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Usagi Drop Review — B+

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Daikichi’s grandfather passes away, and at the funeral, he discovers that his grandfather had an illegitimate child, Rin. Instead of sending her to the orphanage, Daikichi takes her in, and begins the life of a single parent.

First of all, in a medium where most shows are about teenagers whose parents are conspicuously absent, I have to give Usagi Drop credit. It takes on parenting directly, and its main characters are a thirty year old man and a six year old girl.

With that said, the relationship between Daikichi and Rin is one of the weakest parts of the show. Rin’s main role is to act cute and need Daikichi. In many ways, she’s too “perfect” as a child to be believable— she cooks all the family meals, never throws fits, and she and Daikichi get along perfectly from the get-go. There are occasional conflicts, like Rin wetting the bed, but again, this falls in the cuteness category. In the sense of getting along with Rin, Daikichi’s job is too easy.

Fortunately, the relationships between the other characters are much more interesting. In particular, we have Yukari and Kouki, a single mother and a child of Rin’s age who befriend Daikichi and Rin. Daikichi takes on a fatherly role for Kouki, and there is some chemistry between him and Yukari. We also have Daikichi’s extended family interacting with Rin to good effect, and Daikichi’s meetings with Rin’s biological mother provide some food for thought.

All in all, this was another good noitaminA show, following in the footsteps of Hourou Musuko and Ano Hana.

  • Plot / Script – A – Never feels rushed or boring, with thoughtful dialogue.
  • Characters – B – Daikichi is a bit simplistic, and Rin is more or less a placeholder, but otherwise strong.
  • Production – A – Gorgeous, bright animation, that resembles the drawings of a child.
  • Overall – B+

Recommendations – Hourou Musuko, Kurenai, NieA_7

Note: I’m going to be experimenting with giving letter grades instead of the odd 0.25 increments I used before, let’s see how it works. Thanks to Marrow for suggestions.

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Steins; Gate Review — B+

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Steins; Gate tells the tale of Okabe Rintarou Hououin Kyouma, a mad scientist who has developed a time machine that allows him to send text messages to the past. He experiments with it, changing the future slightly, only to discover that his friend is fated to die. The rest of the story chronicles his efforts to save her.

There’s a lot to like about Stein’s; Gate. We have a great setting, complete with time travel, paradoxes and international criminal conspiracies, led by the most evil organization in history, CERN, with their diabolical plan to construct the Large Hadron Collider.

But the best part is simply the characters and their interactions. I enjoyed watching them hang out in the lab nearly as much as I enjoyed the time travel. Okabe is a fun character, hovering on the border of insanity. It’s mostly an act, but it’s still a pleasure to watch, especially with the excellent work done by his voice actor. The best evil laugh since Lelouch?

Okabe only gets better coupled with Christina, who argues with him all the time. Steins; Gate sports the sharpest and wittiest dialogue of the year.

The show’s biggest weakness is the harem setup: there is a sequence of episodes whose sole purpose is to add girls to the harem. Ruka in particular seemed utterly pointless (and Feyris to a lesser extent). But this only lasts a few episodes.

Otherwise, it’s a great show, with enjoyable characters and a mystery that keeps you guessing. Go watch it if you haven’t already. El Psy Congroo.

  • Plot / Script – 10 / 10 – The best dialogue this year.
  • Characters – 9 / 10 – Mostly strong, although a few of the haremettes are weak.
  • Production – 9 / 10 – A dark, gritty feel. Superb voice acting for Okabe.
  • Overall – B+

Recommendations – Noein, The Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi, Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni

Towa no Quon 1 Review — D-

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No, not THAT Quon. Instead we get some punk kid.

The movie starts out with a decent Sacred Seven style fight scene. Then it self-destructed.

The first words out of this brat’s mouth are “I want to save everyone!” This is pretty much a secret keyphrase for people who watch enough anime, which indicates that the show is going to suck. This and “You’re you, ____!” are the defaults for creators who can’t be assed to come up with an interesting conflict.

Right after this exciting revelation, we learn that our protagonists are an organization of kids whose secret base is in an amusement park. They’re the Attractors, and they can change feelings into power. Good lord. They’re trying to save their own from a secret organization that’s trying to kill them because… well, because they create disorder.

