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Sep 23, 2022
This was a solid anime series. I came to this show after reading the LN (as much as I could being that only 3 of the 4 LN volumes have been translated into english so far...) and as is typical some compromises had to be made in order to stuff the story into 13 episodes. Another 40-60 minutes of screen time would have really helped the emotional clarity of the show, but of course 17 episodes don't fit into the normal TV schedule, and a 24 episode version of this would have moved to slow, so what ya gonna do... Most of
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the negative reviews I read exude a misunderstanding of the nuanced emotional context, and a lot of the subtleties of the characters and their conversations with each other and themselves are what ended up on the cutting room floor; viewers are forced to read between the lines a lot with the anime where the original content was much easier to navigate the social context of a difficult plot. Especially at the end, a fairly good understanding of Japanese social and familial culture is assumed by the script, as much of the reconciliation conversations don't make much sense from a western point of view.
The British author (and part time theologian) C.S. Lewis wrote an extended essay on Love some time ago. He established that in the ancient Greek culture there were four different words that represented different categories for love, while English (and for that matter Japanese and many other languages) have only the one. I have watched several shows now that have at their core a very similar observation. In the Greek context the defined catagories were Romantic, Erotic, Familial, and Friendly. In HigeHiro, Yoshida clearly had a lot of love in his heart, and clearly expressed his love to many of the other characters, but just as clearly (to the viewer) this love needs to be mapped into these narrower contexts to be understood. The drama of the story comes from the lack of words available to the characters (in either Japanese or English) to clarify for themselves and each other what they mean by "LOVE".
I won't spoil the show by breaking it all down for you here, but if you haven't seen it yet, do watch it with my above comments in mind, and if you have and didn't get it, give it a rethink. I'm sure the rest of you know just what I'm talking about. This is a fairly common theme in pop culture; I can think of several shows in the romance+slice-of-life genre that cover this territory.
As far as review:
Story (9) - the high point, one point deducted due to compression for time like I mentioned at the top.
Characters (9) - also well written characters, each unique and nuanced with logical motivation, solid VA, minus one point per above.
Art (9) - I have to separate art from animation because the backgrounds were excellent, rich color palette, great lighting, really felt
the sense of space at each location.
Animation (4) - first major disappointment; movements were "chunky", blocking was poor (how the figures moved within the "space")
and the character design was basic, if true to the source material.
Sound (6) - Not bad but not amazing either.
Overall (8) - A very enjoyable story about the different meanings of "LOVE" and how the nice guy doesn't always lose.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jul 6, 2021
This show has gathered a fairly huge following and for good reason. This here is the grand oji-sama of the CuteGirlsdoingCuteThings subgenre. As part of the slice-of-life category, this show take the Seinfeld premise of a show about nothing (or almost nothing) to the max.
Summation: A group of high school girls gather together in the afterschool light music club and are largely left to themselves. They form a J-Pop style rock band and while learning to play together also learn to enjoy each others company and have the most fun possible.
That's about it. Plenty of reviewers didn't find satisfaction in
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this premise or in the characters that live in it, and that's fine, because they have fine arguements. These girls on their own are not particularly inspiring, and they accomplish very little as a club or as a band, and their only claim as students is that they all made it out of tenth grade. BUT! it's the details that matter and the level of detail in this show is what puts it miles ahead of most of the competition.
First off, let me state for the record, that I'm an older, late onset otaku. I have two daughters, both are finished with highschool. I've seen a good handfull of high-school slice-of-life shows (just check out my list) but this one seems to capture the school life experience so much more richly than all the others. Truly, in made me nostalgic. I spent plenty of time with my kids and their friends (I was an on-campus volunteer for the theater department, and some of the sports teams) so I really got to see how 14-17 year olds actually act around each other from an outside but adjacent perspective, and K-On! nailed it. I felt like I had known these characters for years, because they were so familiar to me. My daughters best friend totally reminded me of Yui. Cute, silly, and quite the airhead, but passionate about what she cared about and able to accomplish amazing things when she could muster the focus. I knew the other girls as well: the shy, nervous one who would jump in front of a bus to help her friends, the zany energetic one with the big dreams but who always skipped over the little things, the pretty one tired of her usual crowd and looking for some honesty from her friends, and the hard working grinder who could stand to lighten up a bit. And the show really developed characters with depth and personality.
