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The Wallflower Vol. 1: My Fair Bishonen

June 17th, 2008 |

Author: LB

The Wallflower Vol. 1: My Fair Bishonen
Released By: ADV
Released: 12/18/07
Reviewed: 6/28/08
Related Reviews
Rated: 14+

Nabeshin strikes again!

The Story

Sunako is a cute girl but two years ago, she confessed a crush and was met with ‘I hate ugly girls.’ Since then she’s become convinced that she’s ugly, hiding herself away in the dark and filled her life with the macabre. As a teenager, she’s already become a social recluse.

Kyohei, Takenaga, Ranmaru and Yukinojo are four teenagers who are getting by on their looks, professional bishies as far as I can tell. They rent rooms out of a huge mansion and are quite happy with this. That is until the owner of the mansion (their landlord affectionately referred to as “Auntie”) tells them that her niece is coming to live in the mansion and she has a deal for them. If they can turn her niece into a proper lady while she’s off scouring the world for her one true love, all four of them get their living expenses paid for life. If they fail, their current rent triples.

The boys have their work cut out for them though. In the course of five episodes they will have to introduce Sunako back into high school which proves hard since Sunako gets a nose bleed every time she’s around a beautiful person (with reactions to Kyohei so bad that she plots to kill him before she ‘melts in his radiance’). Worse than that though, a host club that wants Kyohei to work for them won’t take no for an answer and go to some extreme lengths to get him.

After that the boys will take part in their school culture festival which is offering a prize of 500,000 yen to the best class booth. Kyohei opens a takoyaki stand while Sunako opens a haunted house. Finally the volume wraps up with Sunako being hired for a photo shoot by a world famous photographer. Of course it’s not until the shoot starts that the photographer realizes that he’s made a very wrong choice for his model.

Good and the Bad

To know me is to know that Shinichi Watanabe, aka “Nabeshin”, is my favorite anime director. Armed with that knowledge, you can imagine that finally getting to see this series was a nice little treat for me. Even that knowledge, I don’t think that there’s anyone (Nabeshin fan or not) who could give this series a free pass.

Right away, the opening animation sets the audience up properly. The opening theme is a soft ballad but the animation itself will catch the attention of all audience members. With its strong mix of goth, macabre icons and bishie imagery, the animation does a great job of preparing the audience for exactly what they should be expecting… which would be comedy that plays up those cultural subsets with absolutely no apologies in the process.

The comedy in this series is predictable. By a long mile really and anyone who has seen a handful of comedic anime will be able to see most of these jokes coming and having some of the more important gags delivered in this manner will kill them quickly.

Despite the predictability though, the comedy in this first volume absolutely works. Right after the first introduction between the boys and Sunako, audiences will see the boys head to a café and one of the first running gags of the series is laid out with the female staff members having typical bishie reactions. It’s weird since I saw this scene coming from a mile away but I just could not stop myself from laughing.

Not all of the comedy in this series is predictable though and some of it is downright surprising. One of the most interesting comedic devices used throughout this first volume is the use of onomatopoeia. It’s really rare for a comedy to use this form of comedy so heavily and even more rare for a series to do it well. The secret that this series has discovered is that by using the sound gags as extra zingers instead of punch lines, they can be used freely and use them freely they do.

A second running gag is also set up very quickly with each episode containing a bishie beauty tip. Each tip is inserted at random places within the episodes and has the boys giving tips on makeup, beauty and manners. This came across as a really nice touch but the series would have been much better served to have the tips placed at a static point in each episode. Every single one of the tips could easily have been written to serve as a great end piece for each episode or even a solid introduction. It’s a small complaint really since these tip scenes don’t really interrupt the pacing of the series, it’s just annoying to really be into an episode or scene and have it interrupted by one of these segments.

Bishie humor is plentiful in this volume and once again, while some of the gags pulled out are quite predictable from the set up; some of them are just downright hilarious. It takes nine minutes for this series to insert a fan service scene. It’s a shower scene if you were really curious. Thankfully it’s kept very short though and while it ended up just coming across as a gratuitous fan service gag, once again the series manages to pull it off due to how short they kept the gag.

The cast of characters here is what really makes this series work the best. The boys and Sunako are really strong characters to support the episodes on. While they aren’t exactly the deepest characters you’ll ever come across and their development is very slow, they are written in a way that really helps the jokes get over with the audience. It’s almost embarrassing to admit but after I got through the first episode and started heading into the second, the idea of supporting and secondary characters hadn’t even entered my mind and actually caught me off guard when I remembered that new characters still needed to be introduced.

If the primary cast of characters is strong though, the weaknesses must be very visible elsewhere and they are. With the boys still in high school, there is opportunity aplenty for the staff to come up with interesting characters to help keep the pacing moving and in some cases they succeed. Noi is certainly one of the standout supporting characters. As the token “pretty girl” of the series, the staff did a great job of setting up her overly bubbly personality and then writing her as the character that the boys don’t want anything to do with.

Other supporting characters are going to need some more time for audiences to get used to though. The quartet of goth loli’s came across quite badly in the first couple of episodes that they were featured due to very weak character design. A second group, the immoral gangaro girls, also manages to come across as poorly designed. If all of these characters had a bit stronger introduction though, their jokes would have come across much more smoothly and generated much bigger laughs from the audience.

