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Reviews
Tengen toppa gurren lagann (2007)
An epic breath of fresh air.
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Quite a mouthful. Anyway, I won't go on and on here, but I feel compelled to say something about this show because with its perfect blend of comedy, drama, action, and romance, (with no aspect of either feeling forced just for the sake of having it), it is quite simply one of the best animes ever made. Ask a few anime fans to list some of their favorite shows and you'll start to hear quite a few of the greats being repeated. This show easily stands shoulder to shoulder with any and all of them.
To give a little idea of the overall feel of this show for the anime fans out there. Let's say you hold, "Neon Genesis Evangelion", in one hand and, "FLCL", in the other. Now put your hands together and you've got Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
Epic is probably the single best word to describe this show; epic in both scope and scale. From the technical aspects of the truly incredible, fluid and stylish animation; to the story with it's take on humanity, evolution and the potential finish lines to which we're sprinting; to the battles, ranging from underground guerrilla warfare in the early stages and ultimately culminating in a climactic finale of truly galactic proportions. Without spoiling anything, I'll just say it involves literally tossing whole planets like baseballs and even flinging entire galaxies like so many shuriken. Epic.
Nothing is perfect though, it does stumble a bit in the audio department. However, it only falls short in comparison to the rest of itself. That is to say, while the rest of the show is, "excellent", some of the audio aspects are only, "very good". The character designs are also nothing special, but that is easily countered by the spectacular animation and the personalities of the characters themselves.
It's probably not for everyone. Some may be put off by the artistic styling such as the unconventional and often bizarre angles and techniques as well as the hyperkinetic feel of the animation. I, for one, couldn't be more thrilled with all of it. I've seen a lot of anime and quite frankly most of it is mediocre at best. After wading through so many anime lately with virtually interchangeable story lines, art and characters, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is like a breath of fresh air.
Sorry, I guess I did kind of go on and on after all. Anyway...
9.5 out of 10, but since IMDb doesn't allow the .5, I'll have to round it up and give my first ever 10.
Shuffle! (2005)
Fun show with surprising depth
Admittedly it has been nearly a year now since I watched, "Shuffle!", and I've seen many anime shows before and after this and some of them sort of run together in my mind. The plot is outlandish but that's pretty common for the genre. Rin is a seemingly normal young man in school who was orphaned as a young boy. He has since lived with his childhood friend, Kaede who lost her mother in the same accident that he lost both of his parents. Everything changes one day when a devil princess moves into the house next to them and a princess of the gods moves in on the other side. Each are there to win his affections and become his bride.
This show is enjoyable enough from the start but it's really just typical harem anime fare with excessive fan-service. The fan-service, (mostly lots of big bouncy breasts), is understandable considered the source material and it may be a deal breaker for some and a deal maker for others. The story is serviceable but seems to run on rails as Rin works his way through the girls, so to speak. He spends time with them and seems to have made his choice but then he doesn't.
That's the first half of the show; the second half is what took me by surprise. About midway through the series things start to get deeper and darker and just all around cooler. Kaede's breakdown was intense and probably the highlight of the show for me. I've seen a few harem anime shows and that's the first time I ever thought one of the harem girls might actually snap and kill off some of her competition.
In the end, "Shuffle!", is a good watch. The main story is kind of weak but the characters are mostly likable and their development is pretty strong. It's a fun show that might surprise you with it's character's depth, especially after the somewhat misleading beginning episodes. If you like the harem style shows then I recommend this one.
Chrono Crusade (2003)
Nothing spectacular but it's worth watching.
Chrono is a demon gone bad, of course since good is bad for demons that makes him a good guy. Anyway, this good demon has made a contract with a nun, (of sorts), named Rosette. Together they fight evil, with machine guns and blessed bullets, while searching for Rosette's younger brother Joshua. Demons teamed up with nuns with guns is a fairly ridiculous premise to be sure, but there have been worse that made good. I am not a religious person in any way, but I am fascinated by religion and different beliefs so it's good material for me.
