Originally posted on the Anime Guidepost blog, July 27th, 2009.
Waagh!
Sorry I'm late! I had a really apathetic week last week and things
got kind of bad. I even had this article planned in my head and I just
decided not to write it. I'm going to blame hayfever. It's a good
scapegoat. In any case, no more excuses. I can do this! So here we
go.
Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki OVA Set 3 (7 Episodes)
Animation: ****
Story: ****
Music: ***
Overall: ***
The
Tenchi franchise is about as old as the hills now and the formula is
pretty much the same here, just simply picking up where the first two
sets of OVAs left off. Tenchi, in his house filled with hot alien
girls, is suddenly visited by even more hot alien girls. What starts
off as Tenchi's long lost family pouring in and telling him he's already
engaged turns into a crisis that could destroy the universe. Basic
Tenchi stuff and yet quite fun if you've already enjoyed everything
leading up to this series as I have since it was broadcasted on Toonami.
However,
I do have a few complaints. I don't talk much about the whole issue of
subs and dubs and that kind of thing, but here the dub bothered me. It
wasn't that the dub was bad as it was that FUNimation didn't (or
couldn't) get some of the original voice actors and that was a little
depressing. I had heard that they were using a different voice for
Ryoko, but I figured that a sexy space pirate wouldn't be hard to
recreate, and I was wrong. Not that the voice was bad, but the original
voice actress who played Ryoko certainly was better. Mihoshi's voice
actress was different as well, but I didn't care as much. Airhead is
airhead and I've never cared much for Mihoshi anyway. One thing that
did puzzle me is how they got the original voice again for Tenchi, but
didn't have him do Tenchi's grandfather, Katsuhito, like he did
originally. Oh well.
My
other complaint actually is in the animation. Don't get me wrong, it
was still good, but it wasn't the same quality and smoothness that the
original OVAs had. Even if they're older, they certainly were slick and
had a lot of fluid motion, whereas this third set has the standard
stickiness you expect from television anime. I thought OVAs were
supposed to by better in the animation department.
It's
still a fun series, though. I don't know if it's ideal for someone to
pick it up on its own; they do spend a lot of time referring to material
brought up in the earlier series. Sure, the first episode is sort of a
recap, but there's still other details you wouldn't really get unless
you had watched the series from the beginning. At least we don't have
to wait and buy each episode individually!
Hyakko (13 Episodes)
Animation: ****
Story: ****
Music: ****
Overall: *****
WILL SOMEONE PLEASE LICENSE THIS!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!
. . .
Lemme
back up. When the Anime News Network was doing their Anime preview for
(geez, I think it was) last fall, they didn't seem to care much for
Hyakko. It was four high school girls simply being the kind of silly
you'd find in anime. Yet, as I picked which series I was going to try
to follow, I couldn't get it out of my mind and I decided to give it a
shot.
I
have since been left on the ground rolling in laughter. This series
absolutely KILLS me! I don't know if it just fits in with my sense of
humor or what, but I loved almost every minute of this series (I'll get
to those other parts later)!! The character design is immediately
striking, the character interactions are incredibly dynamic, and the
music keeps everything pumping full of life and energy. Even when they
toss in a few anime in-jokes, the show doesn't necessarily expect you to
get them, which allows you to join in with the rest of the cast in
being pleasantly baffled. Of course, when you do get it, it's just as
great.
The
premise is simply enough: the campus is one of those K-12 schools, but
the first character you meet is Ayumi who transferred in just for high
school, which becomes apparent when she gets lost five minutes into the
first episode. Plagued with a timid nature, she tries to find friends
but can't find the courage, so when she stumbles across Natsumi, the
snooty girl, Ayumi can barely get across that she could use some help,
only to learn that, despite being a student at this school since the
beginning, Natsumi is lost, too. As they wander around, they come
across Torako leaping out of a building as plan to not loose her own
sense of direction because she and her friend Suzume are lost as well.
Torako is the gung-ho reckless type (almost like a shonen anime hero)
and Suzume fills the personality-of-a-alien-robot type. From here, the
four girls (who are all in the same class, as it turns out) become close
friends simply by happenstance and it's great to see them clash against
each other over this and that. Mostly, Natsumi practicality compels
her to scorn Torako for every nonsensical thing she does while Ayumi
trembles in indecision and Suzume eats everything. They also seem to be
the central focus as they befriend/harass the other girls in their
class.
My
only criticism is what happens at the end of the series. After being a
rather off-the-wall comedy, it suddenly strikes a large vein of
seriousness that almost seems uncharacteristic. While the series does a
good job of diving fairly deep into the various characters' problems
and personalities, it suddenly dives a little too deep into Torako's
family life and troubles which are rather complex and dark in
comparison. And the final episode is a little disorienting as it takes
everything back to before the series got started. Maybe if I had read
the manga, this whole thing would make more sense.
That
aside, the series was a lot of fun and I would love it if some company
could pick it up and bring it here. I don't care if it's just a
subtitles-only complete box set a la Media Blasters (though I wouldn't
turn down a dub if someone feels like it would be worthwhile), I just
want this series on DVD without having to pay through the nose for an
import. I really wouldn't know where to look anyways.
I
may not have seen every anime comedy under the sun, but I enjoyed this
and would recommend it to anyone who likes their comedy a little on the
off-beat side.
Fruits Basket (23 Volumes)
Rating: ***
I
reviewed the anime here on this blog before and found it to be a fun,
light-hearted comedy concerning a rather frightening family. However,
the anime could only go so far as the manga hadn't finished yet, so they
decided to make their own ending, bringing everything to a reasonable
close.
Fruits
Basket is a fairly well known property by now, as it is the number
shojo manga in America (or is that just TokyoPop hyping things up?). I
imagine most everyone is familiar with the premise by now, and if not,
I've done a decent enough job with the anime review that I don't feel
like re-typing it.
In
comparison to the anime, the manga starts out just as light-hearted,
but then dives deep in rather serious situations and material. It
spends a rather long time on each of the other zodiac members that I
wouldn't really consider to be main characters, sort of like how Kare
Kano got away from the main couple for some of those later graphic
novels. However, to Fruits Basket's credit, it still focuses on Tohru
and her interactions with the various members of the Sohma family, even
if they seem tangential. In fact, as the series progresses, it seems to
wax more and more philosophical, almost making it seem long-winded at
times.
Toward
the end, Fruits Basket remembers that shojo manga tend to have romantic
parts as well, and Tohru finally decides she in love with one of the
guys (I won't say who simply because I didn't think it would be him, so
I'll leave it a surprise for those who haven't read it) and helps him
over come his Zodiac curse.
After
running for 23 volumes, we finally have the happy ending we've been
waiting for all this time. Things get sorted out, negativity is
replaced with smiles, and all is well. It just took a really long,
roundabout way of getting there. Maybe it was just the release schedule
of the volumes from TokyoPop, I don't know. However, I feel satisfied
with how the series went as a whole and I don't think it as a waste of
my time. (Again, their version of Cinderella for their school play is
the most hilarious play-in-a-manga I've ever seen.)
Well,
as I warned, things may get more complicated as I get closer to the
fall semester, but I've already got a plan for next week's article: I'm
almost finished with Eden Of The East (wow, what a trip) and I've got
the rest of Tsubasa Reservior Chronicle handy. Also, there are a few
short manga collections that I could have finished by then as well, so
at least I'll have something to write about.
I wonder when One Piece will become available online again with FUNimation . . . .
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