Update sorta thing

Hello! So I'm going to try to do something of a reboot of this blog, hopefully making this a weekly thing. Of course, I'm not so productive that I'd hammer out an actual schedule, but I'm hoping to do a review a week. Perhaps some weeks I'll do more discussion like things a la Gundam Seed Destiny and the Military Industrial Complex.  My marathon of Hunter X Hunter has kind of left me with a short stock of anime to review, but expect a review of GARO:Honoo no Kokuin or GARO: The Animation either Saturday or Sunday. Thank you for reading this, and I hope to see you on Saturday or Sunday!

Is Punchline Worth Watching?

24 hours. That is how much time my brain has rolled Punchline around in my thoughts like the world's most engrossing (or insidious) ever-lasting-gob-stopper. AND IT'S NOT OVER. Minutes before writing this I was in the middle of a manime fest which would culminate in the finale of Stardust Crusaders, when Kenshiro popped some mook's head like a cherry. Then I started thinking about nosebleeds, followed by asteroids, followed by Punchline. So let's review this then; in my mind it's been awhile (precisely 544 days) since the last review that could be summarized by a single 'OMG GUYSH GO WAHTCH THIS ANIME! !!! !! !111!111 ! AMAZING IT"S SO GOOOOOOOD!'.

Punchline is one of those anime that sounds rough on paper. A comedy, ecchi series about a boy who lives in a building with a bunch of girls, all of whom have some quirk. The guy gets a nosebleed at the sight of panties and an asteroid ends all life on Earth shortly afterwards...wait, what? Oh and he's also a ghost, courtesy of a bus-hijacking crash, and is on a mission to retrieve an ancient Indian text called the Nandala Gandala that will allow him to get back to his body which time-traveling spirit has possessed. 


So after the first episode I was like 'Okay. So it's going to be one of ridiculous oh, Japan-sort-of-anime-with-fanservice-as-an-added-bonus. Been there, done that. But I love them sorts of anime, so here's to Punchline!' Yet the further I got, the more I realized: I Absolutely love this show. Every episode had something to further this crazy jigsaw of a plot, and  the characters began to grow from Invaders of the First Dimension, to rounded three dimensional characters to whom I had gotten extremely attached. The stakes of this anime are literally world-class, but I found myself more preoccupied with Uchikoshi  butchering the main cast than I did most of humanity.

The plot itself is in need of some kind of award from the E.L. Doctorow Society. Imagine someone shredded your laundry and then proceeded to knit an outfit straight out of Vogue; I'd be slightly exaggerating if I said that Punchline's plot is as impressive, but I'll be damned if it doesn't come close. Much like the characters, the plot grows more complex with every episode as so many seemingly unrelated threads interweave to make a completely cohesive narrative all leading up to a finale that was as satisfying as it was bizarre.

It's got quite the cast too. Armin, Asseylum, Asuna, Tsumugi, and the queen of tsundere herself, lend their talents to bring the residents of Korai House to life. Add to this the talent of Mappa (whom are quickly ascending my totem pole of studios, what with this, Shingeki no Bahamut and Zankyou no Terror) and a composition by Tetsuya Komuro (Vampire Hunter D) and you have yourself quite the contender for anime of the season (shutupkekaisensen).

It's not perfect, sure. Any number of plot-holes are present in a given episode, it's quite possible I'm being a tad hyperbolic when I call the character fully three dimensional (though I maintain they're at least 2.75 D) and the jury's still out on whether the fanservice is entirely necessary. In truth though I found these to be so much white noise in the face of such great story, characters, soundtrack, animation and stupidity. 

Thanks for reading! Here's where I'd normally ask you to like, favorite, etc. Instead I'll beg you to follow this link to the nirvana that is World Conquest Zvezda Plot. Also watch punchline. Goodnight.

*note* 
If you're wondering where the thing on Fractale went, then know that I've come to realize it was garbage. Basically a couple page rant—not funny, not useful.

Is Shinmai Maou no Testament Worth Watching?

If I had a central tenet that radiates throughout my life as a floodlight would to a wayward invasion fleet, it would be that there is always at least one harem anime worth watching each season. Watching all the harem anime that come out in a given season isn't for everyone. It's a life filled with Freezings, Maken-kis and School Days, but without it one mightn't experience the D-Frags, Outbreak Companies, and No Game No Lives. Sure one could just wait for the season to finish and look up reviews and the like, but it's the journey through the toxic wastes that makes the discovery of something like Yamada-kun to 7-nin no Majo so much more satisfying. So in some ways you could say I might admire Shinmai Maou no Testament to an extent...except that you can't. 