Technically, everything is good; great art, sound and animation. Character design is mostly the average big eyed, super cute deal which works for me. The demons, in their true forms, are sufficiently cool looking as well and the battle scenes are flashy and fun to watch There are a few things that just didn't really work for me. While the show is humorous, it sometimes feels inappropriate inserting somewhat crude jokes into otherwise dramatic scenes. That's not to say that is shouldn't have humor; I just think that it could have be handled better. Most of the humor is absent towards the end of the series anyway as it becomes increasingly serious.
The biggest problem for me has to be the characters. Characters, in my opinion, are the most important part of any show. However, aside from Chrono and Rosette and maybe the butler, I either didn't like or just didn't give a crap about any of the characters. They were simply not interesting and there was little to no character development for anyone besides the main two.
In the end everything wraps up fairly well and Chrono Crusade, despite its shortcomings, manages to be a bit above average. Nothing spectacular but it's worth watching.
Mai-HiME (2004)
Hey wait! Don't run off, I know it sounds trite and goofy but it's good I promise.
Mai-HiME, (HiME, (pronounced 'hee-meh'), stands for Highly Advanced Materializing Equipment), is about a group of middle/high school girls, called HiMEs, with the ability to materialize weapons and large monster guardians called Childs. Ostensibly, the HiME girls are gathered to this school in order to fight off monsters called Orphans, though it isn't too long before we begin to see darker developments. Hey wait! Don't run off, I know it sounds trite and goofy but it's good I promise.
While it is about a group, it mainly focuses on Mai, hence the show's title. This is a good thing as Mai is probably one of the most likable main characters in recent anime that I've seen. However, there is a large supporting cast of unique characters that are almost all very likable, even the bad guys. The one exception would have to be the annoyingly jealous and clingy Shiho. While some of the characters aren't as well developed as others, none are totally left out and with a cast as large as this that's an accomplishment.
Visually I suppose this show isn't quite as impressive as some other new shows out there, but it is by no means bad. I particularly like the character designs; each and every character has a very distinct look and they are all nicely done. The battle scenes as well look very well done even though some of the Childs do look sort of silly.
Kajiura Yuki is a name I learned with this show and one I'll be trying to remember. She was of course responsible for the musical score here and the music really shines in Mai-HiME. There are a few scenes peppered throughout the series that are set to song and they truly stand out in a good way. The background track is also very impressive and changes to suit the scenes properly.
I cannot speak for the English dub as I have only seen this show in Japanese with English subtitles. Normally, most Japanese voices, especially the girls, sound extremely similar to me and I often have trouble picking out whose voice I'm hearing. However, I don't know if I've just heard so much Japanese lately that I'm starting get a better feel for it or not but, again I found all of the characters to be quite distinct, this time in voice.
******THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPHS CONTAIN MAJOR SPOILERS******
Around episode sixteen or so is where the big plot twist comes in and in my opinion it's one of the coolest plots I've seen. After finally banding together and deciding to work as a group the HiMEs are informed of the real plan for them; they have to defeat each other's Childs in order to determine who the strongest is and move on to the next stage. The kicker is that their Childs are directly linked to whoever it is that they consider to be the most important person to them; if their Child is destroyed then so too is that person. They can't even take the noble self-sacrifice route since their Childs are also linked to the HiMEs themselves and so if they choose to kill themselves their Child would die and so would the important person linked to them. If they all simply choose not to fight then the whole world will of course be destroyed. While at first banding together to find a way out of the whole mess they are all the while being manipulated by sinister forces and with so much at stake tensions are high and the inevitable battle begins.
This whole idea coupled with the entangled web of relationships within the group makes for some pretty fantastic and emotional episodes. I have some issues with the ending though, as a few things don't seem to fit quite right or just aren't exactly explained properly, but nothing too huge. The last issue I have with the ending, (and the biggest SPOILER yet just to let you know one last time), is that it's just too happy. Happy endings are nice and all and this one does leave you with a good feeling so that's great, and I don't really know if I'd prefer it to go the sad depressing ending route since I am a sucker for a happy ending. It's just that it sort of cheapens all the death scenes that hit you so hard in the episodes prior to the miracle resurrections in the end.
