Posts Tagged ‘volume 1’

Taking a late look at this cute vampire romantic comedy from Geneon and JC Staff.

The Story

Karin is a vampire in most senses of the word. She does drink blood and her family is all vampires as well. She doesn’t have the usual vampire weaknesses though; she loves sunshine and is otherwise a normal high school student. She does have one big difference from the rest of her family… her body produces too much blood which comes out as massive nosebleeds whenever she senses blood that she has an affinity towards.

In this world, all vampires are attracted to blood filled with certain types of emotions. Her mother, for example, feeds off of lying or deception. Her father feeds off of pride and her brother feeds off of stress making him a popular person with young office ladies. Karin’s affinity: unhappiness. 

Enter new transfer student Kenta Usui. Poor and living alone with his mother in a rundown flat, he puts on a brave face but is the epitome of unhappiness sending ‘Karin”s nosebleeds into overdrive. Over the first four episodes, ‘Karin’ and Kenta will meet but conflicts arise right away when he starts to catch wind of ‘Karin”s big secret while she does everything she can think of to keep him away. She’ll try avoiding him but be thwarted every step of the way leaving her no choice but to attempt to make him happy while still trying to keep her real identity a secret.

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The opening to this gothic fantasy action series from Madhouse gets off to a very intense and engaging start.

The Story

In this fantasy action series, audiences are quickly introduced to and begin following a group of female soldiers known to humans as Claymores. Half human and half yoma (monster), the soldiers visit settlements to kill yoma who feed on humans. Assigned by a secret organization, they are feared and despised by humans for the monster blood within them though when a yoma is discovered to be within their settlements the Claymores are the only line of defense that the humans have.

In the first four episodes, the audience is introduced to one member of the Claymores named Clare. A near emotionless soldier, viewers will follow her through various missions. In the first one she will manage to nab a personal cook in the form of an orphan named Raki before having to fulfill a duty to another Claymore and save a holy city from a yoma who has hidden in the cathedral.

In the last episode of volume one, a second Claymore will be introduced by the name of Theresa. Different from Clare in many ways, Theresa is cold and emotionless in a much different way. Completely focused on her job, she wastes no time in entering a village and immediately killing those who do not belong. On this assignment however, Theresa will pick up a stray of her own creating a new set of problems for her to deal with.

Good and the Bad

‘Claymore’ is a series that has had a very strong level of buzz around it ever since its original airing in 2007. Ever since, fans have talked about the engaging story and beautiful animation that flows from every part of this series. After hearing buzz like that, it’s only a matter of time before you have to see for yourself.

Within these first five episodes, the animation maintains an absolutely beautiful gothic quality to it that. From the gothic lettering of the title screen, the dull palette of colors and the character designs; the animation remains consistent throughout the five episodes. To hear the phrase ‘dull colors’ however, one could easily mistake that to mean that the series is ugly to look at or the animation lacks any sort of refinement. Luckily, this has proven to be far from the truth.

The primary color scheme of every episode is based within greys and browns throughout. The Claymores are all blondes but every one scene on this volume has hair colored so pale that you could almost mistake it for white. In ‘Claymore’, the dull colors do a great job of capturing a gritty feeling to the series. Nothing about this series is presented as happy or particularly bright, the primary characters are there to kill or be killed. No deep motivation or jokes needed.

Given the very serious tone to this series, there are many expectations from the audience that are going to be fulfilled in spades. The action in ‘Claymore’ is intense in every episode of the volume due to how strong the yoma are presented. This isn’t a series where the heroines are so incredibly strong that they are always able to destroy their foes without breaking a sweat. The battles will always require work and the heroes are going to take insane amounts of damage. Naturally this is going to create some very exciting fights to watch that makes it difficult to take your eyes away. Viewers who are sensitive to the sight of blood though may find it in their best interests to turn away from the screen however since the blood in ‘Claymore’ is going to flow like rivers. The saying ‘Blood: the average anime character’s body contains 57 gallons of it’ is proven true once again in this series as heads will be lopped off and blood will shoot up like fountains.

