Finals Week!

So I've been pretty busy these past few weeks with work and finals, but I think it'd be good to show you guys my DFP Final.

It's very tongue-in-cheek, but here's a link:

Treasures of the Cinema - Episode 83: 83 Minutes in Hell

I'll post new reviews soon!

Krennthief

Waiting in the Summer Review

Waiting In the Summer (Ano Natsu de Matteru) Review

Ah… Ever reminisced about those lovely summer days you spent with your friends? Maybe you made a shoddy amateur film... Maybe you went to the beach… Maybe you encountered a humanoid alien…

What? You’ve never encountered an alien during summer break? Jeez, you’re missing out, because the kids in this series did! And man, was it quite engaging.

I honestly don’t think friends would sit like this unless they were filming an opening sequence to a series… Oh, wait! Oh, yeah, there are *SPOILERS*.

Animation/Art: 9/10

The art is very appealing and contemporary, and looks especially good when your iPod decides to stream high-quality video instead of obviously compressed video. Anyway, I felt that everything about the character designs were memorable, from the wavy-haired, bespectacled Kaito to the tiny, genre-savvy upper-classman, Lemon/Remon. Each of the six individual characters were designed with so many discrepancies that it is difficult to really mix them up, even if you do forget their names.

Although rain can be dreary, something about this seems more relaxing than depressing.

The backgrounds were breathtaking. Every colour was vivid and bright, and the settings looked very realistic, as well as fantastical. This series takes place in Kitakami, Iwate, and from the looks of things, it is absolutely gorgeous. Weather also plays a major role in this series’ aesthetic, and when it rained, it POURED (I’m looking at you, Morton), and being an Arizonan, it was absolutely wonderful. There didn’t seem to be as many computer-generated lights in this series like in Tari Tari, but the colours used to simulate lighting were perfect. The show was just a visual pleasure, and another thing to note is the exaggerated colour used for imagine spots, which separated the more natural colours of the series from the hyper-realistic colours of the imaginations of the characters.

They even simulated real Super-8 film! It’s pretty cool.

I personally think that, the newer and more high-definition a series looks, the better the animation, but this isn’t necessarily always true. In this series' case, however, it is very true, and one can see the difference when (and if) the definition fluctuates between high and low while watching on an iPod.

There wasn’t a moment when the animation seemed unintentionally choppy, and more often than not, I was amazed at how fluid and gorgeous everything looked. The characters were full of life, as well as the backgrounds, which might sound weird, but when you think about it, a good background can make something look that much better than a bad one.

Characters: 8/10

There were six characters the series focused on, with Kaito and Ichika (Senpai) being the primary focuses, as their romance was what the series was basically about.

Kaito Kirishima – If you’re an attractive female alien, watch out for his camera.

Kaito Kirishima – Obviously, he’s got a thing for filming. In fact, he inherited it from his grandfather from another series that came before this. That’s some pretty cool continuation, if you ask me (but I’m such a picky anime person that I don’t know if I’d actually watch Onegai Teacher or Onegai Twins). He and his friends are thinking about filming a movie over their summer break.

Kaito is a pleasant young guy whose parents died a while back, so his sister takes care of him. But this doesn’t get in the way of him having friends, or even finding the love of his teenage years (I don’t know about his life, but whatever—it’s anime).

Not much can really be said about this character except that he’s the kind of protagonist most viewers would possibly see themselves as (except for the whole “dead parents” situation).

Although I generally dislike characters such as these (because they are so common in crappy slice-of-the-life), there was this realistic substance he had as a character that really made him a likeable character for me. He’s into film, too, which is kind of cool to see, because anime protagonists don’t tend to be involved in one particular subject from what I’ve seen.

Kaito is a part of the craziest love polygon I’ve seen so far that actually works in an understandable way, because he’s in love with Ichika and is loved by Kaori, who is admired by Tetsuro who is admired by Mio. Teenagers.

Ichika Takatsuki – It’s easier to just call her “Senpai.”

Ichika Takatsuki – “Senpai” is Kaito’s designated romantic interest in this series, and is also a Martian Girl from Planet V (Aquabats, anyone?). She accidentally kind of kills Kaito in the first episode, but heals him and eventually ends up living with him over the summer. She is the main character in the movie Kaito and his friends are filming, and ends up as Kaito’s girlfriend in the end.

Ichika honestly did not appeal much to me in the beginning of the series because of her height compared to Kaito, as well as her informed beauty (I really didn’t think she was as beautiful as everyone made her out to be), but in time, I found to think of her as a very appropriate and sweet match for Kaito. She’s a loving and caring individual who makes friends with all of Kaito’s friends, and actually reveals to them that she is an alien, which really doesn’t surprise any of them.

She’s got this weird alien machine creature thing (Rinon) that I think is her guidance system for her broken spaceship. Don’t quote me on that. Also, Rinon as a weird/cute creature thing is something you’d expect out of an anime, but it’s not nearly as obnoxious as a few others because it doesn’t talk. It does, however, say “NAAAAWWW” all the time. I ignored it.

This is what Rinon looks like.

Anyway, Kaito and Ichika’s romance is interesting to watch unfold, surprisingly, and I was very happy when they finally got together in the end. I also thought it was cute to see her come back after her planet’s search team brought her back practically against her will. Good stuff. Good spoilers.

Kaori Kinoshita – You can forget her name, but you'll remember her character—that’s the kind of person she is.

