Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Review Un Go

Seductive stuffed animals


It has been a while since the war but Japan is still feeling the aftereffects. Shinjurou Yuuki is known as either the last great detective or the defeated detective depending on who you ask. Even though he does have a formidable wit he also has a secret weapon, his partner, Inga who can force anybody to answer just one question.
 
sorry but no real yuri in this show
Un Go is a eleven episode mystery show with a science fiction twist. As with most shows of the genre it is quite episodic although it does have some lingering plot threads. There is also the theme of how society is affected by terror threats and how a government can subtly undermine people's freedom and thoughts through fear.
 
The main character and his deus ex machina
As interesting as a show like this seems there is also some serious problems with Un Go which keeps it from being a great show. First and foremost is Inga who often derails mystery plots by using her power in a deus ex machina fashion. There is also the deal that Inga (as well as one other character which appears later) is rather out of place in a science fiction setting, and this incongruity isn't even really central to the show's themes.

Overall Un Go is a show that really tries to be thought provoking but feels like it trips over it’s own feet half the time in doing so.


Rating the bronze Hayate (Hayate the combat butler) for having way too many supernatural elements in a genre that needs or even suggessts (if you go by knoxs rules) none.

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Memoirs of watching a One piece marathon



In an effort to do something else with my anime watching than to view an endless stream of thirteen or so episode long shows and review them one after another I decided to watch a big block of One Piece. Namely the first one hundred and thirty episodes or the first two major arcs in terms of plot progression. I did this over the course of four weekends watching about twenty six episodes the first two weekends comprising the East blue arc of the story and thirty nine episodes the second two weeks covering the Baroque Works arc. The following is my experiences with this experiment.

I noticed that trying to marathon one show to such an extent created sort of an anime burn out with me watching other shows. Even when I had the free time to watch other shows I had little desire to do so. Hopefully I will recover by the time that the season ends and I will have a decent amount of season end reviews. If not you now understand why.

I watched the episodes in English from the Funimation dub. Even though I usually watch my anime subtitled I found that it is easier to marathon a show if I am watching it in English.

I have already read the One Piece Manga to the end of the Water Seven Arc (which would probably require me to watching another four or five weeks of One Piece anime at the same pace I had been watching to reach) so the anime contained almost no plot suprises for me as I have consumed all of the material before in another format a couple of years ago. However One Piece is a show that depends on emotional appeal more than intelligent plotting so It is worth reviewing every so often.

The one plot addition that the anime had over the manga was the Apis arc which is something just confirms my distaste for anime filler be they single episodes or entire plot arcs. If you haven't had the misfortune of watching this particular group of episodes it is about a little girl and her old dragon friend. The dragon is supposed to be sympathetic but fails to be so probably because it sits there for the most of the time it's on screen like a lump on inanimate matter.

Even with it's bad points One Piece is a good show overall. A couple days after the Apis arc I managed to make it to the Drum island arc and watch it in one night. The result is that One piece is now of the shows that has made me cry.

About the Alabasta arc I think it is one of those high points that every shonen manga aspires to and usually hits maybe once in it's run. It has a bunch of the shonen tropes including one I think that everyone who at least tolerates the genre loves, the part where everyone in the main cast pairs off when a corresponding antagonist and there is a series of fights. The other main point that I would like to make about this story arc is the amount of denouement that it had, as it had three episodes between the defeat of the main villain until the time that the characters left for their next adventure. It is almost as if One piece is not a single anime of manga but a series of such shows with a good leaving off point every so often. The end of Alabasta is one such point so I feel fulfilled in my watching experience even if I decide to take the show up again at a future point.



Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Review Dream eater Merry

Powerless before donuts


Yumeji was a boy who could see the auras of people's dreams. He was also haunted by nightmares about being hunted by dream demon in the shape of a cat. Fortunately he was saved by Merry, a girl who could enter people's dreams. The reason is that she comes from the dream world and enters into a contract with Yumeji so they could fight dream demons and find a way for Merry to get home.
 
Don't hurt the black mage
Dream Eater Merry is a thirteen episode shonen show that seems to be a hybrid of a magical girlfriend type of show and a more action oriented shonen show. This causes it to be a bit pale as both genres are concerned. While it doesn't lose itself in fan service or harem antics the show's relationships are a bit thin. On the other hand there are no tournament arcs or an ungodly amount of characters to remember but the action scenes are rather mediocre.

In fact serviceable but not outstanding is pretty much a fitting description for almost any facet of this show. It is a decent show with decent characters and a decent plot that you can't really put your finger on but makes you feel like you watched something just like it before.


Overall Dream eater merry might have a picture of it next to the word mediocre but at least it is somewhat entertaining.

Rating the bronze Jewel shard (Inu Yasha) for being a decent but unremarkable monster hunting shonen show.