and heart, and without Double D and Eddy, Ed loses the closest things to guidance that he has in this world. Without Edd, the two lose their brain and resources, but without Ed and Eddy Double D would have no companions but his demanding parents. Without Eddy, the two lose their free time plans, but Eddy would never admit this to them, because he cares about Ed and Double D too much to reveal it to them. And together, you have three halves of a whole person working together to cure the never-ending epidemics of boredom, isolation, hunger, and poverty, and continue to entertain many.

And I can’t even begin to sing the praises of the show without mentioning the excellent supporting characters. You have Kevin, the no-nonsense “cool” guy who Eddy looks up to for some reason. He’s tough but also has proven to be as lame as the Ed’s are perceived to be, particularly with how much he cares for his bike. Then there’s Rolf, the weird foreign kid who no one can make any sense out of. He involves his farm animals in everything he does, and will spew out illogical stories of what it was like back in the old village. Or Nazz, the cute girl who everyone gravitates toward to without even knowing why. We do know that she loves it, though, which is where part of the humor in the boy’s flirtation comes from.

We also have Ed’s baby sister, Sarah, who wears the pants in the family tree. She keeps Ed in charge and to make things even more challenging and entertaining, has a major crush on Double D and will retreat back to little girl tendencies in front of him. And then there’s her best friend Jimmy, the fruity little boy who loves Sarah and gets jealous whenever anyone steals her attention from him. He’s proven on enough occasions that he doesn’t just take things sitting down, so trying to guess what’s going on in his head is only part of the show’s fun.

Then we have Johnny and Plank, the all-time great duo. Johnny confides in his little block of wood everything and expects the world to accept the advise Plank gives back as seriously as he does. This subtle bit of humor once again is a great example of the many ways Ed, Edd, n’ Eddy dares to make you laugh.

The characters are all allegorical to common feelings and belongings we go throw during adolescence or just growing up in general, which is why the show has stuck to me for so long. I see the OCD in Double D reflecting my own issues, Eddy’s social issues being somewhat similar to mine, feeling jealous like Jimmy every now and then, and have felt like Rolf a handful of times as I go through new and exciting experiences like a new neighborhood or school. In hindsight, I’d say it would be hard for someone to not relate to at least one characteristic of any of the kids in this show.

In addition to the great characters the animation is a major turn on in the show. Danny Antonucci, the show’s creator, has obviously been influenced by the cartoons of Warner, MGM, and Fleischer, and the varied forms of movement and settings make it apparent. Nearly every cell of animation has some sort of attention to detail in it that is missing in most cartoons today. The coloring is another major turn-on, and the jump from hand-painted to computer colored in the last season only adds to the beauty of Antonucci’s creations. The characters themselves look not ugly in their pseudo-squiggle vision designs, but rather lovably obtuse, as they look as questionable as any kid would look at their peers, as is Antonucci’s vision.

If I had to pick an all-time favorite episode, I’d go crazy trying to do so. “The Good Ole Ed” and “Every Which Way But Ed” are hilarious send-offs to corny clip show episodes, calling off events that may of very well never happened, each in different and creative ways that make both episodes stand out on their own. “Once Upon an Ed” is a perennial favorite, the Rashomon story told in only a way the Ed’s could, with each one defying the laws of proper storytelling. I’d also have to give my props to “Mirror Mirror on the Ed” in which the Ed’s switch characters to go through each other’s shoes, and only mess each other’s worlds up in the process.

Or I could just go with the movie which I was supposed to review, but instead wrote up a list of why I love the show. To spare the amount of text you’d have to read I’ll say purely that basically everything I wrote about the show before hand is present in this movie.. The ending will make fans feel triumphant and that the two-year + wait for this movie didn’t feel wasted.

What I’m coming up to is that I’ve watched Ed, Edd, n’ Eddy since the beginning, when the show was a simple show about how a group of kids spent their summer time to an excellent film that let’s the Ed’s have their day. I’ve seen the animation develop from something out of Dr. Katz to quality even Disney would be jealous of. Seeing Ed, Edd, n’ Eddy’s final days makes me feel nostalgic for the days that it was on for me to feel like I wasn’t alone. It may only be a cartoon but this cartoon has been a part of my life for a good part of it and seeing it go will always leave an impression on me that I doubt any other series end would have.

Earlier I mentioned that Ed, Edd, n’ Eddy is on par for Batman: The Animated Series, which at it’s absolute best proved to be better written than any adult-aimed drama on the air and set the standard for how the modern action cartoon should look and be treated as, Gargoyles, which gave action cartoons an added depth by connecting everything into a cohesive and genius story together, and King of the Hill, which similarly gave us a great cast of characters and set them off to have their own revelations and misgivings for a record run. How the Ed’s will compete with these three will remain to be seen but I can tell that even twenty, thirty years on I can remember these four animated series as shows that I can enjoy at any time and find only more reasons to love as I get older.

Let’s get cracking on the complete series set already, CN. Then maybe I can take out the Legos and revel at the joys of buttered toast and gravy again.

Avaitor out

Bakemonogatari: Face, Limb and Torso Value

2009-08-15T20:27:00.000-04:00

I’ve never really gotten that into the harem subgenre of anime, since honestly, I’ve never been that interested in it. If anything, I thought it to be one of the least original genre out there. I mean, you’ve got you’re one male lead and he’s continually surrounded by no one else but females for no apparent reason. I mean at least with an action series or a thriller, there’s some kind of logic behind everything. For a harem series, just what could you possibly get other than what’s at face value?

Enter Bakemonogatari: Ghostory

Based off a light novel series of the same name (they tend to be doing a lot of these “light novel to anime” releases, nowadays, huh?) Bakemonogatari centers on completely normal “emo” high-schooler Araragi. Er, that is, “normal” until you find out he’s just recovering from a vampire attack a while back.
Now, I’m sorry, but I’ve got to stop right there. Let me first apologize for using the term “emo.” Yeah, I know it originated underground with music and it’s now been appropriated and bastardized into the term all wannabe-misunderstood twelve-year-olds use today, but I just can’t seem to find any other word appropriate enough to describe my first impressions of this guy. I mean, not only do we see little to no lively interaction between him and the other characters, but

... just lookit him! It’s looks like that that just scream for the term to be used, no matter how much I hate using it. Furthermore, it looks like we’re delving into the vampire sub-genre. Now, not to hate on the originals like Dracula (and I guess Count Chocula and Sesame Street’s Count, too) but whenever I go to the bookstore and look through the manga titles available, whenever I see anything related to vampires, it always ends up being some kind of bland-looking teen drama about some hyperactive female lead and some dark, “misunderstood” male lead. So, watching the first episode of this series only to come across these two things, I was surprised I didn’t stop watching right there.

Part of the reason why I actually continued through the series would have to be because for one, it’s the first episode. Also, (because “furthermore” just seemed a little predictable, I guess) Araragi mentions this random vampire attack like it was nothing more than a footnote in the corner of the screen. Sure, there are some references to him being bit later on, but they are never major enough to draw that much attention and don’t even relate to the plot (at least at the time being). From what I can tell, the only up-side to Araragi’s attack is the quick healing factor that came along with it, making things like injuries easy to deal with, serving as less than speed bumps (whatever that would be... a yield sign?) to the particular episode’s plot. Which reminds me...

Episodes are not exactly contained in a single 25 minute period, nor are they told over the course of the entire series. Rather, each story is contained in an arc, lasting around three or so episodes. Now what would these arcs be about, you asked to the rambling blogger? Well, that’s when the whole harem genre rears its ugly (okay, maybe somewhat attractive) head.

Each arc basically has Araragi encounter some attractive girl who happens to have some kind of “condition” in that they’re cursed or haunted—you know, supernatural kind of stuff that makes up the “ghost” portion of “Ghostory.” Again, I’ll admit this seems like the most superficial of things, but each girl does end up serving some kind of purpose other than well... looking good. And just how would our protagonist end up helping these fine-on-the-eye girls? Enter the second reason why I continue to keep up with the series.

To try and help each girl with their problem, Araragi doesn’t summon some kind of crazy-deus-ex-machina vampire powers to punch the demon out of them or smooth talk his way to their hearts only to kill them when they’re most vulnerable; What Araragi does to help each girl is to simply talk to them, which is something that is very much underappreciated in well made shows in general these days. Most episodes are made up of conversations about nothing in particular. Perhaps one second, the topic is story structure and the next is stuttering. This may not seem like all that big of a deal, but when it comes down to it, an anime can come up with some of the most bizarre things out there, but in the end it won’t matter at all unless the show makes me care to continue on and accept all this bull to begin with. That’s where Bakemonogatari shines.

What first comes off as one of the shallowest anime to date redeems itself with some of the most interesting lines of dialogue I’ve ever heard (er, I guess read via subtitles). Combine this with the ability to seamlessly incorporate character backstories as well as your occasional jab at similar (but really, not) anime out there and you’ve got quite the smart show on your hands.

But dialogue, as witty as it can get, can only go so far in the realm of television, where actions speak louder than words. The third reason why I continue with this series: imagery overload. For the sake of everyone’s sanity, Bakemonogatari doesn’t take on the “talking heads” approach when it comes to conversations. Rather, artsy little slideshows are had, depicting the conversation as it’s held. Now, doing this every time a character speaks would just be overkill (not to mention obnoxious), so the episodes take a 50/50 sort of approach, animating around half the episode normally and the other half like it was done by someone on deviantart. It makes for a nice change of pace, I guess.

As of this blog posting, Bakemonogatari is currently six episodes in, and while the story can be hard to get into from the first episode alone, I really recommend this series. It’s like watching pop art... but animated and with good writing, t’boot.

Warhol, Hertzfeldt and the Endless Eight

2009-07-12T17:20:00.000-04:00

... okay, maybe it wasn’t exactly the best time to give such early praise to Haruhi Suzumiya’s second season. As of late, we have been given a total of five new episodes, though I am currently wishing I only saw three of them. The season starts of strongly enough, with Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody, which does of a good job of re-introducing the cast after a three year hiatus, but after that, things get a bit... meh.

Enter the Endless Eight.

So far, the corresponding chapter in the Haruhi Suzumiya novel (yeah, note the lack of a “graphic” preceding that) under the same title has been spanning for four episodes. It starts off innocently enough, with the first episode covering an oddly tame two weeks in the life of the SOS Brigade. However, when I noticed the following episode repeating the same events in the first half, I knew something was up; Haruhi is not the type of anime to stretch things out for the sake of not getting ahead of their source material. Or at least that’s what I thought.

The third episode, sharing the Endless Eight title rolls along, and I’m under the impression that this little arc is about to come to a close. Little do I realize just how literally the “endless” in “endless eight” will be taken. So far, we have been presented with three out of four Endless Eight episodes that are near exact duplicates of each other. The second Endless Eight is able to pull off a rather creepy reveal as well as a good amount of fan service, while the third and fourth ones serve as nothing more but to show just how “endless” the brigade’s summer has been.

So here we are with five new episodes, two repeat-offender episodes, a total of 15,513 summer reincarnations, and one irate blogger with absolutely zero else to do. But wait, contrary to popular belief, there must be some sort of reason behind all this madness, right?