There may be, I suppose, a few users of this site that are trying to forget their high school experience, and in that case, this show would not be for them. But for those who enjoyed high school, and who have fond memories of hanging out after classes and being silly with your friends, this show will help with those happy recollections.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jul 6, 2021
The Suzumiya Haruhi project has been near the top of my favorite anime list for a since I first saw it. I was one of those that wasn't thrown by the stop/start story flow, and I even enjoyed the endless 8 episodes and appreciated the details involved in the story solving it's time travel paradox potentials. It was in most ways a clever, well writen and marvelously produced series. Even now, after watching some of those shows BUILT around the idea of the insert song, for the the definition of that term is still "God Knows..." with Haruhi in her form fitting
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bunny suit; but let me not digress.
So now I recently watched the "Disappearance" movie: Talk about saving the best for last!!! It is not overstating to say that the level of harmony and depth in this 160 minute work is orchestral!
To be clear, this is a very long, very detailed, continuation of the TV series, and basicly picks up were that left off. It shouldn't be watched independantly. If you haven't seen the TV series, find it and watch it, as soon as possible. What have you been waiting for?
With that said, all the familiar characters are here, with the familiar voices and in the familiar locations. The first clear difference is seasonal. It's Christmas time in the suburbs of Osaka, and the weather is cold and gloomy. The show opens with Miss Suzumiya gathering the SOS Brigade with the intent of hosting a Christmas party in the closing days of the school term. With his usual grumbing and internal discourse over how he got involved with all this absurdity, he goes about gathering supplies and decorations as commanded. When he gets to school the morning of the day of the party, he notices that the energy and conversations are distinctly different from what he usually expects. And then Asakura (yes that Asakura) settles into the desk behind him... which should be Suzumiya's desk... and steady old Kyon FREAKS OUT!!!
After that plot introduction setup, Kyon, has to gather his wits and figure out what is going on, what actually changed, and if he should change things back, or not... after all, isn't this his wish granted? And what is wrong with Yuki?
SPOILER ALERT!!
So Kyon gets a chance to study the possible answers to the question "What would my life be like if I had never met Haruhi Suzumiya?" in real time. Kyon has asking himself this question in almost every episode in some form or another, so the seeds were well planted and nourished during the TV series. Still, It came as a wonderful shock that it was Yuki, that actually buckled under the pressure of Suzumiya, and in a nod (perhaps) to "It's a Wonderful Life" plays the role of his Clarence and changes time, but it adds up. Remember, Yuki actually witnessed all 500+ years of the endless 8 loop, so, yeah, she had some accumulated errors (rephrase: went batshit crazy and did something extreme!).
The closing scenes of the movie are some of the sweetest and most hoped for by fans of the series like I am. That's all I'll say.
For fans of Haruhi Suzumiya the character, there is not a whole lot of her in this production. This episode is driven by Kyon with Yuki as the second character; which is nice, most say there was not enough of Yuki in the TV episodes. The only other flaw in the whole production, is that it leaves some loose ends deliciously dangling that hint at future episodes. As of summer of 2021, eleven years later, those threads have not been picked up. There is a side series that was produced in 2015 that somewhat runs in the alternate universe direction, more centered around Yuki, but I haven't watched that yet.
Anyway, this is a fantastic conclusion to the Suzumiya storyline, that would get a perfect score were not for the unfulfilled tease of future productions.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jul 6, 2021
I had high hopes for this series, but it really just barely met my lowest expectations. As a recent entry in the CGdCT/sports genre, there is plenty of material out there to compare this project to, mostly to it's detriment.
The biggest source of disapointment, after watching the 12 episode run, is realizing how little actual creative thought was put into this show when the premise had such amazing potential. The story runs the typical sports show formula without variation, twists, disruption or contradiction. The character archs are as interesting as a Nebraska Interstate. The art was the best point,
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but the true beauty of sport rock climbing is hard to describe even in anime, the fluidity and awesomeness of the motion really has to be seen to be believed and that means live action at minimum, and probably IMAX would be the optimum format. Voice acting was good, it's just there wasn't much in the script to get excited about. Sound production was fine, but not very inspiring.
In a genre full of good shows but paced by suprisingly good shows like "Girls und Panzer", this show truely fails to live up to its potential. GuP accomplished so much more storytelling in its 12 episodes. Ro-Kyu-Bu! had more interesting characters. Keijo!!!!!!! was more creatively interesting, and Senran Kagura had better fanservice. There are probably even better examples that I haven't found yet. Maybe, if there's a second season, the writing corps will put some real work in, get away from the formula a bit, and make some more interesting choices.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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May 3, 2021
Much like building a basement gameroom within an existing house, this manga series adds a lot of fun, excitement, and (finally) some cleavage to the solid foundation of the Girls und Panzer Project universe!