******END SPOILERS******
All in all Mai-HiME is a great character driven story with a pretty intriguing plot. If you can get past the seemingly clichéd premise you'll realize that it is actually a bit different than standard fare and has a lot more depth than you might notice at first glance. I enjoyed this show quite a lot and I highly recommend it to any anime fan.
Last Exile (2003)
With just a couple more episodes to fill in some fairly important story gaps it could have been truly great.
This review is based on the English dubbed version and may contain very minor spoilers.
Last Exile is a wonderful series that takes place in a world that appears to be an alternate reality that is similar in appearance to 19th century Earth. The whole thing just oozes quality in nearly every aspect.
I'm not in any way shape or form an expert in animation, but even so I can say with some confidence that visually this is a masterpiece. While I find it very pleasing to the eyes all around, I have to say that the CGI scenes, most notably the battles, are exceptionally well done. They transition seamlessly from CGI to normal animation and integrate everything very well without ever having it smack you in the face with a jarring change. Last Exile prevails in that respect where a number of other anime titles have failed.
The soundtrack matches the visuals tit for tat and compliments them very well. The music is charged for the battles and more subtle for the more tender scenes all while staying with the sort of classical meets modern theme of the show.
The English voice actors consisted of some of the best in the business and they turned out very good performances all around. Johnny Yong Bosch plays the lead male Claus and manages to keep the voice youthful without being too high pitched or whiny. Kari Walhgren's Lavie is probably the weakest link for me; not because of poor acting abilities though, since you can feel the emotions coming across as you should. I simply find her voice somewhat shrill and screech-like.
The supporting cast voicing is very strong as well with some highlights in particular. Michelle Ruff played both the adorable Alvis and the rigid Tatiana. Her Alvis was cute and very Chi-like which was fitting for the character while her Tatiana seemed stilted at first but improved quite a bit as the series went on. Though, she may have done this on purpose to help show the change of personality that Tatiana went though. Others of note were Joshua Seth's Dio who came off as child-like and carefree and fit the character pretty well and Steven Jay Blum's Vincent who sounded like, well like Steven Jay Blum. He usually sounds pretty much the same in everything but that's OK when you sound like he sounds. In fact, I wouldn't have minded having him and Crispin Freeman switching roles in this series. While I found nothing all that bad about Freeman's dark and brooding Alex Row I think Blum's voice would have been a better fit for the character.
The story, ah the story; unfortunately this is what kept it just shy of being great. Don't get me wrong; what's there is very well done. The problem is that even though the show has finished, the story isn't complete. I was watching and watching, wondering when the answers would come. Soon the series was nearly over so now I'm thinking well this must be one of those shows that weaves a story loosely together and then ties it up tight with an episode or two in the end; that's cool. Then the final episode came and went and still I was left with many important questions unanswered as well as a few new ones.
The one other aspect of the story that I didn't particularly care for was the awkward romantic angle that seemed to come out of nowhere. All of a sudden, boom, there's this love triangle thing going on that never really goes anywhere. It all seemed pretty pointless in the end. The only purpose for it I see was that of a catalyst for Tatiana's character growth. That could have been handled any number of ways, though. Now I'm all for romance, I love love, but if you're going to do it then do it right. Make it a full blown sub-plot or at least let us know how it might turn out; don't just start the engine and let it sit there until it runs out of gas.
So there's the bad; where's the good? Well the characters are all well done and likable, unless you're not meant to like them. Even Dio, who at first seems to be kind of an effeminate weirdo, (and he is), but by the end of the series you really feel for the guy. There is great character development for most of the characters. The main characters certainly run their course but the, "lesser", characters aren't just there taking up space either; you actually get to know and relate to them. Mullin, for example, was probably my favorite character in the show and while he didn't get much screen time at all in comparison to other characters he shows a surprising amount of depth and growth.
All in all Last Exile was extremely good from beginning to end, although the end did feel a bit rushed. With spectacular audio and visuals, a story that pulls you in and makes you care about the characters and the world they're in, it seems to have everything a great show needs. Well, almost everything. With just a couple more episodes to fill in some fairly important story gaps it could have been truly great.