This year—that is 2018, to warm up your Winter with an adventurous slice of life, Madhouse has brought close to you A Place Further Than The Universe.
Antarctica, a barren continent completely ruled over by frozen white. The only colors that paint over this vastest canvas on the planet are luminous electromagnetic lighting-effects, a phenomenon known as 'aurora'. To consume the visage of this awe-inspiring painting crafted by the largest known artists (Sun and Earth) using the smallest of tools (particles and atoms), or to experience the euphoric sensation of conquest, or to be overwhelmed by its scale, humans have always been attracted to this region
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Nov 5, 2017
Virgin Night
(Anime)
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My quest for a well executed hentai has finally bore a fruit that appealed to me in a personal way. Casting aside the traditional angst and horns of hentai anime, Virgin Night proceeds to offer a rather genuine and endearing depiction of sexual intercourse. A simple short story, and simple emotions. But executed with heart.
It's not just about a couple having their first sex, it's about their emotions surrounding it. Granted, many other hentai have the same approach. But none of the ones I've seen were so humane in the presentation. And despite being narrated by the male, the feelings of the female were transmitted ... perfectly through her actions and reactions. Not to draw comparison, Futari Ecchi was a great hentai that depicted emotions very well. But that anime wasn't approaching this aspect in a delicate manner like this one. Virgin Night is tender, it's sweet, and it's touching with the normal interactions. And its visual depiction, while not particularly well processed, presented the softness of everything with care. The environment, the world, the room, the atmosphere, everything was carefully crafted, not only visually but also contextually. There are however some things holding it back. As I mentioned earlier, there are some moments where the characters weren't visually processed very well on its world. The voice acting at the time of their sex wasn't very consistent to the visual movements. But aside from the mild drawbacks, it's an immensely satisfying hentai anime in many ways. I'd love to see more hentai like this that are so passionately crafted.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Apr 29, 2017
Death Note
(Anime)
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There is hardly any anime enthusiast who hasn’t seen Death Note and it has more than enough spoiler-less reviews. But what I feel the need of for this anime is a full fledged analysis of its accomplishments. And so, here I am trying to do that very thing. And since I’m going to have to point out several significant plot points and twists as examples, this review-esque prose will contain heavy amount of spoilers. If you’re one of those who haven’t yet seen the anime, I suggest doing so before reading this.
A HUGE SPOILER ALERT!! AGAIN, JUST IN CASE Death Note is mostly popular for its ... thrills and moral ambiguity which are apparent to superficial views. But the anime has much more thematic execution than what meets the casual eyes. Having a brilliant and multilayered exploration of ‘Justice’, stagnation vs hypocrisy, commentaries on religion, society and so much more, Death Note is a densely packed thematic piece. Let’s dive into the elaboration on how it explores these topics. It’s a common complaint about Death Note that the anime forces ideals through the viewers’ throats. But the anime actually does nothing of that sort. It rather beholds many ideals through its characters to study those ideologies and evaluate them. It showcases the fallacies in their senses of justice. Light tries to rid the world of evil by becoming a murderer who kills bad people, L tries to stop Kira using some underhanded methods, Near cheats as well. The anime compares between conflicting ideals to choose what is better. Light may be a hypocrite, but his hypocrisy is actually cleansing the world which is evident from the 70% drop in crime rate and the complete halt of wars. L, with his own sense of justice pursues Light/Kira using suspicious budget and unorthodox methods, which is hypocritical as well. L succeeded to close in on him until he tried having a criminal use the notebook in order to confirm the ’13 Days’ rule. He pushed too far with his hypocrisy with this and the world couldn’t allow such hypocrisy overtake the one that is improving the world; and thus he was gotten rid of in episode 25, right before he could execute his plan. Having defeated the greatest detective in the world, Light’s megalomania and God-complex grew bigger and he became more conceited. He had planned from the beginning to force people into doing good deeds with threats, but he was sure to do it after his final confrontation with Near. If he won, he’d have no one to stop him from forcing his ideals onto the world. This time, Light’s ideal was more dangerous than it was beneficial to the world and so the world decided