Forum - View topicCX's Anime Reviews (can be spoiler-ific). Latest: Shimoneta: A Boring World Where the Concept of Dir
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Captain X
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People with opinions. And yes, these are valid criticisms - just because someone made something all on their own doesn't suddenly invalidate any criticisms or mean that their work should be immune to any criticism. In fact, I'm reminded here of people who argue that since Star Wars is owned by George Lucas that he has every right to do whatever the hell he wants to them, like this means that he and his work is somehow immune to criticism. Sorry, but while it's true that something might be someone's work and they can do whatever their heart desires, that does not mean that they can't be criticized or that any criticism of their work is invalid.
You do realize that wanting it to be longer is actually a positive criticism, don't you? As for "changing his vision", see above. And no, I wasn't particularly harsh in my criticism, either. |
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Captain X
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Zipang
(26 episode series) This series was both good and frustrating, frustrating mostly because of how it ended. The story revolves around a modern Aegis destroyer named Mirai, which gets sucked back in time to just after the Battle of Midway. While in an American show the natural impulse would probably be to have the futuristic ship and crew get into the action (Final Countdown comes to mind), here they decide to try as far away from everything that they can because they're afraid not only of any unforeseen consequences to the timeline, but also of the implications of picking a side. Displaced from their own time, they have no allies, not even the Japanese, because as it is constantly pointed out, they aren't like the Imperial Japanese of this era. Unfortunately for them, they find themselves getting more and more drawn into the war thanks to finding and rescuing an Imperial Japanese officer, and they end up getting involved in some very big ways. If you're thinking that this will be an epic adventure with awesome action scenes, well, prepare to be disappointed. This series definitely comes down on the cerebral side of things, making even the action scenes full of dialog, whether it's to agonize about having to kill in order to survive, or to philosophize about the future and politics. This isn't all bad, and in fact I found most of it to be quite interesting. The problem is that they went so fat with it that it made the action scenes stale and drawn out. The series tends to focus on the Mirai's first officer, Lt. Comm. Kadomatsu, and the Imperial Officer he rescues from a crashed seas plane, Lt. Comm. Kusaka. Basically the crew decides to let Kusaka read through the ship's library to find out what he's in for, but as it turns out Kusaka is a pretty slick individual who ends up basically stabbing them in the back, though it's not entirely clear that this is what he intended. Kusaka is probably the most interesting and the most frustrating character of the series in that it's pretty hard to figure him out. Toward the end of the series he makes it clearer what his actual ambitions are, but things involving him tend to stay somewhat ambiguous. I have to say that I also found the politics and discussion about time travel and its possible consequences pretty interesting, too. While I wish that there had been a bit more about how the Mirai managed to travel back in time and how they might get back, the series never really went there, focusing instead on the philosophy of time travel and how one might manage to inadvertently cause themselves to never have been born. Their agonizing over even the smallest bit of interference from them might cause them to fade out of existence like Marty McFly is thrown for a loop though toward the end of the series, when a crew member's father is run over and killed as a child. By the end of the series, though, the crew has pretty much decided that they are stuck in the past and are just trying to stay as far away from everybody as possible, for fear that the Mirai will be taken from them and used in the war. There's actually quite a bit of complexity that goes into making that decision, but it would make this review a lot longer if I tried to explain it all. At the end of the series, there is still quite a bit going on, Kusaka's plans and actions still somewhat shrouded in mystery. And that leads me to the biggest disappointment of the series: it just ends. The last episode doesn't come off as a series finale so much as a season finale that ends on a cliff hanger. I know the real reason for this is because the manga hadn't been finished yet, but since there hasn't been any more news on this since about 2005 as far as I can tell, I'm more than a little frustrated by the fact that this series might go unfinished. So while I would say that this is a pretty good anime to watch if you're into a more cerebral show that combines history and sci-fi, just know going in that the series is actually incomplete. 7/10. |
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Captain X
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This is the last of the reviews I'd written some time ago, so I'm afraid that it's also the last of my regular postings. From this point on, anything I post is going to be new. To give you an idea about the regularity of those, the last two new reviews I did were Gasaraki and Geneshaft. To be fair, though, I recently finished re-watching Black Lagoon, and recently made my way through a series called Sekirei, or at least its first season.
