Forum

Flag
(13 episode series)

While short, this was an effective, fairly good series. The vast majority takes place in a fictitious country of Uddiyana in Central Asia, which is in the midst of a civil war between the two major religions of this country. The United Nations has been called in to help, with its fictitious UNF military force securing and bringing order to the country's capital city. At the time of their arrival, some of the locals made a makeshift flag from a UN flag that became a symbol for peace after a young Japanese photojournalist named Saeko Shirasu snapped an iconic picture of it. The UN is supposed to be setting up some kind of a peace treaty that will bring a permanent cease fire to the country between the warring sides. As one might expect, holding this flag up as a symbol made it a target and it was stolen. A special military unit, the SDC, has been put together to recover the flag, with Saeko going along as an embedded journalist.

This is a fairly typical "documentary" style series, except of course for the fact that it's an anime. It's a somewhat different way of telling a story, as everything is supposed to be from cameras which were on the scene recording everything that's been happening. There's also some heavy hinting that the narrator and character Keiichi Akagi, another photojournalist, is going over all of the raw footage and editing it for us, which is also we see his part of the story. I have to admit that the attention to detail is pretty impressive, and I both liked and disliked this unique storytelling technique. The reason I disliked it at times was that it could get a little obnoxious at times. Since doing it in a completely realistic way would really restrict what could be seen and heard, there tended to be a lot of shots taken that realistically wouldn't have been. That and all the camera guides and indicators superimposed over the image could get a bit annoying at times.

As for the story itself, we get to see everything that's done to recover this stolen flag. It soon becomes apparent that there are some sinister dealings going on behind the scenes, as the terrorists end up packing some pretty serious hardware that normal terrorists wouldn't have access to, like say attack helicopters. The UNF is also made to look pretty shady, which is a little different since anime tends to practically glorify the UN. It brings into light the frankly quite corrupt way the UN tends to do things, and how ineffective they can be. For instance, when their headquarters in the capitol city is taken over an occupied, none of the numerous remaining UNF forces want to do anything. And then there's the way the upper echelon is more interested in saving face then in actually accomplishing the mission. So when a mission they planned to recover this flag goes wrong, they try to make a scapegoat out of one of the SDC pilots involved in the operation rather than accept responsibility for themselves. Then there's how the morning pres briefings try to tell one story when the journalists were are following know that the opposite is true. Of course there also tends to be something of an anti-military tone to all of this, and I can't help but think that the people who made this had a somewhat unrealistic expectation out of the UNF's military strikes. With all the complaining about collateral damage and demonizing of the UNF for it, one wonders what short of just not being there is expected. After all, if they did leave, the country erupts into civil war again and the UNF would be blamed for leaving. Of course this is also somewhat realistic as a reflection of the real world where the impossible is expected of the participants in any military conflict.

Most of the time, though, we follow Saeko as she hangs around with the team tasked with finding and retaking the flag in time for the all-important peace treaty signing, and the personnel she documents are very sympathetic. While somewhat stereotypical, especially the Japanese pilot, they were for the most part very human and it was easy to like them. None of them was really singled out much as comedy relief, though the mechanic could at times be a comedic foil to Saeko since he often took pictures of her at awkward moments as a kind of karmatic way to get back at her for always taking pictures of them. It was also nice to see a female commander who was strong-willed, competent, cared about her people as much as her mission, and who wasn't ever put on the spot in any way because of her gender, unlike say Argento Soma.

Keiichi Akagi is also very easy to like, though he isn't seen a whole lot in the series until closer to the end. He actually comes off as somewhat stereotypically the dashing adventurer type, especially the few times we get to see him on screen – he very much looks the part. The other free-lance journalists he hangs out with seem oddly cooperative with each other considering the competitive field they are in. Mostly his part of the story is there to glorify photojournalism. To be fair some of the things they accomplish can be pretty cool, but this tends to really glorify them while tending to skim over their less admirable traits. His part of the story is also where some of the hammiest scenes come from, in particular one of the scenes where he is initially trying to reach Saeko during a battle both of them are documenting. At one point he stops trying to reach her and instead shouts all kinds of hammy encouragements at her to keep taking pictures, completely reversing his earlier shouts of how stupid she was to risk everything like that. I think that scene would have actually been way more effective had he not said anything, but that's me.

And now comes the part I've been purposely putting off until the end – the mechas. As the other "with a difference" aspect of this series, what is otherwise a show about war journalism apparently felt the need to add, "but with mechas" to its pitch/description. While not done in an overly obnoxious way, I still can't help but think it's a bit silly that they felt the need to make this yet another mecha anime. God knows how many of them I've watched up to this point. In my opinion that aspect of it brings this series down a little bit, especially since these mechas, called HAVWKs (or "havocs" phonetically) are depicted as basically being super-weapons. It's true that at least one of them is destroyed and that they tend not to come out of fights entirely unscathed, the amount of punishment they can take and their capabilities can at times come off as pretty ridiculous. I think it could have been a pretty good show without the mecha, but in some ways that’s what makes the story somewhat unique. It really helps, though, that the focus is on the characters and not the mechas.

The series does have something of a downer ending, though. It isn't really unexpected considering the extremely heavy foreshadowing given by the narrator. While a little anticlimactic, I can't help but note that real life just tends to be that way sometimes, and this series has made a point of trying to make this show as realistic as possible given the subject matter. It may not be the best thing ever, but it's still a good series and I'd recommend it. I'm thinking that I'll actually add it to my over-all recommends list. 8/10.

Gall Force
(4 films and 5 episodes of OVA)

I'm combining everything that made up the "canon" Gall Force series into one review, because frankly, it's going to be a short enough review as it is. The thing is, everything about this series can be summed up as one part space opera and one part fan service. The entire franchise revolves around the same seven female characters, and let's just say that the action tends to be broken up by frequent shower breaks, and that one character in particular tends to wander around naked or at least mostly naked on at least two occasions. Actually, the first three movies are all about a war between a really weird alien that is actually some kind of living goo, and its mutually destructive war with a human-like species that happens to be made up entirely of women. Its hinted that they use artificial means of reproduction in case you were wondering, but for the most part this is just an excuse for fan service and to play up the cutesy "moe" aspect as much as possible. The fun part is when they all have dreams about a male version of one of themselves and act all embarrassed to wake up hugging and nearly making out with each other. After all, with no males and all... Wink

The point of the first three movies, in between mood swings of killing people in horrible ways and trying to make us laugh, is to establish that humans are the product of a genetically engineered union between this race of women and the goo monsters. They do this by having one of the goo monsters rape two of the women. One dies and the other gets preggers. Conveniently they are able to just beam the embryo out and it rapidly grows up into an adult male version of the chick that was knocked up. One of the moe characters escapes to the eventually to be Earth with the dude in order to be Adam and Eve while everyone else dies. The war kills everyone and humanity is supposed to be like the future legacy of the two alien races. Part of this includes leaving a computer record of all their technology for when humans are finally advanced enough for space travel.

Then, much like Battlestar Galactica, all of what happened before happened again, only now the unwinnable war was between humans and their machine creations, which just happened to resemble the goo aliens when they were wearing their mecha suits. There is much proselytizing about how there should be a way for humans and the machines to peacefully co-exist, but the machines (led ironically by a computer called "Gorn") seems pretty intent on killing all humans no matter what, so suggesting to the humans to seek a peaceful solution is just as pointless as begging both sides in the first three movies to stop fighting each other. Naturally the war ends, with the reincarnations of the seven main characters showing up again to win the war.

Then it happens all over again in the last two OVA episodes. Gorn and the seven main characters are once again reincarnated out of nothing and Gorn does a pretty good job of killing all humans, who have once again decided to trust computers a lot more than they should have if they'd been genre-savvy. Basically the who point is to have the main characters on the run once more, constantly under attack. Then the OVA just ends, with them managing to escape but to an unknown fate. Obviously whoever worked on this franchise meant for it to continue in some way, but it looks like it never did, seeing as it was made in the late '80s and the only other things to be done with it were a reboot and some video games.