No pandering

So let's start with what the anime does right—it's first episode. By the end of the first episode I was intrigued. It was a great piece of exposition: I wanted to know more about Basara's banishment from the village of heroes, I wanted to know more about how the politics of the demon underworld worked and I was interested in how it was going to deal with morality with a sucubus and demon lord as the protagonists. It was a good bait-and-switch episode that played with my expectations and made me want to watch more. So I did. Then Basara and his new sister formed a pact that placed Master-Slave relationship on the two of them which causes the latter to fall under a 'aphrodisiac curse' if they disobey. It's like going into a rundown fifties diner, expecting a greasy burger cobbled together from a myriad of mystery meats only to be greeted by a wafting smell worthy of a five-star restaurant accompanied by the satisfying snap of hot oil. Then you're served the dish and, not only it not the gourmet burger you thought you smelt, it's slathered with engine oil and hard enough to fool an archeologist into thinking it a fossil.

See, I could include more screenshots of this anime or I could tell you about better Harem anime...this is D-Frag—watch it.

At this point my motivation for pushing through this show was making this review and a slight case of masochism. The next few episodes stomped on and cremated my hopes for an interesting take on morality (as far fetched as they were), as we are introduced the hero clan—who wants to kill Basara's new sister for her being the heir to the position of lord of all demons. Instead of, I don't know, making a case for the lesser of two evils (where the lesser is exponentially less evil than the greater) Basara and company make some weak-sauce argument that one would expect to find on the site of the Flat Earth Society and leads to another battle. The good guys win and Basara gets to keep his childhood-friend-turned-harem-member who wants to enter the Master-Slave relationship—because of course she does.

It's not a harem, but it is fantastic. It's called World Conquest Zvezda Plot, it has a name in Japanese and you should watch it.

Perhaps you might be thinking 'This sounds stupidly fun! Let's crack open a couple cans and have a laugh!'. There's a miniscule chance I might've done so myself if not for the whole attempted rape arch. See, the attempted rape trope is something I could have hung from the gallows tomorrow and not lose a wink of sleep over. See in and of itself I have no problem with attempted rape...wow that came out wrong. *Ahem* As a plot device, I have no problem with attempted rape. Theoretically it can be implemented well and develop character, provide valuable commentary, etc. Yet tell me—how often does that actually happen? With how often I see it popping up, I'd argue too much. Too often it's used as a throwaway gimmick to establish a quick 'knight in shining armor' moment for the protagonist, get the audience behind hating a particular villain without doing any work, or as a way to pander to a demographic they really shouldn't be pandering to in the first place. 

Testament manages to do all three! There's gotta be an award for that, let me see...

In summary, Shinmai Maou no Testament is not worth watching. It stops one step short of being used in the Ludovico Technique. 

Thanks for reading. If you liked this anime, congratulations on making it this far or scrolling down the page. It's getting another season this fall—for worse—so there's that. I'd love it if you would favorite, share or follow me.

Afterword:
So I found this channel called douchebagchoclat, which is a channel which does a segment called 'Should You Watch', so I'm going to change what I'm doing to 'Is X worth watching'. Not that I think it's going to matter (I mean seriously, this blog gets about 100 views a week—tops), but better safe than sorry.

Petition the U.N. to ban anime in the world.

Please read this...it made my day. Actually please sign it too. I really want to see the look on the members of the United Nations faces when they go from talking about disaster relief, atomic energy, and violations of basic human rights, to arguing over whether or not Monogatari is going to turn you into a pedophile.

Enact an International Ban on Anime and Manga

https://www.change.org/p/the-united-nations-enact-an-international-ban-on-anime-and-manga

Sorry for the link not working 

Thoughts on the ending of Aldnoah Zero

I may or may not do a full review on this, but I'd like to address a few things about the ending. I've seen a lot of people trashing this ending, saying that it ruined the show. Honestly I can see why. The climax was low stakes, no-one freaking died (spoilers), and most importantly Asseylum not only didn't chose Inaho as her flagship, but married a guy introduced a literal two episodes prior. I agree that from a viewer's perspective it wasn't the climax I was hoping for, but I think that it made sense in terms of where the story was going. The moment Asseylum made her speech Slaine knew he had lost control over the orbital knights. Even if he managed to survive the battle his forces would be weakened so severely, he would never be able to maintain this 'new empire'. At this point his dream would do more harm than good. So he wants to die. Where's the best place to die—on the battlefield. That's what the stakes were to me—akin to wanting to go out with a bang. I think it's an interesting way to end the series, on an anti-climax rather than a grand finale. As for the whole no-one died, yeah not going to argue with anyone there. While not realistic, perhaps, I didn't mind it so much. It would have been equally as unrealistic to have everyone lose all plot armor at the end. For me, it's a problem the series as a whole had, not a problem relegated to the ending. 

