undeadben's Anime

The same can be said for the characters as well. At some points it seems any character in the story is a potential contradiction waiting to happen. And sadly the show is even bad at contradicting when it comes to the characters. Sometimes a character will say he believes something for a certain reason, in another episode that same character will believe in something slightly different but similar for a completely different reason. The again another character will sometimes believe something for a certain reason and later state he or she believes something completely different for the same reason. This show is a headache waiting to happen for anyone who has the ability to think. The biggest fault the show has when it comes to the characters though is Yuji. Yuji is an idiot. He isn’t even a loveable idiot; he is your run of the mill hard headed dumb ass. This makes him extremely hard to like. After a few episodes I didn’t really care what happened to him or what he was yelling about next, and when you can say this about the main character it just goes to show how bad the show really was.

All around this show just wasn’t interesting. It had potential to be interesting at times but it couldn’t maintain a plot because of all the contradictions so I lost interest several times while watching it. Then, mostly because Yuji is the main character, the show isn’t entertaining either. It never had much of a chance at entertaining. Add that to an anticlimactic climax and generic closing scenes and you have an anime that is not good. It wasn’t the worse show I’ve ever seen but it isn’t a show I would recommend for any reason. I finished it through to the end simply because I bought it but I can honestly say I would not watch it again. It was not worth the money or more importantly the time it took to watch it.

In an already insane world the man who rises as the one to end the oppression is a brilliant but mad and selfish highschool student who for the most part uses the Japanese people’s hopes of freedom for his own aims. This is what would pass as the story’s protagonist, Lelouch, who happens to be a son of the ruling side. So in the utter absurdities to follow his evil sometimes produces a good outcome and when he tries his hand at good he sometimes causes insane evil. It’s hard to know whether to root for him or not.

However his opposite is a man who is of Japanese descent who pretends to ally himself with his oppressors for good, Suzaku. It is evident that the story often tries to paint him in an empathetic way but despite how much he tries to show that he wants good to come without blood loss, he is even harder to like. A man who not only abandons his people but will fight against them to avoid rebellion is nothing more than a dog. Once I found his true Ideals I don’t believe there was a moment afterwards where I did not seriously hate him, actually. No matter what his struggles were or what he lost, he is as easy to hate as the villains of the story.

In the rest of the cast there are some intriguing players but a lot of others who are plenty useless as well. Of course at the head of the intriguing ones would be the mysterious C.C. We never really find out what she actually is, though there are hints but then again this show doesn’t end with the end of this series. Then you have your oppressors, and the resistance, and the normal characters. Among the normals would be the Japanese trying to survive and find hope, and the Britannians trying to overlook the fact that what they have has come at the great expense of the former.

I talk a lot about the characters because in this story the main points would be missed if one overlooked the motivations of the players. Despite the scale of the background, this story is vastly character driven, which is probably what hurts it at times, but being what it is this aspect can not be ignored. It is because of the conflicts in feelings that so many of the absurdities take place. And this is the show’s ‘meat and potatoes.’ The only problem really is that it sometimes goes overboard in trying to get one more shock out but it was still very intriguing in that most of the time you really don’t know what is going to happen next. You can have a somewhat warm reunion one moment and a massacre in the very next.

I guess it is pointless to say how much I have enjoyed the show so far, seeing how much I’ve written already. I do think the show does have maybe 3 or 4 too many giant unnecessary twists which hinder the flow of the story, but I really am into it. I was surprised at the ending especially, or the lack there of, but I’m glad there is a sequel already in place and look forward to seeing where this all ends.

The show takes a step up in quality in almost every aspect in this second half. Character development and interactions reach masterful heights as everyone makes their decisions on what has to be done. Even Suzaku who is just as hateful as he was previously finally reaches his point of awakening and takes his own steps towards what he now truly desires. Of course Lelouch, our now clear protagonist, exceeds his own thinking progressively throughout until he finally reaches his final metamorphosis and makes his own choice for what needs to be done. I could continue on about these two but I would give away too much of the plot if I did. Suffice to say that both become worthy of their roles and I could not keep my eyes off either of them at the end.

