His and Her Circumstances: anime review

Title: His and Her Circumstances (Kare Kano)
Genre: romance, comedy, drama
Released date: October 2, 1998 – March 23, 1999
Episode: 26
Director: Hideaki Anno, Kazuya Tsurumaki
Animated by: Studio Gainax
Comment: The most distinguished feature of Kare Kano is its revolutionary, at least at the time of its release, visual technique. The surreal cartoon, chibi drawings and on-screen texts are constantly used to emphasize the feelings and thoughts and also to display the multiple layers of the characters simultaneously. Sometimes, the anime uses color and lines to focus on certain things such as filling one person with colors and leaving the surrounding people with no color or facial expression. The various surreal sound effects are also used. This technique makes the anime incredibly fun to watch even in the scene involving lengthy exploration of the characters’ minds which is usually quite boring. The anime also adopts another way to tell the story by making the characters talk to themselves or sometimes talk to the viewers directly as if they are writing a diary or chatting with the viewers. With this technique, the bonds are cleverly created between the characters and the viewers.

The story of Kare Kano may seem pretty complex because so many things happen and so many people are involved in the series but it can easily be summarized into a single phrase; Kare Kano is about the high school life of Miyazawa Yukino and the people around her. This is the anime that the characters drive the series, not the other way around. There are plenty of character developments. Everyone in Kare Kano rapidly and constantly changes and grows up all the time. Their experiences are thoroughly detailed and all of them are very familiar things that every body must have been through at some point in their lives such as falling in love, meeting new friends or quarrelling with them, problems in families or with the teachers. As a result, the viewers will find themselves knowing and understanding the characters so well as if they are families.

Being extremely optimistic, Kare Kano, at some point, can be a little unrealistic since every problem in the anime finally resolves in a good way while, as we all know, things are not that easy in real life. We don’t always meet good and open-minded people and there are countless other factors and limitations in real life. But don’t get me wrong. Being optimistic is not the weakness but the best part of the Kare Kano. The anime gives the viewers strength, hope and encouragement to overcome the obstacles in lives. It taught me the value of the things I always took for granted such as family and to cherish what I usually overlook such as friendship and, above all else, Kare Kano gave me what every body needs the most in their darkest hours; laughter.

Despite all its merits, the ending of the series is quite a let down because it does not end there. The anime comes to closure right before the cultural festival and there is still Arima’s complex that is left unsolved. The animation technique in the last two episodes, using manga style images, is different from the others which I think is not suitable for an ending. The story continues in the manga which I haven’t read. Conclusion: Trust me, even without the proper ending, Kare Kano still securely remains in my highly recommended anime list. Actually, my frustration about Kare Kano’s ending comes from the fact that I like it so much and I want more!
Rating: B+

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Moribito: Guardian of the Sacred Spirit: anime review

Title: Moribito: Guardian of the Sacred Spirit (Seirei no Moribito)
Genre: action, fantasy, drama
Released date: April 7, 2007 – September 29, 2007
Episode: 26
Director: Kenji Kamiyama
Animated by: Production I.G.
Comment: Seirei no Moribito follows Balsa the spear woman who is entrusted with the duty to protect Prince Chagum from being assassinated by the emperor without knowing that the prince carries the magical egg that will blessed the land with water. Their journey involves many battles, hardship and the magic which exists only in myth. The sound and animation of the anime is very good, colorful and energetic.

Moribito also has strong environmentalism implicated in the story. The Water Spirit will lay an egg every hundred years and dies bringing drought to the land until the egg hatches in spring with the help of La Lunga the monster then the egg is carried to the sea by Nahji bird. This cycle remained intact until the Yogo, the current rulers, conquered the land and with them came technology; iron and steel. The cycle is interrupted. People’s ancient wisdom and respect to the Mother Nature is erased. The history is rewritten to stabilize and justify the new empire. This is exactly what’s happening nowadays, is it not? I also like the reverse of male and female’s role between the two protagonists. In most stories, men are always the one who fight the enemies and women always wait at home and heal the wounds but in Moribito, Balsa is the warrior who wanders around and fights the foes while Tanda, who has no combat skill, is always waiting and gives Balsa support when she is in trouble.

