Reviews & Reflections

Puella Magi Madoka Magica: First Reactions

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Literally just finished Puella Magi Madoka Magica within the last hour, and here is my first response to the show as a whole. Knee-jerk ranking can be found here. It is impossible to justify putting PMMM any lower than tier II.

It’s incredibly difficult to really gather my thoughts on this show so soon after watching, but there was no way I was going to be able to just sit on it without typing out just a bit. This was my third attempt at watching this show (the first attempt ending after two episodes and the second after only the first), and I did kind of have to gut it out through the first three episodes. After the fourth, however, I was sufficiently engaged to finish out the series and the final 6 episodes were the first in a long time to get me to legitimately marathon something, one episode after the next. I don’t know that it is fair to say that it has a slow start, it just took a while for me to engage.

Madoka Magic Episode 4

Part of the reason, I think, for this is that I am get a bit nervous when shows start fooling around with fate–but it’s not really even possible to divine that from the first couple episodes. Maybe it’s not something I can explain, but it’s just a fact that the show took a while to grab me.

That being said, Madoka Magica has a sense of atmospheric creation unlike anything I’ve seen before. Almost from the beginning of the show, I had an intense feeling of doom and foreboding, a sensation that only grew as the show went on. Looking back, I cannot point to anything specific and say, “That was the reason.” It just was, and it was an incredible experience and impressive to see.

Problems I had: what felt like an information dump in the final few episodes. I felt like I went from knowing nothing to being given everything, rather than have it revealed in pieces. And the ending came across as poorly explained. Not rushed, just something that was given to the audience to see and believe. Because it was so without precedent in the show (and so transcendent in nature) I felt a little left out in the cold, not really sure if I could accept the way things ended up.

So, to sum it all up for now, did I think Puella Magi Madoka Magica was a good anime? Yes, I did. It is excellent. Did I like it? Now, that’s another question and its still up in the air. I haven’t decided yet. Perhaps the movies will help me decide, but for now I am not really leaning one way or another.

Madoka Magica Girls

Working!! (Wagnaria!!) Review

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It can be tough sometimes to sum up the overall impression of a show in a single sentence. So, instead, I’m just going to throw out a few words that represent Working!! (also known as Wagnaria!!): Smiles, laughs, kindness and, ultimately, joy. I’d be hard pressed to find another show that is simultaneously bursting with such energy without crossing into the realm of the absurd. Working!! straddles this line, and the fusion of comedy, romance and true-to-life workplace relationships blends into an energetic, heartfelt experience that is truly deserving of the descriptor “joy.” To see where Working!! ended up in my list of ongoing rankings, click here. It’s cracked my top ten, with potential to be moved up.

Working!! Cast

There are a few important things that Working!! is not. It’s not a romantic comedy. It’s not a harem. It’s not an ecchi. It’s a workplace comedy, although it might be more appropriate to call it a relational comedy set in a workplace (with the typcial shades of romance). Despite the fact that Working!! spends most of its time set in the family restaurant Wagnaria (adapted to be the working English title for the series), the food service setting provides relatively few gags. Most of the jokes come from the cast of characters themselves, each of whom have one dominant characteristic. Continue reading →

Attack on Titan Review

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Attack on Titan Jump

Hello, hello everyone! It is time for reviewing the most popular show of the past two seasons, Attack on Titan. It’s a monster of a task, so I’m going to quote myself a bit to start off. I wrote a review of the first six episodes a while back, so take a quick break away from this post to see what I had to say a quarter of the way through.

To see where I dropped Attack on Titan in my overall rankings, click here. That’s right, folks, I have four (4!!!) shows from the Summer 2013 season ranked ahead of Attack on Titan (Railgun S, Silver Spoon, TWGOK, Gatchaman Crowds). But before your outrage gets the better of you, allow me to explain myself. Continue reading →

Gatchaman Crowds Review

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Today, we saw the ending of Gatchaman Crowds, which probably holds up the title for quirkiest anime of the Summer 2013 season. And yes, the very end was weird, but the ending was exceptional. So let’s get to it. If you want to see where Gatchaman Crowds ended up in my list of rankings, head on over here.

Hajime Icinose

Want an example of a character taking over a show? Hajime does just that.

Gatchaman Crowds, a reboot of the 1972 series Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, is not your typical superhero TV show. Early on, it reminded me a lot of Teen Titans, but as the show went on it differentiated itself as something totally unique. Noted throughout the season for its deconstruction of many cliches of the genre, Gatchaman Crowds continually and deliberately avoids many tropes and dodges expectations time and time again. What we end up with is an intelligent, engaging and ultimately hopeful message on the inherent goodness of humanity and a clear message that violence isn’t always the answer. Continue reading →

Kiniro Mosaic (Kinmoza!) Review

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Following the lead of Silver Spoon on Thursday, the second anime to pull across the finish line this season is Kiniro Mosaic, a delightful bit of moe girls doing cute things and having fun. I picked this one up late, and while it wasn’t the most-thought inspiring thing I watched over the season, it did provide a number of laughs and a generally bright, inoffensive story.

