Anime & Manga Teh CX Anime Review Thread

[Captain X]

Black Lagoon – Seasons 1 & 2
(24 episode series)

Put succinctly, this series is a valentine to action movies on both sides of the Pacific. Not a hold you down and have its way with you valentine like Star Trek: Enterprise's last episode, either, but something people who enjoy old action movies from the '80s and '90s would actually appreciate.

Now, just to be clear, this isn't exactly what I would normally consider "good" per say, but you might notice that it's still ranked fairly high on my favorites/recommendations list. Why? Because this series is fuckin' awesome, that's why. It's awesome the same way the movies RED and The Expendables are awesome. Shows like that don't try to sell themselves as anything other than mindless action, with plenty of explosions and fight scenes thrown in, but without being completely stupid. They wink and smile at what they are and have fun. That's what Black Lagoon does. It also references plenty of other cool action movies, which tells me that the people who made this movie are as big of film nerds as I am. Das Boot and Terminator 2 are probably the most obvious references, but there are a few others, along with some Japanese action schlock just to round everything out.

At the same time, this series is more than that. If I could directly compare this series to anything else, the closest I could come would be the short-lived series Firefly. It takes place on an old PT boat called the Black Lagoon, captained by an old war vet (or so we're led to believe), and crewed by misfits. However, this isn't the captain's story, it's Rock's. Once known as Rokuro Okajima, he was a typical business yuppie who took any amount of flack from anyone just so he could maybe someday move up that corporate ladder. One fateful day, he was asked to carry a disk with some of his company's dirty secrets on it, and as it just so happened the Russian mafia knew about this and decided to do a little blackmail, and so Rokuro met the crew of the Lagoon and became Rock.

There is no overall arcing story to the series, which instead is split up into a number of multi-episode story arcs. Well, I guess that's not entirely accurate – the overall story arc is how Rock changes from the business yuppie into someone harder, someone who can survive in the dark underbelly of Asia that is Roanapur. Not to mention someone who can survive having sexual tension with someone who's a breath away from blowing his brains out.


Kind of makes the typical "Pride and Prejudice" bullshit seem laughable in comparison, really.

But the main point is that Rock not only survives, but begins to thrive, becoming a full-fledged part of the Lagoon Company, and impressing all the very bad people who make crime their business in Roanapur – people like Balalaika, the boss of Hotel Moscow. Hotel Moscow, just so you know, is a part of the Russian mafia made up entirely of an elite military group that fought in the Soviet-Afghanistan conflict.

The stories that make up the series tend to be pretty interesting by themselves, too, in a usually messed up kind of way. At one point they even managed to kind of make me feel a little sorry for some psychopathic little murdering kids. Most of the time, though, it's mostly about awesome, over-the-top action, at least until it turns into the Rock and Revy Show in the last part of the second season.

Honestly, the characters are a big part of why this series was enjoyable. Rock makes a pretty decent protagonist, who actually manages to break away from the whiny Japanese male stereotype every once in a while and actually stands up for himself. Revy is very much the Ms. Fanservice of the series, on top of being the ultimate action girl. She's nicknamed "Two Hands" thanks to her ability to accurately fire both of her handguns at the same time. She also apparently has the ability to jump something like 20 feet or better. As I hinted above, there also seems to be a bit of a romance ... thing going on between Rock and Revy, though definitely not in the traditional sense. They each seem to be drawn to aspects of the other, and other characters even call them on it, but while part of me kind of would like to see that, I guess I'm not like the typical fanboy because I can't get past how certifiably evil Revy is. She is very much the Jayne of the show. I guess that's why I was kind of disappointed when the show kind of tended to push aside Dutch and Benny so much, because those two were fairly interesting, too.

Dutch is the captain of the Black Lagoon, and the owner of the Lagoon Company, which does odd jobs for whoever pays the most. Benny is a computer nerd and the information expert of the company. Both of them are pretty laid back characters who keep themselves calm and collected.

