CX anime reviews

[CX]

Gunsmith Cats
(3 episode OVA)

You know, it's shows like this that kind of makes me appreciate older anime. It actually has a half-way interesting plot, characters, and a story that doesn't focus entirely around fan service. Oh sure, it still has fan service, but it's definitely not as in your face about it, or nearly as frequent, because, you know, there's a story going on.

In this case, the story follows two young female bounty hunters as they become involved in a gunrunning investigation. And by involved, I mean the ATF blackmailed them into helping, because as it turns out Irene "Rally" Vincent, and her petite partner, "Minnie" May Hopkins also run their own gun shop, and they apparently don’t quite comply with the oppressive gun laws in Chicago.


You tell 'em, ladies.

Oh, yeah, that's the other thing, this takes place completely in Chicago, and as an aside, I really have to give kudos to the people who made this, because it's obvious that they really did their homework. While the look of the series is still somewhat cartoony, they still managed to capture the look of various American vehicles, official symbols and seals, and of Chicago itself. Hell, they even managed to convey how much Chicago hates the Second Amendment, and I bet they weren't even trying.

Anyway, the story follows Rally, Minnie, and the ATF agent that blackmailed them into helping his investigation as they discover what looks like a fairly typical gang-related gunrunning operation actually goes a lot higher. This is somewhat amusing in light of more recent events involving the BATFE, which has added a few more letters to its alphabet soup since this OVA was made – you know, that whole "Fast and Furious" operation aimed at undermining the Second Amendment. Oh, don't ever change, ATF.

Okay, this show isn't really about politics, and it also isn't what might be called especially thoughtful or deep, but it does have a coherent story and a plot that moves along at a nice pace, so I still feel this is a good show overall. It also really helped that Rally and Minnie were my kind of action girls, and that even the ATF agent that blackmailed them managed to endure himself a bit to me. There are plenty of action clichés to go along with everything, but the series manages to not take itself all that seriously without quite crossing into the mindless crap that a lot of action stories often does. That being said, the big reveal at the end wasn't very surprising, but it was still interesting watching everyone get there.

So if you enjoy light action fluff, this is definitely a show you might want to watch. Honestly, my biggest disappointment with it is that this wasn't a full-blown series. This isn't quite a favorite, but it's pretty close. 8/10.

[CX]

Riding Bean
(single episode OVA)

Ah yes, the '80s. I don't quite know what it is, but there's a special something about watching old action anime like this. I mean, I know there's plenty of more modern anime that isn't afraid to show blood and guts, but for some reason the stuff from the '80s really stands out.

Anyway, as some of you no doubt know, this is actually a spiritual predecessor to Gunsmith Cats, and it even features a character by the name of Rally Vincent. Of course, like a lot of anime, as the chick, she's playing second fiddle to a male protagonist, in this case named Bean Bandit. He's a mercenary, working odd jobs as a courier of sorts, whether as a getaway driver, or to deliver a kidnap victim. Naturally, this has caused him to earn the animosity of the Chicago Police Department, and at points I couldn't help but be reminded a bit of Blues Brothers.


Can't quite put my finger on why, though...

Bean himself actually reminds me a bit of Johnny Bravo, between how he looks and how he sounds, he's basically the darker skinned, brunette twin of good ol' Johnny. Of course he actually succeeds at most of what he does and he probably does plenty of Rally racing, too, if you know what I mean (of course you do).

A one-off, this OVA is about an evil lesbian and her convoluted plan to kidnap the owner of some big made-up company. To do so, she hires Bean as a getaway driver after robbing a bank in the middle of a mall, and manages to get him on camera with what appears to be the daughter of the business guy in the back of his car, not long after they'd actually kidnapped said 11 year old girl. But, as it turns out, the little girl who went on the bank job with the evil lesbian is actually working for her, in more ways than one. Yes, yes, corrupted loli lesbian, lover and submissive to the evil lesbian. Oh Japan...

So the evil lesbian went through a lot of trouble to get $2 million and a hostage, all while framing Bean for kidnapping, though to be frank he was already a wanted criminal, so it's not like she'd have had to do much to get the cops on his tail. And, just as you'd expect for a simple action flick like this, everything works out for our anti-hero and his partner. And since Bean has a soft spot for kids (no, not that way, perv), he even seems to adopt the corrupted lesbian loli as an added bonus.

This is not what would really be considered a good anime – generic, simplistic, clichéd, and a bit predictable – but it was still somewhat enjoyable to watch. I'd blame it on nostalgia, but I actually only got into anime starting in 2001/2002, so it probably just has more to do with shows like High School of the Dead and Sekirei making me appreciate older anime a bit more. Of course, I've always kind of appreciated older anime, so I've never understood why so many people dismiss it out of hand. I mean, I get that the older dubs can be a bit grating, and this one's dub doesn't do it any favors either, but the stories and characters tend to be a bit more interesting, so I tend to overlook things like that.

To sum it up, this isn't quite as good as Gunsmith Cats in my opinion, though it did have a charm all it's own. I think it's still worth a watch, though. 7/10.

[CX]

[C]: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control
(11 episode series)

I have to admit, when I first heard about this series, it didn't strike me as something I'd be interested in. I forget why I ended up deciding to watch it, so all I can really do is shrug my shoulders after the fact. To be honest, I almost didn't finish watching this series after watching the first couple of episodes, but being a believer in the "three episode rule" I decided to give it one more episode before I gave up on it entirely, and it managed to keep me interested just enough to keep watching.

This series follows an average college student, Kimimaro Yoga, just trying to make it through college without ending up in debt or having to ask others for financial help. This is a nice break from the norm of watching the antics of some average high school student, but as far as the story structure goes, that fact is pretty irrelevant because everything plays out in about the same way. The series tried to make up for this a little by giving us something kind of different to introduce itself with instead of starting by introducing its rather unremarkable protagonist. That basically translated into a kind of video game battle between some generic loser who's down on his luck already and the guy who will come to be known as the antagonist. I can't say that I was especially wowed or impressed in any way. In fact, for the first two episodes, I was kind of bored by what looked like another generic fighting anime to me.

This series reminded me a lot of what I've seen and heard about Pokémon, because the series focuses almost entirely on these one on one gladiatorial style battles between two people, called "Entrés," and the monsters they all apparently own, called "assets." The "gotta catch 'em all" would be the money the Entrés are fighting over, I guess. Add to that the way everything comes off as being from a video game, what with the load announcements of the various powers being used sounding like the announcement for using a combo move in a fighting game, and I couldn't help but think of this as Pokémon with economics jargon. Oh, yeah, that's the other thing; I couldn't help but be left with the impression that this series used economic terms like the Star Trek franchise used science terms, particularly during the Voyager/Enterprise years, which is to say basically just as cool-sounding terms for the characters to rattle off while they did things. Combine that with the way the entire point of the series started coming off to me just as an excuse to fantasize about being rich and spending money and really stupid things, and I just wasn't very impressed with the series.

Thankfully, this series started to show a little depth starting in the third episode, when it became apparent that it wasn't so much about how rich some assholes were as it was about how messed up the effects of what they did in their little virtual world were when translated into the real world, like say a character losing all of his kids because he went bankrupt in this virtual Financial District. At that point it became more apparent that all the random background talk about suicides and crime being on the rise and birth rates being on the decline were more than just mood setting. To the series's credit, it did explain that the money of the Financial District, Midas Notes, used the future as collateral. However, this was rather meaningless until the series actually got around to explaining it. It also made Masakaki, the strange Mad Hatter character who invited Kimimaro into the strange world of the Financial District somewhat more sinister on top of just being generally strange and creepy.


It's kind of offset by his appearance, though.

The strength of this series is mainly in the depth it gives its characters rather than in its plot. The plot is basically all about saving the world, because this business with the Financial District can actually make entire nations cease to exist, landmass included. It helps to add a sense of drama as the story progresses, but it isn't terribly compelling on its own. The story is about Kimimaro and his growth as a person, which is amplified and reflected by his antagonist, Souichirou Mikuni. The two of them are both similar in that they both only wanted simple lives that they could enjoy on their own, but were caught up in the business of making money. They also both have similar goals in that both want to save Japan, but they are different in how they want to go about it. Souichirou's solution is to buy up the debt of Japan directly, but the problem is that he uses the Midas money of the Financial District, so in return for "saving" Japan, it turns Japan into a corporate financial wasteland not unlike what many dystopian sci-fis of the '80s envisioned. The main argument here is philosophical: is the present or the future worth more? Souichirou feels that the present is more important, and for a while Kimimaro isn't sure, but eventually he decides the future is worth more.