The majority of rest of the cast also goes through a lot of things; changes in goals, philosophies, and even ideals. The really fascinating thing is that I was intrigued by every one. With a large cast in other shows I usually spend a lot of time upset about why I have to watch someone go through whatever every one else is going through when I just want the show to get back to the story. I could not remember a single time in this show when I didn’t care to know what was happening to any of the other characters. Good or evil, or in some cases hard to tell, I really wanted to know what every side was going through and felt it was all important to the story rather than a distraction.

The story telling also reaches new heights as I was continuously drawn on by the drama and intrigue. The only complaints here are that there were still too many plot twists, sometimes multiple ones in single episodes. This killed the mood for me a few times because instead of being surprised by a new development as I should have been, I was sometimes thinking, ‘ah, here we go again.’ There were a lot of important twists, of course, but there were also a few that were very likely unnecessary and these did distract my enjoyment of the show at times. However that really didn’t kill the show for me, obviously. While sometimes bothersome, because everything else going on was so interesting, it was fairly easy to overlook the unnecessary ones because I knew the show would quickly return to its high pace engaging storytelling.

The action also picks up more. The energetic battles and fights at times were more than enough to keep my eyes glued to the screen. I don’t know if I am becoming a fan of mecha fighting but I do know that all the fights here were really entertaining. I even thought all the modifications to the ones that were around previously and all the new mecha and machines of war were actually pretty neat.

Thinking about everything, which takes some time, I believe that despite how great a lot of the aspects of this show are, my favorite after finishing the show is the ending. It was a bit predictable once you get to down to about the last 4 or 5 episodes but it was still great. It may not be an ideal ending for a lot of people, but it really was an outcome to everything that happens leading up to it. There was no vague understanding of that

Anyone who has seen this episode will probably know how I felt at the end of it not knowing anything at all beforehand of what was going to happen, and because of that I feel that I am fortunate. I got a chance to experience this story as it came without having any clue of what was coming or any outside influence one way or other about it.

Saying this show is about baseball is like saying Hajime no Ippo is a show about boxing, or that Honey and Clover is a show about art school, or that Haibane Renmei is a show about a girl with wings. Those who are fortunate enough to have seen these shows may understand how badly I underestimated this show. The story and storytelling beginning to end is absolutely amazing. Scenes flow masterfully from one to another giving a true image of the characters lives. By that I mean the everyday aspects that really show who they are and not what they are. And for the most part the relationships between all of these characters are important to the overall, which is something else that was done well.

However, what makes this story truly special is that amazing storytelling. This is the type of anime that proves you don’t need high cost CG action scenes, magic, giant robots, and ridiculous moves to completely capture a viewer’s attention. After watching it once I was left so impressed by this aspect that I re-watched it almost entirely 3 times within just a couple of weeks, read the manga, and also read a few other Mitsuru Adachi manga in order to have a better understanding of the brilliant work I saw. The main story is simple enough that young children could watch this without complaint but for anyone older it offers that and a heck of a lot more. The complexity of how the plot comes about is crafted beautifully behind well placed symbolism, hidden meanings, clever clues, and an abundance of hints found in various scenes.

Near the end I was on edge to know not just what the final scores would be but, maybe more importantly, in what direction these characters futures would begin. That really is the heart of the matter. Any great show usually leaves you wanting more when it is done and this one has me imagining a lot more. However, I saw the protagonist achieve his true goal and where the new beginning is, how he can finally move forward, and that was a wonderful ending to this wonderful show. I did not feel cheated in any sense by how the show ended, which I have heard, is where many people think this show failed. I assure you, it does not and I will definitely watch this one again.

On a final note, I don’t often recommend anime for people to watch anymore, but for anyone who has not seen this I have a simple message, and maybe a plea, “It doesn’t matter what kind of anime you like or what genre of story you prefer, watch Cross Game.” My second recommendation is, “after you’ve seen it, watch it again.” I never though I would watch a show that would oust Ranma ½ as my # 1 favorite, but this show has. Especially after seeing how no matter how many times I watch it I am no impressed and more often than not even more impressed in subsequent viewings.

