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Jun 10, 2013
The 1930s were a time when many societies hit economic depressive lows, Black Tuesday might have been the start of the Great Depression, but it reared its ugly head and took hold of the lives of many people in the 30s, leaving them desitute and struggling to make ends meet. Yet, there were those lurking in the shadows that made it big and continued to live in luxury, a luxury entangled in blood, deception, and sometimes just by the luck of the draw.
Yes, I'm speaking about the original gangster: three-piece suit, gun-toting, aspiring rebel youths with an ambition and a resolve towards their respective families
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and causes. And they weren't simply that. If you've ever seen "The Godfather"; "Road to Pertition" or "Once Upon a Time in America" you would know that to step into the arms of the "family" meant unyelding support but also uncertain, relentless death. So bloody, twisted, and sudden that it made death seem like it wasn't the worst thing that could happen.
Baccano! is perhaps the first anime series that I've seen that takes the period of the 1930s and dives into the hearts of several gangsters, all with very distinct personalities - something that makes this stand uniquely from its peers. A pair of effective con-artists, a man with a lust for blood, a young man welcomed for the first time into a mafia family, a man with a secret, elongated past, a woman who fights alongside her "supposed" father, and even a young boy who faces torments worse than death itself. Put it all together, and you only have a part of the story that Baccano showcases.
Baccano's execution may throw some off a bit to start - handing 17 characters already suggests this series is devilishly ambitious, but yet it presents a rather looping story revolving around these characters that seem to "crash" into each other, whether knowingly or just by situtational connections. The storyline jumps back and forth between the years of 1930-1932 primarily, though there are treks to both the past and present in brief context. There's definite story here: it's mainly driven by the characters, and it's also driven by thematics that drive this beyond a traditional gangster story.
Does it execute it well? On most points, a definite yes. The story starts along with enough of a blood bath of violence to capture attention on one hand, but also mixing humor, action, and intelligent swagger to appeal to those who like traditional gangster stories. However, there's a catch - there are elements of this series, which I won't spoil, that twist the tale as the progression comes forward-and revolve around the character identities that ties them all together-you can say it deals with alchemy, superstition, and a lust for power/domination. There's not just one story in Baccano, there are several, and they're all occurring in fragmented conjunction, some are precursors to certain events (the first episode, as confusing as it may be, is a good example of this), while others occur in sequence with other events. If this seems overbearingly confusing, then chances are that you may be the wrong audience for this series, as the fragmented method of storytelling is sequenced in each episode in pieces, some of which are expanded upon in further episodes and pick up "in medias res".
The definition of the characters helped the story along, but I found myself sometimes saying that the format also, somewhat, took away from the progression. Fragmented stories tend to fragment characters in a manner of snapshots, and thus backstories can find themselves, though told, awkward in presentation. With a series with so many characters, this can become a problem. Example, while Miria and Issac are two wonderfly comedic characters this side of a mentally skewed Bonnie and Clyde, there wasn't much to readily develop them. Then again, this series isn't so much about character development as it is about character definition. Those who take that into consideration may enjoy this series a lot more.
The ending of the series was all action driven, and leaves many threads bare which was something I didn't always like, but I liked the resolution in some of the relationships, some of which I could see well from the first of the series, while others...had only begun to surface in the latter half.
Baccano's animation is actually quite well done for a modern adaptation of a mafia based story. The setting backdrops accurately reflect Depression/Prohibition era America among other plot settings, yet one might find the character design a bit inconsistent in some points. I'm probably one of the few who really did enjoy the character design as it reflects the characters in a more realistic manner than most anime series.
I'd argue that the action sequences aren't nearly to the level of gun-toting seen in series like Gunslinger Girl or the characters as "pretty", but they feel realistically portrayed.
Baccano's soundtrack is one I would highly recommend to those who love Jazz music. Gun's and Roses "Paradise Lunch" is a nice "big band" opening that I loved watching with the opening of the series, fitting the style and sequence of the series to a tee. Noting the era this series takes place, it's relevant to the backdrop of the anime. The ending theme is a beautiful ballad: Kaori Oda's "Calling" fits the ending sequence quite well, and it's one of the best ending themes I've heard this past season. In-series music stands strongly rooted in the era, appropriate in both the comedic scenes as well as dramatic contexts.
