Lost Initial Impressions

After quite a bit of nagging from a lot of people, I have finally surrendered and picked up Lost. I am obviously very late to the game (as always), but there is still another season (not including the current one) left in the show, so there is plenty of time to catch up before the series ends.

I was rather jaded towards the show going in. The concept of a group of people stranded on an island has been beaten to death. Think of Cast Away, Survivor, Mystery Island, Lord of the Flies, etc. We have seen every flavor of this type of story and I thought that there is no way that this show could entertain me. Obviously, I had underestimated the power of mystery and suspense.

I am going to attempt to stay away from fan websites and spoilers in general. Lost has one driving factor and that is the unpredictable story. I do not see much value left if the story is spoiled. I will attempt to theorize about the story any chance I get, and I will  try to post them up after every season.

So far, it is very difficult to theorize anything. My main theory hinges on the entire event being a social experiment. However, it is very early to make any accurate predictions so I will want to watch more before I theorize any further.

RideBack Finale

I began watching this series thinking that the girl who can no longer perform Ballet and motorcycle mech with arms can provide for an interesting story. Ogata Rin (the ex-Ballet performer) is thrown amidst a world of military controlled government and terrorists. Of course, both sides use these ridiculous motorcycles with arms as weapons. The story is reminiscent of the same civil complications that could be seen in Toshokan Sensou. However, Toshokan Sensou was done correctly since it was not attempting to be serious and had a lot of clumsy humor mixed in with the story. In contrast, RideBack tries very hard to be serious and evidently, it has the opposite effect.

As the series progressed, there seemed to be a lack of drama. Hence, the writers decide to kill off one of the supporting characters in a stupid and useless manner. The ending is also very average and doesn’t strike any feeling or emotions as a well established ending of a drama really should. Overall, there is not much to talk about with this series. The only reason that I watched it to the end is that it was a short series (only 12 episodes). I think that unless you have kept up with it as it was airing, there is no particular reason to pick this one up when it has completed airing.

Spring 2009 Animu Impressions

First of all, Happy Easter everyone! If you celebrate Easter that is. This spring, I decided to wait until I’ve seen one episode from each show before I post my impressions. The following is the list that I was able to come up with having watched only the first episodes. I still reserve the right to drop any of these shows if they turn the suck on in the next few episodes. So without further delay, here they are.

07-Ghost

I originally liked the summary for this one and decided to give it a try. The impressions that I got from other bloggers was that the series is a cliche on fantasy games such as Final Fantasy. After watching the first episode, I didn’t see anything that bothered me with the story. I haven’t watched any of the token fantasy animu and I haven’t played Final Fantasy religiously, so this show is probably not going to bother me as much as it may some of the other animu-lovers. Also, I watched the first episode in 1440×810 which is definitely a plus. I find that the production looks very good and it is a nice change from the poor quality that you will be seeing in series such as Cross Game. Overall, I’ll keep tabs on this one for now.

Cross Game

I was not going to watch this show. I had determined that it will be a sports anime and I dislike sports anime very much. I was only convinced to watch it when blkmage pointed out to me that the series has a strong storyline. He was able to read all of the manga in a matter of days so he knows more than I do about what is to be expected here. I watched the first episode as a result and I was not turned off by it. Although, the quality of the art and character designs is done poorly in my opinion. I was unable to tell some of the characters apart at times and even the genders are difficult to tell apart as well. It has definitely kept me intrigued so far, so I’ll keep watching for now.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

I am going to be watching this no matter what happens. Even if this re-make turns into Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. Frankly, I am willing to give the show the benefit of the doubt. There is not much to say here other than OMG FMA in 720p GUYS! Also, there is promise of the story staying closer to the manga. Now I have not read the manga, but those who have read it believe that it is done much better than the original anime. I think this will be a treat for old fans and new FMA watchers.

Higashi no Eden

I put this one on my list simply because the summary was fairly awesome. The first episode did not fail to hold true to that promise. It was very unique and entertaining. The story is set in Washington DC. This means that a large portion of the script is done in English. Despite what you may think when  you are reading that (English spoken with a terrible accent since it is done by Japanese voice-actors with no knowledge of English), the voice actors are fluent in English and it does not sound annoying at all. Apparently the show is very much reminiscent of Honey & Clover. I have not watched that series (yet), so this will be an entirely new experience for me. So far, the production impresses me very much. The cars and houses in the show are CG rendered but it adds a nice effect to it. The OP and ED are gorgeous. Not to mention that the opening is done by Oasis which is an American band. I am not a big fan of Oasis, but to be honest this makes me want to get an album or two. With regards to the story, not much is revealed so far and it is fairly cryptic. But strangely enough, the humor works and the chemistry between Saki and Akira feels very nice and natural. I say this because this is the kind of interaction you see between real couples as opposed to the completely fantasized version in mainstream anime. I am definitely waiting for more on this one and I really don’t think that it will go bad.