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Captain X
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Black Lagoon – Seasons 1 & 2
(24 episode series) Put succinctly, this series is a valentine to action movies on both sides of the Pacific. Not a hold you down and have its way with you valentine like Star Trek: Enterprise's last episode, either, but something people who enjoy old action movies from the '80s and '90s would actually appreciate. Now, just to be clear, this isn't exactly what I would normally consider "good" per say, but you might notice that it's still ranked fairly high on my favorites/recommendations list. Why? Because this series is fuckin' awesome, that's why. It's awesome the same way the movies RED and The Expendables are awesome. Shows like that don't try to sell themselves as anything other than mindless action, with plenty of explosions and fight scenes thrown in, but without being completely stupid. They wink and smile at what they are and have fun. That's what Black Lagoon does. It also references plenty of other cool action movies, which tells me that the people who made this movie are as big of film nerds as I am. Das Boot and Terminator 2 are probably the most obvious references, but there are a few others, along with some Japanese action schlock just to round everything out. At the same time, this series is more than that. If I could directly compare this series to anything else, the closest I could come would be the short-lived series Firefly. It takes place on an old PT boat called the Black Lagoon, captained by an old war vet (or so we're led to believe), and crewed by misfits. However, this isn't the captain's story, it's Rock's. Once known as Rokuro Okajima, he was a typical business yuppie who took any amount of flack from anyone just so he could maybe someday move up that corporate ladder. One fateful day, he was asked to carry a disk with some of his company's dirty secrets on it, and as it just so happened the Russian mafia knew about this and decided to do a little blackmail, and so Rokuro met the crew of the Lagoon and became Rock. There is no overall arcing story to the series, which instead is split up into a number of multi-episode story arcs. Well, I guess that's not entirely accurate – the overall story arc is how Rock changes from the business yuppie into someone harder, someone who can survive in the dark underbelly of Asia that is Roanapur. Not to mention someone who can survive having sexual tension with someone who's a breath away from blowing his brains out. 
Kind of makes the typical "Pride and Prejudice" bullshit seem laughable in comparison, really. But the main point is that Rock not only survives, but begins to thrive, becoming a full-fledged part of the Lagoon Company, and impressing all the very bad people who make crime their business in Roanapur – people like Balalaika, the boss of Hotel Moscow. Hotel Moscow, just so you know, is a part of the Russian mafia made up entirely of an elite military group that fought in the Soviet-Afghanistan conflict. The stories that make up the series tend to be pretty interesting by themselves, too, in a usually messed up kind of way. At one point they even managed to kind of make me feel a little sorry for some psychopathic little murdering kids. Most of the time, though, it's mostly about awesome, over-the-top action, at least until it turns into the Rock and Revy Show in the last part of the second season. Honestly, the characters are a big part of why this series was enjoyable. Rock makes a pretty decent protagonist, who actually manages to break away from the whiny Japanese male stereotype every once in a while and actually stands up for himself. Revy is very much the Ms. Fanservice of the series, on top of being the ultimate action girl. She's nicknamed "Two Hands" thanks to her ability to accurately fire both of her handguns at the same time. She also apparently has the ability to jump something like 20 feet or better. As I hinted above, there also seems to be a bit of a romance ... thing going on between Rock and Revy, though definitely not in the traditional sense. They each seem to be drawn to aspects of the other, and other characters even call them one it, and while part of me kind of would like to see that, I guess I'm not like the typical fanboy because I can't get past how certifiably evil Revy is. She is very much the Jayne of the show. I guess that's why I was kind of disappointed when the show kind of tended to push aside Dutch and Benny so much, because those two were fairly interesting, too. Dutch is the captain of the Black Lagoon, and the owner of the Lagoon Company, which does odd jobs for whoever pays the most. Benny is a computer nerd and the information expert of the company. Both of them are pretty laid back characters who keep themselves calm and collected. There are also a number of minor characters who have their own little quirks that manage to make them endure themselves to the audience, even if they're bad people. Actually that's part of how the show goes over-the-top, because I think Benny is the only character who isn't messed up in some way. You know, like Balalaika, who just happens to look on the outside like she is on the inside. 