I'm going to dedicate a whole paragraph to this one because I think this is the one most people have a problem with. First off let's address Asseylum's decision to marry whatisface. I strongly disagree that this move makes the show bad. In fact I would argue that Asseylum's choice is a step in the right direction. Here's why: Throughout the majority of the series I felt that princess Asseylum was just that—a princess. She was always in need of rescue, and felt like that sort of peace loving Marina Ismail we've all seen before. I never really cared about her honestly (maybe this is why I don't care so much about the shipping falling through). This decision changed my view of her as a side character/ plot device into an integral part of the show. Her decision to marry to someone she doesn't love in order to maintain her ideals shows the strength of her conviction. She really transformed from a princess into an empress; from a tool used by other to someone who takes control of their own destiny.

I think it's important to distinguish a bad ending from a non-ideal ending. The ideal ending would've had Slaine sticking to his guns the entire time, with Asseylum riding out with Inaho to try to talk some sense into him while the orbital knights destroyed the Earth. Slaine would've realized he was wrong just before the killing blow, but it would be too late. Without a leader, the orbital knights would have stopped fighting, Inaho and Asseylum would've gotten married, happy ever after. While a much more satisfying ending for many, I would argue that an ending similar to the one I've described wouldn't be better than the one we got (not worse necessarily, but not better)

Whatever the case, I think that the ending made more of an impact on me than it would have otherwise. While I can't say I was left satisfied (ultimately I would have preferred above ending because I'm a sappy-mc-sap-sap who loves endings sweet enough to cause instant diabetes) I can say that it was an ending that fit the profile of Gen Urobuchi. 

On the off off off chance that you're reading this, Gen, if you do the same thing to a series I really care about *cough* Psycho-Pass *cough* I'll cry...really hard...so don't do that. 

Side note—anyone else think the reason why Inaho is like the Mr Universe of anime is because he's autistic? 

Thanks for reading! If you liked this, please share, like, or/and follow! Hope to see you again!

Gundam Seed Destiny and The Military Industrial Complex

Saying something like 'I actually kind of liked Gundam Seed Destiny' in the Gundam community is kind of akin to sieg heiling while simultaneously drinking orphan's tears from a cup made from the polished bones of one-month-old puppies, or alternatively claiming the U.C. continuity is overrated. I sort of feel like this anime gets a bit more of a bad rap than it deserves. Destiny is not a great series, in fact I'd be willing to concede that it's not even a good series, but with the amount of flak I've seen it getting, you'd think that this has a whiny self-righteous teenage edgy mcmopes-a-lot as a secondary protagonist and a main protagonist who would've ascended into the skies to become our lord  and savoir, but failed because the nails couldn't pierce his plot armor*.  Seriously— the series boasts more flashbacks than Memento, recycles animations like I joke about Call of Duty, and simultaneously boasts one of the best and worst villains I've seen in anime...and they're the same person... With that said—the recycled clips themselves are well-animated, it has a fantastic soundtrack, and has valuable commentary on one of the roots of war.

Are you on the edge of your seats? Don't be. Expect this to be drier than an evaporated glass of Merlot. Oh, and you've had a decade to watch this, so no complaining about spoilers. To give you a bit of of shallow context—the military industrial complex refers to the arms industry. They supply a country with everything from tanks to jets, to battleships. Basically they make weapons of war. So what happens when there is no war? Demand on their products decreases. What creates demand? You've got one guess. The influence of the military industrial complex on politics and war is well documented. Eisenhower himself warned the public of the dangers that the military industrial complex could potentially have on the course of American history in his final speech as president. To boil it down to the basics:

1. The Primary goal of any corporation in a free market based economy is to turn a profit 
2. The military industrial complex does make money as countries update their military and buy the latest technology, but not nearly as much as when a country is at war and a constant stream of weapons is needed to fight.
3. Using lobbyists, corporations fund politicians in order to allow them to be elected to various positions in the government. Thus, corporations have a degree of influence on the decisions a politician makes. Pass that bill limiting the funding of the military and in a couple years you might find yourself facing an opponent with much better funds and, coincidentally, a bit more sympathy toward the repeal of said bill.
4. This factors in to a politicians decisions in deciding whether or not to go to war. It's not that this is the deciding factor of war. The influence of the military industrial complex has on war is making it more likely that the politician will go to war than if the MIC wasn't involved. 