I discovered the Girls und Panzer series during the recent (sequestered) winter, and very much enjoyed the original content. Since, I've also soaked up what I could find of the additional content in the universe, some good, some not so much. For example, GuP The Movie was enjoyable overall, but (to someone like myself with a background in engineering) the sidestepping of practical physics took a lot away from
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the experience. As far as the different manga series, I've had the same thoughts. The first couple (especially the mangatazation of the anime) were written with to much emphasis on not disrupting the anime canon, and didn't bring anything new and were boring. Starting with "Little Army II" new characters and story lines were developed and were more interesting. Even "Motto Love Love" used the completely different (shall we say) sketch comedy format that brought new live and added some tasty meat to the established canon characters.
Now, (for the last couple of years, and just now winding up) there has been the "Ribbon Warrior" manga, which has brought the best new content to the project since the original series. Taking a few paragraphs from the earlier released "History of Senshado" essay (I don't have the source, but I believe it was part of the anime DVD package) Ribbon Warrior introduces a handful of new characters and a completely different format for tank combat than the more established and formalized Interscholastic Senshado Federation style matches.
Featuring light tanks and tankettes, with many fewer rules and restrictions, the Tankathalon matches are more like Brazilian Valle Todo (as referenced in ToraDora - look it up) than the structured etiquit of Olympic style Fencing. High energy and much more cutthroat, Takathalon matches (like WRS auto rally competition) allow spectators on the fields of competition, and "tuning" of the competition vehicles. The emphasis of the competition is now on innovation, psychology, and preparation since the ability to dominate the battlefield with armor and firepower has been eliminated.
Even the narrative style is new, as Ribbon Warrior, where the story is told through the eyes of the wingman of the title character, in a manner much like "Sherlock Holmes" is told through the eyes of Dr. Watson. Even the age restriction level (I suppose that's the appropriate term) has been bumped up a level: there is fan service here! Although certainly not gratuitous and never interfering with the story, it adds to the anticipation knowing that for the first time (except for the mentioned Motto Love Love comic strip) there are bathing suit shots, cleavage, and the rare groping within the main work. We are allowed to be aware that the cast of characters or 16, 17, and 18 year old young women with hormones, hearts, and some self-awareness of their bodies. We are also aware that the character designer has a (strong) preferences for slim athletic builds featuring larger bustlines.
Speaking of the character designer, This series (as mentioned in the previous review) is helmed by two of the lieutenants that were part of the anime team. This greatly contributes to the feeling that this work is definitely part of the same universe, but clearly has it's own direction and energy and really builds on the canon material without contradicting anything. The timeline for Ribbon Warrior seems best to fit between "The Movie" and "Das Finale" and gives lots of space and time to answer the larges complaint from the animated works which was that most of the dozens of characters introduced in the animes didn't get much if any developement. So far (I'm less than half way through the total work) most of those side characters have had plenty of feature time already and we have learned a lot more about these dozens of personalities that had so much undeveloped potential.
As you can tell, I am really enjoying "The Ribbon Warrior" manga as a great expansion on the "Girls und Panzer" universe. This is, I feel, the best work in the project since the original anime series. For some readers, it is in some ways even better. It is posted on MangaFarm and other sites I'm sure, and as always, support for the original artists is encouraged. Highly recommended!
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Mar 31, 2021
This episode seems to be a structural segment developed to hold the interest of the audience for a while longer while the third season is coming together, and probably because there were some important story elements that needed to get established that wouldn't fit well into the episode outlines of the next series.
That said, it's a necessary view from a total story point of view, but those that have read the light novel series, as I have, will be disappointed as there seems to have been some unnecessary elements added or at least significantly modified, while other elements were substantially reduced or eliminated from the
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novels. Perhaps I'll create a forum thread to discuss that last issue, this probably isn't the place for comparisons with the novels in any depth. I will say that the conversation between Mio and Yuki was a brilliant edit and very well executed; easily the best and most important part of the 60 minutes.
As a production however, most of this really felt like an afterthought. The artwork lacked smoothness both as cells and as animated. The ink and paint work was very flat with almost no texturing and hard-edged shadows that crushed any feel of dimension. The animation was stiff, stuttery, and overall lacked character, as all the motions seemed so robotic. The sound wasn't much better. The FX were all stock elements, and the VA recording made it difficult to tell one character from another just by the voice. All the work previously put into developing characters with distinct personalities was kind of left behind. Furthermore, the script left out most of the development opportunities that were used in the novels were every character had a chance to grow and establish a possition of agency with the growing family unit; especially Maria and Chisato who each had some very important scenes in the novel that didn't show here at all. Except for the earlier mentioned scene between Mio and Yuki, which raised the whole thing up a notch and a half.