Go ahead, call her "Fry Face," I'm sure she won't mind. The only characters I wasn't terribly impressed with were the yakuza types in the last part of the series. The show kept trying to impress me with how badass they were, and how noble some of them supposedly were, but, let's face it, they're yakuza. Oh, and as an aside, swords could never cut through a gun. Sorry katana fanboys, but no matter how sharp they are, they aren't hard enough to cut through a gun barrel. Anyway, as you might guess, I thoroughly enjoyed this series. It isn't remotely the kind of thing I would normally call "good," rather, it's carried by the sheer power of awesome. If you enjoy action movies, if you enjoyed Cowboy Bebop, Outlaw Star, or Firefly, you will definitely enjoy this series, too. 9/10. |
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Captain X
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Sekirei
(12 episode series) Sekirei? Moar like Ecchirei, amirite? Okay, for those of you who don't know what ecchi is, that basically translates into lots and lots of bare boobs, with the nipples actually drawn on them. Or, put another way, that fine line separating an R rating from an NC-17 rating, because showing genitals is one of the few taboos Japan seems to have, at least in their normal television programming. And what I'm getting at is that this show is one of the most pathetic excuses to show as many tits as possible. Now those of you who have been keeping up with my reviews on a regular basis know that I have nothing against fan service per say; I even prefer to have them show the bits instead of using anime anatomy if they're going to bother. No, what bothers me is when that's the entire point of the show. Oh, there's a plot, and even a weak story, but mostly this show is about how many different ways it can get women topless, and how many ways said women can practically throw themselves at some pathetic loser only for him to act like he's bloody afraid of them. 
You know, like every harem anime ever. Oh yeah, that's the other thing, this show is also all about pairing this guy up with almost every woman he comes across, and even one small girl in order to cover all the fetish bases. Oh, I'm sure some people will claim it was all innocent, and they were just playing that tiresome moé trope straight. After all, most of the time she calls the loser protagonist "big brother", but later one when one of these women insists that being kissed by him make her his wife, she was fighting over him like all the others (don’t worry, I'll explain that part a bit later). Oh, Japan, what is it with you and loli? And just as a brief explanation of what moé is, basically it's the really cutesy character with the big eyes who talks very meekly in a high but quiet voice, and is also usually really clumsy. This was supposedly to instill the "big brother" instinct in viewers, but apparently for a large number of anime nerds it actually causes a boner. Don’t ask me to explain; I don't understand it either. For me, though, one of the more amusing/pathetic aspects of this series was that despite it was all about throwing as many female characters as possible at the whiny male protagonist, it apparently felt the need to cover all of its bases. So not only was there an implied lesbian couple, but there was some implied boy love, too, and even a really femmy looking boy for a female character to fawn over and even dress up like a girl. You know, to hide him, I guess. Anyway, I suppose I should actually get around to explaining what this show is actually supposed to be about. Sekirei are actually a race of aliens which just happen to look human, and most of whom happen to be attractive, large-breasted women. Their ship crashed on Earth in 1999 (the show takes place in 2020), and it was found by some crazy frakker with a dream of world complex. He names himself the game-master, and founds a large military organization called the MBI Corporation out of nothing. He then sets in motion the "Sekirei Plan", which basically involves all these large-breasted women fighting each other, sometimes to the death, because apparently there can only be one. The idea, though, since they’re magic and stuff, is for them to find a human and kiss them, thereby getting their "wings", which unlocks special powers they can then use in their fights. These humans are called ashikabi. Minato Sahashi ends up becoming one such ashikabi one day when Musubi literally falls out of the sky and into his lap. You have no idea how common something like this is in the "romantic comedy" genre of anime, and in fact when this first happened, I thought this was going to be a "magical girlfriend" series, which basically entails some pathetic loser suddenly getting the perfect girlfriend one day, who is really awesome at cooking and doing other household chores while also usually having some kind of special powers or abilities. But since Minato ends up with five or six of them, that makes this a harem anime. It all started because Minato helped Musubi out against a couple of other sekirei, who were trying to take her out before she could become "winged". As a way of saying thanks, she kisses him, which causes her to become "winged". It also means she basically belongs to him, so you can guess where that kind of leads, or would lead anyway if Minato wasn't afraid of women who want to have sex with him. But since he lives in an apartment rented to him by an