There are also a number of minor characters who have their own little quirks that manage to make them endure themselves to the audience, even if they're bad people. Actually that's part of how the show goes over-the-top, because I think Benny is the only character who isn't messed up in some way. You know, like Balalaika, who just happens to look on the outside like she is on the inside.


Go ahead, call her "Fry Face," I'm sure she won't mind.

The only characters I wasn't terribly impressed with were the yakuza types in the last part of the series. The show kept trying to impress me with how badass they were, and how noble some of them supposedly were, but, let's face it, they're yakuza.

Oh, and as an aside, swords could never cut through a gun. Sorry katana fanboys, but no matter how sharp they are, they aren't hard enough to cut through a gun barrel.

Anyway, as you might guess, I thoroughly enjoyed this series. It isn't remotely the kind of thing I would normally call "good," rather, it's carried by the sheer power of awesome. If you enjoy action movies, if you enjoyed Cowboy Bebop, Outlaw Star, or Firefly, you will definitely enjoy this series, too. 9/10.

 

[Terthna]

Black Lagoon is a ruthlessly dark anime. After I watched the last episode of season 2, I felt physically ill for days. It's not really something I'd ever want to watch again, or would recommend to anyone else as something they should watch, unless they can ignore the moral implications of what the characters are actually doing in favor of the spectacle of it all. Personally; I couldn't.

 

[ATP]

Black Lagoon – Seasons 1 & 2
(24 episode series)

Put succinctly, this series is a valentine to action movies on both sides of the Pacific. Not a hold you down and have its way with you valentine like Star Trek: Enterprise's last episode, either, but something people who enjoy old action movies from the '80s and '90s would actually appreciate.

Now, just to be clear, this isn't exactly what I would normally consider "good" per say, but you might notice that it's still ranked fairly high on my favorites/recommendations list. Why? Because this series is fuckin' awesome, that's why. It's awesome the same way the movies RED and The Expendables are awesome. Shows like that don't try to sell themselves as anything other than mindless action, with plenty of explosions and fight scenes thrown in, but without being completely stupid. They wink and smile at what they are and have fun. That's what Black Lagoon does. It also references plenty of other cool action movies, which tells me that the people who made this movie are as big of film nerds as I am. Das Boot and Terminator 2 are probably the most obvious references, but there are a few others, along with some Japanese action schlock just to round everything out.

At the same time, this series is more than that. If I could directly compare this series to anything else, the closest I could come would be the short-lived series Firefly. It takes place on an old PT boat called the Black Lagoon, captained by an old war vet (or so we're led to believe), and crewed by misfits. However, this isn't the captain's story, it's Rock's. Once known as Rokuro Okajima, he was a typical business yuppie who took any amount of flack from anyone just so he could maybe someday move up that corporate ladder. One fateful day, he was asked to carry a disk with some of his company's dirty secrets on it, and as it just so happened the Russian mafia knew about this and decided to do a little blackmail, and so Rokuro met the crew of the Lagoon and became Rock.

There is no overall arcing story to the series, which instead is split up into a number of multi-episode story arcs. Well, I guess that's not entirely accurate – the overall story arc is how Rock changes from the business yuppie into someone harder, someone who can survive in the dark underbelly of Asia that is Roanapur. Not to mention someone who can survive having sexual tension with someone who's a breath away from blowing his brains out.

View attachment 736
Kind of makes the typical "Pride and Prejudice" bullshit seem laughable in comparison, really.

But the main point is that Rock not only survives, but begins to thrive, becoming a full-fledged part of the Lagoon Company, and impressing all the very bad people who make crime their business in Roanapur – people like Balalaika, the boss of Hotel Moscow. Hotel Moscow, just so you know, is a part of the Russian mafia made up entirely of an elite military group that fought in the Soviet-Afghanistan conflict.

The stories that make up the series tend to be pretty interesting by themselves, too, in a usually messed up kind of way. At one point they even managed to kind of make me feel a little sorry for some psychopathic little murdering kids. Most of the time, though, it's mostly about awesome, over-the-top action, at least until it turns into the Rock and Revy Show in the last part of the second season.