If I give this series props for anything, though, it has to be with Souichirou's character. I mean, it was obvious that he was supposed to be the villain of the series from the very start of the series, but they actually gave him some depth and made him a somewhat sympathetic character. He was basically robbed of the happy life he'd wanted when he was younger, in part by his overbearing father and in part by his own inability to stand up for himself, and the ultimate irony was that while he'd taken Kimimaro under his wing, he was essentially trying to destroy the college student the way his father had destroyed him. Things like that carried the series for me.

There was plenty, however, that knock this series down in score for me. Aside from weak opening and the other things I mentioned, there's way Kimimaro's asset, Msyu, looked like a prepubescent girl, dressed in next to nothing, and yet was pushed as a romantic interest of sorts for Kimimaro in a fairly typical fashion. Things kind of took a turn for the weird (more so) when it was revealed that Msyu actually represented a possible future daughter of Kimimaro's. Oh, and while the fan service wasn't nearly as obnoxious as something like Sekirei or High School of the Dead, it's also obvious someone on the staff had an oral fixation. There's also a -1 modifier for the unnecessary America-bashing in this series, because that shit really wears on me fast. I also can't say that I much cared for the story all that much. The series was probably trying something a bit different by making Kimimaro so unremarkable, but between there not being much for me to really root for with him, and the story being so economics-based, at least in theory, I was somewhat bored with that. What can I say? I'm an engineer, so the numbers I have to deal with actually mean something – it’s not like economics, which is basically about philosophy more than anything else.

Overall, I guess I'd say this was worth watching just the one time, but it really is unremarkable. It isn't horribly bad, but it isn't especially good either, and a good antagonist isn't enough to carry a boring story for me. 5/10.

[CX]

Maximum Weeaboo Presents: High School of the Dead

[CX]

20th Century Boys
(live action movie trilogy)

It might be laziness on my part to combine the reviews for all three of these movies, but I guess I'd argue that there simply isn't enough to any one of these movies to make it worth writing separate reviews for them. Actually, I was kind of tempted to not do a review at all. Why? Well, mostly because I'm disappointed. Back when I first watched the first movie, I was actually kind of drawn in my the story and the mystery that made it up, but upon repeat viewing in preparation for watching the remaining two movies, and the subsequent viewing of those movies, I could see that there actually wasn't all that much to the plot, complex as it was, simply because everything was just so damn convenient. And to quote my roommate, who watched this with me recently, it's actually pretty predictable.

The movies actually are somewhat ensemble in nature, with a large cast of characters, some of which are actually able to have the story focus on them for a while. I kind of liked that about them, actually, but there was a definite protagonist - Kenji Endō. While the movies jump around through various time periods spanning 1969 – 2017, the story starts in the summer of 1969 with Kenji and his group of friends building a secret hideout in the long grass of a vacant lot, apparently on the edge of Tokyo. They decide to form their own little secret group of heroes, out for justice, and even write an illustrated story about how they're totally going to save the world from an alien invasion at the end of the 20th Century. Childish stuff, really, and something they all forgot about when they grew up. Fast forward to the late '90s, and there's a cult lead by a masked man, calling himself Friend, who has co-opted the old symbol Kenji's friends used as kids. Worse yet, Friend is making doomsday predictions right out of the little book Kenji wrote with the help of his friends back in 1969.

This is where things really start taking a turn for the impossible, really. While it was easy to get caught up in the plot of an enemy in the midst of Kenji and his friends and Friend making the old childhood fantasy come true, when you think about it, that would have been bloody impossible. I could take a shot at L. Ron. Hubbard and Scientology pretty easily here, but honestly as a nerd, the first thing that came to mind would be if Sybok, the bad guy from Star Trek V: Shatner's Ego, had somehow formed a cult in Japan and successfully taken over the world by having everyone he came in contact with "share their pain" with him. Nonsense, really, especially how he not only managed to get people from within the police and government to join him, but scientists who could actually make the killer virus Kenji and his friends thought up as the basis for their end of the world story, along with a giant robot, a laser pistol, and flying saucers. And if that wasn't enough, he not only managed to successfully got Japan to elect him into power, but he somehow became a world leader and managed to seduce the entire world, except for a few small hold-outs who then became terrorists to fight him. It wasn't exactly like he hid his authoritarian angle, either, and it wouldn't exactly take a rocket scientist to figure out the convenience of the virus attacks in his rise to power.

It gets worse, though. Apparently not being satisfied with unleashing a bioengineered virus on humanity that kills 100% of the people it infects by making their blood boil before bursting through their skin like a blood-filled water balloon. Kind of like the marines in Starcraft. Actually, the virus acted a lot more like a chemical agent, especially given the rapid effect it had and the fact it was deployed as a mist that had to rain down on people to infect them. That and how the bad guys deploying it were apparently protected just by wearing gas masks. Fun fact, you need a full chemical suit to protect you from most chemical agents that would kill you like that. Kenji and his group actually managed to get a hold of some for the final battle of the first movie, and they were protected, apparently. Why am I bothering to nitpick like this? Good question. I guess, I just happen to know that a chemical suit in all likelihood wouldn't protect you from a virus because it isn't air-tight, and it doesn't have its own built-in air supply, and the filter in a gas mask probably wouldn't actually keep a virus out. Depends on the virus, really, but there's a reason why in Outbreak that the scientist-types wore the kind of suits they did. I guess I have the Air Force to thank for that bit of knowledge. Really, though, considering that this movie trilogy also used something like the fridge from Indy 4, only it was the cab of a crane, and it was literally at the center of the nuclear explosion. Of course all of Kenji's friends that were around in close proximity and in the open to the thing when it went off also all managed to survive, and the radiation that typically goes along with a nuclear explosion apparently also just vanished.

So, as you can see, everything was just to serve the contrived plot. A nuke going off at the end of the movie only served to make us wonder if all of our heroes had died and if Friend had successfully brought about the end of humanity, just so they could be revealed to be alright in the next movie. The plot of the next movie was pretty much the same as the first, with everything written in the old childhood stories coming to pass. One of those things was that Friend would ascend to godhood when he came back to life after having been shot to death by an assassin – something that just shouldn't have been believed by anyone but just was because the movie needed them to. Pretty much everything involving Friend was all about misdirection, both with the story and the way the audience was lead along with the identity of Friend, which naturally wasn't revealed until the end of the last movie.

I'd say the other main annoyance factor of the movie was in how it seems like Japanese actors just seem to have a hard time being convincing in anything other than a comedy role. Admittedly, they were much better in this movie than the actors in the live action Higurashi. The only reason I'm even bothering to mention this is just that there were a lot of times when the characters were crying and the movie was trying to be dramatic and tug at my heart strings, but I just ended up laughing at the unintentional humor caused by actors trying way too hard.

Speaking of trying to tug at heart strings, Friend's motivation at the end is revealed to essentially boil down to him having been picked on as a kid and no one wanting to be his friend. It might have helped if he hadn't been such a creepy little bastard, but we're also informed that Kenji stole something from a sidewalk stand and Friend ended up taking the blame for it. Apparently being accused of ripping off a cheap little plastic badge was enough to make the kid ostracized by all of his classmates, who pretended he was dead, and actually ended up thinking he actually was dead. So basically Friend is the ultimate emo kid, only instead of cutting himself, he cut all of humanity. The epilogue at the end of the third movie tried to play this out even more by having Kenji enter a VR that simulated all the relevant parts of the late '60s and early '70s, just so he could pull a do-over with the kid that would end up becoming Friend. Of course, the reality of the movie is that most of humanity is still dead and Kenji couldn't actually make up for what he'd done to Friend, but whatever.

If there is anything positive to say about these movies, the first one in particular, it's that the characters are generally very likable. It was easy to sympathize with them, and to be honest they made me a little nostalgic for my own youth. The bits of comedy relief were also nice, but unfortunately that wasn't nearly enough to carry the movie.

I wanted to like this movie and its sequels, but I just couldn't get over how convenient everything was, and in the end how pointless it was, really. I guess these movies might be worth a watch, but the other bad thing about them is that they really feel their length, with each one being over 2 hours long.

First movie – 6/10 (decent set-up, interesting characters, but convenient and predictable).
Second movie – 5/10 (contrivances, unfunny humor, and not much to keep me interested).
Third movie – 4/10 (Rinse and repeat, but at least it's over now).

In the end, I was mostly just glad to be done with the movie, and to have satisfied the curiosity the first movie managed to generate, even if I was disappointed.