Where this show starts to fail is that it gets into this mode where it just tries to force feed Torako, the main character, more and more. The excessiveness may still have been passable but the more I got to know Torako the more I disliked her. I mentioned first that ‘most’ of the characters are likeable because I never found Torako to be very likeable. And yes, I get that she’s the stupid happy go lucky girl who is wild and blah blah blah, and I don’t have anything against the character type in general, but Torako is rude and overbearing to a point beyond annoying. I honestly never found how any of the girls would seriously want her as a friend; much less hold her in such high esteem. Near the end when it’s discovered that Torako’s past was a bit tragic and oh so sad, I couldn’t really get myself to care a whole lot. With a tragic past you’d think she would have learned to be a bit more considerate towards others. But she’s not, and since this really is her show, I ended up not enjoying it as well as I thought I would at first. I can’t really like a show a whole lot when I dislike the main character. I would not watch this again even with the fun scenes with the other characters scattered around.

I really enjoyed the first series. It really does feel like an after story to the series. The feel of the storytelling and Tylor’s behavior are pretty much what is expected. There are just a couple inconsistencies, but nothing that would really be too important. For a fan of Tylor this pretty much is just another story in the saga, but with better production values.

Once it gets into the second OAV however everything is noticeably different, including the character designs. The first 6 episodes are sort of side stories each featuring a different character or faction from the Tylor universe. These are somewhat humorous but not as comedic as you’d expect a character special to be. They depict the lives of the characters involved as they start progressing personally or in their field. Some just start to gain a new found sense of responsibility while others are just trying to keep up with advances that their work might entail technologically or just in a different field. And while they might seem to stand alone, each proceeding story adds another hint of the growing troubles that are to come. This of course is then detailed in the “final” 2 episodes.

I actually liked the different feel, often darker and more dramatic, in this series as opposed to the tv series. It didn’t matter much to me that the key figure, Tylor himself, is actually just a side character in this new saga. I even enjoyed the story build up, even if it did feel awkward at some parts when the final 2 episodes begin. However the toughest thing of all to accept is that just as it starting to come to this crucial moment the series suddenly ends. Not only is there no resolution but there wasn’t even a continuing development to what the story was at the point it was cut off to even hint at how it may have ended. If it had truly ended, even badly, I would have rated this show a lot higher than “Good.” I mean heck that is a pretty high rating for me to give, considering, so that says how much I enjoyed it leading up to this. However I can’t say I’d watching this OAV again because of that bad taste in my mouth, and I would only recommend the first 2 episode OAV series to Tylor fans wanting more.

The show actually ends at episode 24. The last episode is more of an OAV, sort of getting one more story in, but it has barely any relevance to the main plot. It isn’t really a bad little episode, but the characters are a bit out of ‘character’ as it were, but it is still at least holds true to the fun part of the show.

All that good stuff and when I got to episode 7 I knew this show really was special. Something big happens here. There is this huge space battle that would make most big moments in even large budget Hollywood sci-fi films look like a game of paddy cake. It was tense and exciting and was a great preview of things to come. The rest of the season just follows suit. Going from the political scheming, to the more underhanded schemes of a certain individual, to the continuing romantic side (actually the show seems to have difficulty with the romance side, so maybe here is where it loses points), to more of those spectacular battles and action sequences, it really is a treat to watch.

The finally is a pretty interesting mix of a lot of things, action, music, visuals; which are all good but a lot of it also helps sidestep a couple of issues that are left pending at the end and other smaller parts that seemed to have been forgotten all together. But yeah, the action the music, the visuals (almost like a long music video), villains and friends revealed, as well as other unexpected revelations, and finally rounding out most of the major plot points; it was well enough where the ending doesn't really drag down what was a great series. I'd like to say I'm looking forward to the movie but this show didn't have a storyline simplistic enough where I can see it condensed without a ridiculous amount of butchering to re-tell in movie form; maybe a trilogy, but not a single movie. How about a sequel? I'd be all for that. Whatever does come, this show remains just great to watch from any standpoint.