Kaori Kinoshita – When a girl reminds me of Eponine from Les Misérables, I think I automatically find her to be endearing, especially when she’s mostly well done, like in this series.

So Kaori is “in love” with Kaito because, on the first day she saw him—when he first transferred to her school—she noticed that, despite him only recently losing his parents, he showed that he was strong by smiling as best as he could. She loves him so much, but is devastated over the fact that she can never have him, hence my connection of her and Eponine.

Now, the biggest difference between Kaori and Eponine is that Kaori doesn’t die. In fact, nobody dies in this series. Another big difference is that Kaori is kind of angsty quite often, and I found her to be annoying the second time she reluctantly lectured Ichika about showing her true feelings to Kaito.

Other than that, though, she’s been childhood friends with Tetsuro, who is later revealed to actually be in love with her. God, teenagers.

Tetsuro Ishigaki – Older than he looks, but still believably a teenager.

Tetsuro Ishigaki – This guy seems like a really cool and close friend of Kaito’s. He even goes out of his way to incite Ichika and Kaito’s blooming romance. This may seem like a jerk move to Kaori, who likes Kaito, but we later learn that he does this so that Kaori is available.

This guy is a very interesting individual, because he is kind, yet teasing to the girls. He seems to have a thing for Mio at first, but later on it is obvious that he is in love with Kaori. He also comes off as a ladies’ man, but has trouble with girls he isn’t comfortable with.

It was bittersweet to see that he liked Kaori instead of Mio, because I liked Mio, too, but he doesn’t seem to really make up his mind and asks Mio out to the movies in a high-speed chase between him and an alien ship. Whether or not he was being serious, trying to take her mind off of the crazy matter at hand, or a combination of both is ambiguous, but it doesn’t make him any less interesting.

Mio Kitahara – A regular Mikuru Asahina... But with a twist…

Mio Kitahara – Your standard moé character is actually a nudist.

Or, at least she is at home.

She was apparently raised as a nudist, but she learned it wasn’t exactly socially acceptable, so she’s been trying to hide it. It’s kind of tragic, actually, when we learn about this, and she ends up confessing to Tetsuro that she likes him after he says that even if she told her friends about this problem, they wouldn’t mind, and they’d help her through it.

She’s very “cute” and proper despite this lifestyle she was brought into, and all she wants is for Tetsuro to like her back. She never really gets the best resolution, because what happens beyond the finale of the series is not shown. I do wish the best for her, but I don’t think I’ll ever know, unless a new series is released and addresses this matter (but by then, it’ll probably be irrelevant in more ways than one).

Lemon/Remon Yamano – Call her what you will, but anything she says to the others in this series kind of puts a sour taste in their mouths. It's punny.

Lemon/Remon Yamano – A troll is a troll, no matter what you say. This girl is definitely one, and she is so genre savvy that she knows pretty much everything about all of the other characters, plus she expects what will happen to them as the series progresses—we see what she knows in the screenplay she has written for the group’s film. Her name was subtitled as "Remon," too, but I think "Lemon" is more appropriate for her actions.

She also makes them all drink some alcoholic beverage called “Dynamite Drink,” resulting in an embarrassing photograph:

‘Course she’s drunk. What does she look like, a high school student? HA HA HA HA

Lemon/Remon remains mysterious throughout the entire series, but eventually turns out to be the leader of the Men in Black, somehow. This is cool beyond belief, and I appreciate the strangeness of this character all the more because of this revelation.

Good work, you beautiful people in the Land of the Rising Sun.

Music: 8.5/10

I really liked the music for this series, so much so that I found it online and listened to it repeatedly. There is a lot of emotion in the background music, and all of it is appropriately placed throughout the scenes that take place in the series.

I even found the opening and ending songs to be really nice, although not exactly memorable.

I’ve Sound (not a typo; that's the group's real name) and Iuchi Maiko have made their way into my brain as anime composers to remember! Check out the soundtrack on YouTube, or something, if you like, because it’s pretty good!

Why am I showing you this picture? Because Men in Black. Duh.

Story/Execution: 8/10

There have only been a few serious romantic series I’ve watched in my day, but I’ve got to say that this one was very well done. It explored the real-life idea of falling in love with someone who has been your best friend for a long time, as well as the idea of somebody new who gets in the way of you trying to win over your crush.

Watching this reminded me of E.T. a lot (even if I haven’t seen it since I was, like, three), and obviously, friendship was a huge part of this series, besides the romance. My favourite part was when Ichika revealed to all of her friends that she was an alien, but all of them accepted her as their friend, anyway. That’s some real friendship, there.

This is bad news.

The love polygon in this series was pretty entertaining, as well, because the characters were all likeable, they got into all kinds of interesting situations, and they all remained good friends to the end. The drama between all of them was pretty realistic, as far as I could tell (save for the fact that Ichika’s an alien), and all in all, I just really like this series.

Such a cinematic scene.

Of course, it had its humour, but I feel like this was more of a romantic series at its core. I do wish there was more of a resolution for Tetsuro, Mio, and Kaori’s romantic pursuits, and I think this is what gives this series some fault. But despite this, I liked it a lot.

Overall: 8.5/10

I feel like I don’t exactly know what to say about this series except that I liked it a lot. It’s not necessarily bad that I don’t know what to say, but I can’t say that this series is the best in the world. It’s definitely one of the best ones I’ve reviewed, so far, up there with Usagi Drop in terms of my caring potential for anime characters, so that’s good.