The Japanese voice acting couples the effect of the overall cast by giving it much stronger hold than it would otherwise have. Coupled with the distinctive presence of each character, their voice actors (particularly I have to give credit to Luck's VA, cool but quite mature) shape them well, but as I'll note in the character section, some of these characters didn't really have roles to fill enough for their VAs to help them.
There were characters within this series I really enjoyed watching, and others that I felt fell off the ladder because they were never really given a due chance other than standing in the pale shadow of other characters. It was something within Baccano I feared coming into the series about with the sheer number, yet, if you watch this series for more character definition than development, it doesn't necessarily take away from the experience.
Take Miria and Issac for example, off the wall, terribly hilarious duo of petty thieves and con-artists, and probably two of the characters that really drove Baccano for me in its overall course. They pretty much seem like a duo that's lifted right from a old comedy sketch routine, but with a certain backwards logic that makes them seem smarter than they actually are. Either by dumb luck or just clever wit, the two seem to avoid danger and live life on their own terms. Some may view them as a bit over-the-top, but for me they really carried the series in terms of enjoyment. You learn to love them, even if they don't have much backstory because that's not what brings out their characters, their sheer definition does.
Now compare that duo to Ladd and Lua. Ladd is a very defined character, no doubt a sadist that almost makes you want to chuckle at him at first..makes me think of a younger horror Jack Nicholson role (most people probably won't agree with me on that though) with tongue in cheek statements that make him seem cool and at the same time show how seriously insane he is in his lust for blood. Then put Lua into the picture, a female who doesn't really have much of a mark on anything except being the one Ladd pledges "to kill first"...in an almost twisted display of affections. Lua's character doesn't amount to much, she's just...there.
Compare Lua to Ennis, a woman with a mysterious past and connections within her mafia upbringing that lends Firo to look into her identity after a chance encounter. Ennis, I would argue, is one of the female characters that really stands out more than the other females, not necessarily for her combative specialty, but her characterization. In the scheme of the series, we get snapshots of her character. I actually really liked Ennis and Firo's chemistry, and considering how they meet and the events they face together, that made them also a duo that I really enjoyed. Jacuzzi and Nice were pretty much in the same way: Jacuzzi is a seeming crybaby who becomes a leader of a gang, and he becomes more respectable when he puts his best face forward, that by the end, I really did like his character. Nice is a kick-butt female character whom you can tell has an affection for Jacuzzi, but sometimes shortchanged because you don't see "enough" of her to balance her character with Jacuzzi.
Among the other "good" mafia members is Maiza, probably the only character with the strongest sense of backstory and the thread that ties all of the characters presented in the series together. His role has much to do with the hidden plot, and in one particular arc of the series, you find that he's not only a partner to Firo, but also one with a dark past and secrets of his own.
Other strong characters included Luck, well defined particular to his roles in his set arcs, Silzard, who plays the central conflictive role in the series in thematic and in identity, and Czes, whom one might dismiss as a bitter kid, but the series provides a bird's eye view into his experiences to see his reasoning.
Eve's pursuit of her brother Dallas was an interesting arc with its backdrop characters (particularly with Luck), yet I found Eve and Dallas' roles to be stronger when in conjunction with the stronger characters (i.e. a nice scene with Eve, Miria, and Issac later on in the series provided a few laughs).
Baccano! is a series with definitive class and style that is unique to most anime series in the present of its year, and one that I think many will enjoy for those factors. I would say it's among the strongest I've seen in it's respective action/period genre, yet there were some holes and characterization parts of the series that I felt weren't as strong as they could have been. There's a potential of depth this series could have achieved both with its storyline and even with the chance of "playing around" more with the period elements. Yet, I enjoyed this on quite many levels, and would recommend it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jun 8, 2013
Well now there are many ways to approach this anime review. I could review it based solely on the anime or I could compare it to the light novel and inform you what was lost in the “translation”. For the sake of giving the anime a fair shot, I will score it based only on the anime itself but I will be injecting notes on what the anime could have done better in comparison to the light novel.