Besides the Japanese track, the English track manages to get some great jokes in itself. ADF Director Matt Greenfield is credited as the ADR writer for these first five episodes and some of the inside jokes used really shows this. Late in the volume, audience members will hear Kyohei asked a question by one of the other bishies and replies “I can neither confirm nor deny.” Cute. While the joke will go over the head of many audience members who don’t follow anime news regularly, the ones that do get it will have to smirk at that one.

Music

Attacking from all fronts, the series also dips into the field of musical gags including the playing of soft choral music whenever Kyohei enters the room to have a talk with Sunako. The joke was predictable but audience members will still get a laugh from it just due to some great reaction shots from Sunako.

The audio quality on the volume remains strong throughout with no real issues coming up that could be noticed.

Dub vs. Sub

Starting with the dub cast, the primary cast has yet to show any sort of weak links within their performances. Chris Patton (Ranmaru), Greg Ayres (Yuki), Josh Grelle (Kyohei) and Vic Mignogna (Takenaga) really throw themselves into these roles and the chemistry between the four is evident right away. While they fall prey to some of the forced dialogue (such as the above mentioned introduction scene), all four of these actors do a great job with the roles. Greg Ayres especially gets to throw myself into another whiny role with Yuki and does it with a flair that no one else at ADV could’ve managed.

Hannah Alcorn as Sunako will take some getting used to for audience members. All throughout the first couple of episodes, its obvious that she has trouble with finding the character but it takes less than half the volume for her to slip quietly and comfortably into the role at which point she absolutely owns it.

In the supporting cast, Tiffany Grant (Auntie) and Jessica Boone (Noi) also do a great job with their characters. Tiffany Grant does another great job with the flamboyant and quite eccentric “Auntie” character breaking out a voice that is unlike anything I’ve heard from her in recent memory.

On the other side, Showtaro Morikubo does a great job with the role of Kyohei really taking the lead amongst the primary cast. The lines he delivers really get the gags across strongly and had me laughing quite a bit.

Extras

Clean animations and the original on air opening animation for episodes 1-13. With 26 episodes though, I can only hope that there are going to be plenty of other extras along the way.

Overall

With this opening volume, the series really sets up well. While the audience has a solid idea of where this series is ultimately trying to go, the road that they have chosen to get to that destination is a bit less clear. The cast and characters are strong though and the gags really find a way to get across well enough to make for some very happy viewing. If you’re a fan of comedic anime, the first episodes of this series are something to go out of you way to see.

Final Grade: A

Posted in Anime Reviews |

Tags: adv, anime, chris patton, dvd, funimation, greg ayres, hannah alcorn, jessica boone, josh grelle, matt greenfield, nabeshin, review, shinichiro watanabe, showtaro morikubo, the wallflower, tiffany grant, vic mignogna |

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Chrono Crusade Vol. 6: Devil’s Advocate

July 3rd, 2007 |

Author: LB

Chrono Crusade Vol. 6: Devil’s Advocate
Released By: ADV
Released: 7/5/05
Reviewed: 7/3/07
Related Reviews
Rated: 15+

NOTE: This review is a continuation of my reviews of this series. If you have not seen any of the volumes or my previous reviews, you risk spoilers by continuing.

Intro

Another anime that got lost in the shuffle a couple of years ago is being finished off tonight.

The Story

On volume six of this anime, three more episodes are shown that bring us closer to the climax. At the close of volume five, Rosette was brought face to face with her long lost brother, Joshua, who has been in the possession of the evil Aion. Joshua is not the brother that she remembers though, his mind has been warped from years of having devil horns. The trap has been laid though, Aion has all of the apostles in his possession and his plan to lower heaven has begun. It will not go as you expect it to and there will be fatalities.

Soon though, the numbers of many will go down to two: Aion and Rosette and Rosette will be forced into making a terrible decision while histories are revealed in full detail.

The Good And The Bad

To say that there are bad things about this series is really quite a difficult thing to say with a completely straight face. No series is perfect and this series is far from perfect but when you make a list of this volume’s good and bad qualities, there really aren’t many ways to compare the two.

With only three episodes leading to the climax on the final volume, you really have to look hard for the major imperfections. The easiest of which is that there are some predictable turns in the plot on this volume though to be fair, I was still surprised by them when they first appeared on my screen. Later as I sat down to write this review and thought back to those scenes, I did realize that I probably should’ve seen them coming but I was so engaged in what I saw that I didn’t have time to think about what I thought was going to come next.

Upon its release, this series was easily one of the most innovative because of the story and willingness to push some boundaries. Of all the topics in the world, religion isn’t so much a taboo anymore but to challenge what is known or widely accepted still carries a risk in any form (one only has to look at Kevin Smith’s film “Dogma” for a prime example) and it makes you wonder why the creators of this anime were able to get away with it as much as they did.

The writing in this volume continues to be phenomenal though in terms of characters. This series has always had very strong characters and this volume pushes them to new limits and takes them into new lights that I wasn’t expecting nor prepared to see them in.

The animation continues to be another strong point within this series with crisp lines and colors that looked great two years ago when it was released and still looks good when I put the disc into my player.

Music

There is lots of great music on this volume but the tense strings tend to be overused quite a bit. While it obviously the same song that is being used over and over, at least it is not the same part of the song that is played over and over which is a plus but not by much since anyone who listens to music on a regular basis will be able to tell that it is the same song. I did think it was interesting though that on this volume I heard more than a couple of songs, including a choral song, that weren’t included on either of the OSTs, at least not that I remember ever hearing when I reviewed them.