Anyway, let everyone you know in on my little review website! I’ve got some films to review, and I hope I get them out soon, because I promised to have a review for Dr. Strangelove a while ago, and I saw it last week…

Anyway, thanks for reading, and spread the word!

Goodnight.

The World God Only Knows Review

The World God Only Knows Review

This one will be quick because I watched it very quickly. I found it to be really entertaining, but it was one of those formulaic, episodic series that I usually stay away from because they tend to go on FOREVER. But this one just started, and I honestly didn’t know that the third season is underway until today.

Jeez, time flies. But I also finished a series right after my last review. HELL YEAH

Time to eat. Good thing the FOOD HASN’T *SPOILERED* HAR HAR HAR

Animation/Art: 8/10

While the character design is actually pretty outstanding, the animation is definitely (and unfortunately) above average. It really isn’t “WHOA MAH GED DEM ANIME PEOPLE MOVE LIKE UHAULLLL” worthy, but an honorary mention should at least go to the studio, because they used animation that fit with the characters’ personality (i.e. body language was pretty good).

Background characters tended to be animated some of the time, but you can see that some scenes are still… Well, animation stills (geddit?). Like those big old crowd establishing shots? Not animated.

I’ve gotta hand it to them, though. The colours are vivid, the animation (on the characters that move, of course) is pretty telling of their emotions, and the character designs were excellent, save for a few others… I’m looking at you, Background Character Girl.

Meh. You did have one of the better storylines, in my opinion, so you’ve got that going for you.

Characters: 7.5/10

Okay, so there are loads of characters. Most of them are girls. So I’m just going to go over the two main characters, and then give you an overview of the girls:

Keima Katsuragi – He’s a douchebag. But you might like him, anyway.

Keima Katsuragi – What’s a formulaic anime series without the “standard male protagonist”? Well, it can be a lot of things. It can be a farce on all of the stereotypes you see in plenty of harem anime, or it can actually become the stereotype itself and become something else entirely. But I digress.

Keima is an avid dating simulator player. He is very cynical of the real world, and prefers the fake world of his games. However, when Elsie (we’ll get to her later) arrives, he is bound by a contract to basically do what he’s been doing all along in his gal-games—attract girls! This is actually very off-putting to him, however, and he claims that he does not care for real girls, because they are not “ideal.”

According to Elsie, though, if he doesn’t abide by the contract, he will die, and so will she.

Keima is kind of a big jerk throughout most of the series (that means both of the season of the anime that I watched), but he has plenty of moments to redeem him as an interesting and vaguely moral character. Basically, he genuinely wants to help these girls who are possessed (sort of) by evil demonic spirits, which is really redeeming in anyone’s book, most likely.

Other than that, he spends most of the time in an episode doing the impossible while playing his PFP (PSP knockoff thing), gives Elsie advice on “conquering” a girl, and is mercilessly beaten by a new catch of the day. All in all, that’s pretty dang interesting, but I don’t think he would be quite as interesting if it wasn’t for Elsie to contrast with his personality.

Elsea de Lute Irma – Whoever thought a demon could be this cute? Probably half of the writing staff. And the animators. And stuffffffvvvv

Elsea de Lute Irma (AKA “Elsie”) – I kinda forgot why she appeared, but I really don’t wanna bother with looking it up again. Don’t get me wrong, though—I think Elsie’s adorable and great in this series—I’m just not motivated to really check out the first episode again.

Anyway, Elsie’s a demon from Hell. Not the kind of demon you’d really expect, but apparently, this is what Hell has come to. Adorable, archetypal female humanoids with classy boas that apparently allow for magical abilities have taken over Hell.

Thank you, Japan, for this profound scenario.

Anyway, she’s the ditzy, adorable, moé magical girl. Thing. Demon. Whatever. And she is bound by the contract she made with Keima to release the “Loose Souls” that have escaped form Hell and have entered the bodies of the girls at Keima’s school.

Despite all of these strange circumstances she falls into, she is another one of my now-favourite moé characters in an anime. I mean, what’s a classy character without a classy catch phrase?

I rest my case.

Oh, and her other demon friend came over to the house and remixed it.

The girls that Keima and Elsie go after all surprisingly have a lot of depth for one- to four-episode story arcs. Who can forget good ol’ Track Star Girl? Or Library Chica? Or That One Girl Who Was All Boring but Ended Up Being the Most Dynamic Girl?

Ah, Japan. I can never remember your characters’ names.

Oh! How could I have forgotten Japanese Pride Girl (AKA Idol Woman)?

Music: 7/10

Okay, so I kind of didn’t like the opening or ending songs for either season of the series, so that’s a good place to start. Also, I don’t want it in my head, but the opening song is there, and it’s annoying.

I don’t know what it is with me, but I just don’t care for opening or ending songs. There are exceptions, of course, but there are so many of these rather uninteresting songs that play during these (either good or bad) opening sequences.

Aside from that, the background music for season one was forgettable, but I’m sure it’s still good music. The background music for season two was actually much more appealing to my tastes, and I have got to say that it is probably one of the only things that brought the rating up to a seven.

This picture makes up for the music being just okay for me, dawg.

Story/Execution 7/10

This series is, as I’ve said before, considerably formulaic; arc begins, emphasis on a particular girl is given, girl is discovered to be unwillingly harboring a Loose Soul, Keima charms girl with his knowledge of dating sims, kisses the girl, releases the Loose Soul, Elsie catches it, girl’s memories are erased, and we see the girl is much better, now. The arcs do vary sometimes, but this is the basic formula for the series as a whole.