K-ON!

This is the heavily anticipated slice-of-life anime for spring. I have not watched a genuine slice-of-life series yet (that is if you don’t count The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya or Clannad). This will be the first true slice-of-life show that I’m watching so forgive me if I don’t buy into the whole “girls making funny faces and doing mundane things is boring” stuff since I need to judge this for myself. So far, I like what I see here. Again, I have no previous experience with Lucky Star or Azumanga Daioh, but the characters in the show are funny. The premise of four girls in high school starting a rock band (introduced as light music) may seem uninviting at first, but quite a bit of humor can be milked from this concept. The character drawing is not Casshern SINS quality, so if you find that your eyes bleed when you look at sloppy art, then this is perhaps not the show for you. However, I think the art style goes very well with the story and characters as a whole and is most likely done this way on purpose. I liked the ED more than the OP personally, and am looking forward to seeing these girls playing their songs as they do in the OP/ED.

Saki

This one has been licensed and as such it is difficult to get your hands on high resolution episodes. You can either follow this on Crunchyroll or download the HorribleSubs version of it which is not all that appealing visually. However, the story is developed much like a sports anime would where Mahjong is the sport. I have no knowledge of Mahjong. I have not even played a single game before. However, the explanations in the show seem to be enough to notify you when to be excited and which parts are the critical points. The Gonzo style CG is used to render the game board and the action that takes place during the Mahjong games. Also for some reason, there has been a heavy focus on boobs in the first episode which I don’t think can ever be bad (unless executed in Queen’s Blade). Overall, as I mentioned already, I am not one for sports anime, but this may be interesting so I’ll watch another episode or two for now.

Sengoku Basara

For some reason, when I was preparing my initial list of anime for spring, this one was somehow left out. Anyway, I watched the first episode and all I can say is TTGL with swords. This series seems to be most amusing. I believe this show will get you somewhere between the epic over the top fight scenes and mounting horses with motorcycle gear on them. This is going to hopefully provide some much needed action in my anime lineup for the spring season.

This is the One-Eyed Dragon's horse.

It is also worth mentioning that one of my all-time favorite voice actors will be doing the voice of the main character in the show. That is Kazuya Nakai will be doing the voice for Date. I am also going to mention that I enjoyed both the OP/ED very much since I have a soft spot for T.M.Revolution (probably because of Meteor). This will most likely hold a permanent spot in my spring list and I don’t see myself dropping it as it only has 12 episodes.

Kanon Finale

After I was blown away by Clannad and Clannad After Story, I decided to start watching another series by Key. I had a choice between Air and Kanon. I started watching Kanon first, since the memory loss theme appealed to me more than Air.

Having just finished Clannad After Story, I found myself helpless to comparing every detail in Kanon with Clannad. Between the two series, I found that Clannad has the more cryptic and subtle story. This is evident towards the end of the story, when you see that no explanation is required to understand the ending for Kanon. As in other Key productions, there are subtle clues here and there to understanding the meaning behind everything. I thought that the episode names were fairly neat as each one contained a term related to music.

The story revolves around delusions and the psychological causes behind said imaginary realities. At different points in the show, characters are explained to have been living in an alternate reality where they could escape from reality and the pain associated with it. Of course, the show is a big play on the infamous “childhood friend” cliche that we all know and love in the Japanese culture. However, it works well and it is definitely enjoyable.

I thought that the voice acting in Kanon was very strong and a major driving factor in the success of the series. Tomokazu Sugita (who you may remember as the voice actor of Kyon from Haruhi) does an amiable job at playing Yuuichi. I also felt that in the female voice acting department, there was a close contest in making the cutest girl voices possible. I present this award to Mariko Kouda. I found that her mumbling while she is half asleep early in the morning simply irresistible.

Even though I rate Clannad higher than Kanon in terms of overall quality, Kanon still remains to be a must-watch for the Kyoani fans. Of course I realize that the series is from 2006 and I am probably very late to the game. At this point, I very much look forward to what Air has in store for me in terms of sad-face plot and an array of incredibly “kawoi” characters.

Tytania Finale

This post will most likely be full of rage towards the series known as Tytania. If you are a fan who is easily offended by my verbal bashing of the show, this post is most likely not for you.

