I’ll admit, from the minute in the first episode when a girl came out of a suitcase who could do nothing but say the main character’s name and hug him, my expectations were very low. And they weren’t disappointed.

The biggest problem is that the characters are completely one-dimensional and boring. Case in point: Rose, the aforementioned suitcase girl who is actually a dragon (the main difference between dragons and humans is that dragons go into heat frequently). She quite literally does nothing the entire show except obsess over the main character, Ryuuji, and act cute. Cute as in act like an annoying three-year old cute, except somehow she’s in middle school. Ryuuji is even more annoying: the generic harem lead, his only role is to be indecisive enough so that a hoard of pubescent girls can fight over him without his notice. Then there is Eriko, Ryuuji’s cousin… all I can really say about her after twelve episodes is that she shoots butterflies, used to live in America, and has breasts.

The supporting characters are a bit less annoying (probably because they showed up less). There’s a stereotypical mad scientist, complete with lab coat and spectacles; another mad scientist, who is also a pyromaniac; a European young lady, complete with parasol; the girl in class with a crush on the main character who is to shy to tell him; the girl of tragedy who underwent human experimentation to become a fox girl; the tomboy; the evil black dragon who *gasp* wants to build his own harem, and the priest who struggles over his duty. The priest was the most interesting character, so of course he didn’t show up after episode four. Each haremette starred in a couple episodes and otherwise didn’t have much of a role in the show.

The show seemed to have an interesting setting, but didn’t do much of anything with it except make BS up as it went along. The series seemed to get worse over a time, with the last episode almost reaching the point of so awful it was funny. The climax of the show comes when Ryuuji and Rose upgrade their power to “love engage” by kissing on the mouth instead of the hand, and the enemy is defeated by a pink heart. Seriously.

• Plot / Script – 4 / 10 – Gaping plot holes… like in one day Rose goes from saying one word to complete sentences and no one notices. The main sources of tension are going into heat and ten minute bursts of amnesia.
• Characters – 3 / 10 – Cliched and annoying (esp. the main characters)
• Production – 7 / 10 – Nothing special, but not bad either. The music is ok.
• Overall – F – Don’t watch it unless you’re really bored.

Recommendations – any of JC Staff’s other shows with the same premise (this is one of the worst) – Shakugan no Shana, Zero no Tsukaima, Yumekui Merry, etc.

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)

I finally finished Phoenix today after starting it approximately one year ago. This isn’t due to any fault of the show but due to my poor watching habits – I’ll start watching something and then either forget about it or not want to finish it because I like it and if I watch it it’ll be over. I still have about five episodes left of Utena which I started two years ago, and two episodes left of Lucky Star which I began three years ago. And in that interval I watched the first ten episodes of Lucky Star at least three times… But fortunately I remembered Hi no Tori yesterday and it hasn’t suffered the same fate. One of the advantages of having nothing new to watch on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Hi no Tori is a collection of short stories, each one to four episodes long, which involve the titular Phoenix to some degree.  It’s based on the manga which is widely considered to be Osamu Tezuka’s masterwork, which unfortunately I haven’t read. Initially all the stories seem completely disparate, but the way the creators bring the stories together in the end really stands out. I’m generally wary of shows which depend on separate plot arcs (especially episodic shows), but Hi no Tori did an excellent job at telling the shorter stories in the span of a few episodes without feeling rushed at all. In the last two arc, they managed to compress several billion years into two episodes and make it feel like a really long time, so the creators were definitely doing something right on this front. Making the best use of the time a show has is really a challenge which so many shows screw up on, but Hi no Tori manages to do just right. In just thirteen episodes it manages to have a larger, more developed cast than most two-season shows with at least double the plot content.

The other character that all the stories have in common besides the Phoenix is Saruta, who plays a different role every time. He’s never the main character of the arc but always a side character. I thought this was kind of strange, until at the end all the pieces came together and it became clear why this was so. Many of the characters are cursed with immortality and long lives. Saruta never is, but he lives as long as any of them in a sense. And the true driving force of the narrative in each arc is not the main character of that arc; it is the Phoenix throughout the entire story.