What makes this show succeed, in my book, are the characters and the humour they create in their interactions with each other. Not only that, but I really liked pretty much all of the characters to some degree.

The story arcs were pretty interesting, and each arc presented Keima with an opportunity to develop his own character, which usually happened. The development was very subtle, and probably not significant, but his cynicism seems to reduce by, like, 10%, by the end of the two seasons. That’s not a lot, but maybe, if this series goes on for any longer, he will end up changing completely.

Since this is a much quicker review, I won’t go into too much detail, but I can tell you that the comedy is where it’s at, and this series was full of wonderful laughs.

This would make sense in context to the actual series. I swear it’s funny.

Overall: 7/10

While I can’t say I’ll hold this anime close to my heart as one of my favourites, I can safely say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. I could call this one a “guilty pleasure” because I usually don’t watch ongoing series (like this one is potentially turning out to be), and I’ll gladly continue watching it, because I really like what I’ve seen so far.

If you haven’t seen this series yet, check it out on Crunchyroll for free! I mean, it’s freaking high quality and everything!

Hmmmyessss….

Tari Tari Review!

Tari Tari Review

Okay! So I finished this one a few nights ago, and I found it to be very relatable to my life in high school. It was endearing and sweet, and reminded me of my choir class (even though we had waaaay more people than just five, and it wasn’t a school club, but an actual class). So let’s take a look at the Summer 2012 slice-of-the-life anime series, Tari Tari!

Since this is slice-of-the-life, it’s not gonna be a problem if I present you with SPOILERS.

Animation/Art: 9/10

First of all, wow. I mean, this series looks gorgeous. From the stunning backdrops of the countryside to the lively setting of the urban locations, the backgrounds look lush and creative. Have you ever seen dramatic lighting in an anime series, using artificial, computer-generated light? Well, if it isn’t new, then this series uses it phenomenally. I never thought light could factor into a slice-of-the-life series, but man, it’s amazing.

Dat lighting and dat art dat works wit it.

The opening song showcases the highlights of the series’ animation (because most of what you see in this opening is pretty much in the same style of animation as the series itself), and you can see how freaking fluid everything is. One thing that did bug me, though, was the ending animation, which seemed to be overly animated—maybe even rotoscoped—and every character had a Stepford Smile on his or her face, resulting in an ultimate Uncanny Valley effect on me…

Despite that, the characters were likably designed, and for once, it wasn’t weird-looking when the characters sang (because their mouth movements matched the sounds their voices made).

Watching this series was a pleasure because the visuals were spectacular. Personally, I want to become good at lighting design, and this anime made my ambitious little heart drool in envy, yet gush in admiration.

Characters: 9/10

The beauty of this series is that the perspective fluctuates between all five members of the Choir Club and Sometimes Badminton Club (that is pretty much their actual name) enough to reveal enough about all of them. What I like most about it, though is that it subtly hints about how Wakana (the quiet, kinda green-haired girl) is slightly more major than the other characters. Overall, the characters are all wonderful in their own respects.

Wakana Sakai – Quiet, reserved, and oh-so awesome of a character.

Wakana Sakai – As I said, Wakana is the quiet, kinda green-haired girl. Her mother died from some disease that was and never is mentioned a few years prior to the beginning of the series. Wakana’s mom was a very musically inclined woman, and Wakana herself has inherited this talent. However, her mother was a very liberated and creative woman, and Wakana herself is having trouble finding this musical epiphany. Also, after her mother died, she decided to not have anything to do with music ever again.

She is, however, nearly forced to “join” the Choir Club that not Shigeru Miyamoto, but Konatsu Miyamoto, starts, and becomes the accompanist in the beginning. As the series continues, Wakana begins to connect with music again, and finally comes to terms with her beloved mother’s death. Her character development during Tari Tari is one of my favourite parts of the series, and I think she had the perfect amount of screen time for her storyline. Not too much or too little.

She sings in a high, high soprano voice, too. I think.

Konatsu Miyamoto – What’s a high school, slice-of-the-life anime series without its genki-girl club president?

Konatsu Miyamoto – At first, I thought she was going to be the main, MAIN character, but she ended up being more minor than Wakana. You see, the main plotline of the series begins when she starts her own Choir Club in retaliation to the actual choir class instructor being so strict and unfun.

She’s a fun character herself, but she does come off as rude and annoying at times. Thankfully, it is seemingly downplayed by her cheerfulness and her caring demeanor, as well as the lesser amount of focus she gets in the series than I expected—if she were to get more focus, I think I wouldn’t like her as much as I found I did—so I found Konatsu to be a pretty enjoyable character. Plus, she’s the melodic soprano (my terminology sucks, but oh, well), so you’ve gotta root for her. Right?

Also, did anyone else think of Shigeru Miyamoto the very moment you heard her name? Or am I just too much of a Nintendo nerd…? XD

Sawa Okita – Subtle, yet sophisticated; sweet, yet teasing—I’m sure there are loads of girls who wish they could be as cool as her.

Sawa Okita – This girl is the resident “cool kid” of the Choir Club and Sometimes Badminton Club.

As you can see by the hat, she’s stylish.

Sawa is also an aspiring horse-jockey, a skilled archer, and is a talented alto. She may seem like your ordinary bishoujo, super-talented chicky-girl, but she also has some serious depth.