old fart who had a morality clause in the lease, he loses his apartment and ends up living in a boarding house of some kind, where it just so happens that a bunch of other sekirei also live, which includes the landlady by the by. He then ends up collecting sekirei, either by rescuing them, or because they seek him out and sexually assault him. The fun part of all of this, though, is that supposedly at least in the beginning, all these fights are supposed to take place in secret. That's funny, because right from the start these fights were taking place in the open. The other fun part is how the fights usually result in shredded clothing and mostly naked women, because their clothes are apparently made out of something even weaker than tissue paper – just getting punched is enough to shred clothing. Anyway, as the series progresses, Minato meets other ashikabi and sekirei, including one pair of them that actually wants nothing to do with the "Sekirei Plan" and wants to get the hell out of dodge. This kind of becomes the "drama" of the series, because by this point, MBI has completely taken over Tokyo, and for some reason the JSDF is powerless to stop them, though the series never bothers to explain why. Minato agrees to help them get out of the city, and talks most of his harem and another ashikabi with two sekirei he's managed to befriend into helping him out with this plan. But naturally things go wrong, and drama supposedly happens, including a part where Musubi is defeated and it looks like she's a goner. Then the show pulls a miraculous recovery out of its fourth point of contact that makes no sense at all, but somehow involves a multiple personality that Musubi has. I guess if there's one positive aspect to the series, it's that Minato actually shows a little character growth from the beginning of the series – a little. Instead of being a whiny pathetic loser that cries at the drop of a hat, he's a whiny pathetic loser that cries at the drop of a hat, and actually throws a punch to defend himself. Of course he manages to knock himself on his own ass in the process, so there you go. I'm not even going to discuss the characters any further. There are a lot of them, but there isn't a whole lot to them. Of course this show is about boobs, so I guess that's to be expected. I'm sure some of you are probably wondering why I bothered watching this series since it's obvious I didn't like it. Well, to be honest my friends talked me into it. Every once in a while they pick out a show they know is going to be bad and subject themselves to it, and since this one didn't seem as bad as say My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute or Ouran High School Host Club, I decided to go along with it. I'm just glad it was only 12 episodes long, or at least that's all that was on NetFlix at the time. As it turns out there's an OVA and a second season, but I'm not going to bother watching those, and if you actually like this show you probably wouldn't want me to review them. I was going to rate this a 1, but then I remembered that I rated Ah! My Goddess a 1, and that show was more interesting and less painful to watch. To be honest I can't really think of anything positive about this show anyway, so, 0/10. |
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Captain X
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Night Raid 1931
(16 episode series) I hate to say it, but probably the most positive thing I can say about this series is that it tried. I mean, compared to the moé/fan service –filled crap that's been coming out more lately, it was nice to see a new series that didn't revolve entirely around boobs. By comparison, this series was actually pretty mature, though it did still indulge in a bathhouse scene. This series is a bit like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen meets Forest Gump in that it follows the exploits of a secretive group of spies called "Sakurai Kikan" during significant historical events, yet has been lost to history. Oh, and these spies all have special talents, like telepathy, Nightcrawler-like teleportation, and the ability to deflect bullets using some kind of kinetic field. This show uses something of an ensemble cast of characters, so there isn't really any one protagonist. If anything, there's something of a big three between the characters of Aoi Miyoshi, Kazura Iha, and Yukina Sonogi. The story has both stand-alone filler episodes and story arc episodes that revolve around a plot by a rogue group of Japanese soldiers who have disappeared in Manchuria. This also just happens to coincide with the Manchurian Incident, which as you might recall was a fairly transparent excuse that Japan used to invade and occupy the region so it could exploit its resources. As you might guess, the story is very involved and somewhat dramatic as our group of spies tries to figure out what's going on, as the Manchurian Incident is only just the beginning of another plot. The stand-alone episodes serve mainly to break up the tension a bit, and to do a little character development. The thing is, while I like a good steady pace, and a series that takes its time to unravel a plot and let us get to know the characters, there just wasn't enough interesting in this series to really hold my interest. I like history, and I'm even something of a history buff, but there just wasn't enough here to keep me interested. If the series had focused more on the real