Destiny presents a future where the MIC is the primary influence on whether or not a country (or in this case a planet) will go to war. Hidden inside the radical anti-coordinator (term for genetically engineered people who live in Space Colonies) group Blue Cosmos, an inner circle of various parts of the MIC gather in order to push the possibility of war into the certainty of war. After taking advantage of an opportunity to create a war, Logos finds itself pitted against Chairman Durandal, a man who understands the complexities of the system of war and potential profits made from it. His solution to the issue of profiting off of war is to directly target Logos bases of operation and high ranking officials.

The angst...

You may be asking, justifiably, 'how will this help?' Violence will just lead to more violence, just destroying the MIC won't solve the problem. Exactly—which is why Durandal has to pull the weed out by its roots; anything else will allow it to grow back stronger than ever. Can you guess what's about to happen? I mean you shouldn't. The series has to find some way to make the good guys the good guys and in keeping with its 'there are no right sides in war,' bullshit it decides to make the Chairman's solution be a Brave New World style way of genetically engineering everybody to have one skill and only one skill thus they will never have the ambition or aptitude to pull anything like a war off ever again and uuuuugghhhhh. Here are a few reasons why this would suck;

1. It makes everyone coordinators, means that ZAFT would have to forcibly make everyone a coordinator. Not only might this lead to another war, but also creates more resentment than ever and is the equivalent of what Blue Cosmos was trying to do to coordinators.
2. Obvious moral issues.
3. Power in numbers, you might make someone great at piloting a mobile suit, and other that suck piloting wise, but enough in numbers can overwhelm a really good...actually never-mind—this is Gundam we're talking about. 
4. Probably increases tension between classes more than it would otherwise; makes rebellion more likely.
5. An enforced caste system determined entirely by birth without any room for class movement. 
6. There is a much easier system to implement that would solve the whole MIC problem.

What is that other method? Nationalizing the MIC. Assuming you haven't left in a fit of capitalist outrage, let me explain. What Durandal wants to discourage is the use of war as a way to earn profit. Nationalizing the Military Industrial Complex means that it is no longer profiting from war. No-one is paid to buy arms, therefore the only way to profit from war is to fight a war where winning the war would yield enormous economic advantage (Natural resources, eliminating a rival, etc). It's not that nationalizing the MIC would eliminate war altogether, but it does eradicate a factor making war more likely.

Now that it's been remastered...yeah can't think of a joke for this one

So there you go. If you liked this, like it. Sharing is also great, and commenting is even better. I promise I'll make something funnier next time...and maybe before the turn of the century.
 *Actually he just skipped the 'lord and savior' and became God. 

Should You Watch C for Control (The Anime With Give Or Take a Million Names)

C the Money of Soul and Possibility of Control, aside from having rhymetastic name, really left me in an odd situation. On the one hand it's probably one of, if not the most interesting premises I've seen out of the shounen genre. Basically there exists a dimension parallel to our own called the financial district. Here people called Entres wager their future as collateral to gamble for wealth beyond their wildest dreams. Enter Kimiyaro Yoga, a college student working his way to a degree in economics, and not, as his name might imply, a spiritual discipline practiced for health and relaxation. After being approached by what looks like the estranged child of Johnny Depp and Willy Wonka, Yoga is thrust into a world were his very future is put at risk. If that wasn't enough it's got a killer soundtrack by Taku Iwasawa, of Gurren Lagann fame, a stunning world design, a great opening and ending, as well as some good character design. So why aren't I screaming words of praise at my laptop while windmilling my arms erratically? Well, whose to say I'm not? The voice in my head, of course.

