2008 autumn anime (part a)
6 Oct 2008 10:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mayoraaseiYes kiddos~ (Aha...half the people on my flist are older than me...) The new anime season is upon us~ Spam~ Expect spam!
So anyway, I couldn't fall asleep last night, so I decided to watch something really shoujo-y/lovey-dovey, because that often sends me to sleep straight away. So I bring to you the first anime reviewed......
Toradora (ANN info)
If I had to give it a score out of 5, romantic anime get capped at 4, and this anime earns a solid 3.5. It's cute, it's quirky, its main characters are whacky and whacked and should have no trouble keeping your interest for at least a quarter of the series.
Our main character is Takasu Ryuuji, a boy who lives with his unreliable widowed mother and has a face that people from the mafia would pay money to buy. He looks so effortlessly mean and aggressive that at one glance from him, people bowl over themselves to hand their wallets to him before fleeing like their tails are on fire. Unfortunately, he's not interested in following his dad's footsteps into the mafia, but his mean face meant that he has only ever been able to acquire one friend, the stereotypical nice guy Kitamura.
One day, he accidentally runs into Aisaka Taiga, who has a reputation for being "a palm-sized tiger" for her tiny stature but fierce temper. Takasu finds a love letter accidentally placed in his bag, from Aisaka - addressed to his best friend Kitamura. The same night Aisaka breaks into his house and tries to kill him for being thus embarassed, but then discovers she never put a letter in the envelope. A few hours later and manipulations later, Takasu is unwittingly Aisaka's newly acquired housekeeper/slave......
There's only so much variation one can do in shoujo, and the only thing these days that can carry a story is fresh characters. Aisaka is unpredictably neurotic between clueless and ruthless that it works almost on her personality alone. The addition of Takasu's dilemma offers another source of running gags. The interaction is almost Nodame-esque, with the guy mopping up after the girl, but in this case the girl's the more violent one. The production (animation/art/design/music) is not anything breathtaking, but the comic timing is well-done.
By no means is it deep or surprising, but it is probably the best anime this season with which to sit back, sip your tea and have a good laugh.
Casshern Sins (ANN info)
One of about ten franchise animes released this season, Casshern Sins is set in the apocalyptic future where the world is inhabited by robots who no longer seem to know if humans still exist. Apocalypse/post-apocalypse futuristic stories are always interesting, not because there might be a greater source of inspiration, but because the stories are inevitably steeped by the battle between despair and hope.
The first episode reveals pitifully little. Casshern is a glowing white android, pursued by robots of all forms, some more humanoid than others. All want to kill him for various reasons - "Casshern brought about the apocalypse"; "If you kill Casshern you can live for ever"; "Casshern killed the sun by the name of the moon (Luna)". Casshern himself remembers nothing of why the robots are pursuing him, only snippets of a human girl called Luna that he supposedly killed.
This, of course, is an action film, and the movements are fluid and quick, and the soundtrack unintrusive but appropriate. The palette features lots of soft and dark hues of grey and blue, which makes Casshern's white really stand out when he fights. The colour also adds to the overall melancholic tone, which might be why there are many moments of absolute stillness and silence...that keeps fooling me into thinking my computer seized up.
There is promise in the premises, but the promise is too vague. Too much mystery is planted in the first episode and not enough clues to engage. If I had to choose only one anime out of this season to watch and made my judgement based on first episodesI would watch Gundam 00 I would not choose Casshern Sins.
Not because it was bad - far from it - but because I don't know if I could take that risk. That the plot would half measure up to the quality of its animation and the fame of its lead voice actor. Amuro Ray.
So anyway, I couldn't fall asleep last night, so I decided to watch something really shoujo-y/lovey-dovey, because that often sends me to sleep straight away. So I bring to you the first anime reviewed......
Toradora (ANN info)
If I had to give it a score out of 5, romantic anime get capped at 4, and this anime earns a solid 3.5. It's cute, it's quirky, its main characters are whacky and whacked and should have no trouble keeping your interest for at least a quarter of the series.
Our main character is Takasu Ryuuji, a boy who lives with his unreliable widowed mother and has a face that people from the mafia would pay money to buy. He looks so effortlessly mean and aggressive that at one glance from him, people bowl over themselves to hand their wallets to him before fleeing like their tails are on fire. Unfortunately, he's not interested in following his dad's footsteps into the mafia, but his mean face meant that he has only ever been able to acquire one friend, the stereotypical nice guy Kitamura.
One day, he accidentally runs into Aisaka Taiga, who has a reputation for being "a palm-sized tiger" for her tiny stature but fierce temper. Takasu finds a love letter accidentally placed in his bag, from Aisaka - addressed to his best friend Kitamura. The same night Aisaka breaks into his house and tries to kill him for being thus embarassed, but then discovers she never put a letter in the envelope. A few hours later and manipulations later, Takasu is unwittingly Aisaka's newly acquired housekeeper/slave......
There's only so much variation one can do in shoujo, and the only thing these days that can carry a story is fresh characters. Aisaka is unpredictably neurotic between clueless and ruthless that it works almost on her personality alone. The addition of Takasu's dilemma offers another source of running gags. The interaction is almost Nodame-esque, with the guy mopping up after the girl, but in this case the girl's the more violent one. The production (animation/art/design/music) is not anything breathtaking, but the comic timing is well-done.
By no means is it deep or surprising, but it is probably the best anime this season with which to sit back, sip your tea and have a good laugh.
Casshern Sins (ANN info)
One of about ten franchise animes released this season, Casshern Sins is set in the apocalyptic future where the world is inhabited by robots who no longer seem to know if humans still exist. Apocalypse/post-apocalypse futuristic stories are always interesting, not because there might be a greater source of inspiration, but because the stories are inevitably steeped by the battle between despair and hope.
The first episode reveals pitifully little. Casshern is a glowing white android, pursued by robots of all forms, some more humanoid than others. All want to kill him for various reasons - "Casshern brought about the apocalypse"; "If you kill Casshern you can live for ever"; "Casshern killed the sun by the name of the moon (Luna)". Casshern himself remembers nothing of why the robots are pursuing him, only snippets of a human girl called Luna that he supposedly killed.
This, of course, is an action film, and the movements are fluid and quick, and the soundtrack unintrusive but appropriate. The palette features lots of soft and dark hues of grey and blue, which makes Casshern's white really stand out when he fights. The colour also adds to the overall melancholic tone, which might be why there are many moments of absolute stillness and silence...that keeps fooling me into thinking my computer seized up.
There is promise in the premises, but the promise is too vague. Too much mystery is planted in the first episode and not enough clues to engage. If I had to choose only one anime out of this season to watch and made my judgement based on first episodes
Not because it was bad - far from it - but because I don't know if I could take that risk. That the plot would half measure up to the quality of its animation and the fame of its lead voice actor. Amuro Ray.
