Review Kyoukai no Kanata aka Beyond the Boundry

I just wear the glasses, not have a fetish for them

One day Akihiro Kanbara meets a girl standing on the school rooftop (for those not in the know it is perfectly normal to hang out on the rooftop in Japanese schools). What isn't all that normal is that the girl (named Mirai Kuriyama) stabs him with a sword made of her made of her own blood and that Akihiro doesn't die because he is an immortal half youmu.

 

Nice to meet I mean stab you

Kyoukai no Kanata is a twelve episode urban fantasy light novel adaptation and the latest offering by the very moe studio Kyoto animation. What this means is that this show is a combination of slice of life and supernatural action scenes that is nicely animated in no matter what the current tone of the show. Although there are many cases where cute characters and furious action can work together it seems that it is not this style's or character's forte.

 

Your friendly neighborhood siscon

Kyoukai no Kanata is fairly decent all though not excellent show for the majority of it's run. The slice of life segments of the show are decent but don't really contrast well enough the action scenes for the action to really shine on it's own. I find that this show to be the answer to the question is there a show that has been redeemed by it's ending for the final arc of Kyoukai no Kanata to be something rather special and if you watch this show I suggest you stick with it to the ending.

 

Overall I found Kyoukai no Kanata to be a decent but not not great show. It show that is sort of worth watching but there are many shows that are even more worth watching.

 

Rating the bronze The bronze Azunyan for being a show that has the pretty Kyoani style but not all  that much else going for it.

Review Rebuild of Evangelion 3.0 you can (not) redo

When Shinji wakes up from his last battle he finds that it is not only fourteen years later but that the world has been nearly destroyed by his actions. There has been a split in nerv and many of the people that used to work for the organization distrust Shinji and place an explosive collar on him. Yet Shiji manages to escape his dentition and make his way but what awaits him there?

Is there no one that doesn't look cool in an eye patch ?

The third film of the Rebuild of Evangelion series is a movie which roughly covers the material that happened in episodes twenty through twenty four of the television series. Even though there continues to be mecha battles in this movie this movie is drastically darker and more somber than the previous movie, in other words don't watch this looking for a fun time. However if you are willing to sit through something darker and more character focused this may still be the movie for you.

Nerv, still there, sort off

Although I have heard that this movie wildly deviates from what is presented in the television show and oddly enough I find these claims to be a bit overstated. Given the closed nature of Evangelion in most of it's forms the virtual destruction of the world is more of a detail than one would normally think it would be. The biggest changes are to Asuka in that she is more stable and a lot more angry in this retelling of Evangelion and the fact that the role of Kaoru in the movie is more fleshed out in this movie.

 

Overall I found this to be a bit of a downturn from the second movie although not to the point that I wouldn't recommend it to a fan of the series.

 

Rating the Bronze Lain for being a decent intellectual movie even if it wasn't as fun as the last one

Loup Garous review

It's not a science fiction movie until there is a robot fight

In  not so distant future people eat synthetic food and live under constant surveilence . In one town in this world a series of murders is happening and one of the students of the school is suspected and information is gathered about them. Hazuki is one of the students in the school and one day she approached by the genius hacker Mio who is interested in what is happening and takes Hazuki along with her. They run into another student the strange and cold Ayumi who knows some valuable details about the mystery.

 

There is a Chinese martial artist in this movie for some reason

Loup Garous is a science fiction horror movie. This movie suffers from several flaws let me start with the cast. First of all the main character Hazuki is lacking in terms of motivation or the ability to affect the ploot in any major way. Ayumi is a cold sociopath who does little except for say that he is a monster and stab the occasional villain. It is from him that we get the title of the film (He refers to himself as a Lou Garou) although except for for short scene which doesn't really explain his character despite the scenes intent, no real explanation is given to him.

 

Occasional head deformation

Also for the leaders of a society that is supposed to present itself as psuedo Orwellion the order seems really week. For example where are these kids parents? You can't portray a convincing panopticon when your protagonists lack the normal supervision that kids there age would have. It may be that the movie is tries to present alienation but that leads us into the other problem with the movies, that it tires to tackle too manuy thmes at once weakening the presentation of any individual theme. With a better focus this movie could have possibily been really insightful as opposed to being faux insightful.

 

Overall this is a meandering messing mess of a movie that I can't really recommend to anybody in good faith.

 

Rating the Tin  soldier (Jin Roh which was not only a much better movie but worked in the wolf imagery in seamlessly something this movie utterly failed to do)

 

Silent Mobeius Movie Review

 

In the year 2028 the city of Tokyo is under attack by a supernatural threat known as Lucifer Hawk. To combat this menace is a special police unit called the Attacked Police (AMP). Katsumi Liqueur is a member of this elite police force as well as being a powerful wizard. A certain incident of Lucifer Hawks in a tower ends up reminding Katsumi of how she became a member of the AMP and how the battle against the Lucifer Hawk is written into her destiny.