Yet the series made it through a long stretch of time telling Goro’s story along the way and this was what makes this anime. The baseball was always Goro’s main priority but you get too see so many other aspects and struggles that come with his chosen path that it keeps you wanting to know where his story continues. Sadly for a show that took the long route to show us each phase, it immediately skips 8 years to give us a long awaited ending during the closing credits but there was enough of a journey for me to be fairly satisfied in the end.

In the end I liked the show and would recommend it to sports anime fans, but I can’t honestly say I would watch it again. It’s not so much the length, as I have a tendency of watching long series even multiple times. But with this show it was a feeling that once was enough, those few moments that dragged it at times are too apparent for me to go through them again.

And the adults in her world are ugly inside, savages. There are no heroes in this story. Michiko may be the closest thing that Hatchin now has to parental figure but this only makes Hatchin more sympathetic as a character. Michiko is one of the savages in this story, probably one of the worst. To top her off she is also naïve and emotionally attached to a man who apparently wants nothing to do with her. He is not smart but a bit clever and a bit is all one needs to stay ahead of the other savages. Outwardly he is not savage, but he is a weak coward who does not even begin to try and cope, much less help, with any situation that can potentially be a bother. Turning ones head away from someone you can help, even a little, has a savageness of its own. This is Hatchin’s father.

And the other players? Gangsters, thugs, hoodlums, kidnappers, corrupt cops, bad cops, and worse than those as well. None of them really have direction. They also just live their own lives the way they know how. There are no big showdowns or sudden change of hearts or heroic actions. There is violence and murder and casualties and things that may be worse. The show isn’t completely violent; there are moments when nice things do happen to our young Hatchin. But for the most part these moments seem to be petty visions of hope. But what choice does she have? She can’t decide anything because no one gives her a chance and she doesn’t have any ability that would help her change her world. All she can do is try to keep moving in a direction she thinks is forward and live. This is not a pretty show. However one thing the show is is really good. It really does go a bit far at times trying to add that extra shock value, but I can not say that this show is not good. I’d watch it again and even buy it should that become an option.

For anyone who finds this show and loves it as much as I do, you need to do yourself a favor and find the manga. Some of it is Out of print so you may need to look for it used, but find it! Read my comments on the manga if you wanna know why I say this.

*The director’s cut is very nearly identical to the original episode 26 except for an important small difference that made it more enjoyable to me. But a lot of people may not really care one way or the other.

If anything the show tries to play toward the dramatic more than anything but I think one of the real weaknesses is that it tries to make everyone a tragic character no matter what side they’re on. Not to say that idea is bad in itself, other shows have used it well, but Nabari no Ou is not X. It doesn’t know how to build characters well and often when it pauses to tell someone’s tragic past it just makes them either look stupid or pathetically villainous in that they do their deeds without any real reasoning, evil or just.

Near the end and it seemed like it just wanted stretch things out rather than start anything that might be interesting. Even the occasionally humorous moments from early on now look annoying when they come because you can see they are just trying to fill time. Maybe they should have just kept the show to about 14 episodes total if they didn’t have enough story. Or money for that matter; the animation, which never seemed good to begin with, is pathetic in the second half of the series. The backgrounds in particular often looked not like the artistic water color look the show seemed to aim at, but more a crayon and construction paper resemblance.

In the final episodes there are a lot of revelations which don’t make sense and don’t add any intrigue either. Characters take certain stands that seem to have no real reason behind them, except allow the character to make a “surprising” change of heart or mind or whatever later on. And the action sequences which looked decent early on, looked more and more sloppy as the show got towards the latter episodes. Add it all together and you get a climax that is anticlimactic, and final scenes which didn’t really excite. And I suppose overall the show isn’t as terrible as I make it out to be, but it doesn’t have a solid base for the plot or the characters so it isn’t really good either. The show is being licensed in the US; my advice is save your money and buy something good. There is a box set release for Basilisk out, that will get your ninja fix without having to pay and also sit through Nabari no Ou.

