Guillotine

In an effort to provide some more useful information on the site an almost 2 month brainstorming session came up with the idea of going back and writing my opinions about older shows that I have watched in the past. So here goes…

A lot has been said about Kanon with some proclaiming it as a masterpiece, and others who dub it as trash. Kanon is the second offering in what many call the “Key/Visual Arts Trilogy” which are adaptations by Kyoto Animation of 3 of Key/Visual Arts visual novels. The first being Air, Kanon second, and the third is CLANNAD. All three shows feature very similar art styles and feel. Now I will say that I have never experienced the visual novel itself, so I cannot attest to how well the anime follows it’s original material.

Kanon itself is the story of a boy Suichi who returns to a town where he used to spend vacations with his aunt and cousin, but he has lost his memories of that time. As he begins to settle in to his new environment people he was involved with as a child begin to appear sparking his old memories. It’s a fairly straight forward plot and fits the standard theme of most visual novels by using a catalyst such as lost memory to allow the story to unfold while obscuring or misleading one from seeing the actual plot until almost the end. Of course as with most anime the opening credits pretty much gives you a pretty decent idea of what the main focus of the story will be. Another touch is that the entire show is set in a winter environment to add to the feel of the story.

The characters are well thought out, and quite easy to like. Even though most of them fit into typical anime/visual novel stereotypes they have their own unique style which makes them stand out among similar characters that have used in countless stories. As with almost all visual novels the story is chock full of harem elements with the main character being a boy who seems to attract every girl in town to him. I guess I can see why some have a problem with this type of show, but knowing in advance that it is based on a visual novel which are also commonly referred to as “girl get” games or “dating sims” you should pretty much not act surprised when the idea of the show is for Suichi to be surrounded by females and that he must eventually choose one to be with. Personally I tend to enjoy these adaptations, and I think my favorite thing is trying to figure out early on what is going to happen in the end. By playing a few visual novels one can pretty much get the idea of how they operate, so it’s easier to understand stories based on them even though you may not know that particular story. The main mechanisms of a visual novel are the routes and character interaction, so after playing a few it’s fairly easy to spot the various routes and character arcs, and then using the amount and type of interaction with each character to determine which route the main character is taking (here’s a hint… In most VNs the character that shows up the most is usually the character whose route is being followed).

As for the story itself it was quite well written, and flows nicely from beginning to end. It didn’t seem too rushed as some shows tend to be, and each episode builds on the story without too much extraneous material to fill up gaps in the story. Honestly one thing that surprised me was that the descriptions and trailers for this show were a bit misleading. Everything always screamed that this was possibly set in a “middle of nowhere” type of environment with a stranded on a snowy mountain feel, but the actual story takes place in a fairly decent sized city, although they did still manage to make the environment feel a bit isolated which I found quite interesting. If there is one flaw in the story then it is the same one that all visual novels share. In order to push the plot forward too many things happen too conveniently. Of course things like that don’t typically happen, and the chance of things happening in order or just at the proper time to be useful is always a bit much to swallow, but it is to be expected on these kind of adaptations.

Overall I think the show was done quite well, and I can understand why some may not like it, but I feel those types will probably not be ones to enjoy any kind of show adapted from game type material, so I would take most negative opinions with a grain of salt. If you have liked other visual novel adaptations then chances are you will like this, and even if you don’t typically like this type of story it is still well worth giving it a try. Without giving anything away I will say that if you like Air or CLANNAD then you will almost certainly enjoy this, and there is one more point to make… The story is pretty straight forward, and easy to understand unlike the confusion of Air or CLANNAD in which you have to watch a few times to figure out exactly what is going on. This one you can get everything just watching one time (of course that didn’t stop me from watching it 3 times anyway).

So is it a masterpiece??? Who knows? It doesn’t have quite the epic feel of CLANNAD, but is still quite an impressive story, and the artwork is on par with the other two shows which I consider to be Kyoto Animation’s greatest works to date from a visual standpoint.

Now that the winter season has finally begun it is time to look back on the fall anime season, and give my impressions of the shows that I was following, and how they turned out. As always I am only going over the shows I actually watched. There were many that for various reasons I chose not to follow, and some that I might have dropped or misplaced along the way. One such show being Inuyasha: The Final Act. This one I started out looking forward to, but I lost interest after about 5 episodes. This may have been due to the fact that I had myself a Ranma 1/2 marathon around Thanksgiving, and after 161 episodes of Rumiko Takahashi’s work it’s a bit hard to watch even a few more episodes, but I suspect that eventually I’ll get around to it.