 

The true horror of the future is that they will try to bring that outfit back into fashion

Silent Mobius is a science fiction (with mystical elements added in) action story staring a cast of no nonsense female action heroes.The first Silent Mobius movie clocks in around 50 minutes minus the ending music so this so called movie isn't really meant to be a stand alone work as much as it is a couple of introduction episodes about the main character Katsumi. As far as the characters Katsumi looks she is a somewhat interesting heroine but everyone else isn't developed all that well.

 

Actually there are no Gamilions or smurfs in the movie

As for being a good action movie I found Silent Mobius to be decent fare. The animation shows that this is clearly an older work (circa 1991) but it is meticulously drawn and so if you like older animation this movie could be a treat for you. I found the action to be decent although there isn't much more than that and some prefunctery character development.

 

Obligatory tentacle monster, now with more teeth

Overall I would recommend searching this out but if you don't mind looking at older Oav material this short movie will be worth watching.

Season Overview Part seven Idolatry

Welcome to the seventh and final installment of this seasons anime overview. While this is a mixed batch like all of the rest of them I found that Nisekoi and wizard barristers could be labeled as a case of saving the best for almost last.

Wake up Girls

In the city of Sendai there is a struggling talent agency who is looking to get out of a rut of bad luck by starting an idol group. This show has a fifty minute short movie that takes place before the television series. This show has a major problem in that it tries to introduce too many characters at once and it doesn't even have the gimmicks that some other idol shows have to help us differentiate the characters.

 

Nisekoi

 

Raku is a high school boy who lives with the local Yakuza. One day a new transfer student named Chitoge appears and Raku and Chitoge quickly get on each others nerves. Then Raku's father arranges to have Raku and Chitoge be in a relationship in order to stop a gang war. Nisekoi is easily one of if not the best romantic comedy of the season. I found Chitoge is one of the better tsundere characters I have seen partially because she plays off of Raku well. By the directing you can easily see that this is a shaft show and Shinbo is the director.

 

Nourin

 

Kousaku is a high school student in an agricultural school who is totally in love with the idol, Yuka. He is devastated when Yuka retires from idol life. Then a day later there is a transfer student named Ringo who is a dead ringer for Yuka. While this seems like a decent show I found the first episode of this show to be a bit of a mystery as we have not been really introduced to Ringo yet. Currently though none of the characters presented so far have much of a personality. 

 

World Conquest

 

Jimon Asuta was just another middle school student until one night he was kicked out of his house on a night where martial law was announced. By strange luck he happened upon a young girl named Kate Hoshimiya and became ensnared into her plot to conquer the world. While Asuta might be technically the main character the show really revolves around Kate and her crazy plot to conquer the world. While her outfit is a bit questionable I found the show doesn't revolve around fan service of her and hope it stays that way.

 

Wizard Barristers

 

Even if there are people that can use magic in the world there still needs to be laws and there needs to be lawyers for people that can use magic then go to trial. Cecil Sudo is a seventeen year old girl from Canada and the newest wizard barrister. I found this show to be something that has great potential to be both an exciting and in depth show but it is still the first episode. At I found the show to be rather pretty looking.

Season overview part 6 tricks of the trade

In this penultimate article of my winter 2014 anime review I cover four new shows. We finally get the first girls who do nothing show without subtext, grimdark digimon and exploding butts. It's one hell of a ride.

 

Sakura Trick

 

Haruka and Yu are two girls who have just become high school girls in a school that will be closed in three years. They decide to do something special and so they share a kiss. Sakura Trick is a slice of life romantic comedy that is about girls in love with each other. It seems that almost every four girls who do nothing seems to have some vague lesbian attraction going on but this show makes a point of making it deliberate. I found this to be a fun show although it might not be for everyone.

 

Z/X Ignition

 

Three years ago monsters appeared from five portals and nearly destroyed the world. Now there are people with card devices that can control monsters which are the possible salvation of humanity. After watching the first episode of Z/X Ignition I found it to be a postapocalyptic digimon cum magic the gathering with political deception, I think. In truth this is a very confusing show and not in a way that makes me think it is intelligent in any way. One of the major problems is that the prologue sets up a monster invasion scenario and then the first episode has only person with monster vs person with monster conflicts.

 

Strange +

 

Kou and Takumi are brothers that are now working in a detective agency with some other people. Thus they take on various assignments. This is another one of those three minute long shows and thus there isn't enough time for much more than a couple of jokes which may or may not include exploding butts (it did in the first episode).