Dub vs. Sub

Since the beginning, I’ve always preferred the dub cast over the sub cast for four primary reasons: Hilary Haag, Greg Ayres, Jessica Boone and Andy McAvin. While Tomoko Kawakami does a great job with the spunky Rosette, Hilary catches it perfectly and this is easily one of Jessica’s best performances along with Andy McAvin as the deliciously evil and manipulative Aion. These performances are stellar and while the sub cast is good, the dub cast is stellar.

Extras

Besides the usual production sketches and clean animations, there is another unused opening animation sequence for episode 21. The most important extras as always though are the lectures given by Azmaria which covers the rite of atonement on this volume and the Chronicles which has a bio of Joshua, some more details about the Ritual of Atonement and finally some more details about the history of Chrono and his relationship with Mary Magdalene along with some more of the details behind Aion’s history.

One would be well warned to realize that there are some minor spoilers in the Azmaria lecture and Chronicles but nothing major and I really don’t think that my viewing experience was dampened by watching them first. You might feel differently though so use some discretion when deciding on if you want to watch them first or last.

Overall

As I said earlier, from the beginning I have been a huge fan of this series and I really do think that I always will be. With its stellar characters and storylines, this anime has captivated me and kept me engaged from the beginning and even though all my experience with anime has me screaming that I should know better, my hopes are high for a dramatic and stunning conclusion to this anime.

Final Grade: 89% – B

Posted in Anime Reviews |

Tags: adv, anime, chrno crusade, chrono crusade, dvd, greg ayres, hilary haag, jason douglas, jessica boone, monica rial, review, tiffany grant |

Maburaho Vol. 3: The Witching Hour

June 15th, 2007 |

Author: LB

Maburaho Vol. 3: The Witching Hour

Release Date: 8/16/05

Released By: ADV

Reviewed: 12/20/05

Rated: 13+

NOTE: This review is a continuation of my reviews of this series. If you have not seen any of the volumes or my previous reviews, you risk spoilers by continuing.

Intro

        Picking up where we left off, I’d still give up plenty to be in Kazuki’s shoes… well, not so much now… oh just read the review!

The Story

        In the next four episodes of this series, things take a very odd turn. In the first three episodes, the girls spend all their time trying to find a way to increase Kazuki’s spell count which currently sits at three. The first attempt has Kuriko taking Kazuki up to a legendary hot spring in a remote location because rumor has it that if someone takes a bath in it’s waters, their spell count will be increased exponentially. Unfortunately for Yuna and Rin, Kuriko says that she’ll only take him up there if she gets to do it alone. That doesn’t last long however as the girls follow and they soon find out that the legend isn’t true unless they happen to beat a bunch of spirits in a baseball game.

        The second episode has the girls doing more research and Kazuki becoming distracted after he hears the spirit of a girl who is trapped inside a tree at the school and while this may sound like it’s of little consequence to the main plot, in truth it’s actually much more important than you may think.

        The third episode is when things start to take a new turn as Yuna opens a package from her father that she believes is for her and will cure Kazuki but she gets it wrong and actually unleashes a genie in a bottle that becomes her evil twin that has nothing on her mind but killing Kazuki. All of the girls come to his defense but in the end, it’s Kazuki who must defend himself.

         In the final episode of the volume, humor is placed aside for the most part as the plot goes deadly serious. Yuna has contracted a special retro magic virus that is rapidly seeping away her magical power and her life. There is no cure and there is no hope for her survival unless the greatest magician in the world tries to save her and even the there’s no guarantee of anything happening. Kazuki takes it upon himself even though he only has two spells left before he disappears into ash and we’re left with the series taking a whole new turn.

The Good And The Bad

        I’ve been in love with this series ever since I saw the first two volumes and I’ve really been in a rush to see more but the next volume just hasn’t come up in my queue until now but now I think that I am going to be rushing to see the next volumes right away.

        As usual the same great features that I loved about the first two volumes are still here. The beautiful animation is still vibrant and strong with the perfect use of colors, the character design is fabulous (for my money, Yuna has to be one of the best designed characters I’ve seen in a very long time) and the writing is once again great.

        Tiffany Grant really goes all out in the writing for this series as it does have quite a bit of suggestive fan service (which isn’t surprising being that the main females are only after the item between Kazuki’s legs) but even though that’s the underlying theme of this series, there is still a lot of heart to be found and when you’re walking on a line that’s as thin as that, it’s very easy to accidentally cross over to either too sexy or too bland. The writing in the original version of this series has really walked that line well without going into either side and Tiffany Grant proves that she is also up for that challenge by walking that line just as well, if not better than the original.

        One of the big things for this series that really wins me over though is the effective use of such a small cast. There are only four main characters (quite small for a harem series) which means a lot of screen time for all of them and a lot of time for them to be fleshed out as individuals which is something that I love. Never once in this series are you going to see someone come on screen and find yourself confused about which one they are or what their personality.

Music

        The music in this series is always something that I am going to enjoy and in this case they really went all out with it and it sounds absolutely fabulous. In particular you’re going to want to listen for an orchestral version of the closing theme during the final episode of the volume (you won’t have to listen very closely as it is something that actually binds the entire episode together so it’s very prominent).

