All posts by draggle

Gundam Unicorn 03

OVA,

Gundam Unicorn has been pretty much everything I could ask for in a Gundam show. Epic space battles complete with explosions, political intrigue, futile wars and depressingly human characters. It seems poised to become my third favorite series in the meta-series, closely following Turn A Gundam and Zeta. My only complaint is it takes so long for the next episode to come out.

In the third OVA, we learn that the Unicorn Gundam has anti-Newtype capabilities which seem to overwhelm the pilot’s own will. Banagher almost kills Marida, only to stop at the last second. Later, Banagher begins to bond with Daghda, so of course Full Frontal kills Daghda. Banagher becomes enraged and finally gains the will to kill someone, only to have the father of the family he stayed with in the colony block his shot and die.

Banagher has been surprisingly pleasant as far as Gundam leads go. He has the usual issue of not wanting to fight, but who can blame him? He really does have no reason to, especially since he even knows the people he’s fighting against. And unlike certain other Gundam protagonists, his indecisiveness has been short-lived in comparison with the usual twenty to thirty episodes. Banagher’s bloodlust after Daghda’s death was also understandable – I, for one, was hoping he would succeed. Compared to Amuro and Camille’s endless whining, Banagher is great. And compared to Setsuna F. Seiei and the protagonists of Gundam Seed— well, let’s no go there. But he does still possess the immaturity and naivety that make Gundam what it is.

In addition to Banagher’s development, the supporting cast gets a lot of time in the spotlight as well. In particular, Marida and Daghda become fully fleshed out, to make Daghda’s death all the more disturbing. It was a nice contrast how the creators allowed Daghda to die – the Gundams withstand debris, explosions and beam particles, but the human body just disintegrates into nothingness with the light sweep of the saber, in the middle of a last-ditch attack which doesn’t even faze his enemy.

For the next episode it seems like we are Earthbound and hopefully will see the political side of things from the point of Mineva. Gundam Unicorn truly makes it feel like the end of an era is approaching, with Mineva, who we last saw as a child,  fully grown, and a weapon that has been built to make Newtypes, once seen as the future of humanity, obsolete.

Asatte no Houko Review – B+

Reviews,

Summary: Karada lives alone with her brother Hiro after her parents die, and wishes that she were an adult so that she could help her brother more. Shouko, Hiro’s girlfriend from when he lived abroad in America, comes to their town and meets Hiro again, who abandoned her to take care of Karada. By the power of an ancient shrine, Karada and Shouko’s wishes are granted as they switch ages. They are forced to deal with the consequences and learn to accept themselves as they search for a way to return to their original form.

Discussion: I had been hearing good things about a Asatte no Houko for a while, but had kept putting it off because of its premise. Swapping ages does not exactly sound promising, particularly when my mind somehow associates it with the gender-swap genre. Asatte no Houko’s premise is ridiculous but the execution is excellent and more than makes up for it.

First of all, the characters are fantastic, particularly for Shouko and Karada, the female leads.  The viewer is able to see why Shouko and Karada do the things they do, which differ drastically between the two  – there are no big surprises here since the viewer is really able to understand the characters. This enables the drama to come through and turns this show into quite the tearjerker. The pacing was excellent as well. I’ll often find myself losing interest in dramas like this and end up fast-forwarding, but I felt no urge to do so here.

 

The way the creators used the premise of swapping ages was masterfully done in spite of how ridiculous it seems. As one would expect, there were plenty of jokes about the age swap- Shouko trying to smoke cigarettes and picking fights with adults and teenagers who treat her like a kid, and Karada trying to get a job. But despite the humor surrounding the situation, the creators are able to turn it into a serious, heartwarming drama as well. I should also mention that little girl Shouko is extremely cute.

Overall, Asatte no Houko was excellent, but there was one thing which annoyed me a lot- Hiro, Shouko’s ex-girlfriend and Karada’s brother. Most of the cast was very well-developed— except for him, and he is central to the entire plot. For most of the show he didn’t even have eyes which was extremely creepy. They had me convinced he was going to end up raping someone (spoiler: he doesn’t). I assume the creators were going for the “now he’s transformed and his eyes are open” angle, but I wish they could have found a more subtle way to do so. He also has about the initiative of a doorknob, although he does improve somewhat by the end of the show.

My only other complaint is that there were too many deus ex machina in the plot. People conveniently running into each other is one thing, but Karada just happening to run away from home to the bed and breakfast her friends would be staying at was just too much. Still, a relatively minor problem which is easily overlooked as part of the whole.