She is extremely passionate about horseback riding, and she has raised and cared for her horse ever since she got it. There is a whole arc about how her height and weight keeps her from being accepted at a school for her desired career. She is somebody who cares immensely about her friends, especially Konatsu, as they have been friends for a long time, and seeing someone as cool and compassionate as her have her dreams shattered hits the viewer’s emotions hard, as well. You feel for this girl, because you’re rooting for her to do well.

She ends up moving to America at the end of the series to pursue her horse jockey dreams, and a very sweet, yet ambiguous scene is shared between her and the badminton guy, Taichi Tanaka.

Taichi Tanaka – Kyon-ish characters always make me smile. Plus, he’s a bass, like me.

Taichi Tanaka – Whoever thought badminton enthusiasts could be so endearing? His involvement in the series is rather minimal, unfortunately, but there were a lot of things I liked about this guy.

First of all, he reminded me a bit of Kyon from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya anime series, with a sort of sarcastic demeanor. Secondly, his characteristics were conventional in a way that the mere combination of them all made him unconventional. In other words, he’s like a real person.

Of course, this poor guy is kind of flat throughout the series, and I wish they could have given him a day in the limelight (other than his badminton episode, which didn’t really do his character justice).

He was pretty awesome in my book, though, because you see these subtle hints throughout the series that he develops a crush on Sawa, which seems pretty relatable to real life in how crushes begin. By the end, he confesses to Sawa as she leaves for America, but no dialogue is heard. You can tell he is confessing to her, but whatever she says is left to the viewers’ interpretation, so, although it is frustrating, I really like it. Did she say that she didn’t feel the same way, but that she really cares for him as a friend? Did she reciprocate the feelings, but turned him down because she was leaving with a somber smile?

I don’t think I’ll ever know, but the subtlety of this relationship made it all the more powerful in the end, and I liked it a lot.

Atsuhiro “Wien” Maeda – The Fez of the group—likeable in his own right for being the eccentric foreigner.

Atsuhiro “Wien” Maeda – If you don’t understand the “Wien” nickname, just know that he lived in Austria for a long time, and moved back to Japan (“Wien” is the German name of the capitol of Austria, and is considered the “City of Music.” A fitting name for our German-speaking Japanese friend).

Now this kid is awesome. He loves the Kinda Power Rangers, is hilariously taken advantage of for not being aware of Japanese figures of speech and terms, and is a real-life hero. Look me in the eye and tell me that isn’t awesome. Anyway, he is the tenor of the group, and he is very endearing because of his woobie status. At one point, the girls screw with his idea of this Japanese festival thing called the White Rhino Festival, or whatever, and he believes that, from what they’ve told him, that every year, a white rhino is released from the basement. He’s pretty dense.

The coolest part about Wien, though, is the strange friendship he and Taichi share. It reminded me so much of me and my guy friends in choir because we were all weird, but determined to get better at our craft, and all the time during this series, you’ll find Wien and Taichi trying the strangest things to better their vocalization. It’s entertainment gold, these hi-jinx. Hyerp-die-derp!

If this isn’t friendship... Actually, I don't really know what this is. BUT IT'S CHOCK-FULL O' FRIENDSHIP

The group itself seems to be a motley crew (HA HA IT’S FUNNY ‘CAUSE IT’S A BAND’S NAME, TOO), but their relationship as a club develops through the series, and the bond they form by the end is one to be fondly remembered in their futures. This wonderful assortment of characters sold the show to me because of the nostalgia I have for my own choir group.

Music: 7/10

I’ll admit that I am not a huge fan of vocal music in anime in general, but the recurring song they sing is pretty darn catchy, and also very pretty when you hear all of the choral parts. Other than that, the background music was very nice, but not very memorable, and the opening and ending theme songs were also catchy, but again, I skipped them whenever I could because I find opening and ending songs to be tedious (unless I absolutely love the song, like Welcome to the NHK’s “Puzzle” opening).

This picture is irrelevant, but I can’t help it when I mention one of my favourites.

Unfortunately, I just didn’t really care too much for the music in this series, which is a shame. It might be because I have a different taste in music altogether, though. Sure, they used their voices in a classical style, but something about their singing still felt artificial. The music was good, but it wasn’t amazing.

Don’t give me that look. At least you get to be with your horses.

Story/Execution: 8/10

Being a slice-of-the-life anime series about high school, the show is very episodic. The arcs span over several episodes each, and nearly every character gets a proper and organic moment of introduction.

The core story is simple: Konatsu is shunned by the choral instructor at her academy and is disgruntled because she “just wants to have fun and sing,” so she starts a club and recruits anyone she can find. Being a fan of the Haruhi Suzumiya series, I found this element to be a nice nod to the use of the trope in general, being that Konatsu is a very excitable and odd girl. (The guy:girl ratio is even the same as in Haruhi—Haruhi, Mikuru, and Yuki are girls, while Kyon and Koizumi are guys, and in Tari Tari, you’ve got three girls and two guys.)

You know this is awesome.

Anyway, you basically watch how the people Konatsu brings together form a tight friendship and you also see the hardships each of them endure, as individuals and a union. Konatsu has some issues with the vice principal, who is the choral instructor, and that is addressed. Taichi has trouble starting a badminton club of his own and Konatsu wants him to join because she heard him sing, so they battle over who gets the signatures required to start their own respetive legitimate club, and Konatsu wins, but is kind enough to start the club as the “Choir Club and Sometimes Badminton Club,” or something along those lines.