Dub vs. Sub

        The dub and sub casts are both excellent but I have to admit that the ladies of ADV have won me over once again with their performances. Jessica Boone as Yuna, Tiffany Grant as Kuriko and Kim Prause as Rin are the glue that holds this show together and they make for a very entertaining evening.

        Unfortunately not everyone is perfect as I can’t say that I was 100% satisfied with newcomer Blake Shepard shows his inexperience again on this volume. Even though it’s volume 3 and it’s very obvious that he came along way since episode 1 of this series, it’s still quite evident that this is his first lead role. He’s quite good though and I expect great things from him in the future but for now, he still hasn’t managed to grasp that spark that turns a good performance into a great performance.

Extras

        Besides the art gallery and clean animation we have another commentary track on this volume that features Tiffany Grant and Sandra Krause talking about the series and some of the behind the scenes stories that we don’t usually get to hear. I always like to hear these commentaries and Tiffany is always fun to hear in a commentary.

Overall

        This is easily one of the better series of the year. I’m not completely committed to the saying that it’s going to end up on my top 10 list for 2005 but in a year where we saw more than a few harem series come out, this one sticks out for it’s great use of a small cast and willingness to let the characters shine more than the fan service. The plot is original, the characters are cute and fun and the writing is crisp and funny. This is definitely a winning series and while I am a little concerned about where it’s headed with the next volume, I can’t imagine that it’s going to do anything so drastic as to turn me off from the series completely.

        If you enjoy romance and comedy, this one is going to be right up your alley. Very recommended.

Final Grade: 98% – A

Posted in Anime Reviews |

Tags: adv, anime, dvd, harem, jessica boone, maburaho, monica rial, review, tiffany grant |

Chrono Crusade Vol. 5: The Devil & The Deep Blue Sea

June 15th, 2007 |

Author: LB

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Chrono Crusade Vol. 5: The Devil & The Deep Blue Sea

Released By: ADV

Released: 5/10/05

Reviewed: 2/26/06

Rated: 13+

NOTE: This review is a continuation of my reviews of this series. If you have not seen any of the volumes or my previous reviews, you risk spoilers by continuing.

Intro

        I wanted more after last volume but I certainly wanted more than this.

The Story

        The last episode of volume four left me wanting more and finally I get more starting with Satella letting it be known right away that she has no intention of prolonging the alliance that has been formed between the order and the devils. She’s been having terrible dreams and a rash of disappearances have been striking in both Denver and San Francisco making everyone believe that the devils are kidnapping them to boost their power. Satella begins a search for these missing people on her own but is kidnapped by the new enemy for her trouble and is offered up as a sacrifice to Aion.

        In the second episode of the volume Satella is a wreck after her ordeal, not even getting out of bed. Rosette isn’t doing any better with the second part of her stigmata appearing on her forehead. There’s no time to deal with either of that though as the devil’s hideout has been found and an attack has been organized bringing both the devils and the Order of Magdalene together to fight side by side. Quickly realizing that it’s a trap though, the devils fight hard and the Order is quickly pushed to the rear lines until a barrier is put up, causing sacrifices to be made on both sides.

        The final episode of the volume has many losing faith including those in the New York branch of the Order. Rosette and Satella are pushing themselves past their breaking points while Chrono and Rosette are worried sick. In an effort to lighten the mood, Azmaria insists on taking everyone out to a carnival. The party ends on a rather precarious cliff though as Rosette is suddenly brought face to face with her brother, Joshua.

The Good And The Bad

        Up until now this has been a very solid series with very few technical flaws and so when I started watching this volume you can imagine my surprise and disappointment when I found flaws popping up such as the sound quality drops for a scene during first episode and the battle sequences in second episode being a little too dark. While the battle sequences were almost certainly designed to be a little dark, the very short drop in sound quality during the first episode was quite annoying. Rarely does a mistake like this happen though and so I am not concerned about it since it does disappear very quickly.

        My real complaint with this volume is the low episode count. With the series coming so close to it’s final volume, I really was hoping to see more episodes on this volume to really set up the final climax and battles but sadly that just wasn’t to be found in this volume and if I were someone who wasn’t completely committed to this series, I would find it very hard to get excited about seeing the final two volumes.

        Luckily though I am someone who has been very committed to this series since the very beginning and so even though I’m a little worried with where the series plans to go on the next volume, my interest in it hasn’t been diminished by this one.

Music

        I’ve said some less than nice things in my reviews of the soundtrack to this series but that is simply because when taken out of context the songs in this series just aren’t that enjoyable. When used in the proper times though and shown with the animation, the music in this series is phenomenal. “Dance Stage” is one of those songs that I loved and I loved finally getting to see it being used in the proper context of this series and it’s always a joy to hear Azmaria sing.

Dub vs. Sub

        Both the dub and sub tracks have been winners with me since the beginning and I really never get tired of hearing Hilary Haag and Jessica Boone as Rosette and Azmaria. Tiffany Grant as Satella is always a joy to my ears as well.

        Both dub and sub fans really can’t have much to complain about here.

Extras

        The usual wonderful extras are included on this volume including two more of Azmaria’s lectures in which she covers the history of Mary Of Magdalene and stigmata. Also included is another edition of the Chrono Crusade Chronicle which talks about the main devils that are fighting alongside the Order including the duke of the devils, Duffau, and Carv. Also talked about are the California gold rush, the traditional carnival before Lent and even more info about stigmata.

        Also included are clean animations and production sketches.