Honestly, the characters are a big part of why this series was enjoyable. Rock makes a pretty decent protagonist, who actually manages to break away from the whiny Japanese male stereotype every once in a while and actually stands up for himself. Revy is very much the Ms. Fanservice of the series, on top of being the ultimate action girl. She's nicknamed "Two Hands" thanks to her ability to accurately fire both of her handguns at the same time. She also apparently has the ability to jump something like 20 feet or better. As I hinted above, there also seems to be a bit of a romance ... thing going on between Rock and Revy, though definitely not in the traditional sense. They each seem to be drawn to aspects of the other, and other characters even call them on it, but while part of me kind of would like to see that, I guess I'm not like the typical fanboy because I can't get past how certifiably evil Revy is. She is very much the Jayne of the show. I guess that's why I was kind of disappointed when the show kind of tended to push aside Dutch and Benny so much, because those two were fairly interesting, too.

Dutch is the captain of the Black Lagoon, and the owner of the Lagoon Company, which does odd jobs for whoever pays the most. Benny is a computer nerd and the information expert of the company. Both of them are pretty laid back characters who keep themselves calm and collected.

There are also a number of minor characters who have their own little quirks that manage to make them endure themselves to the audience, even if they're bad people. Actually that's part of how the show goes over-the-top, because I think Benny is the only character who isn't messed up in some way. You know, like Balalaika, who just happens to look on the outside like she is on the inside.

View attachment 737
Go ahead, call her "Fry Face," I'm sure she won't mind.

The only characters I wasn't terribly impressed with were the yakuza types in the last part of the series. The show kept trying to impress me with how badass they were, and how noble some of them supposedly were, but, let's face it, they're yakuza.

Oh, and as an aside, swords could never cut through a gun. Sorry katana fanboys, but no matter how sharp they are, they aren't hard enough to cut through a gun barrel.

Anyway, as you might guess, I thoroughly enjoyed this series. It isn't remotely the kind of thing I would normally call "good," rather, it's carried by the sheer power of awesome. If you enjoy action movies, if you enjoyed Cowboy Bebop, Outlaw Star, or Firefly, you will definitely enjoy this series, too. 9/10.

Wery good indeed.And swords could be unable to cut,but polish sabre certainly could.In 1939 there were few calvary charges,where they cut first german rifle and then german soldier who try to block it.With one swing.
But - they did it from the charging horse,so it were additional force.

 

[prinCZess]

Why? Because this series is fuckin' awesome, that's why.

I remember Black Lagoon solidly catching my interest by...I forget if it's episode one or two, so it's not much of a spoiler, but when the PT boat goes up against the helicopter in the air and wins by shooting it down with a torpedo. It definitely excels at the 80s/90s-action schlock situations where things are juuust this side of believable while being ridiculous but not being full 'turn off your rationality and enjoy the spectacle' ala, say, Fast & Furious or something.

I'd almost compare it to Commando (or, as you note, Expendables) or the like, maybe even John Wick in the way it builds a kind've view-askew criminal alternate-society? Especially with the way you get the 'interesting sidecharacters' or even just bit-players--a Mormon flamethrower-dude I recall being a mook at one point, the Ripoff Church in general or almost main-character Eda,, or Shenhua and the reefer-smoking Irish getaway driver...It'd almost be a cliche action-movie franchise if it wasn't so focused as well on villains and villainy more broadly. Because that's the bit that makes it kind of unique and...interesting/horrifying?

There's bits where it does that villain-obsession way too noticeably and on the nose (Revy's submarine diatribe is cringe-inducing, as are some of Rock's pseudo-philosophical dialogue bits, for instance...and the entire second season hits hard on it), but where it does it well is in showing characters behaving differently or in-line with all the pseudo-philosophy villainies they spout between gunfights--Rock slowly creeping towards being a kind of magnificient villain in his own everyguy nice-man way, Revy showing these bits of kindness and concern towards people despite insisting 'it's all about ME/money!', the twin Romanian kids being just monster-children in attitude and behavior both...Balalaika being in it for her bros and the thrill...It manages to hold interest independent of gunfights with the characters hypocrisies or attitudes.