Probably the most fun to be had out of all these movies and OVAs involves the many shower breaks the female characters take. Even in post-apocalyptic Earth during the war with the machines appears to have a plentiful supply of showers in its ruins, specifically so the women can take shower breaks. So basically this is all just a cheesy space opera with plenty of fan service, which means that it's only worth it to watch if you can have fun with that. 1/10.

Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo
(24 episode series)

This is probably the umpteenth adaptation of Alexandre Dumas's classic novel, so to try to stand out a little more, this animated series changes the setting to something decidedly more sci-fi. Yet, despite taking place in the far future (something like the 5050s if certain headstones are to be believed), this adaptation tries to keep its roots firmly in the original story by presenting us with an odd mix of both futuristic technology and visual design and other technology and visual design which looks more appropriate to the early 19th century and the early 20th century while still trying to look futuristic. Oh, and they do manage to work mechas into the story briefly, because it wouldn't be a sci-fi anime without mechas, apparently.

That being said, it wasn't all bad, and it did succeed at making things a bit more visually interesting, except for the mecha part, that was just gratuitous. No, the thing that bothered me the most visually was the odd use of simple photoshop-like textures for almost everything on screen. Characters' clothing and hair, furniture, various buildings – all of them used this odd masking technique which sets a pattern as a background while an unmasked opening allows it to be seen through. So while clothing and the like were animated, the backgrounds didn't move, and overall everything just tended to stand out because of this look, which was almost as if someone had used patterned paper and photographs to cut shapes out of, not unlike South Park's early look. And, it should say a lot about how distracting this was, because I dove right into it as the first thing, rather than making a note of it later, after I talked about the actual story and everything.

The story itself was quite good. I have to admit that I've never read the original novel, so I can't say one way or another how good this adaptation is. I've heard that the Count isn't nearly as sympathetic as most adaptations portray him, so I guess in that way this adaptation is somewhat similar, because the Count wasn't portrayed in a much better light than the people who betrayed him and sent him up the river. This especially stand out, because while the other adaptations I've seen tell the story solely from the Count's perspective, this series focuses primarily on the son of the best friend and former fiancé who had betrayed Edmund Dantes. That does give it a somewhat interesting angle, though it is essentially doing the same as a lot of other anime that focuses on youth.

Albert de Morcerf is on Luna with his best friend, Franz d'Epinay for a carnival there. As it so happens, the mysterious Count of Monte Cristo is at an opera the two go to. Not long afterwards, Albert has one of his many fits with Franz (who I think is a bit more into Albert than Albert is to him, if you catch my drift), and wanders off on his own. This is all over the fact that Albert has a straight crush on the Count after he has the two boys partake in a rather morbid game which involves pardoning one of three men to be publically guillotined as the final part of the carnival. Naturally the one to get pardoned is the remorseless killer, and as it happens this man also has a part in kidnapping Albert after he wanders off on his own. The Count is the only one to come to Franz's aid and so rescues Albert. This widens the rift between Franz and Albert and draws Albert closer to the Count. Even at this early point, the Count hints that this is no accident, though naturally he tells Albert that it's fate. Of course his true plan is eventually revealed, and anyone familiar with the story really just knows that it's a matter of time before the bad things start happening.

By focusing on the children of the people who wronged Edmund, who conveniently form a group of friends so they all know each other, it also gives the series a bit of a chance to flesh out the families of these people a bit more. Naturally there is more than a little soap opera to it, since pretty much all of them are messed up in some way. For example, two of these people had an affair which produced a child, which they buried alive in order to hide. As it turns out, the infant was rescued, and the Count uses him as part of his plan for revenge. Apparently this includes having sex with his own mother, and sexually assaulting his half sister just before he's supposed to marry her. So as messed up as pretty much all of the grown-ups are, the teenaged friends give us some characters to sympathize with when it all goes down. People die or are otherwise ruined, and this naturally effects all of the friends. The main weakness here is actually Albert, because he's a bit of a whiny bastard, who has the unfortunate distinction of reminding me of Shinji from Evangelion. He does grow a pair at one point, but in my opinion it wasn't really enough to make me like him. His friend Franz and his fiancé Eugénie de Danglars come off as way more sympathetic just due to how much they actually care for their friends, and how they react to what's going on around them. Key thing is that they pretty much keep it together while Albert freaks out and does stupid things.

That all being said, I was drawn in by the story and I found most of the characters at least somewhat interesting. Not all of them were really given much of a chance to be fleshed out, unfortunately, but other than that it was all fairly good. It's true that this is an adaptation, but I have to say that it's one of the better ones I've seen, and I never really got bored. It was a little slow picking up, but that was just to get all the pieces of the puzzle set up before the Count started making his move to get his revenge. And since he's a bit of a bastard, essentially doing the same thing to some others that he is taking his revenge for, I think it was a good move to focus on another protagonist rather than making the Count the protagonist. I'd say this series is worth a watch. 8/10.

Gantz
(26 episode series)

This is honestly one of the worst series I've actually bothered to muddy my way all the way through. Basically it's just otaku porn – filled to the brim with the kind of crap that the stereotypical otaku fanboy is supposed to just love the hell out of. On top of that, the series takes every possible opportunity to hit its audience over the head with as much clichéd bullshit as possible when it comes to denouncing how horrible society has become, militaries, the second Iraq War, the United States (you know, 'because it's evil), and ironically violence in general, despite being pretty much all about violence. And if that wasn't bad enough, the characters are all either unsympathetic not-so-nice-people, too stupid to live, or both.

So what's it about? Well basically there's this mysterious, magical black ball with a bald guy on life support inside of it that apparently clones various people at their moments of death in order to have them compete in a sadistic game it likes to play. Basically it gives them these skintight powered armor suits and some sci-fi guns to go out and kill random creatures it claims are aliens, giving them a limited amount of time and a limited area in which to complete these missions. It rewards points based on the outcome of the missions, with the goal being to gain 100 points total.

The series follows "typical high school student" Kei Kurono, who apparently the average otaku is supposed to identify with. He apparently has a hard time (heh) paying attention in class, undressing his attractive teacher and all the girls in his class with his eyes and popping a boner on a regular enough basis that some of the girls in his class can tell when he's hiding one. They then go on to point out this fact to the teacher, who has some fun embarrassing him about it along with the rest of the class. He's the quintessential pervert, thinking about and doing things that frankly make even me think he's a freak. And if that wasn't enough to make me not like him, he's also a rather selfish asshole. Unfortunately for him, he crosses paths with a creepy old lady who apparently is a recruiter for Gantz. This is as he runs into an old friend of his from elementary school at a subway station, Masaru Kato. Masaru is the kind of noble guy I'm guessing all the otaku want to be like, because he always seems to be doing selfless, sacrificing things for anyone and everyone to the point that he's frankly quite annoying. He also tends to do way to much analyzing about things like the implications of using deadly force to defend himself and others that he's basically useless and indecisive during the various "games" Gantz sends the characters on. I say all this up front, because it's pretty much all Masaru's fault that both he and Kei end up dead with their clones fighting random aliens for Gantz's amusement. In the first episode a drunken bum wanders down into the subway station and manages to collapse onto the tracks. And since society is horrible according to this show, no one but Masaru wants to bother actually doing anything to prevent this guy from getting run over by the incoming train. He also happens to recognize Kei and calls out to him, so Kei apparently feels obligated to help out his old friend. They save the bum, but naturally they both end up getting run over by a train. Despite this happening in front of a crowd, no one believes anyone about what happened because not only are their bodies and all the blood mysteriously gone, but all photographic evidence is also gone.

Kei and Masaru find themselves in an unfurnished Tokyo apartment along with several other people, apparently having appeared out of thin air. Not long afterwards, we get to see how this looks when a wet, naked Kei Kishimoto also appears out of thin air, looking somewhat like a 3-D printer has constructed her. She'd apparently tried to commit suicide by slitting her wrists. She's also the reason why it's really obvious that all of the characters who appear in that room are actually clones of the dead originals, because as it turns out, her original was saved (just remember kids, it's down the road, not across the street Wink

). Anyway, Kei Titty McBoobs is basically the main source of fan service for the series, at least until she buys it. She's also our allotment of moé-blob for the series. Actually it's kind of funny because while the opening titles make her look like a hot action girl, really the only function she serves aside from providing about 75% of the massive amount of fan service is to shriek, need rescuing, and ask plaintively for someone to do something. Oh, and there's a dog that likes to lick her crotch pretty much every time it sees her, leading me to believe that the people behind this show are even bigger perverts than I am.