Next some girl walks up to Quon, pulls her shirt down to show him her breasts, and shoves her butt in his face. He runs away, and the girl screams at some random passerby, “Stop staring at me, you pervert!” At least Fractale centered the pervert jokes around a character who was at the scene of the crime and had a name.

This all took place in the first five minutes after the initial fight scene. I’m not going to bother boring you by discussing the rest of the movie. It doesn’t get much better.

  • Plot / Script – 5 / 10 – I guess the battles were ok? As in, a bad version of Sacred Seven’s.
  • Characters – 4 / 10 – The most interesting was Quon, whose defining characteristic is that he wanted to save everyone.
  • Production – 6 / 10 – I guess the animation was decent? It is Bones after all. The music was awful though.
  • Overall – D-

Recommendations – Go watch Rahxephon? I’m not going to recommend anything like this movie.

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Mardock Scramble: The First Compression Review — A-

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I went into this movie with no expectations whatsoever, and came out blown away. If you see only a single movie this year, make it this one.

Mardock Scramble begins brutally, with the rape and murder of a young girl, Balot. I thought at first that Balot would just be a throwaway character to introduce our heroic detective and evil villain, who would be the lead characters in a fast-paced action show. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Mardock scramble turned out to be a deeply introspective film examining Balot’s past.

Balot

Balot is one of the most interesting characters I’ve seen in a while. Her first line in the film is “I wish I were dead.” When she is brought back to life, she is asked to visualize what she most wants, and a gun appears in her hand. The doctor assumes that Balot wants revenge against her murderer. But then Balot sets the barrel to her own cheek and pulls the trigger.

Suffice to say that Balot is a very broken person. Half of the movie takes the form of a walk around town with Oeufcoque, an AI who helps reveal her past, with interspersed gun fights and car chases. Initially, Balot is afraid to go to court because her past and her shame will be revealed to the world.

But her budding relationship with Oeufcoque changes her mind. Balot attempts to construct her relationship with Oeufcoque based on what she’s used to. She tells him she wants him to love her, and in exchange she’ll do whatever he wants. Oeufcoque tries to tell her that he isn’t a man and that she should do as she wishes regardless, but Balot has the impression that he wants her to go to court, and does so.

The court scene was my favorite part of the movie. Balot, since she can’t speak, is given three buttons to answer questions with: yes, no, and silence, along with a jeopardy-style writing stylus. The film managed to convey an incredible amount of information and emotion through these three buttons and a skillful use of flashbacks.

“When you were younger, did you engage in sexual relations with your own father?” Yes.
“Why didn’t you offer resistance?” I loved my dad.
“You loved him as a man?” No.
“Your brother offered violent resistance to your father when he learned of your relationship. Do you know why?” He loved me.
“As a woman?” No.
“Do you still love your father?” Silence.
“Do you love your father as a man?” I don’t know how to love my family anymore.
“Do you believe you are to blame for what happened to your family?” *hesitation* Yes.

Now this is a great way to tell the story of someone’s past: through flashbacks which are firmly grounded in the present, both emotionally and cinematically.

The Cycle of Abuse

By the end of the movie, the chain comes full circle, and Balot begins to abuse Oeufcocque, using him against his will to murder the villains. Oeufcocque has also been abused in the past, by the man Balot is fighting, and a built-in reaction makes him reject Balot. But Oeufcocque decides to accept Balot regardless, and fights against the reaction in response to Balot’s tearful apology. Balot is forgiven and cracks are formed in the cycle of abuse. At this point, the film ends on a cliffhanger with bullets approaching Balot. The credits roll and we go into a fitting rendition of Amazing Grace.

I’ve noticed that grace and forgiveness do not seem to factor into anime as much as western media. The focus instead seems to be on building trust in relationships. The only show that immediately comes to mind with a focus on forgiveness is Sola; does anyone else have thoughts on this?

Graphic Violence

Mardock Scramble does not pull its punches. It’s a very graphic film. We have some of the more complete depictions of rape in anime, exploding body pieces, and some utterly grotesque villains such as Welldone the Pussyhand. I thought this was a good thing, but be warned.

