Reviews - Animefangirl!

Sword Art Online Season 1 anime review (spoilers)

Sword Art Online is one of those anime shows you watch just to see if it lives up to the hype. And there is a LOT of hype about SAO, both positive and negative. The bad seems to outweigh the good, but having watched it for myself I can say it’s neither as bad or as good as fans and haters try to make it out to be. The first arc of the show is pretty good, the second half is pretty bad and together you get a decent show that is worth a watch, at least.

Premise (taken from Amazon): In the year 2022, a next-generation game known as “Nerve Gear” has been developed, making Full Dives into a virtual dimension possible. “Nerve Gear” The world’s first true VRMMORPG. “Sword Art Online (SAO)” has generated worldwide buzz, and on its official launch day, one player, Kirito, immerses himself in its virtual world. But Akihiko Kayaba, the developer of SAO, proclaims the following to all players. This game is inescapable unless all levels are cleared. And in this world, “Game Over” is equivalent to death in the real world.

That’s a description of the first ‘Aincrad’ arc, the best part of the show simply because of the tension created by the “death is final” condition in the game. As time passes in the game you get genuinely worried for the bodies of the players in real life, and many of them do indeed die from starvation or because a well-meaning parent takes their VR equipment off without knowing it will fry their brain. It’s actually surprising more of them weren’t lost to carelessness, but we’ll let some things slide for the sake of fiction.

People say Kirito is a boring Gary Stu, which I do see later on in the show, but in the beginning he doesn’t come across all that badly. In a game where the weak die for real, of course your main character has to get strong in a hurry. He’s bit colorless, yes, but a good sort just trying to do his best in a bad situation. I was rooting for him to make it out alive.

The problem began, as it always does, when he got involved with a girl. Asuna. For the record I like Asuna too. It’s just their “romance” that was hard to stomach, both from a moral and a regular viewer point of view. It’s not that surprising to see teenagers jumping into relationships with each other, and in a world where you might die at any second it’s not that strange that they’d jump for a little human companionship, but still! The more SAO tried to portray the Kirito-Asuna lustfest as “sweet” and “romantic” the more I cringed within.

I still finished the show, though, because the ‘romance’ aside it wasn’t that bad. I was especially pleased by the unexpected ending to the Aincrad arc, which I suppose I won’t spoil for you even though I’ve already spoiled everything else. I heard people complain that it came out of nowhere, but that’s precisely why it’s so good! It’s an RPG world so you expect things to go the RPG way, then boom, something out of left field. Really cool.

After that the Elfheim arc where Asuna is a damsel in distress needing to be rescued was a bit of a letdown. More than a bit, it was just bad. That’s where I started to see the Kirito as Gary Stu thing in full force, because even though he was in a new world, somehow he had all his skills and all his abilities and he was so cool and he was saving everybody and everybody thought he was so awesome etc etc blah di blah. Yeah, that was boring. The villain was also so comically evil and incompetent that I thought for sure someone more capable was pulling the strings behind him. But no, it was just poor writing made worse by one of Takehito Koyasu’s hammier performances. And the awkward “romantic tension” between Kirito and his cousin only made things worse.

In a nutshell, Sword Art Online is good when it’s portraying online RPGs and their battles, tensions and mechanics. The action sequences are fairly exciting in the Aincrad arc where one wrong move spells death, and battles are still quite interesting later on even when we know there’s no chance Kirito will lose. When it comes to any kind of human relationships, though, the writing just sucks and is flat-out painful to watch. It’s still a decent show which wraps everything up well enough that I feel no need to watch Season 2. I’d give it 7/10 for the first half and 4/10 for the second arc. That’s 11/20, just slightly above average, which is about what the show deserves.

It would have gotten a higher score if they had spent more time exploring the world and thereby exciting my imagination about how things actually work and what it would really feel like to being in that virtual world, but the months and years just pass away at a blistering pace and before you know it Kirito is level 99 or whatever, before you know it he’s in love with Asuna (or thinks he is anyway) then this, then that, it’s all kind of sudden. A watchable show nonetheless, but not quite worthy of all the fuss it’s gotten. Or worthy of all the hate, as I said earlier. You won’t go wrong watching it, just don’t expect too much and you’ll be fine.