So the anime does a pretty piss poor job of explaining what is going on and keeping your feelings invested towards the characters. The plot is essentially a
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reuniting of Akito and his sister Akiko after a long separation. They end up living in the same house along with the student council at their high school and the usually boy x girl events happen. The anime unfortunately comes across as a generic harem while the light novel feels more like a serious drama. The anime has all the typical harem scenes that we have experienced in the past; the shower scene, the mall scene, etc. I hate to say it but the anime really looks and feels as if it was put together very half-hazardly and was trying to ride on the success of the light novel. Please understand that this is NOT a faithful adaptation of the light novel.
The animation is somewhat a mixed bag; it looks great in some scenes but the overall quality is somewhat lower than what I would expect from a 2012 anime. The characters are visually appealing but the show lacks a certain visual aspect that sets itself apart from all the other anime. This lighting is not done very well, you see many instances where proportions do not really match up, ext. The animation just comes off as generic for eighty percent of the time.
The only redeeming quality for this anime in the sound department are the voice actors’ performances. Each character’s voice actor did a superb job injecting their feelings into their characters. Anastasia has a cold, monotone personality that is expressed well by her voice actor. Even the annoying but too cute Akiko’s voice actor did an amazing job making Akiko a loved and disliked character. Other than the voice acting though the anime falls pretty low on the bar as far as sound goes. The background music is forgettable and generic but the intro and ending songs are quite catchy.
The cast of this anime work very well with each other even if most of them are forgettable. Akito, Akiko and Anastasia were for me the stars of the show. Akito’s strong will and intellect, Akiko’s annoying but super cute personality, and Anastasia’s cold and cool attitude created so many funny and unique scenes throughout the entire anime. My personal favorite character was Anastasia because even though her personality withheld most of her true feelings from everyone else, it was easy to always tell what was on her mind. Also her interactions with Akito were the most fun to watch. The other characters however were either boring or just not appealing. I especially found Arashi just out of place and a bother to the whole chemistry of the group. The young house leader was also quite annoying and off putting. Overall the main three characters really helps make the show shine but a couple others bring it back down.
Overall the anime adaptation of Onii-chan Dakedo Ai Sae Areba Kankeinai yo ne (what a mouthful) is just generic. After reading some of the light novel a couple months before the airing of the anime, I was very excited to see the brother sister romance issue unfold with the student council. What unfortunately occurred here was taking a great drama with very thought provoking and witty conversations and turning it into another generic and barely passable harem anime. I advise that you steer clear from the anime and just read the light novel. It is much better than the anime and it will have you craving for more.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jun 7, 2013
For as long as I can remember, anime of the mystery genre have proven creatively stale. As a rule, trying to find a gratifying mystery is an ordeal much like rummaging for haute couture in a dark, creaky charity shop that smells faintly of mothballs. Foremost amongst the dust-caked offerings, Darker than Black collapses into a morbid mess; low-grade Fantastic Children keeps things cheap and cheerless; and the snail-paced Ghost Hound dulled my senses to such an extent that I never saw its middle episodes.
How delightfully reassuring, then, to discover Eden of the East; this, unlike the aforementioned failures, begins on a much higher bar
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of quality. In fact, tapping into the hot topics of terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, information technology, marginalized geek subculture, and subversive conspiracy theories, it accomplishes an astronomical level of relevancy to its early twenty-first century audience that’s both rare and difficult to pull off. Like Akira emerging from a background of Cold War paranoia, Eden of the East manages to capture the Zeitgeist of disenfranchised youth of the millennium and repackage it into a fascinating adventure that anyone can enjoy. Instead of loudmouthed biker brats trying to prevent the apocalypse, there are spotty middle-class misfits with too much HP trying to save Japan from itself.
