Anime Review: Katanagatari

This is one of those titles which I heard about when it was coming out, thought "cool", saw it was licensed, thought "even cooler" and then waited for a legal stream to show up which never happened. So, since this technically is the spring noitaminA show (it's a rerun and, considering how odd the original airing was, one hour long episode each month for a year, I'm mostly okay with that, sad that it took up the entire timeslot though) I had to at the very least give it a shot and I was really hoping that I'd like it when I went into it.


Katanagatari (literally, Sword Story)

Summary: Several hundred years ago a legendary sword smith made a 1000 swords, most of which were preparation for his crowning works, the 12 shikizaki blades and it's said whoever possesses those 12 could rule Japan. Togame, a strategist for the emperor, is off on a quest to find and retrieve all 12 and after two failed attempts she's come up with an unusual plan to get the rest back, to team up with the son of the man who foiled the last rebellion, Shichika, and make him fall in love with her so that he won't be tempted by anything to steal the swords. Of course, since he's a practitioner of a martial art that uses no swords and can't seem to use one himself perhaps she didn't need to bother with that part....

The Good: I was rather surprised to notice at the end that the story took a completely blank, flat character and made them into more or less a rounded character by the end, which I'm sure was entirely the story's intention but it actually worked out better than I expected! Actually the whole story worked better than I expected, it is a bit predictable at parts (especially since I had heard one or two rumors about the ending) but it was fun, the character banter was a heck of a lot easier to follow than Bakemonogatari (probably because it didn't involve all those stills filled with words), and I really liked how the show looked. Fun isn't precisely the word I'd use to describe this show but it was more than enjoyable, I'd watch it again, and I'd recommend it to friends because of how well it all fits together in the end, even if no particular element especially stands out/is especially stunning.

The Bad: The series is formulaic, in each episode they end up fighting someone for a sword and winning one way or another which does take away a little bit of the tension (apparently the original novels that the story is based on were being turned out by Nisio Isin at a rate of one per month so I can see why the story went this way). The formula starts to get a bit varied in the second half but it never deviates that much. Also, you need to be able to have a rather large suspension of disbelief for this show, especially when things are "explained" in the last episode and things don't make quite as much sense as they could.

Production Values: I'll admit it, one reason I wanted to try this show and like it was because of just how stylish it looked. It's hard to show exactly what I mean from just screenshots but they at least get across how distinctive the character designs are. There was one episode towards the middle where everything looked a bit off (the lines were all drawn differently and the animation didn't seem quite as smooth, it was especially obvious in a flashback which had scenes from every episode) but other than that, admittedly large, hiccup I liked how this looked. As for the music, I was watching fansubs from the original broadcast and I didn't care for either of the openings nor really any of the endings (there was a different one for every episode). Funny enough, I looked up the new opening and ending themes and liked those much better and I liked a lot of the background music as well (to the point where I got cross that about halfway through either the show or my fansubs stopped having the preview in them and since they always played my favorite track with the preview and dammit I wanted to hear more of it!).

So, giving this a 4 out of 5 for enjoying it quite a bit and I guess I need to plan on picking up NISA's very nice sets sometime in the future. It looks like it never sold well enough to get regular sets made, just the premium ones, and hopefully they'll stay in stock long enough for me pick some up, I think I even saw someone say that it seemed like they had stocked a few more at TRSI lately (if the company didn't look at this re-airing and expect to gain a few more fans like myself then they would be a bit silly).

Anime Review: Gosick

The one anime that carried over from the winter season for me and one where I was really curious about the setting, 1920s Europe with mysteries? Mmmm, sounds like fun, although I was rather annoyed when there wasn't a single bit of 1920s fashion or architecture in the entire show, and this show reminded me that there aren't that many mystery anime actually. Quite a few horror anime have a mystery element to them (such as Ghost Hunt) but normally this genre only shows up once every two or three seasons and normally it's mystery plus another genre. Gosick isn't just a mystery show itself, if anything I would call it a drama with a lot of mystery cases in it and an odd genre shift in the end. Also, I do mention events relating to the final arc of the story but I try to refrain from actual spoilers so any huge spoilerphobes might not want to check out the footnotes this time.

