Sorry it has been so long since my last post. I am not dead! I heard a wonderful anime duet recently and couldn’t help myself. The song I am talking about is Kakakata☆Kataomoi-C by Hyadain from the anime NIchijou0. Well let’s just listen to it for now.
Now that is a lovely piece. The music is fairly simple but it sounds rich with the the nice beat and the cool percussion coupled with what sounds like electronic horns. I like the non-sensical syllables that the men through in after the women seem their parts at times. It is especially nice when the percussion starts going along with the words right before it slows down again.
The song as a whole is very nice too. This is the first duet I have heard as an anime theme song and it is quite lovely. The piece comes together quite well and feels very balanced between the two parts. The melody is constantly speeding up and slowing down which can be a bit disorienting at times but it does a good job showing the listener what a roller coaster love can be. One of my favorite anime themes.
This is the song that they play whenever super-mega-ultra fights are going down in Gurren Lagann. It combines great classical music, with a latin opera and a rapper–a truly unique blend that should not work at all, but it does. I have no idea how it works but it just combines to create something that is almost as epic in scope as Gurren Lagann is.
This song just sounds cool. The opera and the piano make it feel more epic, but the rapper and the people shouting “row row fight the power” just make it feel cool. It is not the hip-hop type of cool though, it is the badass type of cool that is missing from popular music these days.
This is just one of those songs that inspires people. The piano/latin opera singer version makes it feel even more inspirational than the rap-only version. It captures the essence of Gurren Lagann perfectly, it is about seeing what is “impossible” and just doing it without giving it a second thought. Libera Me From Hell is one of the greatest anime songs I have ever heard, and it is only fitting that it would find its home in one of the best animes ever made.
Another anime that I started watching because it was on Netflix instant queue. All I can say is that dubs have either come a long way or I am way less judgmental than I used to be. I watched season 1 dubbed and season 2 subbed.
Plot: Spice and Wolf is about a travelling merchant named Kraft Lawrence who by circumstances outside of his control ends up traveling with a pagan wolf god, who just happens to take te form of a very attractive young woman. Kraft agrees to accompany her as she tries to go back to her home in the North from hundreds of years ago. As the story continues they find themselves in many bad situations due mostly to Kraft’s occupation and the personality traits that come with being a first-rate merchant.
Throughout all of the travels and adventures they have they try to stay distant as it would be a romance doomed to fail, but they feel themselves becoming closer and closer all of the time. This is where the story really starts getting good, it is the romance bubbling right under the surface that plays such a pivotal role in this story. Whenever it comes bubbling up to the surface one or both characters must try to suppress it, but it tends to get stronger each time. Needless to say I am a sucker for this sort of thing, but I think this is one of the most well-done romance since Clannad the After Story. It has everything, two very likable characters, a reason it shouldn’t work out, two central characters (not a harem), and great chemistry between the characters.
The only thing about the story that may turn people off is a commentary on the state church, which I have no problem with, but the Catholic church has probably already denounced this anime. Also the fact that a lot of the story focuses around being a merchant so much of the dialogue focuses on explaining economics both micro and macro. Some may find this intriguing but others may find it boring. I think it leads to quite a bit of witty banter between the two characters and really helps bring them to life.
Animation:
Spice and Wolf was animated with 14th century Europe in mind and was done quite well. Most of the costumes resemble at least what us westerners would expect them to look like. We also don’t see the blue-hair/green-hair anime people, it really does feel like old Europe and not some strange anime world. I feel like un-animeizing this anime really made quite nice.
Other than that the settings are nice to look at. they are also a bit less over the top than most animes. The characters though are beautiful. Kraft, Horo, and Nora are especially nice. These characters could be Greek statues and nobody would know the difference. this really adds a lot to the romantic aspects of the show. Even though it is just an anime it is still way more appealing to see attractive characters in a romance, even though that may seem a bit shallow it is definitely true for me.
Sound: Most of the Spice and wolf music is again done in a very European style. It sounds very old and very medieval. Kind of reminds of watching Brave Heart or something.
I love all of the old style music but this one was definitely my favorite. It is so simple but it ends up being quite moving in its own way. I am pretty sure it is the violin which always makes me sad. This is just a taste of the type of music they use for Spice and Wolf and is very representative of the series as a whole.
The theme song is quite nice as well. It is tabi no Touchu by Kiyoura Natsumi. I have put the full song below.
Well she has a very beautiful voice that it is for sure. I could listen to the first thirty seconds forever and never get tired of it. Other than that though the song is not that amazing. It is a solid OP but would never be song of the week or anything.