[CX]

RIN ~Daughters of Mnemosyne~
(6 episode series)

I really don't know how to describe this series, other than as gore porn or as fetish fuel. While it had plenty of fan service, the disturbing part is that the sex and nudity tended to go hand in hand with things like bondage and sadism. Oh, and it was filled to the brim with sadistic lesbians, so while there was plenty of girl-on-girl action for those who like that kind of thing, it tended to have a somewhat disturbing edge to it. For instance there was the psycho lesbian doctor who got off on sexually torturing her female victims with piercings before bashing their skulls in, or the one who demanded sex from her female clients in exchange for information, or the one who got off on trying to kill the protagonist even though she knew that she couldn't actually be killed, so it was just all about causing pain and suffering.

Oh, yeah, I suppose that I should get around to actually describing the series. It's essentially a detective story that follows Rin Asogi and Mimi, two immortal women trying to lead somewhat normal lives as they run a consulting agency and end up acting as private investigators. We're kind of clued in to the fact that Rin is immortal early on, as she's coldly gunned down by a female assassin in the teaser of the first episode, and then wakes up the next morning in her apartment. If that wasn't enough, it doesn't take that long for us to actually see the process of her healing and reviving after suffering a rather brutal death. This is no Highlander stuff, though, as apparently the only part that needs to survive is the little "time spore" or "fruit of time" that has entered their bodies and caused them to become immortal to begin with. The only way to kill them is to remove this little orb and crack it open like an egg, the cum-like fluid within the antagonist Apos apparently likes to eat, because it contains tasty memories, or so we're told.

Most of the episodes are fairly episodic, focusing on what seem to be random cases, like in the first episode where Rin rescues a clone and investigates his origins. Each episode is 45 minutes long, too, so what would have taken most episodes a two-parter, this series is able to do all in one episode. There is an overall plot to the series, though, and I have to admit to feeling a bit let down about it. About the mid-point of the series, the story was actually getting kind of interesting. Things were starting to be connected, and elements of the show that had always been there in the background, like the huge tree that was releasing those time spores, were becoming important to the story. Unfortunately, everything came down to this:


A giant red egg filled with man-hating lesbians with a giant vagina used to unbirth some unfortunate sacrifice for some purpose that wasn't explained all that well. It has something to do with who gets to be the next "guardian", who apparently has something to do with the giant tree and the time spores it releases. Again, that aspect wasn't explained all that well, just that Rin got knocked up and gave birth to a baby that would grow up to be the next guardian after her.

I will admit that despite all the fan service and the more disturbing parts, this show did have some merit to it that made it better than say something like High School of the Dead or Sekirei, mainly due to the story and the characters. When this series wasn't busy showing people screwing (usually right before they were brutally murdered) or torture porn, it actually was a somewhat interesting detective story that took place over the course of decades. Rin and Mimi were fairly likeable characters, as was the clone they ended up rescuing. There was also a detective on the police force who would help them out, and he was a somewhat interesting character, though we didn't get to see too much of him. It actually was kind of sad when bad things happened to these characters. I can't really say the same about any of the antagonists, though, as non of them really have any layers to them. The closest any of them get to that is the "shocking" revelation that Apos, the main bad guy, technically isn't fully a guy or a gal. So basically s/he's a trap. As for the good story elements, well, that kind of got to a convoluted part, because there ended up being a lot of connections that took things to the point of stupid.

One thing I won't give this series a pass for, though, is all the fetish fuel. Bondage, torture, psycho lesbians – that's just scratching the surface. Actually, as I watched this series, I couldn't help but get the feeling that the reason Rin was made immortal was specifically so she could be repeatedly killed in ways that gore fans could fap off to. At different points the series tried to sell her as an action girl who could sick up for herself, but most of the time her she was just killed and/or captured so she could be tortured in some sadistic and usually sexual way. Then there's the part where we find out that only women get to be immortals, so when Rin ends up fighting fellow immortals, who are naturally psycho lesbians, it came off to me as a kind of twisted version of some kind of a magical girl show. As for men who absorb time spores, well they turn into monsters called angels, entirely due to the fact that they have wings and can fly. They also have superhuman strength but are doomed to short existences. When in proximity to one another, the female immortals are compelled to have sex with angels, and angels are compelled to have sex with and eat the female immortals. There's also just plenty of sadism to go around, usually from Apos. And for all the perv out there who like jailbait, we have Mimi, who seems like she's only immortal just so some nerds out there who object to being called pervs can try to defend themselves by pointing out that Mimi was really hundreds of years old. That being said, she still looked about 14.

Of course, even the regular sex comes off as the writer simply sharing their own fantasies, especially the lesbian parts, which played out like something you'd see in a porno made for guys. While the subject matter and the overall series was definitely more mature than something like Sekirei, it still wasn't all that terribly mature itself, and I couldn't just help but feel like I was watching porn with plot.

Needless to say, this series is not for everyone. That being said, I know that there are definitely people out there who will love this series. But for those who don't enjoy sexual sadism, you'll probably want to avoid this series. I honestly tried to see past all that, though the series didn't exactly make it easy, to see if the story buried underneath was any good, but it really wasn't worth it. I don’t regret watching this series, but it's not an experience I'd care to repeat, except maybe to show parts of it to friends for shock value, which puts it right up there with Gantz as far as I'm concerned. 4/10.

[CX]

Gunbuster
(6 episode OVA)

An early offering from Studio Gainax, as you might imagine, this series involved a lot of giant robots and bouncing breasts. Actually, according to Wikipedia, this series is where the exaggerated breast motion Gainax would come to be famous for got its start. I have to admit, though, that while it does have some things going for it, for the most part I found myself somewhat disappointed with this series, but that has more to do with the kind of anime it is than anything that was specifically bad about it.

The plot, in a nutshell, is that humanity is at war with a seemingly unending army of giant bugs that humanity found inhabits the galaxy. The way that this ties into the story is that the main character, Noriko Takaya, is the daughter of a famous admiral who was lost along with his entire fleet soon after coming into contact with the giant bugs of doom, and she has sworn that she will become a great space pilot to be like her father. To do so, she attends an all-female high school academy that trains its students to pilot giant robots. Later she goes on to become the great pilot she always wanted to be, overcoming the doubts of others along with her own to pilot the giant mecha that gives this series its name.

To be fair, there was obviously some thought put into this series, and I don't mean just in how the machines all work. While most sci-fi tends to ignore the complications that would actually be involved with space travel and combat in space, namely the way relativity will make space travelers out of sync with the rest of humanity. As one approaches the speed of like, time is slower for the traveler relative to the outside observer, so while only minutes may be passing for them, months are passing on Earth. This isn't something that's just barely mentioned either; it's actually a major point that is at least attempted to be used to generate some drama.

I'm going to be honest here and admit right up front that I'm just not into giant robot stuff for the most part. If I ever am, it's only because it's being treated as a joke or otherwise over-the-top in order to generate humor, basically like Gurren Lagann did. This series, though, plays everything completely straight, and includes the giant robots as a part of what is largely a stereotypical military drama, one which focuses very heavily on the clichéd training aspect of the military. And since this is Giainax, I'm asked to take a bunch of jailbait teenaged girls dressed in skin-tight one-piece bathing suits while they pilot giant robots and fight giant bugs seriously. Now, as ridiculous as that sounds, something like that actually could be pulled off to an extent, though I'm not sure I could ever take giant robots seriously in any context, especially if it involves combat in space. However, this isn't the only problem I have with the series.

The other big turn-off this series had for me was the way the characters were presented, which is to say that all of them were completely clichéd and stereotypical. All the male characters were the ultra-hardcore badass warriors while the female characters were treated like wilting violets when they weren't being vindictive bitches who were only after personal glory. Then there's the main character, Noriko, who is only just better than Shinji Ikari when it comes to whining and self-doubt. Really the only thing that makes her better is that she actually has some character growth and overcomes these issues, albeit not all that well in terms of the writing. Then, of course, there was the rather shoe-horned romance between the woman Noriko looked up to and the man who was coaching them.

As a brief aside, the whole "coach" aspect almost made this seem more like a sports anime than a military one.

Anyway, there was competition between two women over the coach, both of whom were subordinates of him he was training. Coming from a military background, that kind of thing tends to rub me the wrong way, but the thing I actually found a little insulting was the way the woman who had been Noriko's role model for most of the series completely feel apart during an attack that all of humanity depended on succeeding, because she realized the coach was in all probability going to be dead from cancer by the time she got back to Earth. Really, though, this was just a prime example of how none of the drama in this series really seemed to flow all that naturally for me – it all seemed rather forced and trite to me.

