Berserk egg of the King movie one

Berserk egg of the King movie one

In an dark medieval world wracked by war there is a mercenary who goes by the name cats. He is a loner but also very powerful sword. One day after finishing a battle he catches the attention of a certain mercenary band called the band of the hawk. Even though he is manages to fend off several members its leader, Griffith, manages to defeat him in a single stroke. When Guts awakens from his injuries Griffith has enjoyed the band of the hawk. And so their story together begins.

Hey look at my creepy thing

Let me start this off by saying I am bit of a fan of the desert franchise. The us without saw the movie I was distinctively comparing it to both the television anime series and the manga of the same name. In this comparison this movie and I suspect the other two movies in the trilogy well, far short. Even though this movie hits most of the important points that is brought up in the material it covers it also feels like is quite rushed several spots.

Fantasy movies need castles

As for the movie itself is a decent enough target action movie is set in the medieval setting. I found the animation quite jarring especially the movie’s uses of computer animation for the larger fight scenes. In other spots the animation is decent. The music is reminiscent of the music in the television version of the anime as the same composer has returned to work his magic. 

Some say this series has some homoerotic subtext

Overall I found this to be a decent movie although if you really want the Berserk experience I suggest you watch the 90’s tv anime show or read the manga. 

Rating The bronze titan for being a decent but definitely not great  grimdark fantasy anime movie.

Review Garden of words

 

Takao is a young man who has decided to skip school on days that it rains and walk through the park. One day he happens upon a woman who is drinking beer in the park. The two of them find a connection with each other and meet on rainy days. Takao tells the woman of his dream of becoming a professional shoemaker and offers to make a pair of shoes for her. However she is a rather guarded woman who has secrets of her own and parts of her life that she would rather runaway from.

 

Garden of works is the fifth and latest (at the time of this article) movie made by the acclaimed director Makoto Shinkai. Much of the reason why I am unable to give a more complete  It is a rather short movie clocking in at fourty eight minutes if you include the credits. In fact the movie's short run time is perhaps the root of most of the movie's shortcomings, as even though the two main characters have some decent development and character depth with the two main leads they are still a bit more shallow than they could have been with a longer run time. This is also another movie about a doomed romance, which is something that Shinkai seems to do with almost all of his works and definitely covered better than in other works of his.

 

Still the movie does have some strong points. There is a strong element of animation in this movie coupled with Shinkai's trademark direction. As such even though the movie's plot isn't as great as it could be it is still a joy to watch visually.

 

Overall I find myself conflicted with this movie. One one hand I think it is overall a good movie but one that is ultimately stunted by it's run time. I recommend it to those more into art films but maybe not the average anime fan.

 

Rating the bronze cloud, after all it is a Shinkai work.

Magic knight rayearth overview part four, attack of the filler

When we last left out trio of protagonist girls they had just gained their magic evolving Escudo swords but were left without any further direction luckily the show's mascot character is capable of projecting messages from the show's once ambulatory exposition fountain, Clef (fortunately being turned to stone doesn't stop Clef from fulfilling his role as exposition fountain). He informs dour protagonist girls that they need to find (either the Ma Shin or Rune Gods depending on whether you feel puns or changes made in a dub script are more heinous). Unfortunately this show needs to stretch three graphic novels into twenty episodes so the would be magic knights aren't going to get their in a timely fashion.

I know filler episodes tend to have sub par animation but come on

This filler parade begins with the reintroduction of Ferio, who runs afoul of Zagato's minion Du jour, Ascot. As Ferio is not the protagonist he is quickly overpowered and has to beg for his life by convincing Ascot to spare him if he can lure the magic knights into a trap. He tricks them only to have second thoughts at the last minute, where he then decides to sacrifice himself only to be caught by Ascot's friend cum monster of the week.

You aren't gross and slimy enough to be my minion

The magic knights are a bit disheartened by this turn of events, but Fuu decides that the best course of action is to sleep the whole thing off. This off course is a ruse on her part as she goes off to rescue Ferio on her own in the middle of the night. She has no real plan or reason to go off on her own rather than have all three magic knights attempt the rescue, other than possibly the fear that Hikaru or Umi would rescue Ferio and he would be their love interest instead.  What follows is a strange sort of battle which culminates in Fuu having some ill-defined moment of resolution which results in her sword evolving and her thus being able to beat the monster. Ferio bids farewell to our protagonists and runs off into the monster infested earthquake wracked wasteland.

