Some anime you should watch, becuase it's the new year!

So in case any of you are time travelers from the year 1957, and even more so if you Robin Williams from Jumanji, the year is now 2014. Yes, yes, it's all about the new year, and all the semantics that follow, resolutions and stuff, but screw that! You're probably going to forget all that stuff anyway, so let's talk about something you'll remember--Space Dandy. Okay, okay, a lot of other anime came out in the joyous influx of 2014 anime that pushed My Mental choice and Henneko to the bottom of the popularity list (which I will never forgive them for). 

Space Dandy-- What exactly is the anime in 2014 that deserves the hype it's received? It's Sword Art Online 2, of course! It had an intriguing story, with amazing pacing, and compelling romanc---oh I'm sorry it seems my nose has reached the other side of them room. Yes, the anime is Space Dandy. You can tell you're anime is going to be good when it starts with the words boobies, boobies, boobies, before proceeding to a lecture on how boobs are overrated and how the butt is what really counts. Oh, and then he goes to a restaurant called boobies...insert unimpressed face here. If I've learned anything from Sword Art Online, it's that you can't judge a series on the first few episodes...and here I am judging this anime. Just because this anime is made by the same person who did cowboy bebop, and another person who did Full Metal Alchemist, does not mean that you should be taken to seriously. No, really, the frequency of fourth wall breaks in this anime is roughly the same as the amount of pixels on this screen you're viewing this post on. It's fun, high budget stupidity, that never hides what it is. Seriously, its like the creators saw Kill La Kill being called crazy and said, 'fuck that, we got space cats, breastraunts, and so much other crazy shit in here, that we might have well been smoking pot while watching Pon Pon Pon in pop tart suits with cat masks, while farting rainbows and shouting 'I am the Walrus'' To illustrate this point, a warship consists of the statue of liberty's head with a gag-ball stuffed in it. I rest my case.

 
Nisekoi-- Developed y studio Shaft, who did the Madoka series and the monogatari series, I think we all know what we're in for. Yes, it is time for the near constant eyegasms, the weird as shit camera angles and enough text to warrant an entire novel. Or at least that's what it should be. Yes, the eyegasms are still present, but they managed to hire a cameraman who doesn't have the attention span of a butterfly. It's a fun romantic comedy, that actually uses a tsundere right. You know nowadays, tsunderes fall in love with the character as soon as they lay eyes on him(Or her if were talking about Kyon). Tsunderes are supposed to hate the main character for the duration of the show, or at least a good part of it. More than this the main character hates the tsundere just as much as she hates him. It makes me love tsunderes again. Oh and it has slap-stick. Glorious, glorious slapstick. Anyhow to show you the awesome animation, and Yakuza gags, here's a video! Go watch this now, it's on crunchyroll! You can skip to 1:12 for the scene, or you could just watch the episode, up to you.

 Recently my sister is unusual-- Also known as Adventures of a girl and her bladder issues, or it might have well have been, because that's all I remember from the first two episodes. After finishing Oreimo, I bet a lot of people are looking for another creepy incest slice of life that is equally creepy in that it's good. Look no further! Except these siblings aren't really siblings, but step-siblings. Okay I'm kind of twisted here. On the one hand, this anime has Yui Ogura in it. In case you don't know she voices Tsutsukakushi in Hentai prince and Stony Cat, which if you don't know already, given the amount of times I've mentioned it is as many as some really clever analogy involving really big numbers, is one of my favorite anime period. On the other hand I had to repeatedly flip back to the tags to make sure that this wasn't porn. This anime takes fanservice to the next level. I mean at least its honest about. It doesn't pretend you came here for anything but fanservice, and cute girls repeating the word onee chan over and over again like a broken record. Except here they sort of dangle the word in front of you, like a carrot attached to a rod. They don't want to overuse it, for fear you'll lose interest. It's okay. Nothing special. As I said earlier, first impressions can be deceiving, so maybe this will pull a rabbit out of a hat.'

World Conquest Zvezda Plot-- If there was an award for most confusing episode, it would be given to this show. It would simultaneously be given the award for most intriguing episode. This anime is about a ten-year-old who wants to conquer the world. Props for the concept. I would love to give my reaction to this episode, but it would consist of me, choking out the words What, the, and f*** between long fits of laughter. Go watch this anime. That's it.

 Well, that's it for stuff I can reccomend this season. No, it's not because all the other anime are crap, it's because I haven't seen any others yet. Okay well I did see Magical Warfare, but that got me the same reaction as above, except without the fits of laughter. 