That being said, there are probably plenty of people out there who would enjoy this series, if only because it's a space opera with giant robots, and because it's an example of Gainax's work prior to Neon Genesis Evanglion, which has in many ways overshadowed everything else they've done both before and since. It's somewhat interesting to see aspects from other franchises which seemed to have inspired this work, Starship Troopers being among them, as well as seeing aspects of this series which probably went on to inspire later works. For instance, I would not be surprised in the least if Shinji's character was inspired by Noriko's. There's also a heavy focus on the idea of "hard work and guts" being able to overcome anything in the same way "spiral power" in Gurren Lagann seems to be, though decidedly more tongue in cheek than Gunbuster.

As for the technical aspect of this series, it actually isn't bad considering that it was made in the late '80s. This is probably owing to the fact that it was an OVA, and as an aside, it's somewhat interesting to see similarities in the animation style and design between this series and the shorts made back in the early '80s for Daicon III and IV. However, there is no dub available for this series.

Just to sum everything up, if you are into giant robot space operas, you might find this series worth a watch. As for me, that kind of thing isn't really my cup of tea, and other aspects of the series just made it an even less enjoyable experience for me. 6/10.

[CX]

Redline
(2009 movie)

Wow. This movie. This movie is like Speed Racer meets Gurren Lagann meets Dead Leaves meets Dragon Ball Z. It is one of the most over-the-top action movies that actually mostly made sense that I have ever watched, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

When I first saw ads for this movie, I have to admit that I was initially put off by it, mostly because racing really isn't an area of interest for me, and it seemed like that's what this movie was about. Upon seeing some newer trailers and reviews that highlighted the animation and visual design, I actually started to come around a bit. I normally wouldn't go by visuals alone, but seeing scenes from it reminded me a lot of '80s anime and even somewhat of the old MTV Æon Flux cartoon. It looked beautiful – hand drawn – and from what I was starting to see I was willing enough to give it a chance since it was just a movie and not a 26 episode series.

So let me tell you right up front here – this movie is about racing like Gurren Lagann is about giant robots. This is to say that they definitely play a large part, but that it's more focused on having as much fun as possible than on anything else. We're given a wonderful cast of outlandish characters, whom we are introduced to in the Yellowline race that opens the movie. The only ones that are really important are J.P. and Sonoshee, both of whom are humans amongst a wide variety of aliens. The other characters are pretty much just there as part of the humor, usually to poke fun at various genres of anime.


Which is no doubt why a giant robot managed to show up and do a little fighting, with some magical girls at the controls just for added fun.

The story isn't really all that complicated, but in the long run, that's okay. J.P. is the male protagonist. He started racing after being inspired by Sonoshee as a teenager, mostly by how determined and driven she was. And also because she's hot. Naturally as an adult, she's now the movie's designated hot chick – no worries, they throw in a gratuitous nude scene while they introduce all the other characters participating in the race that gives the movie its title.


I'm sure J.P.'s hair isn't symbolic at all...

As you might guess, J.P. is as interested in winning Sonoshee's heart as he is in winning the race. Naturally, things are complicated, because not only is Sonoshee his opponent in the race, but his mechanic, Frisbee, is in with the yakuza, which is determined to fix Redline just like they did to Yellowline at the beginning of the movie. The deal was, J.P. was supposed to come from behind and look like he was going to win, only to lose at the end of the race. And when J.P. went against the script, Frisbee detonated the bomb he'd hidden on J.P.'s car and nearly killed him. It was only a matter of luck that J.P. qualified for Redline, and while Frisbee fixed up his car for the race, he also made sure to include another bomb just in case J.P. tried to win. And if that wasn't enough, Redline itself takes place on Roboworld, home to an authoritarian nation of cyborgs, and they want nothing to do with this race. So basically they threaten to kill all the racers, and then try their best to do it as the race begins. The movie just gets more and more obnoxious with every minute, really.

I know that Madhouse has some good projects under its belt already, but I have to admit that I wasn't expecting a lot from this movie. After all, lately Madhouse has been doing that same moé blob crap that everyone else has been doing lately. Case in point – Summer Wars. I can only hope that they've been doing that simply because they know all the pathetic otaku eat that shit up, and they can go on to fund really awesome stuff like this. It might be selling out, but after delivering a movie like this, I'm willing to forgive them for it.

I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention the excellent English dub that came with this movie. This is also an area that has been lacking lately in a lot of anime, but there is a lot of good talent on board this project, and the direction fits the tone of the movie perfectly. Between this, the awesome visuals, and the outstanding soundtrack, I'm really glad that I decided to give this movie a chance, and I can't recommend it enough. If you liked Gurren Lagann, FLCL, and/or Dead Leaves, there's a pretty good chance you'll like this movie, too. 9/10.

[CX]

Elfen Lied (The Review 2: Electric Boogaloo)
(14 episode series)

Okay, so I already reviewed this series a long time ago, but having recently finished re-watching it, I felt the need to revisit it, mainly because my views on it have significantly changed. This could be because the whole moé thing was still relatively new to me at the time I first watched this and thus it didn't grate on me as much, or it could be I was just more willing to put up with the negative aspects of this series. Either way, I actually feel strongly enough about this series in the opposite way I initially did to take it off of my favorites list. Just to make something clear here, too, this change of heart has nothing to do with the level of graphic nudity and violence ... well, not that much, but rather with how the story was executed. You'll find that I'm going to harp on basically the same things I did in my original review, but that I'm not as forgiving of them.

The series follows protagonist Kohta and his kissing cousin Yuka, though we only catch up to them shortly before they come across the mysterious naked woman from the memorable opening of the series. They name her "Nyu" since that's the only word she can seem to say. Naturally, they take this naked woman with obvious head trauma home with them instead of the hospital. So while I might be somewhat willing to overlook that if it had been written a little more believably, unfortunately this is just one of many brain farts the series makes as its story progresses. But then this is a harem series, so I guess we can't expect that much out of it. To be fair, it isn't as bad as some other harem series I've seen, and it at least has potential for a better story hidden in there with all the obnoxiously high voices and cute moé character designs.

When the series first starts with what is arguable the best scene of the series, the audience might be mislead into believing that Lucy, aka Nyu, might be the main character. But since this show is aimed at the young male demographic, it's apparently assumed that the audience could only relate to Kohta. Of course there's also the mystery aspect of Lucy's past and how it relates to Kohta, because the mother of all coincidences happens when he and his cousin come across her on the beach. To be fair, this series did have plenty of good potential in it, and I think that's what I was focusing on when I first watched this series and reviewed it afterwards. That and it is amusing to see cutesy little anime characters tear each other to pieces with invisible arms, but then I can actually find the humor in that.

The main positive of the series is its basic underlying theme – nature or nurture. Lucy belongs to a mutant species referred to as Diclonius, of which more and more are being born for some reason. All of them have horns, though the men turn out bald for some reason while the women get obnoxious pink hair. Apparently this is all the better for them to kill humans by, because the female Diclonius seem to just love the hell out of killing people, though for some reason they won't harm animals. And while they are sterile in the biological sense, they are still somehow able to reproduce through a virus that is somehow connected to the use of their invisible arms, which are referred to in the series as vectors. We meet Lucy as she escapes from a secret research facility that is located on an island somewhere close to Kamakura, Japan. There's a good dynamic between her character and Kurama, the director of the team tasked with isolating the Diclonius virus and finding a cure for it (or so his team thinks), though this could have been better. The reason for this is explained later in the OVA I count as just another of the episodes, since it takes place between episodes 10 and 11 anyway. What I'm getting at, though, is that after Lucy takes a heavy blow to the head and develops the child-like Nyu personality, she isn't the bloodthirsty killer anymore, and given the horrors Lucy went through all of her life, it could be argued that the bloodthirsty killer aspect is brought on by nurture more than nature. This is also the case with Nana, who remembers every bit of torture she's been put through, but seems to have formed a bond with Kurama and developed a much more balanced personality. The series does argue this point back and forth, but while it could have been executed in a much better fashion, it's still the draw of the series for me.

The thing is, while I do see some good in the series, there is so much going against it. This series had the makings for something much better with everything it had already set up: a secret research facility that has military connections conducting inhuman studies on girls and young women – that's Alien stuff right there. But a lot of the motivations of the many different characters, protagonist and antagonist alike, just don’t make all that much sense. There's also way too much focus on the moé and harem aspects of the series, which frankly gives it some really bad mood swings. After all, it’s also filled to the brim with plenty of horrible things that either happened to the characters at some point in the past, or is happening to them during the course of the series, so it doesn't really jive with the whole moé thing. That's actually the same problem Higurashi has, really, which is that had the mood been kept consistent, that would have mad the series better almost by default. In Elfen Lied's case, it makes it way to difficult for the series to be taken seriously, which isn't helped by the poor animation and the bad dub given to it. But really, the number one thing that this series should not have done, was to make Nyu so damn special.


