Sasami-san at Ganbaranai 3: Where they actually tell the truth…

Gosh, I’m so late with all this season’s animes… I guess I’m not into them as much as I was (ok… I never have been able to watch an anime every weeks… I just have so much to do in life…). So, the third episode, which aired a few weeks ago already, and that I,ve watched a few weeks ago but didn’t had the time to write about, tells us a little more about where the girls come from.

Sasami have actually grown up in a shrine where they knew she had Amaterasu power, so she was drugged and her brother was the one to take care of her. He was to never show his face, that’s why we don’t see it at all, and incest was the way to keep the power within the family. So, Sasami just got away from there with her brother and ended up in the city. But now, her brother have disappeared and she thinks he have go back to the main shrine to claim he have the power of amaterasu, so to let Sasami alone.

Of course Sasami gets there with the help of the Yagamii sisters, and we learned that Tsurugi is in fact Amaterasu who passed on her power to Sasami’s ancestor. The two other sisters where created by her and they destroy the shrine. End of the episode.

Well, this was entertaining. We learned a lot of things in this episode, but it seems a bit too soon to reavel all that stuff. I guess there’s a goal behind all this, and we can understand a bit more the relationship between Sasami and her brother: why he cares for her, and why he hide his face, why their erlationship is so strange, etc. Tsuguri being Amaterasu came as a surprise that I didn’t saw coming at all. But I think all these revelations were made too soon: I don’t really care at all for all the characters, and the fact of Kamiomi not coming back wasn’t really stressing or anything.

The first part of the anime featured a story about a rabbit(Sasami) who wants to get to the other side of a river. A shark (Kamiomi) comes and let her get on his back, but he wants her to stripe for a reward. Sasmi kicks him and go away and the shark is left alone on the beach. Three goddess (the sisters) came upon and… kick him too… WTF? I guess there was some sort of message there, but I thought this was just plain disturbing.

Vividred Operation 1-2: True magicals girls never wears pants…

Yeah, next time I meet someone, I’ll offer him a tomato… So, this is another “magical girl” anime for a more perverted mature audience, with the girls flying around while the “camera shots” shows really precisely what’s between the legs of a young girl… Common, the first scene of the first episode opens on the butt of a girl wearing really tight white panties (maybe she forgot to put pants on, or maybe theses are the pants of the future…)! And of course all these young girls will get really close one to another, providing lustful viewer their share of girl-on-girl love and more than friendship bounding.

Of course, there is a story. In a near future, the world is in peace because of a new form of energy coming from the sky. In this world in peace, next to the giant power plant of blue island, live Akane, an energetic young girl who live with her sister and her grand-father (who of course invented the energy source…). But this peace is in danger: a giant robot-thingy called “The Alone” is attacking the power plant! So Akane and her friend Aoi become Magical Girls (using a technology created by Akane’s grand-father… Science Magical Girl…) to save their beloved island.

So, they are able to turn the energy off the Alone, but another girl apears and get the machine back on track with a magical bow. Now, the Alone is super-duper powerful, so the two girl need to Dock… Docking time! But they can’t, because Aoi have a secret she never told Akane… she hates tomatoes! Yeah… that’s a big secret… But, Akane doesn,t care and now they Dock and the two girls are now one, so they destroy the big bad machine…

Oh yeah, and the genius grand-father become a weasel… WTF??? So, this doesn’t look so bad, but a bit cliché… Of course, there will be a green magical girl and a yellow one, and then the ” mysterious bad girl” will certainly become friend with them (if not, they would have put a men as the bad guy). And all the girls will create bounds, and will save the world.

Mysterious bad girls don’t wears pant either!

What I’m interesting to know is more about the Alone. The Weasel-geezer seems to know about it. And there seems to be a link between this and the death of Akane’s mother. Did the weasel-geezer created the “magical-girl” machine to fight these thing because he knew they would come? From where are they, outer-space aliens robots? Or are they created by humans? So I hope there will be more than only “cute young girl becoming magic and kissing one another without wearing pants”…  (Feels like Strike Witch…)

See, I can do it without pants!

 

sasami-san@ganbaranai episode 1: WTF??? I think I now want some chocolate…

Well, it seems everyone who watched that first episode had the same reaction (more or less…): WTF did I just watched??? This first episode was… special. I don’t really know what to think about this show and everything about it seems to already have been blogged. Anyway, how to resume this episode? I think this sentence resume it the best: “A girl stays at home and stalks her brother. Then three girls battle a chocolate invasion.”, summary taken from Draggle’s anime blog. What is the point???