My complaint about this anime is its uneven mood and pace. As the series progresses, Seirei no Moribito gradually transforms itself from a fast-paced, action-packed anime into a slow, drama anime in the middle and finally ends as folklore inspired, fantasy anime. It is really fun and exciting at first when Balsa and Chagum tries to escape from their pursuers, there are great spear and sword fight scenes to behold but around episode 7 through 12 the anime literally comes to a halt. These unnecessary episodes are about trivial things which are not related to the main theme such as the episodes about gambling or the farmers’ festival. And when the viewers reach the final part of the series, the anime turns into a folklore fantasy involving parallel worlds, supernatural creatures and a lot of magic. When considered separately, the first part is a good action anime and the second part is a good fantasy anime. But considering the whole series, it isn’t as satisfying as it should be. Imagine yourself having a really beautiful shirt and really nice pants but when you put them on, instead of looking good, you look strange. I think this is the situation here. Nevertheless, these flaws are only minor and I’m sure many people will not see this as a flaw at all. Conclusion: Seirei no Moribito is without any doubt a good anime but it doesn’t excel because it cannot not decide whether it wants to be an action, drama or fantasy anime.
Rating: B

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Cowboy Bebop: anime review

Title: Cowboy Bebop
Genre: Space western, crime drama, action, comedy, sci-fi
Released date: April 3, 1998 – April 23, 1999
Episode: 26
Director: Shinichiro Watanabe
Animated by: Studio Sunrise
Comment: In the near future which men spread throughout the solar system, a group of bounty hunters aboard the ship ‘Bebop’ roams the space and cities. The crew consists of five members; Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, Faye Valentine, Ed and Ein. Spike is a former member of a crime syndicate. He is an excellent martial artist, pilot, spy or even thief but he fails when it comes to life and love. He is constantly haunted by the memory of Julia, the woman he loves and he has problems expressing his feelings and tend to react opposite to his feelings or avoid them entirely except when Julia is involved. In which case, he usually loose control. He is pretty lazy and often sarcastic. Jet is former police who also suffers from lost love. He is the oldest of the team and the most rational. Faye has just woken from 54 years of cryogenic sleep to find herself deceived and lonely, although she hides her pain well beneath those smiles. Ed is a genius computer hacker and an orphanage. Each episode of Cowboy Bebop mostly depicts different bounty hunting. They have unique style and tone ranging from comedy, crime drama, hard science fiction, horror and combination of these genres. Believe it or not, despite the difference in genre, every episode is exceptionally great and at the same time, subtly reveals new details of the past, personalities and development of the characters. Some episodes are dedicated to Spike, some to Jet, Faye and Ed and the rest are stand alone stories. This quality of Cowboy Bebop puts most of the TV series to shame.

The animation is not as flashy as today’s standard but it is definitely done with great efforts. The movement is fluid and the background is alive. The spaceships and vehicles design, surprisingly, doesn’t look out of date. The original soundtrack, composed by Yoko Kanno, is mostly jazz and blue music which fits perfectly to the anime and is beautiful when listened separately. The ending of the series generates significant amount of controversy. For me, it is heart-breaking but undeniably perfect and unforgettable.

Although Cowboy Bebop has no deep or thought provoking main theme but there are always hidden messages in each episode and the anime excellently explores the nature and complexity of human through the lives of the characters. The biggest achievement of Cowboy Bebop is in its direction, screenplay, characterization, action, animation, music and the miraculous ability to combine all those things in one anime series. Despite its age, I can hardly name any newer anime that is able to best Cowboy Bebop. It is a milestone in the world of anime. It is not only flawless but it impresses me immensely. Conclusion: Cowboy Bebop drives me crazy! It’s the kind of anime I’ve always dreamed of but never think it really exists.
Rating: A+

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Elfen Lied: anime review

Title: Elfen Lied
Genre: sci-fi, horror, drama
Released date: July 25, 2004 – October 17, 2004
Episode: 13
Director: Mamoru Kanbe
Animated by: Studio ARMS
Comment: Elfen Lied starts when a mysterious girl with horns escapes from a research facility, leaving a big pile of dead body behind. She is found by Kohta and Yuka at the beach and is taken to their home. I’ve seen countless of violent films and anime and I didn’t mind since they were the stories of adult but in Elfen Lied the violence is done on children. The anime also contains explicit nudity. The character design and atmosphere of the anime is colorful and bright but the bloody scenes (like heads and body parts torn off) often occurs so sudden that I felt as if I was punched hard in the face. Some scenes involve torture and even rape done to girls. These violence and nudity will surely turn a good number of viewers away. I don’t blame them since I was disturbed as well (at least initially).

But beneath the blood and gore, there is one good anime which is definitely worth watching. The drama is intense and the characterization is complex; each character had their problems to solve. Lucy, the mutant girl, had been mistreated since childhood for having strange horns and inhuman power. She later becomes a merciless killer but also had hidden alternative personally as Nyu who is innocent and harmless. Kohta experienced terrible loss in his childhood and he has been running away ever since by unconsciously forgetting and denying the very existence of the events and his meeting with Nyu eventually forces him to confront his past. Mayu is a runaway because she was repeatedly raped by her own stepfather. Other supporting characters like Nana, Yuka also have depth and developments. The script contains many interesting concepts such as the discrimination of the people by their difference and its terrible consequences, the purification of human race, the extreme contrast between human’s compassion and hatred. The anime also discusses about domestic violence. The strong graphic violence and nudity are probably put into the anime to reflect these concepts.