historical problems, or just more on the group of spies, it might have been a bit better, but as it was, I never found myself much caring about any of the characters or what was going on around them. For a brief time there, I was thinking that this series was taking an alternate history route because the big evil secret plan was for the development and deployment of an atomic bomb in the name of creating a world-wide peace, because, you know, the Cold War was an awesome, really peaceful period in our history that never threatened to turn hot at any point. And then of course there's the whole destroying Shanghai and spreading nuclear fallout all over the Chinese countryside thing that was an integral part of their plan. But, much like The Daughter of Twenty Faces before it, despite everything that happened, including a telepathic attack that made a huge number of people experience a nuclear detonation, everything was neatly wrapped up and never spoken of again so history could resume the course that we're all familiar with. I wanted to like this series – really, I did. It was a break from the usual tripe that makes up most of anime these days. But, it just wasn't very interesting to me. Others may feel differently, but overall my experience was very bland. It wasn't quite boring to the point that it was a chore to watch, but it certainly wasn't compelling or dramatic either. It tried, but it just didn't quite succeed, at least not with me. 6/10. |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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Nice to see you back, Captain X. I missed reading your reviews.
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Captain X
Posts: 253 |
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Thanks. I disappeared into Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 for a few months.
 Being a grad student doesn't help much either. 
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Captain X
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Gunsmith Cats
(3 episode OVA) You know, it's shows like this that kind of makes me appreciate older anime. It actually has a half-way interesting plot, characters, and a story that doesn't focus entirely around fan service. Oh sure, it still has fan service, but it's definitely not as in your face about it, or nearly as frequent, because, you know, there's a story going on. In this case, the story follows two young female bounty hunters as they become involved in a gunrunning investigation. And by involved, I mean the ATF blackmailed them into helping, because as it turns out Irene "Rally" Vincent, and her petite partner, "Minnie" May Hopkins also run their own gun shop, and they apparently don’t quite comply with the oppressive gun laws in Chicago. 
You tell 'em, ladies. Oh, yeah, that's the other thing, this takes place completely in Chicago, and as an aside, I really have to give kudos to the people who made this, because it's obvious that they really did their homework. While the look of the series is still somewhat cartoony, they still managed to capture the look of various American vehicles, official symbols and seals, and of Chicago itself. Hell, they even managed to convey how much Chicago hates the Second Amendment, and I bet they weren't even trying.
Anyway, the story follows Rally, Minnie, and the ATF agent that blackmailed them into helping his investigation as they discover what looks like a fairly typical gang-related gunrunning operation actually goes a lot higher. This is somewhat amusing in light of more recent events involving the BATFE, which has added a few more letters to its alphabet soup since this OVA was made – you know, that whole "Fast and Furious" operation aimed at undermining the Second Amendment. Oh, don't ever change, ATF. Okay, this show isn't really about politics, and it also isn't what might be called especially thoughtful or deep, but it does have a coherent story and a plot that moves along at a nice pace, so I still feel this is a good show overall. It also really helped that Rally and Minnie were my kind of action girls, and that even the ATF agent that blackmailed them managed to endure himself a bit to me. There are plenty of action clichés to go along with everything, but the series manages to not take itself all that seriously without quite crossing into the mindless crap that a lot of action stories often does. That being said, the big reveal at the end wasn't very surprising, but it was still interesting watching everyone get there. So if you enjoy light action fluff, this is definitely a show you might want to watch. Honestly, my biggest disappointment with it is that this wasn't a full-blown series. This isn't quite a favorite, but it's pretty close. 8/10. |
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archaron
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You should check out the manga version, it is very good as well.
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Captain X
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Probably will, someday.
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archaron
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Which version did you end up watching the 2001 or the 2004? I heard that the 2004 had upgraded audio. I have been on the look out for a copy for a while, but I have not had too much luck tracking one down. Good to see that it is worth the effort of getting a copy.
