Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta Review

November 24, 2014November 24, 2014iblessall 8 Comments

There are always a few shows each season that, for whatever reason, don’t get licensed for streaming. One of the more egregious omissions in recent memory, at least as far as I’m concerned, is Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta [Tatsunoko Production, 2013], an adaptation of Suzuhito Yasuda’s popular manga. A beautifully crafted production, YZQ is charming and tons of fun, fitting it nicely into my ratings at a 6/10 (Rankings).

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AKB0048 First Stage: Dreams, Performance & the Machine

October 26, 2014September 10, 2015iblessall 13 Comments

I’ve always had mixed feelings about Japan’s idol industry, and AKB0048 First Stage [Satelight, 2012] is kind of the perfect review of everything I find enchanting about the system and everything I find terrifying and troubling about it. Like many anime shows that heavily feature music, I seriously believe in the unitive and uplifting abilities of music and, perhaps even more than just music itself, performance. Having been a part of a show choir for three years in high school and one year in college, the similarities between idol performances and show choir performances have always struck me. (Don’t know what show choir is? Here’s a video of a nationally renowned high school show choir from California.)

So, the trouble comes when I have to compare the affection for the past and resonance with my own experience generated by these shows to the dark side of the industry such shows sometimes tackle, but often gloss over. But before that, have some tunes!

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Gundam Build Fighters: When Toys Come to Life

October 18, 2014October 17, 2014iblessall 3 Comments

Gundam Build Fighters [Sunrise, 2013], as a glorified toy commercial, stands at the fascinating intersection between art and commercialism. As most involved in the anime fandom know, these foreign cartoons are almost always little more than an advertisement for their source material, and Gundam Build Fighters has the slightly more unique distinction among them by being an ad for model robots rather than an narrative product.

This in mind, it is all the more marvelous that Gundam Build Fighters is simultaneously a triumph of creative narrative entertainment and intelligent advertising—but more than that, it’s a beautiful affirmation of the importance of fun, play, and sheer joy. How incredibly ironic that such a blatantly commercial enterprise should leave us with the final message that to sacrifice the love of something in the pursuit of material success is the worst kind of destruction that can be inflicted on our souls.

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Dual Review: Problem Children and Dream Eater Merry

October 4, 2014October 7, 2014iblessall Leave a comment

I’m back to school these days, and last week I had a paper due that I really didn’t want to write. This is also know as the prime conditions in which I marathon a lot of anime, so of course I wound up cranking through a couple shows, finishing both Dream Eater Merry and the exhaustively titled Problem Children Are Coming from Another World, Aren’t They? I’m not reviewing them together solely because I finished them in the same week (although that’s part of it), but more because I had somewhat similar responses to them.

Both shows finished with a 5/10 rating (Rankings).

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Free! Eternal Summer Review

September 24, 2014iblessall 3 Comments

“If you did find a dream, what would you do?

If you had told me at the beginning of the summer season that I’d be sitting here thirteen weeks later about to write a review of Free! Eternal Summer, one I knew it would be impossible to write without talking about its themes…well, I probably wouldn’t have believed you. I came into this season of Free! expecting nothing less and nothing more than a slickly produced, super-shiny fanservice show featuring a bunch of muscular high school boys swimming half-naked in pools. And you know what? I was fine with that. Free! Iwatobi Swim Club, the first season of the franchise, was more than enough fun for me to want to watch the second season. But Free! Eternal Summer felt, at times, like a completely different show. So, for a noticeable improvement, for being fun, and for looking decadently pretty, I’m giving Free! Eternal Summer a 6/10 (Ranking).

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Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun Review

September 21, 2014iblessall 15 Comments

What an absolute breath of fresh air Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun [Dogakobo, 2014] was for this season of anime. From beginning to end, from Sakura’s confession to the finale’s fireworks, from the groovy first notes of the OP to the final line of dialogue, Nozaki-kun has been nothing but warm, relaxing, and hilarious. Whether it was engaging in parody, using character-driven comedy, cracking jokes about writers, or just being pleasant to watch, Nozaki-kun stands as one of the top anime comedies I’ve seen. I’m happy to give it an 8/10 (Ranking) and I can confidently say that it was my favorite show of the season.

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Aldnoah.Zero (Season 1) Review

September 20, 2014September 21, 2014iblessall 14 Comments

I suppose I have to be honest going into this review: I don’t like Aldnoah.Zero [A-1 Pictures + TROYCA, 2014] very much and, aside from a few episodes in the middle of the show, I never did. So, although the finale had me spitting venom and wanting to blackball the show, that’s merely an enhanced version of my overall opinion of the show. So, for annoyance, misery, good graphics and soundtrack, Inko’s cool name, and everything else, I’m giving Aldnoah.Zero a 4/10 (Ranking).

Nope. Not really.

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Gosick Review

August 22, 2014March 25, 2015iblessall 3 Comments

Sometimes when I watch BONES anime, I get the sense that this studio and I were just destined for each other—it’s as if they’re making anime specifically for me. I love the way BONES does anime, and Gosick [BONES, 2011] is just another in a long line of shows from this studio that I have watched and genuinely enjoyed. Gosick isn’t a spectacular show, but it’s a warm, kind show with a particular awareness for a small selection of themes and an easy charm. I’m glad to give Gosick a 7/10, and place it near very good company in the Rankings.

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Nichijou (My Ordinary Life) Review

August 4, 2014iblessall 2 Comments

If our society’s sense of humor and willingness to be entertained has come to a point where shows like Nichijou [Kyoto Animation, 2011] can no longer be appreciated, I would say we need to reassess how seriously we take ourselves. Like J.C. Staff’s Kill Me Baby, Nichijou, based on the manga by Keiichi Arawi (teach me how you got you name in both OPs, senpai!) brings an off-kilter, random brand of wacky humor to the table. It’s occasionally hilarious, often quite dumb, and but mostly just entertaining. And then, there’s the animation, which alone forces my hand in pushing Nichijou to a ranking of 6/10 (Ranking).