 

Hozuki no Reitetsu

 

Hell, is a place with over two hundred subdivisions and thus requires it's own bueracracy. This needs experts that can smooth over the rough patches and in the case of hell that expert is Hozuki. This is are rather interesting comedy as Hozuki is one of the smarter protagonists that I have seen in comedies recently. The art includes more classic Asian drawings of hell and

Season preview part 5 for the love of brother

Hello again with the fifteh part of my winter season preview. This time I am taking a look at four shows, two of them being short shows and definitely not everything that aired on Thursday. Honestly trying to do that in one article would be madness.

 

Pupa

 

U and Yume Hasegawa are two normal siblings until Yume encounters some strange things in the park and contracts a disease that makes her eat human flesh. Pupa is a show with a fair amount of dubious hype and it was a bit of a disapointment. It is a four minute long show that is different from other four minute shows by instead of a stand alone joke you just have enough time to watch one or two beings explode into gore.

 

Magical Warfare

 

Takashi was just another average high school student until one day he ran into Miu who looked like just another cute school girl but was in fact a magician. With some contact with magic Takashi and his two friends become magicians as well. As far as the first episode of Magical Warfare goes the first episode doesn't reveal all that much about the show except for it might be kind of average but it will require a couple more episodes to make a more educated opinion of the show.

 

Onee chan ga Kita

 

When his mother remarries Tomoya gains a new older sister Ichika. As it turns out Ichika is totally in love with the idea of having a new younger brother. This show is another four minute short show about a step sibling sort of couple but I found that this is a show about an older sister and an unwilling brother makes it somewhat interesting.

 

Engaged to the Unidentified

 

Kobeni was just another girl who turned sixteen and finds out that she is engaged to a boy from the countryside.Yet she finds that the boy she is engaged to is quiet and reserved and nowhere near as much of a handful as her new stepsister Mashiro. I found this show to be a rather entertaining slice of life comedy which in the first episode is held up mostly by the little sister Mashiro although the other characters are worthwhile as well.

Season preview part 4 everyone rides

At this point I have seen over a dozen shows this season and with this batch there are a couple of hopeful good shows but nothing that blew me away either. Hopefully it isn't show fatigue just yet because I still have the Thursday rush to go through.

Buddy Complex

 

Aoba is a fairly normal high school student that is until one day he got dragged into a giant robot fight between his classmate Hina and someone who is trying to kill Aoba. To make things even weirder he is dragged through a time vortex into some war unknown to Aoba.While there may be some interesting things in the show's future right now Buddy Complex feels like it is just another mecha anime show.

 

The Pilot's Love song

 

Kal el Albus is going to pilot school (apparently this Kal el can't fly on his own, probably no heat vision either) with his sister. There is some future story with a possible war and class struggles but those will be further discussed in later episodes. I found this to be a rather good show that seems to stradle the line between slice of life and drama (although It will probably get heavier as things go on). I found a lot of attention was paid to the backgrounds to be a definite plus.

 

Witchcraft Works

 

Honaka Takamiya is a fairly average high school student who seems to be a frequent proximity to the school idol Kagari, much to the disapproval of her fan club. One day a school building falls on Honaka and he learns that Kagari is in fact a witch who has been tasked with protecting him as her princess.Witchcraft works had the potential to be just another forgettable magical girlfriend show but the interactions between the two main characters really caught me off guard. I am looking forward to this show.

 

Hamatora

 Nice and Murasaki are two freelance detectives that work out of the cafe nowhere. Together they solve crimes and use a special power called minimum. To be honest I found this show was trying way to hard to be cool and ended up feeling incomprehensible to some extent. This might be just be being tired when watching but hopefully next episode the director will let up on the confusing directing tricks.

Winter season preview part 3 Girl's got to accesorize

For about the third day in a row I, your faithful and diligent anime blogger Jeckyllgeek, bring you my thoughts on the new shows of the season. This time I give some quick thoughts on a slice of life show about a mascot character, as supernatural romantic action comedy, and a high energy comedy show.


Super Sonico

Sonico is a busy girl. She not only goes to college but she also works as a model and a waitress and even finds time to play in a band. I found this show to be a slightly off beat slice of life show with a fair amount of fan service (puberty was quite kind to Sonico) and she wears headphones at all times. With her jobs it appears that this show could go in some interesting directions as well.

Noragami

When Hiyori tried saving a guy by pushing him out of the way of an oncoming truck she was hit herself and placed herself in between the realms of life and death. The guy she saved was actually a homeless god named Yato and offers to help her for a cost. This is a show with some promise although it looks like it could be your average supernatural show as well.