Sawa is introduced as this cool character, but then is given more depth through her arc about the horse jockey school rejecting her, and how she tries to get through it.

Wien is introduced as the fish-out-of-water naïve foreigner, and turns out to have made a good friend back in Austria through his Power Rangers show thing, and aspires to be a hero or role model for kids in any way he can.

And, of course, Wakana comes off as the shy girl who has trouble talking to others, but is revealed to have had a very tough past few years, and we’ve only caught her in the middle of her hardship. Dealing with her mother’s death was a very significant part of the overall story, and you can see how much pain she goes through after realizing how bitterly she acted to her mother in her final days. The vice principal also plays a very big role as her mother’s old high school friend, having written the series’ most important song with her back then. Both come to terms with Wakana’s mother’s death, and end up developing as strong and engaging characters.

Overall: 9/10

YEAH EVERYBODY WE DID A GOOD JOBBBBBBBB

This series has so much heart and so much that connected to my own life that I had to love it. It had wonderful characters and a great “last hurrah” story to go with it. The animation and catchy songs only emphasized how good this series was, even if a lot of the music was forgettable. I like to think of the music as being replaced with the songs I sang as a senior in choir during high school, though, so it all works out for me.

Although those days are over, I know I’ll be able to look back on them fondly, and Tari Tari reminded me of that. Thanks for reading, and look forward for more film and anime reviews to come!

Krennthief

Drops of Crust! (AKA I'm A Flake Sometimes!)

So I've been thinking about it, and I haven't felt like doing a review for The Godfather... I loved the movie, don't get me wrong, but I feel as if I'm done with it, having used it for a school assignment and all.

So I'll be continuing as usual with, most likely, an anime review, and I might get back to film reviews! I'll be watching Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb next, and I'll probably bust out a review for the incredibly surprisingly pleasing anime series Tari Tari!

Anyway, I'll stop being so deliciously buttery and flaky soon! I've just had other things going on, and I honestly didn't feel like doing a review for a while, but I'll definitely get back on track!

Krennthief

Upcoming Review!

I finished watching The Godfather a few nights ago, and it was great! I read the script before I watched it, though, so I honestly felt unsatisfied after I watched it...

The movie was superb, don't get me wrong! The acting was phenomenal, the soundtrack was beautiful, and the writing was fantastic! When it came to the cinematography, though, the approach was different from what I expected... It wasn't disappointing in the least, I assure you! But it was very different from what I expected!

I'll elaborate in my review, so I'll get to it, soon. I need to think about all of the things about the film I liked, and all of the things I thought that could have been better!

Krennthief

Anime Review - Listen to Me, Girls, I'm Your Father!

Listen to Me, Girls, I’m Your Father!

I’ve come up with a system for reviewing, now! But for anime, I think I should at least try to be consistent when I watch a whole series, especially such a short one. What I mean to say, is, I should watch it all in a good amount of time to bust out a good review with all of my opinions fresh in my mind of all of the episodes. So here we go!

Oh, and as usual, there will be **SPOILERS**, so if you plan on watching the series, don’t read this (unless you don’t mind spoilers).

Little girls don’t care about no spoilers.

Animation/Art: 7/10

Although the art was pretty standard, most of the scenes have something or someone animated in it. I mean, it’s nothing special, but it does look good for what it is. Obviously, as you’ve seen, the little girl is adorable, indeed, but I feel like the character designer made the older girls, like the ten-year-old and the fourteen-year-old, to be overly exploited as fanservice girls. There are countless scenes in the anime that try to emphasize that these girls are attractive, but it’s very off-putting when they’re so young.

Good thing I found a nice, safe picture of the girls. Believe me, there is some pretty inappropriate official artwork…

I learned through TV Tropes and some research that legal consent laws in Japan are different than they are over here in the States, though, so it’s definitely a cultural discrepancy here that I cannot wrap my brain around, but a ten-year-old is still a minor… Anyway, what I’m getting at is that the art direction tends to be slightly disturbing in the sense of treating depictions of characters who are underage to be sensual. But that’s harem anime, for you, sometimes (or most of the time)… Either way, it’s off-putting for me, but I’m sure some other guy would be fine with it…

Despite this, the characters are all appropriately designed for their personalities, from the eldest girl with unrequited love problems for her uncle (not related by blood, thankfully) to the offensively bland uncle-main-character-guy and his dense and dull personality, to the hilariously stoic and serious college girl the main character likes, and so on and so forth—you get the picture. You also get a picture:

Of course, it contains fanservice. Try to find a picture of this girl that doesn’t.

Still, despite the crazy fanservice this series has, the character designs fit, and most of the animation wasn’t left to be stark and devoid of motion, thankfully. You see a lot of anime series, especially slice-of-the-life anime, that all use pretty much the same standard non-moving, horrendously still-image of background characters or events taking place, often used to establish location, the mood of a scene, or even both. This series is so animated that even extras have moving faces and dialogue, so props to the animators for being thorough.

Characters: 5/10

Instead of having a voice-acting section, having a character section would work a lot more nicely, so I’ve taken the liberty to do so. And there is a lot to say.

So, if you’re familiar with anime, then you probably know (virtually) about the only two types of male protagonists: the cynical jerk who may or may not be a pervert, and the overly innocent, dense, optimistic, and above all things, dull guy, who may or may not be a pervert (which may or may not be on accident on the character’s part).

