Medaka Box: B
Written by Nisio Isin of Bakemonogatari and Katanagatari and animated by Gainax, there's pretty much no way I could give it a BAD rating, is there?
Medaka Box is about an invincible genius superwoman who happens to be 16, hot, and impossibly optimistic and nice. She becomes student council president in her first year of high school with 98% of the vote. Actually, it's about her childhood friend who looks out for her and helps her get through her life, because despite being an invincible genius superwoman, she's still also a 16 year old girl with emotions who overlooks things and fails to understand how people work sometimes.
Nisio Isin likes writing with pre-set relationships and history and letting you get to know the characters as well as they know each other. Medaka Box also avoids any sort of traditional harem-ery and much in the way of ship tease. The series is very episodic, with several episodes containing two short stories within them, but, true to Nisio Isin's writing, every character who we meet has a personality, goals and position in the setting. Episodes also tend to be dialogue-heavy (though not as much as Bakemonogatari or Katanagatari), though there is a fair amount of action.
Medaka Box basically asks "What if Superman were a 16 year old girl and the student council president?" and runs with it, more or less honestly. If that sounds like fun, check out Medaka Box.
Friday, August 31, 2012
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Dog Days', first half
Been a while since I did a part-way review, hasn't it?
So, Dog Days season two (written Dog Days') continues in the first season's tradition of utter adorability and fan service, and somehow turns both up a little bit.
For the people who are two lazy to read my Dog Days review, the series takes place in an alternate world populated by dog-, cat-, bunny- and, newly appearing in season two, squirrel-people, who summon humans from the real world to be 'heroes' in their wars. However, the wars in question are more like friendly mass athletic competitions than anything like involving death or really serious injury, instead, you're beaten when your armor (or clothing) is blasted off (thus providing one of the primary forms of fan service).
This time, Shinku (which is being spelled Cinque by the sub group I'm watching, which is as good as anything) has brought two of his friends from the real world to serve as Heroes for two other countries. Like many second seasons I'm seeing lately, they seem to have the advantage of getting straight to the point and right to the adorability and fan service.
There's just this sense of childish glee and FUN that the show maintains that makes it a joy to watch, if you can watch this show and not grin at it then some part of your soul has died. Either that or you're too distracted by the jiggling (Yukikaze is made of jello with springs in it, I swear) or the fan service.
So, Dog Days season two (written Dog Days') continues in the first season's tradition of utter adorability and fan service, and somehow turns both up a little bit.
For the people who are two lazy to read my Dog Days review, the series takes place in an alternate world populated by dog-, cat-, bunny- and, newly appearing in season two, squirrel-people, who summon humans from the real world to be 'heroes' in their wars. However, the wars in question are more like friendly mass athletic competitions than anything like involving death or really serious injury, instead, you're beaten when your armor (or clothing) is blasted off (thus providing one of the primary forms of fan service).
This time, Shinku (which is being spelled Cinque by the sub group I'm watching, which is as good as anything) has brought two of his friends from the real world to serve as Heroes for two other countries. Like many second seasons I'm seeing lately, they seem to have the advantage of getting straight to the point and right to the adorability and fan service.
There's just this sense of childish glee and FUN that the show maintains that makes it a joy to watch, if you can watch this show and not grin at it then some part of your soul has died. Either that or you're too distracted by the jiggling (Yukikaze is made of jello with springs in it, I swear) or the fan service.
Gintama
Gintama: B
Jeez, it took me more than a year to finish that 252-episode-and-a-movie monster of a series. But you know what? I enjoyed it. All 86 hours of it. That, alone, is a pretty impressive thing. Let me try to explain what it is about this series that makes it good despite its length.
Gintama, unlike most other long-running shows, occurs in short arcs, 1-5 episodes long, with the very longest being about 8 episodes. The vast majority of them fall between silly and absurd, with the longer arcs being much more likely to resemble the standard shonen fare of fights for honor, swordsmanship, badassery and saving the world, but usually with humorous interludes (such as a long-winded duel of out-witting each other about in a public restroom with no toilet paper), and, most importantly, endings. The short-arc format is one of the things that keeps Gintama fresh, especially combined with the show's intent of changing genre every arc (much like Excel Saga, a series which it definitely took several tips from).