that it’s better without him anymore. Thus, even though Near’s hypocrisy was even bigger than L’s, he defeated Kira, using that very hypocritical strategy. In the last encounter of Near and Light, Near cheated by using the real notebook himself. When he found the notebook Mikami had hidden thanks to Mello’s sacrifice, he used it in order to keep Mikami’s actions restricted in the final encounter. By writing Mikami’s name on the real notebook, he had him bring the fake notebook that Mikami made himself. Near lied when he said that Giovanni made a complete replica in a single night and it was quite obvious (as if anyone can perfectly replicate the whole notebook with all the names and death conditions in one night). There are more proofs for this. If you don’t want to read through the thorough explanation of this particular point (which is gonna be BIG), you can skip through to the sign I put up in capital letters to indicate the end of the explanation. https://animetropolisblog.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/output_bxmgrn.gif?w=1000 If you carefully notice in that^ gif, when Near showed Light that Mikami also wrote Takada’s name in the note, he (Near) used the notebook Mikami brought with himself, evident from the names of task force and SPK members. But he also claimed that the notebook is completely fake. So why would he show the notebook he himself claimed to be fake? Near carefully avoided opening the real notebook because Mikami’s name was written in it and he couldn’t risk the task force members seeing that for obvious reasons. This brings up the next question. Why didn’t Near just write Mikami’s name and death condition on a piece of the notebook? The anime provides an answer for that as well. We see that Near asked Ryuk in the end if writing a name on a scattered piece of the notebook works or not. In other words, he wasn’t sure whether doing that would serve his purpose or not. And he obviously couldn’t take a risk on such an important event, therefore, wrote Mikami’s name and specifics of death inside the real notebook instead of a torn piece of it. Speaking of torn pieces, there is a complaint I used to have against Death Note’s ending. Why didn’t Light just suggest Mikami to keep a hidden piece like he does himself, only to use it for this final encounter? This complaint was resolved once I found out about Near’s cheating and realized that he actually did suggest Mikami to do that. But as Mikami was restricted due to Near using the notebook, he played according to Near’s scenario instead of Light's and used the fake notebook instead of the hidden piece. This possibility of a hidden piece is another reason why Near had to cheat in order to ensure his survival and victory. While I don’t have any concrete proof of the existence of such hidden piece, it does make a lot of sense this way and Light’s behavior backs up this argument. When he saw that nobody died and got exposed, Light first thought of the possibility that Mikami might have betrayed him, which is only possible if there was a hidden piece that Mikami didn’t use. Later on, Light was screaming at Mikami to write down everyone’s name even though he (Mikami) was already caught. While this was shown like a desperate scream of someone who lost his composure, it’s actually him ordering Mikami to use the hidden piece because there was still a chance since Mikami’s hidden piece wasn’t discovered yet. Light trying to write Near’s name right before that acts as an appropriate foreshadowing of it. Near using the notebook is nothing out of the blue. He previously did propose that he’d be willing to write names in the notebook to test the rules, so it’s not surprising that he did it in the final confrontation. Mikami’s behavior was also weird and out of character, thus supporting the possibility of Near’s cheating further. For Near, it was a last minute call that he had to make, or they’d be completely defeated. After getting his hands on the notebook thanks to Mello’s efforts, he couldn’t overlook the possibility that a hidden piece could be functional and so had to cheat and restrict Mikami in order to ensure Kira’s fall. We also see Misa Amane standing on the edge of a high building’s roof in the very end, clearly giving a sign of an upcoming suicide and her body language pretty much confirms it. While it’s quite possible that she committed suicide after knowing of Lights’s demise, her death can very well be Near’s work. But as we know that she had forfeited the ownership and all, so why would she have to die? Well, while it is true that Near isn’t sure about that and had to make sure that Kira is gone for good, there’s another strong reason. At first, I wasn’t sure if she could be useful to Light in the final encounter, but the possibility isn’t zero. Then I came across this interesting video, which provides a pretty interesting theory regarding how Light could’ve come out victorious in the final battle. While I don’t agree with the context of the video, it gave me a new field for thinking. It's NEARly impossible to summarize the video here because I still have lots of