Fortunately for everyone in that apartment, the stereotypical psycho kid was something of a veteran and smugly explained basically everything to everyone else, and by extension the audience, because Gantz never bothered to explain any of the rules of its twisted little game. Simple rules like not wandering more than a kilometer away from where it beamed them outside to fight whatever random enemies it had sent them after, the importance of the power suits, how to operate the weapons it provided, or to not try talking about anything related to Gantz or its games to anyone. The punishment of breaking the "don’t leave the area" or the "don’t talk about Gantz" rules was for Gantz to set off a little bomb it'd implanted into the clones' heads. Everything else was just a matter of making survivability of the characters and success of their missions more likely, or for that matter even explaining why earning 100 points was a good thing, or that they could leave the room after they'd completed a mission until Gantz transported them back for another "game".

There are so many other characters that show up and don’t even last through more than one of these "game" sessions that it would be pretty pointless to describe them all. I'll just say that they're all pathetically stupid to the point that they pretty much all deserved their fate. Don't get me wrong, some of them actually managed to be sympathetic, but they were still stupid. This is actually the thing that frustrated me the most about this series, because when they should've been gunning down the targets Gantz pitted them against before they killed them, most of the time they just stood around and talked, whether to argue about what was going on or what to do, or to agonize about making the really obvious choice to kill something or someone that represented a deadly threat to their own lives. But even when the characters actually started to do that, they tended to do really stupid things, like running right up to the creatures they were fighting to shoot them instead of doing it from a distance and out of range of the vast majority of these things' attacks, because guns can do that. For that matter, even these alleged aliens tended to just stand there for long periods to let all this discussion and/or argument take place. This also tended to stretch out the series and really slow down the pacing, so while there is action, it tends to be spread pretty thin.

And then there's all the beating over the head we get about how horrible society is and ironically about how horrible violence is, despite how much the series actually glorifies violence in order to attract its audience. It does this by showing us examples of humanity at its worst. For instance, in the subway scene at the beginning of the series, we're given a taste of just how horrible everyone is by being given a window into their inner dialog and pretty much everyone is messed up in some way. And when the bum falls onto the tracks, the reactions range from thinking that someone should do something while being unwilling to actually do anything themselves to looking forward to the hobo's impending death so they can see someone die. One of the valley girl types even snaps a picture of Kei's decapitated head as it flies toward her. Later, when we're introduced to Masaru's home life, we learn that his parents are dead and that he's staying with his aunt, who is extremely physically and psychologically abusive toward Masaru and his little brother. A bit later on, we're introduced to two characters who like to go around and kill homeless people, including the bum Kei and Masaru gave their lives to save. The fun part is that at the end of the series, one of these psycho killers excuses his actions by going on an anti-military rant, which includes some shots at the United States just for good measure.

As for why this series is otaku porn, well, I have a list for that, too. Remember fan service girl Kei McBoobs? She's a virgin. This is only worth mentioning because apparently a lot of otakus consider this to be important, because they want their fan service girls to be "pure" or something like that. They also had her cling to Masaru, who was supposed to represent the kind of nobility that otaku are supposed to aspire for, even while Kei, the character they were supposed to identify with, lusted over her and had some very detailed fantasies involving her. Then there's basically everything Kei has going on in his head, between thinking about sex and women, and going around killing things. He also finally ends up having sex with a busty 30s-something woman who just happens to have a thing for otakus, being sure to explain how when she was younger, all the girls were totally all over the cosplaying anime nerds. And then there's Kei's teacher, who aside from carrying on an affair with another teacher, apparently got off on the idea that Kei was getting hard-ons in class because of her.

So if this show was so horrible, why did I watch all of it? Well, it managed to keep things just interesting enough for me to want to see what happened next. I admit I was somewhat curious to see who was going to die and how things would turn out. It also didn't hurt that all the clichés, fan service, and perverted content gave me something to laugh at. To be frank, the biggest problems I had with this show were the clichéd and moronic commentaries it offered, the extremely slow pacing, and all the characters acting so stupidly. Even if something isn't really what I'd consider good, if I can laugh at it I don't really mind it that much, but if I'm bored or finding myself rolling my eyes quite a bit, that really drags a series down. So really, despite the reputation this anime has for being nasty and messed up, that isn't what bothered me, it was just pretty much everything else. Actually, being messed up is the only reason I'd even tell anyone to watch this series, just so they can see it for themselves. If you could handle Elfen Lied, then you'd probably be able to handle this one, too, you just might not enjoy it nearly as much. 4/10.

Ghost in the Shell
(1995 movie)

When I'd first seen this movie, I didn't understand yet that it was actually unrelated to the series, which is what I'd seen first. So I was a bit understandably confused at the differences, not yet realizing that there are a lot of anime movies, series, and OVAs which are only related in that they are all different adaptations of the same source material. I'm told that this movie is closer to the source material than the series, though it's a bit slower paced than the original manga. I still can't hide the fact that I prefer the series, but that really doesn't mean that I don't like this movie.

Having watched it a few times since I first rented it, I can definitely say that this movie takes a more patient sci-fi fan to be really enjoyed. There is action at different points in the series, not to mention fan service in the form of the main protagonist Major Motoko Kusanagi stripping down for her invisibility camouflage to work, but the pacing is fairly slow. In fact, I'd say that this movie is more in the spirit of older sci-fi, from the late '60s and the '70s than more modern ones, excepting Blade Runner of course. Actually comparisons to Blade Runner wouldn't be all that far off.

The story follows Kusanagi and her fellow Section 9 officers, who deal specifically with technological threats and crimes. Even still, the focus of the story is more on the philosophy of what it really means to be human, and if a machine can actually develop a soul, though here they refer to it as a "ghost." This movie is also an old school sci-fi in that it actually does focus on what effect(s) new technology might have on humanity. In this case, not only are their androids, but people have become cybernetic to carrying degrees, some actually having their entire bodies replaced, like the Major and her friend/subordinate, Bateau (as it is spelled in this movie). So from there the movie deals with ideas like, can a person who's had their entire body replaced still be considered the same person, and themes of losing one's identity because those cybernetic bodies are produced in assembly lines. At points the Major sees what seem to be copies of herself, though we can never be sure if that's in her mind or not.

Actually, that brings me to another comparison to Blade Runner, namely that in exactly the same way there was some ambiguity as to whether Decker was a human or a replicant, Major Kusanagi is paranoid by the idea that the military has somehow secretly replaced her brain with a computer, and that she's actually just an android programmed to think she is human. So she tends to do some things that are very dangerous in order to feel human, much to Bateau's chagrin.

Then, of course, there's the idea that a person who has been cybernetically enhanced might lose their free will and even their own identity thanks to actually being hacked by someone else. Of course while I actually feel plenty of sympathy for someone like that, even in the face that person may have gone on to commit crimes because of that hacking, other characters in the movie seem to not really be all that sympathetic. Kind of another commentary of the effects such technology might have on humanity, I guess.

The nice thing about all this is that it all leads back into the plot. A mysterious hacker known as the "Puppetmaster" has been hacking a lot of people. That plot leads to more as Section 9 investigates the matter and makes them run afoul of certain military interests. This is where the idea of artificial life comes in, as it turns out their quarry is actually a military AI that wants to escape and to actually bond with a human being. Naturally those certain military interests I mentioned earlier want to both destroy the escaped AI, and kill anyone who knows about it in order to keep them from revealing the truth about the Puppetmaster and their connection to it.