Upon seeing that the third Endless Eight had merely copied the previous episode almost verbatim, I concluded that the guys at ol’ Kyoto Animation must be taking a page out of some artsy indie animators and risking losing their fanbase just for the sake of making a point. Just look at pop artist Andy Warhol: as well-known as he is, half the things he’s known for come off as rather... eccentric. I mean, filming a group of people standing still for hours on end? Painting everyday objects and passing them off as legit works of art? That’s something. You either have to seriously be on something, or trying to make a point in order to be ballsy enough to even think of pulling off things like that. Surely Kyoto Animation must be at least one of those, right?

While I’m on the topic, I’d like to take this moment to take a slight delve into the realm of what I like to call “artsy” animation. You know the type. One of those animated films that you’d sit through only to reach the end of it thinking “Wow, that was probably the crappiest things I’ve spent my money on, but I’m sure artsy posers are gonna call it a work of art, so I’m just gonna roll with that for the time being.” Case in point: Don Hertzfeldt’s Everything Will Be OK. Hertzfeldt is already known on something of an “indie” level, having been established with his previous depressing works (he doesn’t call his studio “Bitter Films” for nothing, I guess), so one could assume that he has reached the point in his career that he can release anything and receive an award for it. Though, on another level, I could completely disagree with everything I just said. Hertzfeldt’s works have a gritty charm with an overall veil of commentary about depression in life in each of his works, no matter how ridiculous or pompous they may come off as. Heck, I’ll even go as far as direct you to his main page and suggest picking up his DVD collecting a good number of his works (with exception to his latest short).

Attempting to bring things closer to topic, could Kyoto Animation, the guys with one successful Haruhi season already under their belt, be daring enough to take such an artsy route? Well, these are the same guys who originally released the first season out of order intentionally as well as chose to animate random chapters from later Haruhi novels for the first season, so... sure? Like a handful of other fans, I remain confident with this animation crew and hope that this seemingly “endless” summer will finally come to a close by next week’s episode. Either way, I got impatient and hunted down a translated version of the corresponding light novel chapter, so all is well in that sense.

Feelin' Far from Melancholy

2009-07-01T15:22:00.000-04:00

When I was younger, I used to be obsessed with the Power Rangers, a show which until recently I was completely unaware was based on the Japanese Super Sentai series. As I grew older, and as American companies adjusted their tastes to even more Japanese shows, I ended up picking up on shows like Pokemon and Sailor Moon, both which played back to back on the WB at the time. As anime began to take over the minds of the kiddies everywhere, Toonami decided to get into the mix of things as well. And while I missed out on the Freeza and Cell Sagas the first time through, I tuned in just in time to catch a majority of the Boo Saga (you know, the parts actually pertaining to the plot). It is now 2009 and anime has become just as integral a part of our US pop culture as any other genre of TV. I am a hardcore Dragon Ball fan and admit to keeping up with the Naruto and Bleach manga. But all the while, as I transitioned from mind-numbing epic battle to mind-numbing epic battle, was I missing out on something else entirely?

The week of finals, me and a couple of the neighbors were being introduced to some anime my roomie had. His collection consisted of the occasional Miyazaki film, as well as some mainstream anime series and some that I could barely pronounce, less watch without flinching. It eventually reached the point where I would just sit at my desk typing away on the laptop at something or other while the rest of the gang would watch in whatever new drivel the roomie had to offer (shark punching was involved..?). Anyway, the roomie decides to introduce us to yet another series, as per the request of our neighbor, who was something of a fan of it. The title was quite the mouthful, whether you went by the English translation or original Japanese version and the title is far from an accurate representation of what I was about to watch.

Title: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

Before even popping the disc in, the roomie and neighbor went through a short dispute as to which order they should be playing the episodes. Woah, an anime series that has no particular order? That was news to me. We started off with “episode 00” in which I was fooled for a good ten or so minutes before picking up that the episode was being told through the crappy filming skills of one of the characters. Assuming that this would only be done for the first episode, I thought it was quite the interesting move. And no JJ Abrams in sight, to boot!

Eager for more (or at least I was) we ended up watching the following two episodes. The plot seemed basic enough: High-schooler Kyon begins his freshman year (or whatever equivalent that is in Japan) wanting nothing but an ordinary life. Unlike his classmates that want to use the new year to start fresh, Kyon just wants... well, that’s just the thing—he doesn’t want anything. Enter Haruhi Suzumiya, the class eccentric/cutie whose introduction to the class is more of an announcement telling everyone that if they are an alien, time-traveler, or ESPer, that they should contact her ASAP. Regardless of their conflicting personalities, the two gravitate to each other eventually, playing off each other in an Odd Couple sort of way. Or maybe it’s more of a Dharma and Greg sort of way... or So Little Time sort of way. Heck, considering the amount of narration, I could even go as far as comparing it to The Wonder Years. See, with Kyon playing the straight man and Haruhi the loose cannon cop chic that doesn’t play by the rules, viewers are bound to do a little shipping, anticipating the two getting together at least by the final episode. I can neither confirm nor deny this, for the uninitiated.

After finals and moving out, I was bored one day and hunted down the rest of the episodes, marathoning through the remaining 11 episodes in one day. Woah, was the series that good? Yes, yes it was.

Although the series is clearly an anime, it does not make a clear distinction as to whether it is aimed primarily at guys (shounen) or girls (shoujo). It’s not exactly an action series with there being only two (maybe three, if you really want) episodes where a full-on action sequence defined the episode. But on the other hand, the romance factor was at a minimum if even that much. Even the more fantasy elements of the series can’t truly define the series as a whole. Just what kind of series is Haruhi.

Wanting to learn more and figuring it’s about time I had a new obsession, I did a quick Wikipedia search on the series. Skimming through the guides, it looks like it had quite the respectable release, even in the states. Not only have the episodes been released dubbed with an accurate translation as well as subbed, but the DVDs have been released multiple times. Half that time, there were these “special edition” type releases packed to the brim with nice promo art as well as a CD from the series.

Geez.

Furthermore, it looks like the states have been treating the property itself rather well, keeping up with the Japanese releases and releasing most of the CDs here. I know I remember seeing the series before.

Combine that with the crapton of Euro mixes and dance tributes out there in the vast YouTube-verse and you can pretty much base your fandom on the series’ music alone.

Finding out the anime has existed for three plus years already, I was rather surprised that I didn’t pick up the series sooner. Then again, three years ago, I’m pretty sure I was engulfed during the peak of the Naruto and Bleach storylines. Figures.

And to further distance myself from my shounen comfort space, it turns out the anime was based on a manga, which was in turn (get this) based on a novel. Wanting to learn absolutely everything I could about the series, I hunted down the light novels, finding that the anime episodes directly correspond with a novel chapter under the exact same name. Furthermore, reading through some of the chapters, it looks like the anime stays very faithful in terms of the plot. Sure, you get anal people saying Haruhi’s hair is supposed to be black, but whatever. In a world where seasons of filler exist, I think I can safely say that this is one of the better adaptations out there.

Alright, so I’ve got a 14 episode anime series along with a crapton of CDs not to mention some secondary sources in the form of the anime. Even considering that the series has ended, that should keep me busy during a bulk of my summer, right?

Well in complete Haruhi fashion, it turns out that I’m getting even more than I bargained for. As of late, the series has finally been picked up for a second season. The first season episodes are being re-aired in Japan in their intended chronological order, meshing the season 2 episodes in there accordingly. So far, there have been three new episodes and I am continuing to love every single bit of it!

Now, I think the question at hand now is whether I should spoil future anime episodes by hunting down the light novel translations. One can only wait so long!

Lost Love, Asian Boy Scouts and Balloons: DC Reviews Pixar's UP

2009-06-01T12:48:00.000-04:00

Wh-whaaa? The ARevelation crew actually keeping up to date with their reviews? You're darn right we are!

For stupid legal reasons, I gotta say that this review was originally from my movietome.com review under the username petewrigley. Great, another place to stalk me...

While Pixar movies in general depict quite the environment filled with colors, hues and images you would only expect to see in a doctor’s office waiting room poster, “Up” really sets the standard. All Pixar movies preceding “Up” always dealt with the amazing or fantastic, either giving life to everyday things such as toys, bugs and cars or adding a certain twist to an already explored world, such as that of superheroes. While “Up” can be argued to fall into either category, at its core it is about nothing more than a man and a woman. Though it is completely understandable that things like the house being lifted by thousands of balloons was to distract you from such.

Without spoiling too much, “Up” takes a route definitely explored by children’s movies in the past (death) and taking it from a different perspective. We’ve seen how emotionally scarring it is to have a parent die, but what if that perspective was shifted from child to adult? Although I came into the movie knowing the exact details of its setup, main character Carl’s montage from his childhood to elderly years still brought a tear to my eye. Having such a powerful setup from the get-go of the movie definitely helps get you to relate to Carl pre-grumpy-old-man as well as helps viewers eliminate skepticism once we finally see the house lift off for the first time.

As we begin to wander into the realm of adventure, we are introduced to scout Russell and dog Dug. While Russell and Carl form for quite the duo, Dug just seems to be there for comic relief more than anything else. As the movie progresses, Russell and Carl’s personal storylines begin to intertwine, while Dug continues to just be there with a separate storyline with a loose connection to the other two only near the movie’s conclusion. Most of the dog-centric scenes seemed aimed especially at the younger viewers, but they helped move the plot along as well as gave more insight into the lurking villain, so I guess they’re not all that bad.