other things to talk about. So I'll just link it here and I hope that the moderators would be kind enough to allow this for the sake of articulation. https://youtu.be/_j58ZQSf1vA Now, the reason I don’t agree with this video is because it assumes that Light didn’t actually make that plan (and I honestly don’t blame the one who made the video for that, considering how subtle the anime is). While I don’t know if the writers of the series had this plan in mind, but Light just might’ve made that plan and act accordingly. And that is why restraining Misa Amane by using the notebook was a must. With that being done, there is now no way that Light’s plan will be executed. It makes perfect sense this way and has enough hints as evidences to back it up, therefore I like to think that my interpretation is correct. THIS IS THE END OF THE EXPLANATION OF DEATH NOTE'S ENDING. WE CAN TAKE IT SLOW NOW xd In case you forgot what we were initially doing with this explanation, we were looking up Near's hypocrisy and its importance. Death Note judged Near's hypocritical course of action to be better for its world than Light's since he became too megalomaniac. While it's quite obvious that defeat in this anime means rejection and victory means acceptance, the anime also provides direct evidence of this. The task force members were discussing whether Kira really is evil or justice in the latter part of the story, where Light said, "if Kira wins, he's justice. And if he loses and gets caught, he's evil". While this statement is a fantastic commentary on how the world works, it also proves that success means acceptance; and I love how it's perfectly harmonized with the narrative flow. Before we get to the main thematic punch of the show, let's look at another way DN takes to explore the theme, through the deconstruction of ‘Religion’. It applies the basics of the idea of ‘Religion’ like the dogma, the ideal, the Messiah (Kira), the punishment for breaking principles (death in different ways), Messiah’s miracle (the notebook) and even the Messenger Angel (with black wings) who brings the Messiah the news of his selection; in its own way to fit in the setting. But they’re applied in a manner that extracts a different coherent essence from these elements that ultimately weaves into a different context, which makes this anime a successful deconstruction in essence. But that would all be pointless if it didn’t bear commentaries on how fear is an asset used for strengthening religions. The deconstruction could also have been my mere overthinking if there weren’t appropriately used symbolism and religious imagery connecting to the idea of religion, which confirms the intention of said deconstruction. By going through all these, Death Note shows us that true justice doesn't exist and therefore every ideals of justice is filled with hypocrisy. But even so, the anime accepts them because these hypocritical justice is still better than leaving the world be. It tells us that a functioning hypocrisy is better than stagnant sincerity. Or so it seemed until the last episode where it turns the table. By having Light defeated, Death Note returns its world to its previous free form (except the world is much cleaner now). Death Note, embodying ‘utilitarianism’, doesn’t side with any ideal but rather chooses what’s best for its world. And it tells us that stagnation can be the better choice as well, depending on the situation. What Death Note encourages, however, is having one’s own sense of justice, as every other characters had displayed throughout the anime. The ending where Aizawa and the rest rejected Near’s ways of doing things, and chased after Light as he tried to run away, that moment sealed the final deal. It culminates the entirety of Death Note’s thematic journey. Death Note's story executes these thematic punches as if there's some entity or system that is evaluating the characters' ideals and overseeing the entire process. As if the anime has a consciousness of itself. A consciousness that controls what happens in the world, a true God. The anime is shown from the perspective of such entity and that's why the series has such overwhelming atmosphere all through. It's as if the consciousness is watching everything from the perspective that seems the most intriguing. And we viewers watch the anime through this perspective. In a sense, the anime is inviting us to be the judge of what this anime provides. It's also along the line of Death Note's main theme, having our own sense of judgement through considering the merits and demerits. Rather than forcing ideals through viewers' throats, this anime encourages to have our own, so I found the complaint I addressed earlier to be quite misleading. The theme is quite intricately explored throughout the series little by little. But even after all these, I can't call Death Note just a theme driven story. It is both theme driven and plot driven. Death Note's story is never influenced by a deus ex machina device, but rather flows in its own stream. Each point of the story has a buildup and proper transition from its previous incidents. Even the most