Archive for the English Anime Category


Bodacious Space Pirates 2 Anime, Disk 1 (English)

April 2nd, 2013

BDSP2BDAs the first disk of the second Bodacious Space Pirates collection opens (available on Blu-Ray and DVD), Marika and the girls of the Hakuoh Academy Yacht Club are thrust into a complex and dangerous situation! Oh no!

With the crew of the Bentenmaru quarantined, Marika recruits the Yacht Club members to do some piracy, so the Bentenmaru can maintain its Letter of Marque. Of course the girls are more than up for it and, after a typical piracy gig, they take on an ad hoc project – one that is genuinely dangerous. Jenny Dolittle, former club president, is facing an unwanted marriage as a part of her uncle’s business strategy. Lynn asks Marika if they can ‘kidnap’ her – or, really, prevent her from being kidnapped by her uncle.

This arc rocks in a number of ways and sucks in only one.

Let’s revisit my interpretation of the phrase a “strong female” character. I believe that a “strong” character is a character who takes control of their circumstances, a character that leads, not follows. In this arc Marika, Jenny and Lynn show themselves to be “strong” by my definition. Rather than allowing circumstances to  overwhelm them, they fight back with their brains, their power and their network of allies. A perfect example, IMHO, of female leaders leading.  As a bonus, we are given  a perfect Yuri couple, with *my* kind of service. Jenny makes a lovely princess to Lynn’s prince. ^_^

The only real negative in this arc is the animation. It completely falls to shit just when we might have wanted it to be at its most glorious. To be fair, the CGI is going to go through the roof in upcoming arcs, but darnit, it would have been nice of them to do some touch-up when Jenny and Lynn reunite. :-(

In the following arc, we again see something unusual – a minor character given a chance to shine. Once more we get a female character who is not overwhelmed by her circumstances. Ai shows us that she works hard and is able to retain control through good decision-making skills. A totally worthy conclusion to what is otherwise a silly arc.

There is some fanservice during the Nebula cup arc that may or may not annoy you. To give the creators credit, they”serve” up beefcake as well as more typical moe tropes.

As far as I’m concerned, this disk wins the universe. It has everything I’ve ever wanted in a series all at once. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7, but drops to like 3 just when I want it to be a 9. Sigh
Character – 9
Story – 9
Yuri – 9
Service – 6

Overall – 9

Multiple named female characters that speak with each other about lots of things other than a man. Female characters with agency, with society, with smarts and friends and awesome personalities, allowed to shine. Bechdel Test and Friedman Addendum (as proposed here)  passed with flying colors. This series *still* makes my Top List this year.





Penguindrum Anime Collection 2, Disk 2 (English)

March 31st, 2013

pd2Realities converge, merge and resplit on the second disk of the second Penguindrum collection. Now that we know (symbolically, at least) what Yuri and Tabuki had in common and what their goal was, the arc climaxes in an actual climax and we think…what else is there? Well….

We’ve assumed one single truth from the beginning of the series. When everything around that truth is fracturing, shattering like glass, we have assumed that Himari, Shoma and Kanba are, at the very least siblings who love each other very much.

Here in the depths of the second half of the series we have been given a whole new set of symbols, a whole new mythology and our one basic truth is called into question. What does the Child Broiler mean, why are all the children in this series broken, abandoned? What does “family” even mean? And what if that one truth we had to hold on to…isn’t true at all?

We think we know what the Penguindrum is and what it does. Or do we? The mystery is electrifying.

Speaking of Sanetoshi-sensei’s verbal tic, I thought it might be fun to discuss the word “Sa.” ^_^”Sa” is not a word, it’s an expression, like “hmm” or “um”. It has no meaning itself, but is use to express ambiguity. “How you doin’ today?” “Sa….”  Sentai  is mostly translating it as “beats me” – which is not bad at all when the teen characters us it, especially Shoma and Kanba. When Sanetoshi, the embodiment of ambiguous, impenetrable adult, says “Sa…” it makes me laugh when they have him say “beats me.” Not that I think it’s wrong, I just think it’s funny. ^_^

As we make our way through this second half, we’re getting closer to the truth. Or, are we?

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters -8
Yuri – 0
Service – 2

Overall – 8

Again, my thanks to Okazu Superhero Eric P. for sponsoring today’s review!





Psycho-Pass Anime (English) End of Series Review

March 28th, 2013

I’ll be honest. When I originally reviewed Psycho-Pass, (streaming for free legally, with region restrictions on Funimation’s site) I never expected to ever mention it again here. And yet, here we are. Huh, how about that?

I was hesitant to start this series, but once I did, it was a compelling – if difficult – watch. There were bits in the middle that were genuinely horrific and at least one scene that haunted me for days. It was actually worse for the clinical way in which the audience reaction was made part of the scene, and was discussed…as we were made to watch it  repeatedly.

So, yes, this is a really violent, and in many, cases stressful, story. But it was, nonetheless, an extremely well-written genre piece. The genre is “suspense horror” so there are tropes that aren’t pleasant. If you know this going in to the thing, there’s a better chance that your won’t be too badly traumatized. It’s probably important to point out that folks with abuse or rape triggers might be better served to avoid this story.