That being said, the end of the movie is somewhat sad, mostly because the implication is that the human the Puppetmaster chooses to bond with effectively ceases to exist in the process and becomes a new life form entirely, and I was rather fond of that character. The new life form then escapes to an unknown fate. There is a bit of a sequel hook there, but really the story could have just ended there.

I honestly can't make any comparison to the original manga because I haven't read it yet, and probably won't anytime soon. All I can say is that this is an overall a good movie, and well worth a watch. The only caveat with that is that you are definitely going to need some patience to get through it. I, personally, don't see the slow pace as a bad thing, especially because the movie is just taking the time to explain the characters and set things up for the story rather than rushing right into the action, but at times I have to admit that the pacing would pick up just a little bit. I'd say the one that suffers more from that is the sequel, which is the review I'll be writing next. As for this one, it's a little tough to rate, actually. In some ways, I'm not entirely sure if I want to rate it at an 8 or a 9, but I think I'm going to go ahead and rate it as an 8/10. It just doesn't quite make a 9 in my opinion, and I don't really split ratings.

Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
(2004 movie)

With this sequel to the 1995 movie, pacing is definitely a bit of a problem. It tries to capture the same feel as the first movie, and to be fair, it does to a certain extent. I can completely understand wanting to take time to give viewers more clues and to try to mess with their heads a little while they try to figure things out, but in some cases this movie wastes this time where it probably shouldn't have.

With Major Kusanagi gone, Batou (the spelling now changed to something more familiar) is now partnered with the mostly human Togusa and leading an investigation into some strange sex-bot gynoids (the technically correct term for female androids) that have killed their owners and anyone else unfortunate enough to be nearby. Of course Batou is also dealing with the loss of the Major, whom he obviously had feelings for. That being said, this movie has a somewhat more depressing tone than the last one, and Botou is pretty much exclusively the focus of this movie.

Batou and Togusa's investigation eventually leads them to a cyborg company called LOCUS SOLUS, which makes the malfunctioning gynoids, which themselves seem to have actually been tampered with in order to draw this investigation. There seem to be some ties with organized crime and a rich eccentric hacker who apparently lives in a somewhat dangerous and lawless part of the world. This is where the movie drags a bit, because for all the time it takes to give the audience some clues while it messes with our heads, there isn't a whole lot of pay off. Not to mention scenes that seem to be more about showing off eye candy more than anything else.

The idea of having one's mind hacked naturally returns, and it seems that Batou becomes a victim in the course of his investigation. Actually he ends up shooting up a store and shooting off one of his own arms, thinking that someone is trying to kill him. Then there's the scene were they go to visit the rich eccentric hacker I mentioned earlier, as both Batou and Togasa almost get trapped in a computer-generated repeating hell. It's only thanks to a brief return by the Major in her new, entirely computerized form that Batou is able to beat this illusion. I have to admit, though, that the repeating kind of got on my nerves. I understand what the movie was trying to do, but after the second time I was ready for the movie to just get on with it already.

While at times this movie tends to drag on, there are some points that it is actually pretty good. Leading up to the climax, there's a scene where Batou boards an off-shore factory ship and wages a one-man battle against essentially an army. Togasa helps out by hacking into the ship's security system to open the doors for him, and the scene where Batou charges through them is pretty cool by itself, especially with the addition of the soundtrack. And just when it seems like Batou might lose this fight, the Major shows up to help him out, and there's a nice scene between them where she tries to comfort him a little. There's also a call-back to the first movie, because Batou has a thing for putting his coat on the Major when she ends up naked, and he ends up doing that with the gyroid she hacks into to help him out.

Now as it turns out, the cause of those gyroid malfunctions and the reason this LOCUS SOLUS company has been trying its damnedest to kill Batou and Togusa is that they've been having the mafia kidnap little girls to use in some kind of weird soul copying machine. Apparently whatever standard software might normally be used in these live sex dolls wasn't quite "real" enough to the sick frakkers that bought them, never mind that the bots didn't even look quite human to begin with, so LUCUS SOLUS decided that adding bits of the souls of little girls in order to effectively make their products into pedo-bots. Apparently, one of the people working there actually had a conscience and conspired with a couple of the girls to cause these killer malfunctions in order to draw official attention to what was going on to them so they might be rescued. On finding this out, Batou is a lot harder on them then I would be. Sure, it sucks that some innocent people ended up getting killed as a result, but most of the victims were the sick pedophilic owners of these sex-bots, and there is the whole matter of how these girls were kidnapped and were having bits of their soul taken away piece by piece from them until they died, and all so some pedophiles can get their jollies with a robotic sex doll. Of course Batou also feels sorry for the sex-bots that now effectively have human souls who ended up dead, too, but you can guess I'm not with him on that either.

The movie does try to get a bit philosophical, mostly dealing with how robots are becoming more human with things like this soul-ripping machine adding bits of soul to robots, and how humans are becoming more like robots as with the Major. Unfortunately it also tries to do this by having Batou, Togusa, and the Major constantly quoting philosophers during the slow parts of their investigation. And this is where I feel the movie is really lacking. Probably the best it gets at being philosophical is when it comes to dolls and the comparison to humans to dolls, and vice versa. Actually the movie has something of an obsession with dolls and how creepy they can be with the right mentality. I wasn't really into that, so for me this aspect of the movie also became something of a bore for me.

As an aside, I also have to say that it just isn't the same without the Major, and the movie never really quite manages to move on from that fact itself. Batou is a pretty cool character, but he's no Kusanagi, and he doesn't really take her place very well as the lead character. Of course, who knows, maybe that was the point.

As for other things about the movie I never really got over, there was the very intrusive nature of the CGI used in the movie. While it was blended fairly well with the animation, it just tended to stand out to the point that one almost wonders why they didn't simply make everything, including the characters, CGI. I also didn't care for the visual design, as it seemed way too abstract to me. Plus, what can I say? I prefer my machines to look like machines, so having a tilt-rotor with wings that split up into feather-looking sections and flap made me cringe, among other such examples.

Anyway, I suppose this movie is still worth a watch, but be aware that it does tend to drag in some parts and actually feel a bit longer than it is. 7/10.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(26 episode series)

I'm going to say right up front that this is an excellent series and that you should definitely see it if you're a sci-fi fan and/or a cyberpunk fan. Based on the same manga that the movies are based on, the series takes place in the near future and is set primarily in Japan. Technology is very pervasive, with nearly everyone having accepted some form of "cyberization" that links them to an even more advanced version of the internet.

So why do I prefer the series over the movie? Well, as much as I hate to say it, there's just a lot more going on in the series and the movie tends to drag on a bit. That's not to say that I don't mind some cerebral stimulation and some philosophy, but there just has to be more there for me to be interested in, like some good characters. The movies really only ever focus on two of the many characters who make up Section 9. The series, being a series, is able to explore more of the other characters.

I tend to like series with a large ensemble casts and multi-episode story arcs, and wouldn't you know it, but this series happens to fit the bill. Actually one of the nice things about this series is that it manages to introduce you to everyone and the setting everything is taking place in without really slowing the pace down. A lot of anime tends to do that, the thing is while it’s nice to be introduced to characters before we jump into the story, it tends to make the first few episodes kind of drag. This is also why the "three episode rule" exists, because that's usually about the time introductions are over and the plot starts.

GitS;SAC's solution to this is to actually live up to its name and have plenty of stand alone episodes which are unrelated to the main plot, which we catch up to later on. This way, we get to learn about each of the different members of Section 9 by watching them as they go about their jobs, defending Japan against cyber-terrorism. We even follow the antics of the new Tachikomas, robotic "think tanks" where are controlled by Artificial Intelligence. Each of these stand alone episodes is usually pretty good in its own right, exploring different themes which touch on the philosophies that tend to go hand in hand with the type of technologies presented in this series. There are times this gets a little tiring, such as with the Tachikomas, and just insulting, as with the episode featuring "Imperial" Americans.

As an aside, I have to note, yet again, that it seems like someone at Production I.G has an anti-American axe to grind. Yes, I know there is supposed to be some kind of backstory which explains the how the American Empire came into being, but that should've been in the show, and it still could've done without presenting the actual Americans who showed up like they were buffoons. If anything, they should have been creepy since they were from the CIA, but I digress.

