So after a break from anime during which I was playing League of Legends for several months, I'm back to watching.
Partially the reason for the lack of updates is that practically nothing that aired during Spring was worth watching or reviewing in my mind. I've been keeping up with Toaru Kagaku no Railgun S, but it's so far been a different-perspective retelling of one of the arcs of first-season Index, and keeps with that series' general sense of 'if you don't look closely, it's pretty fun.' I also watch Nyaruko-san W, which doesn't deserve it's own review, it's more of the same. I reviewed Oreimo 2 (though it's not completely over, it's got 2 more episodes to air) and Red Data Girl, and that's pretty much everything I was actually watching.
None of my favorite studios, Shaft, Gainax and Kyoto Animation did anything last season, is really what I'm saying here. So it was pretty slow.
This season, though, is looking up, especially with Monogatari Series second season, which is 4 episodes in and already shaping up to be amazingly well-written and crafted, as I've come to expect. I haven't gotten into Kyoto Animation's new series 'Free' (which looks to be very man-servicey), but I'm also keeping up on the new Rozen Maiden, which I'm enjoying despite its slow build up in the first few episodes and the weirdness of the whole alternate universe plotline, which is being handled much better than I was originally expecting. I watched the first two episodes of WataMote, but I found them profoundly depressing, so I haven't kept going with it. Maybe I'll be in the mood later.
There's a second season of Symphogear airing, and I'm not yet willing to say it's a worthy successor to a diamond in the rough first season. I'm also watching Tamayura season 2, but that's really just slice of life fluffiness. I think that's everything that I'm actively watching that's airing currently.
Finally, I'm rewatching Martian Successor Nadesico, as an experiment in how well it holds up, I last watched it about fifteen years ago. First impressions are ambivalent, it's got some great moments and characters, but it's trying very hard to be a serious parody, and it's not quite working out for it.
I'll have some real reviews for you all soon.
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Friday, July 19, 2013
Vividred Operation (And a rant about Fan Service)
Vividred Operation: D+
So this series is ostensibly kind of about techno-magical girls, but in truth is really about underaged girl's asses. And to a lesser extent their breasts.
So there are these girls and for reasons which aren't entirely well explained they wind up wearing jet suits and fighting invading aliens. The Jet suits are powered by this cool new reactor that we built that runs on extradimensional magic. Why we didn't give the jet suits to trained military professionals isn't well explained but probably is due to one of the girls' grandfather, who would be creepier if he didn't get brain-swapped with a stuffed animal in the first episode. Naturally there's hijinks as the full team of four gets together and the mysterious girl who appears to be working with the aliens, and starts out cold and not wanting to be friends but warms up eventually because she's lonely and the main characters are the only ones who have ever tried just being friends with her.
All that's pretty formulaic, but I am not going to say that something that is formulaic is inherently bad. It can be well-executed, and the fact is that I do kind of like several of the characters and the execution in places. The show has enjoyable moments and is fun to watch and listen to, but it's flat. There is no spark, no risks taken. No great lessons learned, no moving moments of understanding or betrayal. Even that would still earn it the C, that were all I had to say.
What ruins it for me, and rarely will I say this, is the fan service. Now, I want to go on record with saying that I enjoy the lovingly animated female form as much as the next creepy nerd on the internet. Fan service is not inherently bad for me, and can be used to enhance storytelling while ALSO providing titillating content for viewers. To this end, I categorize fan service occurs into three varieties:
1) Integrated Fan Service. This is the fan service where we're shown cleavage, jiggling boobs or panty shots for a good reason within the story. Often it's because it's what a male character present in the scene is focusing on, and it's shown to help us sympathize with his horniness, and the awkwardness that ensues from that. It might be deliberately sexual to showcase a character's depravity or innocence, based on their reaction. It's also meant to titillate, but it serves a significant purpose: the fan service is fully integrated and justified by the story and setting. Bakemonogatari and Haganai are full of this, and Speed Grapher had its fair share as well.
2) Tongue-in-Cheek Fan Service. These are the humorous panty shots, the fourth-wall breaking moments where other characters block the camera, or where circumstances contrive to cause the characters to get into situations that result in clothing being lost or undergarments being shown off far too often for it to be taken seriously. Koihime Musou is full of this, as is Dog Days. The fan service is not integrated into the story necessarily, and probably could be left out, but it is given a nod from the characters themselves, and so is contextualized, usually as humorous.
3) Straight-faced Fan Service. In this form, we get acontextual shots that showcase a character's body purely for the sake of titillation. Its use has no impact on the story, and nothing to do with any character's portrayal or perception of others, and nobody in the story seems to notice or care, much less comment. It often seems as though the cameraman just happens to be putting himself somewhere where we get a shot of a girl's magnificent ass, or rack, or whatever. This type is present only for the audience's benefit. The lack of integration causes mood whiplash, desensitization to further uses of it and an overall weakening of the audience's ability to engage with the story.