What surprised me most about the anime was just how much I loved the world. It isn't like I'd vacation there or anything, but the fact that whenever I was dragged from the financial district back into the real world I would be doing so kicking and screaming, is telling. The art style of this place alone sold me, and return visits boasted some of the more interesting creature designs I've seen since Evangelion. The fight scenes, carry the same dream-like quality, and are a treat for the eyes with no exception. Of course that carries two heavy caveats; a metric ton of CG and the fight scenes themselves occurring with frequency of a blue moon on the day the planets aline. Personally I found the CG, while not a good as Gatchaman (another of the studio's productions), to be pretty harmless—never taking away from the visual spectacle. Be warned this anime is a lot of talking, and while there's enough to distract yourself with in the surreal Financial District, the same cannot be said about the real world. 

The CGIIIIII

While the premise is the coolest thing next to a clever analogy related to Spike Spiegel, the plotline itself made as much sense as...the premise, I guess. This really comes down to exposition. I'm seventeen and though I am the son of an economist, I'm not going to pretend like I know how the global or Japanese economic system works. Let me just say that either the anime pulls an Eva at the end or... no there's no 'or'. While the anime had been mostly a well done character study/ action show, the last three or so episodes throw everything and the kitchen sink at you. We get an 'I am your father', space-time technobable that only makes sense until you think about it, and, if I cared about the main character, a really unsatisfying ending. If someone wants to fill me in on this, drop a comment or something. I am genuinely curious!

 The summary of the character section is practically identical to a harem anime. Seriously, what is the purpose of the male character in a harem anime? To introduce us to a set of much more interesting characters (and subconsciously or consciously project ourselves onto that lucky bastard) and show a side of them that wouldn't be seen if it were a k-on clone. Yoga is nothing if not a doorway into the exotic realm of the financial distract. He also acts as a way of introducing us to characters who are infinitely more interesting than our main. Speaking of which, the side characters are really goddamn interesting. None of them feel phoned in, even the creep in the first episode—a character who has about a minute of lines—has enough characterization to make me feel something for him. The villain in particular makes for a very interesting breakdown of what one might mistake as the money grubbing CEO. What really surprised me was a certain character who forces the main character to come to realizations about how his actions have consequences. I won't say more because then I'd be delving into the depths of spoilers, but it was by far my favorite part of this series.

The image speaks for itself—which is why I'm writing this...

Finally we come to sound, which is the other part of the series I have no qualms calling fantastic. The soundtrack combined with the animation never failed to leave me at an emotional high after any fight scene, and made up for some of the slower moments. The opening is by NICO Touches The Walls, who are quickly becoming a favorite of mine, and showcases a really cool animation sequence. The anime is right up there with Eden of the East in terms of endings, which coincidentally has the same band behind it, School Food Punishment. Oh and the voice acting's good.

Would I recommend it? I'll answer with a definitive maybe. C is an anime I enjoyed. I enjoyed it because of its world building techniques, the off-the-wall aesthetic, interesting side characters, soundtrack and some of the plot. The ending screws things up, but not, for me at least, enough to ruin the experience.  

Thanks for reading! A like, follow, spreading the word or anything of the sort is always appreciated!

Should you watch Gatchaman Crowds?

Forty years after its original airing, the guys over at Tatsunoko Productions blessed us with Gatchaman Crowds, a remake about as faithful to the original as Dragon Ball Evolution. Although while DBE was like having a conversation with a serial killer wearing your best friend's skin, Crowds basically jettisons any connection to the original from the gate. 

The story follows Hajime Ichinose a girl who's hyperactivity is matched only by a seven-year-old with coffee instead of blood. While screwing around on the roof, Hajime encounters something (started this anime two years ago) that gives her a notebook called NOTE that gives her the power to transform into

Together she teams up with a guy with what looks like wedges of cheese for eyebrows, a bikini clad girl because of course, a too cool for school dude, a fabulous gay guy, and a talking panda to fight an androgynous alien with the apparent mindset of the aforementioned seven-year-old with coffee instead of blood. One character left out of the previous summary is Rui the cross dresser, a genius Zuckerburg who created the social networking system Galax a cross between [insert social networking site], animal crossing, and Uber.

The first you'll notice coming into the anime is its animation. Anyone read any of my other stuff, because you should be able to guess what's coming next. The animation looks fantastic (other acceptable answers include amazing, great, and hand-drawn orgasm). In all honesty it looks jaw dropping when it wants to and is enjoyable at the very least the rest of the time. Even the troughs are bursting with color and personality. The peaks, on the other hand, burst with color, personality, and CG. Yes our old friend CG is back in full force. Unlike Mekaku, however, it's implemented well. Special mention goes to whoever designed the Gatchamen themselves.