Just the idea of a house floating in the sky via balloons is so Pixar. By this film, you would expect them to begin running out of outlandish visuals to roll with, but thankfully that has yet to be the case. As expected, Pixar has again succeeded in taking such a ridiculous concept and creating a beautifully written story from it.

~~~

Well with all that said, here's a couple additional stuff I thought of uh... post-review-writing (would "addendum" fit?):

Being the obsessive fanboy I am, I just had to look up a few "Up" related things and give 'em an appropriate plug:

As always, the music is also such a major part of the series. Though upon finding that the composer for the movie was Michael Giacchino (of LOST fame as well as the latest Star Trek movie) I shouldn't be that surprised. The movie does the sort of thing where there's an overall "theme song" for the movie that changes in tone whenever the mood changes. In that sense, it reminds me of Pixar's short films that they'd always play before their feature movie.

Looking the soundtrack up, it seems like Disney's made the decision to go all digital with their music purchases. And while it's somewhat of a downer that we can't get any sort of tangible something, at least the songs are available. Go sample the soundtrack on amazon.

Another thing that really enthralled me was the art style. Sure, some may argue that Pixar's design process in terms of things like character designs and scenery has been a bit more "cookie cutter" as of late, I really think that at least it's not the case with this movie. Like I said before, I was constantly reminded of those cool posters at doctor's waiting rooms as I was watching the movie. Pixar just seems to go above and beyond when it comes to visuals that I think checking out the movie's accompanying art book is worth the $26 plus shipping on amazon.

So there you have it. This is usually when I come up with some kind of fancy ending sentence, but I've got class in 20 minutes and I've yet to have me some breakfast, so laters!

Yeehaw! Rewind Review 1: Fievel Goes West

2009-03-26T18:41:00.000-04:00

“Classic Review?” “Rewind Review?” Well, whatever title we decide on, just know that every now and then, we’ll be dusting off the ol’ delorean to go back in time and review some of the animated works from back in the day that stood out to us. So without further ado…

Instead of having bedtime stories told to me when I was younger, I was raised watching videos before going to bed. My video collection, while not as gigantic as my current DVD collection, was large enough to make up for at least a month’s worth of one hour viewing before bedtime. Looking back, the tapes were your basic lineup of what you would expect from your normal prepubescent kid, mainly being composed of Disney movies from as old school as the original “Fantasia” to the first “Toy Story.” Out of all those movies, though, only one of them stands out to me today:

Yep, that’s right. “Fievel Goes West.” I remember nights just staring at the TV thinking how awesome it would be to be Fievel with his pop pistols and his reversible hat and having to escape from clothed felines and a creepy as all heck spider with a gold tooth and cigar. The reversible hat, especially. Seriously, how awesome would it be to be able to switch from a normal hat to a cowboy hat just like that?

To this day, I’ve yet to see the first “American Tail” movie or any of the straight to home video releases following the sequel and I don’t really feel the need to. Unlike other movies and their sequels, I never saw “Fievel Goes West” as part of a series of movies and always thought it stood well as a stand-alone.

Having been made during the “Tiny Toons” era of his career, it makes complete sense for producer Steven Spielberg to have made this sequel when he did. “Fievel Goes West” was incredibly similar to “Tiny Toons” in that while the overall plot may not be something to write home about, every musical piece in the movie was memorable.

The plot’s basic enough… er, at least as basic as a children’s movie made in the early nineties could be. Fievel Mousekewitz and the rest of his family are immigrant mice who have moved to New York in an attempt to escape the persecution of their “people” from the cats in the area. Realizing that life in the states is just as difficult as life back home, the family decides to move with the rest of the mice to the West where stories tell of mice and cats living together in peace. Or at least that’s the story given by the red top-hatted and monocled Cat R. Waul. Being separated from his parents and the rest of the mice on the trek West and finding out Waul’s evil plan of initially befriending the mice only to eat them later, Fievel must go West by himself and warn his fellow mice before it’s too late.

Wow, typing that up really put in perspective what I was talking about.

Okay, so the plot may not be Emmy winning gold, but that was never what defined the movie for me. What I really enjoyed about the movie, both then and now, was the music. In a time when Disney movies were absolutely pwning their competition, Fievel’s music is able to hold its own. Okay, sure, it was completely destroyed by “Beauty and the Beast” which was released in theaters the same day, in the box office, but that doesn’t mean its music doesn’t hold up just as well. Really.

Having recently watched the movie again after so many years was like listening to a song you haven’t heard in a while. Or I guess in this case, a couple songs you haven’t heard in a while. From “Dreams to Dream” to “The Girl You Left Behind” to everything in between, Fievel really delivers when it comes to being a musical. I mean, just listen to this:

That is pure nineties music awesome, right there. And when you get down to the roots of it, that’s really how I’d describe the movie as a whole.

So while it may not have the most ingenious of plots, “An American Tale: Fievel Goes West” really stands out in being one of the few animated movies at the time to even dare stand up to the Leviathan that was Disney movies during their golden age and succeed… even if it took a couple years to do so to build up the nostalgia factor.

~~~

… And on a completely random side note, what’s the deal with the movie’s aspect ratio? Checking both amazon and amazon.ca, the only version of the movie I’ve been able to find on DVD is only out in fullscreen. But based on the above video as well as some screencaps on the movie’s Wiki page, it looks like the movie was done in widescreen. Just to make sure, I double checked the Wiki screencaps with some I took from my copy of the movie:

So what’s the difference and why should you care? Well in short, the film was originally animated to fit the widescreen format and in some cases makes full use of that space. Having the image cut to fullscreen size means cutting off bits of the sides and maybe even contorting the image itself a bit, like what I figured had to be done with the first comparison image above. In short, watching fullscreen footage from something that was originally made in widescreen means messing with the original footage to some degree.

I’d rant on, but I’m straying further from the point. Just check out Wiki’s page on aspect ratio if you understood and are interested in anything I brought up just now. And (in an attempt to bring everything together) make an attempt to pick up “Fievel Goes West” in its widescreen version if you can, though that may be easier said than done considering I’ve yet to even find a listing for it in that format.

Weird.

The Divine Critique AKA The Adventures Of Foggle In Triple Review Land

2009-03-03T18:15:00.000-05:00

THE DIVINE CRITIQUE

By Foggle

When I was playing Project Origin on a warm winter's day,
(Winter is warm in Texas, you see),
Avaitor told me to do some reviews. And then called me gay.

Pretty much how shit went down

I've got three reviews to do.
Let's get this party started.
I can rant and rave 'til my face turns blue.

BOOK 1: THE INFERNO
"RESIDENT EVIL: DEGENERATION"

Warning: Watching bad movies can be biohazardous to your health

I can't believe they messed this up.
It's actually canon and features no Mary Sues?
Where did they go wrong? Capcom, get fucked.

How can I sum up this abortion right quick?
It's lame, convoluted, and poorly written, but
Worst of all, the rendering and animation make me sick.

Occasionally the animation looks rather okay
But that serves only to make the normal parts worse
These people look as retarded as the zombies do gray.

The character modeling is pretty bad

It's rather disgusting, how atrocious it is.
But worst of all, is how boring it becomes.
Resident Evil? Boring? I thought Capcom knew their biz.

There are one or two action scenes in the entire movie.
And no horror in sight.
To be honest, very little of it actually involves zombies.

The zombie shooting action scenes are awesome; too bad they're few and far between

The film attempts character development
But it results in something quite laughable
These guys should learn that extra emo is a detriment.

Leon is more emo than ever

At least the voice acting is pretty good.
I can't say the same about the rest of the film.
Smash the DVD under the weight of your car's hood.

BOOK 2: PURGATORIO
"BLACK LAGOON THE SECOND BARRAGE DISCS 2&3"

I don't really have a witty or informative comment to put here, sorry

This show is the epitome
Of awesome, bad ass action.
But everything falters eventually.

Volume 2 is kind of a bore.
I showed it to my friend
And I could hear a snore.

Greenback Jane is really weak.
The "comedy" in this series is quite unfunny
It's just the hardcore action that I seek.

Fortunately, despite the rest being lame
Episode 18 features some awesome scenes.
And for that I'm most certainly game.

Volume 2 doesn't fare well over all, but episode 18 has its fair share of awesome moments

Volume 3 is a lot better
When the main characters go to Japan
In snowy weather.

Unfortunately, the new arc lacks
Dutch and Benny, who apparently
Just stay in Roanapur eating snacks.

Dutch and Benny are still awesome, but they aren't in these episodes nearly enough

The voice acting in English
Is amazing as usual. As is the Japanese track
Except when they speak Engrish.

It is at least worth watching, though,
If only to see the fight scene in the bowling alley
Which made my love for the series grow.

Revy learns how to wear proper clothing in Volume 3

BOOK 3: PARADISO
"WHEN THEY CRY (HIGURASHI NO NAKU KORO NI) DISCS 4-6"

Oh, you pedophile

Last time we left our hero,
Keiichi had just died for the third time.
Perhaps by the end it will reach the big one-zero.

On these discs, the violence gets more hardcore
Including a torture scene involving minors
And the bludgeoning of some whore.

Unfortunately, the budget shows.
And as you can plainly see,
Down the drain the animation quality goes.

When Walt Disney Cries

Is it cheesy?
Sometimes, certainly.
But liking it is really easy.

The characters are written very well.
Sometimes they might make you happy
Or you'll want to see them go to hell.

How uncharacteristically heartwarming

There are many plot twists here
And --ah hell, I'm tired of rhyming--
Someone please buy me a beer.

Fuck that shit, I can't do this anymore. These episodes are great. Really awesome, in fact. The Japanese voice acting doesn't decrease in quality over these discs (or in the case of the English dub, increase in quality), and still remains excellent.

Anyone else ever see that movie "The Midnight Meat Train?"

FOOTNOTES

Resident Evil: Degeneration
Story/Content: 3/10 (It's fucking boring, it tries to introduce a story but fails, there's almost no action and the horror that the series is known for is MIA)
Characters: 2/10 (Nearly every character has never been seen before in the series and are pointless/given no development, while Leon is more emo than usual; only Claire even has a shred of a personality, but she still ends up being more annoying than anything)
Art/Animation: 3/10 (Everyone looks like they're mentally retarded)
Voice Acting (English): 8/10 (Pretty good, actually)
Overall: 3/10 (and that's being generous; seriously, don't watch it)

Black Lagoon The Second Barrage Discs 2&3
Episodes/Content: 7.5/10 (Disc 2 is VERY weak, though Disc 3 has some of the best episodes of the series)
Characters: 8/10 (They're easy to like, and they finally get a bit of development, but they're still nothing too special; Dutch and Benny, sadly, have very little screen time)
Art/Animation: 9/10 (Everything looks great and moves fluidly)
Voice Acting (English): 8.5/10 (They could have picked better voices for Revy/Rock/Yukio, but everyone else sounds very good)
Voice Acting (Japanese): 6/10 (The voices sound good, but the Engrish makes it almost painful to sit through at times)
Overall: 8/10 (while disc 2 isn't bad by any measure, it's in a completely different league (of the 20,000 under the sea variety) from the other five we've seen so far; Disc 3 is magnificent and definitely worth purchasing for action fans)

When They Cry (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni) Discs 4-6
Episodes/Content: 9/10 (awesome plot twists galore and you might just cry some manly tears by the time it's over)
Characters: 10/10 (with just the first season finished, I can safely say that the series is deserving of this score; everyone is developed and unique feeling, as well as being (usually) likable and well written)
Art/Animation: 6/10 (while I'm rather fond of the art style, no one can watch episode 19 and honestly tell me that the animation is good)
Voice Acting (English): 2/10 (it's still complete shit)
Voice Acting (Japanese): 9/10 (it's still close to perfect)
Overall: 9.5/10 (if you were turned off by the first half of the season, then this isn't for you, but if you're a fan, like me, you'll find tons to love here)

Tune in next time for my review of the fanservice-fest that is Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei episode 1! Wait, sorry, did I say "fanservice?" I meant "manservice." Are you ready to see Keiichi naked? I know I am (not).

The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest Season 1 Volume 1- Really Not Impressed- By Avaitor

2009-02-24T18:00:00.001-05:00

When initially planning this review, I was planning on dedicating my opening to the original Jonny Quest, to discuss it's impact in the world of televised animation and why it's remembered so fondly to this date. Due to issues of length and the sake of the article's pacing, however, I may likely save what I had planned to say about the series at a later time and focus on the show for only two sentences. When Hanna-Barbera's adventure-based series Jonny Quest debuted on ABC on September 18, 1964, it was an animated series unlike anything before it. Containing well-plotted science fiction and adventurous stories, solid designs by comic book artist Doug Wildey, and an overly dark and creepy atmosphere on par with fellow adventure films at the time, Quest set the standard on how the action cartoon should be made, and for many years remained the definite Western action-adventure animated experience.

That changed in 1992, however, when Bruce Timm, Alan Burnett, and Eric Rodomski's Batman: The Animated Series premiered on Fox, continuing in a series of new, top-of-the-line animated programs from Warner Bros. Taking similar advancements Quest made on the genre into mind and multiplying them, replacing Hanna-Barbera's trademark limited animation with professional Japanese animation studios, making way for the innovative Dark Deco animation technique, and taking time to flesh out character, as well as keeping a brilliant score thanks to Shirley Walker's musical direction, Batman proved that it is possible to make a children's program that is on par, if not above, the quality of more mature entertainment and still be able to appeal to children. Add this to the success of The Simpsons on prime time(such advancement wouldn't of been able to happen without Hanna-Barbera's contributions to prime time, most notably The Flintstones and Quest itself), Disney's resurgence with audiences of all ages in both it's films and television, Nickelodeon deciding to make creator-driven cartoons, and a little cartoon based on the 80's blockbuster Ghostbusters with the talent of then-newcomer J. Michael Straczynski as story editor, now sparked a new era of cartoons, one where it was possible to entertain more than just the children and explore upon animation's advances.

