Quick Update

Now that I've got your attention...

Hey guys, how's summer going? Just want to put out a little update. Now that all of my school stuff is over, I'm planning to be a little bit more focused on reviewing stuff and putting out content for you guys...or at least until the steam summer sale started up... 

Anyhow, just want to let you know about a few things. First, I'm going to be starting up a video review channel. Yes, for the first time ever, you can listen to the melodious sound of my adolescent voice as it cracks with the same frequency as your phone. 

Here's how it'll work. I'll still be writing text based reviews, but as often as I can I'll be re-doing some of the reviews in video format. I'll upload a link to the channel and the review when I finish it. 

That said, expect a review of No Game, No Life within the next two or three days. Assuming I can learn how to edit audio and video in a week, the video review should be out in a week and a half. 

Also for the most part I don't think I'm going to be daily. Weekly seems to be a better goal for where I'm at right now, so, if everything goes according to plan, I'll have something for you ever Saturday/ Sunday night.

Well that's it. Thanks for reading as always. If you're new, feel free to scroll down and see whether you like what I write or not. If you do, likes, favorites, and follows are really nice and always appreciated. Hope to see you again!

Inferno Cop Anime Review

The time you spend listening to me tell you to watch Inferno Cop, could be better spent watching Inferno Cop. So let's skip the middle man, eh? (of course not before liking and following)

My thoughts on Captain Earth

Captain Earth is an anime done by one of the best anime studios behind original (non-adaptations) projects. Studio Bones, aside from doing some excellent adaptations, has created some of the most innovative and fresh anime out there. From the comic-like Heroman, to the intriguing Darker than Black, to my one of my all time favorites, Eureka 7, Bones has always created series that felt fresh. Everything they've brought to the table has been excellent (if a bit confusing).


Yet Captain Earth just...isn't. Bones has set the standard for original anime. It has proven time and time again that a stand-alone can be just as good, if not better than one adapted from a manga/light novel/ whatever. They set the bar for themselves with some of the best anime ever to air on American or Japanese television. 

Let's start with what the anime does right—the animation. The animation is amazing. Hands down the best looking show spring season. The work poured into this shows everywhere. From the fantastic fight scenes, to the attention of detail poured into electronics, the anime is pure eye-candy. Despite any of the flaws I'll get into later, I'd say that it's worth watching for this alone. 
The other thing it does very well is the pacing. While I have more than a few quips about the plot, the pacing of the anime is done very well. It really does feel like an adventure, a wild goose chase that spans the entire globe. It manages to make the mood and tone of every episode feel fresh, while still keeping the momentum of the plot going. This is where Bones has shown that it has grown in its storytelling ability. Eureka 7 had a slow start, and while I think that the first 10 episodes were central to making the anime what it it was, they could've had a little bit more plot injected into them to keep us going. Darker than Black was able to give its series an episodic feel, having plot points that were able to resolve themselves in a reasonable time, but because of this forced viewers to continuously relate to characters more complicated than a physics textbook. 

Wait...does that mech have—

 Captain Earth manages to strike a happy balance, with each episode having its own plot arc, and still managing to give enough plot to make the viewer aware that the bad guys aren't just taking a day off to let our heroes dick around for a bit. 

If you believe this show to be god's gift to anime, stop reading here. This is where all of my criticism begins. Keep in mind as you read this, that I do not hate this anime. Yet because I have seen what the studio can do, I'm prepared to judge it a little harsher than, say, Studio Arms. 

Let's start with the plot. It's not that it's bad, again, just that it's convoluted. I'll get into why this is in the next paragraph, but before I do, I need to point out a few things with the structure of the plot. The whole plot is, for lack of better word, basic. When you get down to it, it's a bunch of aliens who want to destroy Earth. Yet the anime doesn't want us to know this. To hide this they throw a bunch of confusing vocabulary to make you think that the anime is more complex than it really is. 

Flawed it may be, but it's like Miley Cyrus that way. Even if it does everything else wrong at least it looks...nevermind

Speaking of which, the damn vocabulary in this anime. You see while I was busying myself complaining about how confusing the first episode of Mekaku City actors was, my friend pointed out that Captain Earth was just as, if not more confusing. I called bull. Why? Because I had seen other anime Bones had done. They were all confusing, but that was okay. You didn't need to know what most of the terms were in the anime because they were concepts. It's the difference between a missile and the Tea Party. No, trust me, it'll make sense. You don't need to know what the difference between a cruise missile and an atomic bomb is. You don't need to know the difference in mechanics to understand that they blow things up. Rather you need to have a basic understanding of what the Tea Party is and what it stands for to make its implausible actions seem slightly less implausible. 