The protagonist, Yuuta Segawa, is the latter of the above-mentioned male protagonist types. He is a well intentioned, yet definitively boring guy who makes a very risky decision in taking his orphaned nieces in under his care, and gets into hi-jinx involving him accidentally seeing his nieces changing. Nearly on a regular basis. Although a good guy with impulsive decisions, I felt like he was a very flat and uninteresting character, so much so that, right after watching the entire series, I still had to look up his name so I could get it right in this review. That’s sad.

This is the face of someone who is forgettable. It is also the face of pretty much every protagonist in a harem anime or harem visual novel.

I did, however, like a few things he did, and a few of the things he stood for. For instance, his sister had taken him under her wing after their parents died, so when she dies, along with her husband, he follows in her footsteps and takes her girls under his wing. That’s impulsive, and even daft, but it makes for a strong character. The problem with him, though, is that, no matter how strong and stubborn he is made out to be, aside from specific moments in the series, I am not convinced that he is. Yuuta displays a very sweet and tender affection to his nieces, but it’s kind of boring how bland and generic he seems.

The Girls, or Yuuta’s nieces, are actually quite interesting in contrast, and probably for good reasons, as they are almost the main focus of the series, as well, even though Yuuta is the one most viewers would, by an assumption, connect with.

From left to right: Sora, Hina, and Miu. Please note this is an “eye-catch,” and not an image of what the series is about.

Sora and Miu are both from two separate mothers, and Hina’s mother is Yuuta’s sister, justifying all of their genetic differences.

(There was no adultery involved, so don’t worry.)

Sora is the girl with a crush on her step-uncle, Yuuta (which, for once in an anime I’ve seen, actually makes sense and isn’t disturbing at all), and her character is interesting for a multitude of reasons, including this fact. She is what I’d like to refer to as a moé-playing-tsundere, a character archetype I’m coming across more frequently in anime, nowadays. This is basically when a rather cutesy/innocent girl plays hard-to-get on one person she likes, for those of you unfamiliar with those terms.

She must have been watching a lot of Haruhi.

I generally like characters like this, and Sora is no exception, but I feel like she didn’t really “play her part” as truly as she could have (or should have). Usually, when there is a romance such as hers, especially when her love interest has become an adoptive father figure to her, a very important and sometimes life-changing conflict arises. No such conflict occurs in the series, even when Yuuta makes some very shocking decisions and declarations, right in front of her face.

For example, at the very end of the series, Yuuta asks his college romantic interest (a girl named Raika) to “be his wife.” Sora is given a small reaction shot after the declaration, but that’s all we see. Something like that should have snapped something inside of her, and the animators should have shown some sort of earth-shattering look of horror on her face, but they didn’t. Even as Yuuta, the college girl, Miu, and Sora watch Hina’s daycare performance, she almost playfully grabs Yuuta’s arm to “protect” him from the college girl, but the motivation for the gesture seems very off, and even out-of-character. Honestly, a whole episode after the final episode, demonstrating any of this happening to Sora psychologically would have satisfied me, but there was no such thing, as far as I know.

Hina is Yuuta’s adorable, blood-related, three-year-old niece. She is the embodiment of the innocence and life of a dandelion seed floating happily through the wind, and all of the characters, in-universe, also find her to be utterly adorable. In essence, she is a modern, Japanese, three-year-old Pollyanna.

Good. Now go eat that somewhere else while I criticize you.

One thing I hated, though, was the recurring use of the song, “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” which I’ll get to later, but for relevance’s sake, Hina sang it the most, so this is the only reason why I would need to shut her up every once in a while.

Miu is the middle-child of the nieces, and seems to be one type of character, but then she seems to be another type of a character, and then she seems to be something else, entirely. I have a feeling that she is one of the main fanservice girls (besides Raika), she is the most ambiguously flirtatious and teasing to pretty much everyone (so one can imagine why she’s popular with the boys at her school), and she is too much of “the perfect girl” that something just seems wrong with her.

Oh, and she had just polished that shoe.

Oh, right, there is.

Miu is such a poorly presented character, in my opinion, because she doesn’t really seem to act like a sister to the other two girls—she seems more like a confiding best friend to Sora—she seems like a very flat character whose only personality is a façade, and she ultimately doesn’t seem to develop anything with her personality, as very little is revealed. She is basically a pretty doll I could care less about.

She does have her moment in the limelight when she goes on a “date” with one of Yuuta’s friends, and it is revealed that she doesn’t want her classmates to worry about her because of her difficult, now parent-less lifestyle, and that she’s worried about Yuuta, who is very busy.

And that’s about it. She is a character who could have been more fleshed-out, and could have had more of a personality to relate to, rather than the stereotypical “good girl with good grades who is good at sports.” I honestly see too much of that.

Raika was probably my favourite character in terms of unique and interesting individuals in the series. She doesn’t have nearly as much screen time as the girls, but every time she is on the screen, I expect hilarity to ensue.

Raika actually says “Stare” when she awkwardly and emotionlessly stares at you.

Hilarity always ensues when Raika is on the scene. She is a god-awful actress, shows little-to-no emotions, and likes cute girls. Not in a dirty way, though, you sick fool, you. It’s a big sister instinct, from what I’ve gathered while watching this series. This stoic yet determined, supportive, and sweet young woman is my favourite choice when it comes to Yuuta’s romantic life.