Back of the short bus special.

When Nyu is first introduced, she has the mind of a child, and really she doesn't get much better over the course of the series. Now if by chance you don't know what the whole moé thing is about, aside from setting the current generic anime look of impossibly huge eyes and a squeaky little voice, it was originally supposed to be all about engaging the "big brother" feelings in the male audience members (the assumed average viewer). Unfortunately for way too many people, this also engaged their boners, which says something pretty nasty about them. On the other hand, it handily explains why there are just as many nude scenes with prepubescent girls as there are with the more mature Lucy/Nyu and Nana, as well as why there's a love triangle between Kohta, Lucy, and his cousin Yuka. And if you think that was bad, it seems to be suggested during flashbacks that Kohta's sister also had a thing for him and that both she and Yuka were jealous of each other over his affections.

As many messed up aspects to this series there are, though, I can't help but feel that a lot would have been improved had they simply given Lucy the standard clichéd amnesia. It would have made a lot more of an impact against the nature vs. nurture them a lot better, especially given Nana, who was the complete opposite of most of the other Diclonius. Anything would have been better than making Lucy completely retarded. Losing the moé crap and those other things I mentioned would have also made the series much better overall, but whoever made this seemed to be more interested in making a moé harem anime than in making a compelling story, so there you have it.

But at least it has a catchy theme song.

Anyway, if gore and nudity isn't your thing, you definitely want to avoid this series. It is very much a horror, with lots of blood and gore to go with its nudity and overdone moé. And as I mentioned, this is hardly the only offensive thing about the series, but if you think you can put up with that, or if you just don't mind it for whatever reason, it might be worth seeing this series just to see what I was talking about. It's better than Gantz, but only just barely. 5/10.

[CX]

Diebuster
(6 episode OVA)

Sequel to Gunbuster, which was made in 1988, this series aired more than 16 years later. I honestly have mixed feelings about this OVA series, though to be frank none of them are particularly strong. Still, I always try to be fair, and I'll to my best to put what I hope is useful information to anyone who might be interested in watching this series. First thing I'll put out there is that while I read that it was recommended to watch Gunbuster prior to watching this series, I honestly think the only thing you might miss out on is the last few minutes of the last episode if you haven't. Well, that and the repeated meme of "hard work and guts" along with a few other references to the original series here and there.

That being said, this series actually felt quite a bit different than Gunbuster, primarily in tone. Whereas Gunbuster was a fairly typical anime space opera from the 1980s that took itself fairly seriously, Diebuster is almost the complete opposite. In fact, I'd compare it a lot more to Gurren Lagann, which was made not all that long after this series was. Actually, there are a lot of direct comparisons that can be made between this series and Gurren Lagann, but I'll get into that more later. As far as comparing Diebuster to Gunbuster, though, probably the most similarity between them was that a female character who seemed incapable of doing so really wanted to be a space pilot and idolized another female pilot who seemed to be the most proficient of all of her piers. Other than that, this series is pretty much what you would expect from a modern anime, right down to the moé character design.


I just can't seem to get away from it...

About the only good thing to say about that aspect of it is that it's at least kept to levels I could generally tolerate. I have to say, though, that I don't find the idea of a woman being stupid and naïve to be cute, especially when she's one of the main characters.

The series actually throws us for a bit of a loop, at first, as to who exactly the main character is, but I think I'd say that Lal'C, the first Buster pilot the moé character happens to meet while on her quest to become a pilot herself. The moé character is named Nono, and apparently she's a robot some old guy found in the middle of a comet. At first, though, she's sold as a simple (and I do mean simple) country girl who's running off to the big city to try to make it big, so basically the main character. And either I missed something, or the fact she's even a robot isn't revealed until she ends up being dragged into space by a "space monster", which is also when it's revealed that the planet they were all on up until then was Mars, not Earth. But then this series likes to throw twists M. Night Shyamalan would be proud of almost every episode.

As far as the story goes, it's about what you would expect, with Nono eventually proving herself and Lal'C finally accepting her. The fun part there was that apparently Lal'C actually liked her all along and just wanted a friend instead of a worshiper, but then she was a complete bitch to Nono at almost every possibility, so I'm sorry, I just didn't buy the reveal. Of course, the series isn't terribly serious or mature, so they could have been poking fun for all I know. I mean, this from a show that calls its elite young pilots "topless", and yes, they totally take that pun to its obvious outcome. Gainax does love boobs, after all. Of course they also made some ships look and move like sperm, too, so whatever.

I think what it comes down to, though, is that I just wasn't into show very much. I wasn't bored, exactly, but as with the first series, I just wasn't into the whole children piloting giant robots thing. It wasn't taking itself seriously the way certain other shows Gainax has done, but while there were plenty of outlandish things in the series, like giant robots that can appear out of hammer space, ships shaped like sperm, and naked robot girls, but it just wasn't quite the kind of over-the-top that makes me enjoy other Gainax works like Gurren Lagann and FLCL. I can't put my finger on what was missing or anything, I just know that this series didn't quite do it for me. So between that and the things that annoyed me, mostly having to do with moé, I was just generally underwhelmed. It wasn't bad either, and it didn't feel like a chore watching it after the first couple of episodes, so it has that going for it.

I have to say, though, that having watched Gunbuster prior to this series, I wasn't really seeing how the two were really connected. There were references here and there, but other than that, I wasn't really seeing it. Some aspects that changed were that humanity had apparently given up on FTL travel, and that it had actually developed a sophisticated automated defense system to protect them from the giant space monsters that were the focus of the first series, and then completely forgot about them, and in quite a few other things. So maybe it wasn't so much that it wasn't connecting to the first series well enough, it was just that it was stretching credulity that humanity, being advanced enough to not only move planets but to turn Jupiter into a freakin' black hole bomb, and has colonized basically every single terrestrial body in the solar system, actually lost track of all of its past technology.

Something this series is good for, though, is in seeing things that made their way into Gurren Lagann. For instance, the giant robots were actually alive, and after being built, they basically chose a pilot and only woke up when that pilot really truly believed in what they were doing. The robots would also stop working if their pilots stopped believing, or if the robots thought that an action was wrong. You could almost say that they ran on spiral power, though in this series it was "hard work and guts". There was also the way the conflicts escalated to a ridiculous scale as the series progressed, to the point that the space monsters were literally bigger than planets, and that planets were literally being used as weapons, though to be fair, Gunbuster did that, too, just without as much flair. I think the main similarity has to be with Nono, though, in that she was basically the same character as Nia from Gurren Lagann, in both visual design and in character. None of this stuff is really important to the story, but it is kind of fun to note it.

Anyway, while I didn't enjoy this series all that much, that has a lot to do with my own biases and tastes than in the quality of the series itself. From a technical standpoint, the series is well done – it obviously had a decent budget and a lot of love and fun were put into making it. So if giant robot shows are your thing, and you like moé and the typical sex humor that seems to go along with that, you'll probably enjoy this series more than I did. For my part, I enjoyed it slightly more than Gunbuster, mostly because it wasn't as boring or as serious. Between that and the technical aspect I mentioned, I think I'd rate this series a 7/10.

[CX]

Trigun
(26 episode series)

I first saw bits and pieces of this show on Adult Swim some years back, but at the time it didn't really appeal to me. Since then, I've heard a lot of complaints, or maybe just warnings, about how the show was initially a comedy but then got serious as the series progressed. Still, based on what I'd read about the series, I thought I'd give it a try, and I have to admit that I really liked this show.

This series has quite a few characters that it follows. Initially, it follows Meryl Stryfe and Milly Thompson, two agents of the Bernardelli Insurance Company, as they attempt to make contact with the real protagonist, Vash the Stampede. Vash has been named as being responsible for a large amount of property damage, so Bernardelli apparently wants to see if they can keep him from damaging more property due to the large number of claims that have already been filed due to damage blamed on him. It's not readily apparent how exactly Bernardelli was hoping to go about this, because while Vash has a sizable bounty on his head and both Meryl and Milly are proficient in the use of firearms, the first thing they do is try to give him donuts, and from that point on they pretty much just follow him around. Of course this is the comedy intro to the series, and part of the joke is that they aren't even sure if the scrawny blonde guy they're following around is even Vash because initially the description they had was for someone else, and it was apparent that the kind-natured buffoon didn't seem anything like his reputation.