The sequence of events may be ambiguous, with the script hardly pausing to explain how they connect with each other, but the pace remains satisfyingly steady. Strangely enough, like watching a master illusionist at work, the confusion contributes to the enjoyment. The series withholds tantalising facts until the last possible moment and glosses over its meandering mystery with generous handfuls of charisma.
In truth, the first half of the show elicits the kind of spine-tingling rapture that only comes along once a decade when viewers inadvertently stumble upon a confident masterpiece. I could see it already – breathless fans hailing Eden of the East as the second coming of Death Note, the easy five-star ratings flying from reviewers’ fingertips, and a live-action movie so popular it even makes it as far as British cinemas by 2015!
All I can say is enjoy the magic while it lasts. Inevitably, Eden of the East overreaches and certain contortions of the plot midway stretch viewers’ suspension of disbelief to untenable limits. At first there is a clever chase sequence highly reminiscent of Light and L’s interplay in Death Note, where the mysterious hero Akira tries to save the day with the help of Juiz (a voice on his phone which grants his every wish). For whatever reason, just at that key juncture, the show follows up with a scene of such crippling farce that, despite later rationalization, it spells a stunning loss of momentum. After that, there’s a long period of rushed explanations, sluggish suspense, and one or two twists desperately in need of more coherent setup.
Fans expecting easy-to-grasp developments and a neat conclusion will end up disappointed. However, for conspiracy theorists and generally anal fans who like to pore over minute details and debate exact wordings for weeks after a show is over, this will prove quite the feast.
Even in that age (2009) of knock-off CGI and dime-a-dozen action sequences, Eden of the East’s visuals warrant some respect. The style may not be up to much, but cityscapes, monorails, museums, cars, and streets have rarely looked this good. The quirkiest aspect is the combination of hamster-cheeked characters with hyper-realistic, superbly detailed backgrounds. Although this sounds intuitively incompatible, the quality of animation is consistently high and melds everything together nicely.
Apart from a catchy opening theme sung by the established Brit-rock band, Oasis, and some excellent American voice acting during the early episodes, Eden of the East’s soundtrack remains effective but wholly unremarkable.
Out of all the characters, only Akira Takigawa leaps off the screen with his incredible effervescence. Turning up at the White House naked with a gun in his first scene certainly makes him memorable, but his charm extends beyond mere gimmicks. Akira’s development reveals a fascinating duality in his personality, which ensures he is at once easy to like and teasingly difficult to grasp. His whimsical nature belies an underlying quick mind and a surprising level of gravity, the latter of which manifests itself in the messianic themes surrounding him (obvious statements that he’s Saki’s ‘prince’, his supposed massacre of 20,000 NEETs, the occasional deadpan expression etc). He’ll delight and entrance in turn, and he’ll do it seemingly without much effort.
Everyone else, unfortunately, gets caught in the whirlwind of his mystery without any opportunity to make their own mark. The good news is that the supporting cast, being ordinary people with ordinary problems, generally behave within the familiar boundaries of reason. Regrettably, this means that, when thrown into Eden of the East’s extraordinary circumstances, they become like headless chickens – alarmingly useless. At some point, I began to wonder how many more times I’d have to watch Saki mope after Akira, worrying about his terrible secrets without being able to help uncover them. Her behavior is always understandable, of course, but also off-putting for being redundant.
Apart from that, the gaggle of weak antagonists impedes any attempt at emotional investment. The most carelessly developed individual has to be that purple-haired femme fatale whose morbid behavior is as caricatured as her looks. Being the only female of note other than the mediocre Saki, I found her constant prancing in underwear and high heels a horribly patronizing and silly portrayal. Truly, does being psychologically disturbed always have to mean being half naked? Other antagonists introduced later simply look boring, are underdeveloped, or generally don’t do much of note. Viewers will keep watching simply to find out the answers to the questions set at the beginning, and not because they will care about the conflict of interest.