Some people really hated this first episode, seing there the arrogance of  Akiyuki Shinbo who can now do whatever he wants with SHAFT, even bullshit, since everyone will buy it anyway. Others are looking for a really profound signification, specially with the name of the three sisters (Tama, Kagami and … oh fuck, I don’t remember), which are the same that the three sacred object for Shinto: the jewel, the mirror and the sword. And that Sasami-san is a god influing on the world (some people have watched too much of Haruhi Suzumiya…). Personnally, I don’t really know. That was strange,and all the things in this show doesn’t seems to have link between them at all.

Well, I’ll watch a bit more before making my opinion about this, but seriously, there is something off about this show. The relationship between Sasami-san and her brother seems unhealthy (ahaha), the fact we don,t sees the brother face bugs me and I found the three sisters annoying like hell. I’ m not sure if I’ll like this anime… maybe I have no taste with anime!

Bakumatsu Gijinden Roman 1: A funny Lupin ersatz in Edo

Monkey Punch is the creator of the always popular Lupin III (or Lupin Sansei) franchise, telling the story of a modern gentlemen thief in moderns days. The last serie around these characters was the great Lupin III: Mine Fujiko to iu onna anime that aired last spring. This winter, Monkey Punch come back with Bakumatsu Gijinden Roman, an anime about another thief who do his illegals deeds in Edo. Monkey Punch did the characters design, the director is Hirofumi Ogura (Black Butler II, Area no Kishi) and the serie is an adaptation of a pachinko game (WTF…). The fact that it’s an aaptation of a pachinko game makes me a little skeptic about the story…

The first episode was kinda funny, but really lame and everything screams LUPIN… the hero, Roman, is an amalgam of Lupin with Jigen hairs, theres a courtesan that looks exactly like Mine Fujiko (and with who Roman will certainly have an adventure), two of the “bad guys of the weeks” strangely looks like Goemon and theres even a samurai trying to catch Roman who looks like Zenigata. Even the story looks the same, but with the “old Edo touch”: Roman is working as an helper during the day, but at night, he goes with his friends to steal the things that were taken from the poor and give them back. Ok, Lupin was stealing for himself, but he is a nice guy, so he is often giving back things to the poor. Roman is even in love with the Mine Fujiko ersatz!

So, this first episode starts with Roman running of the roofs of Edo at night, with cash in a bag which he put into a rocket that her sister (?) set on fire, so the cash is flowing back to the poor people. The guys he stealth from is obviously angry about that and mysterious people lend him two weirdos to attack people randomly. In  the meanwhile, Roman is getting to work as an helper, so we meet the people  in his crew: his sister who makes and sells decorative chopsticks, an European doctor who likes to makes zombies (WTF…), an old crazy inventor and  a young shrine maiden. But instead of working he goes to gambling with another friend.

The people in the town are randomly attack by the two assassins, so the mean retailer gets cash from the poor peasant to protect them. But the guy with who Roman was gambling was attacked, so he gets to the HUGE castle of the retainer, easily kicks everyone ass with some kind of strange super power and gives the money back to everyone… The guy is saved by the Zombie-maker-European-doctor and everybody is happy!

I’ve said it screams Lupin, but this isn’t as entertaining as Lupin. It’s easy to see where the show is heading, and like many bloggers already stated, this is  a Robin Hood ersatz too… but more lame. This is funny to watch but I don’t think it’ll get really exciting. I’m also kinda disappointed with the “super-power” Roman have at the end of the episode: it looks like they took it from a Power Ranger bad movie of the 80′, with light flash and all. Common, he just cut a big castle in two! The two “bad guys of the week” (twins… that why there are two) are easily forgettable, but the organization that send them is probably the “Big Bad” of the whole serie.

Power Ranger to the rescue!

Anyway, let’s say this doesn’t look really good, but I’ll keep watching a few episode to see where it goes… I know, I have a thing for bad anime! After all, I’ve watched more of OniAi (Onii-chan Dakedo Ai Sae Areba Kankei Nai yo ne) during the falls season over Btooom, Robotic;notes or Psycho-pass…

K Project review: Cool Kings and Cool Kids

The K project anime was a mysterious one: a special name with one letter, no information on the story, previews showing only a cast of various characters fighting, the studio working on it wasn’t really know, a cast of great voice actors and a busty front girl. As the anime started in October, the impressive visual and the premises shows in the firsts episodes really draw our attention  and  many of us where comparing it with other urban-fantastic tales. Unfortunately,  K didn’t keep up the quality. But let’s start by the beginning, the summary first.