As usual likes follows, and comments are always fun, and I'll siya next time

Outbreak Company Anime Review, or the other name; Moe Invader

On the list of underrated gems in the fall season is Outbreak company. What is Outbreak company? It is every Otaku's dream. Imagine a world where you job was literally to teach people about anime, and get paid exorbitant amounts of money for it, while managing a harem consisting of a queen, maid, bodyguard, and wolf-girl. But the best part of all, the harem doesn't have a childhood friend!

So here's the premise, because I forgot to do this earlier. A guy is hired to teach people about Japanese culture, because there's a portal that leads to another world and Japan wants to have good relations with them he travels there and stuff, and gets a harem and some fun adventures. Yes, that was a run-on. Yes, that is completely indicative of my grammar. Enjoy the review.
 

Animation-- Normally I have plot up first, but since I personally think that the anime has a very, very interesting plot device, I thought I'd save it for the end. Animation is pretty interesting. The studio that made this anime is Feel. If you don't know them, they did anime like Ghost in the Shell; Standalone complex, which I vaguely remember had a really good plot. Seriously, I watched that when I was five or something, which is probably why my favorite game as a kid was Destroy All Humans. They also did Strait Jacket, which had great animation, and an immerse atmosphere. They are also responsible for things like Kiss X Sis, and Girls, I am Your Father, an anime that disturbs me on levels that i can't express in words, so here's a gif of Miley Cyrus as a turkey twerking.

You may hate me now, but trust me it's better than the real thing.

They also did So, I can't Play H, which I can't tell if I love or hate. Basically they have a experience. Some of the anime, had me facepalming so hard, that a committee composed of Picard, Kyon and Will Riker, were telling me to calm down. Or at least I think they were. At the time I was really high...on top of a building! Insert finger snap guy here. At the same time, they know what they are doing animation wise. It's not surprise that this anime has an interesting an appealing art-style. You can tell that the characters aren't just a generic template from some random art-book, and are actually fully realized characters. Backgrounds, are especially impressive, with a standout being that castle. Action scenes, when they happen, are short and sweet. Exactly how they should be.

Lookitlookitlookt!!!!!111!!!

Characters-- You know how i was talking about harem leads having the personality of a rock? Let me salvage some credibility here. Not all of them do; case in point Shinichi. Shinichi is someone commonly known as an otaku, or for the American translation, a shut in. What, that's not good enough for you; I have to make a joke? Ummmm, he's every Call of duty play--no that's overused. How about...oh here's a simple one; he's everyone ever who's played Fallout. The best part of his character is his overabundance of knowledge on anime. This guy is actually a walking encyclopedia of anime. This plays for some pretty fun moments, as he references all sorts of character archetypes in anime, inside anime jokes, and even some attack on titan references. In fact this author really likes AoT. I mean at the beginning, they read AoT, one of the characters shares the name Petra, and finally a scene is re-created word for word. However instead of the epic fight between a teen with anger management problems and a giant naked guy, it's a guy who wants to get naked with a girl who doesn't know the meaning of the word anger. Seriously this anime is walking reference. It might as well have been World of Warcraft Dressing up as the Easter Bunny, while dancing around a tree surrounded by every GTA game ever. I mean come one, why don't we just call this one Terraria and be done with it. Oh and it also references memes.

 
 Anyway, getting back on track, other characters include Petra, who is the queen of the land that Shinichi arrives in, Myucel the maid, and other side characters that I'm too lazy to write about. The anime had a fantastic start, the first four episodes, keeping me fully engaged, and enthralled. It wasn't just a slice of life romantic comedy, it was something different. There was more character development in these four episodes alone than all of the first season of Freezing. Okay, that was like trying to compare Hamlet, to Avatar the Last Airbender (the movie), but still. The beginning for me was like Pet girl of Sakurasou Hall, a great start. The characters in here are really interesting, and they only get better as the anime progresses. I'll talk about that later. If I was a critic working for some quote on quote reputable site, I might say 'all the characters are simply stereotypes, fulfilling their role well but never adequately becoming a part of the metaphorical, bilateral gender roles that they strive for. Unfortunately, I'm all out of brandy to swirl so instead, I'll say that while the characters are all stereotypes, the anime is aware of this, and makes fun of it. Shinichi in particular, has some great development towards the end of the anime.