Moving beyond how ‘Claymore’ looks and getting into more how it feels, the story in these first five episodes is certainly engaging to say the least. In the first four episodes with Clare, the series is almost entirely centered on revealing more about the nature of the Claymores and the laws that they are forced to live by while occasionally gaining a little nugget of information regarding Clare’s past. While normally it would have been nice to spend a little bit of time introducing an overall story, with twenty six episodes ‘Claymore’ has more than enough time to start on that later.

Right now however, one can already tell that the information provided within these first episodes is going to be invaluable to viewers later on. Every episode, something new is learned about the Claymores and what their lives are like. It is obviously a very complicated system and organization that they work for and every new bit of information sheds just enough new light that one can’t help but be curious to see more.

Music

Composed by Masanori Takumi (Witchblade, Genshiken, Koi Kaze), the score for this series flies all over the scale with some tracks are nothing short but audible treats to tracks that fail to come anywhere close to the mark. Taking influences from a large variety of styles and genres, Takumi creates some beautiful pieces that capture the perfect emotion of their scenes such as the brilliant mixing of hard guitar chords and orchestral strings in episode four. Other times however the music will come across as cheesy at best with sounds that feel like they should be in a video game instead of an anime such as Clare’s first introduction and moments in the mountain top scene of episode two. Luckily for Takumi, he hits much more often than he misses though and most of the battle scenes are all the better due to the intense fight music that he has created for this series.

The opening and ending theme take the gothic feel of the series and absolutely run with it. Both the opening theme (“Raison D’être” sung by Nightmare) and closing theme (“Danzai no Hana~Guilty Sky” sung by Riyu Kosaka) are harder rock tracks that match very well with the images that float by in the animation. With the start and close of every episode I never wanted to skip these tracks and can easily see myself listening to them every time I watch an episode in the future as well.

Dub vs. Sub

In either English or Japanese, the cast members of this series do a wonderful job of easing into their characters early and making it all the easier to get into the roles. In the dub cast, Stephanie Young as Clare and Christine Auten as Theresa come across very well in their roles as the Claymores. Auten in particular never loses a step with her performance as the very cold, callous Claymore who has no interest in having someone tag along with her. On the other side, getting into the role of Clare is equally easy with a strong performance from Houko Kuwashima.

Extras

Only a couple of extras are included on this volume besides the clean animations. First up though is a commentary track for episode one. In this commentary, Stephanie Young (Clare) and Todd Haberkorn (ADR Director, Raki) sit down to give their thoughts on the episode and the series. In this commentary, a lot of things are talked about that may be of interest to fans such as decisions behind the casting and production decisions. Also included in this volume are cast auditions which will be of interest to fans of the cast members.

Overall

The positive buzz behind this series is earned quickly in this volume and while it’s still early, there is a large amount of evidence here to make one believe all the praise ‘Claymore’ receives is deserved. It’s hard to believe that some fans may get bored by all of the character development and lack of any story taking shape but it’s even harder to believe that this series isn’t going to payoff big within the next two volumes or so. Worth checking out and sticking around for more.

Stepping into a new series today, I’ve posted my thoughts on the dark psychic paranormal thriller Darker Than Black Vol. 1 released last week from Funimation.

You know, I didn’t think it was possible to take the ‘psychic bishie brothers’ plotline and have such an epic failure as this opening volume but now I know. As you may have imagined, I didn’t really care for this opening volume of Nighthead Genesis Vol. 1: Reminiscense from Media Blasters.

You have psychic bishie brothers who on a search for the past that they were robbed of by scientists, how does one screw that up?

The Story

In this paranormal bishie drama, Naoya and Naoto are two brothers born with psychic powers. The older Naoto can destroy things with his mind whenever he gets angry (exploding electronics, floor boards being torn up, etc) while Naoya can read a person’s heart just by touching them. This causes problems naturally as Naoto can’t control his anger and Naoya sometimes sees terrible things that he can’t handle. Unable to control them or their powers, their parents send them away to a special facility.