Kiniro Mosaic Karen Waitress

Kiniro Mosaic follows the high school adventures of Alice Cartalet, a blonde-haired English girl who comes to Japan to study with her friend Shinobu Omiya. They are joined by Shino’s classmates, Yoko and Aya, as well as Alice’s friend from England, Karen. As far as plot goes…well, I’d be hard pressed to distill an overall plot line from this compilation of 12 episodes, as each episode is really just a number of gags centering around a common theme. It’s not a bad way to do a show, especially when the main draw of the show is clearly riding on the cuteness of the characters and the overall silliness that occurs. Continue reading →

Silver Spoon (Part 1) Review

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The fall season is beginning to draw to a close, and the first show to finish up is the excellent Silver Spoon, or Gin no Saji. Chronicling the high school adventures of Hachiken Yuugo at Ezono Agricultural High School, this anime with a seemingly strange premise is from the writer of Fullmetal Alchemist and lived up to EVERY expectation I had.

silver spoon

Silver Spoon is a show all about farming, which means it has three main themes. Food, animals, and food. How do you make a compelling story out of that? With excellent writing. The show is written masterfully, and all season long I would finish an episode and go, “Wow. That was perfectly written.” The coming of age story has been done over and over again, but Hiromu Arakawa puts a spin on it that I have never seen before. Hachiken, who was a perfect student in middle school, is initially way out of his element at Ezono. He’s never really been around animals before; all he knows how to do is study. But he is immediately faced with the challenge of realizing the pigs (specifically a runt, whom he names Pork Bowl) he is raising will soon be slaughtered for food. Taking the life of anything is serious, and even at the end of the initial 11 episodes, Hachiken still hasn’t completely come to terms with the matter. Continue reading →

Summer 2013 Midseason Report

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We are now rounding the bend on the Spring 2013 season of anime and I still am watching 12 shows. So, to help you figure out which shows you should go marathon and catch up on, I present the Spring 2013 Anime Midseason Report. You can find my current watchlist here.

This post isn’t meant to be a ranking system for the season’s anime (that will come later), only a report on what’s been living up to expectations and what’s falling short. So, in no particular order…

The Eccentric Family (Watch)

The writing in the show is wonderfully strong and has a natural Japanese feel to it that gives a very nice sense of culture. That trait is an extremely important one, as staying true to the Japanese lifestyle, language and approach is what makes this show so unique. Despite the more serious turn lately, the anime has not lost an ounce of its charm from the beginning of the show. Rather, the introduction of new characters has deepened the experience and adds layers to the wonderful complexity of the main characters. The Eccentric Family also holds the viewers’ trust faithfully, gently following up on its promise to unravel the web we’ve been shown. It is an exceptional bit of storytelling and well worth your time.

sxs

Servant x Service (Maybe Watch)

Still funny, although it has taken a turn out into relationship land, away from workplace humor. That being said, the narrative is plenty entertaining & has actually shown some moments of real emotion. The OP song is certainly one of the best of the season and overall Servant x Service is a really enjoyable addition to a Thursday afternoon. Small warning for some innuendo type humor, but other than that, I’d recommend it to anyone looking for a light-hearted show with good laughs.

The World God Only Knows: Goddesses (Watch)

Keima’s still at it and, albeit a couple episodes in the middle, TWGOK has maintained an admirable amount of dramatic tension and a sense of urgency throughout the entire season. Far better than the first two seasons in terms of emotion, the third season has also continued to develop Keima. Despite the rather odd premise, there is a strange, lovable charm about this show that effectively causes you to invest in every single romantic relationship. Strong recommendation for anyone who like romantic comedy.

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Soul Eater Review (Part 1)

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A few days ago, I finished with my first rewatch of the BONES series Soul Eater, and I must say that, as with many good pieces of art, a review of something already experienced is almost always a good thing. As we age and grow, our perceptions of the world and the art we experience change. Now, I won’t say that I emerged from my rewatch of Soul Eater with a totally new understanding of the show. However, I was able to draw forth some new pieces and new nuances to the show that I had missed before. I also took time in the middle of the rewatch to read the manga, which was an interesting experience in comparisons. But I want to review the 51-episode anime series, which is one of my top 10 anime, and tell you why you should take the time to watch Soul Eater.Soul Eater

Soul Eater is focused on three sets of main characters, headed up by our main protagonist, Maka Albarn and her partner, the titular character Soul Eater Evans. They are joined by Death the Kid, with his partners Liz and Patty Thompson, as well as the outrageous Blackstar and the ever flexible Tsubaki. Maka, Kid and Blackstar as classified as meisters, which makes them weapon-wielders, while Soul, Liz, Patty and Tsubaki are humans with the genetic ability to transform into weapons (a scythe, twin pistols and a ninja sword, respectively). The anime sets itself up in the first three episodes to be a quest type plot, where the three sets of characters must collect 99 evil souls and the soul of a witch to transform their weapons into Death Scythes, the personal weapons of Lord Death, or Shinigami, as he is known in the Japanese. However, their quest quickly expands to become a much more global conflict. Continue reading →

Hunter x Hunter Impressions: Archetypes in Action

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Note: at the time of writing, I have watched through episode 76.

I was about to start off this post by saying I didn’t know why I began watching Hunter x Hunter, but I remembered before I started down that erroneous path. I began watching this popular shounen when someone on Crunchyroll began a topic debate on whether Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood or Hunter x Hunter was better. Now, I had heard good things (not great, but good) about Hunter x Hunter before, but when someone asked this question and people began saying that HxH was the better of the two, I was intrigued. Why?

Killua and Gon

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, in my book, is one of the best anime I have ever watched. It’s one of three shows which I have esteemed enough to spend my hard-earned money to own. For me, buying an anime is a sign that I have claimed ownership of the show, that I validate it and respect it. While there are a few anime which I personally like more than FMA: Brotherhood, I have not yet seen another show that deals with the diversity of themes, portrays the range of emotions, has the intensity of suspense and action, all in one, like it. To challenge FMA: Brotherhood is to challenge the best anime has to offer. I had my suspicions about a simple shounen (one I had seen classified with Bleach and Naruto) being able to take on the crown jewel of anime, but people seemed to think that the claim was justified. And so, I began to watch.

Continue reading →