Overall

        I have to say that I was really disappointed with this volume. Even though there were a couple of strong episodes, I just really felt that it wasn’t a very good lead in to the final volumes. I really felt like there was something lacking here in terms of the story really coming together.

        I think that fans of this series are going to be pretty disappointed with this volume but overall it’s worth watching simply for some of the very precious moments that are shown between Rosette and Chrono.

Final Grade: 79% – C

Posted in Anime Reviews |

Tags: adv, anime, chris patton, chrno crusade, chrono crusade, dvd, greg ayres, hilary haag, jessica boone, monica rial, review, tiffany grant |

Chrono Crusade Vol. 4: The Devil To Pay

June 13th, 2007 |

Author: LB

Chrono Crusade Vol. 4: The Devil To Pay

Released By: ADV

Release Date: 3/8/05

Reviewed: 10/17/05

NOTE: This review is a continuation of my reviews of this series. If you have not seen any of the volumes or my previous reviews, you risk spoilers by continuing.

Intro

        Another fabulous release of this creepy series is here for our pleasure, just wish it were a bit longer.

The Story

        Three more episodes are shown on this volume but don’t let that fool you, a whole lot of plot is crammed into these three episodes. In the first episode, Rosette and the bunch are headed towards San Francisco to try to find Joshua. Along the way they run into Satella who has a case on the west coast to investigate. Also along the way they run into the spider devil who appeared a couple of volumes earlier and Rosette must fight her.

        In the second episode, everyone arrives in San Francisco but unfortunately Chrono comes down with a terrible fever and soon after Rosette does too. Rosette searches desperately for some medicine that is strong enough to work on a devil but comes up short until she meets a fortune teller who tells her how to cure Chrono’s fever but also secretly learns of Rosette’s fate.

        In the final episode of the volume a devil pays a visit to Chrono. He is a duke within the devil kingdom and he is just as determined to see Aion defeated as the Order of Magdalene and so he offers an alliance between the two factions. An uneasy truce is formed between the two and Rosette learns that she too has been blessed with a gift from God. Also revealed in this final episode of the volume is the original battle that Aion created, the story behind the Civil War that is being fought among the sinners and the role that Chrono played in that battle.

The Good And The Bad

        Even though there were only three episodes on this volume I was absolutely hooked from beginning to end here. The biggest points for this volume were easily the humor that was taken up a few notches in the writing here. There is some fabulous interplay between Satella and Rosette that is absolutely hilarious but also some scenes in the second episode that made me crack up completely.

        I think that this boost in the level of humor was a great idea because the third episode goes back to the usual dark tone in the series with the arrival of the new devil and the revelation that Rosette is going to play a much more pivotal role in the climax of this series than the main character usually does.

        While other reviewers may disagree with me, I am of the state of mind that if your biggest complaint about a volume is that it ends too soon than the creators are doing everything right thus far.

Music

        I have really gone off on the soundtracks to this series in my reviews of them and I stand by those opinions but I am finding that when the music is used in context within the series, it becomes much better and much more enjoyable.

        The music on this volume was absolutely fabulous and while I am not in any rush to go out and listen to the soundtracks again, I still think that they were fabulously done.

Dub vs. Sub

        In the first two episodes of this volume, you can’t go wrong with either track. Both of these episodes are hilarious and very well done in either language but starting with the last episode I highly suggest that you go with the dub track unless you are very good at reading details quickly and retaining them in your head. The plot starts to get very complex starting in this episode and I found it much easier to handle it when I was listening to it in the dub track rather than sub.

        Standout performance goes to Jessica Boone. Jessica has an incredible talent for playing characters that are just so sweet and cute you are worried about going into diabetic shock and her portrayal of Azmaria is no exception.

Extras

        Besides the usual clean animations and production sketches, we are also treated to another edition of Azmaria’s extra classes in which she talks about the sinners and some of the lore behind them within Christian literature. Also included is the Chrono Crusade Chronicle with four articles. Three of them are about life in the 1920’s and the fourth is a feature about some of the main sinners working for Aion.

Overall

        I really like this series. It’s dark, it’s creepy and it’s going places that I haven’t seen an anime go before. It’s highly original and innovative and should be at the top of many people’s ‘to watch’ pile. If you haven’t gotten into this series yet, you have no reason to wait any longer to do so.

Final Grade: 95% – A

Posted in Anime Reviews |

Tags: adv, anime, chrno crusade, chrono crusade, dvd, greg ayres, hilary haag, monica rial, review, tiffany grant, volume 4 |

Princess Nine Complete Collection

June 11th, 2007 |

Author: LB

Princess Nine Complete Collection

Released By: ADV

Release Date: 01/13/04

Reviewed: 7/20/05

Rated: 13+

Special Notes: Review originally published here

NOTE: This review is a continuation of my reviews of this series. If you have not seen any of the volumes or my previous reviews, you risk spoilers by continuing.

Intro

At long last! It’s mine! It’s finally mine!

The Story

Princess Nine is all about nine girls who break through the gender barriers in Japan. All the girls are around 15 years old and one by one they all receive invitations to join a very prestigious all girls school in Japan on a full scholarship but there is one condition, they all must play for the brand new girls Baseball team and compete against the guys teams in order to not only make it to the national championship, but also win the championship within three seasons.