Fifteen years later a psychic named Shouko in Tokyo will predict their escape and the brothers finally get to make it out into a world they’ve been hidden from. Right away the brothers find themselves in trouble stumbling into an out of the way bar after the car they steal (at least I think they stole it, they never really cover that) gets a flat. While they are there, Naoya will accidently learn something about a woman that he can’t handle and the brothers are forced to hunt down a woman before she can cause more pain.

Good and the Bad

The premise of this series is one that is very hard to not get right. You have bishies that are brothers, that alone earns a series a lot of easy points which Nighthead Genesis earns very well. The first episode of this series almost had me sold right away. There were more than a couple of different ways that this series could have gone with their introduction but I was really glad to see the series introduce the characters as children.

Seeing the two main characters growing up and seeing exactly what happened to them, I instantly felt a strong emotional connection to the characters. When they are in the facility and the snow scene plays out, it’s heartbreaking to see. It’s wasn’t enough to make me misty eyed but I was touched none the less.

From there the series takes a serious downward spiral so fast I thought it was going to dissolve before impact.

Once the brothers escape from the facility, Nighthead Genesis runs into so many plot holes it’s amazing the brothers didn’t fall into one of them. Starting with their escape, how is it that these brothers were locked away in this secret facility that no one knows about but then once the brothers escape no one seems to care and barely lifts a finger to do anything that vaguely resembles looking for them?

The entire second episode itself though really becomes a plot hole in itself though. Over the entire course of the episode, very little actually happens that is worth noting. A guy is loud and obnoxious and so that causes the brothers to show off their powers. This shows the audience how strong the brothers have become since they were children. They accomplish this well and get the point across strongly but using half the episode to show flashbacks from episode one ends up feeling like killing time. We know that they were abandoned as kids because you just told us ten minutes ago. In fairness it likely played out differently when the series aired on television but on DVD it comes across as repetitive and obligatory.

The only other item of consequence in the second episode is the introduction of the series first antagonist; a female serial killer and her abused boyfriend whom she totes around as she kills every woman she comes across wearing purple because the eye she sees on random surfaces tells her to. Yes I’m serious.

As you can imagine, this opens up a whole new set of plot holes itself that need to be sorted through. We’ll just ignore the obvious question of ‘an eye and purple? Really?’ and move onto more important issues that just jump out to the audience over the course of just a couple of episodes. Why, for instance, does Naoya only form a bond with the one woman? Why does he sense the feelings of a woman that he’s never met or touched in episode four? It’s just one thing after another with this series and it was always enough to pull me out of the series.

The animation in this series is strong in most instances. The brothers both look decent but there’s nothing particularly special about their design. The one place where the animation in this series hits a major snag is anytime they attempt to show a car driving. Anytime the series shows a car driving on the roads, the animation is laughably bad. The CG rendering looks terrible and dull, when the characters are layered on top it gets even worse.

Music

To give credit where it is truly due, Nighthead Genesis has a very well done musical score. The first episode is filled with haunting melodies that really play up the emotion of the brothers being abandoned by their family. The scene in the forest is tragic in its beauty with a wonderful score to really push the brothers lonliness.

Later in the volume, there is another beautiful theme. This time it is a very simple but haunting piano melody that plays during Shouko’s introduction into the series. The simplicity of the melody really keeps the scene low key and simple so when the payoff happens it comes as even more of a surprise. A very well put together scene.

Dub vs. Sub

Carrying the series on their shoulders, Akira Ishida (Naoya) and Toshiyuki Morikawa (Naoto) put in strong performances for their roles. Due to the glaring plot holes in the story, one has to imagine that these were going to be difficult roles to begin with but the two actors do a good job of keeping the brothers relatively believable despite efforts all around them to the contrary.

Extras

None.

Overall

This series is going to do a lot in order to make you want to stop watching but it’s really up to you on if you let it or not. It’s really just a matter of perspective; you can either sit down and view this as a bishie drama that does such a terrible job at telling its story that you’re desperate for a reason to hit stop or you see it as a bishie drama that is filled with so many plot holes that you can’t help but laugh and be entertained. This is not a great example of a bishie drama but for the right audience, it could be entertaining. The rest of us will be busy finding something else.