Later on, as the series starts to follow Vash more, it isn't even entirely clear if he is in fact guilty of any of the things he's accused of, such as destroying an entire city, or if the massive amount of damage attributed to him was simply caused by the many people trying to kill him for the bounty on his head. But then, there's a lot that isn't really made all that clear about Vash or his surroundings until later on in the series. For instance, Vash seems to not be human due to his ability to dodge bullets, his implausible amount of luck, and his seeming ability to heal very rapidly. He even gets accused of as much, but then since this is a cartoon and at this point the series isn't taking itself all that seriously. As for Vash's surroundings, while the setting seems to be a generic desert punk spaghetti western (including shout out to Clint Eastwood), there are many anachronistic elements as far as technology goes that makes it apparent that this isn't supposed to be the old west. There's also the fact that there are two suns in the sky and several moons which make it apparent that despite humanity not looking all that advanced technologically, that the series is not taking place on Earth. The only clue we're given is the presence of deteriorating "plants" next to every settlement that look like giant light bulbs and are referred to as "lost technology".

The series does indeed take a turn for the more serious as answers to my many questions were starting to be revealed, and it actually turns out that a lot of them were already revealed early in the series, but were played off as ridiculous jokes. To be fair, though, it isn't until about episode 16 or 17 that the series becomes really serious, and even then there tends to be comedy relief here and there. One example that comes to mind is the appearance of a black cat in every episode, often more than once.


Mreorw.... I'm everywhere and no where at the same time. Mreorw...

What I take from the series, though, is that most people seem to take the first few episodes for granted and thought that the entire thing should have been a comedy. After all, when the series first starts, it mainly consists of Meryl and Milly following Vash around as he seemingly wanders at random from settlement to settlement, solving problems as he goes in a non-lethal and humorous way. However, I'd argue that those episodes are mainly there so that the audience develops and attachment to the characters, because comedy really is disarming that way. We get to see these characters in light situations, so it makes it that much more dramatic when things go badly for them later on. Really, this series is about Vash and the tragedies he's suffered and continues to suffer. Hell, we have a character introduced, Nicholas D. Wolfwood, who only seems to be there to point out the fact that Vash's comedic personality is basically just all on the surface. Well, that and to provide a much more pragmatic voice of reason to Vash's idealism, which was a viewpoint I could agree with a lot more than Vash's "no one has the right to take the like of another" philosophy.

As an aside, when you think about it, Vash is really a lot like the Nolen-verse Batman. A tragic past forged him, and he's sworn himself to protect others. Yet despite his efforts to protect humanity, he is hated by everyone no matter where he goes, often even after proving himself to not be the monster they accuse him of being. Yet despite all the hate heaped on him by the people he's sworn himself to protect, he refuses to kill, and uses his skills to find non-lethal ways of dealing with his opponents. All because he's not the hero humanity deserves, but the one it needs. Well, actually the one they deserve, too, considering that about 90% of humanity seems to be made up of asshats. He also eventually has to face a "no-win" scenario in which his idealistic philosophy is challenged to the breaking point.

In any case, Vash's "no one has the right to take the life of another" is really what's at the heart of the series. It and Vash are both offset, because as it turns out Vash has an evil twin brother named Knives, and Knives wants to wipe out all of humanity.


Wow, real subtle....

Knives's philosophy, if you want to call it that, is meant to echo Wolfwood's somewhat. Wolfwood rather pragmatically argued that if you or someone you want to save is threatened with death by another, you are not only justified in killing that person or persons, but you should do it as quickly as possible so they don't get a chance to do any damage. This was echoed by Knives's statement that if you want to save the butterfly from the spider, you just kill the spider, because even if you tried to just save the butterfly, the spider is still going to die because it is going to starve to death. This sentiment is actually shown to be the case on a larger scale, because as it turned out, Vash actually did destroy an entire city, and while no one died at that moment, they eventually died due to the devastation of that city. Of course, Knives's is evil, so his viewpoint is made out to be the wrong one because frankly Knives is a sociopath, whereas Vash's viewpoint is upheld as being the right one, though I do give the people behind this some credit for challenging it more than once.

The thing is, this isn't the first show I've seen that makes this kind of an argument, and which shows it as being possible to shoot someone without doing any real harm. But I already had a short "guns are not toys" rant in my review of Black Cat, so I'll spare you all from another one.

Ultimately, I found this series to be someone disappointing. While I was pretty into it for most of it, I had to wonder how exactly the situation with Knives was going to be resolved, because it was obvious that Knives was a threat as long as he was alive, just as all of his followers were. Hell, one of them could telepathically manipulate people into killing themselves or each other, and that's not something that can simply be "disabled" long enough to lock the guy away. And Knives made it clear that he would continue to work toward humanity's destruction for as long as he lived. So I felt that the ending was something of a cheat, and not really a real ending at all, because the threat Knives represents has not been eliminated and humanity is still at risk. So while an attempt was made to have a happy ending for all the tragedy the audience has seen, I found it to be unsatisfying due to the implications.

On the technical side, this series is from the late '90s, and you can tell. I still think that it looks fairly good, though, and I don't really hold its animation against it. The dub is also okay for the most part, though the weak link there, in my opinion, is a song some of the characters sing which just doesn't sound natural to me. Overall the dub isn't bad, though. I think that Trigun's greatest strength on the technical side has to be its soundtrack. It's this wonderful mix of rock, jazz, and old-style country that I could listen to all by itself.

Overall, I definitely enjoyed this series, but not as much as I've enjoyed some others, mostly due to the ending and the preachiness of the "no one has a right to take the life of another" message. I'll probably add it to my list of favorites, but probably more towards the bottom of it. That being said, this series is definitely worth a watch. Just make sure you know going into it that this is more of a comedy-drama, not a straight-up comedy. 8/10.

[CX]

Avalon
(2001 live action movie)

I actually initially only watched this movie because I read that the movie Assault Girls was a sequel to it, and I kind of like to watch things in order if I can to try to gain a greater sense of context. I'd actually completely forgotten that Mamoru Oshii directed this movie, though I had a really obvious hint in that most of the movie has a rather heavy orange tint to it, like someone slapped an orange tint over everything. But the appearance of a basset hound made me look this movie's Wiki page up again and sure enough, Oshii's name was one it.

If you're not familiar with his work, he also directed the first two Ghost in the Shell movies, which hopefully most people reading this are familiar with. The thing about his work is that they tend to have a common color theme to them to help set the tone, which a lot of recent games have done themselves as a cheap way of doing that themselves. In Oshii's case, it also tends to coincide with what his favorite color is at the time he makes the movie (compare the original 1995 Ghost in the Shell movie to the more recent 2.0 release and you'll see what I mean). Pretty much every movie he's ever done also features a basset hound, primarily because Oshii owns one and it's apparently a favorite of his. Of course the other thing about Oshii's work is that he really tends to favor a slow pace as part of setting the tone of the movie, and will often do long, drawn out scenes or shots to evoke a particular kind of emotion from the audience. I tend to only just tolerate this, because in my opinion he tends to drag things on for too long, probably because I'm just not that interested in what he wants me to focus on. In one scene in particular in this movie, he focuses on a man's lips as he sloppily eating eggs and bacon with his hands. I get that he was trying to make the audience disgusted, but I honestly could only take so much of it and had to fast forward. Oshii also tends to focus a lot on the preparation of food, and while I get that in this case he was going for a mundane feeling for the main character's "real" life compared to the game the movie is named after, I felt that this scene was drawn out for far too long. I know that not everyone agrees with me on that, though, and that some people look at Oshii the way that others look at Kubrick, which is to say that he has a very devoted fan base that sees him as a genius. As a disclaimer, I'll say that I don't disagree with that, only that my tastes only allow me to get a limited amount of enjoyment out of Oshii's films, and also that I've noticed many of his films share the same existentialist theme and many of the same story elements, which is part of why I knew who directed this movie almost right off the bat.

Speaking of similar themes, though, I have to note that this movie seems to borrow a lot from The Matrix through its use of an older style of computer graphics, and how this is used in "rendering" the game environment.


Follow the basset hound.

I suppose that's only fair, though, seeing as The Matrix borrowed a lot from Ghost in the Shell, so it's like coming full circle, really. Still, I had to chuckle when the main character opened a set of windows at one point only to find a brick wall.

Okay, I suppose I should get around to talking about the actual movie at some point, so I guess this is as good a point as any to mention that it was actually a co-production with a Polish film company which was filmed in Poland and stars Polish actors. That being said, the country the movie takes place in is never identified beyond looking stereotypically Eastern European in order to play up the cyberpunk feel of the setting. All that's really said is that young people have been seeking escape in a virtual reality game called Avalon, which is supposedly illegal, and is also a means of making money for some people. The story follows a young woman named Ash, who is an experienced player of the game and apparently an ace at it. While I never got the feeling from the movie that the game was actually illegal, it was apparently supposed to be because there was a danger of players ending up brain dead from using it, apparently if they tried to seek a secret final level of the game.