This series takes us through that first season in which many events take place. Led by ace pitcher Ryo Hayakawa (pronounced: Yo), this team learns many lessons about life, team work, love and what true friendship really means as all throughout the season they are faced with many obstacles including other players who don’t think that they belong, their class mates thinking that they are hopeless, parents who are out raged about girls playing baseball and even with each other as their star pitcher and the daughter of the head of the school find themselves competing over the same guy.

The Good And The Bad

This is my all time favorite series. Flat out, hands down, my favorite. When I finally got this series in my possession I spent the next couple of nights watching it all over again and I was absolutely reminded on why it’s so incredible and why it’s my favorite. Even if you’re not a sports fan you’ll find out very quickly that this is not a series about baseball. There are baseball elements in this series but the real story of this anime is all about these nine girls chasing after their nine dreams of being the best in the country and learning to come together to help each other out not only as team mates but as friends.

The emotion in this series is very real. I remember watching volume one a couple of nights ago and by the end of the second episode I already had tears in my eyes simply because I knew exactly what these girls were going to be facing within the next couple of volumes. Even if I knew everything that was going to be happening, I couldn’t help but fall in love with each of these characters all over again.

The biggest complaint that I hear about this series is that it is just too predictable to be entertaining and I can see how that is a legitiment complaint. Since this is a sport series, it does become pretty predictable in parts but I do find that most of the time the writers did a fabulous job of keeping it’s audience on their toes as they watched and enjoyed.

Music

“Princess Nine” also holds the title of my all time favorite anime opening theme song. With a soundtrack done by the Warsaw Philharmonic, this series contains incredible music from beginning to end. The drum beats are strong and there are some wonderful versions of the opening and closing themes done throughout as background music including a very sad solo acoustic guitar version of the opening theme which always signified to me that it was time to break out the tissues.

Dub vs. Sub

When I saw this series for the very first time I was what you could call a ‘sub snob’. I was under the impression that all dubbed anime was terrible and there was absolutely no reason to ever listen to anime in that way. Since then I’ve grown and matured and realized that was a very silly way to be thinking and so when I watched it through this time I watched it entirely in it’s dub form and I absolutely loved it! Hilary Haag as Ryo and Monica Rial as her rival Izumi were absolutely incredible! These are two of the best dub performances I’ve ever heard in my life and they set the gold standard for what dub performances should always sound like. The emotion is real and the acting is flawless.

Extras

Over the course of six volumes there are lots of extras that were included. I’m not going to go into details on all of them but here is a list of all the extras you’ll find on these volumes:

~ Clean Opening
~ Clean Ending
~ Player Statistics
~ US Teaser/Trailer
~ “Ode to Oden” – An Oden Cooking Special
~ Profiles of the English and Japanese voice actresses
~ History of baseball in Japan
~ Karaoke version of opening and closing themes
~ Original Japanese Cover Art
~ Original Japanese Artwork

The only part of the extras that really upsets me is that there were so many more extras that were planned and yet scrapped at the last minute most notably of which was a voice actress commentary track on volume six. This was would have been an incredibly welcome extra but I’m not going to lose any sleep over it.

Overall

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again and again. This is my all time favorite series and it will continue to be my all time favorite series. The performances are incredible, the story is emotional and gripping and the characters will make you love them by the end of the first volume.

What upsets me most about this series is that despite the incredibly low price and strong advertising campaign that ADV put behind it, it never had enough momentum to get a second season and while it is too late for us to ever get one again (sadly enough), we can still at least re-live season one of this season from the first pitch to the last over and over again.

Final Grade: 96% – A

Posted in Anime Reviews |

Tags: adv, anime, box set, chris patton, complete collection, dvd, hilary haag, monica rial, princess nine, review, tiffany grant, vic mignogna |

Neon Genesis Evangelion Vol. 1

June 9th, 2007 |

Author: LB

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Neon Genesis Evangelion Vol. 1

Released By: ADV

Release Date: 5/25/00

Reviewed: 2/27/04

Rated: 13+

Special Notes: Review originally published here

The Intro

Neon Genesis Evangelion has had a huge following within the anime community ever since it’s release. Hailed as one of the best SCI FI anime titles to ever be released, it is said to have a story that will pull you in and make you think of things in an entirely new way.

Well, I just watched the first volume and now I can only think one thing… These people have A LOT more patience than I do!

The Story

The year is 2015 in Tokyo. 15 years ago, a meteor hit Antarctica causing the polar ice cap to melt instantly and flood the Earth. The eco system was ruined but the part of the human race that managed to survive went on. Also around that time, huge monsters known as ‘Angels’ started attacking Tokyo. Coincidence??? I think not!!

Now, 15 years later the ‘Angels’ are attacking once again and conventional weapons aren’t doing the trick to beat them (not that they ever did before) so the world decides to unleash it’s most fearsome weapon… huge robots known as Evangelions (or Evas) that can only be piloted by 14 year old children. Confused yet? That’s O.K. because so am I.

Four episodes are served up to us on this first volume and after watching it I have a headache! The first episode is simply titled ‘Angel Attack’. In this episode we meet our main character, a boy named Shinji Ikari who is the son of the most powerful man in the world. Alone and emotionally abandoned, he is brought into Tokyo by his father for the sole reason of they need him to pilot one of the Evas even though it’s quite possibly life threatening. Also introduced to us is Shinji’s captain and provider of fan service, Misato Katsuragi. A beautiful young woman who works for the company that makes and runs the Evas, NERV.