Final Grade: C+

Set to be re-released by Funimation in early October, I’ve taken a look at the first volume of Devil May Cry Vol. 1 as released by ADV earlier this year. The links on the review link to the Funimation re-release however and if there are substantive differences between the two releases I will update my review accordingly.

This could very well be the next great otaku comedy for the next generation.

The Story

In this series about absolutely nothing, we follow high school friends as they go about their lives. In the first two segments of each episode the audience will follow Konota Izumi (the resident gamer and otaku), twin sisters Tsukasa (the air head) and Kagami Hiiragi (the serious studious one) and Miyuki Takara (the impossibly moe and even more impossibly intelligent glasses wearing one).

In the final segment of each episode however, fans get to watch a Lucky Channel segment hosted by teen super idol Akira Kogami (when she’s not busy being jaded) with her assistant Minoru Shiraishi (when he’s not being threatened).

Good and the Bad

For those who aren’t already aware, this is an otaku comedy. Just about everything about this anime is an otaku comedy designed to make an otaku laugh. Naturally this is going to make every single otaku in the audience very happy since this series really has everything that an otaku could want in a series.

A poppy and very catchy opening theme complete with a dance sequence, very cute characters that fit most of the molds that otaku love and references to more anime and games than anyone could ever possibly dream of fitting into a series and we’re only four episodes in. If you aren’t already an otaku, I suggest you pick up a map before you start with this series or you will be lost by the end of the first episode’s first segment.

Now that I’ve been blunt about this series and it’s very limited, niche audience appeal… let’s talk about it like the niche audience that we are.

The stories and references in this anime are very fast paced and the liner notes that come with this series are going to be your best friend as you go about this volume. The series starts with a seven minute (or so) long discussion on food eating habits and then from there they just flow from one to the other with no real discernable pattern.

Beyond that, the writing in this series does exactly what you would expect it to. The gags in this series are going to come at the audience at a very fast pace and give audiences very little time to keep up. Even I was having trouble keeping up with the jokes in this series and will admit to missing at least half the references made throughout this first volume. Even the most hardcore of otaku is going to have trouble catching everything the first time around though.

This ends up proving to be one of the strengths for this series however as in some cases it might turn an audience off to miss so much of the humor in this series. In this case, however, I find myself wanting to go back and watching again just so that I can see which references I notice the second time through.

The staff behind this series however does go out of their way to make sure that some jokes went the more traditional route of ‘set up, gag, and punch line’. The writing breaks the fourth wall fairly early with the “Man, it’s an endless wait for the punch line…” line.

Speaking of staff and writing though, Alex Von David does a great job with the ADR script and directing. With a series this filled with references to anime and Japanese culture, translating the script into English has to be one of the hardest challenges. In this case audiences should be very pleased with the translation efforts put forth here as I found the jokes to work very well in both scripts.

From start to finish though, this series has to keep up its otaku charm and as an added treat; the ending animation finishes out each episode the way it started. In each of the closing animations, we hear the girls inside a karaoke room picking songs and singing a new theme for each episode. In the first three episodes, Konata is the one on the mic singing various anime themes while Kagami gets the mic for the fourth ending. This really came across well and while it would have been fun to see inside the karaoke room to watch the girls as they sing, what we get is still very enjoyable and a much unexpected but fun way to end each episode.

Music

Besides all of the references to various anime through song, the background music for this series was really quite simple and plain. Nothing really stood out as particularly interesting besides one scene early on when Miyuki is visiting Kagami. As mentioned earlier however, the opening theme is incredibly catchy with lyrics and a dance that has already caught on like wildfire around the fandom.

Dub vs. Sub

For my viewing of this series, I listened to the series in both English and Japanese switching back and forth after every segment as I went along. As I continued on, I learned that while some segments are better in English (Stephanie Sheh as Akira in the Lucky Channel segments is golden!) and some segments are better in Japanese (some of the more obvious anime jokes came across better in Japanese as well as most of the cultural references), both language tracks were very enjoyable.

Both casts are filled with talent that no fan will be able to make any real justifiable complaints about. Aya Hirano further cements herself in the anime world with her fabulous work as Konata and on the other side Wendee Lee takes on Konata and shows why she’s been a staple of the American voice acting community for so long.