All of that said...I'm of mind that the first season balances things very well and is the best of everything. The second kind of leans too much on Rock, Revy and 'look! Look at all the despair of the world!' attitude in general and Roberta's Blood Trail leans too hard into the 'cool imagery' department while corralling things into 'drug-fueled rampage of revenge' that's...just not quite as fun/good as other setups. I like them all, but where I've rewatched the first season in bits and pieces, I've not gone back to the others.

It was, when I watched back years ago, also single-handedly responsible for inflating my preexisting desire for a shoulder-holster, and building-up ones for double-breasted suit-coats and qipao.

 

[Undertone]

Black Lagoon is *mostly* a lot of action and excitement, but it also likes to lounge in the South Seas aesthetic every now and again too. If you haven't seen the sunset from aboard the Black Lagoon, you've never lived!

 

[Captain X]

Black Lagoon
Season 3 – Roberta’s Blood Trail
(5 episode OVA)

This sequel is basically more of the same as far as plot and characters go. Oh, and since it’s an OVA, we finally get to see some uncensored side-boob from both the titular maid and everyone’s favorite fan service action girl, Revy.

This sequel picks up right where the series proper left off, continuing the storyline of Roberta, the terminator-like maid, and her master, Garcia Lovelace. The thing about Black Lagoon is that it revels in its own grittiness, so while a story might have an otherwise happy ending, it usually still ends badly for someone or is at least bittersweet. So while Roberta successfully rescued her young master and the two of them went home, as it turns out, Garcia’s father got blown up in a clandestine anti-drug operation conducted by the US Army. Entirely innocent of anything, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and now Garcia is the head of the small Lovelace family. This not only hits Roberta’s berserker switch, but it breaks it off in the “on” position, because she grabs the antique musket that symbolizes the Lovelace family and disappears, vowing to avenge this attack on the Lovelace family.

Fortunately for Garcia, he’s not left completely alone, as the Lovelace family apparently saw the need for a second assassin-trained maid, only this time she’s a moé-ish loli, just to make sure all the fetish bases are covered. Since Garcia basically is in love with Roberta, he enlists the aid of his second maid, Fabiola, to go look for Roberta so they can hopefully bring her back home before she gets herself killed by trying to take on the US Army. This leads them back to Roanapur and the Lagoon Company, naturally at the oft’ destroyed bar where they first met Roberta. It goes about the same way, too.

Everyone is brought into this little adventure thanks to the implications being presented to the various mobs operating in Roanapur and elsewhere in the world, because they are interested in maintaining the status quo in Roanapur, even if some of them, like Hotel Moscow, would love to have an excuse to kill some American servicemen themselves thanks to the Cold War dying hard with them. In the end they actually end up helping the American black ops unit responsible for Lovelace’s death, but they are sure to let the Americans know that while there is some professional respect there, they’d just as soon kill them as anything else the next time they see them.

One of the most interesting things about Black Lagoon is its characters, and that continues with this OVA. For this story, we’re introduced to an Army officer who is duty-bound but also has a strong moral compass. The first we see of him, he’s actually defending some young Vietnamese kid from the troops in his unit, risking getting fragged himself to do so. But he holds strong, and even guns down one of his bloodthirsty subordinates to make his point. Fast forward to the present, and upon learning that he’s killed an innocent man and wounded Garcia, and he does everything he can to defend Garcia even while he flees from Roberta, who’s so out of it that she nearly kills her own young master. There isn’t a whole lot of depth to the character, and basically he’s an ideal more than a real person, but that’s pretty par for the course in Black Lagoon – what’s important is that he’s interesting.

As always, Black Lagoon is a valentine to action movie fans, and the action is just as over the top and awesome in this OVA as it was in the series proper. Sure, it’s unrealistic as hell, but if you recognize where things are coming from and just accept it for the action schlock that it is, it’s pretty damn fun to watch, and if you’re anything like me you’ll find yourself laughing at the ridiculousness of it all. This is actually why I tend to give shows like Black Lagoon more of pass for that kind of thing, because they know exactly what they are and don’t try to apologize for it in any way, unlike something like say, Avatar (as in the one James Cameron made while fapping to furry porn).

