Aaaaaaaaaaauuuuuuuurrrrgggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh.

My deepest apologies to sponsor Okazu Superhero Eric P., and all of you who loved it, but repeated administrations of horrible obvious plot complications and utterly idiotic strategy and tactics cannot be swept away by repeated applications of “Amazing Grace.” This series was just absolutely, predictably, pandering and awful, IMHO. I know that so many of you liked it, but I just could not. Too many handwaves, way too many.

I did admire the writers desperately trying to make it make sense at the end, with Aisha’s version of the story about the Flame Maidens and I also thought that the voice actresses did a stellar job of speaking German cutely.

Ratings:

Art – Backgrounds – 9
Story – Auuughhhhhh!
Characters – 8
Yuri – 1 +1 for the obvious Noel x Aisha setup
Service – 5/5 split 5 for the actual creepy pervs and 5 for the sweet/cute obsessives

Overall – Stab, stab, stab

The Sound of the Sky boxset contest will go on a little longer, let’s say until the 20th of September, so check out the rules and send in your entry if you haven’t already!

On the third disk of the Sound of the Sky box set we get short glimpses into several of the characters’ pasts, and a heap more through random expository scenes.

Filicia’s tragic past, ominous hints of Rio’s secret, Kureha’s history, even Claus’ past, all of these are laid out like cards in an attempt to draw us in deeper to the story and make us care about the characters. And it might have worked too, except…

…I have never watched an anime so bound and determined to make me dislike it.

There’s one deep episode, where we actually get some exposition of the war…followed by two episodes so utterly idiotic that there is no excuse for them, followed by a cliche’-ridden piece of tripe that anyone over 15 years old should be ashamed to have written.

Once again, I am being beaten with the fear so many anime studios have of *telling us an actual story.* It’s as if they cannot, will not and obviously do not feel comfortable with a female cast in a serious drama, and must relentlessly infantilize them so we can never, not for one second, take them seriously. I’m almost relieved at the egregious panty shots, because for a moment there I thought we were going to get some character development and obviously don’t want to get my hopes too high. Phew.

Yet again, we are confronted with the emotional manipulation of  “Amazing Grace.” Episode 9 of 12 and that and a few basic bugle calls are all we’ve heard, with the exception of Rio playing some extemporaneous jazz as a way of acting out.

I know that many of you enjoy this series and I swear, I’m trying to like it…but I’m finding it work to just *watch* it, much less enjoy it.

Three episodes to “get better.” It’s not impossible. As I said, I didn’t like the original Nanoha until episode 10, but what a bloody waste of talent, money and time this was. Instead of 9 amazing episodes, there was one-ish. That’s a pretty bad percentage in my book.

Ratings: When complete

I’m going to try and watch the last episodes soon, so we can wrap up the contest for a copy of the box set. Get your entry in before I write that final review!

As I approached the midpoint of Sound of the Sky, I conceded to myself that I am just never going to be the audience for anime like this.

I know so many of you really enjoy it – and I don’t hate it or anything. But, I cannot help thinking how it’s pretty much nothing more than a remake of Aria, with far, far worse character art.

To begin with, the story isn’t a story, as I said in my initial impressions. It’s a slice-of-life story, with a plot bunny, i.e, new girl wants to learn to play the bugle. In sports manga/anime series, we fill up the spaces of the series with the protagonist practicing and practicing until they drop, then dragging themselves upright and practicing some more.

In Aria, we spent a lot of time being driven around Neo-Venetia by the Undines-in-training as they practiced and practiced. By Episode 6 of Sound of the Sky, we have had exceedingly little practice of bugling going on. But we did have an episode where everyone dressed up like 1920s American gangsters! So, there’s the series’ priorities in a nutshell. I stand by my comment that this could have been set anywhere, at any time.

What Sound of the Sky is, is a character piece. Like K-ON!, the plot isn’t important, episode plots are the backdrop to character development. I have no doubt at all that we will learn Rio’s backstory, and Kanata will fulfill her dream to become the most awesome bugler ever, and therefore we will be filled with joy as her bugle’s song reaches the sky. But, as Episode 6, I still think that being clumsy, forgetful and clueless isn’t cute *at all” and so I really just don’t care much if she suddenly shows us awesome bugle-playing skills.

The war-torn country interests me, but we really know nothing about the war, or the people, or the countries involved. No effort has been put into world-building. That’s not a deal killer, but when once again contrasted with Aria, Sound of the Sky falls way short.

