Review | Anime | Bokurano

BOKURANO : 15 children travel to the beach for a summer nature camp and come
across a cave filled with computers, and occupied by a man calling himself
Kokopelli. Kokopelli tels the children he is testing a new game he has created
about robots that defend the Earth from 15 alien attacks, and offers the roles
of beta tasters to the children. 14 of the children agree and enter the contract
as the game's new heroes, only to discover that the game is not a computer game,
but a game played in reality. Worst of all, the children are unsure how to break
their contracts and prevent the city - and possibly the world - from being
destroyed.

Anyone who knows me will tell you that mecha anime is no favorite of mine. It has never been interesting to me and never held my attention. That's why it's no great shock that people are surprised to learn that I have taken a great liking to Bokurano, finishing the 24-episode series in 2 days. It ultimately broke my record of anime finished the quickest, superseding Gunslinger Girl, completed in 5 days. So how could I bring about the nerve to watch a mecha anime? None other than the series' theme song, "Uninstall" by Chieko Ishikawa, as haunting as it is beautiful.

It isn't rare that I discover a theme song before the anime and ultimately watch the anime; KOKIA's mystifying "Tatta Hitotsu no Omoi", the Gunslinger Girl: Il Teatrino theme song introduced me to the Gunslinger Girl franchise, which I am now a great fan of. Other examples of theme songs introducing me to their respective anime include Clannad, Le Portrait de Petit Cossette (which sadly, disappointed me), Sola, Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni and Wolf's Rain. Seeing as very few of these animes have proved distasteful, I went with my usual instinct, and a fandom of Bokurano was formed.

The plot seems a simple yet complex one at the same time. 15 middle school children attend a sumer camp, and wander into a cave covered wall to wall with electrical equipment all owned by a strange man who will only give his name as Kokopelli. Kokopelli, as suspicious as he is, seems strangely friendly to the children, who many of the children notice and become wary of. He invites the children to become beta testers for a brand new game he has created about robots that must defend the Earth from 15 alien attacks. Being middle school children, they are immediately pulled in, and contract themselves as the new heroes of the game. All of them apply, except for 9-year-old Kana Ushiro, who is forbidden by her hateful brother to take part in the activity. After applying to the contract, they wake up on the beach, suspecting what they had seen was a dream Except...how did they all have the same dream?

No sooner do they begin to worry does a huge robot appear in the city, and the children are whisked away into a robot controlled by Kokopelli. Kokopelli defeats the robot, but later disappears, his final words to the children being, "I'm sorry."

The robots have now gained global attention after destroying much of the city and killing thousands. The children are now unsure of how to release themselves from the contract, and with their smart-mouthed tutor Dung Beetle offering no real help, the children have no choice but to fight the remainder of their battles, increasing the body count of the civilians caught in the crossfire, all to make sure their planet, families - and universe - are protected from a vicious cleansing.

Bokurano illustrates the importance of family and the people close to you, and follows the lives of the children individually as they are selected to pilot their robot, Zearth, to stop the alien attacks. Their lives and scarring pasts play out and reveal what the children are protecting as they pay the ultimate price to protect them. Though some scenes can be slow and unneeded at times, it is otherwise excellently paced and keeps up the story in a way that keeps you attentive, which is probably half the reason I watched 14 episodes in a day. Despite my extreme dislike for mecha anime, Bokurano kept me attached to the very end.

As appealing as the idea of young children piloting robots - every little boy's dream - and defending the earth may be to kids, Bokurano is definitely not an anime for children. What's more, the manga is far more graphic than the anime, which condensed a lot of the stories to a less explicit nature. Upon suffering a mental breakdown prior to his battle within Zearth, a boy chases a girl through an aquarium and attempts to force himself onto her; the girl kicks him down a flight of stairs and he is knocked unconscious. We hear that the same girl had a physical relationship with her teacher, and that he sold pornographic pictures of the two of them on the Internet (we also hear he had installed cameras in the school girls' dressing rooms; in one scene we see this being done). It is implied later that the girl is pregnant. We hear that several children must sacrifice their lives to pilot Zearth, and we see many of them die. We hear that thousands of people have died due to the robots' fights. A man's arm is cut off (we don't see blood) and a woman is shot several times, and other people are shot throughout the series. A small robot makes explicit comments to a boy about what to do with the girl he likes. A girl is told her mother used to sell her own body; the girl later becomes desperate for money and attempts to sell herself. Her potential customer later reveals he is a friend of her mother's and offers her the payment without her services.