Remember to check your pets for creepy glowing red eyes

The next episode begins with our protagonists wandering through Cefiro when they happen upon a bunch of dead animals. There is also a rock monster which the magic knights assume is the cause of the carnage. Quick work is made of the monster. There is also a wounded puppy-like animal found which Hikaru immediately latches onto naming it Hikari, the same name as her pet dog back in Japan.

The magic knights visit the tomb of the unknown monster of the week

However this is a trap set by Ascot, as Hikari is actually a beast whose real name is Viggur. One morning while Hikaru is picking flowers with her new friend Viggur transforms into his beast mode. Umi and Fuu show up but are quickly dispatched by the monster as they are not the focus of the episode. Hikaru looks on, wondering whether she should save her friends from an animal she met yesterday. Eventually she caves in and defeats the monster.

The episode ends and everyone is sad, the magic knights and Ascot who is depressed that sending his friends into danger seems not to be working out. However as this episode is essentially filler the events here are never spoken of again.

Secret Santa Review, Time of Eve aka Eve no Jikan

This holiday season there is a wonderful anime blog community event organized by those smart people at Reverse thieves called Secret Santa. Everyone involved chooses three anime recommendations to another anime blogger involved. Among the anime recommendations that I have received is an Oav called the Time of Eve (Eve no Jikan). Even though there is a movie version of this media I have watched Time of Eve as the six episode Oav on crunchyroll.

Misunderstanding are almost necessary in anime

In the near future robots have become commonplace and androids now live in many households. Rikuo is a normal student in such a house. He suspects that his houseroid is going to places that it is not commanded to. He and his friend Masaki become interested in this and end up learning about a cafe called the Tme of Eve. The cafe has one rule, that there is no discrimination between humans and robots and the holographic ring that denotes robots is invisible while inside the cafe. This is the story of what Rikuo and Maskai learn when they are in the cafe.

Now that's why she works here for eight bucks an hour.

The Time of Eve is by genre classification a pretty hard science fiction Oav and by usual assumption is one of those smart people kinds of shows. While oftentimes such material is often used to pad the ego of those who claim to watch it I found that Time of Eve is one of those Oavs that really walks it's walk in terms of being material that makes the viewer think. In this I think I chose rightly to watch this as a six part series and viewing each part separately as most of the parts are kind of short, being just long enough to give you something to think about. While The Time of Eve is usually about topics about questioning our assumptions but is slightly vague about the conclusions the viewer is supposed to reach. Thus it is a thought piece asking you to think as opposed to propaganda of some sort that tells you what to think.

Don't look and maybe tin can won't notice us.

Another point in the shows favor is the tone of the piece. While some of the more artistic shows might be a bit dry in order to bolster it's intellectual credentials I found that this is not the case with Time of Eve. The show knows when to crack a joke or two or go for an emotional appeal. The animation for Time of Eve leans heavily on CG but I found that it works in the show's favor given that it is a science fiction show.

Overall one of the taglines for the show is "Are you enjoying the time of eve?" The answer is I did and if you like science fiction in any medium you should really watch this.

Rating The Silver Motorad (Kino's Journey) for being a very enjoyable and enlightening anime show.

Review K On the movie

Yui being Yui

Since a long time ago I have been kit of where he of any franchise movies especially something called whatever the movie. Even so I decided to watch the movie and found it somewhat entertaining.

A music movie needs a good jam session

Well having a chat with girls of another club the members of Hokago teatime decide that they need to do something special for the graduation namely going on a trip somewhere. After some thinking about it and have fast deception on the part of Yui, they decide to go London. They also decide that they need to do something special for their youngest member Azusa, before they graduate.

Look it's overpriced food

If the previous paragraph made it sound like this movie is a bit short on plot then I think said paragraph did its job. However as with the television show K On has never been about plot. It is instead nearly 2 hours of being a charming slice of life show with some comedy.