Now let’s talk about the shows I have followed throughout the season.

Asura Cryin’ 2

Hmmm… What to say about Asura Cryin’ 2… It starts out right about where the first season left off, but things immediately get weird kind of like the beginning of the first season. It’s a bit hard to follow, but as with the first show after about half the episodes you start to figure things out, and by the end you pretty much understand what is going on. I think the show wasn’t quite as strong as the first season as it becomes obvious that they are rushing to wrap the entire story up, but that said it does have it’s moments, and some pretty interesting action scenes. I’d say that I have one real complaint about the show is the ending… Amazingly every character manages to show up all at once in a parallel world to join in on the final fight with no explanation of how they got there in the first place. Pretty hokey, but I guess they just wanted everyone involved at the end.

Darker Than Black 2

This show was done rather well, and the new character Suou was quite fun to watch, but the show itself was a bit short and rushed. It really should have gotten a 24 episode run. I also found the lack of Yin to leave me a bit unfulfilled. Although the story was short and somewhat predictable there was a definite hint to a possible 3rd season (or even a movie) at the end, so it is obvious that the story is not finished yet, and from the hint it might get even more interesting by introducing a new type of character. The OP and ED singles were also quite good and now reside on my ipod’s play list.

Sora no Otoshimono

This show was a real roller coaster. In the beginning it appeared that it was going to be another goofy show with no real point (which is not always a bad thing), but a rather interesting storyline does develop towards the end, and the looney-ness of getting to that story was quite fun to watch. Very good character development, and design in this show. Of course everyone is aware by now of the infamous panty migration ED from episode 2, but if that alone wasn’t enough to make this show epic then the rest of the EDs were. A different ED was used for each episode, and honestly there were some really great ones in there. If I were to fault this show it would be for the excessive use of chibi characters (Especially Tomoki who sometimes spent entire episodes in chibi form), and the shows sometimes overuse of anime stereotypes.

Kampfer

I have mixed feelings about this show to be honest. The show itself had a really great story, and some amazing characters, but the entire thing kind of fell through at the end. It seems almost like they had planned this to run for 24 episodes, but that for some reason it was changed to 12. I say this because it seems really odd that they got into a really rather complex plot near the last few episodes, and then just sort of ended the show without any true resolution. It seemed to me that they worked up to a big fight at the end which ended with the bad guys pretty much giving up without much of a fight. It really seems like there was a longer story planned out, but the studio just cobbled together a half assed ending when they maybe found out they weren’t getting more episodes. So in my opinion if this show was to continue it has potential to be good, but as it stands currently it’s a bit of a let down.

Kimi ni Todoke

Where to even begin with this show??? Amazing is all I can really say. A romantic comedy shouldn’t have such a compelling story. It really draws you in, and keeps you waiting on the edge of your seat to see what will happen next. The characters in this story are fantastic, and quite fun to watch. From gut busting humor to tear jerking moments this show runs the entire spectrum. The only downfall of the show is that it’s main drive is developing the characters, so at some point the show will become pointless. A simple matter of too much of a good thing can be bad. The show will continue through the winter season, and my hope is that they end it well. If it ends properly then this show has potential to become a masterpiece, but if the studios decide to try and drag it on forever to glean extra profit then there is the possibility of ruining a great show.

Nyan Koi

After the first episode of this show I was thinking that all my hopes for Nyan Koi were going down the drain. Thankfully after a couple more episodes the show became what I was hoping for. It turned out to be a really hilarious anime with an actual story underneath all the craziness. The characters are awesome, and I really hope this one comes back for another season seeing as how Junpei is nowhere near that 100 cat mark set in the beginning. If you are into comedies with a bit of ecchi then definitely check this one out, but give it a few episodes to start getting fun.

Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu Purezza

Hmmmm… This show… It was not bad, but it didn’t exactly stand out either. It had some great humor, and a few really great episodes including the only episode of any show that I actually watched several times (and no it wasn’t either of the hot springs episodes). The thing about this series is that it really had no cohesive storyline. It was more like an episodic sitcom in which there is something completely different every week rather than a continuing story. They did manage to cover a whole lot of ground though… From Christmas, to New Years, pop idols, school plays, maid parties, comicon, and not one but 2 hot spring episodes. I think they pretty much got everything they possibly could in there. They also managed to get a little more screen time for some of the side characters that were introduced in season one. If you just want to watch a fun show, and don’t mind the lack of a real plot then definitely check this one out, and be sure if you do to keep an eye out for the Ranma 1/2 cosplay in episode 3 (I told you they got everything in there).