Half of the problem lies in the fact that there is supposed to be political intrigue. Politics is hard enough to follow with an understanding of the parties involved! What is Salty Dog? What is Macbeth Enterprises? What is Global? What the f*ck is a high density libido charge? It doesn't help that they're all named after things from Shakespeare. While what Eureka 7 by making everything in their anime a musical or surfer reference (the generic term for a mech is named after a freaking amplifier) this just...isn't as witty. What was so great about that style of doing things in Eureka Seven was that it was so ridiculous. Who in there right mind could take an anime that is a giant tribute to surfing and music seriously? Yet it worked. We were able to take it seriously and still appreciate all of the references. Allusions to Shakespeare are overdone! Musical and surfer references aren't! Bones already did one giant Shakespeare allusion with Blast of Tempest, we don't need more! It just feels like they're trying to make it out to be smarter than it actually is with all these allusions!

Yeah! You use that High-density Libido...Why, Bones?! Why?!

The other half of the problems I have with this anime would be the characters. Without a doubt there have been worse. Yet being having slightly better character development than your average harem anime isn't good enough for Bones!

In all seriousness, I have to give them some credit; the side characters are interesting. Bones has always been great at giving the little guys some screen time, and it's no different with Captain Earth. They don't just feel like red shirts, they feel like...people. Sure they're not as three dimensional as Hei or Holland, but they don't have to be. They're side characters. Yet they're fun and likeable. They get ample characterization.

The same cannot be said for the main characters. While Teppei seems to be interesting, everyone else seems to be stuck on a two demensional plane. Daichi, the main main character, is your typical goody-two shoes. Hana is fills the roles of ms. moe, the tanned/black girl and comes in a close second for ms. fanservice with one of the villains. Akari is the quirky comic relief computer geek, who thinks she's a magical girl. 

Pandering? Why, whatever do you mean?

The villains share sort of the same fate. They're motivation is survival, and they're justification is that they're higher beings than the humans they feed upon. That's lazy, Bones. Really lazy. Just give us alien Nazis! At least that would be funny! Dewey Novac's motivations were interesting, if warped, and Darker than Black never really had a clear right or wrong. They're justification for their actions is riddled with holes, and doesn't provoke any kind of food for thought of any kind. The villains don't even try to justify their positions with their own twisted philosophy. Not like General Zaroff, or the Joker. They're better just cause.

Aside from the main duo, other villains pop up as part of the planetary gears (I have no idea what it means either). They all have a singular thing wrong with their lives, or to put it simply; they're one dimensional. One girl lives only for speed, another for the sole purpose of being recognized. They all are so singular minded, that they're boring. Rightfully so; each only gets an episode dedicated to them, and only half of that has them getting screen time. 

This is where the pacing fails. This anime should've been 50 episodes in the same way Awakening of the Trailblazer should've been gundam 00 season 3. It doesn't have time to develop characters, or lengthen plot arcs. I remember people complaining about the absence of actual mechs in Eureka 7, but that was the beauty of it. Why is Gundam better than any of the many other mech anime out there? Is it because of the mechs? No! Eureka 7 put characters and plot above action. It's fifty episodes helped to draw out the characters, to give each of them personalities. It gave them time to have the soccer match, to have the prank episode on Renton, to have episode surrounding the farmer and his wife. Did these add anything to the plot? Did they provide the action we were hoping for? Nope, but they gave the characters depth and made us more attached to them. 

Captain Earth doesn't have the time to do this. It can't stop and smell the roses, it's too busy trying to get where it wants to go.

I'd say it's worth watching, though. Even with all its flaws, it is fun. It has great animation, and good enough world building so that I care about the different terms. Who knows, maybe they'll pull a fast one. Maybe all of my complaints will be resolved. Hell, I still thought Eureka was only slightly above average at episode 10, maybe it'll blow me away next week. I have hope that Bones will provide.

Thanks for reading, as always. It's much appreciated, as are follows, likes and whatnot. Hope to see you again!

Nisekoi Anime Review

Now that a couple weeks have past, and everyone has finished it, I feel that I'm obligated to give you an idea of what the latest art gallery from Shaft is all about.

Credit goes to

Nisekoi is the next incarnation of Shaft's line of fanservice filled anime that try to pass off the panty shots and obligatory swimsuit and hotspring episodes as 'art'. But as you lift that shroud of head tilts and cameraman on speed you see it for what it truly is.