  • Plot / Script –  9 / 10 – Excellent pacing, dialogue and humor.
  • Characters – 9 / 10 – Great development of the cast excluding Hiro.
  • Production –  9 / 10 – The artwork is good but not too special, and fits well with the story. But the background piano music is exceptional.
  • Overall – B+

Recommendations – Kashimashi (good), Myself; Yourself, H20 (these two aren’t really that good, but have a similar feel)

Nichijou OVA

OVA,

Nichijou is Kyo-Ani’s next show in the tradition of Lucky Star and K-ON, and I’m quite optimistic after watching this OVA about how it will turn out. We get three segments in this OVA: in the first, Mio (shown above) tries to trick her friend Yuuki into feeling positively after scoring a 1 / 100 on a test, complete with fishing imagery. I’ve been in a similar situation too many times to count, so this part hit home with me. In the second segment, Nano the wind-up girl together with her talking cat try to get a loli mad scientist to take her medicine. The third segment involves doing cartwheels and sleeping on an empty train.  I would say that the humor is actually more along the lines of Azumanga Daioh’s than Lucky Star or K-ON’s.

Mio and Yuuki were enjoyable to watch together and have a good chemistry, both in the first segment and the train segment. I didn’t enjoy the segment with Nano and the little girl as much – I think it could have been a bit shorter, and the jokes just didn’t have the same punch for me.

All in all, I’m looking forward to the TV show beginning in a few weeks and am planning to watch it. I doubt I’ll blog it though – I’ve realized I just don’t have as much to say about comedies (unless they’re bad *cough* onii-chan no koto *cough*). There’s nothing more boring than someone talking about what was funny.

 

Onii-chan no Koto… 10

Onii-chan no Koto,

Star Driver and Zombie will be delayed for obvious reasons. You can donate to the Japanese Red Cross here.

Apologies for the map covering a quarter of the screen, but honestly, it wasn’t really blocking much. I can’t for the life of me figure out where this show is trying to go. The first episode was funny – and Nao still is an interesting character. But every other episode has just pushed her into the background reliving the same jokes and following Shuusuke around, peeking from behind bushes. Why don’t the creators let Nao and Iroha actually do something for a change instead of stalking Shuusuke? It was somewhat funny for the first episode when Iroha did it, but my tolerance was exceeded long ago. It doesn’t help that they overused Kondou for a series of episodes, which pushed Nao and Iroha into the background, only to apparently forget about her now.

And now not only do Nao and Iroha remain as stalkers, but we get two new characters with barely any time left in the show. What in the world were they thinking introducing this cosplay girl? She is ridiculous (in a painful way) and her sister is not much better. I guess Nao having a yuri lover could have potential, but otherwise I couldn’t see any point to this episode. I guess the joke was supposed to be how shameless Shuusuke was? It might be funny except this is the punchline for every other joke in this show (the other half being that Nao and Iroha are stalkers).

They already passed the point the manga ended a while ago (it hadn’t gotten to the trip to the pool with Kondou), so this may be part of the problem.  The manga probably had enough material for at most six episodes (and a lot of this was too drawn out). Some shows manage to make anime original material which is better than the original series, but this is not one of them. Every original part the creators have attempted has been, frankly, a dismal failure. Overall this series has been quite disappointing, although in retrospect I shouldn’t be surprised. The director, Keitarou Motonaga, has a history of poor adaptations with one notable exception.

Fractale 08

Fractale,

In which the clones make their appearance and Phryne’s father molests children.

On the positive side, the frequency of the “Clain is a pervert” jokes seem to be decreasing, although there were still a few too many in this episode. I do have to admit that I laughed when Clain appeared out of the grate under Phryne’s skirt.

The scene with Phryne’s father helps to explain a bit why she was running away and her reaction to her attacker in the last episode. But I’m not really able to take him seriously as a villain because of how he’s been presented in the earlier episodes as not entirely competent. His very appearance screams “comic-relief character”. So now when he does these very disturbing things, it’s a bit hard to buy. The same thing is true of Enri and the rest of Lost Millennium suddenly starting a massacre. It’s just… where exactly did this come from?

Some shows have a similar contrast being seriousness and playfulness, such as Narutaru and Higurashi, but I feel that these are much better executed. Even though everything is bright on the surface of these shows, the creators make it so you can sense that there is an undercurrent of darkness behind the facade. Fractale completely lacks the feeling that it’s hiding things or that anything is deeper than it seems.

The show has a similar problem with the setting – it’s just jumping around all over the place, but there is no hinting of more to the world than what they’ve shown. Everyone lives in mobile homes? A ruined town which is off the grid? Oh, now they live in dopple cities? How about some shepherds?A secret based with some clones? The creators seem to be trying to create a large, diverse world, but they’ve neglected the parts that tie the world together. The characters just tend to show up at locations almost by accident, and are surprised by what they find there. Shouldn’t they know something about the world they live in, as should the viewer over the course of the show? But the various locations are almost entirely disconnected, without a sense of a larger world that ties them together. (case in point: the priesthood didn’t seem to have much if any influence in the city)

Bandage-Phryne was sad though. 🙁  Even if it was completely predictable what would happen. Bandages make everything better.