Gosick

Summary: Set in 1924, Saubure (a fictional country located next to France), Kujo is a student from Japan who is having a hard time making friends since the superstitious locals are convinced that he looks like "the reaper who comes in the spring" from legend. One day when browsing in the library he comes across Victorique, a doll-like girl who seems to live in the library and he slowly becomes friends with this young, genius detective who is seen as even more of an outsider than he is.

The Good: Towards the middle of the series the story finds it's feet, the mysteries become a little more complex, the characters begin to work really well with each other and the overall plot of the story is revealed. In short, once the series hit its stride it becomes a really interesting story that manages to balance a number of different subplots without becoming too confusing. Victorique, and to a lesser extent Kujo, goes through a huge amount of character development and their relationship, which is the real heart of the story, also goes through a tremendous amount of change which is a real joy to see.

The Bad: There appears to be just one reason why the story was set in the 1920s and that was to reference both of the World Wars and make WWII an important plot point. The viewers are well aware that WWII started in 1939 but the original author, well, might not have. If it's an alternate history it's dumb and if it's real history then it's doubly stupid and not just because of the historical inaccuracies* but because the characters never give any reason for why they're starting this war in the first place. There's nothing to be gained, no one to fight, it's hard to tell if the people even support the idea (some do but I honestly thought they were brain-washed at points) and considering that this war is sorta-kinda supposed to be the culmination of the entire show these are all really big problems. The beginning had problems too (such as mysteries that could be solved before the witness was even half-way done explaining the mystery and some pacing issues^) but that part of the story got better, the beginning of the final arc works very well but then logic, common sense and a basic knowledge of history fly out the window and leave a mess in a completely different genre than the story started in.

The Audio: The series has one opening song and two closing ones and the first closing song is the strongest out of the three of them. There is simply something about the beginning of the song (quiet vocals and instrumental and then the instruments rise up before falling back to the same level as the vocals again) that makes it such a dramatic song. An instrumental version of the song was used at one point during the show and, IMO, should have been used more often. The opening was alright but there was a rather amusing discovery that if you swap the opening with the opening of Gurren Laggan the images still match up with the pace of the song well. As for the voices, Cordelia had the same kind of slightly husky quality to her voice that Victorique has, a nice touch, and Victorique thankfully has a bit of a deep voice, not the ultra cute moe moe one you would expect from her size/appearance. In the books she is described as having the voice of an older woman and, while that isn't quite accurate here, her voice still seemed like a very good match.

The Visuals: As mentioned in the opening paragraph, there is very little in this series to visually suggest that it's even set in the 1920s instead of the Edwardian or Victorian eras (which makes me even more suspicious that this setting was chosen soley because it was situated between the two world wars). Someone at Bones however had the brilliant idea of doing all the visuals in the era-appropriate Art Deco style (which I adore) and it makes for one of the more distinctive openings of the year. Other than there, all of the visuals were consistently good but it simply doesn't have the kind of action and fluidity one normally expects out of a Bones work, which is odd since this was done by the same team that did Heroman a year earlier. It's true that the series doesn't have a lot of action but the show still feels like an odd choice for Bones.


Once the story really got going, and the mysteries got better, I really did like this series but the last two episodes just left a terrible taste in my mouth. It's strange, I like how that final arc started out but then it just went bonkers and, with the final light novel coming out soon, I hope someone posts spoilers to compare the two. At this point I honestly don't know if I want to buy it, this just feels like the kind of show that would get licensed over here, since I did like so much of it and I can pretend that the last two episodes don't exist but I just don't know. For the moment however it is streaming on crunchyroll if anyone wants to check it out, no harm in trying the series out at least!  