Summary

Isana Yashiro is an high school boy who  is know by anyone but don’t really have any close friends. His high school is on an island near a big city, and one day, as he goes to an errand for the school festival, he is chased by a group of violent youngster who claim that he killed their friend, Tatara Totsuka. They have Yashiro’s face on camera just before he kill him and declare he is the new seventh king.  The group is Homra and is led by the red king, Mikoto Suoh. Fortunately, someone come and rescue Yashiro, a young man named Yatogami Kuroh who carry a katana and have samurai manners. But instead of saving him, Kuroh claim he have to kill him since he is the new colorless king and he is bad since he killed someone. Yashiro persuade him that he can prove he is wrong so Kuroh come and live at the school with him and Neko, a young female who have special power of illusion (and becoming a cat…). At the same time, another group named Scepter 4, a militia like group ruled by the blue king Reisi Munakata, wants to stop Mikoto Suoh because of the way the power of the kings works, he could bring mass destruction.

The review

Story: 6 on 10

Like many anibloggers (wow, first time I use this word…), I was intrigued by this anime, for the many reasons listed before. The first episode gave us some good elements for the story and the whole concept of the world where K is set is interesting: a modern city in Japan but where seven kings with special powers attract people to them, but with the constant danger of the “sword of Damocles”, a big sword that appears in the sky each time they use their powers. And then, the young man who get into this mess by accident… or not, since he isn’t really sure if he could be the murderer. Helped by his side-kick (Kuroh) and the hot chick (Neko), he have to get to the bottom of this tangled situation. But the story goes in all direction and things get… not so well. This a fun anime, but many things are left unexplained or unclear and the end left me with a bitter taste. I enjoyed the ride, but this could have been much better.

Characters: 5 on 10

The main problem about the characters is that I don’t really care about them since we didn’t really get to them and they don’t get any development. Yashiro is funny and quite mysterious, but I couldn’t bring myself to cheers on him.  Kuroh, who looks really cool in the first episode, become Yashiro house wife for whatever reason. I understand how they wanted to bring a funny side of him and make him more human, but it just makes him annoying. Neko is obviously there only for the fan service and to conveniently be used when there’s a plot hole, since her power is the one to create illusions. The others characters are cool, but we don’t really get to know anything about them, so it’s pretty difficult to understand their goals. The two others characters we get to know a little more ( and only a little) are Yata with his skateboard and Fushimi who betray Homra for Scepter 4. Even the blue and red king aren’t people we care about, and we couldn’t care less about the one who was killed. This could have been avoided if the anime was a bit longer:  knowing each team and theirs members, how they interact together, who was Totsuka, more about the past of Weisman and how the Damocles sword works (or why, for that matter…),etc. The viewer could love the characters a bit more and relate to them. Because as it is now, we don’t get to know them, they don’t get any development and we don’t really care about what happens to them.

Animation and visual: 9 on 10

The visual is really the good point of K: every thing looks gorgeous. The characters are really well draw, the background are superb, the animation are fluid, the battle scene great, the color are brights, this was spectacular. The visual of the opening and ending are interesting too, even if the opening was mostly using clips from the anime. And the quality of the animation doesn’t wears off as the serie goes on. This is really a good point of this anime.

Music and sound: 7.5 on 10

The cast doing the voice acting is really good. most of them being popular voice actor and every voice seemed to fit the character. I really liked some characters voice a lot, like the voice of the red king with the “I don’t care” feeling or the psychopathic voice of Fushimi when he says “Mi-sa-ki”. But on the other side, I didn’t really enjoyed the music. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good either. The opening was forgettable and the too many change of pace in the music makes it hard to remember (except the start of the song, which annoyed me a lot). The ending was a cute little song that I really like, but this isn’t something I’ll really listen to. The music during the anime is a mix of many kind, electro, a bit of street beats, hip hop, etc. This is really urban, not bad music, but not really good either. I sometimes felt the music was out of place, like slow beat during a battle.

Enjoyment: 8 on 10

Even with all these flaws, K was fun to watch. The intriguing story and the many plot twist were funs to follow, the characters were cool (yeah, even with all I says, they were cool!), the setting interesting… I enjoyed the ride. But a few more episode to explain more and to get to know the characters more would have been better. I suppose they put all the budget on the visual, so there wasn’t anything left for the rest… just kidding! But K is a fun anime, with flaws, yes, but fun to watch anyway.