Sound--As cool as it would be to have a silent anime, This anime does in fact have sound. And the sound is good. The fact that one of the OST involve a guy singing Da Da Da over and over again is a testament to how good these OST are.   The voice actor for Petra is the same as the one who does Iona in Arpeggio of Blue Steel, and the voice actor for Myucel is plays Himiko in Btoom!, the newest edition to Ichika's harem Kanzashi in Infinite Stratos, and Pinkie Pie in the Japanese dub of My Little Pony. The opening and ending are both well done in both animation and sound. (Skip to about one minute in for ost)

Romance-- What do you want me to say? That this tells a engrossing, interesting romance that sets the bar for romance anime everywhere? No, that's Mirai Nikki. In this anime what I remember, is a loli screaming her head off, and maid doing the whole 'master' thing, and nothing happening. The romance in this show is unfinished. While it has some nice moments, I can't judge it yet, because there has been no conclusion. That's it, moving on.

Plot--If any of you have read my Mushibugyo (if you haven't, here's a conveniently placed link with no ulterior motive at all http://posianime.blogspot.com/2013/12/mushibugyo-anime-review.html) You know that I hate it when an anime wastes my time. Mushibugyo did not do this, but many Shonnen time sinks do. The first four episodes were fantastic, it really got me involved with the series, and made me care about the characters. Ironically from there, it did not do what Pet girl of Sakurasou did; becoming a soap opera complete with so much heartbreak it makes Bring Me the Horizon sound like George Baily on Christmas Day. Instead it just went back to being a slice of life. Now while all the references were appreciated, i couldn't help but feel a bit...bored. The episodes wasted my time. You see in another slice of life series i could stand this. Why? Other slice of life shows have a good script. In NouCome, for instance, nothing really happened throughout the anime, and yet I was still trying to find my ass after I had spent the past twenty minutes laughing it off. Most of the humor in this show is references, and while it’s funny at first, it gets old after some ten episodes of it. So by the time I got to episode eleven, I was watching it in memory of the first four episodes. It was boring, I didn't want to watch it, I just wanted to watch more Mirai Nikki, and then I was blown out of the water. i sat there for a few minutes flopping around a bit, and opening and closing my mouth a few times. When that didn't work I tried to contemplate what the f*** I just watched. This is why Outbreak Company became one of my favorite anime of the season. The two last episodes are amazing. They are just as good, no, even better than the first four. It shifts the genre Magical Girl Madoka style, not Flamenco style. Okay, with my samurai flamenco bit, I may have given the impression that I hate it when a genre shifts. Nope! I absolutely love it, as long as it's done well. Flamenco did not do it well at all, and the leap was confusing and frustrating. Other anime like Madoka, this, and another one of my favorites Hentai Prince and Stony Cat (which you should totally watch by the way, via subtle link here http://www.crunchyroll.com/henneko-the-hentai-prince-and-the-stony-cat-) do this very well. They make the anime refreshing and interesting. I won't say more. It's not M. Night Shama-lama-ding-dong, it actually does make sense. Kinda, but that's for another time.

So should you watch this anime? Yes, most defiantly. There's a lot of fun to be had with it, and while some parts are boring, I'm sure some of you out there do not have the attention span of a butterfly (unlike me). I want another season, I'm interested in where the plot is heading, and its possible that the romance will improve as well. Give it a try at the very least, because this anime gets a very good recommendation from me.
 
As always likes, follows, comments, all that good stuff would be good and fun. I'll siya next time, and sorry again for the delay. 

Not gonna be around until weekend sorry

So the title says it all, but ummm. Well the end of the term is coming up and I need to hand in all my revisions before its over. Basically I won't be able to update for the rest of this week. Sorry, I'll begin updating again on the weekend. By the way, watch Space Dandy, it's...look at it this way. You thought kill la kill was crazy? It looks like a freaking science textbook compared to this. Anyway siya next time!

Valvrave the Liberator Anime Review

Among the many anime to come out this year is an anime called Valvrave the Liberator. This review will cover the first and second season of the show. Oh and this is going to be a lot of bashing, but i don't want to give the wrong impression. I did like this show, but it has a lot of flaws.

If there's one thing we know about Sunrise, it's that they can make a well-crafted plot with plenty of character development and political intrigue. So here we have Valvrave, It's premise is like nothing we've seen before. It's not at all a copy of every single Gundam series ever. Most of all, it has the most unique premise ever. Space Vampires!