• Plot / Script – 10 / 10 – Very compelling stories in all of the arcs.
• Characters – 9 / 10 – Suffered a bit from their short shelf life.
• Production – 9 / 10 – Pleasant visuals, although I’ve noticed that none of the hands are very lifelike…
• Overall – A-

Recommendations – sola, Simoun (can’t say I’ve seen anything quite like Hi no Tori)

I watched the Evangelion TV series about four years ago. And I was quite underwhelmed. I didn’t like or care about any of the characters. The monster of the week format didn’t help much. And the ending was highly questionable. Plus, I kept trying to make sense of the randomly inserted mythological names and symbols and couldn’t make heads or tails of them. Every time I watched the OP all I could think about was “why is there a tree of life?”. I don’t think the issue was the plot– I loved Rahxephon, which had the same general idea. It was the execution which was terribly lacking.

Which brings us to the movie. When I watched the movie, it seemed like I was watching an entirely different story! I still didn’t like any of the characters – but now I hated them! There was so much more of an emotional impact the way they were portrayed in the movie. When I watched the original series, I remember thinking that Shinji was the character I couldn’t stand the most since he was so indecisive. But the movie’s portrayal of Shinji was so much more sympathetic – he’s really just a kid, abandoned by his father, hated by his classmates and with no positive adult role models whatsoever. How could I begrudge him not wanting to go and get himself killed for the bastards who put him in this situation?

And the character I hated the most in this movie was by far Misato. Shinji was absolutely right that she’s a hypocrite. At least Shinji’s dad has the decency to not even pretend to care about Shinji. But Misato’s alternating pretending to care and sending Shinji to die is the worst. Acting friendly and inviting him to live in her house, then sending him out in a mission to die. And when he does almost die (more or less every time) the way she acts like she didn’t think it would happen and really wants to rescue him is just disgusting. It really seems like she only worries about him and takes care of him because she wants to pretend to herself that she is a good person, but really, she isn’t fooling anyone. The way she talks to Shinji pissed me off as well. First she verbally abuses him for not deciding for himself about piloting. Then she hits him for disobeying her orders. And then when he finally does make up his own mind and decides he doesn’t want to pilot, she gets even angrier. And gives him some story about how everyone at Nerv is willing to die if he fails and the Angel arrives underground. Of course everyone is — wait, then why did no one tell Shinji about this? And why is there a school built above this base? This show just kept making me angrier and angrier about how these “adults” treat children.

I hated all of this show’s characters so I must have hated the movie, right? No, I loved it! A good characterization is one that makes you care about what happens to the characters, whether it’s love or hate, it’s all good with me. The thing which I absolutely can’t stand is characters which the viewer is completely indifferent to – this means that the show is boring. And the movie did show much better in this regard than the series – I don’t remember having much of an opinion about Misato at all in the TV series.

As for the rest of my complaints about the TV show – the monster of the week thing wasn’t an issue anymore since this was a movie. We haven’t seen the ending yet, but I assume it will be better. And they toned down the random mythobabble a lot. They did mention something about the angels eating from the tree of life and the Nerv eating the fruit of wisdom – well, it was knowledge, but a better attempt than before. And Nerv certainly doesn’t have wisdom, and if they do have the knowledge of good and evil — well, they certainly aren’t making good use of it. I might be a bit biased since I already know Nerv’s plan, but the angel’s seem to have a much better grasp on good and evil – they don’t even kill innocent bystanders, unlike certain groups that build schools on battlegrounds. They only gave the second an angel a name this time through – Lillith – which is a good fit since she is a mother figure. Overall a much better attempt at the mythology this time around.

I’m holding off on watching the second movie for a bit longer, but hopefully it will live up to the promise of the first movie.