An Angel is attacking Tokyo and Shinji is forced into an Eva and into battle even though he has never once even been inside one of these things when he is told that if he doesn’t do it, it’ll be up to the only other pilot who is a girl named Rei who is bandaged so badly from her last battle that she could be a stand in for the mummy. Fighting valiantly he manages to pull off a victory somehow (or so we’ll told when in the previews of the next episode) even though the last few seconds of this episode leave us with the distinct impression that he is about to become the shortest lived main character to ever grace a television screen.

Over the course of the next three episodes, the story starts to thicken out ever so slightly. In the second episode, we see how exactly Shinji won his battle through a series of flashbacks and his incessant whining about how nothing looks familiar and since he is in an entirely new city that he has never been in before, one has to comment with the obvious ‘Duh!’ response. He also moves in with his Captain, when she decides that he shouldn’t be left alone (which also warranted a ‘Duh!’ response from me as I watched).

In the third episode, we see Shinji at school. Two weeks have passed and he’s still very quiet and reserved, not letting anyone get close to him which after the lonely life he’s led does make sense and make me feel for him ever so slightly. In this episode we meet two more characters which would be his classmates. First we have Kensuke Aida. An incredibly imaginative kid who is absolutely enthralled by the battles that are happening between the Angels and the Eva. The next one would be a crude kid named Toji Suzuhara who after learning that the new kid is actually the pilot of the Eva who caused his kid sister to be put into the hospital from being almost killed by falling debris in the last battle, promptly gives him a welcome to the school with his fists. Soon after though, Shinji is called into battle again and the two kids come up with the bright idea of sneaking out of their shelter so that they can watch the battle up close. After they are almost killed (almost means they were literally less than 5 feet away from being crushed by Shinji’s Eva), Shinji manages to save them and the city once again and earn the respect of the two classmates.

The final episode on this disc is the best I think. In this one we see Shinji feeling down on himself again (which I know is how he is and after his hard life is expected but come on, we get the point already!) he runs away from the apartment that he shares with Misato. He spends two days wandering around before finally he is brought back and is told flat out that if he doesn’t want to be an Eva pilot that he should leave because it is too dangerous to have a pilot with a lax attitude.

The Good and the Bad

To be perfectly honest, I am having a lot of trouble finding good things to say about this anime. The only reason why I put this one into my DVD player in the first place was because of everyone who kept telling me how incredibly wonderful it is and after watching the first volume I have to wonder what is the big deal?

So far all I have seen is poor animation quality, an incredibly confusing story that just refuses to inflate and shallow, annoying characters (except for one which I’ll get to in a bit). To be perfectly honest, I do not see what the big deal about this series is.

If I really had to find a positive to the story that I’ve seen so far it would be Misato. Even though she serves the two prime purposes of being Shinji’s captain and giving out loads of unessacary fan service (which appears to be one of the selling points of this series since it is advertised in the previews for the next episode), she is still the only character that I’ve found myself liking so far in this series.

Extras

There aren’t a whole lot of extras to talk about on this disc. You have the ADV trailers, character profiles, a link to the ADV web site if you happen to have a DVD/CD ROM combo drive on your computer and the DVD credits. The only really helpful one of these is the character profiles which aren’t as helpful as I would hope since there are only 4 or 5 profiles on the disc and 3 of them are for Angels and the Eva.

One really cool thing about this volume though is that it has a hidden easter egg. Anime titles traditonally do not have hidden items on them for you to find but there are those rare exceptions and this is one of them.

In order to view the hidden egg, all you gotta do is go into the extras menu. When you enter this menu, character bios should automatically be highlighted so all you gotta do is press up to highlight extras and then hit enter on your remote. You’ll be treated to a clean (textless) showing of the opening and closing animations.

Music

The music is one of the big good points so far about this series. The opening theme is a very upbeat song called ‘A Thesis Of The Crying Angel’ and even though the opening animation is incredibly annoying to me (it is a montage of stills that goes by way too quickly) the song is very catchy. The ending theme is a soft jazz song called ‘Fly Me To The Moon’ and it actually makes me think of the anime Cowboy Bebop for some reason. Either way, the songs are good and even the music from within the series are pleasing to listen to.

Overall

Overall I can’t in good conscious give this volume of this series a good review. It was confusing, stale and boring to me. In all honesty, after seeing three episodes I stopped the disc and got online to double check with friends that I was indeed actually watching the series that everyone loved so much and that it was going to get better later.

Assured that it will get better with later volumes, I am going to press on with this series and hope that everyone is right. It can’t possibly get the reputation of one of the best anime series in history if it doesn’t right?

I am updating this paragraph now ready to say that this series does get better. After the first six episodes, I was sort of entertained but when I got to volume three… I was very entertained. I can’t say that this series is the absolute masterpiece that everyone else says it is yet but I can say that if you have the patience it might be worth sticking it out.

Posted in Anime Reviews |

Tags: adv, anime, dvd, eva, neon genesis evangelion, review, tiffany grant, tv |

Neon Genesis Evangelion Vol. 2

June 9th, 2007 |

Author: LB

Purchase From Right Stuf

Neon Genesis Evangelion Vol. 2

Released By: ADV

Release Date: 11/21/00

Reviewed: 2/27/04

Rated: 13+

Special Notes: Review originally published here

NOTE: This review is a continuation of my reviews of this series. If you have not seen any of the volumes or my previous reviews, you risk spoilers by continuing.