insignificant details are properly set. For example, Light meeting Naomi Misora in the police station when she was trying to get through to L may seem a bit too convenient. But it actually follows up the earlier events perfectly. Light needed to go to the station for gathering information on how the task force is reacting to the 12 FBI agents getting killed. And his father couldn't come home because of that incident as it made things complicated. So Light went there in the pretense of bringing him a change of clothes. And Naomi Misora was there because her fiance was one of the 12 agents. The timing makes complete sense as she also took some time to investigate things and coming to the conclusion. Also it's not like she just went there exactly when Light went. By her conversation with the receptionist, it's obvious she's been bargaining for a meetup for quite a while. So even calling that convenient would be stretching it way too far and every other shows would be so much more guilty of plot contrivances. That was just one example from the top of my head. Every bit of the anime is well thought to such degree. What makes it especially great is the fact that it's constantly climactic, which is quite daring and rare. Death Note is masterful at creating critical situations. There are several key moments and ingenious twists in every episode, making it a fast paced enticing experience all through. Its play of inevitability is one of the best in all of storytelling medium, as the story's situations are always so critical that the characters must choose the best or the second best plausible option because once chosen, there's no going back in the path. Loopholes in the supernatural rules, technical advantages, political power, using all kinds of resources they have, the characters in this anime proceed with the best or the second best course of actions available to them, in order to defeat the other and win. These tactics are clearly explained through either proper dialogues or subtle visual exposition. While those tactics are mostly unprecedented, logical and ingenious, the few strategies that were already on the table were modified and handled in a clever way in order to adapt to the anime’s situations. It provides the two absolute best tactical showdown I've seen including the ending one that I explained earlier in this essay (the other one being the confinement strategy). While the value of the writing is already one of the highest, it becomes unrivaled due to how coherent it is to the theme. There are many routes for the story to follow and picking one of them while closing off the rest without any inconsistency and contrivance is a challenging task itself. But Death Note elevates that challenge by several times by having the story follow a specific theme and executing it with absolutely masterful crafting. The brilliant handling of the characters' information/knowledge, improvising and strategies works so well for the theme but is never forced or manipulated in any way. There are cases where things don't always go as planned due to accidents or mistakes, but they're never contrived and they feel very natural when they happen. It's really perplexing how it does all these with proper transition from one point to the other. Death Note is a concisely stylized piece with expositions making even some silly parts look cool, but those silliness hold some serious points underneath. For example, that "I'll take a potato chip and EAT IT!" part was stylized as such because Light really was using the chips as a cover while skillfully beating L's surveillance system. One of the things that makes Death Note so constantly exciting is the fact that it chooses not to give much screen-time to unnecessary and boring points. For example, Light's decision to use the notebook actually took several days of consideration which is shown through some quick shots of him thinking about it and reaching enlightenment. Another example of this is when Near picks Mikami out of all the videos of Kira related programs, which may seem too contrived and fast while in actuality, the shot composition clearly implies that he gave a lot of time going through all the tapes before realizing that Mikami, the perfect choice for X-Kira appears in so many places. This anime has some very good use of metaphors and symbolism throughout. One of them being the lights, which is used for capturing the enlightenment I just mentioned along with some more in several other places. I literally wrote a whole article about some more visual and narrative cues from this anime in my blog. These fill up the holes in the story and the characterization. Coupled with the narrative perspective I mentioned regarding the atmosphere, these make the narrative and visual style of Death Note one of the top tier I've seen. Being an anime where deaths, murders and police works are the main focus, people often tend to overlook some really striking emotional moments when talking about Death Note. Souichiro's last moments, the moments before Light's death, L's death, Naomi Misora's death are some of the obvious emotional moments, but