Also occurring in 1992 was another milestone to fans of animation all over: The debut of Cartoon Network. At the time of it's premier, Turner allowed it's excessively large library of Hanna-Barbera, MGM, and classic Warner Bros. cartoons to fill a 24-hour-slot. Acknowledging that only repeats cannot fill a successful cable network, however, the newly renovated Hanna-Barbera Studios got hard on working on new cartoons to spark an interest in all audiences. While the plan was mainly to create new characters to stand along the likes of their classics, the studio wasn't above giving some of their original classics new spins around the block, giving us the brilliant Space Ghost: Coast to Coast, as well as new Flintstones, Scooby-Doo, and Jonny Quest features. The Quest one, Jonny Quest vs. the Cyber Insects, was heavily advertised as the last classic Quest adventure, and with a good reason so.

Around the time of Cyber Insects and a small collection of classic Quest adventures video releases, Hanna-Barbera Studios was hard at work on a new Quest series meant to bring the iconic characters to a new age of technology and advancements. Spending nearly a year advertising it with one of the most promising pitches in recent memory, Hanna-Barbera and Cartoon Network seemed very interested in making sure the then-titled New Adventures of Jonny Quest would be a success. Enough so that fellow Turner networks TNT and TBS planned to air it as well, a plan CN has laid to rest ever since until recently when TNT added Star Wars: The Clone Wars to it's schedule.

Around Fall 1996, The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest debuted on the three networks to short-lived success. After two seasons and a modestly successful toy line, CN added Real Adventures to it's action block, Toonami, where it stayed long enough to make a lasting impression as one of the block's first classic series. In the height of a new live-action movie based on the show's classic adventures, and mid-90's nostalgia becoming more popular as the days go by, Warner found it appropriate to release half of the first season of Real Adventures on DVD. Being a long-time fan of the Jonny Quest, Hanna-Barbera, and Toonami franchises, I decided to pick this up. Does it hold up?

Honestly, not really.

Now once you pop in an episode, you'll be sure to notice quite a few differences from the original, starting with it's opening. Collecting clips from various episodes of the series in pretty neon colors, the music rings a tune similar to that of the original's iconic opening. While this new tune doesn't come quite close to matching the original or even Batman's in familiarity, it's still a good track to listen to, and sets you up for some awesome stories.

Then we get to the actual show itself. Despite the appealing designs that ring close to Wildey's classic drawings, you'd be surprised at how poorly animated the show it. Batman did admittingly have it's fair share of episodes with poor framing, hideously off-model shots, and shoddy attention to movement, but from what we've received here in Real Adventures, it seems as if it's staff never looked twice at their rough sketchs and sent everything to layout fine and dandy. In one episode, a fire is let loose, with people actually burning in it. The impact this scene could of had is lost as the fire is mostly lifeless. Just standing there, hardly any motion at all, while innocent people burn to their deaths. This is only one example of how poorly the show's animation consistently proves to be.

But let's delve more into the deigns themselves. Ringing close to the original's, what in turn separates both series is that the kids, Jonny and Hadji, look older and more developed than they did when we last saw them in Cyber Insects. No longer meant to be 11-year-olds, the boys look like they logically would if we were to catch up on them a few years later, which is what the staff seems to be aiming for. Dr. Benton Quest, Race Bannon, and good old Bandit also look impressive with their slight redesigns.

Probably the most shocking and remembered new addition to the show was Jessie, Race's daughter. Although not entirely new to the Quest cannon(she was around in Cyber Insects and in an episode of the short-lived 1980's revival of the classics, the Quest clan save a young girl with a design similar to her's from the diabolical Dr. Zin), Jessie was mainly added to Real Adventures to add a feminine touch to the generally boys-only Quest clan. While not quite as bold as Jonny, Jessie shares his love of adventure and often accompanies Jonny and whoever else on his adventures, but unlike Jonny, who often puts himself and his loved ones at risk, Jessie mostly falls under Mary Sue territory.

The rest of the characters work more or less the same as they always have. Jonny still, for the most part, acts as carelessly as he did at age 11. but now let his extra years of experience add to the excitement, allowing him to control veichles and machinery that your typical 15-year-old wouldn't be able to pilot. Hadji, on the other hand, seems to of matured a bit more as the years went by. While he'll always be there to help Jonny in and out of a jam, he appears to be a bit wiser than before, now also giving advice when necessary. Race Bannon still shows that he cares for these boys dearly while also having his own little girl join the team. A little older now, Race proves less frequently to be the action hero he was in the original and appears less, but still shows to be a highlight. And Dr. Quest is still the ever-busy professor who cares for his son, but is hardly ever there when he needs him most. One aspect about the show I really liked was seeing Quest prove to be lonely and flirt with a fellow adventurer on the show, but the lack of development in their relationship saddened me. If there's more to be done with the two in later episodes, my interest is peaked.

The stories themselves vary. Combining science-fiction-like plots like you'd see in the original with a modern twist, Batman: TAS-inspired villain-based stories, and real-world issues that fortunately never reach Captain Planet's level of moronic preachyness, Real Adventures takes some interesting concepts that more often than not doesn't deliver on them. There are some standout episodes where these stories prove to be very entertaining but a lot of the time the writing runs on weak twists or cheap additions to make up for underdeveloped stories.

Speaking of cheap additions, let's get down to Questworld, the most talked-about aspect of Real Adventures. Apparently created by the kids, Questworld is a virtual reality system in which the kids often enter when they're called to it, sort of like Code Lyoko, but actually watchable. Rendered in supposedly groundbreaking computer graphics animation, this aspect of the show looks incredibly dated by today's standards. Comparing it to Pixar is a bit unfair, but even looking at Mainframe's shows at the time, it's hard to believe what sold.

In Questworld, the kids(mainly Jonny, but Jessie and Hadji do often appear) battle our villain of the episode, usually with lasers and often on awesome-looking motorcycles meant to sell awesome-looking toys. More often a nuisance than a logical aspect of the show, the Questworld segments typically weren't much to write home about, and when we don't log into QW in the day's adventure, we'd often get a brief lesson about the mythology behind this world near the end of an episode, most of which admittingly appear to be rather interesting.

Questworld certainly seemed to be a hit or miss aspect of the show to more than just me. While the network wanted Questworld to be a bigger aspect of the show, the creators wanted to tone it's usage down. Despite the show's success, this signaled the series end, while it still remained a part of CN's schedule for some time.

On this set, we get one bonus feature, a 13-minute retrospective feature on the show, meant to explain the thought process behind it's creation. Brought together by animation historian Jerry Beck and the series' creators, the feature opens up as a love letter to the original Quest while explaining some of the key aspects of the show. While this is certainly interesting to see, at the end of the day, pretty much everything you'd discover from the feature you just read here, so if this was a draw for you to buy the set, I'd say it'd be best to skip it for said purchase.

Since this is only 1/4th of the series, I can't help but feel as if I'm being a bit too harsh on the show. It does have it's merits as well as it's good episodes, and it does feel like the next logical step in the Quest clan's lives. While it may not be fair to compare Real Adventures to the original, one would expect a continuation to improve upon it's source material, which I feel that Real Adventures doesn't. The original Jonny Quest, despite it's not-so-solid animation, still holds up for me to watch today; Real Adventures doesn't.

Is it a bad show? No. Is it a great show? Again, no. Do I intend to buy it's next release? Honestly, I don't think so. I made my contribution for the series to continue it's DVD releases, but that's likely all from me. I recommend this to diehard fans of the original curious to see a different take on the classics, as well as those who grew up on it to see if it still holds up. It's about time I picked up the original's set, however.

Avaitor out.

Tis the Season- By Avaitor

2008-12-22T18:13:00.000-05:00

Closing into Christmas in the middle of the busiest shopping week of the year, I think it's time for AR to reflect on the best releases of the year, and give you recommendations on what to check out for your loved ones, as well as yourselves, in easy to navigate catagories for each type of person you're shopping for.

Action Lovers:

Black Lagoon Season 1 box set + Season 2 Individual Volumes

Bam

If you find this scene kickass and want more, disregard anything else and buy everything Black Lagoon you can get your hands on. If you think it looks cool, but want to hear more about it before making your mind, read Foggle's review here. Hell yes, am I right?

Order Season 1's Box Set here

Order The Second Barrage's Singles from these links

DC Universe Ultimate Collection
Are you missing the DCAU? Need a Timm fix? That's what you should be able to get with Warner's latest animated films based off their classic DC super heroes. With fist-pumping action(prevalent in Superman: Doomsday), adult-themed story telling(your best stop being Justice League: The New Frontier), or just need a change of pace(Batman: Gotham Knight sure is something else), these are your go-to places. And now that the first three special editions are available together in one set, you can play catch-up or watch the movies again as many times as you want to prepare yourself for the upcoming Wonder Woman and Green Lantern films, as well as the possibly-finally-coming Teen Titans: The Judas Contract release. Even then, these movies are worth watching, and this set makes collecting them even easier.

Order it here at Best Buy.com.

Cowboy Bebop Remix
Do I even need to explain why this one is a must buy for the Holidays? Cowboy Bebop, as I'm sure just about anyone who would call themselves an anime fan, as well as many who aren't even fans of anime, know, is a combination of just about all of the stuff that makes an anime awesome in the first place. No, scratch that, its basically what makes quality entertainment. Its episodic nature definitely sets it apart from a good deal of the norm, but it also has its fair share of meat episodes which progress the main character's (Spike) story line. In addition to that, its hard to not like any of the other memorable individuals who join the Bebop Crew (and yes, that includes Ein, the dog). -by ensatsu-ken

Order it here

Comedic Masterminds:

Ouran High School Host Club Volume 1
Girls love it since it's an adorable show in every sense of the word, from Honey-sempai's charm to the pairings set up for the audience to hope for to make it through. Guys won't admit that they love it because Ouran actually breaks down the typical Shojo wall, spoofing it's various normalcy's, and some how comes to trump anything else in the way. But the best of the fanbase, however, love it for both these reasons, and for even more. For what, though, is up to you to see.

Order it here.

Home Movies The Complete Series
One of television's greatest inventions, Home Movies is possibly one of the few times in history when a series was saved from cancellation and it's post-humus episodes greatly surpass it's original order. What started out as a show about an aspiring young movie director who's films reflect his real-life situations has grown a life of it's own, with a hardcore fanbase, a never-ending supply of repeats on [adult swim], and hours upon hours of classic material for everyone who enjoys good humor to find entertaining. For around $100, you can get the entire brilliant 52-episode-run in one collectible box set with a bonus canvas bag and clapboard. If you haven't seen this cult classic by now, or have yet to get it's previously-released season sets, take this chance now, so you can preserve it for the future to behold.

