Tag Archives: anime

First Impression – GoSick

Impressions,
What is she smoking?

I had very low expectations going into this show due to the title, but it turned out to have some potential. Definitely not one of Bones’ best works though. The banter between the two main characters is enjoyable to watch. So far I think the mystery aspect of the show is lacking, however. Even I could figure out who the murderer was. It’s not so much the girl is a genius as the other two are idiots. Maybe that was the point though. Since this is only the first episode, I assume the mysteries will become more involved as the show moves along.

I'm guessing the setting is based on Savoy?

It looks like next week the show is moving into more supernatural stuff. I’m guessing that they will get into more mythology as well. I’m hoping they’ll use actual myths rather than ones they made up for the show – it’s not like there is a lack of material to work with. Plus, I hope they develop the setting more. I am a real sucker for settings in alternate histories like this, and it would be great if they went into more historical details. I’m not too hopeful though, as I think they made up most of the myths that were mentioned so far. The “springtime reaper” legend sounds plausible but a quick google search didn’t reveal anything. On further reflection I would think a reaper would be more closely associated with autumn. Guess we should learn more in the rest of the show.

Gotta love those hats!
What is this? I don't even...

First Impression – Yumekui Merry

Impressions,

I was expecting this show to be boring and uninspired and I have to say that it fully lived up to my expectations. Boy has a nightmare (this was the best part of the show, I briefly held out hope that we would get some steampunk), goes to school, talking with his childhood friend on the way. When he goes home a magical girl falls on him from the sky. What a surprise. Then he is cornered by a monster from his dream and said magical girl rescues him. They have a fist fight (which is slow and boring) and then return to the real world. The girl cries because she wants to return to the world of nightmares. What tragedy!

But seriously, do the creators of this have any imagination? They are fighting in a dream that the cat boss created for goodness sake. Why are they having a fist fight? This needs magic and explosions! One of the cats had a cannon but was standing next to the boy, and even as useless as he is he can beat up a cat. And the main girl is named Merry Nightmare. Seriously? Couldn’t you use a random name generator, or at least name her Mary so we can pretend it was a bad pun?

First Impression – Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica

Impressions,

I was expecting this to be a parody, but it was actually quite serious. It was Nanoha meets Hidamari Sketch meets Negima, which sounds like a complete disaster but somehow seemed to work.  My main concern is, will this be any different from Nanoha at all, aside from the Hidamari faces (not that they aren’t great, to be clear). But seriously – girl rescues cute talking ferret, and fights against her friend who is working for the evil witch. She has two friends at school, one of whom is a rich girl. She has a loving family. How is this different? Of course, there is still plenty of time for this show to distinguish itself.

Shinbo, lulz.

Maybe this is just the plot of every magical girl show (I’m not the biggest fan). But still, the episode was very enjoyable. The characterization is great and so is the animation – Shinbo mostly controlled his urges to spam tons of text and random images.

My two classmates are talking in the restricted area of the shopping mall! My friend is sitting down with a ferret in her lap. What should I do?! I know, I'll attack the other girl with a fire extinguisher!
This girl's supposed to be a genius? Pfft! The numerator on the second step of the complification of f(n) is wrong!

First Impression – Infinite Stratos

Impressions,

For the first few minutes I felt like I was having deja vu from Dragonauts of all things, with what looked like the same kind of setting, overacting and a horribly cliched plot. This plus a combination with the harem from Chaos Head. Definitely not a winning combination. Fortunately in a few minutes it got much better, as the creators seemed to realize that they have a hopeless setup and decided not to take it seriously. If this show continues to focus on the parody and not lapse into SERIOUS BUSINESS like so many shows of this type seem to it could end up being pretty decent, but I don’t have my hopes set too high.

Once the female lead let her hair down, she really reminded me of the president from Seitokai Yakuindomo.

They really do look similar. I looked it up afterwards and apparently they even have the same voice actress. I wonder if Shinonono has a teddy bear….

Tales of Vesperia – The First Strike Review – B+

Reviews,

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).

This is animal abuse!

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.

Now THIS is more like it! More of this in the next movie, please?
Don't underestimate the power... of reading!

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