The person in the middle is supposed to be white yet the person on the right is Japanese

Thus the question is if you do like K On at all sure you see this movie? My answer is a most emphatic yes. The general character antics which are the staple of the show are still present in this movie. Yui is still hurt air-headed self, Azusa is still the adorable but reliable underclassmen, and so on. On top of that the animation is quite good as to be expected from a movie and the plot finds ways to have the girls sing four times during the movie.

The movie crams as much music into itself as believeable

 So final review the K On movie is little more than a long episode but somehow I'm okay with that. This is a movie created entirely for those who like K On no one else.

Rating the bronze Hokago teacup (K On) for being a movie that is charmingly true to it’s television source material.

Non Non Biyori short people got no reason to live

 

Perhaps one of the most odd things about anime is the continued existance of certain kind of show which goes by many names but usually centers around for girls who don't do much of anything. It is the bane of certain kinds of anime fans but obviously the favorite of some others since said shows keep getting made. I think it is a type of show not well loved by English speaking anime bloggers for several reasons not the least of which is that they are often lacking much in the way of plot giving episode bloggers little to talka about. Non Non Biyori is the fall season's example of this kind of show and it is something that I kind of like.

 

I think we overdid the merchandise a bit

Non Non Biyori is about a young girl named Hotaru who moves from Tokyo to the countryside. There are only four other students in the shcool where she lives. They are the the Koshigayas, older (even if she is tiny) Komari and younger sister Natsumi as well as their brother Suguru who never gets any lines. To round out the cast is the cute first grader Renge who is also the little sister of the schools teacher.

 

A slice of life show needs lolis that are space

To be completely honest I am not the biggest fan of slice of life shows but I have found that Non Non Biyori is rather enjoyable and perhaps a bit better than many shows of this genre. Even though there is the normal four girls you find in almost every show of this type but it does a good job of mixing up the flow of the show by omiting some of the characters allowing the character dynamics to be shook up. Shows like this often depend on humor so having a large selection of dynamics for characters is a definite plus for the viewers.

 

But no catgirl statues

However I have noticed there is one thread that runs through most of the show it is that Komari is the eldest of the four girls in the cast but looks (and in some cases acts) younger than anyone except for Renge. Perhaps this is the show's way of injecting comedy, as this clearly subverts the usual social hierarchy that especially pronounced in Asian societies (and yes I know this happens in Asian cultures that are not Japan). In fact the authority figures in this show (other than the mom) have no real authority but if they did it wouldn't be the laid back slice of life show that Non Non Biyori is.

 

Coppelion and the temple of lesbian doom

 While I usually try to talk about shows that I like rather than trash shows I don't like but every so often I should post some negative reviews to remind everyone that I am not some Pollyanna sunshine who likes everything. This is especially depressing given that Coppelion is a show that looked liked it could be a genuinely good show but it turned out that this wasn't the case.

 

That winning smile

The show has several problems and not the least of the fact that even though there are three main characters only Ibara seems to be capable of anything. Aoi is particularly annoying and useless in this respects, perhaps to the levels of Willie from Indiana Jones and the temple of doom. Thinking about it while I am all in favor abolishing traditional gender roles turning Aoi into a typical love interest character would actually make her more useful to the show in general. It almost makes want to look into Coppelion Yuri (guess who is looking into Sakura Trick next season).

 

Like a less fun version of Outbreak company

In a more general sense Coppelion has a problem with matching the expectations that the show presented at first with the content the show has presented. To put it bluntly one should not expect a show that has a psychotic school girl with electric powers who plans to blow up the world with nearly as much seriousness as Coppelion expects the viewer to take said show. While I have heard several people complaining about the tone change of Samurai Flamenco, the tone dissonance of Coppelion is something that can not be explained by turning from a parody of a genre to a straighter portrayal of said genre.

 

It's not post apocalyptic until fashion sense goes down hill

As of this article Coppelion is clearly a tin rated anime show with few prospects of making it up to bronze. A lack of good characters and the tone of the show which presents itself as a hard science fiction show with the internal consistancy of a super hero comic.