Order it here

Metalocalypse Season 2
If you love gore, metal, and dark comedy in general, this is for you. Brendon Small's other series may not top Home Movies, but he sure was able to make a memorable second season of his quasi-mockumentary series in the style of Spinal Tap, combining real-world events with a strong cast of characters that interact well with each other. If the top items don't interest you, well, just go back to riding horses or practice french kissing or whatever you sit-downs do, since this right here is guys night in entertainment at it's most awesome form.

Order it here.

Tiny Toon Adventures Season 1, Volume 1/Freakazoid! Season 1
Two totally awesome cartoons back when Tom Ruegger and Warner Bros had a good relationship with each other, both great for similar but different reasons. Daemon wrote a piece on Tiny Toon's set, and while I had to cancel my Freakazoid! review, I can certainly tell you that my money was well-spent. Imagine The Flash with Daffy's antics and Animaniacs' sharp tongue and keen sense of the past, with sauce of randomness spread all over it.

Order Tiny Toons here, and Freakazoid! here.

American Dad! Volume 3
When American Dad! debuted all the way back in 2005, most first-time viewers proclaimed it to just repeat the Family Guy formula and not worth their time. If only they can look now. After the initial first few episodes, Dad! has been able to develop itself into not only a whole other show than Seth's original, but an overall better one. Cutaways are none-existent, pop culture spoofs actually make sense, and characters actually develop. Season 3's run is next-to-flawless, the set's only major blight being missing the brilliant Holiday ep "The Most Adequate Christmas Ever", which aired in this order. Otherwise, for those who missed out on all that the show had to offer after the average pilot, it's not too late to change that. Just don't let Stan find out that you don't find him funny.

Order it here

Family Favs:

The Flintstones The Complete Series
Back in the day, all you needed was a good Brontosarus burger and a break from peddling around town to be entertained, and what better way to do so than watching The Flintstones, America's greatest stone-age family. Breaking records and entertaining millions worldwide even to this day, The Flinstones still remains arguably Hanna-Barbera's most successful show and one of the most successful animated series in general. Without it, it's very possible that Fox would of never let Matt Groening get a chance to bring his "Our Favorite Family" shorts into an animated sitcom, and there would be less animated series aimed for adults on the air. Even though Flinstones is fairly tame by today's standards, it's sly adult references and jazzy atmosphere still shine today, and still continue to impress kids and adults alike.

Now all six seasons and 166 episodes of the fabled classic are available in one box set, alongside an extra disc of bonus content. If you love humor, or need to find a last-minute-gift for your favorite family, there's no better way to surprise them than through the courtesy of Fred's two feet.

Order it here

Sleeping Beauty
I told myself I'd only count 1 Disney classic for this list. While it really was a pain to choose any of the films that Disney finally put out on DVD this year, I have to go with Sleeping Beauty for my highest recommendation. Initially breaking the bank for Disney at the time of it's release(mainly due to it's high-production cost), it's now considered a classic to the masses, and rightfully so. Experimenting with the new Technirama 70mm projection process, the film moved majestically in wide screen, and any thing that inspired the great Guillermo Del Toro like Beauty's colors have is surely worthy of importance. Alongside the way the film looks, of course, the story is classic Disney, with a lively cast of characters. Aurora may admittingly be flat by today's "empowered princesses" standards, but her fairy guardian's chemistry with each other and Maleficent's dark presence occuring as the ultimate scene-stealer, thansk to Eleanor Audley's brilliant performance. Her transformation sequence is still what nightmares are made of.

I'm going with the Blu-Ray release in favor of the DVD for two reasons. One, even if you don't have a Blu-Ray player yet but intend to convert, this is the perfect starter disc for you, since it comes with a DVD of the movie for now, so even if you don't intend to get a player for a little while, you can still enjoy the film at it's fullest without having to get the BR disc later. Two, even if you planned just to stick it with DVD, look above, at a shot of the BR disc. Only a tiny little sample, at that, of what the future can hand you.

Order it here

Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 6
Already went into decent length on this release here, but even then, do you need to be told to buy this? It's Looney Tunes, these are classic cartoons, you get some great bonus features, yadda yadda yadda.

Order it here

WALL*E
Okay, I'll be the first to admit it; I'm not a big Pixar fan. Their movies offer good ideas, but they typically come out as flat, generic, and the general animation fanbase overrates their movies to no end. That said, even I had to admit that WALL*E is a great movie, and worthy of being in your collection. Just about everything here screams movie magic, from the dialogue-less first half hour, to WALL*E and Eve's growing relationship with each other, to the disgusting portrayal of our eventual future, there's just so much to talk and think about of this movie, as well as it's special features, that help highlight it's movie magic.

Not only that, but it'd make a great first Blu-Ray. Just imagine how stunning it'd look in hi-def.

Order it's Special Edition DVD here or it's Blu-Ray here

Holiday Cheer:

Peanuts Holiday Collection
In this set of Warner's brilliant rereleases of Charlie Brown & co's classic specials, you get not only his animation debut in his Christmas episode, but you'll also the equally-classic Halloween and Thanksgiving shorts, with new bonus features and even some bonus specials, as well as iTunes codes to download songs from their soundtracks. I shouldn't have to explain why you need to get these specials to own, just that your collection would likely be incomplete without them.

Order it here

The Nightmare Before Christmas
The perfect Halloween movie? Yes. The perfect Christmas movie? Yes. The perfect movie? This reviewer thinks so, but that's up to you, really.

Blending beautiful stop-motion animation with typical Tim Burton-dark visuals and a brilliant soundtrack from Danny Elfman, Henry Selick lovingly crafted Burton's original holiday poem, which he also produced and did the character designs of the film, into the hoilday sensation and Hot Topic darling that it is today. Alongside one great movie and a great restoration, the bonus features are what sell the deal, which celebrate both the movie and Burton's work. You even get some art work on his Frankenweenie remake, which you get to see before watching the short film.

If this movie has touched you in anyway possible, this new release or it's first Blu-Ray release are a true must-buy, as well as a must-watch every Halloween AND Christmas.

Order it's DVD here, it's Blu-Ray here, or, if you're really hardcore, it's ultimate edition here

Just Buy It, Damnit:

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (When They Cry) Volumes 1-6
As much as I'd love to say my piece on how much I love this show, Foggle will always do it best. Once you start one episode, you gotta finish the rest of the disc.

Order each single currently available here

Batman: TAS The Complete Series
I already own volumes 1-3 of this show, but I hate myself for doing so now. If I were to of seen this release was to of came out when I started collecting it last year, I would of waited. For less than 2 of the originally available sets, you have all 85 episodes of the original Batman: The Animated Series, considered by many, this reviewer included, to be the pinnacle of action-adventure animation, as well as it's 24-episode criminally underrated continuation The New Batman Adventures, as well as a new bonus disc, all together in one brilliant packaging. Bruce Timm, Alan Burnett, Paul Dini, and Eric Radomski's baby, B:TAS was epic storytelling in the making from start-to-finish, giving villains depth and adding to the Bat-mytho(if it wasn't for this show, Mr.Freeze would of been just another stock villain and Harley Quinn would of never existed), the world owes a lot of graduate to TAS, as do I, being one of my most rewatched TV series of all. Nothing I could possibly say could give the show enough credit, so I end this now telling you to buy this set.

Order it here

The Real Ghostbusters: The Complete Series
It's a freaking miracle, I tell you. Finally, one of the best animated series of the 80's get's it's dues on DVD. Thanks to the help of J.Michael Straczynski's razor-sharp writing and Lorenzo Music's lazy Peter Venkman, The Real Ghostbusters ended up a better Ghostbusters experience than the classic movie it was based off of, and a gem in the less-than-beautiful mid-80's animation scene. Straczynski was able to write rather dark pieces along with clever retorts and pop-culture spoofs, and as more-or-less able to keep it up for seven seasons. Now alognside a beautiful recreation of the Ghostbuster's firehouse and layers upon layers of bonus features highlighting the show's adult fanbase, now you can own the full Ghostbusters experience the way you should.

Order it from Time Life here

Yu Yu Hakusho Seasons 1-3
Let me just say that this is ensatsu-ken's favorite anything ever. Daemon's, too. And Foggle likes it quite a bit, too. I can certainly see why, as well, as in my eyes, Yu Yu Hakusho is the pinnacle of Shonen anime, and one of the greatest television series to of been made, period, as well. I love it so much, I had to drop out of my season 3 review because I was afraid I couldn't give the Chapter Black arc enough justice. EK was able to write a brilliant Dark Tournament review, on the other hand, and that's only the beginning of what can possibly be said. For $25-$35 a piece for each of the first three seasons, and season 4 coming in January, though, you need to pick up at least two copies of each season; one for the action lovers you need to buy for, and another just for youself.

Order each set here, and pre-order season 4 here

Persepolis
After being royally snubbed at the Oscars earlier this year, now is your chance to see how wrong the Academy was for giving Ratatouille the award. Based on Marjane Satrapi's incredible graphic novels about her life as an Iranian during the Islamic revolution, Satrapi gives us a lovable lead in herself, as we follow her as a young girl through adulthood, as we see the difficulties of growing up in her country at this time, as noly she can. Only over a year old, this is one of my favorite movies of all time, and I hope you will take the time to see why.

Order it on DVD or Blu-Ray

Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 6- Smile, Darn Ya, There's Still Some Good Times Left- By Avaitor

2008-11-09T18:40:00.000-05:00

Of many little things that have occurred during my life in which I can remember, watching the classic Looney Tunes with my grandfather will remain one of the most memorable to me. You see, before there was TV or video to watch these fabled shorts, you’d have to go to a movie to see a cartoon short, and my grandfather was there when this was prevalent, so while I’d be making future memories, my grandfather was also reliving nostalgia, which added to our experiences. Now that we’ve been collecting the brilliant Golden Collections, we’ve been reliving good times, and I’ve been rediscovering why I appreciate animation so much; years of repeated viewings of Termite Terrace’s classics introduced how good timing and well-done animation can make entertainment all the better.

When volume six came out, I knew I’d have to get it, not only to watch the cartoons for old-times sakes, but also to give a darn-fine review of the set. One thing other Termite Terrace Traders may of noticed is that this set is scheduled to be the last of the famed Golden Collection, and when you look at the cartoons listed, it’s obvious how Jerry Beck and crew went all-out to commemorate this, but I’ll get to this later, as it’ll be best to tell you what you’re getting here.

On the first disc, which is typically noted for being primarily Bugs and Daffy related on each collection, the wave of cartoons starts off with yes, indeed, a Bugs Bunny cartoon, “Hare Trigger”, staring my grandfather’s ever-favorite Yosemite Sam. Strangely enough, however, this and disc 2’s “Herr Meets Hare” are the crowd-pleasing rabbit’s only contributions to this collection, and Daffy only has about 5 on this collection, as well. To me, this signalizes that this particular set isn’t meant for the general Looney Tunes fan who probably don’t know a character less obscure than Pussyfoot wouldn’t enjoy this set as much as the hardcore fans who could spot all the different scenes that were cut out of different syndication cycles that contained these cartoons.