Global note: 75 on 100

Shin Sekai Yori 1-2-3: Well, if this is the new world, I don’t want of it!

Shin Sekai Yori is certainly one of the strangest anime of the year. Like Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita, it’s set in a far future where humanity is bring to a new state. But where Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita was funny, Shin Sekai Yori let an uncomfortable taste and an enormous amount of strange things. But this exactly what makes it a great anime.

Of course it is too early to really say if this a good anime or not. But this far, I’m really enjoying it. At first, we don’t really understand what is happening or the setting, but slowing, things get more comprehensible and we get a little more background of how things get like this.

The setting is 1000 years in the future. Humans now have psychic powers they call Force (or Cantus for whatever reason in one of the subbed), so they can use it to do telekinesis. However, children don’t have it and it’s only by reaching puberty that you can use it. Saki is the last of her friend to get those powers. When she got it, she goes to Sage Academy, where the adolescent learn how to control theses power. But many mysteries surround the Academy: there are many rules to learn and if you’re not good enough or don’t follow the rules, you disappear.

There are many strange creature surrounding them: the Bake-Nezumis, who looks like hamster (imagine planet of the Ape, but with hamster instead of monkeys) and sees the people with force like gods, the “cat of impurity”, that Saki saw, but we don’t exactly know what it is, the Minoshiwa that shine in the dark or some kind snake-birds. Every episode also set a strange moods, even when there are joyous event, like the rolling ball tournament in the second episode. There is also some creepy stories of people getting consume by their own sins and dying by it, usually by their own hand.

We also have a glimpse at the beginning of each episode of how the Japan gets there, starting in the first episode with a kid in nowadays Japan killing people on the street with the force, then 500 an emperor killing people for his own pleasure and 70 years later an insurrection trying to kill another emperor.

The resume this all, this is really something I’ll keep watching, even if it’s creepy and kinda scary… but I love it!

 

Ixion Saga DT episode 2: Ah, theses sexy villains without balls…

Yeah, Ixion Saga Dt is great. The first episode was funny, but the second one was hilarious! Ok, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit, but I had great fun watching this. The villains are absolutely awesome, they seriously are the cool thing of the show.  Well, let’s do this the good way.

So, let’s go back on the first episode, since I haven’t review anything for real since the fall season started. Well, this is a bit idiot this inaugurate the season with such a show, but nevermind that… In the first episode, we have our protagonist, Kon, playing a RPG game (and loosing). A women ask him for some help in real life and he is immediately transported in another world. While being tele-transported, he falls on someone and end up saving a princess and her companion, a cross-dressing maid and a

the boots…

tough middle-aged man. The cute little princess ask Kon to go with them to the capital, but the militia lead by Erecpyle Dukakis, or Erec-sama, want to stop them. Fortunately, Kon saves the day with a kick between the legs of Erec-sama with huge dragon-boots…

So the second episode starts with Erec-sama in the hospital where he learned that the doctor had to cut one of his ball… Yeah… This is stupid. And this is the occasion for a four minutes of balls related-joke with his lieutnant (who have great names like Variasion, KT, Gustave and Leon… but nothing beats Erecpyle…). The subtitles weren’t great for this part, but since I understand Japanese, that was funny! Mainwhile, our protagonist argue with the three others because he don’t really want to be a knight for an eight years old princess (who have to be married, by the way…), but everyone push him to stay.

Erec-sama wants his revenge with Kon (who he calls DT and this seems to be an insult for a reason… DT doesn’t really stand for Dimensional Transfer… something that goes with his virginity)m so he goes to the city where everyone is with a huge char, but fortunatly Kon gets some super-power (with the super sword he steals from Erec) and beats the crap out of him. But that isn’t is fault, he didn’t had any balance because he have only one ball… anyway, Kon saves the day and decide to go to the capital with princess and co.

And the Ending is the best one of the season. No, of the years!

Really, this was looking like a crappy show, but I have so much fun watching it! The villains really are great. Gustave, the red-haired one, looks like he is out of some 80’s anime and Erec-sama is funny. I really like how they interact. The show doesn’t take itself seriously and this is what makes it interesting. The voice acting is also great, Fukuyama Jun even play the cross-dressing maid! Anyway, let’s end this with great picture of the ending…