parts like Aizawa's emotional crisis after leaving the investigation team, L having Light spill out why he seems suspicious from L's perspective, that foot massage, those moments on the roof, Aizawa and Ide appearing to assist the arrest of Higuchi, Light's defeat to Mello's gang, etc. were some strikingly emotional moments as well. The whole show was thoroughly impacting if we include the exciting points. The minimal exposition of emotions most of the time makes those few focused moments much more valuable. What I said so far covers parts of Death Note's characterization. Each characters have enough consistent character traits and act human. They all show a wide range of actions and interactions while never betraying their character writing. There were subtle little developments to the characters which wasn't quite too much, and it makes sense since they're mostly grown ups and people don't quite change much. Light Yagami had the most development as he got more and more megalomaniac. What the characters have though, are fantastic interactions and mutual influence on each others. “Also, as soon as I said we knew he was in Kanto region, in defiance he made sure that his next victims came from within Japan, as if to say ‘what are you gonna do about it?'”- this explanation by L highlights how L and Kira were having such intriguing interactions before they even met each other. The development of their interaction is consistent and well written, which, while being a cat and mouse chase at the surface, has considerable psychological depth in its encounters. Having said all that, the characters of Death Note is not one of its stronger points. Madhouse did brilliant job with the production of the anime. Stunning visuals is accompanied well by one of the best sets of soundtracks in anime. One of Death Note's most impressive aspects is how it connects every one of its accomplishments with each other. The story writing, themes and characters are directly connected to each other, the theme connects to the narrative perspective which in turns connects to the atmosphere, which is also connected with the story's climax. It's done so skillfully that the coherence itself becomes a godly feat of this anime. The directing is solid across the board, with some transcending directing choices. The clash of ideals is phenomenal. It has a stellar supernatural lore with perfect rules for the usage of the notebook. Every aspect of it is induced to make it more enjoyable, enthralling and ecstatically overwhelming. The anime has some more really good feats but let's stop now, since we've already had enough. There are 10 works of storytelling medium I've come across that deserve 10/10 in my opinion and Death Note is one of them due to all these excellent feats. It's also one of my top 3 personally favorite anime. I'm thoroughly impressed by how ingeniously it handles everything. I consider Death Note to be one of the most intelligent pieces of storytelling medium if not the most intelligent. Among what I've seen so far, that is.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Aug 17, 2016
Haruko no Bouken
(Anime)
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There is actually too much to write about this 14 minutes long short film, but it's extremely difficult to come up with suitable words to describe it. I'll keep it short because rambling on too much would be a disrespect to this classic.
This is the short dementia film that inspired the likes of Serial Experiments Lain, Noein, Shinsekai Yori and other masterpieces. Through surrealism, visual storytelling and symbolism, it explores deep into its theme. It touches on so many subject in such a short time. It shows the inevitable sacrifice made due to the change of era. It shows the hidden potential of human nature. ... It shows how humanity will forever be haunted by its history no matter how advanced it gets. Its peculiar yet ingenious visual style and meaningful references brings out the very essence of its core themes. The story it tells is heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time. Another one of its accomplishments lies in its psychological expedition. It is truly a psychological show at its core. A true psychological fiction. Anyway, if you have 14 minutes in your hands, you might as well check out this classic pioneer that paved the way for its descendants.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jul 13, 2016
Noein: Mou Hitori no Kimi e
(Anime)
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Noein: To Your Other Self or Noein: Towards Another You is a character-driven science fantasy that still leans more to the analytical science. Noein deals with quantum parallel world intertwined with teleological thinking, set in a complex inter-dimensional conflict. While it concerns a complex and very thought provoking theme, Noein delivers it with a very accessible presentation which makes it easy to understand. This anime refrains from presenting any superfluous convolution. It can be quite confusing at a few points, but they are crucial for the storytelling and are explained later on.