The movie really plays up the importance of the game, at least to its players, because in the game Ash is really well known and thought of, but in real life she's just a single woman living in a small apartment with her basset hound. Of course the movie also tried to mess with your head a little by suggesting at more than one point that Ash has never left the game.

Anyway, not long into the movie, another player has been showing Ash up in the game, and this bothers her. This brings up her past, back when she was part of a well known team that was unbeatable until one of them panicked and called for a reset, which is the only way out of the game without winning or getting killed (in the game). The split the team up, but ever since she's wondered about the team leader, Murphy. I'm sure most people could have told her to look in Detroit, but she's convinced that he's still in the game somehow, in spite of seeing his brain dead body at a hospital. So she sets out to find this secret final level of the game, despite many attempts to dissuade her. She does finally find what she's looking for, including a Murphy who hasn't been turned into Robocop, but naturally it isn't what she hoped it would be.

Of course, it's only at this part of the movie that several running themes finally get a more obvious answer for them, such as the orange color scheme, which disappears in the "Class Real", and how basically every statue up until this part of the movie has been headless or at least faceless. It's left open to interpretation, naturally, as is Ash's final fate. The last part of the movie actually made me think of a few different other works, The Thirteenth Floor among them, as I attempted to figure out just what the hell was going on. The most mysterious portion of this movie as far as figuring that out was the sudden disappearance of Ash's basset hound, which later appears on a poster for a concert named Avalon, and as a passenger in a car that just happens to be driving by in Class Real. I was convinced for a while that some conspirators had somehow moved Ash's body in an attempt to fool her into murdering someone in real life, but when she stepped outside and the orange filter went away, I was then convinced she was a computer program who had somehow found her way into the real world. Murphy actually made that argument, and he seemed convinced that his body wouldn't disappear like usual when Ash shot him, only it did, and the last few minutes of the movie kind of got weirder from there.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't get some enjoyment from watching this movie, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered watching all of it, but I'll tell you right up front that it isn't for everyone, mostly owing to the pacing. I couldn't help but feel like the movie was being padded out, and while I'm sure that statement just upset some Oshii fans, I've never been afraid to call things the way I see it. Something else I saw was bit of a shot against gamers who take themselves way too seriously and spend way too much time gaming. I'm sure some people will disagree with me on that, but since another movie he made, The Sky Crawlers also seemed to be a bit of a shot at the typical otaku that tends to watch all the same kind of shows, I can see him taking the same kind of a shot at gamers, especially since in his case it takes one to know one.

I think this was an okay movie, though as you can tell it didn't exactly blow my socks off or anything. I'd say that it's more for film nerds who enjoy interpreting what different details within a movie might mean, or who like to find hidden themes and messages within a film. Oshii, like Kubrick, definitely puts a lot of that into his movies, so you can be rest assured that you might have fun trying to interpret this movie. If you're not into that kind of thing, you might not find this movie all that enjoyable, because while it's about a combat game, there actually isn't all that much action. Kind of like Ghost in the Shell (the movie, not the series). 7/10.

[CX]

Assault Girls
(2010 live action movie)

Whelp, considering that this is supposed to be a sequel to Avalon, and that it was also written and directed by the famous Mamoru Oshii, it honestly couldn't be any more different from Avalon if it tried. Whereas Avalon felt a lot like Ghost in the Shell and the Matrix in terms of complexity, depth, and tone, this movie feels more like a run of the mill action fluff anime, except it's introduced using a long drawn out narration explaining the set-up (and how it's connected to the first movie) and interrupted by long drawn out shots of the location this movie was shot at and few different examples of wildlife. Those two things are the only hints Oshii has anything to do with this movie, as there is no overlying color theme and while a dog does appear at one point, it's not a basset hound. I can't help but feel that Oshii is trying to distance himself from some of his older work that I'm more familiar with, which typically was cyberpunk and tended to focus on gritty realness with some kind of underlying philosophical angle, which was usually some variant of existentialism. While it's nice to see him throw a little more variety into the mix, did he really have to go for pointless fluff?

I'm going to be mean here and just come right out and say that there is no substance to this movie. I honestly don't get why there's even an attempt to connect this back to Avalon, because it's completely unrelated otherwise. Large chunks of time are wasted on introducing the background for the movie, which is essentially a more detailed version of the paragraph we got at the beginning of Avalon. The only thing is, it does exactly squat for the actual story, which consists of four different characters wandering a volcanic island-I mean barren wasteland, in search of giant worms to kill.


The spice must flow...

The four of them have four different ways of fighting, with one of them being all tacticool in her fighter jet (which she gets out of to snipe), one using an assault rifle and a giant mecha, one using the power of magical girls to transform into a crow that can shoot lighting and orbs of energy, and one that uses a giant sniper rifle.


Hey, give Yoko her gun back.

The one with the giant sniper rifle is a dude, though, but I guess they couldn't think of a catchy way to work him into the title. He's also shown to be very gross, and while the girls all have ways of getting around the wasteland faster, he's stuck on foot because he put all of his earnings into the giant gun.

The story, in a nutshell, is that there's a boss worm, and none of them can take it down on their own, so they have to team up to fight it, even though they all seem to hate each other. That's it. The movie's only an hour long, and a good chunk of that is wasted on an intro with screensaver footage that doesn't add anything of importance, and on seeing how each of the characters react to a snail that once of them put on the head of a statue (rifle guy ate it). The movie doesn't really take itself seriously for the entire rest of itself, though, so those segments seem really out of place. I have to admit that I did get a little bit of a chuckle out of one scene that kind of simulates a fighting game like Street Fighter a little, but other than that the only real entertainment I derived was from the Engrish the actors were forced to use for most of the movie, and how great the three women looked in their fan service outfits.

As an aside, I think I liked how crow girl looked the best, but she doesn't even have any dialog, and she spends most of her screen time dancing and acting silly. She does look great in skintight black leather, though.

Anyway, the whole point of the fight between rifle guy and tacticool girl (I'm refusing to use their names in case you're wondering) was about how the points from killing the boss would be distributed. The fight itself was good for a chuckle, but the movie ends with the three girls all flying back to base, with the exposition given that only the first player back to base gets the points. Which makes no sense at all, either in the context of it being a game, or in the context of the movie where rifle guy got his ass handed to him in order to ensure that each of them would get an equal share of the points. So rifle guy shoots all of them down, and they all start shooting at each other, and the movie just ends.

Why do people like this movie?

Okay, so it isn't horrible like some of the different anime I've seen, but it certainly isn't good, either. 6/10.

[CX]

Berserk
(25 episode series)

Set in a Western Medieval fantasy world, I have to admit that Berserk didn't really appeal to me all that much at first. Actually, most of the series didn't have the appeal to me that it probably has to most of its fans, simply because the hack-n-slash battles just don't appeal to me all that much, and the way everyone who wasn't a main or supporting character tended to be cut down like grass didn't help any. From what I'd read about this series ahead of time, though, I was convinced that this series would come through for me, and it did, despite many handicaps.

This series follows Guts, a large muscular man who wields an impossibly large sword. The series starts in media res, with Guts seeking revenge against the demonic members of the Godhand and the abusive, oppressive people who surround them. He is specifically seeking revenge against one named Griffith, and a few relevant flashbacks are shown before the series dives into the past to show us how Guts came to be the way we first see him. I'd already been spoiled about the ending of this series, as frankly I actually like to read about this kind of information ahead of time anyway. For those who haven't been spoiled, though, the first episode of the series would probably act as sufficient warning not to take Griffith for face value as the stereotypical enigmatic leader he appears to be for most of the series. Of course, if you haven't been spoiled about this series, you soon will be by reading this review.

As I mentioned, for the most part, this series is a fairly typical hack-n-clash Medieval warfare story, with impossible characters doing impossible things. A number of clichés were present that made it impossible for me to enjoy that aspect of the series too much, such as armor only actually doing its job for important characters, while for everyone else it was basically just tissue paper. It is just a show, though, and I'm sure for some people the idea of a show that mostly consists of people hacking each other apart with swords are shooting crossbows at each other has an appeal of its own. For me, though, the appeal came mainly from the themes of the show, such as camaraderie and how people, especially leaders, can feel isolated despite that. Aspects of human nature are also explored, mostly addressed by having characters that actually had some depth to them. Guts, for example, is basically the stereotypical barbarian who really just likes to kill people, and yet he makes a competent military leader and not only cares for the lives of those under his command, but of people in general, even if he doesn't always involve himself. In a way, he's kind of like a spaghetti western Clint Eastwood character. Griffith, on the other hand, seems very much like a good leader, who cares about those who follow him, but later reveals that all he really cares about is his dream of having his own kingdom. Hints of this are shown before his final betrayal of the band of mercenaries he leads, the Band of the Hawk, though even as he betrays them, it's still made clear that this wasn't originally his intention, and he even initially attempts to prevent their destruction.