Let’s talk about why I keep comparing it with Aria. Both:

– series are about a cute, clumsy, personable girl who desires to become skilled in a specific, atypical skill.

– have settings based in a hierarchical, (but loosely run) organization.

– have the focus of each episode on, not the practice, but the people and situations encountered.

– series are targeted to male audiences, with primarily female casts.

– Felicia is Alicia. It’s really obvious that she’s meant to be.

The background art for Sound in the Sky is good, but the character art gives the phrase “moe blobs” a whole new level of meaning. This screencap isn’t even as bad as it got. There was a scene between Felicia and Rio as they stood in a hall talking in which they were both barely outlined. The fact that the background is rendered in detail makes the character art stand out as even worse than it would have with bad backgrounds. In a character-driven story like this, it seems silly to lovingly render the stairs, but barely draw in the main characters. I’m not watching this for the stairs.

All that having been said, I can see why there are fans of this series. Every character is likable, if you like that type of character. Felicia is the caring, laissez faire leader, Rio is the hypercompetent (read: slightly butchy) XO, Kureha is tsundere, Noel is the monotonal savant (I don’t know the fan-name for the type, feel free to let me know and I’ll edit this) and Kanata is the feckless genki type of protagonist otaku love so much.

I’m pretty swayed by character, usually, but these types seem assigned in a completely mercenary fashion, to fill the checklist, rather than to fulfill the needs of the story. The overwhelming feeling I get from Sound of the Sky is “story by committee” rather than a story from the heart.

Obviously, if you find moe and clueless, cheerful protagonists appealing, you’re very likely to enjoy this story. many people have told me that I won’t be disappointed at the end and others have told me I *might* not be disappointed. ^_^ I have very low expectations at the moment. Here’s why:

There is a movie from 1987 called Batteries Not Included. At the climax of the movie one of the alien robots – the very tiniest adorable little baby robot – dies. (I tried to find a video clip of this, so you could see how manipulative it was, but didn’t find one before I got bored and stopped.) The violins swell in the most manipulative music ever. The fact that the one song we’ve heard so far is Amazing Grace (which is a very beautiful and instantly manipulative composition,) means I can’t help but anticipate the end of this series will be much the same level of manipulative as Batteries Not Included. I hope, I really do, that I am completely wrong. If you want to tell me I’m wrong, feel free of course, but please do not post spoilers, thanks! ^_^

Technically, the visuals look very good on my computer screen. My TV is old and not widescreen-capable, so the visuals get cut off on the sides.) The sound is fine, I look forward to hearing music that is not trying to tug at my heart strings.

In any case, I can *completely* see why people like this series. I don’t yet, but I didn’t like Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha until episode 10, either. I’m willing to be convinced.

Ratings: After the series is completed.

Oh, hey, I forgot to talk about Yuri. Mostly because there isn’t any. Kureha has a selfish crush on Rio. That’s about it.

Again, my thanks to Okazu Superhero, Eric P. for his generosity and kindness in sponsoring this review, and here’s hoping that my final review of the series will be more glowing than this!

 This is not a review for Sound of the Sky, (Sora no wo to). As with Madoka, I have a few first impressions I want to put down before I forget them and before the anime changes my opinion. More importantly, though, we have a contest! If you only care about the contest, skip past the review piece to the word Contest!

My very first impression of Sound of the Sky was…not very good. This can be attributed to one thing, quite specifically. Moe checklisting. There are no characters in Sound of the Sky, only character “types.” There is no story here, only a set-up. The slice of life activities could very well have been set in any time or any place, and the trappings of the story in which they are set are just that, trappings.  K-ON! shows slice-of-life daily nothings among a group of high school girls,  where they belong. Hidamari Sketch, likewise. Even in Aria, with which this series has a tremendous amount in common, the slow days passing and appreciation of…things…makes sense. Not so much for the military set-up chosen for Sound of the Sky.

The second hurdle I had to face was why the character types fail so badly to compel me. Kanata, the main character, is given one task for the first episode. A simple task. Get from Point A to Point B. She fails to complete this task because she is presented as the cute, energetic, hopeless character-type. In episode 2, we encounter the tsundere character type, Kureha. I posted on Twitter, and I quote, “Oh, god, Kureha, shut the fuck up.” Kureha never even has a chance to develop into having a reason to whine and complain, before she starts whining and complaining. In a world where I produced anime, Rio (the cool, competent character type) would be the protagonist and getting from Point A to Point B would not take a whole episode.