Characters: Kraft and Horo are two very intruiging characters to say the least. Kraft is a very good merchant who is trying to balance is never ending quest for making money with taking on a dependent and falling in love with a god. He handles it in suprising mature and immature ways and is a very difficult character to understand at times. Horo also flucuates between immature and mature but tends to stay on the mature side most of the time. She is very perceptive, as she has been alive for hundreds of years, and usually ends up getting the two of them out of trouble. Her heart is very conflicted as she loves being Kraft but doesn’t want saying goodbye to be too terrible. Also she doesn’t want to hold him back in his quest to earn enough money to open a store.
These two characters come together to produce some of the wittiest banter I have ever seen in an anime, as they both know that they are messing around on the surface but have truly grown closer with each passing remark. Their cunning also helps get them into and out of some very odd and terrible situations all of the time. They are just two really good characters to follow.
Te other characters in the anime tend to have understandable but boring motivation (love or money or both…that’s it). While not terrible they are not interesting in the slightest.
Final Thoughts: This anime is one of the best romance animes I have ever seen. The two lead characters were amazing. I am looking forward to a season three if they make one, or may start reading the novels if it comes to that. I just can’t say enough good things about this anime. 10/10 (this puts it into my top 3 favorite animes ever)
Some people love it, some people hate it, nobody can quite explain what it is. It’s Eden of the East. Yesterday I was too tired/lazy to leave my couch so I decided to watch anime on my Netflix instead of making the longer journey into the next room to use my computer so I started watching Eden of the East… dubbed which I know is heresy but it was actually quite a bit better than I remember dubs being (the last one I watched was Yu Yu Hakushio).
Plot: The plot is very complex for an 11 episode show. It focuses on Akira Takizawa who is suffering from amnesia but finds out that he has a phone with 8.5 billion yen on it and he can call up an opperator that can use the money very quickly to make almost anything happen. He is supposed to use the phone to become a true savior and make Japan and the world a better place. The plot moves right along at a brisk pace, each episode answering a question or two but leaving ten more in its place. Even the ending leaves very few questions answered. That being said though it is all done quite well, the story is told in such a way that the audience is always wanting to know more about the phone, about the cellasous, and especially about Akira Takizawa. It never gets dull at any point, and even though it is complex it is very easy to comprehend.
Animation: The animation is just stunning. It reminds me of watching a feature legnth anime movie at times. Japan is really brought to life by the gorgeous settings and back drops and the animation is extreamly fluid. The character designs can look a bit ugly at times compared to everything else but they are still well done as well.
Sound: Most of the music in Eden of the East is your standard elevator/doctor’s office fare. Not distressingly bad but instantly forgettable. Most of the interesting music is actually done by foreign artists which just makes this anime feel even more unique and quirky. The opening is especially good and it is a song that you have probably heard: Falling down by Oasis.
Wow… never expected to hear that in an anime. I love it though. It is a great song that fits the anime very well. I also think that having the main theme in english helps the anime quite a bit because it makes it feel more cosmopolitan, and that suits the characters and the plot quite well.
Characters:
Jason Bourne… I mean Akira Takizawa is one of the best characters in anime history. At first he is just a stereotypical amnesia sufferer who happens to be pretty hilarious, but as time goes on all of the traits that make him such a great character are revealed. He is very mysterious, even after the anime ends we don’t know too much about him. His aloofness is rivaled by no one. He is very likable even if it is impossible t understand his motivations. He seems to always do the right thing in his own unique way, but most importantly he gets impossible stuff done by being a true leader and tapping into the power of others and himself.
The other main character, Saki, is a bit generic but she is fairly likable. She is just a girl who gets involved in all of the craziness that happens because of Akira, but she stays strong and presses Akira on a lot of things which makes her seem more like a real girl then the docile love interests that tend to appear in these types of animes. Other than her though none of the other characters are worth mentioning.
Final Thoughts: One thing I think is worth mentioning is the fact that (spoilers) all of heros beside the ones I just mentioned turned out to be NEETS (Not in Employment Education or Training). This feels like a commentary on the stregnth the younger generation in Japan can wield even with all of the problems associated with them (Hikikomoris, NEETS, Passivity, not getting good work, low birth rates…) they really have taken a pounding. Anyways at its heart this anime is thriller and it doesn’t disappooint. Each episode just makes you want to see the next episode and it never grows dull, although the ending was annoyingly vague, just begging for sequel which is a bit annoying.
Remember back when Naruto was still a great show? Before Sasuke became obsessed with being an “avenger.” Before Naruto could learn any jutsu in two seconds. Back when they used to actually explore the supporting cast. I remember those days, and if you forgot hopefully this song can bring back memories of how great Naruto used to be. The song is “Re:member” one of the many Naruto openings done by Flow.