*now, if this is an alternate history, I've never been a big fan of the "oh a couple of things did go differently in history but when the story starts everything is the exact same as it is in our world. Once the main characters get involved however THEN stuff goes crazy" trope, it's just illogical (one of my bigger complaints about the Temaire series). But if Gosick IS set in our world, hooooo boy. In 1925, the start of World War II in this version, it was apparently one of the most stable interwar periods and a full 15 years before events culimated in the invasion of Poland. It's mentioned in the show that Saubure is allied with Germany, which certainly wouldn't have had the resources at the time (Hitler hadn't even written Mein Kampf yet, and they never explain who or what they're fighting, there's no explanation for how Japan apparently gets bombed or where the scenes involving Kujo were (I've seen people speculate Manchuria, which was my first thought, or somewhere in Russia which would match the weather better).

^the pacing issue seems to come from the anime combining the novels and the short stories and not doing them in the correct order. From what I've heard (so this could be wrong, anyone who knows more feel free to speak up), Kujo has already met Avril, Victorique and Grevil by the time the first volume starts and then the Queen Berry arc, the first anime arc, happens. Chronologically however the short story that introduces Avril came first and one major problem for Kujo hinges on whether or not he believes that Victorique is a real person (instead of being "the golden fairy in the library," another local supersition). In the anime this is the second arc and, after seeing Victorique run all around the ship with Kujo and the other characters (plus interacting with them) it's hard to believe even for a second that she's not real and the whole arc feels pointless. A shame since otherwise it would have been nice and, for people debating whether or not to continue the series, it doesn't make a good case for doing so.  

Anime Review: The Sacred Blacksmith

Well this is slightly embarrassing, I actually watched this show over the course of a week or two back in February or so and completely forgot about it until relatively recently when it popped up on the Shelf Life column on ANN. I believe that says something about my opinion of the show right off the bat (if it had been really good or really bad surely I would have remembered to review it!) or maybe it just makes it really clear that this just wasn't a show that was made with my interests in mind.

The Sacred Blacksmith

Summary: Cecily Campbell is a knight of the city of Housman where she helps keep the peace, something that is becoming increasingly difficult with more and more people making demon contracts and going on rampages. During one of these rampages she is saved by passing blacksmith, Luke Ainsworth, and she is so impressed by his sword that afterwords she keeps showing up at his store and bothering him about making one of her own.  

The Good: Didn't put it in the above summary but there are several characters who are swords who can turn into humans (think Soul Eater but reversed) and it was nice to see these characters questioning their purpose in life throughout the series, not just in dramatic situations to make things harder for everyone else. There's not much else to note about the show that is exceptionally good, it's a solid show without any large plot holes or inconsistencies but it really does follow standard RPG tropes so there's not a lot of innovation in the series either. Which again isn't a bad thing, the show works and is entertaining, it just manages to do so without doing anything new.

 The Bad: The series ends in a rather strange place, it honestly feels as if the anime is missing a 13th episode and it really doesn't make sense that the series doesn't have one. Another bad point, and if it's not truly bad then it's at least strange, is that Cecily really isn't that much of the action girl and the series tries to portray her as one. Apparently she is much more of an action girl in the original light novels and in the manga adaptation (of the novels) so why that was changed for the anime, which would be the best of all three mediums to show off said action, is a bit bizarre.

The Art: The show is rather colorful (just look at the character designs up above) which makes it nice to watch, although the fanservice is much more male oriented than female oriented (so expect Cecily's breastplate to break several times, yes it's specially shaped to fit around both of her breasts, and not nearly as many pretty boys as there are pretty girls).

 The Music: There are points when the upbeat ending song just feels out of place, sung by the Japanese VA for Lisa, but thankfully the also energetic opening song doesn't have this problem. The Japanese voice acting is solid and, based on the dub clips posted on youtube, the dub seems to work equally well so problems there.

There's not much else to say about this series (and next time hopefully I'll remember to review it sooner, honestly I just don't have anything else to stick in the animation spot this week), it worked but it just wasn't for me. I prefer my fantasy to deal more with the setting/conflict than just the characters and this series did the opposite. Also, after seeing the umpteenth boob joke I was really wishing there had been more fanservice for the ladies in the show, would have been nice to balance it out after all....

Anime Review: Oreimo

Initially I had no intention of checking out this title (just look at the title!) but I heard a couple of good things about it and ANN was streaming it so I gave it a shot. Right after I tried it the second episode got leaked and they had to remove both this and Togainu no Chi for about a month. But they did get the shows back up so I tried them both and continued with Oreimo for the whole run*.