More quick drops: Aoharu x Kikanjuu, Classroom Crisis, Etotama

Regular readers should be used to me failing to make it through even the first 10 minutes of most anime shows by now. At least it helps me get through my massive backlog faster, right? The most recent victims:

Aoharu x Kikanjuu: I tried it when it started airing and didn’t even make it past the point where Tachibana’s friend Hotaru starts groping her. I liked the whole fiery school council president schtick, but the vulgarity ruined the moment. This time I tried again and made it to the point where Tachibana confronts the guy who won’t shut up about breasts. More vulgarity and more talking than I was hoping for from this kind of show. If I have to struggle this hard to make it to the 10-minute mark then the show doesn’t have a future with me. Dropped.

Classroom Crisis: I wanted to like this, since it was trying to do something different with the sci-fi and the high schoolers also being employees tackling a hostage crisis while flying into space etc etc, but in the end there was just too much going on. Even worse, the transfer student they saved ended up being a huge jerk – but a jerk with a point i.e. they wasted too much money on the rescue + butted their noses in where it didn’t belong. Nevertheless the dumb, money-wasting “passionate” kids and their teachers are going to be portrayed as the good guys while the sensible jerk Nagisa is slowly going to be won over to their side and so on. And there’s going to be all this business intrigue and drama and stuff going on. Not interested, pass.

Etotama: Etotama was a cute and silly show and not nearly as fanservicey as I’d expected (in fact, hardly fanservicey at all). I liked Takeru’s stoic reactions to Nya-tan’s silliness, though it probably won’t last once he gets to know her better. It’s just that this is one of those shows where one episode is really enough. Nya-tan’s antics are cute enough for one episode, but I can see them getting real old real quick, so I’d rather leave Etotama with good memories. Maybe one day when I’m really bored I’ll watch another episode. Until then!

Dragon Ball Super – Loving it after 32 episodes

Dragon Ball Super is set to be a long-runner, so if I wait for the whole show to be done before writing some thoughts the world might end first.

I haven’t watched the Battle of the Gods and Resurrection ‘F’ movies, so the first two arcs were entirely new to me. It was pretty awesome because I studiously avoided spoilers. I had no idea what the Super Saiyan god transformation would look like until it finally appeared so on one hand I thought “That looks kind of goofy” with the pink hair and all, but after the long wait the DBZ fan in me was going “Oh man oh man oh man this is so awesome!!!” Same with the blue-haired whatsitcalled transformation they did later on the show. Now that was cool. I want to see it again.

DB Super is the same mix of comedy and action we got used to in the Buu saga, but IMO the comedy is a bit flat and not that funny. The skits featuring the misadventures of the Pilaf Gang in the middle of a tense situation with Beerus had me tapping my feet impatiently. Get on with iiiiit. I haven’t seen whichever show features Jaco the policeman either, so I get annoyed when I see him. Get on with it already.

The action is the same old DBZ action we’re used to. The picture quality and animation is a lot better this time round, as becomes blatantly clear whenever they flash back to an old scene. Whoa! I used to watch that? Yes, yes I did. So it looks a lot better, but it doesn’t tense me up the way it used to when I was younger and more naive. I mean by the end of the Buu saga everyone in the show except Hercule/Mr. Satan has died and revived and even the Earth has made it back from destruction. And it’s been shown that the afterlife isn’t that terrible a place either (unless you’re Frieza) so there’s none of that nail-biting tension you usually get when the fate of the world is supposedly hanging in the balance. I already know things are going to work out okay, I’m just watching to find out how.

To be honest I kind of like it this way. There are plenty of other shows out there where people die when they are killed and stay dead to boot. This “death as a revolving door” concept is one of Dragon Ball’s defining features now, and very few series can match that same Having Fun while Saving the World mood they have going on. It’s when I watch the show and someone does a tearful sacrifice only to appear again hale and hearty a few episodes later that I really feel “Aaaah, this is Dragon Ball all right.”

So as the title says, I’m loving the show so far after two and a half arcs. That said I’ve taken a little break because I find I enjoy DB the most when I’m marathoning it. The Champa tournament arc has been a bit slow to get going, so I’m waiting for it to end completely before jumping back in. Once it’s over I’ll be all over it again. See you again in another two arcs or so!

Your Lie in April (Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso) anime review

I liked Your Lie in April, more or less, though the lie turned out to be very stupid. I’ll be writing my full thoughts including spoilers so here’s the spoiler-free gist before I start: you should watch Your Lie in April if you like classical music, love triangles and long drawn out tragedies and avoid it if you don’t like any of these. Any spoiler you read after this point is your own responsibility.

Plot (according to Amazon) Kosei Arima was a piano prodigy until his cruel taskmaster of a mother died suddenly, changing his life forever. Driven by his pain to abandon piano, Kosei now lives in a monotonous, colorless world. Having resigned himself to a bland life, he is surprised when he meets Kaori Miyazono, a violinist with an unorthodox style. Can she bring Kosei back to music, and back to life?.