I decided to watch Tytania since I have a soft spot for space strategy type anime. Unfortunately, past the first two episodes, there was no space strategy to speak of. The show quickly took a turn for the worse. The space strategy transformed into political nonsense involving dethroning the most powerful clan that is ruling over the universe. Therefore, the show quickly changed to Gundam 00 without the action or amazing graphics.

The characters are all very one-dimensional and boring. The four dukes of Tytania consist of the evil villain, big bulky strong guy, cowardly chicken, and the one guy who can actually put two and two together. That is all there is to the characters. I continued watching this series for lack of a better series to watch in the winter season. I was baffled by the fact that the show does not end after the 26 episodes that aired in winter. The series is left off as if there will be a second season, but I don’t see any prospects of that happening since I don’t see its ratings to be particularly impressive.

I am going to stop talking about this show that was a true waste of my time. Any more time spent reviewing this series will only add to my wasted time and effort. If there is a second season, I will not be watching it, and I recommend you to do the same.

Gundam 00 Finale

The mother of all high production budget series has now come to a close. Gundam has always been close to my heart and I have always enjoyed the cheesy mechanical robots fighting it out in space. However, I always looked at it as just that. Gundam has always been the awesome action-packed robot-fighting anime. The way I viewed all the different Gundam series changed a couple of years ago when Sunrise rolled out the very successful Gundam series called Gundam Seed. Seed was able to incorporate the action that Gundam provides with a very solid character development and story and turning it into something truly memorable. Sunrise quickly followed up with the sequel to the series and named it Gundam Seed Destiny. Destiny, in my opinion, was not as successful as its predecessor, but certainly remained entertaining in my mind.

The newest installment in this long series is none other than Gundam 00. I began watching it with hopes that it will continue the new direction that Sunrise took with Seed. This did not happen. Focus was  taken away from the characters and placed more on the political back story. I could no longer relate to any of the characters. The situation worsened when at the end of the first season, characters that I did not know about started dying. The tone of the show suggested that I should have been sad. But really, I was not sad at all.

In an attempt to regain some foundation, some fast-paced revelations (Code Geass R2 style) were added in the second season. Unfortunately, this was not enough. I did not like any of the characters anymore. Their reasons for fighting made little sense. The political back story was over-done and everything was just falling apart. From that point on, I followed the show for the laughs. It was great to see Andrei kill his father due to sheer stupidity or Mr. Bushido turning into an irrelevant character that is better off dead. Marina Ismail is simply useless to the main plot and her role in the overall story is irrelevant since she isn’t even a girlfriend to Setsuna.

I still enjoyed the show because of the always amazing animation and battle scenes. Some of the fight scenes against the Momento Mori were visually impressive. Of course, this series has been able to take advantage of the 720p definition unlike its predecessors. Overall, if we were to discount the visual appeal of the show, the series as a whole is in my opinion, a step down from Gundam Seed and even Gundam Seed Destiny.

Clannad After Story Finale

I have delayed this post until I was able to catch the recap final episode. I did not want to miss anything before writing a post about how I felt about the show. But now that it is finally done, I can blurt out all the crap that I want.

I will start by saying that Clannad AS blew me away as an anime series. It is one of the few series that has scored a 10 on my list (along with Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo). I should note that Clannad has been my first Key anime. As a result, I am not familiar with the style and mechanics that they use in their shows. However, what I saw here was more than satisfactory. Clannad manages to teach Tomoya and the audience about family and the values that hold together people under a roof.

The question that goes through everybody’s mind as they watch the ending is of course “did this really happen”? Thankfully, after watching the recap episode you can deduce with a great degree of certainty that all those terrible events do really occur. Of course, in order to truly understand the story, it is best if you know about the game from which the anime is derived. All the good deeds in which Tomoya takes part help him understand the concept of family and finally save his from extinction. That is the concept on which the game is built. It is also the inspiration for the series.

All in all, the show impressed me to no end and I definitely recommend it. I am now in the process of watching my second Key anime – Kanon.

Toradora Finale

Toradora has been a show that I knew I was going to enjoy right from the start. It is a very character driven anime and as such the everyday high school drama cliche becomes amusing because the characters in the cliche are new and amusing. The main characters (Aisaka and Ryuji) are two alienated high school kids who become friends in order to help each other with their high school crush. There are classic love triangles formed and Minorin’s complete randomness makes for some quality comedy.