The animation is a technical achievement and the music is really beautiful especially the opening theme, Lilium. The ending is a bit unsatisfactory because some loose ends are left unsolved. Conclusion: the explicit content of Elfen Lied helps make the anime standout but it may also turn many people away. In which case, it is such a shame because Elfen Lied is anything but disappointment (for adults only, of course).

Rating: B

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Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion (season 1): anime review

Title: Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion (season 1)
Genre: action, mecha, sci-fi, drama
Released date: October 5, 2006 – July 28, 2007
Episode: 25
Director: Goro Taniguchi
Animated by: Studio Sunrise
Comment: Code Geass sets in the alternate universe in which Japan was conquered by the Britannia Empire and was renamed ‘Area 11’. Lelouch, whose mother was murdered and who is the heir to Britannia Throne, accidentally runs into C.C. the mysterious woman who gives him ‘Geass’, the power to control other people’s minds. With this power, he starts the plan to destroy the empire and rebuild the world in which his beloved sister can live happily. Another leading character is Suzaku, Lelouch’s childhood friend, who disapproves of Lelouch’s idea and becomes his enemy. The two characters do everything according to their beliefs and the anime never says if any of them are good or evil. They are full of details. Lelouch is a realist, a murderer, the savior or just another greedy person trying to claim the throne. His action results in changes and hope for many and also suffering and loss for the rest including himself and his friends. While Suzaku is an idealist and sometimes pacifist but his action sometimes seems foolish. Code Geass has a very serious political issues and adult situations. I think the theme in the anime is too mature for high school children who form the main characters of Code Geass but after I let myself be carried away by the story, the feeling never bothers me again.




Code Geass keeps creating difficult situation for the characters to solve and endure. The anime introduces large group of characters who are closely connected by either blood or comradeship or friendship and they are divided into two opposite groups by different political idea. It tells the story from the point of view of both opposing factions. This division leads to endless series of tragic stories resulted from political conflicts and the war. The viewers will see friendships torn apart, families destroyed and alliances broken. While watching the series, I experienced various emotions all at once as if I were trapped in a box which was tossed around all the time. For example, I cheered for Lelouch when he won the first battle and felt sorry for his loss and then I hated him for his cruelty and for what he did to many innocent people. I ended up having mixed feeling towards him and, belief it or not, I felt like this toward almost everyone. Code Geass cleverly creates “gray characters”, who are neither good nor bad but they are very real. They all have their reasons for doing what they did. I saw them clashed and I saw them fell and I was devastated. There are many messages hidden in the story but the most prominent one is that war never leads to happy ending.

Aside from political themes, the anime is also a mind blowing military action anime. Drama and romance can also be seen hidden throughout the series. The animation of Code Geass is superb. The action scenes are plenty and masterfully executed. The first season ends in a cliffhanger and I feel like I would die of suffocation if I don’t start watching the second season soon. Conclusion: Code Geass is one of the most powerful anime in recent memory. It is serious, complex, thought-provoking and entertaining. Making an anime which has all these qualities is not an easy job at all.
Rating: A

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Speed Grapher: anime review

Title: Speed Grapher
Genre: action, fantasy, sci-fi, drama
Released date: 7 April 2005 – 29 September 2005
Episode: 24
Director: Kunihisa Sugishima
Animated by: GONZO Studio
Comment: Tatsumi Saiga, a goofy but reliable man who is haunted by dark and depressing past and Kagura Tennouzu, an innocent girl who possesses mysterious ability and is hunted by giant evil organization. Kagura’s power is granting other people superhuman powers according to their fetishes through her body fluid. She is imprisoned in her house by her mother who is the leader of Tennouzu Group, the largest financial organization in Japan. When she met Saika in the secret club, she saves him and with his help, struggles to be free from her captors.

Although the main storyline and the two protagonists sound not very innovative, the anime has a very interesting concept about greed, money and revenge hidden all over. Suitengu, the main antagonist of the series, has been planning to take revenge on the prime minister and bankrupt the country because he believes that money and greed destroyed his family and his childhood. While Kagura, daughter of the richest woman in the country, suffers from imprisonment and starvation. The anime also tries to explore human secret desires and sins through the strange powers of the Euphorics. Another good quality of Speed Grapher is that it was action-packed enough to keep most viewers interested. And for the disappointing part, the animation quality falls far behind current standard of anime. It looks cheap and disturbingly jerky and sometimes it is completely static. The characters are badly drawn in numerous scenes that their faces look changed. Certain monsters look funny and are incompatible with the overall dark tone of the anime. I would have been devastated if I had watched Speed Grapher after finishing other more beautifully drawn anime such as Last Exile or Samurai 7. All these flaws makes me wonder if the studio ran out of budget during production.

