Review Gestalt

You see this even in the dub version.

It is forbidden for priests to visit the continent of G or even speak the name for which it stands. Yet in his quest for the truth father Olivier has decided to leave the holy order and do just that. One night he stays at an inn and the greatful innkeeper rewards him with his own slave girl. He tries to refuse the offer but both the innkeeper and the slave girl are obstinant. As it turns out the girl is much more than she appears to be at first.

 

No Whitney Houston isn't in this Oav

Gestalt is a two episode Oav that is based off of the manga of the same name just like many Oavs made in the Oav boom of the eighties and nineties. From my experience with said type of Oavs is that they Oav boom was a time when anime companies would produce an Oav for just about anything and many of these Oavs only work if you have read the material that the Oav was based on. At two episodes long expecting it to cover even a decent part of the manga is laughable.

 

Tears that aren't that manly

As for the material in the Oav itself, first of all the animation is the typical garbage you you might find if you watch late nineties computer drawn anime. There isn't much development to the characters but there is only two episodes to deal with and there is also the plot and premise to deal with as well. The problem is that unless you are planning on reading the manga there is no point in viewing this.

 

Overall Unless you feel the odd need to watch all of the Gestalt related media in existence I suggest you give this Oav a pass.

 

Rating The tin MD gheist armor because even if it isn't a cpm release it is just another bad and forgettable Oav.

Review Shakugan non Shana Movie

 

The pendent on her chest can talk so I guess there is a reason to have your eyes down there

Yuji Sakai is your average high school student until one day while walking down the street he runs into a giant doll monster who starts eating people and is quickly stopped by a girl with flaming hair and a sword. It is then that Yuji learns that he not a normal human but a torch, temporary spectral replacement for the real Yuji which was devoured by a denizen of the crimson world. Yuji or what is left of him has to come to terms with his new mortality and find out what is plaguing the town where he lived.

 

minor characters go poof

The Shakugan no Shana movie is a retelling of the first story arc of the series (first four episodes of the anime show or the first light novel). This is to say that this movie requires no previous Shakugan no Shana experience. There are a few changes from how television series or nevel went so you might want to still see this even if you have seen Shakugan no Shana in some other form. No matter what your experience with the franchise this is a generally good supernatural action movie.

 

spoilers, this movie is different

So what this means is that if you watch this movie you will get several decent fight scenes connected by some scenes with average character development for an action movie with some perfunctory thoughts on the meaning of mortality.

 

Overall I would say this is a great movie but if you are looking for either a starting looking at the franchise or simply a way to waste an hour and a half this movie will certainly fit the bill.

 

Rating the bronze Haruhi for being a decent movie adaptation of a light novel. It's not great but it is entertaining enough.

We have lived with Cancer for this long

Anime is a hobby and for some reason people love to complain about their hobbies.  One of the more common complaints that I have heard is that moe anime shows are the cancer that is killing the anime industry and how everything was so much better in the 1990’s. To those that think I posit a counter argument in the show Cyberteam in Akihabara. 

To put it simply Cyberteam in Akihabara is not a good show. This is not a show like Madoka Magica or Tora Dora that are examples of how anime shows of all genres have their gems and excellent works. It is a rather generic magical girl show with some tacked on fan service and stupid looking merchandising toy called a Patapi.

Why do I bring up Cyberteam in Akihabara in the whole moe debate? I mention this show because it first aired in 1998 alongside such classics as Cowboy Bebop and Trigun. Yet somehow the argument that Cyberteam In Akihabara was ruining the anime industry despite it being no better than your usual little sister show or four girls who do nothing type of show that is supposedly some sort of tumor ruining the anime industry.

This leads me to the crux of my argument, anime has always had it’s good shows and not so good shows and the former exist regardless of the later types of shows. Sturgeon’s law exists for every type of art and anime is no exception. In fact trying to list more than five good anime shows from the golden year of 1998 requires bending perception via nostalgia glasses to list Outlaw Star as anything better than average and including Card Captor Sakura in your list (which would be odd if you are trying to project a white hot hatred of all things moe). 

So in conclusion, no show or trend can ruin a good show or the industry because bad shows have always existed and moe can’t kill the industry because even if you could call it a cancer it can’t be the cancer killing the industry for we have lived with this “so called” cancer so long and it hasn’t’ come close to killing the anime industry yet.

z/x Ignition files part 1

 

One thing that I have realized about myself as an anime blogger is that there is a bit of me that is fascinated by truly naked displays of commercialism and pandering. With Z/X Ignition being a show that is based off of a collectable card game it is perhaps the most obvious display of marketing driven media since perhaps Fantasista Doll it is certainly a show that tickles this perverse urge.

 

Asuka, aka protagonist white and Fierte

The story behind the show boils down to one day a bunch of monsters from five colored worlds showed up one day and messed up most of the work except for the city of Kobe. These monsters are called Z/X or short for Zillions of Enemy X. That's right for some reason the people of the world officially decided to use the word zillions. Although most of the monsters hang around black points which are gates to their respective world but they can stray further if they team up with a human that has a card device.

 

Azumi, Aka loli blue and Rigel

The first episode of this show was something of a mess. I used to think that in media res was a trope that should be used quite a bit more often although this was the show that broke me of that illusion. Things pick up with a bit more identifiable protagonist in the form of a guy named Asuka who is kind of generic but overall not offensive or annoying. One night he runs across an angel fighting a panther wearing a crown and a blonde lady. After managing to rescue her from certain doom he takes her home and the show morphs into an episode of Ah my Goddess.

Ayase, Aka tsundere black and Sieger

Episode three centers around the introduction of Azumi, who in the show has the job of being cute as a button and being an ally to Asuka. Episode four adds a couple more wrinkles to the politics of the show's world and deepening Ayase, aka the antagonist lady from episode two and showing that she might be an ally to Asuka, even if she hates angels. Overall I find the show to be decent fun if intellectually lightweight. I will be continuing to watch this show.