On one hand, you can listen to Aya Endo make Miyuki Takara sound just so cute that you want to squeeze her and take her home. Or you can listen to Karen Strassman put on her ‘so sweet and cute I can put you into diabetic shock’ voice.

The point is that you really can’t go wrong either way. If I had to choose one place where there is a clear defining difference it would be Stephanie Sheh as Akira Kogami. The delivery of the jaded lines and contrast between the two sides of the character is easily the performance that could steal an episode given the chance.

Extras

Not content with just the four great episodes on this volume, there are plenty of extras for fans to enjoy as well though most of them are fairly standard starting with two art galleries filled with artwork from key scenes. In an odd twist, the next extra to be added to this disc completely predicts the nature of otaku to memorize theme songs and presents the opening animation with lyrics in Japanese on the screen as it plays. The lyrics are written in very large, neon bordered kanji though making it very karaoke in nature even if the vocals are still attached. The final “standard” extra is an original Japanese promo clip.

The last extra on the disc however is a short entitled ‘The Adventures of Minoru Shiraishi #1’. In this twelve minute feature, we follow the real Minoru Shiraishi as he films the crew’s trip out to film some clips for the end sequence. This segment really came across as strange to me as while it was entertaining, there wasn’t anything particularly funny or interesting about it. Plus I thought it was very odd that the segment was of Minoru walking around with his video camera filming when it might have been a little more interesting to just watch the footage that he shot from his perspective.

Overall

If you’ve ever called yourself an otaku, this series is for you. If you’ve ever scheduled your life so that you could watch an anime, this series is for you. If you’ve ever gone without sleep at work or school because you were just too wrapped up in a new series or manga to sleep, this series is for you. If cosplay is a passion and conventions are your idea of a vacation, this series is for you. If you are one of the few, the proud, the geeky… this series is for you.

Not everyone is going to get this series; those who do are going to know exactly why. This has the makings of the next great otaku comedy. Highly recommended.

Final Grade: A

Teenage melodrama in an all girl’s high school. Feel the excitement.

The Story

Aoi Nagisa is a freshman who has transferred into an all girls academy called Miator which happens to neighbor two other academies. Once there though, Aoi is quickly confused by a huge new world in front of her and the students she meets.

In the first six episodes she’s meet a mysterious student who represents all three schools carrying the rank of Etoile Shizuma Hanazono, her roommate named Tamao Suzumi, the student council president of Miator Rokujyo, president of the third school, Saint Le Rim student council Chikaru Minamoto (and member of the Le Rim cosplay club) and their lower classman room keeper Chiyo Tsukidate. While also getting to know Spicas conspiracy to get an equestrian star named Akane into the next Etoile role.

Good and the Bad

Six episodes. That’s how many episodes there are on this first volume. This is also the amount of episodes that I sat through as I waited for something to happen. Something, anything! The episodes on this volume do follow a very simple linear format as we follow Nagisa through her school year as she gets to know the other students and the traditions of the school. We also get the start of what I suppose is a love story as she grows closer to Shizuma. What we don’t get is conflict. There is certainly a small amount of emotional conflict but other than that, there really is no story here to grasp onto besides ‘follow Nagisa around and hope that something interesting happens.’

Admittedly the pacing of this volume isn’t bad and I wasn’t entirely bored with watching the adventures of Nagisa. But with how much time the volume spent following her around, I still don’t feel like I really know her that much better than when the series first started. I certainly can’t say the same thing for any of the other characters either. This becomes a bothersome fact for me if I’m expected to sit through four more volumes of this.

The character design of the series was pleasant to look at though I did find it hard to get past how similar every character looked. Besides hair and eyes, the designers really didn’t provide much variety in terms of distinct characters. This makes it harder to individualize the characters and can confuse people. I know that it confused me a couple of times at least.