In any case, another nice thing these little stand alone episodes did was to give us an occasional break when the main plotline started, and actually helped to set the pacing a little better. Movies have something of a disadvantage when it comes to this, because they have a much more limited amount of time to do everything in. So whereas in a movie, things which take place over the course of weeks or months can seem to be happening in a much more rapid-fire pacing, and diversions away from it can negatively affect the story. In a series, we only get a finite amount of time in each installment, and especially in the case of longer series, there are plenty of episodes to stretch things out over. Plus, the main Laughing Man plotline started out essentially as any other story covered in the series up to that point, and it got the same kind of attention as everything else, and other things were still going on. In a way, this adds a kind of realism, because in real life we don’t have a preset plot that takes over everything and we focus all out attention on.

This approach also allows the series to slowly delve into the plot, until we realize just how much there is to the story it's telling. In this case, it involves an expert hacker, the Laughing Man, who has a beef with a micro-machine pharmaceutical company. It isn't until later why this is, or how far this shady deal to give this company an unfair leg-up over a competitor goes. That's actually another aspect I like about this series, which is that while it still goes over more abstract ideas like just what makes us human, what exactly a "ghost" is, why people might choose to isolate themselves in such an interconnected society, and other things like that with much more real things, like parts of the government working against each other in a struggle for power, corrupt politicians and police, government interference in the marketplace, and smaller idea men getting crushed by large corporations.

As it turns out, this is all about a possible cure to a debilitating disease that has emerged thanks to the push to implant the human body with technology. A lesser known scientist seems to have discovered a possible cure using some other kind of naturally derived, biological treatment, but this information is suppressed by a collaboration between government officials and a large technology corporation which is developing a micro-machine based "cure" which actually doesn’t work all that well. This was all done in the name of money, naturally, and this really pissed the Laughing Man off, and he tried to do something about it. What makes this interesting, aside from learning who the Laughing Man is and what he's about, is just how deep this conspiracy goes. It apparently leads to confrontations with the narc squad and even the military. Things actually look pretty bad for Section 9 there for a while.

Unfortunately, that last part is one of where the series lacks. Why? Well, it's just very anti-climactic. Everything has gone to hell and has fallen apart, characters are captured and maybe worse, leaving only one who has no clue as to what is going on. Everything gets real tense, the character decides to take action, and then nothing. It was all a part of a bigger plan, and move along now, nothing to see.

That being said, this is one of the series few weaknesses, the others being the anti-American episode, and some of the cutesy stuff with the Tachikomas that went on a bit longer than it really should have.

When it comes to the characters, Batou and Major Motoko Kusanagi are easily my favorites. They are both complex characters with interesting backgrounds (or in the case of the Major, a mysterious background). They have a sense of humor (especially Batou), and both are easy to empathize and sympathize with. It's also obvious that Batou has romantic feelings for the Major, even if she doesn't really share them. I really normally don’t go for the whole leader/subordinate romance thing, but here my only real problem was that it got milked way too much toward the end of the series, and came off as somewhat forced for the sake of drama.

Togusa is also an interesting character. He's the least cyberized member of Section 9, and the only one with a law enforcement rather than a military background. He's also a family man, and we actually get to meet his family a few times, so anything that happens to him tends to generate a bit more sympathy for him. He really gets a chance to shine in the series, even more so than in the second movie where he was partnered with Batou. About the only thing there is a plotline that seems to go no where, as at the end of one episode his computer turns itself on, does something, and then shuts back down. This seems like it should lead to something, but it never really seems to.

A lot also tends to get made about the fan service from the Major. All I can say is that while, yes, her outfit is definitely more about that, in this case I can't help but take it in stride. While I really don’t mind fan service at all in most cases, when it comes to a series or movie that's trying to take itself seriously, I usually do start to mind, because I prefer my professionals to appear professional rather than to simply serve as eye candy. This is actually one of my complaints when it comes to other sci-fis, like Star Trek. In this case, though, I guess it just fits her character the same way the rest of Section 9 chooses to present itself. Togusa and Chief Aramaki are really the only ones to dress professionally, with all the others dressing very casually. Plus when it comes down to business, she actually does don a combat outfit that's more or less the same as the rest of them wear, albeit a bit more skin-tight. Plus, as an added bonus, it gave me something to laugh about when the Chief teased her about trying to grab his attention by wearing revealing clothing, when she's actually wearing something that's less revealing than what she normally wears.

Anyway, this is an excellent series, with great artwork, and a wonderful soundtrack to go with an interesting story and characters. I highly recommend that you see this series, even if anime isn't normally your thing. This is a really good sci-fi which just happens to be animated. 9/10.

Wow. You're amazing. You actually finish anime you didn't like and wrote up a review for them despite the disappointment. Kudos. You're doing an awesome job.

This is alphabetical right? Because I've been reading and some titles pop out every few posts or so that start with N or P or something. Sorry, it's my freaky need to be organized acting up. Smile

Every once in a while ANN is advertising an anime I've reviewed, or I've just finished writing a new one, so I post one up that's out of order.

Glad you like my reviews. Smile

Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. 2nd GIG
(26 episode series)

A great follow up to the first season (or series, technically), this is actually the first anime I ever actively got interested in and made a point of watching. And while I really didn't fully understand what was going on because I caught it toward the end of its first showing on Adult Swim, it is a testament to its quality that it still had me hooked from the first time I saw it. I found it so interesting that when Adult Swim re-ran it, I made sure to watch everything from the start of the first SAC series.

Once again the series kind of easies us into the plot. Theoretically we should already know everyone, but the first episode makes a kind of point to reintroduce everyone and briefly recap what happened in the first Stand Alone Complex series while it simultaneously introduces us into what will become a major plotline. That does weaken the first episode a little, but not a whole lot.

The major difference in this sequel series is that we are introduced to a major plotline up front, from the first episode. There's some kind of conspiratory group calling itself "The Individual Eleven" which has been carrying out terrorist attacks, and has gone on to threaten Japan's Prime Minister. There also seem to be some similarities with the Laughing Man incident in that some of the people involved seemed to have gotten their ghosts hacked. This gets Section 9 on the case and investigating. This leads comes to a head, with a lot of people ending up killing themselves due to a virus that makes them think that they are a member of the Individual Eleven. This in turn leads to even bigger things, and a conspiracy that at least attempts to make the one from the first season look small by comparison. In the end, though, this does seem to give us something of a false plotline, as that plot was only a lead-in to another plot, which in turn made what was initially a relatively minor character take on a much larger importance.

This series also carries on the first one's tradition of breaking things up with some stand alone episodes which allow us to explore the characters a bit more in depth, including Major Kusanagi herself. For 2nd GIG, these episodes focus a lot more on the character's backgrounds, which is how we learn about the circumstances that resulted in her getting a completely prosthetic body, as well as what turns out to be a connection to the main antagonist of the series. Of course they don’t really make it that hard to figure out, either.

Of course, everything seems to have a way of leading back to the main plotline, though there are still a few things left unresolved, like whatever ended up happening to a woman that Togusa saved at one point. Things like that seem to have been overlooked or forgotten in favor of putting the puzzle pieces in place for the main plot, which involves a revolution to establish an independent nation within Japan that's mad up of refugees from a recent war in Asia (I think that's where they're from anyway). The leader of this movement is one of the Individual Eleven who managed to overcome the virus and stop from killing himself. He apparently has some even loftier goals, which he sees as the next stage in human evolution. This is, of course, a very sci-fi idea, namely that humans could simply choose to evolve into something else. In this case he thinks humans could all exist on the net, without the need for physical bodies. His goal isn't quite as sympathetic as the Laughing Man's, but whatever.

Everything leading up to the conflict at the end of the series is pretty exciting, as is the final conflict itself. Everything was very fast-paced and action-packed, and I have to say that this is a big part of why I got excited about this series even though I didn't know what was going on when I first saw it. The nice thing about it, though, it that even with all the action, there was still an undercurrent of some very sci-fi themes, including the main Ghost in the Shell philosophical theme of existentialism. I actually ended up writing a short paper citing this series as an example just on how it treated artificial life alone, and as annoying as they could be at times, the Tachikomas played a big part in that. After all, they had developed sentience and in the end they chose to sacrifice themselves yet again to save Japan from another nuclear attack.