Oreimo (Ore no Imouto ga Konnai Kawaii Wake ga Nai or My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute)

Summary: Kyosuke is a rather normal high school guy but his little sister Kirino is something else. She's in middle school and a popular and atheletic student who also has a modeling job on the side. She also loves eroge games, especially the ones that involve brothers doing naughty things to their little sisters which understandably freaks Kyosuke out. But she blackmails him into helping her out and Kyosuke is a decent guy so he ends up getting more an more involved in his sister's life.

The Good: To start off with, it's not nearly as incest oriented as the title would lead you to believe. In fact, although their are enough implications to spawn a thousand doujinshi, there is no incest and Kyosuke seems quite uninterested in it. The first few episodes, the ones that focus more on Kirino making friends with Kuroneko and Saorin, were pretty funny and the scenes with people meeting up in real life for the first time were pretty similar to the meet-ups I had in the US.

The Bad: I'm not sure what happened but after the first few episodes I just felt like the story got less interesting. The story did focus more on Kyosuke at this point and, since I came for otaku related hijinks, I found those episodes a bit dull. Also, Kirino is pretty unlikeable since she's one of the brattiest and most self centered characters I've ever seen who doesn't change (also creepy considering the games she likes**). She is kinda nice to Kyosuke in the last episode, which I suppose was supposed to show how she's grown over the course of the series, but that episode felt so out of the blue and out of character it didn't work (plus, since this was the "good ending" it will probably be retconned for the "true ending" episodes coming out this spring, I predict incest).


The Art: Fairly generic, somewhat moe, art which, while cutesy, didn't draw me in. Each opening sequence was a bit different (showing which characters that episode would focus on) but I didn't pay attention to the opening after the first episode (and wouldn't have even known if a blog I was following pointed it out). One thing that did make me laugh was all the parodies of eroge/anime eroge that Kirino had, the designers went all out and had tons of references there that weren't super obscure. This might be less of an art thing and more of a good thing but it was still amusing in the end.


The Music: Like the art there's nothing too special here. Nothing bad but nothing that really stood out to me either. I did laugh when someone pointed out that the magical girl show (within the show) was using the same voice actress as Nanoha for it (which explains why the show appeals to a perverted girl like Kirino)


Like I said earlier, Oreimo also suffered simulcast problems and, since ANN was able to get new episodes back up in a month, that's how long I give Funimation to try and talk sense into the Japanese right holders about Fractale. Not as confident (since Oreimo was a leak, Fractale's problem is that the internet exists) but I'll still give them a month. Also, about those upcoming DVD only episodes for Oreimo (the ones with the "true ending"), unless ANN streams them I probably won't watch them and even then I'm not so sure. I'm not actually that interested in the ending and if there's a second season (and based on the DVD sales that sounds like a good possibility, plus their are still more light novels to adapt) I probably won't watch it either. Oh well, hope that ANN gets some simulcasts that are more to my taste next season!


*I did drop Togainu after two episodes however, I felt like I was playing a game except without the button mashing opportunities between each cut scene (and yes I know this was based on a game that probably didn't have button mashing in it at all, clearly not my kind of franchise).
**Which yes, still creep me out when a guy plays them but there's something extra creepy about a little sister playing games where the protagonist's goal is to hook up with as many of his little sisters as possible. I'm also in the camp that this is what happens when your kids don't have siblings, creepy things happen.

Anime Review: Legend of the Legendary Heroes

When I first heard the title of this series I was told it was a parody of the over-dramatic titles you often find (or at least a joke) and I assumed that the whole series was a bit of a parody of the heroic fantasy genre. That's actually not the case here, yes there are plenty of lighthearted moments in there but it has a pretty solid and serious central plot. So, not a parody (although I do swear it is poking fun at itself at times) but I'm hardly complaining, anime needs more fantasy no matter what the variant is.