Type 3 is the kind in Vividred, and it's the kind that offends me. It marks a story as being weak, because if you feel the need to have lovingly animated ass jiggle for no reason other than to show it off, it makes me as a viewer feel like that's all the show has to offer. And that's why Vividred is probably not worth your time: because pretty much all it has to offer is several barely-teenage girls' butts in short shorts; nothing original or creative, or even particularly noteworthy.
This is official art, by the way
So there are these girls and for reasons which aren't entirely well explained they wind up wearing jet suits and fighting invading aliens. The Jet suits are powered by this cool new reactor that we built that runs on extradimensional magic. Why we didn't give the jet suits to trained military professionals isn't well explained but probably is due to one of the girls' grandfather, who would be creepier if he didn't get brain-swapped with a stuffed animal in the first episode. Naturally there's hijinks as the full team of four gets together and the mysterious girl who appears to be working with the aliens, and starts out cold and not wanting to be friends but warms up eventually because she's lonely and the main characters are the only ones who have ever tried just being friends with her.
All that's pretty formulaic, but I am not going to say that something that is formulaic is inherently bad. It can be well-executed, and the fact is that I do kind of like several of the characters and the execution in places. The show has enjoyable moments and is fun to watch and listen to, but it's flat. There is no spark, no risks taken. No great lessons learned, no moving moments of understanding or betrayal. Even that would still earn it the C, that were all I had to say.
What ruins it for me, and rarely will I say this, is the fan service. Now, I want to go on record with saying that I enjoy the lovingly animated female form as much as the next creepy nerd on the internet. Fan service is not inherently bad for me, and can be used to enhance storytelling while ALSO providing titillating content for viewers. To this end, I categorize fan service occurs into three varieties:
1) Integrated Fan Service. This is the fan service where we're shown cleavage, jiggling boobs or panty shots for a good reason within the story. Often it's because it's what a male character present in the scene is focusing on, and it's shown to help us sympathize with his horniness, and the awkwardness that ensues from that. It might be deliberately sexual to showcase a character's depravity or innocence, based on their reaction. It's also meant to titillate, but it serves a significant purpose: the fan service is fully integrated and justified by the story and setting. Bakemonogatari and Haganai are full of this, and Speed Grapher had its fair share as well.
2) Tongue-in-Cheek Fan Service. These are the humorous panty shots, the fourth-wall breaking moments where other characters block the camera, or where circumstances contrive to cause the characters to get into situations that result in clothing being lost or undergarments being shown off far too often for it to be taken seriously. Koihime Musou is full of this, as is Dog Days. The fan service is not integrated into the story necessarily, and probably could be left out, but it is given a nod from the characters themselves, and so is contextualized, usually as humorous.
3) Straight-faced Fan Service. In this form, we get acontextual shots that showcase a character's body purely for the sake of titillation. Its use has no impact on the story, and nothing to do with any character's portrayal or perception of others, and nobody in the story seems to notice or care, much less comment. It often seems as though the cameraman just happens to be putting himself somewhere where we get a shot of a girl's magnificent ass, or rack, or whatever. This type is present only for the audience's benefit. The lack of integration causes mood whiplash, desensitization to further uses of it and an overall weakening of the audience's ability to engage with the story.
Type 3 is the kind in Vividred, and it's the kind that offends me. It marks a story as being weak, because if you feel the need to have lovingly animated ass jiggle for no reason other than to show it off, it makes me as a viewer feel like that's all the show has to offer. And that's why Vividred is probably not worth your time: because pretty much all it has to offer is several barely-teenage girls' butts in short shorts; nothing original or creative, or even particularly noteworthy.
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Tamayura ~hitotose~
Tamayura ~hitotose~: B
I heard about this show because the second season is airing now and I was curious.
Uh, it's a slice of life show, and so, by tradition, it's about four girls, with some extra hangers on. And by tradition, it's hard to talk about. The main character, Sawatari Fuu (above), is an amateur photographer, and the show makes use of the camera and photographs as both a symbol and a pursuit. "Tamayura" means "a fleeting moment," the title is probably plural. "Hitotose" means "one year," and, indeed, the series takes place over the course of the girls' first year of high school. So, "A year of fleeting moments."
Compared to the other slice of life series I've reviewed (Hidamari Sketch and K-On) I would say that Tamayura has more heart, but less humor. It made me tear up in a couple places, but it never really made me laugh.