Noein’s specialty lies in its detailed and extremely well orchestrated character interaction. It is ... very well written. The subtle execution makes these interactions feel genuine. It’s as if the viewers are looking at real people interacting. The emphasis on details is splendid! The delicate interaction wouldn’t amount to anything if the characters weren’t worth caring for. Noein introduces its characters perfectly. It establishes their traits, relations and lives wonderfully. So the viewers get along with the characters very well and can relate to them properly. Each character is well written and their natural interaction with each other makes it easier to like them. Speaking of characters, Yuu’s mother falls in an archetype, seemingly. She does seem to be one of those mother characters that falls in the ‘I know what’s best for you’ category that we see often in the recent anime, but honestly speaking, this archetype is one of the better written ones. Not to mention, Noein is from 2005, so it wasn’t an archetype to be precise. Having said all that, Yuu’s mother has much more traits to her and she has her reasons. And she develops really well throughout the show as well. Noein’s world building is rich and insightful. Shangri La is a depiction of utopia, while Lacryma is a dystopian dimension. Both of them have great buildup and are really well fleshed out. And these two worlds portray ‘life’ and ‘death’ in a very interesting way, thus enriching its conceptual value. It also contains a number of interesting messages and subtexts as well. Noein’s story is a bit slow paced and can be dragged at times. But that’s due to the vague knowledge of the characters at that time. In other words, it’s part of the narrative. It can be quite predictable as well. But the fascinating execution and the interesting character interaction (which takes a lot of its time) make up for these complaints. Noein’s depiction of parallel multiverse is really quite interesting. The exploration of existentialism and the concept of Reizu, the source of the power is amusing. It has vagueness but they play along well with the series. While it’s heavily thought provoking, it is still an excellent slice of life and holds its ground as a drama strongly. Its emotional aspects are very refined. The art of Noein is quite unique and compliments the story well. It’s a good example of visual storytelling. The brilliant use of color enriches the atmosphere and makes it visually very appealing. The superfine animation is spectacular and enhances the awesomeness of the action scenes. It has some of the most well animated and brilliant fights I’ve seen in anime. The cinematography of Noein is one of the best I’ve seen in anime. The camera angle always captures the best aesthetic view it could deliver. The movements and distortions are so well proportioned that it gives a clear idea of the position of everything in the frame. The choreography is just fantastic! It was visually gorgeous! The background music are just as amazing. Noein has some ecstatic OSTs that sets the atmosphere as profoundly as possible. Both the OP and ED of this anime are simply wonderful. They’re really soothing to listen to and delivers some superb visual exposition. I loved them both. Watching Noein was a great experience. It’s intense actions were enthralling. The slice of life aspects were amusing. It was intimidating all through. A really enjoyable ride overall. Noein is thematically sound and esoteric. It has elements that I believe can satisfy all sorts of viewers to an extent. I’d specially recommend it to those who liked Serial Experiments Lain because it does somewhat similar (keyword, ‘similar’, not ‘same’) things. Overall, I rate it an 8 out of 10. This anime is awfully underrated and deserves a lot more recognition. So, what are you waiting for? Start watching it, ASAP!
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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May 15, 2016
Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu
(Anime)
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To be excellent, an anime doesn't always need to be endowed with great ideas. It doesn't always have to explore overwhelming themes. It doesn't need to have deeper meaning. Sometimes, subtlety and proper execution of everything it does is sufficient to make a masterful series. Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu is such an anime.
Shouwa starts off in the modern day Japan but shifts to the past soon after. This time shift is handled with profound care and in quite an interesting way. The transition is written very well and doesn't feel a least bit disturbing. In such manner, we're presented with a wonderful story of friendship, ... brotherhood and life. One that will curve a deep feeling in your heart and make you only crave for more. The defining aspect of Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu is the atmosphere, which is relayed in a bit peculiar yet strong way. Instead of the environmental design and background musics, what creates its atmosphere is the characters' voice acting, body language and interaction. Being an anime about rakugo, a classic medium of Japanese entertainment which is basically a rakugo performer performing a comedic play, its majority of execution is centered around these plays and characters who performs them. These performance is so brilliantly presented that without making it blatant, the anime makes the viewers understand when a performance is lacking despite a lot of efforts being put into it, or when a performance really reaches the heart easily. Basically, this anime perfectly executes how a performance has been executed; and seamlessly so. One needn't to hold great knowledge about rakugo or its system to enjoy this brilliant show. I had absolutely no idea about what rakugo is when I started this series, but it didn't at all hold me back from understanding what's happening. Due to the subtle presentation, I was immensely captivated and instantly pulled into its fluid storytelling. No other anime pulled me in its atmosphere as Shouwa did and its all thanks to its magnificent execution. As a purely character driven