To sum up, generally disappointed, especially as a reader of the novel, but there were a couple of things here that were really well done and important to the overall story line. A need to watch in spite of the shortcomings.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Mar 30, 2021
Girls und Panzer is a suprisingly engaging series. Best I can tell, this 12 episode series is the host property of not only a number of closely associated OVAs, but several Manga series, and to date, three theatrical releases, with I'm sure more (canonical, literally hundreds of douginshi exist so far) content to come. On this site there are almost 140 reviews of this TV series alone. One by an actual tank squadron commander (tip of the hat to you, Phaetons_Folly; thank you for your service). But only one other of the reviews I read (a few dozen at most) noticed this...
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that GuP is (among several other important things) an homage to some great old war movies!
Yes, on the surface, GuP is a Cute Girls doing...Cute Things genre series but I feel that that is mostly due to the mechanics of putting an unusual premise in a fashionable mode to attract a preassembled audience. Check. But somebody (or bodies) on the team that first developed this idea has a true love for classic American WWII movies, especially "Kelly's Heros" (1970, starring Clint Eastwood, Telly Savales, Don Rickles, and Donald Sutherland). Other classics were refenced including "Patton", "Battle of the Bulge", and more. During episode 10 (I believe) when the Anglerfish crew (our central characters) joined together for a sleep over before the dramatic concluding battle episodes, they clearly dropped a DVD of "Kelly's Heros" into the TV player before the scene cut.
The reason I feel this is important, is that most good art (and I feel that GuP qualifies for that summary) doesn't happen in a vacuum... It references history and culture past and present. And in this case may even be rewriting a cultural paradigm... Japan (probably) was forced to surrender WWII not for all the popular reasons, but because Japan was not allowed (geographically) to participate in proper tank warfare! This anime is the first step in correcting that historical injustice. Anyway, the creators of GuP loved the tank battle movie genre enough to fight for the level of control over the details that required establishing a whole new animation studio to produce this unique property.
In this (I say parallel not so much future) world where (at least) girls highschools and their associated communities and neighborhoods are located on aircraft carrier style ships of varying sizes, the after school club sport of Senshadou is to tank warfare what judo is to hand-to-hand combat and Kendo (and fencing) are to sword fighting. It also has become a popular spectator sport like college football has become in America. It is this sport for which our main character Nishizumi, Miho has been bred, as the youngest in a long line of famous practitioners.
--Very Minor Spoiler Ahead--
But the sport of Senshadou has not been kind to young Miho recently. In last years championship match, she abandoned her mission (which was substantial being a lieutenant commander) to rescue teammate when their tank had be washed into a flooding river and were facing the dire consequense of drowning without help. This choice caused her then school to lose the championship match and handing what would have been a tenth consecutive trophy to their rivals to the humilation of her family (as her older sister Maho was senior commander of the team and her direct orders which were disobeyed) The trauma of the backlash for her disobedience led Miho to transfer to another (much smaller) school that had no offering of Senshadou in their schedule.
She soon finds her integration into her new environment interupted when she get pulled into the newly reformed Senshadou club due to a great deal of pressure from the feared student council, and inspite of the suprisingly loyal support from her new friends and classmates. Being the only student in the school with ANY tankery experience, she soon, haltingly, finds the strategic and tactical command of the club in her hands, however, the emotional environment of the new situation is very different from that of her past, allowing her to rediscover her joy for the sport in her own fashion with only trust, friendship, and support from her new teammates.
Sorry, that is way to much text for a review introduction... Oops, over enthusiastic.
There are a lot of anime series based on fairly ridiculous premises, check that box here. Some of those draw you in with a cast of cute, appealling characters, check that box as well. Then most of those will put those characters in ecchie situations with some pervert running into them and "accidently" finding hands and faces in fanservicey places... NONE OF THAT HERE AT ALL!!! Except for a couple of modestly shot community bath scenes, there are no peaks whatsoever between the sailor collars and the (typically short) skirt hems. Repeat, none. So what's the draw for the viewer? Tanks, lots of tanks of the WWII vintage exclusively, drawn (rendered in a softened CGI) with amazing detail and animated in a manner true to the behavior of the real world prototypes they recreate. Truly a massive amount of work was put into the CGI models of the tanks (and dozens of different models at that) and the way they are operated, how they move, and their strengths and weaknesses as well. The next thing that makes this series compelling are the character relationships: There are only twelve episodes in this series (not counting the handfull of OVAs) and literally over a hundred different characters, so the only real developement happens within our core group, and then not very deeply. But it is amazing at how much we get to know about the team, and how efficient the writing and acting is at revealing personalities and backstories. The third major hook is the comedy; the voice acting is the key here, and it comes through a lot better in the Japanese cast than in the dubbed. True, the subtitles can be hard to keep up with (in some of the most intense scenes there may be two or three conversations going on at once) but the english dub just doesn't get the emotional output or the translations effectively enough. But even reading along, you can't help but chuckle along with the self aware zaniness that flows through most of this show. I never realized how funny it could be riding along with six freshman girls all shouting at each other as they try to manuever their 12 ton M3 through we woods, while taking hits from every direction (surround sound works my friends) while trying to return fire, while trying to communicate their situation with the rest of the team... non stop giggles, especially if you know any 14yo girls. So Good!