Speaking of, I can't help but note the undercurrent of anti-Americanism yet again. About the only difference this time is that instead of being complete buffoons, the "Imperial" Americans were just shady types willing to conspire with some Japanese attempting a coup of their own government. I won't get into it too far so as not to spoil anyone who hasn't seen it too much, but while it does take a while for all the details to be clear, it isn't all that hard to figure it out say an episode or two before hand. Apparently taking a shot at the United States was more important than not making their somewhat complex plot completely predictable.

Still, it's a good series, and it was pretty fun to watch. I'd say that this season/series was just as good as the first one, even with its flaws, and the complete series as a whole remains my favorite anime. It's also one of my favorite sci-fis, period. 9/10.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Solid State Society
(2006 TV movie)

The end of the series did leave something of a sequel hook, if only in the form of making the audience wonder what Major Kusanagi would do following the death of her love interest and how Section 9 might turn out when the dust cleared. It wasn't all that surprising to find out the Major quit Section 9 and went off on her own, nor that Batou refused to take her place. Naturally, the first part of the movie pretty much revolved as much around getting her back on the team as it did setting up the plot of the movie.

Speaking of the plot, I can't say that it made all that much sense to me, and what parts of it did make sense were essentially a retread of what the first movie had explored. It seemed that there was some big conspiracy involving old folks somehow ghost-hacking people in order to kidnap children to adopt as their own. As with in the series, this first part is actually only a lead-in to another one that is a bit bigger. I won't say that any of it is bad exactly, but I'm somewhat disappointed with where this went.

There were a few good moments, and there were a few odd ones too that didn't make any sense, like Section 9's ace sniper giving his target warning instead of just taking him out.

Still, in the end it was all about getting the Major to confront this oddly Puppetmaster-like character so they can have a kind of philosophical discussion. It never is clear just who or what this hacker is, and it seems that the goal was to combine with the Major, just as in the first movie.

Overall, this movie just seemed to drag a bit. In some ways, the magic from the series was there, but it was like it was missing something. In some ways, I wish that they'd simply not done this movie. It's not that it was bad, exactly, it's just that it was kind of pointless, and it didn't really live up to the series, in my opinion. I can't even bring myself to say all that much about it, or even to recommend whether or not anyone might want to watch it. I guess if you were a fan of the series, you might want to watch this movie, just to see what happens to everyone, but other than that, all I can really say is "meh." You really wouldn't be missing much if you didn't see this movie. I kind of wished they'd kept the series going since the way things were set up, they really could have kept going for several more seasons if they'd wanted to. On the other hand, if this was all they could come up with in way of a story, maybe it's better that they didn't. 6/10.

Golden Boy
(6 episode OVA)

This is something of a guilty pleasure of mine, simply owing to the fact that I happen to be a pervert, though not as big of a pervert as Kintaro Oe, the main character of this show. While I can definitely understand his obsession with the female form, I have to say that the toilet fetish is definitely something I don't, even if I do still find his kinks hilarious. And that being said, this anime definitely isn't for everyone, because it makes other sex comedies look absolutely charming by comparison.

Basically the whole point of this OVA is to follow Kintaro around on his adventures as a "student of the world", going around getting some random job each episode despite the fact he would have a law degree if only he applied to graduate. His goal is to learn as much from life as possible, which is why he does this. He'll also scribble down any random bits of knowledge he finds "very educational" in a little notebook he has, often right next to sketches he makes of the various good-looking women he encounters. His mantra is to, "STUDY STUDY STUDY STUDY!" He's also pretty much just a clumsy, socially awkward, mostly inept, perverted idiot who tends to massively screw something up during the job he happens to have during a given episode, only to be revealed to have somehow done something really good during his time there, or as in the first episode completely make-up for it by basically doing something impossible. You wouldn't guess that he's actually quite intelligent and capable from how he looks or how he acts, but at the same time, I personally didn't really care because I was too busy laughing my ass off.

Now, I've seen other reviews that tend to give this OVA a hard time due to its heavy use of clichés and the crude nature of it humor, but to me the humor is just hilarious, and the clichés are a big part of that. If anything, this OVA makes fun of the kind of fan service and awkward romantic buffoonery one might see in other anime that's actually playing everything completely straight and completely seriously and just cranks it all up to eleven. Take, for instance, breast physics. I've poked fun of this kind of thing before in shows like Divergence Eve, where breasts will jiggle about at even the slightest movement of a female character, but here they not only do that, but they make it obvious that they're making fun of it during certain scenes where Kintaro is being verbally ripped to shreds by a female character like Madam President. This is where the clichés come in, and why the woman he ends up helping in each episode tends to be a different cliché. Madam President is the stereotypical Ms. Fanservice, wearing skimpy clothing everywhere, including to her office job as a software developer. In another episode, there's a stereotypical manipulative school girl who likes to play innocent to her father (the Japanese TR) and get various men into trouble. Kintaro naturally calls out all these stereotypes for comedic effect, so I can't really understand complains about clichés and stereotypes because that's pretty much the point of the show. If you’re looking for something that takes itself even remotely seriously, this is not the show for you.

Everything from each episode ends up with Kintaro not only proving himself, but usually with the end result of the woman he helps each week wanting him. This all leads up to the last episode, where Kintaro finds himself working at an animation studio, and ends up calling in favors from all of the women he's helped. Then, as with all the other episodes, he disappears and leaves all the women to chase after him.

So you could definitely say I found this OVA very entertaining, and in fact my local anime club has made it something of a tradition to show it once a year during finals week of spring semester. It's something you can turn your brain off for and just enjoy the hell out of. It has some very perverted humor to go along with everything else it makes fun of, so don’t watch this and then complain about how crude it is. Here's a trailer, have a look. And this. And this. So, with the full knowledge of what you'd be getting yourself into, I would definitely recommend this OVA. Actually, you could probably watch all of it on Youtube. 9/10.

Shiki
(24 + 2 episode series)

This series was both good and somewhat disappointing. It was good in that it had an interesting story and somewhat interesting characters which kept me watching, but disappointing in how the majority of those characters reacted to what went on around them, as well as in how the series ultimately ended.

This story is a little like Higurashi in that it takes place in a small, geographically isolated village, and that a lot of bad things happen to good people. In this case, ironically enough (on purpose, no doubt), Sotoba is a quiet little village that is famous for having a certain type of tree that gets used a lot to make grave markers and coffins. Also like Higurashi, rather than taking place in modern day, it takes place at some point in the past, in this case the 1990's. That's about where the similarities end, though, aside from having some little children which turn out to be evil because of what happens to them. There are no time-loops or take-backs, though, just a lot of dead people.

This series has something of an ensemble cast, but focuses mainly on three characters: Natsuno, a high school boy who's also a prick, Dr. Ozaki, dean of the small hospital in Sotoba, and his friend since childhood, Seishin, a local junior priest who also writes novels on the side. The story starts soon after an old traditional mansion on one of the local hills was torn down and replaced with a western-style castle. No, really, a castle.

Nothing forbidding about this at all.

It was built by a family of rich outsiders, who also move in during the middle of the night, rather rudely awakening some people so they can ask directions. Still, all most people complain about is how the castle doesn't really fit in with the rest of the village, and how the new people pretty much keep to themselves and otherwise act so strangely.

Shortly before their arrival, there had been a number of strange deaths which left an isolated part of the village, which is spread out over a valley, completely vacant. Then, soon after they arrived, the local moe blob who thinks she's destined for greater things, goes missing after approaching the castle and is found to be in a strange lethargic state. Soon afterwards, she dies. While I was hoping this would be a permanent death and the story would be done with her, this series is actually about vampires, as you might have guessed what with the castle and all that. It seems this "family" of vampires, the Kirishikis, has decided that Sotoba would make the perfect place make a safe haven for their kind, and soon set about feeding upon the locals. Unlike most vampire movies, it takes several feedings to kill a victim, who even then might not necessarily reawaken as a vampire. Pretty much all the other movie myths are shown to be right, though, and as an added bonus these vampires are not like the fangirl fap material that Anne Rice novels and the Twilight movies have made them into more recently.