The storytelling I was expecting comes out in a nice way and is balanced well by the supernatural elements and the plot itself which alone would have made for an interesting anime. The character’s are also fun and enjoyable to watch and you get to see different sides of them in tiny moments which allowed me to get to know them while not ever slowing the pace of the show. And then you get all the styling and random nonsense on the part of Shinbo along with all the fun references to his previous works, and here adding references from School Rumble when available, along with the usual plethora of pop and Japanese cultural references and there is never a moment that the show does not offer something entertaining, whether visual or spoken. (Keep an eye on the restaurant’s customers in particular.) Even if I say I really can’t look forward to any possible future ending this story might offer, I can say I enjoyed this show, I’d definitely watch it again, and I’m looking forward to the sequel.

*I’ve read up on the manga since I saw this show and it surprises me how for the most part the show is actually very similar the manga, even in the inconsistencies. What surprises me more is that one of my favorite parts of the show, the episodes near the end, aren’t even related to the manga. It leaves me even more confused about what to think of this series.

It’s also frustrating in that you can see a good story trying to tear out of this immature shell and instead it has to suffer along with the audience through the silly and simplistic story telling. And once it runs out of ideas again and the show starts to bog down it throws in another shock visual so that the audience still thinks it is watching something great. There was this one scene near the climax where it went into utter slow motion after two shots were fired and there was blood spilling; I almost got a headache watching the ridiculousness of it and was hoping at that point the show would end quickly.

There was another episode left however and I’d gotten that far so I did continue watching. And, as I said, the show does have a decent story behind all the crap so I kind of wanted to see how it ended anyway. And wouldn’t you know it, it ends well. The final episode is almost like an episode from a completely different series based on the same story. There is a good climax and words well spoken and the only annoyance is the silly villain who still seems out of place. The ending was enough for me to upgrade the entire show to a decent ranking. I still don’t think I’ll ever watch it again though, there is just too much crap and muck to get through before that ending.

  ** This was the 450th anime I added to my Seen All list.**  

If you are reading this you might be thinking I just spoiled the story, but apparently the types of shows where the devoted long time friend actually gets the guy or girl are not popular, which is why most creators shy, or in most cases fly like a bat out of hell, away from telling them, so I suppose for the majority or popular rule I haven’t given anything important away. There are still plenty of flashy girls who came out of no where and have really done nothing, despite what the shaky logic in the writing might try to make you believe, to be the one but one of them gets chosen anyway so rest assured I have only spoiled that this show does not go against what is popular.

So that out of the way… The show starts off as typical as harem could get. I guess you can say that the twist is in the god and devil stuff, but since that part is never emphasized or properly explained then it doesn’t really matter much. It starts to change a bit and there are some actually good moments but with all that went on, which also brought on my rant to open these comments, by the end I didn’t really care one way or another what happened. This is sad because since I made myself finish it, having bought the series, I could tell that some of the better writing in the show went into the last few episodes; predictable but still better (well, except the closing scenes after the climax, that was just dumb). I’d say, "what a waste," but I suppose since my views lean towards the unpopular side, there are probably a lot of harem style fans out there who probably like this a lot. I won’t watch this show again.

The second arc actually has a nice set up for a couple of episodes as well as some decent drama and action, but then near the end is where the show decides to also throw any sense of timing out the window for good measure. There was this scene where someone’s about to die and the worlds are collapsing but the heroine decides to indulge the locals a bit and then stop and have a bit of lunch with her friends before deciding to finally get going; that was more than a tad irritating. Because of that when she finally made it I pretty much stopped caring, not that it mattered anyway as the final episode was pretty much full of lame nonsense dialogue which really didn’t follow up on anything the show even tried to build up to there. Or basically the story gave up continuity as well; well that or the creator just didn’t know how to end it. I won’t be watching this again.

And as I said, the story is interesting but the comedy isn’t bad either and the romance could have pretty much evolved on its own if everything else was balanced and progressed well but this was the are where the pace and flow break down. The show just couldn’t balance the three major elements in any clear way. And I have seen other shows that handle silly comedy with supernatural themes all with a bit of drama and romance and do it well, but this show looked like it wasn’t even trying for a balance and instead was just settling for having unattended variety.