Third – and most critical for me – the story is about playing a brass instrument. I’m sorry folks, I’m a woodwind. It’s an ancient rivalry and I can’t move past it easily. If you played a woodwind instrument, you understand. ^_^

Now, all that having been said, setting aside my personal issue with the brass section, and the irrelevant story setup and the list of character types, I can see that it’s going to be a reasonably enjoyable slice-of-life story. It’s just that in order to get there, I need to ignore some things, shed some things, pay attention to secondary things and pretend that the combination makes sense as a whole.

Ratings to follow when I’ve watched the whole thing.

In the meantime….Contest!

The generous folks at Nozomi/RightStuf have provided a Sound of the Sky Box Set for us and this time, the question is a relatively simple one:

What DVD Extras do you want to see?

These can be anything. If you like Openings and Endings without credits – say so! Or how about interviews with voice actors and actresses (American or Japanese.) Email us at yuriconcontest at gmail dot com and tell us up to 3 extras you want from your DVDs and you’ll be entered to win. Super easy! I’m asking you to use the email so I have email addresses to contact you with, trying to do a contest with anonymous comments here is awkward.

The contest will remain open as long as I’m watching the anime and will close when I do my final review for it. Get your Extra suggestions in today!

Just to start, the extra I really want to see on English DVDs is:

Interviews with the Japanese voice cast.

I’m sure that comes as a surprise to everyone. ^_^

I look forward to receiving your suggestions!

In the meantime, the first of several thanks to Okazu Superhero Eric P for sponsoring this and all future posts about this series!

First of all, thanks to all of you who wrote in last week with well-wishes. Last week was pretty bad, but I’m down to fighting one last little case of bronchitis now and I can think straight again. I have no doubt at all that your kind thoughts helped me through the worst. I say it all the time, but it’s worth repeating – Okazu readers are the best!

Since this is my first post in a while, I’m going to go for something simple and light-hearted. Nothing fits the bills quite like Morita-san ha Mukuchi, which is showing on Crunchyroll, for those as can get it.

I’ve reviewed the first two volumes of the manga – Volume 1 and Volume 2. The anime is not substantially different – Morita Mayu is a perfectly normal girl who just doesn’t talk so much. It’s not like it’s an affectation, or she’s bad at it, she just gets lost in her own thoughts and misses the openings. And, as her friends are other teen girls, they so rarely leave openings at all. Mayu is a good friend and an excellent listener.

The anime is a super-short short; each episode is only 3 minutes long. This is, in my opinion, is the perfect size for a anime based on a 4-koma comic strip. The short size allows you to run through a few gags and not get tired of the one-gag-per-character issue that makes 4-koma manga difficult to read in general. Remember, when these run in the magazines, they only run a few pages at a time, so there’s just a few gags at once and you’re left smiling. When 4-koma get collected into volumes, there’s a tendency to read through more at once and it can become very exhausting as nothing changes page after page. It’s just a bunch of gags – it’s not *supposed* to change. ^_^

Mayu is still quite likable, with a suitably congested inner dialogue. Her friends are likewise likable, which is all they need to be. And it’s cute and refreshing to see anime girls just being friends.

The anime does lay on the boys a little thick, though. Especially in the first few episodes, we see two boys (who, in the manga, both have a crush on Mayu) playing Greek chorus for all the boys watching out there in anime-land. “It must so nice, being a girl” they say, while while watching Mayu playing with a friend’s hair, completely ignoring a aircraft carrier’s worth of baggage in that sentence. Oh well, they seem nice enough boys, I can deal.

Even in the manga, there is very little Yuri (although slightly more in Volume 3!) and in the anime, it’s mostly confined to the boys’ confused interpolation of events like two girls touching one another in a totally non-sexual way. I gather some boys have a problem with this. For you guys that have some confusion around this. here’s the rule: Girls actually do sometimes touch one another and it rarely means “I want to sexxor you up.” I hope that helps. ^_^

Although even on my most brain-foggy days I can’t really see Morita-san ha Mukuchi as a Yuri anime, I do think it’s good for a quick smile or two. If you can watch Crunchyroll, give it a try.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 1
LoserFanBoy – 3

Overall – 7