So initially, no one knows what is going on, except of course that an unusual number of people seem to be getting sick and dying. Dr. Ozaki initially thinks he has some kind of epidemic on his hands, and gets pretty stressed out trying to figure out what it is and how to combat it all while trying to keep it a secret so people don’t panic and possibly spread it further. To complicate matters, the people who are sick insist they are simply fighting off a summer cold and refuse to be treated. This is because while a single feeding isn't enough to turn someone into a vampire, just being bitten means they can be hypnotized by the vampires to do and say whatever they wish. This actually made for a pretty gripping story, even though the audience is fully aware of what's going on even as the characters struggle against what they think is an epidemic of some kind. It actually takes a while for the bites to be seen, and even then these are taken to be insect bites and therefore a possible vector.

In the meantime, Natsuno has been getting the feeling that the moe blob who liked to dress like a slut and had a creepy stalker crush on him, is still stalking him from the bushes outside of his window. He reacts by hanging out at basically his only friend's house, sleeping over there at night to avoid feeling like he's being watched, and having strange dreams. Unfortunately for him his stalker follows him and takes her frustration out on his friend, who soon dies. I'd feel sorry for him and all, but he is an asshole and I never took a liking to him. I'm not sure if the audience was supposed to find him all "stoic" and therefore admirable, but I just thought he was a jerk. However, he is the first to figure out what's going on, since he basically witnesses his stalker come into the room and feed on his friend, though at first he thinks this is nothing but a dream. It also kind of comes back on him, too, because his family is from the city, so while Natsuno figures out what is happening and his best friend comes back to feed on him, his father undoes everything he does to try to protect himself.

While Natsuno is feeling watched, Seishin is likewise being stalked, but this time by a little girl who follows him out to his secret hideout in the woods, a small church. He at first thinks she's just a strange little girl, but she keeps dropping hints that she isn't quite normal and is actually much older than she says she is. She's also a fangirl for him, and has totally read all of his books.

Isn't she just the cutest little killer you ever saw?

While I think Seishin had an inkling (and who wouldn’t with eyes like that), he only really accepts it when Dr. Ozaki also starts to figure things out and asks his old friend to help him keep watch on a patient overnight, because he's convinced she's being fed upon. This is when both of them see a local woman who they both knew to be dead, hovering outside of the second story window of the patient's room, asking to be let in so she can feed. The two of them naturally resolve to save this woman, but the next night the vampires conduct an overt attack on the clinic, which unfortunately only Dr. Ozaki and Seishin are around to witness. They all attack the patient and kill her, but leave the doctor and the junior priest for now, basically telling them to back off or the same will happen to them. And this is where the two characters react differently. Seishin is a pacifist, so he elects to basically do nothing, and is disgusted at Ozaki for suggesting that they capture one of the vampires so he can conduct tests on them.

And really, this is where the show tries to get all moralistic and argue something that really doesn't make much sense to me. Basically, it tries to humanize the vampires by having them argue that they didn't exactly ask to be vampires, which is a valid point, but they then go on to argue that since they have to feed to stay alive, humans are no different than animals to them. This is not a valid argument, even though it's one that PETA tries to argue all the time. The difference is that humans are sentient beings, and animals are not. The vampires also refuse to seek any alternative solution which wouldn't require them killing human beings to feed. This makes them a threat, and frankly I don't have much sympathy for them, despite the show's best attempts to play up the tragedy of the vampires. It's true that some of them met tragic ends, and this is especially the case for the vampires who then go on to refuse to feed on anyone. But where I lose sympathy is when they try to use this tragedy as an excuse to kill others, who either stay dead, or are reborn into the same living hell.

Since both Natsuno and Dr. Ozaki have determined that they will try to fight the vampires, the vampires have decided to kill or otherwise punish the two of them. Natsuno is the most proactive and is actually recruiting some of the other students who agree with him, so they take him out first. Just to drive this home, they send his friend to do it, and while he initially doesn't seem like he can go through with it, despite threats from the other vampires against his family, he does go through with it. Luckily for Natsuno, he doesn't either die or turn into a normal vampire. Instead, he turns into a werewolf, though here a werewolf is basically what Blade is in that franchise – he has none of the weaknesses of the other vampires, and all of their strengths, or at least he would if he fed on humans. The Kirishikis also have a couple of werewolves in their employ, who basically have been doing all of the dirty work for them, so that plays out somewhat interestingly.

When it came to Dr. Ozaki, however, they decided to punish him by feeding on his wife. This was a rather stupid move on their part, because as it turns out, Dr. Ozaki is despicably pragmatic, so his reaction is to let them kill his wife, so he can them watch to see if she rises, and then conducts a series of experiments on her in order to figure out how to kill the vampires. So basically he tortures his own wife to death. And while the cold, calculating part of myself kind of agrees with what he did, I also agree with his friend Seishin, who was just disgusted at what he had done, and how unapologetic he was about it. But while Ozaki now fully knows what he's up against, he then goes on to do nothing. While he had all of this evidence he could have sent to the outside world while that was still possible, he didn't, so when he was finally bitten by one of the Kirishikis, he ends up destroying most of this evidence under her hypnotic control.

Really, things only came together at a point when I was just about to give up on this series out of disgust. And while the bad guys winning doesn't necessarily turn me off to a show by itself, in this case I was getting fed up because no one who knew what was going on was really doing anything about it. It was getting to a point that I felt that the people of this village deserved what was happening to them since they refused to do anything about it. Hell, Seishin actually goes to live with the Kirishikis, which is supposed to be him "accepting" them for what they were.

Thankfully, things finally happened. As it turned out, Natsuno had planned on this happening along with Dr. Ozaki, who manages to self-treat himself with a blood transfusion so he can free himself from the hypnosis he's under. He then fools his attacker into thinking he's still under her control, and convinces her into checking out a festival the village is throwing that night at the local temple. As it turns out, the shrine actually weakens her, and Ozaki uses this to out her in front of what's left of the village, who then resolve to kill all of the vampires in order to defend themselves. The odd thing here is that the doctor insists that they do this secretly, without involving the outside world. And this is where a lot more tragedy plays out.

While the series really wants the audience to feel for the vampires, with most of them I really can't, as I explained earlier. So really the only tragedy I feel comes from those who were recently turned into vampires and refuse to feed, but are killed along with the others anyway. There are also a number of people who were killed who didn't have to be, because some of the villagers get too overzealous and either didn't pay attention to Dr. Ozaki's explanation that people who were bitten don't turn into vampires unless they die and therefore kill anyone who is bitten by vampires as they attack them, or argue that the bitten are collaborators since they are acting under the direction of the vampires and therefore should be killed anyway, even though they are nothing more than victims. As the series is winding down, all the temple people end up being murdered as collaborators as well, because Seishin, who was a collaborator, hid in another part of the temple grounds and they knew nothing about it. So really, tragic all around, unlike all the vampires who convinced themselves that their friends and family along with every other living human being were all cattle and it was totally cool for them to kill them as such, only to have some of these "cattle" visit it back upon them now.

For me, the disappointing part comes from how the series ends, so if you don't want to be spoiled anymore than what this review has already given away, just skip the next paragraph.

Basically, the entire village is burnt to the ground, making the entire ordeal the villagers have gone through in order to wipe out the vampires to protect their village is all for nothing. While the outside world naturally gets brought into the area to put the fire out, the fire did succeed at destroying all evidence of the slaughter the villagers were carrying out, it also destroyed all the evidence Dr. Ozaki collected and any evidence they might have which the outside world might actually find useful, considering that vampires exist and all. Then there's the way the pre-teen vampire fangirl and the recently converted Seishin manage to escape during all the confusion with the fire. And that’s how the series ends. Hell of a note, isn't it?