Unlike most long-running shows, where the filler stabs you in the eye with its low quality and out-of-placeness, Gintama has no filler because it's all filler, but the filler is usually just as good as the actual show, or only a little bit worse. Gintama is also extremely off-color, making fun of the anime industry, other shonen shows, and generally breaking rules about what it should and shouldn't show. Kagura (the girl with the red hair and red chinese-style shirt in the picture above) is renowned for being the first heroine in a Shonen Jump series to vomit on-screen for instance, and she's hardly the only character to do supremely inappropriate things.
Gintama is a silly show with a lot of meta-humor, childish humor, toilet humor and absurdity punctuated with drama, heroism and good advice. If you can enjoy these things, you'll still probably dislike about one in five episodes of Gintama, but fortunately, there's so many episodes and they're so episodic that skipping a couple won't ruin anything for you.
Jeez, it took me more than a year to finish that 252-episode-and-a-movie monster of a series. But you know what? I enjoyed it. All 86 hours of it. That, alone, is a pretty impressive thing. Let me try to explain what it is about this series that makes it good despite its length.
Gintama, unlike most other long-running shows, occurs in short arcs, 1-5 episodes long, with the very longest being about 8 episodes. The vast majority of them fall between silly and absurd, with the longer arcs being much more likely to resemble the standard shonen fare of fights for honor, swordsmanship, badassery and saving the world, but usually with humorous interludes (such as a long-winded duel of out-witting each other about in a public restroom with no toilet paper), and, most importantly, endings. The short-arc format is one of the things that keeps Gintama fresh, especially combined with the show's intent of changing genre every arc (much like Excel Saga, a series which it definitely took several tips from).
Unlike most long-running shows, where the filler stabs you in the eye with its low quality and out-of-placeness, Gintama has no filler because it's all filler, but the filler is usually just as good as the actual show, or only a little bit worse. Gintama is also extremely off-color, making fun of the anime industry, other shonen shows, and generally breaking rules about what it should and shouldn't show. Kagura (the girl with the red hair and red chinese-style shirt in the picture above) is renowned for being the first heroine in a Shonen Jump series to vomit on-screen for instance, and she's hardly the only character to do supremely inappropriate things.
Gintama is a silly show with a lot of meta-humor, childish humor, toilet humor and absurdity punctuated with drama, heroism and good advice. If you can enjoy these things, you'll still probably dislike about one in five episodes of Gintama, but fortunately, there's so many episodes and they're so episodic that skipping a couple won't ruin anything for you.
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka of the Dead
Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka Of the Dead: C
It's kind of a relief when a series is painful enough that I can't give it anything other than a C, but that I can praise for being exactly what it is and absolutely nothing more. More so than its first season, KoreZombie Of The Dead (as the Second Season is titled) is a shameless parade of fan service, schadenfreude, embarrassing situations and dirty jokes. Maybe it's because I came into the second season with that expectation that I find myself appreciating it more than the first season.
In many ways it's more of the same that the first season brought, but, (to make a comparison), the first season is rock crack, season two is premium purified cocaine. Neither of them is good for you, and they both leave you with self-loathing but the second season is at least classy.
If the above image offends you in any way, don't watch this series. But if it still makes you giggle after reading all of this, you'd actually probably like KoreZombie of the Dead. You sick bastard.
There really is no other picture that gets this series across.
It's kind of a relief when a series is painful enough that I can't give it anything other than a C, but that I can praise for being exactly what it is and absolutely nothing more. More so than its first season, KoreZombie Of The Dead (as the Second Season is titled) is a shameless parade of fan service, schadenfreude, embarrassing situations and dirty jokes. Maybe it's because I came into the second season with that expectation that I find myself appreciating it more than the first season.
In many ways it's more of the same that the first season brought, but, (to make a comparison), the first season is rock crack, season two is premium purified cocaine. Neither of them is good for you, and they both leave you with self-loathing but the second season is at least classy.
If the above image offends you in any way, don't watch this series. But if it still makes you giggle after reading all of this, you'd actually probably like KoreZombie of the Dead. You sick bastard.
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