Nichijou — First Impressions

Impressions,

A few segments were funny, in particular the dropped food segment and everything with Sasahara-senpai, but most of this episode’s humor fell flat for me. Especially the segments with Nano and the Professor— they’re just walking around being cute, but it isn’t funny at all. The segments with Mio, Yuuko and Mai are much stronger.

I’m not going to blog this, but I’ll probably keep watching it. Actually, my enjoyment of this episode was ruined because I had peeked at the manga already and read most of this episode’s jokes. Except I forgot that I had read it, and thought that this episode was just stealing footage from the OVA (I glanced through the OVA again and confirmed that this wasn’t the case). Anyway, the lesson is: don’t read the manga beforehand if you want to be surprised.

Toaru Majutsu no Index II Review — C-

Reviews,

I’ll confess, the main reasons I’m still watching this are for Biri-biri, to see what’ll get hacked on next to Crystal Dragon Jesus, and to see which girl Touma is going to punch in the face next. Index II has made especially good progress in the last category.

Index II has followed in the footsteps of the first season, maintaining more or less the same quality. It’s good for what it is, a fun action show, once Touma decides to stop talking to his enemies or on his cellphone and punch people. I felt like there were less Touma monologues in this season, so that’s good.

My favorite part about this series is the setting. It’s quite imaginative, and gives a sense that there’s a lot more to it than their showing. Building a world like this is an ambitious project, and the creators are doing well with it. Magic is awesome, espers are awesome, and crystal dragon Jesus is awesome.

The biggest problem is the characters. Not that they’re uninteresting; to the contrary, the characters are very strong. The problem is that there are too many of them and they never get enough attention. I mean, look at that maid girl who sits on the robot— she appeared in the ending credits, but who was she again? Himegami, Komoe-sensei and even Index barely showed up. It would help if they found a way to make more of the characters play a role in each of the arcs, since right now only a few characters take part in each one.

  • Plot / Script – 7 / 10 – Great world-building, but Touma can be talkative and preachy.
  • Characters – 7 / 10 – Strong characters, but they don’t get enough attention.
  • Production – 7  / 10 – Consistent but fairly standard.
  • Overall – C-

Recommendations – Asura Cryin’, Shakugan no Shana, Legend of Legendary Heroes….

Dog Days — First Impression

Impressions,

Shinku, a Parkour master and middle school student from Japan, is summoned to a fantasy world to be a hero in a war between cats and dogs. The dogs are about to lose their castle, and if they do, the people will be……  *wait for it*…… *wait for it*…… disappointed. To prevent this tragic fate, Shinku decides to embrace his role as hero and fight in the war, which is fought as a “be a ninja”-style gameshow with obstacle courses.

I’m almost embarrassed to admit it, but I actually liked this episode. This show is just so unbelievably stupid that it might actually work. With the high stakes war, side-scroller Chocobo races, and ridiculous battles I couldn’t help but laugh. It also helps that our “hero” has no doubts or hesitation whatsoever, which is refreshing. It’s an open question whether I’ll still find this funny in a few episodes, but at the very least we shouldn’t have to worry about the show entering srs bsns mode due to how stupid it is.

This probably isn’t for everyone though: you have to have a certain “stupid” sense of humor to enjoy it, which I (unfortunately?) do.

Fractale Review — C-

Reviews, ,

Fractale is an adventure set in a world where a system of satellites, the Fractale system, runs to maintain a virtual world in conjunction with the real world which satisfies basic necessities and allows people to interact with dopples, virtual avatars. Clain meets a girl, Phrynne, a priestess and Nessa, a dopple, who are the key to restoring the breaking-down Fractale system. The three travel together while avoiding the forces trying to capture them.

The main problem with Fractale is that the use of time is terrible, which really matters in an eleven episode show. The middle episodes were a complete a waste— they added only inconsistent information about the world which didn’t relate to the titular Fractale system, and were more or less long sequences of jokes about how Clain is a pervert. They weren’t even funny. Then, of course, because so much time was wasted, the ending was rushed. The series asks so many questions, but doesn’t look at any of them in detail.