When it comes to the characters, it's really a mixed bag. As I said, it's an ensemble, so there are a lot of characters the series follows. I find that this actually works somewhat against the series as it becomes difficult to keep all of them straight, let alone to remember all of their names. There are also some characters who only seem to exist so we can hate them and actually want them to die horrible deaths, which they do, twice. For me, though, the most interesting dynamic is in the character of Dr. Ozaki, because while he's more or less a good guy, he does some pretty horrible things, and to his own wife to boot. And while both Ozaki and Seishin have an interesting background which explains why each is the way they are as far as how others have expectations of them which lock them into lives neither of them wants, Seishin is a coward and frankly I found myself wishing bad things would happen to him.

Overall, I'd say that I did like this series, though. It was refreshing to see something with vampires that actually depicted them as monsters instead of as love interests for once. So while there were still aspects of the show I didn't like, I'd still recommend this one to others, even though it isn't exactly among my favorites. 7/10.

Gurren Lagann
(27 episode series)

Yet another post-apocalyptic offering, this series is definitely more in the "over-the-top" category, much like Desert Punk. Just as Desert Punk is set in a world that has been devastated and reduced to a desert due to some past cataclysm, depends heavily on over the top humor and action, and isn't really meant to be taken even a little bit seriously, so to is Gurren Lagann. It does have its serious moments, mostly dealing with death, but I never much got into that, I guess, but then that was kind of how I felt about the series at times.

There are actually a lot of things about Gurren Lagann that I normally hate about anime, and actually caused me to stop watching this when it first aired on the Sci Fi Channel (now SyFy). One is the heavy use of mechs. It’s a staple of a lot of anime, about as much as samurai swords and magic-based attacks that require the attacker to loudly announce their attacks in elaborate manners, which this show also does. So, like I said, I pretty much tuned out of this show when it first aired. Based on the advice of my friends, I gave it another try, and it did fair slightly better with me this time, mostly because I realized the things I mentioned above were being done to be funny. Part of me was still annoyed by it, but the other part was just laughing.

I'd have to say that the appeal of this show is pretty much summed up not long into the first episode: kicking logic to the curb and doing the impossible. That's pretty much what the show does, and we even got a catchy theme song out of it. With all the themes of fighting progressively impossible fights and coming out on top in the end, I can see why this show has caught on with quite a few people. It's my understanding that in the UK, there was a poll on the possibility of updating the Union Jack, and the version that won was the addition of the Team Gurren symbol from this show. I actually kind of like the idea myself, to the point of wanting my university to change its sporting name to Team Dai-Gurren, with the symbol as our new mascot.

Then, of course, there's the fan service. Yokko definitely has to be the show's other big draw, what with constantly running around in nothing but a bikini top and short-shorts for the majority of the show. She doesn't play as much of a role as I, personally, wish that she should have had. Mostly she was on a supporting role, and had an unfortunate tendency to have a thing for guys who wind up dead.

Speaking of, I was somewhat surprised when a main character actually died, and only about a third or so into the show. What made it surprising was that this character had been through a lot and lived earlier in the show. But I find I actually liked this aspect of the series, not so much because it was used to occasionally pull at our heartstrings, but because it meant that the show actually did evolve a little, adding new characters and in this case losing at least one of them.

That tended to get lost in how the show pretty much was just one progressively larger battle after the other. What started out as a battle against one and then a few mecha, here called "gunmen" pretty much just turned into fighting larger and larger versions of these things. At one point there were actually gunmen being used to pilot larger gunmen being used to pilot a gunmen that was literally the size of the moon. I personally found that kind of boring, because it was becoming basically the same thing over and over again. So really at its base, it's the humor driving this series.

Some people have complained about the ending, and I won't spoil it too much for you, but I can't say that I see it as a bad ending. I've seen much worse, whether it's that a show simply ends without resolving anything, or that it very quickly and sloppily tries to resolve everything at the last minute (see Blue Gender for an example of that), that's more what I consider to be a bad ending. In this case, the series ends on somewhat of a downer note, but only in the sense that the hero doesn't accept staying on as some great leader figure and seeks life as a wandering homeless man offering small bits of help to strangers while others rebuild the empire, so to speak. I'd actually argue that this makes sense, because this character had tried to be the great leader once, and that didn't work out so great.

Which brings me to the one thing that I really disagree with this show about. At one point there's what I would consider to be a major betrayal, with two of Team Dai-Gurren betraying their leader, conducting a coup, and going as far as sentencing their former friend and leader to death. The show and the betrayed character instantly forgave them, much in the same way Battlestar Galactica did when Commander Adama carried out a coup against his president. I never really understand when a show or the characters in it suggest that such betrayal should be forgiven, but then I don't take betrayal well.

Anyway, while I didn't like this show nearly as much as I did Desert Punk, it was still fairly good. There isn't a whole lot to it, but with shows like this, there doesn't have to be. The characters were likable, and it was funny. It's worth a watch, if nothing else so you can see it and decide for yourself if you like it. You might want to try sticking it out to at least episode 6. 6/10.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Gurren-hen
(2008 movie)
&
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Lagann-hen
(2009 movie)

I'm grouping these two together, because really they're just one big compilation movie of the series. Which is basically its biggest fault. I have yet to see a compilation movie that does the series it's compressing into movie length much justice. These two movies come close, but that has mainly to do with the extensive bits of reanimation and how the story has actually been rewritten in a number of areas. However, it still suffers from the bane of compilation movies, and of just movies in general that try to shove a bunch of stuff into a small amount of time – montages. The first movie in particular was guilty of this, having more than one in just the first half-hour of the movie. I understand the motivation behind this – to speed things up – but here is where the rewrites do much better than montages. So much is skipped over that later scenes don't entirely make sense, and in the montages themselves, you have to be familiar with the series to know the significance of what's being seen.

I guess that only really becomes a problem if you see the purpose of a compilation movie as telling the story of a popular series for movie audiences, thus sparing them the time it takes to watch a large number of episodes. I guess it could also be seen as just an alternate take on the story, and given the large number of rewrites that happened to the basic Gurren Lagann story, there is definitely something to that viewpoint. But that kind of goes back to the montages and how they brought the quality of the movie down. Since there was already so much being changed to make everything fit into two movies, why not re-do the story a bit in the beginning to eliminate the need for montages?

As for the alternate take on the story of this series, I can't say that there was anything I either liked or disliked about how the story was changed. In Blue Gender, the redone parts introduced some things that might have improved the series, even if the movie itself sucked. In this case, there was nothing that really stood out that way to me. But then, I was never all that attached or drawn in to the series, either, so someone who is especially attached to the series might feel differently. I think of the two, though, I preferred the series, simply because while the series tended to have some filler, I just prefer the experience of the series making its way through the story to the experience of the movie rushing through it. 6/10.

Forum - View topic
CX's Anime Reviews (can be spoiler-ific). Latest: Shimoneta: A Boring World Where the Concept of Dir

Nude Model: Tsubasa Yamaguchi Short Stories Manga Review

The Beauty of Stop-Motion Animation with Bottle George Director Daisuke 'Dice' Tsutsumi

Singer, Voice Actress Suzuko Mimori Moves to the U.S.

This Week in Anime - Is The Anime Girl Band Era Here?

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Video Game Review

Kakuriyo -Bed & Breakfast for Spirits- Anime Gets 2nd Season in Fall 2025

The Spring 2024 Manga Guide

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron HD Remaster Video Game Review

Manhwa and Manga: Similar but Different Art Forms

This Week in Anime - How The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio Captures the Reality of Gig Work

Shaman King Flowers Anime Series Review

The Grimm Variations Anime Series Review

	Anime News Network Forum Index -> General -> Anime	All times are GMT - 5 Hours Goto page Previous Next
Page 8 of 17

Forum - View topicCX's Anime Reviews (can be spoiler-ific). Latest: Shimoneta: A Boring World Where the Concept of Dir

Forum

Forum - View topic
CX's Anime Reviews (can be spoiler-ific). Latest: Shimoneta: A Boring World Where the Concept of Dir