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Captain X
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Gunsmith Cats? I'm guessing that it was an older dub because, well, it sounded like an older dub. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Captain X
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Riding Bean
(single episode OVA) Ah yes, the '80s. I don't quite know what it is, but there's a special something about watching old action anime like this. I mean, I know there's plenty of more modern anime that isn't afraid to show blood and guts, but for some reason the stuff from the '80s really stands out. Anyway, as some of you no doubt know, this is actually a spiritual predecessor to Gunsmith Cats, and it even features a character by the name of Rally Vincent. Of course, like a lot of anime, as the chick, she's playing second fiddle to a male protagonist, in this case named Bean Bandit. He's a mercenary, working odd jobs as a courier of sorts, whether as a getaway driver, or to deliver a kidnap victim. Naturally, this has caused him to earn the animosity of the Chicago Police Department, and at points I couldn't help but be reminded a bit of Blues Brothers. 
Can't quite put my finger on why, though... Bean himself actually reminds me a bit of Johnny Bravo, between how he looks and how he sounds, he's basically the darker skinned, brunette twin of good ol' Johnny. Of course he actually succeeds at most of what he does and he probably does plenty of Rally racing, too, if you know what I mean (of course you do). A one-off, this OVA is about an evil lesbian and her convoluted plan to kidnap the owner of some big made-up company. To do so, she hires Bean as a getaway driver after robbing a bank in the middle of a mall, and manages to get him on camera with what appears to be the daughter of the business guy in the back of his car, not long after they'd actually kidnapped said 11 year old girl. But, as it turns out, the little girl who went on the bank job with the evil lesbian is actually working for her, in more ways than one. Yes, yes, corrupted loli lesbian, lover and submissive to the evil lesbian. Oh Japan... So the evil lesbian went through a lot of trouble to get $2 million and a hostage, all while framing Bean for kidnapping, though to be frank he was already a wanted criminal, so it's not like she'd have had to do much to get the cops on his tail. And, just as you'd expect for a simple action flick like this, everything works out for our anti-hero and his partner. And since Bean has a soft spot for kids (no, not that way, perv), he even seems to adopt the corrupted lesbian loli as an added bonus. This is not what would really be considered a good anime – generic, simplistic, clichéd, and a bit predictable – but it was still somewhat enjoyable to watch. I'd blame it on nostalgia, but I actually only got into anime starting in 2001/2002, so it probably just has more to do with shows like High School of the Dead and Sekirei making me appreciate older anime a bit more. Of course, I've always kind of appreciated older anime, so I've never understood why so many people dismiss it out of hand. I mean, I get that the older dubs can be a bit grating, and this one's dub doesn't do it any favors either, but the stories and characters tend to be a bit more interesting, so I tend to overlook things like that. To sum it up, this isn't quite as good as Gunsmith Cats in my opinion, though it did have a charm all it's own. I think it's still worth a watch, though. 7/10. |
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Captain X
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[C]: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control
(11 episode series) I have to admit, when I first heard about this series, it didn't strike me as something I'd be interested in. I forget why I ended up deciding to watch it, so all I can really do is shrug my shoulders after the fact. To be honest, I almost didn't finish watching this series after watching the first couple of episodes, but being a believer in the "three episode rule" I decided to give it one more episode before I gave up on it entirely, and it managed to keep me interested just enough to keep watching. This series follows an average college student, Kimimaro Yoga, just trying to make it through college without ending up in debt or having to ask others for financial help. This is a nice break from the norm of watching the antics of some average high school student, but as far as the story structure goes, that fact is pretty irrelevant because everything plays out in about the same way. The series tried to make up for this a little by giving us something kind of different to introduce itself with instead of starting by introducing its rather unremarkable protagonist. That basically translated into a kind of video game battle between some generic loser who's down on his luck already and the guy who will come to be known as the antagonist. I can't say that I was especially wowed or impressed in any way. In fact, for the first two episodes, I was kind of bored by what looked like another generic fighting anime to me. This series reminded me a lot of what I've seen and heard about Pokémon, because the series focuses almost entirely on these one on one gladiatorial style battles between two people, called "Entrés," and the monsters they all apparently own, called "assets." The "gotta catch 'em