So basically it’s a romantic slice-of-life coming-of-age show all in one, about growing up and letting go of the past and embracing ones emotions etc etc. That sort of thing. TBH I was mainly watching for the awesome classical music sections because some of the plotlines were a bit hard to swallow:

Somehow it’s okay to physically and mentally abuse your son if you’re dying and only want the best for him. After all you’re his only parent (not true) and he’ll starve otherwise (not true) and there’s no other path for him in life except music (also not true).
No matter how much you beat and abuse your son, once he meets the right cutie-pie who forces him to play the piano again he’ll be right as rain. Not only that but he’ll also be better able to face the violent, crazy young ladies who will fall in love with him later down the line.
Love fixes everything including grief, parental neglect, long-term abuse and lasting mental trauma. If you have a problem it’s because you just haven’t met the right person yet.
Play enough music and everything will be all right with the world.

But still the concert/contest episodes were excellent and the characters weren’t too dumb (plus they’re only fourteen), so I tried to move past the facile way everything was resolved in the show.

The love triangles were a bit ridiculous because from the perspective of the viewer it’s blatantly obvious Kaori liked Arima and wasn’t particularly interested in Watari as a romantic prospect. It’s also clear Kousei doesn’t like Tsubaki that way and that Tsubaki herself didn’t see him romantically until a potential rival showed up then she’s all like “He’s mine!” So that part just had me rolling my eyes non-stop. But in a way it’s natural for 14-15 year olds to worry their heads over that kind of thing and miss the woods for the trees.

TBH I thought Your Lie in April would have been better off as a 13-episode series instead of a 22-episode one. It was obvious by the 10th episode that Kaori was dying and that, as a Japanese show, they were definitely going to kill her off instead of miraculously saving her. So go ahead and kill her then. Why stretch it out 12 episodes past its due date? Because they just wouldn’t end it, they ended up having to find things to fit into the space the show would have been better off without (yes I know it was originally mangaka Naoshi Arakawa’s fault, but it’s the anime I watched so it’s the anime I’m reviewing).

The whole sequence with Kousei helping his rival’s little sister find herself was really not necessary to the show (except to show us who will be filling Kaori’s shoes when she’s gone, sorry Tsubaki!). If Nagi had to be in the show her arc could have been done in one episode, one and a half at most. The stretching out means that key characters like Kaori (!!) and Tsubaki and Watari all go out of focus for long stretches during the eps 14-22 gap, making it appear forced and unnatural when they suddenly show up again like they’d never left.

The stretch also means there’s a lot of meandering and repetition. Does Kousei want to go see Kaori in the hospital or not? Sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn’t, sometimes he goes, sometimes he doesn’t. Is she dying or not? She’s dying, no she’s not, she’s dying, no she’s not. Over and over again. A shorter, tighter series would have left a bigger impact on me.

Well anyway, long story short, power of love and all that, Arima Kousei finally regains his piano-playing skills and learns to play pieces that powerfully move his audience by channeling all his emotion into them. Btw, it was never resolved whether he could hear himself play or not by the end, but it doesn’t really matter because LOVE IS EVERYTHING. Even if your mother beat you and verbally abused you, it’s okay because she loved you! And in the end Kaori FINALLY died like she’d been telegraphing for the past 12 episodes. Her death was quite tastefully handled in a beautifully symbolic way, almost worth the long wait (well not really).

If it had ended with her just dying and Arima moving on, well I was still on board at that point. But at the very end, episode 22, the author seemingly realized s/he had to explain why the series is called Your Lie in April. Well it turns out Kaori was lying about liking Kousei’s friend Watari and had actually been interested in Kousei since childhood. But she knew Tsubaki would never introduce her to Kousei and she was too chicken to contact him herself, so she told a single lie: “Kaori likes Watari” and thus wormed her way into his life.

Two problems with this. First, we viewers knew already that she liked Kousei. She didn’t seem that interested in Watari to begin with, or him in her either. More importantly, the backstory Kaori tells about having seen Arima Kousei play at a recital many years ago is almost exactly the same as the backstory for another character, Emi. The only difference is Emi chooses to play the piano to confront Arima while Kaori switches to the violin so she can play alongside him.

This means while it’s an interesting thing to know, it’s hardly an earth-shattering revelation worthy of being brought up at the very end of the show. If Emi hadn’t done it first it would have been amazing, but now it’s like “Okay?” They should have left the story at Kaori’s death and kept her something of an enigma till the end IMHO.

