As a fan of the Tales series I was looking forward to this movie, and was not disappointed. Production IG decided to toss out the plot of the game and make a prequel, with Yuri and Flynn’s adventures in the knights before the start of the game. It worked out quite well, with a story that could conclude in a single movie but has plenty of room for sequels. I’m curious how faithful the sequels will be to the game plot though – especially those two twins, they were never in the game at all but were two of the main characters in this movie. Perhaps we can look forward to an untimely demise?

The characters are great and well developed, which is unsurprising since they have great material from the game to work with. The characters and their interactions are really the strong point of the Tales games- all those side dialogs as you’re walking around through the overworld make for some great development. I wish more RPG makers would realize that this is what makes a great game and not fancy graphics and fast-paced real time battle systems (*cough* *cough* FFXIII).

But back to the movie – my only issue with the characters was that I couldn’t tell the two twins apart. I didn’t realize their physical differences until the captain pointed it out. As a unit though they worked well. And baby Repede was so cute! Also, Yuri looked less feminine than I remember him being in the game. I think it’s because he’s wearing his knight uniform instead of that low-cut shirt. We can probably look forward to his fashion sense degrading in the next movie.

The plot of the movie was fairly typical – man vs. nature (evil monster in castle), the villagers band together to defeat it, the monster’s master is revealed to be the evil sorceror. But I didn’t mind, it’s typical because it’s proven to work. The movie is light-hearted and doesn’t take itself too seriously, with humorous, well spread out jokes.

• Plot / Script – 8 / 10 – A typical fantasy plot, but done well.
• Characters – 9 / 10 – It’s Tales.
• Production  – 10 / 10 – It’s a movie by Production IG, what do you expect? The CG for the monster in the castle was only a little bit out of place
• Overall – B+

How it would be Worse Better under Director Draggle – More Rita. Also more people who mistook Yuri for a girl.

Recommendations – Tales of Phantasia, Miyazaki movies, Book of Bantorra

I’d forgotten how much fun this show could be. And with the improved animation used in a movie, it’s only better. The movie continues the same level of ridiculousness as the television show, and it’s not recommended for those who haven’t seen the original show and aren’t familiar with the characters. The movie is similar to a single episode from the TV series – a villain shows up, Vash attempts to stop them, massive destruction ensues. Unfortunately the destruction in this movie was more limited than I would have preferred.

My biggest complaint about this movie would have to be that the plot is a bit too predictable. You can see the “I am your father” coming from a mile away.  Amelia’s backstory in general was painful and slow to sit through, but the scenes where she was beating up the bounty hunters and interacting with Vash managed to make up for it.

• Plot / Script – 7 / 10 – A plot has never been Trigun’s strong point. Most of the jokes had me laughing, even though there could have been more.
• Characters – 9 / 10 – Vash in particular is fun to watch.
• Production –  9 / 10 – A marked improvement from the TV series.
• Overall – B+

How it would be Worse Better under Director Draggle – More jokes, less tragic pasts. Replace moral lessons with extra explosions. More Meryl and Millie… it really seemed like they only made cameo appearances.

Recommendations – Black Lagoon, Full Metal Panic, Cowboy Bebop

Shiki (屍鬼) is a horror show set in a remote village where Shiki, a hybrid of the living dead, vampires and werewolves, slowly overtake the village. A personal disclaimer – I used to think I hated horror, when what came to mind was mindless zombie fests and serial killers with chainsaws. But after watching Higurashi, it’s now one of my favorite genres. A good horror show, in my opinion, isn’t about loud noises that make you jump out of your seat or gratuitous, bloody violence which makes you look away. Horror is about the atmosphere – you can sense the fear of the characters and the knowledge of impending doom. Shiki is excellent in this area. For about the first 15 episodes, there isn’t even any substantial resistance to the Shiki as they slowly overtake the town, and a sense of complete hopelessness settles in. Then the tides turn, and the same hopelessness and terror are transferred to the Shiki themselves as they are murdered and driven from the town.