This is such a great song. The instrumentals are fantastic, especially the drums. The drummer is working hard on the symbols the entire song and it sounds great. The guitar is very simple but it fits the song very well especially in the chorus where he plays the lead in. I also really like the back up vocalist(s) who yells “whoa” I actually think this makes the song oddly enough. The lead singer for Flow, Keigo, is great as always and I like how high he gets his voice in this song, it makes it sound more epic and inspiring.
I had a difficult time deciding between Re:member and Go! (Fighting Dreamers) both were Naruto opening sung by Flow, but I ended up sticking with Re:member because I feel like it is more iconic to Naruto. I couldn’t deprive you guys nor myself of Go! altogether though as it is also one the best anime songs so here you go:
Wow now that was one of the craziest animes I have seen in a long time. I originally started watching it because I heard it was a crazy anime that was impossible to understand until close to the end. I thought that it might be like Higurashi, so I decided to give it a whirl, but I was midly disappointed by where the plot went.
Plot: At first I thought this was going to be an anime about how people deal with all of the terrible problems that are dealt to them in life. It seemed like everybody was making stuff up in order to make their lives easier, from Takumi having an imaginary girlfriend to gigolomaniacs, g-errates (gravitational error rate if you are curious), to strange diseases in order to explain brutal murders it felt like an anime about realizing it is important to face the truth of what is in front of you and grow stronger as a person because of it. (spoiler) in reality though almost all of the aforementioned craziness turns out to be real and the character only grows in the fact that he falls in love and wants to protect the girl he falls in love with. Needless to say I was fairly disappointed with the lack of character development involved in the plot of this anime. That being said the first 7-8 episodes were very well done, and before it took the terrible turn I mentioned earlier, it was truly an interesting anime, not to mention the actual ending is terrible, seriously don’t even watch it.
Animation: The animation is sleek and well-done. At first I thought it was a bit to flashy for what the story was going to be, but once more of the fantasy elements got revealed it ended up fitting perfectly. The character designs are more… subtle than most harem animes which is nice for a change. The only really over-the-top one is seira who is Takumi’s imaginary girlfriend from an an anime, so it works well.
Music: The music in Chaos Head works fine. None of it is that amazing. the OP is pretty nice, especially the full version.It is F.D.D. by Kanako Itoand it definitely sounds like an action anime opening. I really enjoy her voice though and the music gets you pumped to watch the show.
The ending theme is Super Special by Seira Kagami, it is terrible. It is almost a comically bad song, from the terrible lyrics to the terrible techno beat in the background. It is kind of catchy though, but that doesn’t redeem it at all.
Characters: The main character in this show is amazing. He is not just a normal loser, but the biggest loser possible. He is a Hikikomori who lives in a cargo container, doesn’t talk to people, plays online games all day, has an imaginary girlfriend, and calls the real world the 3D world. That being said his lack of social skills and the fact that he is caught up in a murder case make him a character that is very easy to feel sympathy for, and it is nice to see him truly grow as a person as the anime goes on.
All of the other characters on the other hand bring absolutely nothing the table. Nobody else in this anime is more than a .5D character. They all have very simple motivations and don’t really mature in the slighest, although they are all supposed to have matured through one event or another, they are not fleshed out enough for the viewer to see actual evidence of this.
Overall I really enjoyed the first part of this anime, but the last third of it left quite a sour taste in my mouth as it became something it probably should not have been. With more character development and more thought given to the ending it still could have managed to be a nice anime, but as it is it only deserves a 4 out of 10.
Wow, now that was one crazy first episode. It reminded me of so many other things I have seen in the past. Alma (the main character) morphs from Yusuke Urameshi (Yu Yu Hakusho) to the Incredible Hulk to Megaman all in one episode. I have no idea where this crazy anime is going except that it will have a lot of action, which isn’t necesarilly a bad thing.
The action in this anime seems pretty good. It is kind of weird having mechs and superpowers in the same anime but hopefully it works out. This is abviously a very high budget affair and it shows in the animation, which really cares all of the action scenes.
I am very interested to see where the organization who helps Alma is going. Are they truly just trying to protect the world or are they a bit more interesting then that? Hopefully something like this is explore in the anime to keep it from being a weekly villain show.
All in all I am fairly interested in the future of this anime 7/10.
This is my favorite anime song song and has been for about a year, which is pretty impressive considering the rate I usully get tired of songs I listen to too much. I know I have been giving Soul Eater quite a bit of love in the music department, but I would be willing to argue that the anime deserves every bit of it. Here is one of its openings, Black Paper Moon by Tommy Heavenly 6:
As I have metioned already this is my favorite anime song. I love it. Tomoko Kawase has a truly beautiful voice. She does not have to try to sound super cute like most popular female Japanese singers/idols. Her voice is strong and reminds of me more of an American style of strong voices a la Lady Gaga. Her voice alone carries this song far.