Sasameki Koto

This show was a really nice surprise. I was expecting the typical yuri drama like Aoi Hana or Maria Sama, but this show brings some fantastic characters, and some really amazing humor. I think this show came the closest to actually making me fall out of my chair several times (yes it really is that funny). Of course there is some drama because it wouldn’t be a yuri show without it, but the totally hilarious characters really have me hoping that they make more of this. Seriously… This is a classic case of not judging a book by it’s cover, and I can’t imagine many who wouldn’t enjoy this show. If it weren’t for my being completely taken over by Kimi Ni Todoke then this would have been my pick for best show of last season.

A Certain Scientific Railgun

Of course this is another show that is continuing through the winter season so I can only talk about what happened during the first half. For those expecting a sequel to Index you definitely didn’t get one. Aside from taking place in the same location, and having a few of the same characters (as well as some cameos here and there) this story is almost nothing like Index. That said… The show is really good, and while it has some humor I think the best thing the show has is a “cool” factor. You always wait for Misaka to use her power, and it so far has not disappointed. Mostly this time it’s all about the girls with very few male characters, and the few that there are aren’t on the screen for very long. Some have classified this as a yuri show, and while there are certainly yuri elements they don’t seem to be the main focus of the show at least not for the first half. As of writing this I’ve already seen the first 3 episodes of the second half, but I’m kind of left wondering what happened… They seem to have left a big chunk of the story behind that started really picking up during the last few episodes of the first half. I suspect it’s just a little break, and most likely they will get back to that story and finish it… At least I hope.

Needless

I hate to say anything negative about this show because I loved the first half during the summer season so much, but I have to say that it kind of let me down a bit. The show overall I still consider awesome, but the second half pretty much spent a whole season that encompassed one single fight that never seemed to end. Granted I understand that the manga was considered a fighting manga, but they literally stayed in one room fighting the whole time. As a person on one forum stated “I hope they at least break through a wall into a new room this week.” I felt the same way. Just anything to break up the monotony of that battle would have been great. The few flashback episodes unfortunately didn’t seem to help in that matter much. I’ll say it again… A great show overall, and possibly on a marathon viewing of the whole series would flow much better, but waiting for a new episode each week only to see the same fight continue started leaving me with an Endless 8 feeling.

Seitokai no Ichizon

I had extremely high expectations for this show thinking it would be way funnier than it actually turned out. The first episode was really great, but then the next few kind of dropped off. The constant stream of anime reference jokes gave way to an actual story, but a story about a group of people that sit in a room every day kind of leaves something to be desired. The show did pick back up a bit, and carried on fairly well through out the season, but it never got the magic of the first episode back it seemed to me. Not bad, but it could have been so much better. Now don’t get me wrong… The show does have it’s moments… The cat’s cradle panties in one of the later episodes made me spew soda through my nose, but I think the show just didn’t have a consistent enough momentum.

11 Eyes

I wasn’t actually expecting to keep watching the whole season of this show, but it managed to keep my attention long enough to make it through. A bit confusing overall, and I don’t mean simply the plot. The show itself didn’t seem to know exactly what it wanted to be. It started out as a mix of action, comedy, and ecchi. Then it became a way too serious almost mystery story. I never quite knew what this show was trying to accomplish. The story made some sense, but the way it was carried out just seemed to be a big weird fest. Not only that but I think the fact that there were a couple of characters I felt the overwhelming desire to slap senseless didn’t help things much. I would be really surprised if this show gets another season (that said, I’ve been surprised before). I personally don’t think I’d recommend this show, but I’m sure there are plenty who disagree. You know what the say about opinions…

All in all it was a really big season. A lot of really neat shows came out, and kept me completely from participating in anything that could even be considered a life. Someone actually complained that this was the “worst anime season ever” but in my opinion it was one of the best. Even the just starting winter season which I consider fairly sparse is not even the “worst ever”. I just wonder what some folks are thinking sometimes, or even if they are thinking when they say some of these goofy things. I guess that wraps up the fall season, and since I’m running late on this I will get to the winter season first impressions very soon.

Okay, so here’s the situation… I’m sitting around having just watched the final episode of Ghost Hunt, and still waiting for new episodes of Black Cat and xxxHolic to be added to my OnDemand. So, After surfing through Funimation’s video portal for something to watch I happened across Rumbling Hearts. Well… I’ll check it out… Seems like a typical high school romance anime like To Heart, To Heart 2, or Shuffle. It’s also a short run anime (14 episodes) so perfect for the in between time while waiting for the anime I’m currently following to continue.

The rest after the jump… [More]