The second thing you might notice is the soundtrack. Composed by Taku Iwasaki  of Jojo, Soul Eater and Black Butler fame, the soundtrack is a mix of electronic and spoken vocals. Ultimately it's down to personal preference, but take a listen— I think that you'll like what you hear.

Again we're talking what could be charitably called a quirky cast here, so frankly I thought I was in for another dumb action filled romp. I am so glad I was wrong. 

It's easy to think of Crowds as a simple aliens vs humans anime that has been done to death, brought back to life as a horrible monster before collapsing into a pile of unidentifiable scraps. What I think saves it from being the above is everything about GALAX. It plays out like a mind-game. Rui initially thinks that he's using the Alien as a means to create the ideal world. In the end we learn that he couldn't be further from the truth. GALAX is the crux; the key to victory for both parties. This makes for a climax that hits all the right places; with enough action to keep the testosterone pounding at my head, but with enough intelligent tactics that it didn't feel like my higher conscience was on vacation. If I had to level a criticism at it, it would be the pacing. The first fiveish episodes are dedicated to developing characters and getting the exposition done. While I was ultimately glad for it, it was a little grueling to get through at first. I'm not going to act like I know how to fix that, so perhaps this is more a warning than anything.

Something to tide you over until the next image

If you asked me to give you one reason to watch this anime, I would wake up because no-one comments on these posts anyway. However in theory I would tell you that if there was one thing that the anime did right, it's the character. Here however it's a bit more subjective (because the rest of it was devoid of opinion). It all comes down to the main character. Basically she's an eccentric, charismatic, block-headed insane girl. In other words she's what would normally be considered a side character in another anime. It's like if The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya centered on the titular character instead of Kyon. The question becomes can you stand that? 

Even if that doesn't sound like a smashing good time, I'd still say you should give it a shot. Aside from the above, I'd say that the rest of the cast does its job very well. Most of the development in these characters here are given development not really seen in many other shows. While I wouldn't call the development they get in depth I will say that for 13 episodes, and such a large cast, I got a very clear sense of who they were and why they were doing what they did. There are a few reasons for this, methinks. First is the exposition, spending time with the characters and watching them interact with Hajime. The other is an entire half an episode is spent giving insight into the ways in which they have changed over the course of the series. 

Of course I can't finish this review without mentioning the villain...but I'm going to anyway. 

Should you watch Gatchaman Crowds? Yes. I would say so. The animation suits the anime well, giving it some personality. An interesting vision of the future helps give separate it from similar anime, and the main character and her supporting cast make this a fun little romp. 

Thanks for reading! Likes, follows, and spreading the word are all things that would make me pretty happy. Wishing you a late happy New Year!

Should You Watch Tokyo Ghoul?

Alright well, let's get this over with quickly, okay? I've got better things to procrastinate on.

Ever wondered your neighbor might taste like if garnished with a side of brussel sprouts along side a side of backed potatoes?

Yes? Cool, well you might not get through all of it before the fuzz bust down your door, but it's better than twiddling your thumbs.

No? Really? This would have been so much easier if you had been honest y'know.

Anyhow the anime details the life of Ken Kaneki, just your average guy, who has the hots for a girl who goes to cafe he frequents. She turns out to be interested in him too. Just in a different sort of way. Long story short, she tries to eat him, he turns into a ghoul.

She's voiced by Kana Hanazawa?!

While it does fall into some familiar grounds when it comes to pacing, with 10 episodes out now, and only about two or three more on the way, you'll be pulled up from your cliffhanging a lot quicker than I was.

That being said the anime surprised me in ways I wasn't used to. Putting aside the cliffhangers and tendency to give arbitrary power-ups like the whole thing was meant to be an anime version of Mario Kart, the it displays a surprisingly griping storyline that has not failed to keep me on the edge of my seat.

A conflict that I thought would be filled with cartoonish mustache twirling villains against sweet-as-lambs misunderstood cannibals has turned into the sorta the same thing, but better. While the issue is sort of like the whole abortion thing, in that I know that it's supposed to be more centered in the grey, but is the sort of thing that we'll look back on and laugh at (Seriously, you don't see any pro-life anti-masturbation marches to protect the innocent sperm that lies wasted on someone's sheets), it again managed to surprise me.