Bokurano is a very edgy anime with plenty of grit, and even if you aren't the biggest of mecha fans yourself, if you're looking for an adventurous anime, with lots of tragedy thrown in, you'll certainly want to add Bokurano to your list.

Overall Rating:
/ 5

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Review | Anime| The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

THE MELANCHOLY OF HARUHI SUZUMIYA : Kyon begins his first year at a new school, and meets an oddball girl named Haruhi Suzumiya, who is dissatisfied with
anything considered "normal", and wants only to experience the unnatural. This
inspires her to begin a new club called the SOS Brigade, which Kyon is roped
into. Kyon is soon told by the SOS Brigade's new members that Haruhi, unbeknowst to her, can manipulate reality merely by wishing for it.

I was very impressed with the ratings this series got, which were all nines and tens from review sites. I decided to try my luck, and 14 episodes later, I am no closer to understanding the series, and overall extremely disappointed.

Where do I begin? The show had potential, it truly did, but it had more holes than an archaeological dig. We start out with a bored girl who makes a new friend and starts a club dedicated to the paranormal. Then said girl gets three more members, one by force, one by will and one who couldn't care less, and the club is launched. Then, finally, we discover said girl can manipulate reality, but doesn't know it yet. Hey, look, it's about to get interesting.

Maybe so, but the audience never gets any explanations for important details. By the time the series ends, Haruhi still doesn't know about her ability, we don't know how Haruhi's ability came to be or how it ties into everything, we never find out about Mikuru Asahina's "classified" information or her visit from the future. The series' ending was just awful. It was as if another episode was meant to come after it. We don't learn anything new, no revelations are made, absolutely nothing is available for the finale to call itself a finale.

There have been rumors of a second season, and I hope to the gods there is, because I am not impressed in the slightest with how sloppily this anime was put together. It stopped abruptly on enough cliffhangers to put a Rescue Team out of their minds, and I still don't understand how this information was so great that it had to be fit into 14 episodes. Just what exactly were we doing for 14 episodes besides watching Haruhi Suzumiya attack Mikuru Asahina with moe clothing she purchased on the Internet? Did I waste valuable hours of my life to watch that?

This series could have been saved, provided the creators had actually ended the series properly and maybe cut out a couple of Asahina attack sequences to make room for details that are greatly needed. It really is a shame, because I knew for sure we were about to get somewhere, until I finished the series saying merely, "That's it??"

I really don't know where exactly all those high ratings came from because I sure haven't found a source. You definitely won't get any high ratings out of us for this Swiss cheese anime. Let it serve as a cautionary tale to aspiring anime creators: If you don't end your show, if you don't provide details, if you spend too much time on the useless stuff, there is no point at all wasting your time or others' time.

Overall Rating:
/ 5

Preview | Anime | Monochrome Factor

MONOCHROME FACTOR

Akira Nikaido is a laid-back high school student, always skipping
class and living an overall normal life. One day walking home from school he
encounters a mysterious man named Shirogane, who insists that their fates and
entwined. Akira ignores these claims and returns home. When a classmate asks
Akira and his friend Kengo to come with her to school that night to retrieve an
item she left, they are attacked by a strange monster. Shirogane appears and
intervenes, telling Akira that he must become a "shin" in order to battle the
creatures that have escaped from the Shadow World.