First off, let me just say that I absolutely hated the first season. It was boring, focused on characters that acted as if they had the depth of the Mariana trench, while basically being cardboard cut-out labeled Protagonist A B C and Fanservice D. The first season tried to take itself waaay to seriously, to the point where it felt like they were trying to create drama for the sake of making said cardboard cutout characters seem as deep as they pretend to be. The second season, by comparison is leagues ahead of its predecessor. I'll explain why later.

Plot--The anime is made by Sunrise, creators of shows like Gundam, and Gundam, Gundam 2.0, Gundam 3.0 and 00, so you'd expect there to be an engaging plot with many twists and turns and all sorts of political intrigue. Well screw that! Slice of life is cool, right? So instead of having an interesting plot with character development, let's have a half-assed slice of life with mechs. Wazzat? We have to have politics? Our demographic aren't just mindless drones? Okay, Okay, give em a re-hash of Gundam, it's cool. It's not like we don't do that enough. The plot is pretty much paper thin for the first season and progression is really slow. I mean you might as well have been watching the primaries while listening to opera, due to the amount of bullshit being spouted, its dragging length and the fact that it is as entertaining as watching paint dry. Are there any major sources of conflicts? Are there any events or ideological differences that shape the nature of diplomacy between nations? Nope, nope, freaking nope. The politics of this anime are boring. Don't get me wrong; I love political intrigue, but only when its done right. Shows like Game of Thrones, Gundam 00, or Code Geass do this justice. They have nations that are complex and interesting. Oh and there is more than two freaking nations. You have the Principality of Zeo-- umm Dorssia which is a dystopian society, and the federa-- ARUS a democratic one.  It's nice that neither side is Jesus outstretching his hand to the main characters, but it's been done a lot better in some of Sunrise's other works. In the end the two sides feel like their really just fighting over territory, and that's it. In the end it feels like I'm watching a couple fifth graders fight over a toy truck rather than the epic struggle of two kings and the pawn that challenges both of them.  

The kid with the blue backpack would be Sunrise

Unfortunately most of the plot of the first season is sorta slice of life and space opera. Which was a ridiculous choice in the first place, but it gets worse. To give an example that contains spoilers, not like there's anything to spoil is part way through the first season. One of the students (because a nation is formed out of highschoolers) is running for president, and what is her inspiring speech? Is it to tell everyone that everything will be fine. Is it an epic battle speech beginning with THIS IS SPARTA, and ending with FOR NARNIA? How about a plan to outline her responsibilities and qualifications? Nope, instead we're treated to a girl talking about how she wants to have a cultural festival. Yep, screw you Obama, Screw everyone who has ever had a degree in politics. Military commanders, screw em. Tactics, who cares. Resources, plans, solutions to diplomacy, qualifications, fuck that we're going to have a cultural fair! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

No you are not imagining things, yes a robot is committing Harakiri

While we're on the subject, I've seen a lot of things happen to highschoolers in an anime. Sometimes they have become super-powered magical girls, other times zombies, in some cases even crossdressing zombie magical girls( with superpowers) But this is the first time I've seen a high-school form their own nation. Hold on, I think I may have just overloaded my brain trying to make sense of this.

 The plot does pick of the pace drastically upon entering the second season. You might even say it picks up the pace to fast. I might do a rant on that later I don't know. The second season is much better paced, and it doesn't make me think that I'm wasting my time. Furthermore no more slice of life elements! Thank god! For all the trashing I've done of the plot, it does eventually get pretty good. Around ep 21 or so, something happens that changes everything. It made me sorta care about cardboard cut outs in a way I had never done before.  Oh and they used a tactic. Now that's a plot twist.  While the reaction to the tactic was on the opposite side of realism, it was still good, and I could see why it had to be unrealistic due to time constraints.

Animation-- If there's one thing that can be said about this anime it's that it's visually stunning. Every single battle never failed to drop my draw right down to the floor, sometimes even surpassing that. Wait how is that possible? Every battle was enjoyable, if a little nonsensical. There were various times throughout the anime that mechs would have a drastic drop in power for convinance of the plot. For instance it's established early on that the Valvraves themselves are powerful enough to act as an entire military force. Yet some enemy mobile suits--er whatever the hell those things are called, are able to go toe to toe with them. It gets worse later on in the series. Character designs are good all around the board. They also try to insert tactics into the mix. These tactics don't feel as smart as something like Code Geass or Death note, instead feeling like Deus Ex Machina predictions. It feels less like the whole mind-game between genius and more like this:

                                    This video has screamo, not my first choice, but what the hell?

"I has robots"

"I fight your robots, I'm winning for no reason"

"Oh god why?!" 