So, while the duck and the rabbit are all but absent on the first disc, who do we have on it, then? Well, for a change we have some often overlooked characters by today’s standards like Foghorn Leghorn(my grandfather’s other favorite!), Pepe Le Pew, and even the Three Bears, as well as other favorites like Sylvester, Porky, and the Road Runner. Myself, I’m happy to get some Foghorns and Pepe on here for a change, since it seems by today’s standards that kids don’t know of them as well as Bugs and Daffy. After you’ll get through the initial 15 cartoons, bam la bam, check out the bonus features! There, we’ll discover the four bonus cartoons on the disc, which will help add to the collection’s total cartoon count of 75, 15 more than your typical Golden Collection, including a personal favorite, “Hippety Hopper”, which contains an underrated favorite series of shorts of mine, in which Sylvester and Junior trying to take on a “giant mouse”. As well as these bonus cartoons and your typical commentaries and audio-only tracks that fill up the extras, you get two TV specials staring the cartoons themselves, Bugs Bunny in King Arthur’s Court and Daffy Duck’s Easter Egg-Citement. Despite often having Friz Freleng and Chuck Jones’ involvement in these specials, they often suffer from bland animation, uninspired writing, and often even just recycle the classic cartoons that we admire the characters for so much in favor of making a full story, and while the latter isn‘t prevalent, the former two are quite true here. Overall, I’d consider these shippable.

Disc two focuses on wartime cartoons, which comes out with mixed results. I’ll always consider “Russian Rhapsody” the classic that it is, but most of these propagandized cartoons come out as dated and offensive, and even overly informative, as the last three cartoons, “By Word of Mouse“, “Heir-Conditioned“, and “Yankee Dood It“, are literally nothing more but Economics lessons with Sylvester and Elmer Fudd in them, give or take a cartoony gag or two. On the opposite, however, it’s best to remember that these cartoons were made over half a century ago, when the public needed a break to laugh at the perils of the WWII. Another way to think about these cartoons is that while film will never completely replace print(that’s a given, anyway, as long as we’re still using scripts), animation is capable of breaking more barriers to bring satirical comments to life. And thanks to daring pieces like what we’ve received in this disc, we’re able to have cartoons like The Simpsons and South Park today.

In addition to three bonus cartoons alongside the 15, we also get a few extra shorts from Friz Freleng’s brief tenure at MGM Studios. Unlike Tex Avery’s shorts from the bigger-budgeted cartoon studio, Friz’s cartoons from here are, for the most part, uninspired and unfunny, so much so, that after only 2 cartoons in I had to sit out on them. While it is interesting to see a fabled director try something different than what he’s known for, and watching some of the Captain’s escapades in action, these sure are different from Sylvester & Tweety.

Possibly the most talked about disc is the third, which is entirely full of classical cartoons. By classical here, though, I am referring to Warner’s Harman & Ising era of shorts. Before Warner was sprucing out the cartoons we all know and love, most of what was coming out from Termite Terrace were Disney-like productions, where the cartoons were treated as merely child’s fare instead of laugh riots. I dislike this notion as Tex Avery has always believed that if you’re thinking about what ten-year-olds would find funny, you’re going to end up slowing your project’s pacing and dumb it down, and looking at today’s cartoons aimed at children, I think this belief is quite right. At the end of the day, though, we have to understand that this was the common practice at the time these cartoons were made, and that they must of done their job well, as they lasted for quite a while.

The biggest star on this disc is easily Bosko, the talk-ink kid, who we’ve already had a taste of on the previous disc’s “Bosko the Doughboy”. While he isn’t as charismatic as Porky or psychotic as Daffy whom in only a matter of years would replace him as the studio’s lead stars, Bosko can at least put a smile on your face and a song in your heart, and he goes full out to entertain the masses on “Bosko in Person”. And to get it clear now, on the subtitles of “Bosko’s Picture Show”, the little guy merely said “The dirty fox!”, so keep that little novelty out of your heads.

I think the problem with these cartoons at the end of the day is that a majority of them are just advertisements for Warner’s song library and often forget to give a patricianly interesting or competent story alongside the pretty visuals. We get some cute shorts out of these, like “Smile, Darn Ya, Smile”, which is easily Foxy‘s, Warner’s most obvious Mickey clone, greatest appearance, while others, like “We’re in the Money”, are just dull(at the time this was made, weren’t we, in fact, NOT in the money?) The cartoons started to make more sense as the disc goes by, like with Buddy’s Our Gang-influenced shorts.

The initial 15 on the disc caps off with “A Cartoonist‘s Nightmare”, starring Beans, who was supposedly supposed to be Warner’s new Bosko but eventually got booted out in favor of his co-star in “I Haven’t Got a Hat”, a certain Mr. Pig. In this one, a somewhat-familiar cartoonist falls asleep in the middle of working on a Beans layout and somehow gets stuck inside the cartoon, forcing Beans to save him. The short was directed by Jack King, a popular director for another familiar duck over at Disney’s animation studio, and it shows, as the short focuses more on story rather than humor, which is what separates the two studio’s cartoons at the time; Disney was interested in plot, while Warner was just getting into funnies. As different as the cartoon may feel, it’s still a fun one to watch and worth looking over.

Four more charming-albeit-less-than-humorous follow in the extra’s department, as well as the main piece of the pie here; The World of Leon Schlesinger. This combines a great array of videos and other works left over from the cartooning site’s golden days and highlights that the people behind some of the greatest pieces of animation of all time are as crazy outside their heads as they are inside.

And the last disc features a massive supply of one-shot and experimental cartoons, which is probably my favorite of the four discs as a whole. It starts off with the Seuss-based classic “Horton Hatches the Egg”(appropriate considering that the big lug recently had a decent success at the box-office with Horton Hears a Who), which somehow manages to keep the crazy storybook writer’s insane visions to life. It’s also worth noting that even though this is the incredible Bob Clampett’s vision, fellow director Chuck Jones would one day bring to life the definitive interpretation of one of Seuss’ other most beloved characters, the Grinch. Of course, that ain’t all, folks.

I think the reason this disc is my favorite is that throughout the entire supply of shorts here, the reason the Looneys are so dear to us is highlighted all over. From the black comedy displayed in “Fresh Airdale” and “Chow Hound”, the satirical views of “Wild Wife” and “The Hole Idea”, to Jones’ groundbreaking “Now Hear This”, and even with the Golden book-esq “Bartholomew Versus the Wheel”, it’s all here, and it’s all good. One hidden gem I found in here was “Norman Normal”, a one-of-a-kind darling that stands on it’s own. Your general Looney Tuney cartoony style of visual humor is absent here, but what is here is a sense of wit and class that the animators of yore who’d recently left Warner’s animation department for dead never seemed to of matched.

The bonus feature to keep your eye on in here is Mel Blanc: The Man of a Thousand Voices, which may just be the man behind the voice’s greatest piece of documentation. After seeing how much he loved his job and how he loved to entertain, whatever high amount of respect you have for the man most likely should increase tenfold.

To sum this collection up as a whole, the fair-weather fan of Looney Tunes probably will find this collection uninteresting(my grandfather had little interest in the second and third discs, and I had to finish the last one myself), but the lovers of cartoons, comedy, or just entertainment as a whole(like) will likely get a kick out of this one, but may also find some of the cartoons to be less-than-great. This Trader, at least, approves of this collection.

Avaitor out.

6Teen: Cartoon Network Premiere- Dude of the Living Dead (Halloween Special)

2008-10-28T19:15:00.000-04:00

When the name of this show is mentioned to an American fan of animation, the first thing that would come to their mind is probably something along the lines of: “Wasn’t that the show that bombed on Nick?” Yes, its true that 6Teen received poor ratings when it aired on Nickelodeon, a while ago. However, as one might be able to tell from its style of animation alone, this series bares a striking resemblance in tone and detail to the very successful series known as Total Drama Island. Both shows are in fact produced by the same company, Nelvana Limited (a Canadian entertainment company), and also share the same creators, Jennifer Pertsch and Tom McGillis. Due to TDI’s recent popularity on Cartoon Network, in America, the channel has been wise enough to license the rights to air 6Teen, which has already become a hit in Canada, as well as in a few other countries. Unlike TDI, this series focuses on a group of 6 main characters, as well as a few supporting characters who spend most of their time hanging out at a mall, rather than a group of participants competing in a game-show and being eliminated one by one. In this way, for better or worse, 6Teen lacks an ongoing plot, and instead focuses on each individual episode, allowing newcomers to the series to jump into it at just about any time, without being required to have prior knowledge of any previous episodes of the show.

Now, before getting onto my impressions of this episode, it should be known that, besides the information listed above, I have had no prior knowledge of the series, and this premiere episode on Cartoon Network was indeed my first episode of this series (this is not, however, the first actual episode of the series itself). I also haven’t seen too much of TDI, but from what I have seen of it, these shows do share some striking similarities, especially with some of their voice actors. However, a review is not for discussing information like that, so you can go find out about it on your own time. Instead, let’s get familiar with the characters of this series.

The 6 main characters include, Jen Masterson (the more hardworking and sensible female character of the group), Jude Lizowski (the easy going teenager/sports-junkie of the group), Jonesy Garcia (the Spanish/Filipino playboy of the group who apparently has a thing for Nikki), Nikki Wong (the purple-haired girl of the group who apparently has a thing for Jonesy), Wyatt Williams (the stereotypical “black teenager who hangs out with white kids, a Chinese girl, and one Spanish/Filipino kid” of the group), and last but not least, Caitlin Cooke (the peppy and shop-crazy teenage girl of the group). There is also Jude’s on and off girlfriend (who is apparently his ex-girlfriend in this particular episode), Starr….yeah, well, we don’t get to hear her last name, but she apparently has a similar casual and laid back attitude like Jude, which is probably why they hooked up in the first place, but it is explained in this episode that she broke up with him after he accidentally puked in her mouth (well, who could really blame her for that?). Other than the above information, I didn’t really get to learn much about the characters from this episode alone, but I think its safe to say that while they have their common clichés, they also each have their own interesting and unique qualities that make them likable, in one way or another. Anyways, with the main characters having been introduced, let’s explore the pros and cons of this episode.

Well, Halloween specials are certainly nothing original, and any fan of animation must have seen dozens of them as a kid. This episode starts out no different than how you would expect a typical Halloween special to start out. The characters notice the strange behavior of people in the mall, and witness as this behavior oddly starts spreading to others, until their too late to realize that there is a zombie epidemic going on. The viewer, from the beginning, is purposely meant to recognize this obvious idea, and the humor is in watching the characters take about the first quarter of the episode to realize what’s happening. Its not like this concept hasn’t been used plenty of times before, but I must admit that it is still humorous; at least in the way that 6Teen chooses to execute this comedy element. As the episode progresses, we get to see how the characters interact with one another, which will give newcomers to the series some insight on their personalities, and their relationships and feelings towards one another. However, not as much of this was accomplished with this episode as a newcomer such as myself would have liked, but with this series being one which you can just jump into, it really wasn’t a big deal, and this episode’s references to classic zombie/horror flicks like Dawn of the Dead and Night of the Living Dead (which the episode title basically parodies), managed to make me forget about this relatively minor issue.

We do also get to see some of the supporting cast in this special. In particular, Coach Hadler (Jen’s boss), from the very little time he had on screen, managed to get a chuckle out of me. Darth, which is the nickname given to the show’s local Star Wars geek, was also a nice addition, with quite a few of his own funny moments. In addition to him, there were a trio of stereotypical snobbish teenage girls who honestly didn’t interest me all that much; at least not from this particular episode alone. Ron the Rent-a-cop (the mall’s main security enforcer), however, was probably the best supporting character that I have seen so far, having that classic war veteran attitude (and as shown in a flashback in this episode, he is in fact a Vietnam war veteran), with some humorous and unique twists to his character thrown in. The way he interacted with the group in this special showed us his obvious disgust for teenagers, but also showed us his potential soft-side as he attempted to help save their lives from the “supposed” zombie invasion of the mall. In a way, it felt like I got to learn more about him, from this episode, than I did about any of the main characters. Still, the characters all got pretty equal shares of screen-time in this one-hour viewing, and I have already developed a liking to most of them.