The music though takes it to the next level. It is not quite rock and roll but it has that feeling to it. To me it is a blend a pop and its repetitive-cachyness, and a nice mixture of rock instruments and sound. Also the chorus has a really nice beat that draws you in quite nicely.
The lyrics in the song make it feel even cooler and round out all of the other great parts of the song. Despite the cheesiness of rhyming “fairly blue” and “black paper moon” just to get an easy rhyme, I really enjoyed her use of English in this song. Some of the coolest lines are in English such as “when you’re lost, here I am, forever with your soul.” It also helps if you don’t speak Japanese because you can see what the song is talking about without looking it up. The lyrics are just cool even if you don’t know what they are talking about because it sounds cool, like a well-done rock song. If you understand the lyrics the song takes on a whole new level though as you discover that in many ways it is a love song with dark overtones. “see you in your dreams yeah baby even if it’s a nightmare” that is just scary but so cool at the same time.
Anyways, this is one of the best songs ever featured on an anime and I wish more anime were willing to pick up songs like this rather than some of the generic stuff that we get in most anmes. I am looking at you Hunter X Hunter.
Mayo Chiki is an echii comedy that focuses on a butler who has to pretend she is a boy or she will be fired, and a boy who cannot come into contact with girls without his nose bleeding. Jirou (the boy) finds out Kanoe’s (the crossdressing boy) secret and ends up making a deal where he will keep the secret and Kanoe and her master help him cure his nosebleed problem. Fairly interesting premise and it seems like it is going to have a real story line, unlike most of the echii comedies that have come out in recent years.
The two main characters are pretty funny. Jirou, aside from his problem, is the shy guy who rather than causing all of the events that make his life so crazy, just sits around and lets other people do it for him. I guess this is the type of character that always appears in the anime equivalent to romantic comedies, but it is getting a bit trite I would have to say. That being said, he is a genuinely funny person, when his sister kills his teddy bear he apologizes to it and patches it up. Little moments like this one make me think he could develop into a truly funny character. Kanoe is also funny in her own way. She is completely subservient to her master, who wants to spice up her life by forcing Kanoe into terrible and embarrassing situations and watching from a distance.
Teddy is definitely my favorite character
This anime explores many adult-themes and fetishes both overtly and under the surface that are worth mentioning and taking a look at. First of all Kanoe is pictured in all sorts of compromising positions, whether it be oral sex, bondage, naked at the doctors, not wearing underwear, and so on and so forth. Although they never show her completely exposed so it isn’t a hentai they are very bold with what they overtly show on the screen. It is also worth noting that they explore an even deeper fetish of subservience throughout this anime where Kanoe is a butler and Jirou, while not her master, definitely is in charge of her to some extent. This is made obvious when he is given cards that allow him to force Kanoe to follow one of his orders. Some may find this boldness disturbing, and if you think about it too much it may be, but I am very happy that people are willing to take these kinds of risks even if I don’t really agree with the messages.
All in all this anime is fairly generic at its core but has a few very interesting premises and characters to bring to the table. I would give it a 6 but I think it deserves a 7 just for being so bold, and pushing the envelope a bit on a tired genre.
This is an anime about an elementary school girls basketball team with a high school boy as a coach. The first two episodes focus on getting a coach and training for an upcoming match with the boys team, who seem about ten times better than the girls but we will see. It is not a standard sports anime though, as it feels more like a comedy at times, and they still haven’t played basketball.
The first half of the first episode almost made me turn this off, it looked like it was going to be a loli-echii which kind of scared me. It doesn’t seem like that is the direction it is going thankfully, but the first episode featured a shower scene, comments on breast sizes/fondling, and all of the girls dressed up as maids flashing their sports pants under their maid dresses.
It turned into something much better though as it went on. It focuses on a boy (the coach) and a girl (the teams star player) who are both amazingly talented for their ages but risk losing their passion for basketball for different reasons. They come together so that they can both enjoy basketball for the immediate future. If it sounds cool that’s because it is.
The characters in the anime feel a bit one dimensional except for the two lead characters that I mentioned earlier. The two leads though seem like very interesting people and have fairly unique personalities and problems they need to solve. Hopefully, the other characters will be fleshed out more in the near future.
It is also very nice to see an anime that tackles themes such as gender roles and growing up, both seem to be major themes in this anime as the girls team tries to gain equal use of the gym with the boys and the main character is trying to grow by having fun rather than just winning. Not to mention all of the potential growing up some of the other characters may/need to go through.
This seems like it is going to be a great anime, definitely the one with the most potential this summer season. 9/10