all" would be the money the Entrés are fighting over, I guess. Add to that the way everything comes off as being from a video game, what with the load announcements of the various powers being used sounding like the announcement for using a combo move in a fighting game, and I couldn't help but think of this as Pokémon with economics jargon. Oh, yeah, that's the other thing; I couldn't help but be left with the impression that this series used economic terms like the Star Trek franchise used science terms, particularly during the Voyager/Enterprise years, which is to say basically just as cool-sounding terms for the characters to rattle off while they did things. Combine that with the way the entire point of the series started coming off to me just as an excuse to fantasize about being rich and spending money and really stupid things, and I just wasn't very impressed with the series. Thankfully, this series started to show a little depth starting in the third episode, when it became apparent that it wasn't so much about how rich some not-so-nice-people were as it was about how messed up the effects of what they did in their little virtual world were when translated into the real world, like say a character losing all of his kids because he went bankrupt in this virtual Financial District. At that point it became more apparent that all the random background talk about suicides and crime being on the rise and birth rates being on the decline were more than just mood setting. To the series's credit, it did explain that the money of the Financial District, Midas Notes, used the future as collateral. However, this was rather meaningless until the series actually got around to explaining it. It also made Masakaki, the strange Mad Hatter character who invited Kimimaro into the strange world of the Financial District somewhat more sinister on top of just being generally strange and creepy. 
It's kind of offset by his appearance, though. The strength of this series is mainly in the depth it gives its characters rather than in its plot. The plot is basically all about saving the world, because this business with the Financial District can actually make entire nations cease to exist, landmass included. It helps to add a sense of drama as the story progresses, but it isn't terribly compelling on its own. The story is about Kimimaro and his growth as a person, which is amplified and reflected by his antagonist, Souichirou Mikuni. The two of them are both similar in that they both only wanted simple lives that they could enjoy on their own, but were caught up in the business of making money. They also both have similar goals in that both want to save Japan, but they are different in how they want to go about it. Souichirou's solution is to buy up the debt of Japan directly, but the problem is that he uses the Midas money of the Financial District, so in return for "saving" Japan, it turns Japan into a corporate financial wasteland not unlike what many dystopian sci-fis of the '80s envisioned. The main argument here is philosophical: is the present or the future worth more? Souichirou feels that the present is more important, and for a while Kimimaro isn't sure, but eventually he decides the future is worth more. If I give this series props for anything, though, it has to be with Souichirou's character. I mean, it was obvious that he was supposed to be the villain of the series from the very start of the series, but they actually gave him some depth and made him a somewhat sympathetic character. He was basically robbed of the happy life he'd wanted when he was younger, in part by his overbearing father and in part by his own inability to stand up for himself, and the ultimate irony was that while he'd taken Kimimaro under his wing, he was essentially trying to destroy the college student the way his father had destroyed him. Things like that carried the series for me. There was plenty, however, that knock this series down in score for me. Aside from weak opening and the other things I mentioned, there's way Kimimaro's asset, Msyu, looked like a prepubescent girl, dressed in next to nothing, and yet was pushed as a romantic interest of sorts for Kimimaro in a fairly typical fashion. Things kind of took a turn for the weird (more so) when it was revealed that Msyu actually represented a possible future daughter of Kimimaro's. Oh, and while the fan service wasn't nearly as obnoxious as something like Sekirei or High School of the Dead, it's also obvious someone on the staff had an oral fixation. There's also a -1 modifier for the unnecessary America-bashing in this series, because that shit really wears on me fast. I also can't say that I much cared for the story all that much. The series was probably trying something a bit different by making Kimimaro so unremarkable, but between there not being much for me to really root for with him, and the story being so economics-based, at least in theory, I was somewhat bored with that. What can I say? I'm an engineer, so the numbers I have to deal with actually mean something – it’s not like economics, which is basically about philosophy more than anything else. Overall, I guess I'd say this was worth watching just the one time, but it really is unremarkable. It isn't horribly bad, but it isn't especially good either, and a good antagonist isn't enough to carry a boring story for me. 5/10. |
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