...art

 Animation---- Well let's not get of ourselves, how is the animation? Now for those of you who are expecting me to move on after a brief 'it's shaft' let me just dash your expectations the way Watch Dogs has done to me. For those of you who don't know Shaft, allow me to give you a rundown

 With that settled, I have to say I was a little surprised. I was expecting an anime with architecture that defied the laws of physics so hard that I fact expect Escher to leap out and scream 'boo!' Along with an artstyle so trippy that it would make the Sgt Pepper feel like wasn't just living a day in the life. What I got was a little less. The camera's attention span seems to have improved, now being slightly longer than that of the average American. The architecture for the most part looks sound enough that if the building inspector was having a really good day, and at the same time cared nothing about future lawsuits, he would still fail it...however he might give them a medal for trying to follow the laws of physics!

Now that I've donned my obligatory red scarf and Fedora (that is apparently not a fedora but a tribly)
Time to jump into controversy like an atheist in Vatican city. I like Nisekoi's art direction more than I do the monogatari series. To be serious for a second, let me just explain why this would be. I'm pretty new to the whole Shaft thing, but after marathoning the monogatari series, I've kind of gotten a bit...used to the whole Shaft art style. It's starting to feel a little bit too much. I think this sums up my opinion; "Everyone's special...Which is another way of saying no one is." In other words if every scene is artsy than nothing really stands out. Nisekoi has enough abstract art going for it so that it feels artistic and looks nice, while having enough normal stuff so that the artistic elements can really stand out.

And now to make up for all that serious talk, that here's Tieria crossdressing

Waifu material right there

 Plot----Now here's where in any other harem anime I'd put Nicholas Cage laughing his ass off, but instead I have to say; I was kinda surprised. Now if I were to tell you that the story revolved around boy trying to find a girl whose key fit into his lock, you'd probably look at me as if I were trying come on to you. Let me assure you that first I'm not. Second, it's a lot more interesting than it sounds. Third, yes it totally sounds like something you would find on fanfiction.net.

Yes, while at first the whole plot concept seemed as boring as the enzyme substrate lock and key model, (which will not get out of my head as much as I tell it that biology MCAS is over) it turns out to be a lot more interesting only to end in such an unresolved way it makes Knights of the Old Republic look like Fight Club.

Sound---The soundtrack sounds different, and in that way matches the insane characters and artstyle.

As for the voice actors, well they're fantastic, what else can I say? Well I could tell you exactly why, but I'm rushing, so screw that!


Characters---Expecting good character development from harem anime these days is a bit like having the silly idea that the next Transformers movie is ever going to have a hint of Unicron. With that being said Nisekoi...doesn't break this trend at all. After finishing , I tried to think back to something---anything that showed a case of good character development, and I really can't. There's nothing that really breaks ground here.

That being said, none of the characters feel like they've been shoved into the 'ms fanservice state'. They all get enough development to not feel completely like cardboard cut-outs, and are likeable and developed enough so that by the time I got through I didn't feel guilty enough to have to watch a documentary on feminism for an hour. There wasn't a time where I wanted a character offscreen, and even the main character, while again not breaking ground, is slightly less dense than cement.

Also the fantastic animation, offbeat soundtrack and amazing voice-acting help make even to most unoriginal scenes feel like absolute gold.

Romance--- Soooooo...remember when I said that romance in a harem anime could never measure up to a pure romance anime? Yeah...well...I was right...at least objectively. 

With minimal character development, and nothing truly groundbreaking, I can't say that the romance is anything special, at least as a reviewer. Everything bit of the romance in this anime has been done before, and done better. It's not bad, but I don't think it's for everyone. Now, hypothetically, if I were to tell you what I as an anime fan really thought well...

It was really good. F*ck it, I love this anime. It's yet another example of why I love anime. The trippy art style, off beat soundtrack, characters so unrealistic they make Indiana Jones surviving a nuclear blast in a fridge look like...no it's still bullshit, but you get my point! Someone once said that the two things that an audience are going to remember most are the beginning and the ending. And the romantic development toward the end of the series...is so damn good!

I don't want to spoil it, but it gave enough drama to make me care about the characters, while still keeping consistent with their personalities. It made me feel something for the characters and their relationship. Most of all it provided the best ending I have ever seen to a harem anime. Actually I'm going to go out on my already tenuous limb and say that this was the best ending of the season.

Wow that really showcased my critical ability, didn't it? I gave you no information about why it was so good, didn't even try to be objective, and overall massacred the romance section. Guess you'll just have to take my word from here...


So kind of spoiled it, but I love this anime. Which means that the following recommendation is from a completely objective perspective that doesn't contain a bias.

For anyone who is looking for an art deco, likeable, if re-used, characters, an interesting soundtrack, a decent script and hands down the best ending to any anime of the spring season, give it a shot.

Thanks for Reading! Following me, liking my stuff and spreading the word are all thing you could do that would really help me, and that I would appreciate!