Reviews

If you read many of my reviews, you'll notice that nearly all of them are basically positive. This is partially due to my outlook: I try to extract as much enjoyment from a show as I can without letting non-fatal flaws bother me. I like to think it's also due to my careful selection of entertainment, as my "to watch" and "to play" lists are always getting longer, and my free time is always getting shorter.

I have no idea why I decided to watch 2x2=Shinobuden (ニニンがシノブ伝, a.k.a. Ninja Nonsense).

The Place Promised in Our Early Days (雲のむこう、約束の場所, Beyond the Clouds, the Promised Place) is the tale of two best friends' shared aspiration, and their promise to share that aspiration with a girl. It's also a story about a mysterious tower that warps reality, and about how that same girl's coma-induced dreams are the key to saving or remaking the world. As with Voices of a Distant Star, Makoto Shinkai imbues this short science fiction story with a poignance far greater than its 91-minute length suggests.

I finished Honey and Clover II recently, and it was good. Actually, it's not quite as good as the first season, primarily because there's less of the Honey and Clover™-brand comedy I love so much. The drama is still quite good, though some of it didn't engage me emotionally as much as that of the first season did. But this is all fairly academic, as Honey and Clover II is a worthy finale to an excellent series, and should be taken as a whole with the first season.

Did I mention how much I love School Rumble? I watched all of Second Semester this week, and I can't wait for the inevitable third season. But my appetite for School Rumble is insatiable, so no matter when it ends it won't be enough.

Mini-review time! I watched a bunch of shows in the last several months that I kept telling myself I'd get around to reviewing, but it would take way too long to do full reviews of each one, and my memory gets fuzzy pretty quickly. So! I have decided to clear out the entire queue with one gigantic mini-review bonanza. I may end up writing more about one or two of these series, especially the ones with second seasons that I haven't seen yet, but don't hold your breath.

The first episode of Martian Successor Nadesico (機動戦艦ナデシコ, Mobile Battleship Nadesico) left me with approximately the same impression I got from Excel Saga, namely "my brain asplode." It turned out that was just the exposition, though, and things quickly settled down into zany comedy with hints of romance and drama to come.

Now and Then, Here and There (今、そこにいる僕, I who am Now There) feels older than it is, in many ways. The show aired in 1999, but its artwork is a distinct throwback to the rounded, organic style of 80's and early 90's anime. Its plot, too, feels out-of-place among modern anime: slow, deliberate pacing; meticulous care devoted to realism (despite the fantasy/sci-fi setting); little comedy and no breaking the "fourth wall." It is very much like Fantastic Children in those respects, so much so that I would consider Fantastic Children the spiritual successor to Now and Then, Here and There.

Yeah, yeah, last anime fan alive to watch GTO, blah blah. As you probably know, Great Teacher Onizuka is a comedy about a perverted ex-gang member named Onizuka who takes the world of education by storm with his outrageous "teaching methods." That's all you need to know about the plot, because that's pretty much all there is to it.

I don't particularly go in for fashion, and dramas are not my favorite type of anime. Even so, I thoroughly enjoyed Paradise Kiss, a romantic drama about fashion, modeling, love and self-discovery. I'd heard virtually nothing about this short series, so I was pleasantly surprised to find it quite engrossing and well-produced.

Stop what you are doing right now and watch Fantastic Children. I'll wait.

I had heard so little about Fantastic Children that its superb quality took me completely by surprise. I have no idea why this show hasn't gotten much attention, but the fact that it hasn't is a tragedy (as with Crest of the Stars and Giant Robo).