Overall, Dude of the Living Dead gave me some laughs, and with first impressions being of high importance, while it wasn’t a great one, I do now feel that 6Teen may indeed prove to be a decent, and most likely above average, animated sitcom. This series will be continuing its run on Cartoon Network, starting from November 3rd, so be sure to give it a try, because its definitely worth sticking around for.

Yours Truly,

Ensatsu-ken

When They Cry (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni) Volumes 1-3

2008-10-20T15:00:00.000-04:00

Volume 1's box art; it's reversible and also contains a version without the weird effects

I'm back with another review, folks. This time, it's When They Cry (more commonly known by its Japanese title, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni). Despite my slight obsession with this series, I'll make my review as objective, critical, and unbiased as possible. I will also attempt to write this as if I am a newcomer to the show.

The story revolves around Keiichi Maebara (pronounced "Kay-Ee-Chee May-Bear-Uh" in the English dub) as he attempts to solve the mysteries surrounding Hinamizawa, his new home. But this isn't your average mystery anime, that becomes apparent in episodes 4 and 5. Composed of many different story arcs (the same thing told differently each time or from a new perspective), things are bound to become intricate by the time Keiichi (and we, the viewers) discover what's truly going on.

Keiichi Maebara, the series' protagonist (and a complete badass, I might add)

Unarguably, this show has some of the most memorable and likable characters ever conceived. Joining the aforementioned Keiichi, we have his five friends (Rena, Mion/Shion, Satoko, Rika), two cops (Oishi, Akasaka), and some other people whom you'll meet along the way. Keep in mind, however, that no one is truly how they seem (this becomes obvious quickly).

Keiichi's friends, Shion not pictured (top) Oishi (bottom)

I've tried to avoid spoilers as much as possible (as going in blind with very little prior knowledge is really the best way to watch it). They shouldn't be too hard to find online, so if you want any more information on the series' plot or characters, Google it.

Now, onto a review of the content of the discs (the following screenshots are from Volume 2). Pop the DVD into your player and you'll find this:

This does not bode well

Oh wow, a static menu and no bonus features. Looks like Geneon went all out with this release. After pressing play, you will no doubt soon be attempting to claw out your own throat. The English dub is perhaps one of the most gratingly painful mockeries of the English language and anime alike. It's not just bad, mind you, it's fucking appalling. Don't be fooled by the Anime News Network, this voice track is most certainly NOT "excellent." I gave up attempting to review the English version after watching 3 episodes dubbed.

So now you've learned your lesson and have begun watching the show with Japanese voice acting and subtitles. The voice work is top notch here, and some of the best I've heard in anime, to be honest. However, the subtitles leave a bit to be desired:

You've got it backwards there, Mr. Delicious

Good job leaving the honorifics in but reversing the name order, guys! Seriously, either (preferably) leave 'em out or keep the names in proper Japanese order. It gets kind of confusing when the subtitles say something completely different from the audio. But hey, at least these subs aren't as bad as the ones on the Ichi The Killer DVD, since they remembered to put spaces between words on this one.

The video transfer seems sketchy in a few places on volume 1, but is flawless everywhere else. The picture quality is great, though the animation is only passable. Higurashi had a very low budget, thus why the animation resembles something from the mid-90's.

As for the episodes included on these three DVDs, most of them are excellent. A few parts borderline on being boring, and some scenes are a bit cheesy, but overall this stuff is of the highest quality. There is never a dull moment in the first arc, though it will make very little sense to someone first starting the series. Give this show a chance, though, and it will reward you greatly.

As with most modern anime releases, this one has a Limited Edition that comes with a special art box. However, after Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage, I am wary of Geneon's "Limited Edition" releases and will refrain from buying any more of them. But, just what does the Higurashi art box look like?

That's a misrepresentation of the series if I've ever seen one

What the fuck is this? No, seriously. I'm never letting that thing within even a 2 mile radius of my house. This Collector's box makes Higurashi look like it's intended for little girls. Or pedophiles. Or both. When They Cry deserves better. All that's missing is Hello Kitty winking at you and a bunch of tiny hearts everywhere.

Overall Scores:
Episodes/Content: 9.5/10 (amazing atmosphere, tons of memorable scenes, great characters, and an interesting storyline marred only by a few dull or cheesy moments)
Animation Quality/Transfer: 8.5/10 (the animation is passable at best, though the transfer is mostly spot-on)
Voice Acting (Japanese): 9.5/10 (nearly perfect)
Voice Acting (English): 2/10 (Oishi and Akasaka sound okay, but everything else about it is atrocious)
Subtitles: 8/10 (a few quirky translation errors and some weird decisions involving names, but they're mostly good)
Special Features: 0/10 (Geneon Previews and DVD Credits)
Limited Edition: -5/10 (this one doesn't even have a Bonus Features disc, not to mention that the art box is simply disgusting)

Higurashi is possibly one of the best anime ever made, and definitely my favorite. Anyone in the mood for a great murder mystery should check it out, and I mean now.

-- Foggle

Underfist and Into My Heart- By Avaitor

2008-10-13T16:54:00.000-04:00

Billy & Mandy: man, it’s been too long. Back when the show was fresh. I’d catch it as much as I could and revel in the wit and charm that Maxwell Atoms pulled off in the show was great. I loved Billy’s stupidity, Mandy’s dark sass, and Grim’s frequently random mood swings were big turn-ons, but I think the best part of the show were the numerous recurring characters. People like Fred Fredburger, Hoss Delgado, and Dracula could easily brighten a weaker story. Imagine what I thought when I heard that the best of the recurring stars were getting their own spin-off special!

And imagine how distraught I was when I realized how long it’d take for that special to come out. After seeing storyboards on Atom’s blog shortly after announcing the show’s cancellation(in about early ‘07), I knew watching this special would be my destiny, but waiting until Halloween 2008 seemed nearly impossible. Note that this was shortly after Billy & Mandy’s Big Boogey Adventure came out, and I reveled in it’s excellence. In all my life, I don’t think I’ve seen another animated film with comedic timing as perfect as in this movie’s, and further cemented the fact that Maxwell Atom’s needs as much time as he can get to make you laugh. Sad to say that “Wrath of the Spider Queen”, the hour-long series finale, was so disappointing. Not that I’m looking for closure in a show this absurd, but there was much more that could have been done here to of made it a better finale, but didn’t happen. Fortunately I was rightfully award for my patience. After the disappointing “Wrath of the Spider Queen”, I feel that once again Billy & Mandy can prove that despite a hit-or-miss nature, this is one series that with extended time can tickle your funny bone unlike anything else.

The special starts off with Billy, Mandy, Grim, and the ever-lovable geek Irwin trick-or-treating, just like every Halloween. They stop over at Irwin’s grandpop, Dracula’s house along the way for some candy, as well. Now, as much as I loved the show’s Blacula-meets-James Brown approach to the dragon of blood himself, I just have to make a fan-wank note here and mention that it’s somewhat illogical that Dracula is Irwin’s grandfather when I distinctly remember in one three-minute short in which Dracula offered to help Irwin to impress Mandy that he acts as if he’s never seen him before in his life. At the same time, though, it’s also understandable if Dracula’s aging self just forgot about his grandson’s existence that one day. Even if not, then who really cares? If you’re going by continuity in Billy & Mandy, then Mandy would of remained as Billy’s pet cat Milkshakes and clawed the poor boy to death back in the show’s fourth short, “Get Out of My Head!”, and that’d of been the end of that. But hey, let’s not get geeky, now.

Moving on from that, next we get to see Hoss Delgado for what seems like the first time in ages. A cross between Bruce Campbell’s Ash from the Evil Dead trilogy and Kurt Russell’s Snake Plissken from Escape From New York, Hoss was bad to the bone that tickled you to wits end with awesomely random one-liners and a sweet chainsaw arm. Crazy, you say? That’s a good sense of Billy & Mandy then; where the arbitrary rules. I think his best episode is probably “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner”, where he and the ever-so-undevine Eris, the Goddess of chaos, pretend to be Billy’s parents when his principal comes over expecting to meet his parents to determine whether or not he deserves to go to a school for “geniuses”, which Billy is “one of am”. What sold it for me was Hoss and Eris’ weirdly positive chemistry towards each other. They really seemed to of played off of each other better than you’d expect, which is where part of the laughs came from. In fact, I’ll move more onto chemistry between the cast here in merely a moment.

After getting some Hoss time, we catch up with Jeff the Spider and Fred Fredburger. Jeff is an… interesting character. He initially came to life when Billy randomly sat on his egg for him, unaware of what’s to come, since he hates spiders. Jeff isn’t a very great character at the end of the day, since he’s mostly a wussified pushover that cares too much for an idiot boy who in reality despises him, but he has his moments. One thing I liked from “Wrath of the Spider Queen” was how near the end, the poor spider boy(well, girl, since he did have kids…) was able to step up and defend himself from his finance’s territorial reach on him. For once we got some character growth in the typically shallow-as-the-kiddy-pool B&M. Wonder if we’ll get some tonight as well…

Fred Fredburger is one of the most hit or miss aspects about the show. Some people love how random he is, while others hate him for being an annoying twit. Kids obviously liked him, though, since he and his catchphrase “YES” were the focus for a short-lived series of bumpers on Cartoon Network that focused on the more random side of things on the network. Me? I honestly did not mind him. Next to Big Boogey Adventure, I’d say that his debut ep “Keeper of the Reaper” is one of the best things the show’s ever done, his return “Be a Fred, Be Very a Fred” was also pretty good, if you laugh at how much of a nuisance he is to Grim, Billy, and Mandy rather than how annoying Fred himself is, and even his appearances in Big Boogey Adventure were charming themselves. I’d have to say that at the end of the day, Fred isn’t as bad as people put him out to be, or at least as he could have been. Fred’s creator, C.H Greenblatt, is currently the show runner of the equally-as-brilliant CN hit Chowder, which shines of his creative direction and great storyboarding.

One thing you’ll likely notice right out of the bat is Fred’s new design. When he first debuted, the guy has a big, huggable, green elephant, but here he’s been cut down in size to cut off any extra weight, I‘d like to assume. My verdict? Even cuter than before. Let’s hope if the special does well enough, we can get some plushies, mainly of Fred Fredburger, outside of Atlanta. YES!

And we end the foreshadowing saga with General Scarr, formerly of Evil Con Carne, Atom’s other show. Take Pinky & the Brain’s take-over-the-world recurring plots but subtract the wit and class from that show, and add a leftover talking brain and his companion leftover talking stomach to be in a purple bear’s possession, and you’ve got Con Carne. Scarr was one of Hector Con Carne’s chief assistants in taking over the world, alongside Major Doctor Ghastley, until Con Carne had to drop the funds to do so(I blame that on low ratings due to lack of good writing or creativity, but that’s merely my guess), leaving Scarr to move over to Endsville, where the poor guy is frequently harassed by Billy and whoever else comes his way.