Legend of the Legendary Heroes

Summary: Ryner Lute, the strongest magician of Roland and bearer of the cursed eyes the "alpha stigma" would much rather be napping than being dragged around the continent with his partner Ferris in search for the legendary "heroic relics." True these are powerful weapons and in the hands of his king and friend, Sion, they could make Roland into a strong and peaceful country, but Ryner would rather nap anyway. But there are strange forces at work both outside and inside the country and Ryner is going to have to at least stay awake if he wants to stay alive.

The Good: I'm not quite sure what it was about this series but it really managed to draw me in and I can't wait to rewatch it on DVD. The plot ends up being more complex than I expected (more fractions involved and some unexpected mythology) and as soon as the anime finished I raced to track down the next novel series. The story turned out to be a lot more plot driven than I expected, which is a plus, and the plot itself got more complex as the story went on*. I actually liked the story better for the plot than anything else but Ryner and Ferris really grew on me by the end of the series as well as a few of the other characters. Some of the other characters whoever....

The Bad: The pacing never felt horrible to me but the anime whipped through the original light novels at a crazy speed (11 novels in 24 episodes) and I do wish they had a few more episodes to use on some of the larger arcs. The characters' backstories were explained well enough but after a few novel readers filled in the details it became clear just how fast the anime was having to go through everything. Some of the characters were also rather annoying, and I'm afraid to say their backstories don't help much there, and I really wish the story could've done without them (also, who names their kid Milk?!?). The story is also having a hard time making some of the villains likeable (since it's clear that the story is trying to set up the countries of Roland and Gastarck as being very similar in ideals, probably to set up some grey and gray morality but it's not working) so probably about half of the cast is disliked and that's not a good thing.

The Art: By and large the art for this series is consistent and I like the style a bit better than the style used in the light novels. There are a few episodes however where the art is a bit sketchier because of the fight scenes and those scenes seem a little more animated than normal. It's a noticeable shift (also noticeable is that some of the girls get larger assets in these episodes, and again it's noticeable even to a causal viewer) but the characters still stayed relatively on model so I didn't mind. There's nothing that special about the designs but it's still a good looking show.

The Music: I wasn't that fond of the first opening (I just found it really forgettable) but liked the second opening better (it was more dramatic and for a show with this title you need semi-dramatic song). Also liked it better than both of the endings since I didn't care for either of the endings as well (both were soft and ballads and just didn't work for me). And I think I really need to start writing these reviews closer to when I watch the shows since I can't remember the background music at all (aside from one or two dramatic points when they played the opening and that doesn't exactly count).


I mentioned that the series is based off a series of light novels so a quick word on that. Originally the author was planning on writing a fantasy series but, as he tried to figure out how to work in the backstory, he realized there was so much that it would be easier to write that out first as it's own series and then do the rest. So we now have Legend of the Legendary Heroes** as the first series (11 volumes), Toriaezu Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu (Legend of the Legendary Heroes Anyway, a collection of side stories and more backstory, 11 volumes), Dai Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu (Legend of the Great Legendary Heroes, currently 9 volumes) as the story he originally wanted to tell and another side series Ochita Kuroi Yuusha no Densetsu (The Legend of the Fallen Dark Hero dealing with Shion's rebellion, currently 6 volumes). There are fans translating the series (and they're starting with the sequel too!) but the writing is very Japanese and comes off as pretty awkward in English. Sentence fragments, repeating sentences, sentences without subjects (to the point where there are whole sections where even the Japanese fans don't know whose talking or about whom), I found it frustrating to read at times (especially when the characters start monologuing). But if you really want to know what happens next I would recommend them since the DVD sales for this series were hideously low (I forget if it sold more or less than Shiki but I remember Shiki selling only about 600 DVDs each time). But it is streaming on Funimation's website (/hulu/youtube) for US viewers and hopefully it has a bigger fanbase overseas than it did in Japan, the youtube viewing numbers would suggest so anyway.


*I swear, I think I need to make a chart of everyone's alternate personalities, former personalities, and which one is currently in control, it's a bit confusing especially since some of them share the same names.
**Also, apparently the title doesn't sound as awkward in Japanese, Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu which is the name a lot of fans use of the series (either that or the Japanese nickname DenYuuDen). I like the English title however because the abbreviation of that is LOL Heroes which just bemuses me.