Fractale has an interesting setting, certainly, but it is treated so inconsistently and without lead-ins that it seems fragmented and not like a single world. Initially, it seems that everyone in the world lives alone in trailers, and Clain’s living in a house is a social taboo. But not long after we meet rebels who live in a town. Then there are refugees fleeing from a town destroyed when parts of the Fractale system shut down. Can’t they just pick up and move if they live in trailers? Then we jump to a decadent city run by shepherds, and a secret base with robots and clones. It just seems like the creators didn’t know what to do with the setting and changed their mind every episode. The world of the first episode didn’t seem anything like the world of the final episode, and they weren’t able to build a consistent and believable world.

In addition, the creators don’t really address any of the issues raised by the Fractale system at all after the first episode. Clain’s parents raised an interesting question in the first episode, saying that asking people to live together infringes on their freedom. It’s never mentioned again. There are some references to “data drugs”, but it never plays much of a role. Plus, it’s never explained why everyone is so dependent on the Fractale system. It doesn’t grow food, does it? And you can’t live in virtual houses, even though the refugees seemed to- Clain did fall through the floor of one. At the end of the show, the characters end up restoring the Fractale system, but no reason is given. They came to destroy it and ended up fixing it, but why? It just seems like they’re going with the flow. In general, the show ignored the interesting questions in favor of Clain being a pervert.

Fractale also had a strange mix of a peaceful, beautiful Ghibli-esque setting with acts of brutality. One minute we’re laughing and running through the trailer park, the next we’re gunning down innocent bystanders, getting raped and stabbing people. There’s hardly any transition between the two, and I couldn’t really take the violence seriously due to the rest of the show. It just seemed completely out of place.

  • Plot / Script – 6 / 10 – Too much time wasted on Clain being perverted, not enough time on the Fractale system. Inconsistent world-building.
  • Characters – 7 / 10 – Clain gets annoying because of all the jokes surrounding him, and the main villain is a complete joke, but otherwise interesting (particularly Nessa and Phrynne).
  • Production – 8 / 10 – Great animation, especially when they try, such as the scene with Nessa’s mischief in the trailer park and the town market.
  • Overall – C-

Recommendations – Ghibli Movies, Dennou Coil

Fractale 11

Fractale,

A bit rushed and a tad over-dramatic for my tastes, but at least everything was resolved. First of all, Phrynne’s father: I could just never take him seriously. He looks like a complete idiot and is totally incompetent. Taunting Clain as a “clueless adventure boy” through the window does not exactly make a formidable or even respectable antagonist. Phrynne’s response to his taunts was nice though. I liked how understated her stabbing was, with no build-up or warning whatsoever. Just one minute he’s discussing raping her and the next he’s half-dead on the floor. The amount of time it took for Clain and Nessa to react was a nice touch as well. But maybe this is just my “why hasn’t he die already?” inner voice speaking.

I mostly liked the lover’s suicide that the creators decided to do with Dias and the head priestess as well. When Dias first appeared, my immediate thought was “second-stage final boss.” It’s nice to be surprised  and have a villain like Dias who believes and does exactly what he says. Generally the kinds of things like sincerity and conviction are reserved for the good guys (or the unwilling bad guys / bad guys who switch sides). But still, it was rushed and the priestess’s reactions didn’t make much sense.

Now on to the bad side: nothing in the ending was really a surprise. We already knew about Phrynne and Nessa’s relationship. Nessa is 16 and is named after a teddy bear, but this doesn’t really change anything, aside from making the lolicon ending more socially acceptable. Nothing new was revealed, and they should have saved a few things for the final episode.

Then there’s Sunda’s death: it was completely pointless. Dias’ death was pointless as well, but at least it accomplished something useful by clearing the room. Why, a year later, do they show Enri reminiscing about Clain, the “true pervert”, and not about Sunda? And the epilogue used the one-year coma plot device, which I really hate. What is the point of making the character fall into a coma for ten seconds of viewing time? Am I supposed to be surprised and touched when she wakes up or something?

Nice explosion.