Sora, jealous of Raika’s involvement in Yuuta’s life as a romantic interest, shows something other than character development for her relationship with Raika—Sora admires the buxom beauty and finds her to be very relatable, down-to-earth, and even funny, herself. Despite this, when it comes to Yuuta being close to Raika, Sora gets so territorial and possessive over him that it’s like she had never met Raika in the first place. So all of that character development I sat through seemed like it was pointless and irrelevant.

Overall, the cast was unmemorable, aside from a quirk, here and there, but Raika’s unforgettably strange personality took the cake for me. There’s also a guy who reminds me of Itsuki Koizumi from “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya” (and he’s voiced by the same guy, Daisuke Ono), a voice-actress chick who lives next door and is pretty cool, and a detestable, disgusting, and unfunny guy who is the president of the club Yuuta and Raika attend at their college. This guy likes little girls. In an unsettling, pedophilic way. I feel like this guy should never have existed in the first place because he isn’t a very good comic character, and he also could have been replaced by a less disturbing lolicon. You can look up that term, but don’t look at the images.

Anyway, most of the characters in this show were forgettable, besides a choice few.

Music: 4/10

While I admit the opening and ending songs were somewhat catchy, I skipped them after the first time I’d sat through them. I don’t think I really cared for the background soundtrack, either, because I feel like there was a maximum of twenty songs used throughout the entire series.

But oh, god.

Oh, god, the singing.

The singing of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” in English by four Japanese people who aren’t in any type of key or rhythm is bad. What makes this worse is that this happens almost every few episodes. I mean, we’re talking bad, here. I don’t care how important or unimportant it is to the storyline, because I had to watch it every single time, because I had no idea when it would stop. And then they sang it at the very end, for Hina’s daycare center’s performance. It makes sense, but it’s also something I’d rather not hear, just because it was so bad.

How I wonder why you do this so often.

The soundtrack music was forgettable, and the only truly memorable music from the anime was “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” which I could have done without.

Story/Execution: 6/10

While the concept is interesting, it seems more anime is beginning to be about adoptive parents who don’t seem like they’d fit the bill, but end up doing so, anyway. I don’t know if anyone is copying anyone in particular, but after watching Usagi Drop, I feel like this one was very shoddy and unoroginal.

There were so many anime clichés I’ve come to think of distasteful now because they’re so overused, and the humour that should come from them has basically run dry. Things like having the protagonist being prone to becoming an “accidental pervert,” having a major female lead feel overly self-conscious about her cup size, and having predictable hi-jinx in which Sora (AKA moé girl) becomes clumsy and ruins everything.

A montage of happy-looking moments. I couldn’t find pictures of them getting news of their parents’ deaths, though, so yeah.

Another thing that bothered me, too, was that, at the beginning of the series, I thought it was going to be happy, and that the girls’ parents were just going on a honeymoon. I jokingly said out loud to myself at that point, “It’d be funny if the parents in this really happy-go-lucky anime series died on the trip. But that wouldn’t happen, because that is like mood-rape. Ha ha ha.”

I’m a good guesser.

I mean, the mood shift is understandable—it makes the circumstances heavier with contrast, and it also evokes more emotion into the viewer, shocking them. I was shocked, too, because I honestly didn’t think my conjecture was the actual concept. That worked out fine for me.

The real problem that got to me was that the girls cried for about a minute, and then the next thing you know, they’re light-heartedly joking with their uncle on a trip to his apartment, where they will now live. Time may have elapsed between these events, but if this was the case, the directors didn’t give me a transition from the sad scene to the light-hearted scene. There should have been at least something in between to sort of soften the stark contrast between the scenes.

Mostly, this mood-whiplash approach actually works pretty well. But for some of the early episodes, it seems like they’re trying to completely forget what happened, or their parents aren’t actually dead, but are still on a trip (which is actually an excuse they give Hina). The feeling for this situation seems inconsistent, and it shouldn’t have been taken so lightly.

Another almost-pointless, irrelevant picture. Enjoy.

Thankfully, the death of their parents is grieved appropriately, but in the last episode. This is actually done spectacularly well, and the scene involves Sora having to tell Hina that their parents will never come back from their “trip.” Hina is understandably upset, and even furious, which is especially heart wrenching, given the optimistic and happy-go-lucky personality she has possessed for the entire series. Sora understands these emotions and holds Hina to her, like any good sister should. Everyone is sad in this part, and it is then that Yuuta goes to secretly pay respects to his sister’s grave, and Sora secretly follows. In the end, despite all of the sorrow, Yuuta and Sora cherish his late sister and her husband’s memory.

More stuff happens, but that’s basically what I felt should have been touched on, earlier. If I missed that this anime had its characters hold in those feelings for the whole series, then I’m really stupid, but I don’t know if that was the case…

Well, I generally liked the story and the messages it was trying to get across, like the importance of family sticking together, and that strength comes from hardship. The comedy was hit-and-miss, but overall, the series was entertaining. I guess I would recommend it to anyone interested in fanservice, little girls, and mood whiplash-y stories. There's also some good comedy here, too, but it's not amazing.

Overall: 6/10

You’re cute, but you’re not that cute. I think a six-out-of-ten is fine, so don’t cry.

Thank you for reading this long-winded article! Make sure you tell everyone you know about Tatami Room, and be sure to leave comments with your opinions, if you can!

Krennthief