drama, Shouwa's main aspect is its characters. Similar to everything else in it, this anime presents its characters powerfully. The characters are introduced perfectly. We see their relations forming subtly as the story progresses and the character interaction really grows on us. The characters feel dear to us and this anime successfully makes us care for them. The development of the characters and their interactions is consistent; and coherent with the main plot. We see them developing due to circumstances and their relations change accordingly. This is all handled in a plausible and realistic manner. Yuurakutei Yakumo or Bon is one of my top 10 favorite anime characters. While the writing of the characters is a masterful job, their design and facial expressions are worthy of remark. Not just the characters, but also their attires, surroundings and atmosphere, all was perfectly designed. The mesmerizing and smooth animation does an excellent job in giving the series life. It was an absolute piece of art to behold. To be fairly honest, I didn't notice much of a background music in Shouwa Genroku. It did have them (I rechecked), but the seamless presentation coated them so well that they support the execution superbly without preaching their existence. It doesn't fill every moment shoving music, but rather uses them where they truly belong. This invites a serene atmosphere that allows the anime to deliver as much as possible. The OP is amazing with great visual exposition, the ending is wonderful as well. The most important part of its sound system is the voice acting as the anime is about vocal performance. The voice actors literally have to perform vocal rakugo for this anime. I'm not very knowledgeable in seiyuu, but Shouwa's voice actors did it perfectly. From rakugo performance to dialogues between the characters to the characters talking to themselves, this anime's voice acting flourishes. I see no way for this to be done any better. The writing of the story is one of the most consistent in anime. I personally liked the story a lot. This is touching, this is enchanting. I enjoyed it all through. But if I have to voice a complaint, I'd say it was slightly weak around the end of the past story. I had expected a bit more from it. It was quite out of the blue. And I found it to be quite difficult to believe because it was slightly over the top. But it was still very well directed and successfully made my eyes wet. Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu is an experience. It beholds a fine drama with great character emphasis. Truly a brilliant series through and through. Therefore, I bestow upon it a score of 8 out of 10, for it is worth every bit of it. A majestic series that redefines the drama genre. A rare piece of excellence of these day's anime most capable candidate for Anime of The Year 2016.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Mar 3, 2016
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
(Anime)
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Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood is one of the most critically acclaimed anime loved by both connoisseurs and casuals.
Let me start with the very first mentionable point to notice, which is a negative one. This anime expects its viewers to be already well acquainted with the franchise before watching it. So, the introduction is pretty straight forward and awkwardly so. I get that it has its alternative version or a manga with proper introduction. But, that's not Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood and people would definitely not like to read the manga or another anime with 51 episodes before watching a 64 episodes anime just for a proper introduction. ... In Brotherhood, at the beginning, you see the characters doing whatever they do without you knowing what it is that they're doing, or even saying. "Oh so he's the Fullmetal Alchemist!? Whatever the hell is a Fullmetal Alchemist anyway?" So, yeah. Despite being awkward at the beginning, there is something that still makes it perceivable. You don't know the details, but you have a vague idea that something is actually happening, so the viewers are tempted to watch further to know what exactly was it as there were many flashy things going on and it felt like there was some meaning to it. It's a cheap trick to hook the viewers, but it worked. That's what saves it from being dropped at the very beginning, but the fact that it's awkward still remains. This is how it is for the first few episodes. After that you get rewarded for not dropping it earlier with some genius story composition. This anime's storyline considers a number of possibilities and takes the best path. Which ends up with a brilliant ending, that I consider one of the bests among happy endings. It packs up the whole series nicely, making it a complete story. The anime has an overarching and well progressing plot handled carefully. I didn't notice any bothersome inconsistency after the opening episodes. The story isn't repetitive in any way. It's story is simple but has considerable depth to it. Although the characters who were introduced at first had improper introduction, I as a viewer got along with them as time passed. The characters introduced later on are well presented. But, the character development in this anime is very typical and genric. Bad guys get saved by the good guys, realize that they shouldn't follow the orders of the evil bosses and help the good guys on their own will. And someone gets violent as hell who doesn't feel strong restraint when killing someone almost overnight after a harsh experience. Something we haven't ever seen? The development on the good guys isn't remarkable and sometimes nonexistent. There are however some really good character development. For example, the slow and consistent development of that greedy man I forgot the name of who used to own a mine or something that he lost due to our MC, Edward Elric and some Homunculi. What's genuinely good about this anime's characters is the screentime distribution. This is very essential in this anime in particular, partly because it has many likable characters and it'd be really disappointing if they didn't