Speed Grapher has good ideas, script and characters. It could have achieved greatness if someone had paid more attention to how the anime looks on screen. I have seen many animes that looks great but are hollow from the inside but in Speed Grapher’s case, it is vice versa. Conclusion: The sooner you can get over with the bad animation, the sooner you will enjoy the show.

Rating: B

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Hell Girl (season 1): anime review

Title: Hell Girl (season 1)
Genre: horror, drama, supernatural
Released date: October 4, 2005 – April 4, 2006
Episode: 26
Director: Takahiro Omori
Animated by: Studio Deen
Comment: Hell Girl can be disturbingly depressing at times that I do not recommend it to anyone who has had a bad day or is having suicidal idea. Nevertheless, Hell Girl is by all means worth watching. The series markedly differ from other animes. Instead of straightly telling the story of the main character, each episode of Hell Girl tells different stories of newly introduced characters while continuously building and developing on the same issues.

Enma Ai, aka Hell Girl, had suffered when she was alive and in the afterlife she remained between the world of the living and the dead. Typically, the person who needs an immediate revenge against someone will ask Ai for help by sending the name to Ai via e-mail. Enma Ai will send the requested person to hell on one condition that the person who made the request must also go to hell but only after he or she dies. Most of the early episodes are presented in similar pattern; the obviously bad guy hurts the innocent victim, blinded by grief and anger, the victim turns to Enma Ai for quick revenge which leads to somewhat satisfying ending. It seems like those who do evil things are punished just as they deserves. But about half way into the series, many interesting things starts to surface. The story gets more complex; the characters shows more than one aspects, the themes are less black-and-white and Hell Girl’s action doesn’t look as good as it initially did. In the second half, the series try to demonstrate the flaws of Hell Girl’s idea and it is subtly done. In one episode a girl condemns a veterinarian to hell for abusing and killing many animals including her beloved dog. It is just tragic to see a naïve girl pay terrible price for something like this. There are hundreds of other ways to deal with the problem but the girl fails to see them. In the other episode a kind woman is sent to hell by a mentally disturbed man. The two recurring characters, Hajime and Tsugumi, are cleverly used to provide arguments against Enma Ai’s actions and gives the viewers some sense of continuation between each episodes.

I like this anime because it lets me see the world from many aspects and it gets my thoughts running all the time. The anime does not give conclusion about which person is right or whether Ai’s action is decent but the viewers must use their own judgments. The animation quality and original soundtrack are very well done. Some people may feel that the series lack real ending. Conclusion: Despite some repetition and extremely depressing mood, each episode of Hell Girl is great on its own and the series as a whole are powerful and thought-provoking.

Rating: B+

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Otomo Katsuhiro's Memories: anime review

Title: Otomo Katsuhiro's Memories
Genre: action, sci-fi, drama, horror, comedy
Released date: December 23, 1995
Running Time: 113 min
Director: Koji Morimoto, Tensai Okamura, Katsuhiro Otomo
Comment: Memories consists of three short stories directed by three well known directors. Magnetic Rose, directed by Koji Morimoto and written by Satoshi Kon, is a typical ghost ship tale in space and also pays homage to other classic sci-fi films such as 2001: Space Odyssey. It is the most conventional but, arguably, considered the best of the three because it provides good combination of science, suspense, horror and drama. The scene in which the pilot faces the dead opera singer is immensely haunting and sad and cleverly reveals the tragic past of both characters. It is amazing that in merely 40 minutes, Magnetic Rose is able to create a world so vivid and characters so complex and realistic. The opera theme from Madam Butterfly and the original score by Yoko Kanno is simply perfect for the anime’s atmosphere.

The second episode, Stink Bomb, is a sudden change of mood. This black comedy is about a not-so-bright bioresearch facility employee whose body releases smelly, deadly gas after he accidentally ate an under experimental pill. What’s funniest is that even after every people in the city died and the army started shooting at him, he still doesn’t know what is the cause of this catastrophe. There are strong comment on politics, the army and the Unitied states. I admire the creativity and humor of this episode and the credit goes to the script by Otomo Katsuhiro.

The final episode, Cannon Fodder, Otomo Katsuhiro takes the viewers into the world infested with war that it becomes part of daily life. Every building has cannons that shoot out across the city wall to the unseen enemy and they teach children how to operate the cannons in schools. This episode is a technical marvel; the entire episode looks like it consists of one long shot and the animation detail is a state of the art. But the problem is that Cannon Fodder has the weakest screenplay compared to Rose or Bomb. It just shows us the daily activity of one family without any significant events or developments and, as a result, doesn’t deliver a satisfying closure to this great collection of short stories. Conclusion: The first episode sets the bar really high and overshadows the last. Nevertheless, Memories is a great anime that should not be missed.
Rating: B+

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