Now that we’re done with introductions, we move in a little later to the story, when after failing to catch up with Grim, Billy, and Mandy, Irwin then feels at an all time low, so cut to end credits! After the editor realizes that we’re only 5 minutes in, our down-and-out lead catches up with the fairly snobbish Mindy who wants him to cross over across the street to get her some chocolates. All of a sudden, marshmallow bunnies attack! Now here’s one fault worth mentioning: the adversaries of the night come out of nowhere. There’s no foreshadowing, no introduction, no reason, nothing. Looking at it now it’s not really that big of a deal, and I’m really just shooting at straws here to come up with negative points.

Anyway, our marshmallow bunny sure can pack a wallop, attacking Endsville to ruins and kidnapping Mindy, which causes our recurring stars to come and save the day, mainly for Hoss to show why I love him so, even if inconsistency rears it‘s ugly head again(48? But in “Irwin Gets a Clue“, Hoss reveals himself to be 33!), but this is when we get some classic Billy & Mandy. During Hoss’ fight, for example, Fred starts spelling his name, ala “Keeper of the Reaper”. If that doesn’t scream “good times”, you need to catch up on some good B&M repeats. Once the group of 5 meet each other and realize what they must do(“We may not be able to save this little boy’s self-respect, but we might just save that little girl!”), this is when the meat of the story comes out of the oven. We get five completely different characters that are able to flow together far better than you’d expect.

Throughout the entire movie, we get to see the cast do just that, flow together like madness on their way to save the day, and even develop as characters. Jeff relents growing up and Fred follows him every step of the way, even coming up with the group’s name and uniform. Irwin discovers about his powers as part mummy-vampire and even sees what he can do as part mummy-vampire. Hoss, who generally is a man of extreme monster and one-eyed-freak prejudice, learns how it’s wrong to judge someone based off the origin of beast they be, and even Scarr gets some time in the light, how so, I will not say.

Also during the film, we get to see even Mindy show compassion. When we catch up with her after capture, she’s been condemned to that of a witch’s presence, causing her to of course take her current state out on the innocent, but near the end, even she regrets the problems she causes and shows an actual human side to her, which is more than we can say for Mandy, who takes things in charge her own way.

In the film, we get two songs; Mindy’s potion recipe done via musical performance, which runs on a weak cross between “I’ll Put a Spell on You” and “Be Prepared”, and indicates that Rachel MacFarlane choose well in not pursuing a recording contract; and Jeff and Fred’s duet about how they dislike growing up, which just runs on borderline awful. Listening to uninspired performances like these make me miss the show’s better musical sequences like “Keeper of the Reaper” and “Scary-O”, and to be honest, even these don’t last well on repeat listening. If there’s any negative side to this movie, these unnecessary songs, which nearly are comparable to that of a bad sequel to a Don Bluth animated movie, are, and I can honestly say that once I get this special on DVD, I’ll be more than likely to skip over both songs, and I‘d advise that first-time watchers do the same. Well, this, and I'd of also liked some more Dracula time, and maybe more of Billy's dad outside being a watchguard.

Once we get to the end, we get to see the marshmallow bunny’s true evil side, which may just very well shake your thoughts on the whole Billy & Mandy universe. Not spoiling that, and finally ending this overlong review, the day is saved and many more sequels are hinted at. After watching through the top-notch performance of the first Underfist special, I can only hope for many more to come. It seems as if Cartoon Network has finally found a Halloween tradition far more promising than that of annually updating the zombie-like Scooby-Doo franchise, since remember, Warner and CN execs, all dogs DO go to heaven, and the pup that is Underfist is too young to kick the bucket.

Yu Yu Hakusho: Season 2 Box Set- Only $35? What the hell are you waiting for!?!

2008-10-11T01:47:00.000-04:00

Well, its been a good couple of months since FUNimation released the surprisingly good, or in terms of action anime, well above average, first season of Yu Yu Hakusho. Now, really, what could it be that sets this series apart from another series that was airing around the same time, which went under the title….Dragon Ball Z, I believe? Well, with season 2 covering a majority of the Dark Tournament story arc that might be a question which someone looking to purchase this set would like an answer to. For some people, a 28-episode set of insane and over the top action is the only way that they’ll cough up the thirty bucks to view this bad boy. However, some might demand to see something more than just action, something that goes beyond expectations, and delves further to make a great, and even somewhat original style of story-telling, fulfilling the potential that many could see within the first season’s unique twists to this otherwise “generic shounen” genre. Well, Yu Yu Hakusho may undeniably be an action based shounen series, but I am confident in saying that this season will also please both audiences who want that DBZ style action, as well as those who crave something more than just that.

Getting onto the plot, things pick up right from where season one left off, in the middle of Kuwabara being on the verge of getting splattered from well over a hundred feet high, by the overjoyed brat known as Rinku, who holds him under his control at the tip of his….yo-yo’s? OK, weird choice of weaponry, but you’ve got to give the show some credit for using something “not so obvious.” At any rate, from what one would probably expect would come after the end of this fight, another fight will pursue, and another after that, and so on. Now, from that, most people who aren’t looking for another action-fest, would probably be turned off, feeling that this is just going to turn into another one of those long tournament arcs in anime, which have been overused in far too many shows. However, Yu Yu Hakusho’s Dark Tournament is generally thought of by many anime fans who have seen the series, to be the definitive tournament arc in any anime (and for good reason), even for people who aren’t too fond of these types of story lines (since, let’s face it, a fighting competition isn’t the most original plot device).

What one will see, though, should they choose to watch even the first five episodes of this seemingly mindless story, is something that will completely take them off guard. Yu Yu Hakusho, once again, brings plenty of its own unique twists, to an otherwise cliché concept, making it an entity all of its own. As Team Urameshi’s interesting band of characters progress through their matches, they face all sorts of different foes, and under various different conditions. Believe it or not, there will be plenty of tense situations which you would never see coming, some of which will keep you on the edge of your seat, anticipating how a character is going to crawl his or her way out of a situation that’s seemingly impossible to overcome. And if there is one factor which could be seen as the greatest contributor to the quality of season 2, it is the characters. And, in that respect, its not just the main characters who will compel you. Interestingly enough, it is the interactions that they have with the new and supporting characters who come into play, which makes the episodes so interesting to watch, and can also lead to some of the most memorable anime moments out there. What you will realize upon watching the advancement of the plot, is that not all of the subjects involved in this brawl-fest are just in it for the blood and gore. Each team, or even sometimes just individual characters within the team, has their own motivations, ranging from a group fighting for the right to roam freely in a land which they are forbidden to live in, to a team which is being forced to fight against their own wills. Along with each fight, or most of them, anyways, come little side-stories (which thankfully stay interesting without going too far off track from the events at hand) that add layers to the plot, and the chemistry between these different characters, with their personalities, commonalities, grudges, and differences. All of this serves to increase the intriguing setting of Hanging Neck Island (really, what a pleasant name to give to an island with a five-star hotel and lots of greedy old rich-men who do their business there).

Perhaps the most compelling conflict between characters, within this story line, though, is that of the history between Yusuke’s master, Genkai, and her former partner of the Dark Tournament event which had taken place over half a century ago, Toguro (the younger brother of the Toguro Brothers, to be specific), who is also the main villain of this portion of the series. In addition to him, there is Sakyo, the interesting, ingenious, and somewhat mentally fucked up (pardon my French) human who pulls the strings behind the scenes of the tournament committee, in order to achieve his “real goal” in having invited Team Urameshi to the current tournament. And perhaps it is the fact that there is actually a logical human reason to having this tournament, being the fact that it is good for business, which causes it to feel so much more than just another cliché. With all of the wagers underground businessmen place on who they think will win, in addition to the unimaginable amounts of money that must be made from the purchase of tickets to the event (even though most of its viewers happen to be demons), even more layers of well thought-out plot devices are piled onto the action, immediately stripping away the feeling that you are getting another DBZ clone. Its really only the fact that this season doesn’t end the Dark Tournament story arc, leaving the viewer at a complete cliffhanger toward the climax of the story, that may piss some people off.

What also adds to the entertainment value of this show, is the outstanding team of English voice actors participating with their talents for the various roles in this anime. Justin Cook really made wise decisions in casting the right voice actors to fit the right characters. While some might accuse Yu Yu Hakusho’s English dub of straying too far from the original script, it should be pointed out that it is impossible to keep one-hundred percent true to the original Japanese text, due to certain language and cultural barriers. So, in this respect, the dub does a fine job of keeping each character, as well as the overall story, in the same personalities and tones, while expressing them in a way that English speaking audiences can appreciate. It also adds in some undeniably great humor, which just happens to be good enough to excuse FUNimation from making those changes, even if they were admittedly uncalled for. Still, for those who are not pleased with the English voice acting of this series, the original Japanese audio, with English subtitles, is also at hand.

Music is something which plays an important role in any anime, and whether Yu Yu Hakusho’s music is good or not, is something that is purely up to the opinion and tastes of the viewer. However, the music does fit the theme of the series, with the right tunes kicking into play at the right moments, to increase the amount of emotional tension in certain atmospheres.

Honestly, I could go on talking about this season’s strengths long enough to make a book on them. So, to just sum up my overall thoughts on the aspect of this DVD’s main content, overall, you are getting a package of assorted goods (of stuff that you actually like), with bad-ass fights, great characters, great character-development (especially on Yusuke’s part), great and unique villains, interesting chemistry between the characters (including the heroes and villains), strong plot development, and plenty of innovation to the genre, that makes for a fresh take on the tournament style story arc, and adds its “dark” aspect to it in a fitting way (since its not called the “Dark Tournament” for nothing).

Still, it would be wrong of me to claim that anything is absolutely perfect, and Yu Yu Hakusho is no exception. Even though you will be getting a lot of quality entertainment, quite a few people would expect more than just the uncut TV episodes when purchasing the DVD box set of this season. Unfortunately, these discs merely contain the same content as Yu Yu Hakusho’s previous 8-volume releases of the series and aside from a few trailers and textless opening and ending credits in the dub and the original version, this box set won’t give you any sort of special-features, or worthy extras, whatsoever. Also, being that this series is well over a decade old, you shouldn’t expect any great quality animation, which wasn’t even great for its time, and can sometimes be swift and fluid during some action sequences, but often-times ends up being stale and lifeless during many scenes that don’t involve action (though, to be fair, this seems to be standard among many anime). The artwork, on the other hand, is a great mix of loveable anime style character designs and backgrounds, mixed with odd and unique cartoony details. The sound quality is mostly good, and plays in 2.0 stereo in both the English and Japanese audio tracks, but can sometimes sound a little off-key with voices, or produce some rather annoying static screeches during odd sound effects.

Even with all of those issues, though, the price-tag of $35 for a full season couldn’t be more reasonable, especially with the quantity of episodes that you’re getting, compared to other anime DVD’s which will give you far less content in terms of actual episodes, for that same price. In other words, there are very few reasons for why not to buy the Yu Yu Hakusho season 2 box set from FUNimation. The only people who I would not recommend to buy this release, are those who either already own the entire series on DVD in the form of previously released sets, have not yet seen the first season (in which case I’d recommend you to buy that set, watch it, and then buy this one), or who just can’t stand anime for some reason (but in that case, go screw yourself you biased jerk). If you are a Yu Yu Hakusho fan, or if you have seen and liked the first season, and wish to get through the rest of the series, then BUY THIS DVD! You will not be disappointed.

Yours Truly,

Ensatsu-ken