The size of the cast is already starting to become cumbersome with I believe somewhere around a dozen regular and supporting characters introduced so far. While some of the characters are easily identifiable as minor characters that you don’t need to remember much about, there are quite a few more characters that have yet to be really fleshed out enough to know if we need to remember them or not. Six episodes should have been more than enough time to give the audience some idea of where some of these characters are going and who we need to pay attention to besides Nagisa and Shizuma.

Music

Ending theme is “Himitsu Dolls” sung by Mai Nakahara and Ai Shimizu who also happen to be the seiyuu for Aoi and Tamao. What’s bothersome is that the sound quality and voices is exactly that of the anime and the music is very electronic which makes it hard to hear the voices and connect them to the live action music video.

All of the background music is instrumental with a strong emphasis on strings and piano. Most of the music sank into the background and played well though I can imagine that out of context this soundtrack could put just about anyone to sleep with how soft all of the melodies are. I didn’t notice any drops in sound throughout the episodes.

Dub vs. Sub

There’s no dub cast with this one but the Japanese cast did an admirable job with their roles. Admittedly the dialogue in this volume was beyond dry with a big helping of pointless meandering but the cast turned in good performances none the less. It did feel like all of the characters were delivered in such a timid fashion though with very few of the characters actually ever really standing out.

Extras

Just clean animations.

Overall

I suppose if someone were to go into this volume knowing ahead of time that they are going to be watching six episodes that ultimately go nowhere, you could enjoy this. I did find that the characters were cute and sweet but after I stopped watching this volume, I didn’t feel any sort of satisfaction that I had seen something special. In the end, this is just another series that desperately wants to be dramatic and is trying to build up to something but at this point it’s really not looking like anyone is going to care when it gets there.

Final Grade: C+

Intro

            You couldn’t give me a likeable heroine?

The Story

            The heroine of this story is 11 year old Arusu who hates school and finds real life to be absolutely boring. What she really wants is to become a witch and use magic. One day though, she gets her wish and finds herself in a new fantasy world where witches fly around freely and are the norm as they study.

With no idea how she got there, Arusu manages to anger the head witch of the realm and gets the two people who tried to help her (well, one person who tried to help her and one person who was perfectly content to leave her in a jail cell forever) put under a curse until she fixes the problem she created. Which means Arusu is stuck in this new world until she and her new friends, Sheila and Eva, can re-capture 100 different kinds of fairies. If that weren’t bad enough though, Arusu has been targeted because she’s a human and she still has no idea how to get home other than to start practicing magic herself.

Good and the Bad

            Right away this series moves itself into the innovative category by using primarily gothic artwork and character designs. This took some adjusting but I was actually surprised with how quickly I got used to it. If one were to describe the animation style of this series, I’d definitely say that I see influences from Tim Burton within the animation. Other than that the animation looked great though with wonderful CG rendered backgrounds.   

            The story in this series isn’t terrible. The story is really quite straight forward with its premise of a young girl who gets whisked away to a fantasy world and is trying to get home. Of course this is something that anime fans have seen hundreds of times in the past but the staff did manage to put enough of an original twist on it to keep the idea fresh. I really liked how this series used the gothic artwork in all of its characters including the fairies who come in all sorts of different shapes and aren’t just pretty little sprites that fly around.

            Beyond the design though, many of the characters in this series simply fall short of anything even remotely resembling likable and that starts with our heroine Arusu. By the end of the first episode I was dying for someone to smack Arusu upside the head. I have absolutely no problem with her being cheerful, idealistic and optimistic. That’s her personality and it is shown very well. The issue I have with that though is that her personality is one that she has convinced herself of what reality is and when she is presented with a new reality that she doesn’t like she just refuses to accept it.

            I realize that she’s the plucky heroine who is supposed to teach us all about how life would be better if we did things her way. Perhaps if she were still in her home and in her realm she would eventually be listened to but I think it’s really presumptuous of her to accept that she’s in this brand new realm that she knows almost nothing about, besides what she’s told, and then proceed to try to shape that new world to HER liking. Arusu sweetie, it’s not your world so perhaps you should follow the rules that were in place BEFORE you got there!