I find this a very difficult anime to recommend without caveats. Objectively, I recognize Eden of the East’s great achievements; brandishing an arsenal of treats, including an innovative mystery that doubles as social commentary and Akira’s magnetic characterization, it will exceed expectations on first impressions. On the other hand, I feel underwhelmed by the experience. Somehow, the show misses its mark, becoming a rambling setup for the anticipated movies with convoluted themes and tenuous explanations. Nonetheless, the fact remains – for a fresh and nail-biting reinterpretation of the mystery genre (even if short-lived), Eden of the East rivals the monumental favorites on the market of that date.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jun 4, 2013
I really, really wanted to review Bakemonogatari way back when it aired, since the show seemed to captivate the anisphere but because of the fact I only just joined, that was of course wasn't possible. Here’s the thing though: I was never quite sure what I watched. To me, the show was overly complex when it didn't need to be, a continual tease, and only “intelligent” in the way two teenagers up late talking about life can be. But I held my tongue. I could never form a set of arguments that satisfied me. Nisemonogatari, on the other hand, I understand and was prepared for.
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This time, I get it, because if the prequel was everything people said of it, the Spring 2012 show is definitely worse.
Story (5/10) - Nisemonogatari’s TV run picks up shortly after the end of its prequel series and sees Koyomi Araragi spending time shirking his studies and visiting his various friends. While the anime starts off touching base with its characters and serving up the meandering conversations for which Bakemonogatari gets so much praise, eventually a pair of incidents surrounding Araragi’s “Fire Sisters” become the show a semblance of a plot.
Sadly, Shinbo gets in the way more in this season than the last. He turns the fanservice meter up to to eleven, exchanging the clever banter for lovingly crafted shots of his underage beauties. Sure, the first season had its awkward moments of lingering on jailbait, but this time, we spend significant portions of the plot watching Araragi oggle, fondle, and play twister with teenage girls with very little story-related payoff. The infamous toothbrush scene--during which Koyomi and Karen play a punishment game in pretty explicit imitation of a sex act--in particular drags on for an uncomfortable amount of time and doesn't do much more than provide cognitive dissonance with Araragi’s later explanations of filial relationships.
Animation (10/10) - In contrast to the scattered storytelling bringing down the anime, the visuals deliver precisely what the audience has come to expect from Shinbo at the top of his game. While the direction remains avant garde at times, the animations ensure that the characters and settings appear as lovingly rendered as possible, and the juxtaposition works. The constant cuts work better in the more intimate setting of this series and either work to intensify the action (the few times when it does come up) or create an almost tactile understanding of a scene in his viewers (see: the pencil or toothbrush scenes).
The character designs help Shinbo in his quest to provide the best visual experience. Each character can flow between eerie, moe, and attractive almost at will without damaging the coherence of a scene, and again the disjointed direction helps ease the transition between the silly and the serious. The mercurial and flexible portrayals work best with Koyomi, Kanbaru, and Kagenui who work hard at hiding multiple sides to their personalities and identities. But it also helps to add surprising depth to Hachikuji whom the script treats strangely.
Sound (8/10) - For all that Renai Circulation should still be banging around in some of your heads, Platinum Disco manages to raise the bar. Its combination of traditional sounds, upbeat vocals, and a pop baseline makes it one of the best offerings of the year.
Once again, Hiroshi Kamiya gives us a super-plastic Araragi who really saves the show. Since he’s in just about every scene and spends a good portion of the time wandering all over the emotional spectrum, this performance determines whether the narrative holds together at all. That he succeeds frees the rest of the cast to stick to caricature. Of these, my personal favorites are Maaya Sakamoto’s Shinobu, Emiri Katou as Hachikuji, and the delightfully petulant Tsuhiki played by Yuka Iguchi, although my preference for those characters clouds my judgement. Fans of aloof tsundere should still find Chiwa Saito’s Senjogahara easy on the ears and the newcomers playing Kagenui and her familiar provide excellent ‘otherness’ so needed for the roles.