This is ones of the animes I watched while visiting an anime cosplay convention in May, and along with Vampire Knight, I discovered Monochrome Factor. Though the manga has been out for sometime, they began releasing anime episodes in Japan in April. So far only 6 episodes are available, out of the 13 they expect to air. I'm interested in where this show is going, even though it occasionally hints yaoi which I'm not a big fan of. Fans of the manga are used to the "old" Shirogane, who apparently isn't as touchy-feely as the new Shirogane we become used to in the anime. I have great expectations for this anime, and I'll be glad to review once the series blossoms.

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Preview | Anime | Vampire Knight

VAMPIRE KNIGHT

The prestigious Cross Academy offers a special Night Class to certain students
of the academy. The Night Class is unique because it is inhabited entirely by
vampires. To keep peace and reasonable distance between the vampires and
humans, prefects Yuuki and her best friend Zero are hired, and work to
ensure that Day Class students never discover the Night Class students are
vampires, and most importantly, that the vampires don't lose control of their
urges to feed on human blood.

I went to an anime cosplay convention a few weeks ago and the Con showed the first 3 episodes of Vampire Knight. I thought it was very interesting so far, so once I returned home I decided to look into and discovered the anime is fairly new, and only recently began producing episodes based on the already released manga. As of now, there isn't even a 10th episode, the 9th episode was released a few days ago. 26 episodes were produced in total and are still airing in Japan. I'm very pleased with where this anime is going. I can't wait to see more, then I'll be sure to return here and give you a great review.

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Review | Anime | Love Hina

LOVE HINA : As a little child, Keitaro Urashima makes a promise with a
little girl that the two will get into Tokyo University when they grow up and
they can be together. When the girl moves away, they renew that promise before
she leaves, and Keitaro remembers the promise all the way into his college
years, even though he does not remember the little girl's name or even what she
looks like. Keitaro moves into his Grandma Hina's Hinata Inn while she is away
to study to enter Tokyo University. However, he is unaware that Hinata has been
turned into a girls' dormitory. His aunt eventually saves him from being
clobbered by the female occupants for being in their dormitory, and much to
their dismay, Keitaro is made the manager of Hinata in order to have a place to
stay and to keep Hinata from shutting down. Keitaro must now convince the
occupants that he is a reliable person and earn their trust.

If I had to describe Love Hina in the fewest words, I would pretty much say Tenchi Muyo in reverse. A boy in a house full of girls that despise him rather than love him, and the boy tries to get along with them only to be pummeled in his attempts. Though this show isn't necessarily inappropriate for kids I wouldn't say you should let a kid watch it by themselves. Poor Keitaro can't win for losing as the girls' trust in him is consistently reset by the fact that he is always in the wrong place at the wrong time. His body reacts quicker than his brain does, and for that reason, he's barging into the girls' hot spring to share good news with fellow Tokyo U. hopeful Naru. Only after seeing the toweled female occupants and being literally kicked out of the building does he realize that he's made quite a mistake.

There is some profanity involved in the show, and some accidental groping coming from dim light bulb Keitaro when trying to apologize for a faulty action or to trying to lend a helping hand in some way. Nothing over-the-top ever happens in the show, however, even though Keitaro himself states that his fantasies about girls blur his mind. We see these fantasies occasionally but there are no inappropriate fantasies, simply visions of receiving simple praise from a girl or committing an act that makes him attractive towards girls in the daydreams.

I'm pleased with the outcome of this show very much. It's not an anime based around fantasy or sci-fi, it's down-to-earth, save on the signature anime expressions and the unrealistic beatings Keitaro receives from a female he literally rubs the wrong way. A good one for fans of romantic comedy.

Overall Rating:
/ 5

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Audio:

First Season Opening Theme : Sakura Saku

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Review | Anime | Tenchi Muyo

TENCHI MUYO : Tenchi Masaki lives a quiet life with his father and
grandfather in their large house on historic grounds. When Tenchi accidentally
releases a 5,000 year-old demon named Ryoko sealed away under a cave of
boulders, things begin to collapse. Space Pirate Ryoko attracts Space Police
officers Mihoshi and Kiyone, later attracting planet princesses Sasami and
Ayeka, and 12-year-old genius Washu. Out of pity he ends up housing the oddball
girls and ultimately becomes the subject of their affection, which becomes too
much for him to handle.