*Evil laugh*

"Alright wait hold on, I can predict your every move" 

"How?"

"Because it's a freaking anime, gimme a break!"

  They have some good tactics, but they are far and few between. Seriously for the first season the way to solve the problem at any given time was to boot up another robot. Enemies killing us? More robot! Enemy's killing that robot now? It just needs more robot? Trying to solve a complicated diplomatic situation? Bullsh** there's no such word as complicated in this anime.

Sound-- Voice actors are pretty good all things considered. I mean I know they're talented. Haruto has the same voice actor as Staz from Blood lad, and voices Maou from the devil is a part timer. L-elf has the same voice actor as Staz's brother in Blood Lad, as well as Akira from Eden of the East. I can say that there are moments where the voice actors do a fantastic job of portraying emotion, but it's kinda hampered by the script. The only exception is Q-vier, voiced by the same guy who played Issei in Highschool DXD and Yokodera in Hentai Prince and Stony Cat. He filled the role of insane psychopath perfectly. The soundtrack uses the age old trope of using choir to make everything sound epic. From cats fighting, to above fifth graders.

This is why you don't text while driving, even if you're vehicle is a spider mech with yo-yo weapons

This is why you don't text while driving, even if you're vehicle is a spider mech with yo-yo weapons

Characters---Here we go. Characters. You know I really wanted to like the characters. They were done by Katsura Hoshino, who did the D-grayman series, which to this day remains one of my favorite shonnen manga. The characters there were likeable and fun, in comparison these might as well have been cardboard cut outs with storyboards attached to them. The problem is that the cast is too big, and the series too short for the characters to have any depth. On top of this the characters pretend to be fully developed characters, when they really just aren't. Haruto for one is probably one of the most angst ridden characters I've ever seen, while still managing to capture the personality of a rock perfectly. A committee of Batman, Spiderman, and Bruce Banner would be telling this guy to cheer the f*** up! As you might imagine this got bloody annoying. 

A double easter egg... I tip my hat to you, Sunrise

Throughout the series they try to make you sympathize with the characters, and get involved with the plot through a bunch of different methods. The first and foremost is death. They kill off characters left and right, for the purposes of making you actually care, and while for some characters it actually did, most of the time I wouldn't even noticed. Why is this? Well, most of the time they kill off characters who have the depth of Kim Kardashian, and less personality than a block of wood. These characters were there, but they were never important. That is until the end. When they finally do kill off the more important characters, it does start to get depressing. I don't want to spoil more, but this anime is a tragedy, no doubt about it. The other thing that they try to do is this whole thing about people being monsters. This is, like everything else, taken in the right direction in the later season, but in the first season is just a reason for Haruto to invite all his friends to a pity party, complete with pimply teens screaming about how bad their lives are, with Ano-hana and Grave of the Fireflies as entertainment. Every time I watched an episode from the first season it felt as though I was washing with a bar of soap opera. Oh and I hate soap operas. The final thing to mention is that the characters do actually get better by the end of the second season. The second season is a lot more plot driven, and darker than the first season. By the end of the second season, I really liked L-elf, hated Shoko, still felt lukewarm about Haruto, loved Yamada, and Inuzuka. Rukino, for the promise that she showed during the first season, by the second season, was placed so far behind the rest of the characters she might as well not have been there as well. In the first season she's mysterious, and interesting, while in the second she's just...there.

I can just hear the fan-fiction being written

Rape scene--Yes I have to talk about this, since this is probably the most shocking moment in the damn series. What rape exists in anime?  Yes, apparently it does, as Haruto, the lead rapes Rukino. No it is not a creepy sort of rape, seeing as Rukino does love Haruto, but it was intense and it did shock the hell out of me. However this ties in with what I said above. This is here for the purpose of shocking you into sympathizing with the characters. So I don't know what to think of this. It's an obvious ploy, albeit a well done ploy. So I'll just leave it at that. 

 As much as I bashed the show, I actually liked it. Despite all its numerous (yes that needed both italics and bold) flaws I still had fun. In the end that's what it's all about. Don't come into this anime with the mindset of a Gundam fan. Come in here expecting to have fun. Whether it's found in the insanely good looking action or the non-existent logic of the characters, this show is fun. So get a bunch of friends, have a marathon, or go solo, doesn't matter. I recommend this anime to you anyway.

As Always, Likes, follows, comments, all that good stuff, is very much appreciated. Late Happy New Year, and I'll siya next time!