Like any show, Girls und Panzer won't please or entertain everybody. But for those that can get into Cute Girls Doing... shows, this is a peach. Especially if you have a thing for old military equipment. Double especially if you are familiar with some old war movies. In that case, MUST SEE!!!
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Mar 30, 2021
This seems to me to be a typical average single season spring/summer anime series. Of the five development categories (concept, plot, character, art, and acting) one element has enough gas to get through the pitch meeting and onto the production schedule, but the rest are budget and time limited. So the result is something that catches your attention in one way or another, but ultimately is forgetable.
In this case, the concept (while certainly not original) has some meat on it... A powerful wealthy family has seen the heirs to the fortune dying off due to mysterious circumstances so the patriarch
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takes extreme measures to ensure the safety of his last remaining close heirs, a sister - brother pair of highschool students. The extreme measures in this case being a pair of male - female Tomb Raider/James Bond/Terminator grade body guards hiding in plain sight as maids to the two siblings, as the kids try to maintain some sense of normal life.
But it goes down hill from there. The writing tries to stuff in more tags than is necessary (school life, action, cyborg, sports, harem, reverse harem, etc.) and more often than not descends into oppai fetishism. The lead characters would have been much more interesting if they had been simplified, but given more depth, but that would have taken more than two drafts of the scripts. The art had some interesting opportunities, but was generally limited by the bouncy writing and generally looked choppy. Characters were mostly of-the-shelf highschoolers, with the exception of the way over the top titular MaidGuy. Acting had the same issues with the writing, and the performers mostly phoned it in.
Mostly, I felt bad for these characters that there could have been a much better show here if the production co. had really put some effort into it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Mar 17, 2021
I'm just getting started with this so this is really a first impression of the first several chapters or so....
I've got a thing for athletic women, so that got my attention. Getting into it, it is laying out like it's being "Monte Pythons Holy Grail" with gender reversal but a romance tale. It's trying hard to not be corny, while at the same time trying very hard TO be corny. Another reviewer mentioned this being a self-aware parody of the fantasy romance genre, and I can see it going that way, but I'm not quite deep enough, yet.
I, for one, am looking
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forware to some light hearted romantic goofyness.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Mar 10, 2021
I found this to be a fairly entertaining romp, there are some conditions you have to get through. This is a show that some will love and some will hate depending on how you feel about thouse afore mentioned conditions:
A) Anime Cliches... If you find the MAL article "15 anime cliches" you will find (if ranked bottom to top) #s 1,2, 4, 5, 9, and 12, not just touched on, but central to the plot line and resolution. If you watch anime FOR the cliches, you will find a welcome home here.
B) Female MMA... The cast is 100% female, and there is a
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lot of fighting. So, if your into chicks getting slammed, HARD, this is for you. If you agree with ESPNs Stephen A. Smith, then not so much.
C) Laws of the Universe... Central setup element: Half the casts are "Extarres" meaning their biological bodies convert into magical weapons a-la "Soul Eater" and the other half are "Liberators" that handle and are teamed with said weapons. If you find the principle of the conservation of matter bothersome then fine. Otherwise it's a pretty fantastic (as in unbelievable) premise.
D) Ecchi... Lots of boobs! God Damn there's a lot of boobs!! All shapes and sizes (but mostly big, bigger, Whoah, and How can she stand with those Juggs!!). The conversion from person to weapon is brought about by sexual stimulation, and remember 100% female, so Yuri fondling happens several times an episode, so... except for some (very) small patches of oddly sticky cloth in critical locations there's also a good bit of total nudity. Is it really fan service if it's central to the plot?
E) Kindness Wins... Spoiler alert!... After all the political drama, bruising battles, BSDM, sadistic world conquest plans, Mechs, and tenticles (yea those too), the good guys win in the sweetest, most heart warming way. Take from that what you will.
To sum up, If you like nipple play, Girl on Girl violence, a wide variety of (all female) character (and body) types, and the Good Guys, then this is the show for you. The converse it also true, if your not into that stuff, than this is at best a waste of your time.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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