There are some emo parts to the show but that may attract some people, but is not enough to repel anybody from the show. All is good until we get to the final two episodes that form the ending. I must say that compared to the rest of the show, the ending disappointed me. Time seems to be distorted towards the end, and the story is presented out of order, leaving a few “lulwat” moments. I have heard that JC can do worse in terms of endings and this is actually one of the better endings that they have done. I still find that much is to be desired. I was confused for the most part in the ending and that takes away from the climax in the plot.

Having said that, the ending is mediocre and it does not weigh down the entire series. I will still recommend this for it definitely is a good watch.

Battlestar Galactica Finale

I spent most of Saturday at Roboticon. It was a very nostalgic feeling, being re-united with my old teammates and one of my favorite high school teachers. Unfortunately, I had to cut it short as I had promised my friends from Waterloo that I would join them in the highly anticipated BSG finale party that was hosted by John. I got there at 8:30 PM and we started the episode after a half an hour of Rock Band and drinking.

I will begin with the conclusion. This finale left a bad taste for everyone. It felt as if we spent two hours watching how not to make a BSG finale. This episode was so bad that a re-run of last week’s episode would have been a more enjoyable watch. Although, as I have mentioned before, the series as a whole has been so entertaining that a disappointment was unavoidable. I will try to outline aspects of this episode that I disliked.

The flashback to the old days on the colonies failed to invoke any meaning in the story or explain any of the characters in the show. Displaying the admiral’s worst moments of alcoholism was nothing new to the show and the notion of a new job that he was considering to undertake was simply confusing and out of place in the grander scheme of things. Of course, this was all supposed to make more sense by Colonel Tigh’s frantic screams in a strip bar.

To further exacerbate the situation, the main villain in the show (Number One) is won over by one of Baltar’s everyday rants. Interestingly enough, he realizes the lunacy in listening to Baltar and shoots himself in a moment’s chaos. This ending almost makes the rest of the conflicts in the show seem pointless and insignificant.

Of course, the most significant controversy is Starbuck. She is portrayed to be a figment of everyone’s imagination and disappears into thin air at the end of the show. Everything with regards to her death is left unexplained. Instead, we are presented with a weak outlook of Earth 150,000 years in the future in order to compare the similarity of Toyota’s dancing robots to full-fledged Cylons.

If you think that all of the points above are reason enough to hate this episode, then you will be surprised that I have saved the biggest reason. The 29,000 survivors of the human race decide to erase their advancements in technology by ramming the fleet into the sun in order to start a clean slate on Earth. By the way, this was all Lee’s idea (go figure). The Chief decides to take up living in the arctic after strangling one of the final five for killing his wife. The same wife that cheated on him and was carrying a child that wasn’t his.

A lot happened in this episode, but the events were mostly out of place and failed to explain any of the themes in the show. In my opinion, it is best to ignore this episode and pretend that the show ended last week and was somehow discontinued by Fox, much like Firefly.

Absolute Mind F***

Last Friday night, I headed to Justin’s house as usual. I arrived to his house only to find that it was vacant. I decided to wait outside, and shortly, Justin arrived accompanied by Wyatt. The three of us happily decided to spend the rest of the evening playing Braid. This is where our journey began in a completely bizarre environment where we were forced to think in ways with which we were not accustomed.

Braid can be described as a futuristic version of Mario on the surface. The story (again, on the surface) follows the cliche of the hero trying to save the princess from the grasps of the evil monster. You will soon learn however that the story is nothing like you would expect. By the end of the story, you will be so confused that you will immediately venture onto the Internet and try to find out what it all means. Then you will proceed to read a 20 page plot analysis on the Internet. Unfortunately, you will still be very much in the dark as to the meaning of the story as a whole.

To complement a very deep and interesting story line, the game takes advantage of some very creative gameplay mechanics. The game is about time travel. However, time travel is done as perfectly as I have ever seen it before. The time travel is made the way you would expect it to happen. Everything in the world moves backwards when the time travel takes place. The characters across the screen go backwards. The background music rewinds. The rain that has been dripping down will immediately start to fall upwards. The puzzles in the game are then only solvable by utilizing time travel in some of the most creative ways.

The game may seem short, but each puzzle takes a rather significant amount of thinking to solve. At each level, the player is presented with a new special concept in time travel. This ranges from time travel allowing the player to create a shadow clone of himself or being able to warp time to slow the movement of objects.

Overall, the game ended that night at 3:00 AM by which point I was suffering from a raging headache that lasted all throughout the next day. All in all, this game is one that I recommend to anybody who is looking for some thinking in a game that has creativity, beautiful art, and an astonishingly involved story line. What is most impressive is that this game was independently developed by only one person over the span of 3 years.