D Frag

At a certain high school there is a game creation club and they are short a member needed so they do their best to dragoon Kazama into their club. While the show sounds like it might be a slice of life show with Otaku jokes it is in fact a crazy and high energy comedy show. It is also one that I recommend.

Winter 2014 season overview part 2 Just add Nobunaga

Every culture has their own personal figures of interest and for some reason Japan can't seem to get enough stories about the feudal warlord Oda Nobunaga. At least this season he is male in both of his showings this season.

Nobunaga the Fool

In an alternate past the the heavens are divided between east and west. The destiny of the heavens and earth might just change when an connection between two people, Oda Nobunaga and Joan of Arc, is formed. Normally I am not the most fervent of mecha fans but I found this show to be just the right combination of gonzo world elements and a protagonist with promise. Of the shows I have seen so far this is my favorite of the season.

Nobugun

Sio is a awkward girl who is a big military nut but doesn't have any friends. One day while she is on a school trip the city is attacked by aliens and she finds that because she has genes from Oda Nobunaga and thus is able to summon a magical Gatling gun. I found Nobugan to be a fairly bog standard action show but one with some promise. It is something that I will keep up with.

Tonari no Sekai kun

Seki is a student who loves to waste time in elaborate ways. He somehow manages to escape the attention of his teachers his classmate Yokoi sometimes manages to be caught simply by commenting on Seki's antics.This is one of the short shows that are generally comedies. I found this episode fairly funny although I could easily see this show repeating the same humor. Anyways it is only eight minutes long.

Winter Season overview Lately My Space is acting unusual

Welcome to 2014 and the new winter anime everyone. I you friendly neighborhood anime blogger is here to give you my views and opinions about the latest anime shows. I hope to watch all the anime shows that air on crunchyroll as well as some other ones as well. Unfortunately in this first batch of shows has no real stand out shows even if one of them is supposedly the show that is going to save anime, this season at least.

Recently My Sister is Unusal

Yuuya and Mitsuki have just recently become step brother and step sister. One day the sister Mitsuki is possessed by a ghost named Hiyori who has to fall in love with Yuuya in order for her to pass on. Let me be clear this show is aiming to be the ecchi show of the season. Although the show technically isn't incest I for one feel that the excuse that this show is about a step sister possessed by a sexual deviant of a ghost driving the sexual hijinks is quite pedantic.

Space Dandy

In the future there are whole bunch of aliens in the big wide universe and there is an alien collector who is there is a man who is there is explore stuff for money and his name is Dandy. This was and maybe still is the show that has had the most hype surounding it. After watching the first episode I found Space Dandy to be a visually flashy but narratively empty show. I feel that the show isn't headed to be one of the greatest shows of all time but I think that can still be a fun show to watch.



Saki the Nationals

After the regional tournaments the girls Kiyosumi High have gone to the nationals in Tokyo in pursuit of their dreams including Saki's dream of meeting her sister again. However they still have to make it through the best players in the country. This first episode is mostly a reintroduction to the characters, including over a dozen new characters. It feels at the show is trying to be the moe version of Legend of the Galatic Heroes with the amount of characters in it.

Review Non Non Biyori

 

Hotaru Ichijou is a fifth grader who moves from the big city of Tokyo to the countryside. The school that she now goes to is so small that there are only four other students there that share one classroom. They are the three Koshigaya siblings, Komari and Natsumi as well as their brother (who gets no lines) and a little kid named Renge who is also the younger sister of their lazy teacher. This is the story of their everyday lives.

 

That's one spicy rice ball

Non Non Biyori is a slice of life show pure and simple. Even though it looks like the standard show about four girls who do nothing, I found this show to be interesting and refreshing. For me the main reason is that even though the show sticks to the slice of life premise it knows to switch things up from the Manzai routine that seems to take center stage in most shows like this (even if it is still present with Komari being the Tsukomi and Natsume being the boke).

 

The funky fairy

This is a show that knows how to be cute without being cloying and does this mostly through Renge who is excellent in delivering wackiness with a straight face. She is also good for bringing a more human touch to some segments. Hotaru is also an above average main character for a slice of life show and her city mouse knowledge and obsession over Komari enrich the show. The use of nature in this show is also a nice touch and allows the show to fulfill the iyashikei premise that many slice of life shows have.

 

Yup all of the nature is in this show

Overall I found Non Non Biyori to be one of the best examples of what I slice of life type of show can actually accomplish and if you want to see a good example of that genre there are few shows better than Non non Biyori.

 

Rating The silver gondola (Aria) For being a well above average slice of life show.