            Not every character suffered this badly throughout the series. Sheila was presented as a very serious contrast to Arusu and this series badly needed her. If Sheila hadn’t been there to act as a counterbalance to Arusu, this series would’ve tanked within three episodes. Sheila was also just much more interesting as well and I had much more fun watching her develop than anytime Arusu was on the screen.

            I did find myself confused by the writing in this series though. The opening narration and Arusu’s optimistic attitude gave the series a children’s feel right away but the dark artwork, occasional curse word and fantasy violence made me think that this series was meant to be marketed towards the “tweeners” and teenager audience. I just don’t see this cast of characters really appealing to that demographic but then again, what do I know about that demographic and what they like or dislike?

            By the end of the first disc this series really had to work hard to keep my attention and it wasn’t doing a very good job. By the end of the second disc I was working equally hard at keeping myself focused on the story and had to re-watch parts because I kept realizing too late that my mind was glazing over.

            I will say that I liked the short little vignettes at the end of each episode which served as next episode trailers. While I had to watch about four of them before I put two and two together in my mind and realized that they were trailers for the upcoming episodes, they were good and entertained me quite a bit. Sometimes more so than the episode they were promoting.

Music

            I really liked the strong orchestral theme that started the first episode. The ending theme really bothered me on a few levels though. As much as I enjoy listening to KOTOKO sing, this closing theme was not her best work and it shows. The thing that bothered me the most about it though is that they didn’t come up with an original melody for the song. It’s really subdued so if you aren’t already familiar with classical music it will be very easy to miss but if you listen to closely to the ending theme you can hear that the song completely steals the melody line from the classic waltz ‘The Blue Danube’. Like I said, it’s very faint so most fans will not pick up on it but it is there.

            The general background music for the episodes is good in most places. While there are some scenes where the music isn’t quite fitting for the scene, there is one particular theme that stood out. I am unable to recall any of the scenes that it was used in (which means I’m going to have to go back and find a couple of examples aren’t I?) but it is a very nice soft oboe or clarinet (I’m fairly certain it’s oboe though) solo that really fit well.

Dub vs. Sub

            With writing this bad it’s hard to say that I preferred one cast over the other. Both casts had their hands full with this dialogue but in the end I’m going to give the preference to the Japanese cast. Julie Maddalena had a tough job with trying to make Arusu into a likable heroine but just doesn’t manage to pull it off. Cindy Robinson as Sheila was a bit more enjoyable and I enjoyed the very obvious snark in her voice when I heard the lines coming from Sheila.  

Extras

            Really, what was the point of putting a ‘special features’ button on the first disc just to tell the audience that the extras are on disc 2? Besides that, the only extra on this volume is an interview with the creator Keita Amemiya. The interview is about 11 minutes long and covers some his thoughts on the series itself, how it differs from the original TV version, why he created the series in the first place and more. Also included on this volume are clean animations.

Overall

            While it was fascinating to see what would happen if Miyazaki and Tim Burton got together for an anime title, there are just too many things that bother me about this series. Arusu is one of the least likeable heroines I’ve come across in a long time, the story is drawn out and really felt like it went nowhere within the first seven episodes and despite all the plot hooks that they are dangling in front of me, none of them make me want to pick up the second volume. While younger members of the viewing audience might get into this fantasy title a bit more, I think anyone else is going to find themselves bored and wanting to smack Arusu upside the head just as much as I did. Pass on this one and save your money for something else.

Final Grade: 70% – C

Intro

            Should I be worried about how much of myself I saw in these characters?

The Story

            It’s the first day of college for closet otaku Sasahara and it’s time for him to make one of the most important decisions of his college career: which after school clubs to join. Enter Genshiken: the Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture. In the first episode, Sasahara tries to come to grips with being an otaku while another member, Kohsaka, is dealing with a girlfriend that he doesn’t realize he has.

            Over the next three episodes though, Genshiken will go to new lengths to heighten their otaku level with trips to Akihabara, Harajuku, their first female member and conventions. Outside of the club though, Saki learns time and time again what it’s really like to date an otaku until the two worlds collide and she’s presented with the idea of doing cosplay.