Anyway, those are my criticisms. I still watched Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso till the end and enjoyed it, so take them as the nitpicks of a fan, not a complainer. I already mentioned that the classical music was great, especially for someone who dabbles in the piano (I play Hanon every day too! But I’ve never seen any sunflowers or cherry blossoms burst out when I play. What am I doing wrong?) The whole soundtrack was fantastic and highly enjoyable as a result.

The use of color (to signify emotions) and trains (to represent leaving/going on a journey) was a little heavy-handed and overdone, but also easy to understand. As with most overwrought tragedies the characters are also quite memorable, if only because they’re in your face so much all the time. As an extra plus it was a romance without any panty-flashing or accidental gropes or any other inappropriate content, just a nice, clean all-ages kind of show. It might bore or frighten younger viewers because of the unhappy topics and slow pace, but it’s good watching for anyone else. Your Lie in April is highly recommended for music and romance lovers with a lot of patience and the ability to overlook ridiculous Aesops.

And if you really enjoyed it, also check out Nodame Cantabile (if you liked the classical music+romance side) and Socrates in Love (if you liked the romance+dying aspect).

Gunslinger Stratos anime review (surprisingly enjoyable)

Sometimes it pays to keep your expectations low. As soon as I heard Gunslinger Stratos was based on a videogame, I mentally shook my head a little bit and thought “Okay, let’s see how bad it can get.” Maybe because of that it wasn’t bad at all and I actually enjoyed it more than I’ve enjoyed a lot of other recent shows.

Story (according to Wikipedia): In 2115, the country known formerly as Japan has been split into two parallel worlds: the Frontier S (Stratos) and the 17th Far East Imperial City Management District. When the two universes are starting to fuse into one, the government of each worlds initiates the Operation Stratos, a world-scale protocol wherein a handpicked group of gunslingers, mercenaries, and special individuals, each from the two universes, will be sent in the year 2015 to alter the past by eliminating the other side until only one group survives, erasing a parallel universe in the process.

The story revolves on a group of gunslingers, each from the two universes who participate in Operation Stratos, particularly on a group of four childhood friends: Tohru Kazasumi, Kyōka Katagiri, Kyōma Katagiri, and Shizune Rindo, who all must confront their own flaws and differences when they battle their alternate selves in order to survive.

It’s an action show, but the action was neither very good or very bad, just enough to get the story across. It was easy enough to see at a glance who was doing what to who, and the action sequences had an efficient blend of flash and practicality, i.e. seriously trying to kill the other person, not just firing bullets into thin air.

Deaths are telegraphed well in advance, but at the same time writers aren’t scared to rack up a pretty high body count. This adds a lot of tension to the show because right till the very end I wasn’t sure which, if any of the main characters were going to survive. Would one of the Tohru’s make a heroic sacrifice? Both of them? One of the Kyokas? Would someone get sniped right at the moment of victory? You’ll have to watch it yourself to find out, but Gunslinger Stratos is one of the few shows I’ve watched recently that kept me guessing right to the end.

The characters are perhaps best described as stereotypes with a twist. Hero Tohru starts out as the usual namby-pamby hero, but when he has to step up to the plate he does so with remarkable aplomb, proving to be even tougher than the “hardcore” rival Tohru. His love interest Kyoka, both Kyokas in fact, are both girls of action despite their cutesy looks. They’re not afraid to get down and dirty in action and they’re both quick to do something about their feelings instead of dragging the show out with “Will they won’t they” nonsense. The other side characters are largely forgettable, but when the main cast is this strong they’re enough to pull the show along.

The story was very fast-paced even for a 13-episode show, feeling almost rushed in places. The advantage of that is there were no wasted episodes that made you feel “Well that was a big load of nothing.” The reveals come fast and hard, it’s not one of those shows where a mystery is introduced in episode one and only resolved in episode 95.

When questions are raised they are answered fairly quickly, then new questions come up and those are answered too. The story as a whole was quite satisfying and well-resolved. Everything’s wrapped up in this one show, none of that “Go read the manga/light novel/wait for season 2 to find out what happens next” stuff. Sure there are a few things you’d probably need to play the game to get (like the full role of the Katagiri Corporation and background data on the two worlds) but you don’t get the sense that the anime is made for fans of the game only. It’s approachable to all.

Long story short, you should probably watch Gunslinger Stratos if you like shows where stuff actually happens, and quickly too. Watch if you like action and romance that goes somewhere. Avoid if you’re looking for a deep, involving story or lots of character interaction/dialogue/comedy.