Characters (7/10) - Bakemonogatari and Nisemonogatari play with the shifting space between characters as tropes or ideas and characters as interesting, layered personalities. The earlier show’s meatier conversations create a wide-open space for exploring each characters’ quirks as he or she (mostly she) banters with Araragi. Here, however, something seems off. Araragi spends too much of his time alone in the first half of the show or beating around the bush as the first conflict winds up. Moreover, Suruga and Nadeko, who had displayed their personal conflicts and quirks prominently before, flatten into their single defining traits for their brief appearances which feels disappointing after their humorous arcs in the first season.
Even so, some characters shine through the odd direction choices. First and foremost, Hitagi’s moments near the end of the Karen Bee arc show a vulnerability and depth of emotion to her that works well at complementing the sensitivity shown near the end of the first season. Retreading her weakness provides some much-needed cracks in her cool tsundere. Shinobu gets a similar treatment that has her bounding between violent legendary vampire and lonely little girl. Isin binds the two personalities together using her condescension as glue, which allows her to be aloof, ironic, and earnestly concerned about Araragi without stretching the limits of her characterization.
Overall (8/10) - Its prequel straddles the line between self-importance and brilliance. Nisemonogatari, however, distorts the formula sufficiently to lose some of its shine. The top-notch visuals and exceptional sound direction don’t entirely excuse Shinbo’s explosions of fanservice and stuttering plotting, but fans of the first series should still find lines of character development worth following and many of the same themes on display. If you liked Nisio Isin’s first installment, you should take this second bite, just don’t expect it to blow your mind.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jun 4, 2013
Seems I'm new to reviewing Hentai Titles, I'm just going to quickly tell you how I do things before I get started with the reviews. Now with me, hentai I find pointless trying to review each category of how the story was (if there is even one), then art and so on. Its pointless, hentai doesn't really go all into that, its about the experience as a whole so with Hentai reviews I'm just going to rate the overall Experience. Now onto the review:
Akiba Girls could have been a quirky, tongue-in-cheek look at the hentai industry. After all, one female character leads into a sex
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scene with the actual premise that she needs practice for her next job as, yes, a hentai voice actress. If that isn't self-referential, I don't know what is.
Sadly, apart from that particular set of lines, Akiba Girls is otherwise a dull, unoriginal show with mediocre sex scenes that often highlight just what I find to be wrong about hentai anime in general.
For starters, most of the girls are saddled with breasts that do not match their body types. This is one of the things that annoys me the most in American pornography, and the transition to Japanese cartoons has not changed this for me. Maybe it's because I'm just a guy who really likes boobs. Either way, fake boobs irk me, and the boobs on the Akiba Girls are as fake as they get.
The same could be said for the plot. We are expected to believe that Nikita (who's pretty good-looking for an utter geek) is supposed to go from unpopular to sex machine overnight. Uh huh, sure. It's pretty silly to begin with, but when his adopted sisters start professing their undying love lust for him, that's when things get utterly ridiculous.
Since I already commented on the fake-looking breasts, I should be fair and criticize the rest of the animation, which is really rather lousy and doesn't work well with the standard hentai-game art style being used here. We also have another hentai cliche I really don't understand -- the fire-hose penis. Now, it is scientifically proven that the average ejaculation only measures about two or so tablespoons -- not much on the grand scheme of things, but certainly more than enough to do what is intended. In hentai anime, this figure magically rises to gallons, and Nikita apparently can get spray on a girl's face during an internal release. This guy is a one-man bukkake team, and it isn't arousing so much as headshakingly stupid.
I never liked bukkake anyway, but that's another peeve for another time.
Plus there's the whole "adopted sister" angle, which is just a goofy, poorly executed, and overdone ripoff of the whole Marmalade Boy idea.
While the sex is consensual and there aren't any naughty tentacles or magic rope tricks, Akiba Girls is kinda like combining the tired cliches of mainstream Japanese porn with the fake boobs of mainstream American porn.
I guess if you're desperate for animated sex and don't like the darker stuff, this might work for you, but there is a plethora of better titles out there.
It's not quite the bottom of the barrel, but finding better hentai than this isn't hard.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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