• Plot / Script – 9 / 10 – Great dialogue.
• Characters – 9 / 10 – Excellent characters which evoke strong responses.
• Production – 9 / 10 – Nice explosions.
• Overall – A-

Voice Actor of the Show Award – Mitsuishi Kotono, for her portrayal Misato Kitsuragi that was believable enough that I could hate the character with a passion.

Recommendations – Rahxephon, Zeta Gundam

I did not particularly enjoy the Gundam 00 TV series. But this movie makes the TV show look like a masterpiece. Seriously, this was atrocious. First of all, it suffers from the same problems as the TV series (note: the full list is much longer).

1. One dimensional, boring characters who are complete assholes yet somehow popular. Exhibit A: Setsuna F. Seiei. He is a complete jerk, yet everyone loves him and thinks he is the only hope of saving mankind. In the original Gundam, Amuro was also a jerk, but at least everyone knew it and he had the decency to hate himself as well. Setsuna F. Seiei’s main character trait is his middle initial. He basically is a serial killer though, so I guess it fits. Which leads to my second issue.
2. “I will fight to bring an end to war!” This was a major theme in older Gundam shows as well. But there, the characters were aware that there was a contradiction. In Gundam 00 it doesn’t seem like they are. They all shout about bringing peace, and the only way to do this is to blow stuff up. And they shout this frequently and loudly. Marina Ismail is guilty of a similar crime, except for her it is “I will sit here and do nothing to bring an end to war!”. It is even more annoying when their enemy is an alien species which they can’t even communicate with which is about to annihilate the entire planet.
3. The Master Race. The innovators are the evolution of humanity, and superior to normal humans in every way. The original Gundam and Zeta Gundam had this same theme with the newtypes, but they actually challenged it and debunked it. The Newtypes were not really any better than normals (except in combat) – indeed, the two main examples, Amuro and Camille, were pathetic human beings. In these shows, newtypes and non-newtypes had differences which could be overcome. But in Gundam 00, Setsuna F. Seiei is the evolution of humanity – he is better than them. And this leads to…
4. Might Makes Right. Celestial Being, with their advanced technology, have not only the right but the responsibility to “take care” of humanity by bringing peace through military action. Their condescending attitude stinks of colonialism as they “look after” Earth without so much as a by your leave.

End rant. Now the movie had all of the same flaws as the TV series. In addition, it jumped around between characters too much. They had to fit everyone and their cousin in. And they all had to fit in roughly equal amounts. Marina did absolutely nothing to advance the plot and yet kept showing up.

As in the first show, the battles were equal parts random screaming, Brownian laser motion, preaching about bringing peace while blowing things up, and pinkish nudity. They also made no sense, particularly in regards to the passage of time. I thought it was supposed to take ninety days, but it seems like they are fighting the aliens immediately after. And why exactly were there two battles? Plus the entire premise is stupid. Why are there aliens in my Gundam show?!

On the positive side: there were lots of explosions. Oh, and Saji and Louise were less annoying than in the TV show. Probably the fact that they didn’t show up much helped. The best part was the epilogue – Setsuna F. Seiei comes back, having become an alien and meets Marina Ismail, who is an old granny by now and can’t even see. Setsuna F. Seiei hasn’t aged at all. They hold hands and she is happy to see him. He doesn’t apologize or anything. A perfect ending for two of the characters I hate most. I do feel kind of bad for Feldt, but if she’s dumb enough to fall in love with Setsuna F. Seiei I can’t say she doesn’t deserve it.

• Plot / Script – 4 / 10 – Painful to watch.
• Characters – 3 / 10 – Setsuna F. Seiei.
• Production – 9 / 10 – Great explosions.
• Overall – F

How it would be Worse Better under Director Draggle – Give Setsuna F. Seiei more of a personality by letting him be taken over by either the aliens or Veda.
Recommendations – If you actually liked this movie – Gundam Seed. You’ll love it. Otherwise, the original Mobile Suit Gundam, Zeta Gundam, and Turn A Gundam.