When the end came, it was a solid genre ending. Our apparently naive protagonist had grown. But…you know, I don’t think she ever was naive or immature. The character design was camouflage – it was our belief that Akane *must* be naive, because she is small, female and young. If you pay attention to the story as it played out, she was actually fairly confident and cool – not emotionless, just able to make decisions regardless of whatever the circumstances were- throughout.  We might not always agree with the decisions, but that was part of her strength, too. I consider Akane to be one of the overall best lead female roles I’ve seen in anime.

The DVD/BD license for Psycho-Pass has been officially announced by Funimation. It is slated for spring 2014, and will include a dub.

Oh, wait, I forgot to tell you why I’m reviewing this at all! You know how, in most series, the lesbian couple sleeps together and one always dies almost immediately? Well that didn’t happen here. After everything plays out, Yayoi and Shion both survive – and get to be together. I told you to be happy Fukami was involved! He loves the lesbians and we love him right back. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8
Character – 9
Story – 9
Yuri – 9
Service – 9 High and mostly extremely nasty with a little light – happy – lesbian service on the side

Overall – 9

It was not a series I’d suggest lightly, but it is something I thought was well-crafted. I wonder if I’ll ever be able to watch it again.





Penguindrum Anime Collection 2, Disk 1 (English)

March 26th, 2013

pd2In the first half of Penguindrum, we learned that each of the characters appeared to be existing in a wholly different reality from the characters around them. On the first disk of the second half of Penguindrum, we learn why.

Himari’s health takes a turn for the worse, but that is set on the back burner, as bizarrely beautiful and immediately untrustworthy Sanetoshi-sensei inserts himself into the story, confirming our belief that there are separate, but intertwined, realities colliding here.

Shoma and Ringo confess their realities to one another, only to find that they are the same reality, which makes everything worse. Ringo get caught up in Yuri’s reality. Yuri, while living up to her name, turns out to be a broken and unhappy person, twisted by parental abuse and grief. Yuri’s backstory is absolutely agonizing and horrific to watch. The repeated concept of abusive father who smokes a pipe is starting to worry me, frankly.

But slowly, these realities all start to coalesce around one person and it feels like it all might make sense. Did Momoka change reality? That would explain a lot.  That almost makes sense until Masako and Mario’s story pops up. They have their own reality, but is any of it related to anything else? And what is Dr. Sanetoshi’s part in all this?

The most maddening thing about watching an anime by Ikuhara in full throttle is the unshakable feeling that, even when it’s all over, and all the pieces have been played, you may never really understand anything at all.

Collection 2 is going to have a lot more screaming, a lot more adults being horrible to children and more not-quite-matching realities.

Sentai’s translation and technicals are both not noticeable, which is exactly what one wants out of them. Rather than thinking about word choices, I find myself  scanning the visuals for more meaningless symbology like the cats, the arrows, cars, towers, (what does Michaelaneglo’s David as a tower mean, really?) apples and, of course penguins. Does any of it have any meaning at all, or does it just look good? Maybe we’ll find out. Maybe not.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8, but super grim, with a side order of misery
Characters -7  Shoma and Ringo become more real, while everyone else becomes a pulp fiction version of themselves
Yuri – 8 It’s all yucky, but it’s there
Service – 5

Overall – 8 A hard watch, a tense watch, but a compelling watch.

Many thanks once again to Okazu Superhero Eric P. for sponsoring today’s review!





Penguindrum Anime Collection 1, Disk 3 (English)

March 3rd, 2013

The first volume of Penguindrum comes to a close in Disk 3, by introducing two major plot complications, several new visual symbols and a twist of fate. Or should I say…destiny?

We learn in a most roundabout way possible why Natsume Masako is after the diary. We see that Himari has a separate history of her own, a story about which she carries guilt, regret and unhappiness in great measure. And at last, we learn what really binds all the characters together…but not why. Not yet.

Visually, we’re noticing some new symbols, most especially Tokyo Tower, which now appears in many scenes. The storytelling to come is so powerful that merely seeing the Tower made me shiver (with what emotions, I can’t tell you – that would be spoiling it.)  The appearance of repeated, unexplained visual symbols laden with inexpressible meaning is the very essence of a Ikuhara Kunihiko production.

I’m watching the DVD of the series, as opposed to the Blu-ray, (and I’ve previously pointed out, I’ve got an ancient TV and that I’m not a great judge of video quality) but I still think the video is crisp.  I can imagine that on Blu-Ray, especially on a good screen, the video’s saturation of color and play of light and dark would be quite amazing.

I haven’t addressed the issue of translation. Sentai is generally adequate. They lack a translator with nuance, but for the bulk of the story, nuance is left out of the dialogue. The words Sanetoshi speaks are not where the nuance is, it’s they way he’s saying them and where he is and what he’s doing when he does. Luckily for us, since Sentai is generally adequate.

The thing I wanted very much to bring to your attention today is this – the song being blasted by the speakers that deafen Kanba is a Welsh folksong called Ar Hyd y Nos, also known by the English title, All Through The Night.  It’s a pretty famous hymn and lullaby and I wanted you to hear and enjoy it in a non-distorted version. Here is Aled Jones singing it in Welsh and English:

Which makes me wonder, why Ar Hyd y Nos? Doesn’t it strike you as odd that Ikuhara and his team would choose a Welsh folksong to blast at Kanba? But then, Ikuhara likes odd conjunctions of mismatched emotions. So, yeah. ^_^

Ratings:

Overall – 8

Once again, thanks so much to Okazu Superhero Eric P. for his generous sponsorship of today’s review!

And welcome to the new Okazu. Hope you like it! ^_^