Good and the Bad

            So many things stood out with this title during the first four episodes. The character design isn’t fabulous but it isn’t bad by any stretch. I really liked how none of the characters had super, incredible anime features. Everything about the characters were shown as just average and typical and that’s really how it is with so many aspects of this series and its characters. Saki is interesting as the outsider looking in, Kohsaka filled the bishie role well, and Sasahara was drawn scarily similar to more than a few otaku that I’ve encountered in my life.

            The writing and story in this series really caught me off guard. I was aware before I started that this was a parody anime that was going to target otaku. I’ve watched parody anime, of course, but I’ve never watched a series where otaku are the primary target. It’s kind of weird to see an anime about the subculture that I belong to. I wasn’t sure if I should be proud or not that I recognized so many of the references and saw so much of myself in so many of these characters.      

Other aspects of this volume stood up well to scrutiny. The animation is very crisp with very bright colors and backgrounds. The pacing is fairly well done with every episode moving at a decent pace that never feels like its dragging. The primary issue I have with the story so far though is that it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. While it’s still early and the audience is given some plot hooks to get them interested in the second volume.

            The plot hooks that the audience have been given aren’t very strong either. With the two primary hooks being the slow transformation of Saki which is hinted at in this volume and the introduction of Kanaka as a possible relationship story later in the series, I just don’t know if either of those two stories would be strong enough to carry the series.

            The simplist touch that stood out for me though is the closing of each episode. I like how every episode ends with a slightly different closing animation that reflects what happened in the episode and I loved seeing the little bonus jokes at the end of the ending credits.

            The most innovative touch of this series though is easily the series within the series. All of the Genshiken members are fan of a certain series titled ‘Kujubiki Unbalance’ and so the series is filled with little clips from this ‘series within a series’. I thought that this was a really clever touch and I was really glad to see the staff throw that in.

Music

            I really liked the opening and ending themes to this song but the background music to this series really managed to keep itself there and not stand out at all. Thinking back on my viewing, I really can’t think of any particular scenes where the music really stood out and made me notice it. While this can be good or bad, in this case I really think that stronger background music would have done this series some good.         

Dub vs. Sub

            The dub cast is filled with familiar and unfamiliar names alike. Sasahara is played well by Michael Perreca while Carol Jacobanis does a great job with Saki. Other familiar names in the cast include Rachel Lillis as Ohno. I also think that it was great that the anime within the anime got its own dub cast as well complete with Veronica Taylor playing Tokino, Angora Deb as Kamishakujii and Lisa Ortiz as Yamada.

            Both the dub and sub tracks were performed very well and while I did find myself enjoying the Japanese track more, I didn’t hear any sort of issues with the dub cast that made me dislike any of their performances.

Extras

            This volume is loaded with quite a few extras worth noting, not the least of which is a special episode of ‘Kujubiki Unbalance’ for fans to enjoy. As I mentioned above, I love that the staff went far enough to create episodes of this series to show the audience. I’ll admit that this was also a treat because from what I saw while viewing this volume, ‘Kujubiki Unblance’ didn’t look like that bad of a series if not a little tongue in cheek with it’s subject matter.

            Two other extras on this volume that fans will want to check out include a special panel that took place in 2004 featuring Tokino Akiyama (Akemi Kanda) and Saeko Chiba (Ritsuko Kettenkrad) in which they talk about their characters from the series. Also included is a live performance from Japanese pop band UNDER17.

            Other extras on this volume for fans to check out include clean animations and an original Japanese commercial.

Overall

            “Wow… do I sound like that?” That was the first thing that came into my mind as I watched the first episode. To be perfectly honest though, by the time I got to the end of the second episode I wasn’t sure that I could continue with it. Luckily by the time I reached the end of the first volume I was enjoying it a bit more but I never really laughed. While the comedy in this series is good and the characters are believably average, there is very little in this series that I can really say hooked me in and made me excited to see more. While this series remains to have a strong fan following amongst many in the anime community, I’ve still yet to be convinced of how wonderful it is. Hardcore anime fans will certainly enjoy at least one viewing of this series but until I see more I don’t see it having a lot of replay value with me. Recommended but more as a rainy day series unless you’re a collector.

Final Grade: 80% – B