Nothing really fit appropriately but the forced romantic elements were probably the worst cases. The show didn’t even know what type of romantic story it was trying to produce. You could see a harem style plot being set up, but most of the girls were left out of the plot for long periods of time without explanation. Then you could see it try to shift itself into a love triangle, except it never properly set up such a plot so this was a failure as well. After that it tried to go towards a tragic romance except this sort of came out of nowhere as well so it was hard to figure anything from that.

I know I’m making this show seem horrible but it wasn’t truly horrible. The reason I complain so much is because, as I have mentioned is some of my other comments, what really puts me off about a story more than anything is wasted potential. This is another one of many shows that had a good central concept and if it had developed it well it could have been really good, it just never did. In the end I found the show slightly entertaining and, though I don’t plan on doing so, I would not have a huge problem if I had to watch it again, especially because a lot of the characters are pretty fun to watch. However such a poor effort by the staff does put me off some.

I held off watching the anime because it was not completely fansubbed yet and I wanted to make sure I could watch it all at once. I learned reading the different Adachi’s manga that I would go insane if I did not have the entirety available. And sure enough I finished this in a week because it held me so. The story is typical Adachi, although still rough, it blends fantastic characters with incredible storytelling that keeps you interested, and a storyline that probably has a different meaning to each viewer.

The relations ships between the characters and the way they change as circumstances change often taking the spotlight away from the baseball and yet when it is happening the baseball scenes are incredible as well. Also typical of Adachi is the character designs that probably leave some to be desired. If you have seen Cross Game you might notice it is nearly impossible at times to see the differences between Kou and Tatsuya. However the simple designs are far outweighed by that incredible storytelling.

The only thing that holds back touch from being in the same neighborhood of greatness as the much later work, is that the story itself, though told well, has a few holes. Adachi just left a few too many things to the viewer that needed to be cleared up in the story. The blend between the characters’ actions and their motivations isn’t as uniform either at noticeable moments. Also lastly, while this anime actually is very true to the story, it fails further in the ending. I like Adachi’s ending much better as I know it is done a certain way with a purpose, and the anime creators made some changes for the worse. But it probably ends in a clearer way which may have been a bit more satisfying to some.

Normally when I watch an anime that has any sort of follow up or sequel, if I like it, I’ll also watch the continuations to keep seeing where it goes. I won’t with Touch. The movies or specials made after the show can not nearly compare to the original ending of the manga, or what the author allows his audience. I won’t talk about the ending more for this anime or the manga as I hate to ruin anything, but I will say it borders on stupidity to create an original story to follow an Adachi work. There is just no one in manga today who can create an atmosphere in any way that could at least be comparable.

Ok now that that’s out of the way, despite it’s lackluster middle the show is great. Well ok the first episode is not the best either, sort of goes in a couple of different directions and it makes it look like it'll just be too predicable or something. However the last couple of minutes of it sort of just caught me and really made me think about exactly what kind of show I thought I was expecting and what I actually got. After that the rest of the disk was easy, and really drew me in for the rest of the story. I honestly did not know anything about the show before jumping in, but it is actually pretty remarkable, especially when I think that it is a post apocalyptic show about wolves. It's sort of fantasy mixed with some fables and a little bit of sci-fi, and it's quite fun. I also like the characters and character designs, especially for the wolves, probably some of the best I have seen. I don’t know, ever noticed how a show that is mostly about animals in some way tells a more human story than a show about people? Wolf’s rain felt like that, the characters are just done very well. Overall the show is pretty damn great, and I’ll want to sit through it again sometime, but I’ll remember my own advice and skip disc 4 next time so that I can enjoy it better.

** Without these OAV episodes the series would not be quite as good and also this OAV series pretty much does not stand alone. It’s not so much a sequel as a completion, so my rating is not so the same for both but one rating for the the entirety, minus the recap episodes, as one complete series.