The majority of the series takes place during a "100 Year War" between the kingdoms of Midland and Chudar. Guts started out as a wandering mercenary who made something of a reputation for himself through his disproportionate fighting ability. As fate would have it, he comes across the Band of the Hawk after the battle and a few of them decide to rob him. Griffith, seeing Guts single-handedly fight off these attackers, challenges him to a duel which will decide whether Guts can go free or not. In the end, Guts loses and is essentially forced to join the Band of the Hawk.

As an aside, I'll note that Berserk seems to have a large number of yaoi fans (dude on dude love to you non-anime nerds reading this), and for once it actually wasn't all in their heads, because frankly the series wasn't helping anything.


The one on the right is Griffith, and yes, he's a dude.

What with all the "you belong to me Guts" and the way Griffith practically fawns over him, it's kind of hard not to notice that aspect of it even if yaoi and yaoi fans make you roll your eyes like it does for me. Still, it's pretty obvious that Guts doesn't think of Griffith that way, and Griffith pretty much seems to frak whoever will advance him toward his goal. Anyway...

As the war goes on, both Guts and the Band of the Hawk make a name for themselves, with Guts being promoted to captain of a unit of raiders within the Hawks, and the Hawks themselves eventually coming to be recognized by the king of Midland, and becoming an official part of Midland's army. Through it all, Griffith has to constantly fight off assassination attempts, though he always manages to stay a step ahead, or to just turn out to be extremely lucky. Griffith credits his luck and his success to the ugly red "Egg of the King" he wears around his neck, which looks like something Picasso might've carved, and which also acts as a constant reminder of the kind of character Griffith really is. Griffith and the Hawks' do so well that they are eventually raised to the level of white knights and recognized as the best unit within the Midland army, with Griffith holding the rank of general. Just to sweeten the deal, Griffith seems to be lining himself up to romance the princess. One can only guess at what Griffith's original plan was, but apparently Guts deciding to strike out on his own again and actually winning in a second duel with Griffith made him lose his edge. So, in spite of winning a century long war and doing so much for Midland, sleeping with his daughter was a berserker button for the king, and not only was Griffith arrested and tortured for a year, but the king ordered the destruction of the Band of the Hawk, even though they not only had nothing to do with Griffith's little nighttime escapades, but had no idea anything had happened. So, yeah, winning the war and doing nothing but good for the kingdom means nothing when your commanding officer fraks the king's daughter, apparently.

Guts returns from a year of wandering to help save the Hawks, hopefully by saving Griffith. Unfortunately, they are way beyond too late, because Griffith is skin and bones, and has had the tendons cut in his wrists and his ankles cut, meaning he can never stand or grasp anything again even if he managed to recover his weight and health otherwise. Oh, and his tongue has been cut out, so he can't even so much as give rousing speeches anymore. All for dipping his wick in the royal well. Hope she was worth it, Griffith.

Apparently, this was all part of the red egg's plan, because following a suicide attempt by Griffith, some of his blood gets on it and causes it to rearrange itself into a norm-looking face, except for the tears of blood streaming out of it. It's also apparent at this point that Griffith really did think the thing was only a trinket, and that only then did he understand the implications of what was happening. He tries to warn Guts, but unfortunately he doesn't have a tongue anymore, and both Guts and the entirety of the Band of the Hawk are transported to a nightmarish landscape, followed shortly afterwards by the majority of them being eaten alive by demons. Oh, spoilers.

So I'm sure some of you are wondering why I haven't mentioned Guts's very own tsundere, Casca. For those of you not in the know, basically tsundere means that Casca acts like a bitch to Guts, but deep down it's really because she likes him and totally wants to jump his bones. I didn't mention her before because she deserves her own section to address why she is both a positive and a negative for the series. She's a positive in that she's shown to be a competent commander, strong, and respected by those who follow her. That would be a good thing, and she'd be one of the few strong female characters I've seen in anime. Unfortunately, she really isn't, because it's all undone by her constant moodiness, and the way she is completely unreasonable and tends to get angry at pretty much anything. Then there's the way she tends to need to be rescued by Guts, all while she's apparently pining after Griffith and constantly blaming Guts for anything bad that happens to Griffith. I might have given this aspect of the series more of a pass if it had flowed a little more naturally, but I just couldn't see past what I saw as an obvious tsundere for Guts to win over, and how stereotypically moody and unreasonable her character was made to be. It all just seemed rather forced to me.

From a technical standpoint, all I can really say is that it's really too bad that this series's budget didn't match the ambition of the story. People who have only seen newer anime will probably be turned off by how primitive this series looks compared to pretty much anything that's come out in the last decade. It's the kind of stuff that the stereotypical anime nerd of the past would gush about as far as the supposedly brilliant ways animators would cut corners so they could actually afford to finish the series on the laughable budget they were given. So there are a lot of static drawings, many of which are moved around a lot to simulate something like shakey-cam, and some of which are panned multiple times to signify a powerful strike of some kind. Not sure why they always did it three times, but whatever. This kind of stuff normally wouldn't bother me that much, but it's just used so much in this series that it really wears on me. It makes me wonder what this series might've been if it'd actually had a decent budget. The soundtrack is the one saving grace, but it too has its drawback in that there just aren't that many tracks in it. So while the music is used fairly effectively, you hear the same tracks over an over in this series. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess budget had a lot to do with that, too. In any case, this series may be disappointing on the technical side to some viewers, though story and character-wise it has plenty of positives.

Honestly I'm looking forward to the new movies that are coming out, which are supposed to follow the manga the series was based on more closely. To be fair, though, from what I've read, the main reason the series didn't follow the manga as closely, aside from time constraints, had mostly to do with the fact that the manga wasn't, and in fact still isn't finished. It started in 1990, by the way. I can only hope then that a few areas will be cleared up for me that were left somewhat unaddressed in the series, such as how Guts survived the betrayal of the Hawks to become the "Black Swordsman" seen at the very beginning and very end of the series. Casca's final fate is also left unaddressed, as if Griffith's for that matter, though to be fair these plot points remaining unknown or ambiguous didn't really spoil my enjoyment of the series. That was mainly done by the fighting and romance clichés.

I'd still recommend this series, though I wouldn't exactly call it a favorite. The main thing is just to know what you're getting into, because it's one hell of a doozy of an ending, and being an older anime there are just some things about it that fans of newer anime might have a hard time getting past. 7/10.

[CX]

Thermae Romae
(6 episode series)

This was a short, simple, and effective series. Being short, unfortunately there really isn't a lot to say about it, but it was a pretty enjoyable series to watch.

Set mostly in ancient Rome, it follows the time-traveling adventures of Lucius, a Roman architect who specializes in baths. He is initially down on his luck, as the style of architecture he prefers to use in his designs is currently out of style. He initially tries to relax in a bath as he explains what's upsetting him about current trends in bath architecture with one of his friends, only to wind up in a modern Japanese bath house. With what he experiences during these mysterious journeys, which he takes to be a strange country Rome has conquered full of "flat-faced slaves", he copies everything about it that fascinates him as per Roman tradition and thus becomes famous as a bath architect. Each episode sees him coming up against a new challenge, which he then solves after a humorous journey to modern Japan, bridging the gap between two bath cultures that are millennium apart.

As someone who considers themselves a Roman history buff, I have to say that I was actually pretty thoroughly impressed with the amount of historical accuracy put into this show. For instance, the complaints about the noise and loss of the formerly relaxing nature of the baths in Rome was a real complaint written about by a Roman historian, though I can't think of which one as I write this. There was also the many different aspects of Roman life and the technology they had available to them, and just some tidbits here and there that I thought added some authenticity to it. They even had the voice actor struggle through some Latin at appropriately humorous times.

That being said, the people who made this had a lot of fun, and that really comes through. In fact, if I were to sum this series up, it would be just to call it that – fun. It has a lot of humor in it, mostly based around the "fish out of water" aspect of an ancient Roman finding himself in modern Japan, but not entirely around it. It uses a flash animation style that reminds me a bit of some of the shows aired on Adult Swim, and in some ways that actually works for this series as far as making it funny.

I would definitely recommend this series; it's short, relaxing fun. 8/10.