Neither the ghoul hunting 'doves' nor the ghouls themselves are painted as wholesale evil nor stomach-turningly innocent. You can tell that there are actual people on the teams on both sides and that the actions of the few do not necessarily represent the mindset of the many.

It also helps that the ghouls themselves aren't just a bunch of helpless damsels in distress, but pose a significant threat to Doves and humanity in general.

Yet for every ray of light there's a patch of rain, least that holds true in Belfast. So we come to the other part that's not so great, the freaking fight scenes.

You might be surprised that I'd say such a thing, given that the studio behind it practically built its reputation on fight scenes. But while the weapon designs are interesting and suitably blend the horror element and badass nature of the ghouls, our main character is such a pushover that if the anime was set in Chicago, we'd have the first anime to star a human kite.

Seriously though, here he is fused with a quote on quote 'S' level ghoul, but, for some arbitrary reason, can be damn picky about when he actually wants to actually use his godly powers and when he wants screw around a bit more because the beautiful face-print he was busy painting would look better in a more vibrant shade of red.

That being said the animation quality of the fight scenes themselves are actually pretty good. They may not blow your mind (especially while SAO II and Captain Earth are still airing) but I've been pretty entertained so far.  

Speaking of the main character, he's surprisingly not too bad. Aside from the fact that his pacifist nature would make Gandhi hurl a copy of 'On the Duty of Civil Disobedience' his head, his development is handled well.

For the most part he feels like the everyman that they're trying to portray, and as someone who really liked Mirai Nikki, I can appreciate that. In fairness to him he isn't as bad as Yuuki or Shinji, which is like claiming George Bush is competent relative to Caligula, but for what it's worth he generally stands up for what's right and puts others before his own safety.

The other characters are actually pretty phenomenal. Sure they aren't so complex as to need a Navajo code breaker to gain any understanding of them, but then they're side characters. So for side characters, I felt that they got enough development to flesh out their profiles to the point where their scenes were enjoyable to watch.

There are many ways to make interesting characters and one sure-fire way to do so is to give them one distinguishing trait and pump it up to 11. That's how we get characters like Gourmet whose voice actor combined with the animation and this image

makes him one of the most over-the-top characters until Nicholas Cage dubs a Trigger anime. What's great about a lot of the characters is that they start off interesting because of their singular overblown trait, and then slowly grow more complex as more subtle traits are introduced.

To give an example one ghoul who we think is just an asshole, suddenly turns into a nice guy and then back into an asshole. Later on we learn that he, like everybody, has someone he cares about that tethers him to his humanity. What's interesting is that it isn't some childhood friend or something, it's just someone who he met who managed to show him that, like ghouls, humans aren't as black and white as he has grown to believe.

But characters aside, let's get to the big one; the make-it-or-break-it; the plot.

Now as I've said before, I think the main conflict of the story is handled well and hasn't failed to keep me engaged, and even after a few paragraphs my opinion hasn't changed.

Coming into the show, I had one fear, and that was the pacing. This is studio Pierrot we're talking about. Who, as far as I know, are the only video game developers who work exclusively in the the anime industry, because it seems like they create anime with a 50:1 action to plot ratio.

Yet even while I wait for the the next twenty minute respite from hanging of cliffs, I will say that this is honestly one of the most well paced shounnen anime Pierrot has ever produced. After again referring to above joke about George Bush and Caligula, hear me out. The action scenes never drag on too long and no character ever feels as though they're just there to get bashed around a bit before becoming the most overpowered thing since the the Strike Freedom's personal rave party. The episodes give enough plot to let you know that it isn't Evil May Day, and yeah...

So do I like it? Yeah, I do. Interesting characters, a gripping plot, dual morality, pretty pretty animation combined with some pretty kick-ass fight sequences make for a pretty good all rounder. If I had any criticism it would be that it doesn't do anything outside of the morality that made my jaw drop so fast and hard that it would crack the Earth's crust. The characters are good, the animation is good, and plot is engaging. Nothing revolutionary, but I don't think it has to be. It's enjoyable, and for me that's enough.

Thank you for reading all the way to the end. Likes, Favorites but most importantly commenting are all things that I'd appreciate very much.

Net Neutrality

No, this is not a post about anime, though I have something about Tokyo Ghoul in the works. I just wanted to bring attention to an issue that I feel is important and affects more people than you might think. I encourage you to watch this video to educate yourself, or if you already understand the issue share the link with others.

The video description has links to other articles that can tell you even more about the issue which I encourage you to take a look at.

It's only three minutes