World Building

The world of Mardock Scramble is interesting and unique, but the main thing the film does so well is avoid getting bogged down in the details. The show doesn’t even bother trying to explain most of its sci-fi components. The film makes the spectacular seem mundane, because in Balot’s world, it is.

Final Thoughts

Balot’s characterization blew me away. The setting is fascinating and there’s just the right mix of well-scripted dialogue and action. My main complaint is that we have to wait now for the next two movies in the trilogy.

  • Plot / Script – 9 / 10 – Great script, especially that courtroom scene.
  • Characters – 10 / 10 – Ten points here just for Balot. I didn’t even mention the villains, but they’re also quite fascinating (aside from the body parts gang).
  • Production – 10 / 10 – A beautifully rendered world. Balot’s voice actor did an especially great job.
  • Overall – A-

Recommendations – Ghost in the Shell (for a similar world, if little else), Phantom

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Redline Review — B

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When Redline first came out, there were a lot of comparisons to Wacky Races floating around. If you haven’t seen Wacky Races before, do yourself a favor and go watch an episode now.

I loved Wacky Races when I was a kid. It was in the running with Roadrunner and Coyote for my favorite cartoon (you can probably see a theme here). So I was absolutely pumped for Redline‘s release. Unfortunately, all the hype left me a bit disappointed.

Wacky Races is… well… wacky. In the short segment I linked to, we have stop lights delivered by rockets, lassos, vehicles floating on top of geysers, and cars driven by bears, the mafia, and southern belles. Redline isn’t wacky in the silly way that Wacky Races is. A better word would be crazy— they bring things such as speed and danger beyond the point of ridiculousness. But the film never descends ascends into silliness and wackery. The only point of commonality between the two shows is a no-holds barred race. What is Wacky Races without being funny? It isn’t Wacky Races, that’s for sure. In its essence, Redline is not a film about a wacky race, but a drop of distilled manliness in its purest form.

Problematic comparisons aside, Redline is a fun movie. If you’re looking for an adrenaline-filled action flick, Redline‘s got pretty much everything you could ask for: absurd speeds, manly shouts, guns, girls, eternal friendship, betrayal, explosions, deranged robots, orbital bombardment, and battles between giant space monsters. The race takes place in the middle of a war zone. The film is certainly wild, if not wacky. In the end, the guy gets the girl, and our heroes win the race by literally a hair’s breath, running across the finish line at mach speed while their car explodes in the background.

The visuals are downright spectacular.  But the actual story and characters are decidedly less so. Much of the narrative comes across as an excuse to create explosions (not to imply that there is anything wrong with explosions!).

A few of the characters are mildly interesting, and I did enjoy seeing the relationship between JP, the mechanic and the junk dealer unfold. The spider mechanic coming to the junk dealer’s rescue was my favorite scene. I thought he was either going to defuse the bomb or shoot the junk dealer, not rescue him.

Sonoshee was the film’s weakest link, from my perspective. She began as a strong and independent woman, but ended up as JP’s long lost childhood friend, winning the race while sitting in his lap. Kind of sad. As for the rest of the racers… well, suffice to say that I couldn’t name a single one.

Redline’s an enjoyable watch, but it’s just not my thing. If you love action shows, though, be sure to give this a spin.

  • Plot / Script – 8 / 10 – Action-packed with lots of explosions. Don’t watch this for the story.
  • Characters – 8 / 10 – The lead and his two friends are interesting to watch, but the rest of the racers are neglected.
  • Production – 10 / 10 – In the running for one of the best animated shows I’ve seen. Madhouse spent a lot of time on this, and it shows.
  • Overall – B

Recommendations – Dead Leaves, Wacky Races

Since I’m late to the party on watching this, I have the opportunity to share a few interesting takes on the movie by people with better taste other bloggers.

  • Yi examines oral sex and lips in Redline
  • Animekritik discusses the names, robot writing system and Leijiverse tie-ins
  • E Minor explains how the narrative fell short
  • Ogue Maniax looks at fanservice and the “man of action” in Redline
  • inushinde found Redline a ton of fun, but not a classic
  • ghostlightning explains how badass Redline is
  • Mr. A thought Redline was “visually splendid” but lacking story-wise
  • psgels found Redline a “visual orgasm”, albeit not the best movie ever