get enough screentime. The antagonism in this anime is shallow, with very weak reasons and goals to justify for all the dreadful deeds. The evil military personnel and some other bad guys are horribly one dimensional. The character interaction is decent, but could've been better. The overall cast is very well handled, nevertheless. I liked the world building in this anime. It makes big approaches by dividing the State, having different regions with different climate, culture, general attitudes and lifestyles. It makes medium approaches by having different cities, towns, countrysides, etc with their definite geological location and connecting them with consideration of distance and cultural transition. And finally, it makes small approaches by detailing the small points in the places where the story takes place in. It's attention to tiny details like mud on the body after crossing a muddy path, or dirts after falling on the ground were mesmerizing but never preachy. The anime makes no unrealistic or unbelievable change in the already established environmental points. Basically, it did excellent job on the places it shows. But unfortunately, it doesn't show majority of its world. We only get to properly see The State of Amestris. It gives a small idea of Xing through some of its characters from that empire, but that wasn't enough to relay a good description. We don't really even know if there's any other country aside from the State of Amestris, Xerxes and the Empire of Xing. And even if it did mention other countries, it must've been very unimpressive for me to remember or even notice. In short, it doesn't quench one's thirst for the view of its world. Then again, it's a good thing that the anime doesn't go out of its way to show around the parts of the world that aren't important, consequently not drawing the attention away from the story. I'd like to inform you that it has a town based on automails as well. Automails are prosthetic limbs made of metal. The technology behind this element is not much explained, but I really liked it. How they presented that there is nerve connection and the pain of that time really made me feel it. I liked how there are so many types of automails. And loved the idea of having different types of automails for different weather. Basically I loved how they didn't leave it as it is just because it's not a main element and was used for more reasons than just showing Edward's resolves. The main element, Alchemy, is an edited form of the Alchemy we know. Here, one can understand, break and reconstruct matters and that's what Alchemy here is. It's not very deep, but efficient. Aside from shooting pillars and rocks (like wtf!?), the use of Alchemy is very good. The difference in the usage of Alchemy between the West and the East is interesting. Alchemy is adequately crafted to satisfy a superficial view while also running the story, it's not enough explored to get past the highly functioning brains that like to go deep into analysis. But well, it doesn't need to be extremely deep and didn't do anything pretentious to make it deep either. The shooting pillars and rocks are still blatant though. The power curve of this anime is very good. The MC isn't utterly overpowered. In fact, he's far outranked by many people. He trains, but doesn't become stronger than most of them which is really plausible. The overpowered villain is justified. I loved how in the end, the anime didn't pull any unnecessary, unbelievable, unreliable power up to defeat the overpowered villain. A bothersome point in this anime is the immortal army. FMAB does have a realism that it sticks to, but this particular point is slightly too unrealistically overdone considering its realism. It's not really much necessary either. I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't have felt anything lacking if this wasn't here. The evil military personnel could've been brainwashed instead of tempted, which could've solved an aforementioned issue as well. Anyway, many of the shortcomings in this anime are obtained through nitpicking and are massively outweighted by its greatness. The plot points are tied very well so there's no considerable loose end. It's overarching with its elements and plot but still very well handled. There are sufficient job done on everything. It's philosophy is simple and unpretentious. The main philosophy that for getting something, there has to be a sacrifice of equal amount is an excellent example. It also tells us to not be too conceited. There are many other teachings relayed in the anime. Truth's vague existence actually plays well here. FMAB has great animation and cinematography. The artwork of the character design is good, but how it was used was slightly problematic. Especially when you can't tell that a seemingly man is actually a woman. The reason might be that almost all the faces are designed rounded and there are little difference in male and female facial construction. Well, I'm not sure if it's because of getting used to it or the improvement of the art, but it seems perfect later on. It's probably the latter but if just in case it is the former, then the anime does great job helping the viewers to get used to it. The attire design is excellent and the colors are masterfully used while designing the characters. It has some extremely well choreographed fight scenes which are exhilarating. This anime has by far one of the best collection of opening and ending songs if not the best. All of them are great. Some are easily top list materials. The background musics are remarkable as well. Loved Lapis Philosophorum in particular. The atmosphere of this anime is not as dark as its former 2003 version and I found it more fitting. The lighthearted un-overwhelming atmosphere is a better choice here, imo. This anime is superficially perfect. It's specialty is that it has almost everything you need to learn and can ask for from an anime. And there's no way to call it "pretentious". Overall, it's very well put together and definitely one of the best anime I've watched so far. It's a tier 1 9/10 show.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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