The cast are unique and characterful and all have their issues (some more than others), and the series is pretty much completely fan-service-less, for you people who can't stand that. However, while it does have some very heartwarming moments, it lacks action, and much in the way of genuine plot or conflict. But I did say it was slice of life, so that shouldn't be a surprise.
If you're looking for a good calm smiling ride to make you feel like you're among friends, as well as possibly make you want to pick up a camera, Tamayura is cute and completely non-impactful. If you need action, shock value or development from your anime, this won't quite cut it.
I heard about this show because the second season is airing now and I was curious.
Uh, it's a slice of life show, and so, by tradition, it's about four girls, with some extra hangers on. And by tradition, it's hard to talk about. The main character, Sawatari Fuu (above), is an amateur photographer, and the show makes use of the camera and photographs as both a symbol and a pursuit. "Tamayura" means "a fleeting moment," the title is probably plural. "Hitotose" means "one year," and, indeed, the series takes place over the course of the girls' first year of high school. So, "A year of fleeting moments."
Compared to the other slice of life series I've reviewed (Hidamari Sketch and K-On) I would say that Tamayura has more heart, but less humor. It made me tear up in a couple places, but it never really made me laugh.
The cast are unique and characterful and all have their issues (some more than others), and the series is pretty much completely fan-service-less, for you people who can't stand that. However, while it does have some very heartwarming moments, it lacks action, and much in the way of genuine plot or conflict. But I did say it was slice of life, so that shouldn't be a surprise.
If you're looking for a good calm smiling ride to make you feel like you're among friends, as well as possibly make you want to pick up a camera, Tamayura is cute and completely non-impactful. If you need action, shock value or development from your anime, this won't quite cut it.
Friday, July 12, 2013
Oreimo Season 2
Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga nai Season 2: B
For those of you with short memories or who haven't read the entirety of my reviews, the series' title translates to "My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute," and I gave the first season a B. It was better than I'd been expecting.
A good second season, deepens and adds complexity to the relationships between the characters and give us a greater sense of depth and development. And in that sense, Oreimo's second season succeeds. For the most part, we learn the motivations and desires of each of the characters, and not too many new characters are introduced to dilute the action.
You may notice I'm not praising it particularly strongly.
Oreimo, both seasons, are not bad. They are in fact, good, and there are a number of situations and scenes that I really, really liked.
But a lot of it is uninspired. What started out as an interesting story about otakuism, coming out, and trying to make things work with your family evolves into a harem series. A harem series with minimal fan service, well-written situations and high production values, but ultimately feeling weak due to the series' need to give every girl her own shot at the main character. Several gain leads, and the interactions of the girls are humorous, characterful and interesting by turns, but the series vacillates a little too hard between comedic violence and serious characterization for my tastes.
If you liked the first season, you'll like the second. The characterization continues, there are a number of truly excellent situations (the Kuroneko arc in the middle of the series is one of the most brilliant I've seen anywhere), and frankly, you'll probably have a difficult time criticizing it unless you're just not into otaku jokes or have been spoiled by truly amazing character development and writing. If you were on the fence about the first season, the second will push you into liking it if you fixate on the high points and hating it if you fixate on the low points. If you didn't like the first season, the second definitely won't fix everything for you.
For those of you with short memories or who haven't read the entirety of my reviews, the series' title translates to "My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute," and I gave the first season a B. It was better than I'd been expecting.
A good second season, deepens and adds complexity to the relationships between the characters and give us a greater sense of depth and development. And in that sense, Oreimo's second season succeeds. For the most part, we learn the motivations and desires of each of the characters, and not too many new characters are introduced to dilute the action.
You may notice I'm not praising it particularly strongly.
Oreimo, both seasons, are not bad. They are in fact, good, and there are a number of situations and scenes that I really, really liked.
But a lot of it is uninspired. What started out as an interesting story about otakuism, coming out, and trying to make things work with your family evolves into a harem series. A harem series with minimal fan service, well-written situations and high production values, but ultimately feeling weak due to the series' need to give every girl her own shot at the main character. Several gain leads, and the interactions of the girls are humorous, characterful and interesting by turns, but the series vacillates a little too hard between comedic violence and serious characterization for my tastes.
If you liked the first season, you'll like the second. The characterization continues, there are a number of truly excellent situations (the Kuroneko arc in the middle of the series is one of the most brilliant I've seen anywhere), and frankly, you'll probably have a difficult time criticizing it unless you're just not into otaku jokes or have been spoiled by truly amazing character development and writing. If you were on the fence about the first season, the second will push you into liking it if you fixate on the high points and hating it if you fixate on the low points. If you didn't like the first season, the second definitely won't fix everything for you.
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