One of the many results of my days of movie store anime scavenging for anything that caught my eye, I first rented one of the Tenchi Muyo movies, Daughter Of Darkness, and I tried it on for size. My liking for the movie finally guided me to the series.

This series is very, very Sci-Fi. The girls that live under Tenchi's roof are all aliens, even though they take on the physical forms of humans, and some of them are actually a lot older than they appear. At one time or another there's always lots of Sci-Fi-stylized fighting going on, which includes but is not limited to Ryoko and Ayeka's consistent cat fights over the heart of Tenchi, which only drives him away rather than draws him close. The only one of the girls that does not show an almost demented obsession over him is young Sasami, who sees him merely as a brother figure rather than a possible boyfriend.

This used to air on an anime segment of a children's television channel, which I found extremely strange because this show is very seinen and definitely not for children. There is profanity in the show and a lot of the time some nudity. Even though nothing too detailed is shown, there are a few scenes of the older girls (ages from about 18-24) in the girls' bathhouse fully unclothed. Even though the episodes they showed on the network were the mild ones that did not feature any nudity, I was shocked to find that there were a couple of "go to hells" here and there. They removed a scene of a very mild slap in an episode of Sailor Moon, yet they allow the airing of episodes with that kind of language on a children's network. I found it a little odd.

There is a large amount of unsuitable content in this series and I really wouldn't recommend showing it to a child, even with supervision. Again, some of the episodes are mild with no such content, but when there is, you really don't know it's coming, it's pretty much there before you can react.

If we are, however, talking about those suited for seinen animes, I would check this one out, it's a good show, just not very child-appropriate.

Overall Rating:
/ 5

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Audio:

Season 1 Opening Theme : Ryo-Ohki's Theme
Season 2 Opening Theme : I'm A Pioneer
Season 1 Ending Theme : Talent For Love
Tenchi Universe Opening Theme

Review | Anime | Chobits

CHOBITS : Hideki Motosuwa moves from the country into an apartment in the city to attend cram school. Hideki desperately wants a Persocon, a life-sized female robot super computer, to call his own, but they are too costly for him to consider one. One day while walking home, Hideki discovers a Persocon by the dumpsters, wrapped up and abandoned. Hideki takes the Persocon home and activates it. Completely unaware of everything around her, the Persocon only says "chii", so Hideki decides to name her "Chii". Hideki, excited to finally own a Persocon, raises and teaches Chii in his free time, and realizes the ups and downs of owning a super computer with too little "super".

Before watching this series, I'd be seeing countless pictures of Chii floating around, and finally said, "I've seen so much of this show, it HAS to be good. Let's check it out." The series only lasts 26 episodes (plus a special 27th episode), so I was a little more encouraged since it wasn't nightmarishly long like some anime series tend to get.

I liked this show, not bad. I don't think there's enough in it to have so many pictures of it, but I guess since Chii is so cute and beautiful, who can help themselves?

The good thing about the show is that it isn't slow, it's nice and clean without having to reserve 3 episodes for the same subject. However, the show is definitely NOT for children. There is a large amount of unsuitable material in the show, and I don't mean a couple of over-the-top cleavages here and there, at times it can get almost borderline hentai. Despite that, the actual scenes with the material in question don't last horribly long, so it's pretty much in and out of there quickly. I still really wouldn't let kids watch this show, even though Chii looks like a cutesy, friendly character. And she is, it's just Hideki I'm a little worried about.

This is a pretty good show, I'd recommend it, but I'd still make sure to warn them about any Hideki fantasy scenes.

Overall Rating:
/ 5

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Audio:
Opening theme : Let Me Be With You
Ending theme : Ningyo Hime
Dark Chii

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