The Intro

At the conclusion of my review of the first volume of this series, I promised myself that I would at least give this series a second chance because of the huge reputation behind it. I mean, it can’t be THAT bad if it has that much of a following can it?? So, into my DVD player went Volume 2 of Neon Genesis Evangelion and finally, I’m starting to see why this series is so popular… though it took six episodes.

The Story

Volume two picks up where we left off last time with Shinji still whining every chance he gets. Four more episodes to are shown to us in the volume traditionally reserved for character development and this series is not one to break that tradition.

The first two episodes takes us into the heart of Rei and starts by taking us back three weeks before Shinji even arrives at NERV and shows us what happened to make Rei look like a mummy’s worst nightmare and why she is much closer to Shinji’s father than he ever will be. Not the most interesting episode of the series and to be perfectly honest, that’s not saying much since so far this series has been nothing but boring.

Within these first two episodes, there is some very healthy leaps into character development (I just wish the same healthy leaps could be taken with story development) as Rei and Shinji learn new things about each other and start to move ever closer to sharing an actual bond and friendship which is ever so vital when you’re on the battlefield inside of giant robots fighting off hideous aliens called ‘angels’.

‘A Human Creation’ is the seventh episode of the series and this is when the series actually starts to show some life!! This is the episode used to develop Misato and I can happily and readily admit that I actually semi enjoyed this episode!! Misato shows incredibly bravery in the face of a possible nuclear meltdown when one of NERV competitors tries to unleash it’s brand new mech that runs off a nuclear reactor (what idiot thought up that bright idea?!?) and as you can imagine, it malfunctions during it’s first showing.

Misato is shown in more than one light in this episode and while she still gives out plenty of fan service (over and over and over again), she shows that she’s more than just a pretty face, big chest and nice legs (did I say that outloud?)… she has heart and courage, if not absolutely no domestic skills.

The final episode on this disc is easily the one where I started paying more attention simply because a brand new character is introduced that makes me want to pay attention! It is in this episode that we meet the next Eva pilot who happens to be a fiery German girl named Asuka Langley. She’s tough, she’s got a mouth on her and she isn’t afraid to verbally slap Shinji around whenever she feels the need! Go Asuka! That alone earns her major points with me since I wish more people would slap Shinji around more often.

Askua breaths new life into this series that I can’t help but feel like was dead on arrival. She’s sassy, she’s sexy, she’s overly confident, she’s exactly the character that this stale and slow series needs to add that spark of actual entertainment!

Along with Askua comes her captain/guardian, Kaji. While hints of a past relationship between him and Misato are dropped like bombshells all throughout the episode, he certainly also has fun with dropping hints that maybe Shinji and Misato have a present relationship that they aren’t letting anyone in on. Why not?? Back when I was 14, if I were living with a woman like Misato I would lie my butt off about having a relationship with her. But then again, Shinji isn’t me (thank the gods!)

The Good and the Bad

Once again, I’m having trouble coming up with a lot of good points about this series. It took me six episodes before I actually started to like this series. Six!!!! That’s a full volume and a half….. that’s a full 180 minutes of my life that I had to spend trying to like this blasted series all because I gave into peer pressure and started watching it because everyone I know said that it was the say all and end all of anime masterpieces! There’s a lesson in that kids……. Just say no to peer pressure!

I can’t stand most things about this series and I’m someone who can find good in almost any anime. The music is tolerable but still not something that I listen to if I have a choice about it. The animation is very much below where it should be and the story is still moving so slow and no questions are being answered!

The only two bright lights so far in this series are the characters of Misato and Asuka, both of whom are funny, quirky and bring some fun into an otherwise stale series.

Music

As I said earlier, the music is pretty bad. The opening theme starts off good enough with it’s slow melodic female vocals but then it moves into pop and that’s when I hit the fast forward button. The closing theme is that soft jazz song and all I can ever think when I hear it is ‘Wow, Van Morrison had a sister’.

Extras

The extras on this disc are tame as all we are treated to is the ADV web site link (once again, only helpful if you have a DVD/CD ROM drive on your computer), more character bios, ADV trailers and DVD credits. Hopefully this will change soon.

One intresting thing that I’ve discovered though is that this volume also has a hidden easter egg on it. In order to view it, view all the bios on the volume and then when you get to the last one, hit 1 on your remote and you’ll see an extra hidden bio of the fifth Angel.

Overall

Overall I want to tear this series to shreds and forget that I ever saw it but I can’t do that because of the last two episodes on this disc where Misato and Asuka were brought in. Those two characters alone are what kept me entertained throughout the second half of this volume and those two characters is what gives me hope that this series is starting to finally pick up so, reluctantly I am going to be putting Volume 3 into my DVD player very soon.

This series has an incredible reputation behind it and I’ve only known one person to agree with me on my reviews of this series but alas, I press on for that is the life of a reviewer. Just because we don’t like something doesn’t mean that we get to automatically by pass it.

If you’re into mech anime, you’ll probably enjoy this series. It takes the time to develop a very complicated deep story line that not even I can understand yet but it gets better starting with volume 3. You’ve used up this much of your life, you might as well let yourself have a reward by watching the series when it gets better and actually worth watching.

Posted in Anime Reviews |

Tags: adv, anime, dvd, eva, neon genesis evangelion, review, tiffany grant, tv |