Shiki has a large cast of characters, all of which are well developed, but in my opinion the focus was spread a bit too thin at times. Particularly with Natsuno, Kaori and Akira – at the beginning, they were the only ones resisting the Shiki, but in the last half they more or less completely disappeared from the story. It would have been nice to see Kaori a bit after her breakdown. Also, this may be an effect of watching only one episode per week, but there were a few characters who seemed important but hardly showed up at all. I saw that werewolf girl with freckles a few episodes from the end and couldn’t remember seeing her before. Also the shiki from the funeral parlor and the creepy little kid who came to Natsuno’s house – whatever happened to them? I couldn’t really follow / remember Seishin’s story from week to week either.

Overall, Shiki does a great job at building a dark, tense atmosphere and follows through on this to a suitably terrifying conclusion.

• Plot / Script – 9 / 10 – Great at building a horrifying atmosphere.
• Characters – 9 / 10 – Very well developed for such an ambitiously large cast.
• Production – Visual – 8 / 10 – Great use of light to build atmosphere, gore is intense but not distracting (except when it should be… i.e. the doctor’s wife)
• Production – Auditory – 9 / 10 – It isn’t Ghost Hound, but the sound still serves to build the tense atmosphere.
• Overall – B+

Voice Actor of the Show Award – Haruka Tomatsu (戸松遥) – Megumi Shimizu – Her character is annoying as hell, and the voice is a perfect fit.

How it would be Worse Better under Director Draggle – More follow up on Natsuno, Kaori and Akira. Also, vampires shouldn’t be able to cross running water or enter churches. 🙂

Recommendations – Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni, Ghost Hound

The main character of Kuragehime (海月姫 – Jellyfish Princess), Tsukimi, is a young, nerdy woman who is obsessed with jellyfish, her fellow dormmates with equally esoteric obsessions. It follows Tsukimi’s relationship with two brothers in a neighboring rich famil: Kuranosuke, a popular high school transvestite, and Shuu,  thirty year-old virgin, on a course to follow his father and uncle’s footsteps into politics. Tsukimi’s house is going to be shut down for redevelopment, and loosely follows their attempts to prevent their eviction.

With this setup, I was expecting lots of drama / romance combined with crude crossdressing humor and a supporting cast of single joke caricatures (Tsukimi’s nerdy doormmates). I held out some hope since the show was in the noitanimA timeslot and and was pleasantly surprised. The romance is nice and subtle, eschewing the usual over-the-top confessions and misunderstandings for a slow, understated development between the three characters. There’s sufficient drama to keep the show going (I especially enjoyed Shuu’s “affair”). There’s no real conclusion, since the creators only had ten episodes to work with, but I considered the ending satisfying, aside from the romance angle. Kuranosuke’s cross-dressing is done quite nicely and actually didn’t bother me- it is well explained and the reactions by the other characters are quite believable (well, except for the prime minister).

Some of the shoujo / josei cliches which annoy me the most did make their way into the show though. Namely the Cinderella effect, where Tsukimi changes clothes and puts on makeup and is suddenly the most beautiful woman in the city. It is believable; since she literally puts no effort whatsoever into her appearance most of the time, and Kuranosuke is an expert in dressing up. It still annoys me though. Actually the entire subplot about dresses and making the jellyfish dress bored me. But, I suppose I’m not the target audience. Also, the supporting characters are not well developed, especially Tsukimi’s dormmates and the prime minister. Every time the prime minister showed up I just hit myself on the head. But these single jokes were used quite well, especially the girl who liked old men and the one with the afro. And I think I probably would have appreciated Maya more if I actually knew anything about the Three Kingdoms.

• Plot / Script – 8 / 10 – Simple and to the point story with good use of humor.
• Characters – 9 / 10 – The main characters are well flushed out along with a few side characters (the redeveloper who tricks Shuu, Shuu’s driver).
• Production – Visual – 6 / 10 – Consistent and acceptable, but nothing special.
• Production – Auditory – 7 / 10 – Nice OP.
• Overall – B

Voice Actor of the Show Award – Takehito Koyasu (武人子安) – Yoshio Hanamori (Shuu’s driver). I just can’t get enough of his deep, full, indifferent voice.

How it would be Worse Better if I Were the Director – Less Maya, more of the afro train girl and the old men girl. Less dresses and tragic flashbacks about mothers.

Recommendations – Nodame Cantabile, Honey and Clover