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 Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 3:00 pm
For those of you with raunchier minds, don't get your hopes up. There are only reviews here.
Hi, I'm Glithrionel. Chances are, you don't know me, as untill this point, I haven't been particularly active. But, that's about to change, as I am about to open your eyes, via reviews, to the vast and wonderful world that I affectionately refer to as "Anime that isn't Naruto, Deathnote, Bleach, or One Piece."
There's a lot of it. Anime that isn't Naruto, Deathnote, Bleach, or One Piece, that is. And, unfortunately, I am but one person, with limited time, so the scope of what I can review is somewhat very limited. So for the moment, I'll will be sticking to reviewing anime I have seen, which are quite numerous, untill I run out of those, and am forced to go watch new ones. When I have finished watching a series, I will eventually write up a review for it, and post it here. You are welcome, and, in fact, sincerely encouraged to respond about the reviews or with suggestions for series for me to review, as long as you respectfully observe the following guidelines:
1)While I do my best to remain unbiased, please remember that these reviews are based on my opinions. While you are free to dissent, please do not try to start a shouting match with me if you believe that a show I think is inferior is really the greatest thing since ICBMs. I am entitled to my opinion as are we all.
2)While I am willing to take suggestions as to what anime I should review, I do not have the time to watch 7 seasons of a show, no matter how wonderful they may or may not be.
3)I will not be reviewing anime such as DBZ, or other such shows that have a known penchant for being either repetative or formulaic. I do quite a few monotonous things as it is, and I rather doubt my sanity would survive additions to their number.
4)Please, please, please maintain an air of courtesy and civility. While I understand that we often invest our emotions in the shows we watch, there's really no call for rudeness, regardless of the circumstance.
I would like to thank you for your attention, and encourage you to watch more anime. Who knows, you just might like it.
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Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 3:03 pm
Cowboy Bebop is the tale of 4 bounty hunters in a space-age/western setting, where lawlessness within the space colonies has caused the government to resort to a bounty system in order to attempt to control crime. They travel on the Bebop, an often run-down space ship, and pursue (although often unsuccessfully) the bounties necessary to keep them afloat, so to speak, while attempting to deal with their respective pasts. Although it is often a very funny show, Bebop tends towards a colder view of life; problems, if resolved, are not necessarily resolved in a happy fashion. However, the characters are very grabbing, and the overarching plot is quite compelling, even though it is often punctuated by stand-alone episodes.
What is perhaps the best attribute of Bebop is the symbiotic nature of the animation and the soundtrack. The vast majority of the show has music, and unlike many other animes, it is not simply background music of the elevator music variety. No, the music is perhaps one of the main driving forces of the show; it sets a rhythm that the characters live in step with, but that is subtle enough to blend with the action (or inaction, as is the case in some episodes), so that the music and the animation flow together. The music, composed by Yoko Kanno, draws heavily from American jazz and blues music, but still maintains a very modern feel. The animation itself is of a more classic style (The show was originally released in 1998, after all), and has a more gritty feel to it, like that of shows such as Lupin III or the older Gundam seasons, rather than the smoothness of more modern animes like Nejima or Fruits Basket.
The show concluded after only one season; so there are only 26 episodes out there. Since the original run was in 1998, it has been available in the US for quite some time, so finding the DVDs isn’t particularly difficult. While you can still find the fan-subbed version online in the form of torrents, and probably through lime wire (although I haven’t confirmed that), I would recommend renting or buying it instead. Why, you ask? Well, Bebop is one of the anomalies of anime, in that the dubbing is very, very good. In fact, although this is just my opinion, I’ve found that I like the english voice actors better than the Japanese ones.
There is also a Bebop movie, called Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (Yes, I’m aware of how stupid it sounds. The original title was Cowboy Bebop: Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door, but the US release was re-titled to avoid copyright infringement.), which I don’t have time to review here.
All in all, I would strongly recommend watching Cowboy Bebop; even if you don’t like older anime, this one is unique enough to merit a try, at least. It’s space ships, gunfights, humor, a good story, and jazz. What more could you ask for?
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Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 8:47 pm
Strawberry panic is a story about a 2 year span in the lives of several members of 3 adjacent all-girls private schools. This is a romance anime, no doubt about it. And seeing as it is an all-girls school, there is yuri involved. Don’t get your hopes up; while there is nudity and kissing, all of it is very artistically done, and in a very PG fashion. The plot, while romance- and friendship-centric, doesn’t just stay on the “everyone has their match, and all is wonderful” side of things, but rather encompasses the broader spectrum of human interactions, both pleasant and painful.
The animation is quite modern, in that it tends towards big eyes and hair colors that most definitely do not occur naturally. However, the scenery and backdrops do not suffer from a similar sugar-coated feel; the landscape of the schools’ campuses is depicted spectacularly, and serves as a frequently occurring break from the tired sight of classrooms. The music, which consists primarily of orchestrated pieces or reservedly beautiful melodies preformed on piano, complements the refined sensibilities of the schools quite well. In fact, unlike the soundtracks of many animes, I never particularly tired of hearing it in the background. In fact, the quiet, bittersweet atmosphere that the story exuded, in conjunction with the music, was probably one of the main things that drew me, as it often is. In sharp contrast are the opening and closing themes, both of which seem completely and utterly out of keeping with the image Strawberry panic otherwise leaves.
Strawberry panic left me with mixed feelings. Being far too pessimistic and cynical for my own good, I tend to harbor a deep dislike for the formulaic sense that most romance anime seems to possess. So, what amazed me was that I found myself caring about the characters as the story progresses, despite the presence of several of the most clichéd and recycled anime storylines in existence (Can you say drama festival?), and some overly-used archetypes among the main cast. So whether or not this is evidence of quality character writing and development, or proof that I’ve lost it, I am not sure. But, despite groaning aloud at some episodes in exasperation aimed either at the numbskullery of the characters or at that of the storyline, I believe that, as a whole, I liked it.
Often, what you get out of an anime is determined how willing you are to invest yourself in the story and the characters. I tried to go in with an open mind, and I feel that the enjoyment I’ve gotten out of Strawberry Panic was because I was willing to do so. However, if you plan on going in as I usually might, already convinced that there’s no way you’ll like it, you probably won’t.
*edit* I wrote the above without having seen the ending. Now that I've seen it, I must say that I'm rather disappointed. I was rather hoping that the series would have ended on the darker note that it seemed to be headed for, but that was not to be: the series suddenly and implausibly jerked back towards the positive, and ended happily, to my chagrin.
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