The one downside to all of this is that it tends to be fairly predictable. A lot of drama is made of Rock’s struggle to make some kind of a master plan that will enable him to save everyone this time around, since pretty much every other time he’s tried this he hasn’t really succeeded. On the plus side, this is character development, as is Revy’s continuing interest in him (I really wish they’d just jump each other’s bones and get it over with). On the other hand, it’s kind of robbed Rock of the underlying kindness that’s been an aspect of his character from the start, and turned more into this odd competition with Mr. Chang, boss of the local Triad mob.

Now what was I talking about again? Oh yeah, predictability. And I don’t just mean in that you could see action scenes coming from a mile away. What I mean by that is that this story ends about the way you might guess that it would end, which is to say that it’s a mostly happy ending, except that Roberta ends up not quite being the fine specimen she was when we first met her. This is basically foreshadowed earlier in the story when she starts taking depression medication and starts seeing dead people. Essentially she becomes a Captain Ahab, in more ways than one.


And they lived happily ever after...

Overall, it’s pretty easy to say that I liked this OVA, though in a lot of ways I kind of wished we’d gotten a fully-fledged season. All the same, it was nice to get something, and it was one hell of an action romp to boot, every bit in the same vein as the first two seasons. The only downsides are a lack of time for other characters to get more than a cameo, and the kind of predictability that just comes as standard fare for action schlock.

If you liked the first two seasons, you’ll probably like what the third season has to offer, just be aware that there’s as yet no dub available, at least not as of the time I wrote this review. I’m really hoping that a dub does get made, but I’m not going to hold my breath either.
Update: Not only did they make a dub, but it even features all of the same voice actors from the series. I like being wrong sometimes.

If you haven’t seen the first two seasons, you should still be able to jump right into Roberta’s Blood Trail without much trouble. They do quickly run through introductions again, so you shouldn’t be completely lost if you skipped the first two seasons. If you’re trying to decide to watch this, if you liked The Expendables, RED, or the Crank movies, Black Lagoon should be right up your ally. 9/10 (in my extremely biased opinion).

 

[ATP]

I liked that,too.And i wish Garcia and Roberta many healthy kids !!!!
If she only waited for Biden reforms,she could take on US army and win.....

Now,back to topic - first,something for @Captain X to write - C:the money and soul of possiblity control,11 episodes.Really scary story,where your actions could lead to erasing from existence your family,friends or even country.By plaing economics.
Since i suck in economy,i leave reviev to somebody else.

But,in compensation,i made short reviev of "Maoyuu maouu yuusha" - 12 episodes.
Hero come to kill demon Lord,who is cute girl with big boobs who want Hero to help her with saving world with economy and patatoes.Hero agree,his old friends including female paladin come to help,and they manage to help at least partially.Since manga do not end yet,i do not knew how it ended.

Why i made reviev about anime with economy? becouse economy here is more like a pretext to made world better,and Hero get 2 girlfriends who agree to share him/Demon Lord and Paladin/
It is not like we did X to get Y results,but rather we made X and situation is saved.
It is not Wolf and Spice/another reviev for somebody else/ ,when economical results are explained.

But - that is why both Spice and Wolf and C:the money and soul of possibility control should be revieved by somebody who undarstandt economy better then me.

My personal ratings -
Maoyuu maouu - 6/10
C:The money - 7/10
Spice nad Wolf - 8/10

 

[Terthna]

And they lived happily ever after...

Well, at least until Chávez shows up and the Bolivarian Revolution starts purging people like them.

I never saw the OVA for that arc, but I did read parts of it in the manga, and I never liked how it ended; of course, the manga didn't mutilate Roberta like they did in the anime (which never made sense to me as to why the changed that particular part of the source material), but it still lambasted Rock for basically doing exactly what Garcia begged him to do. It's not Rock's fault that Garcia couldn't handle the consequences, so why is the narrative complicit in the boy's attempt to shift the blame for it to the guy he roped into helping him?

 

[Captain X]

Sekirei
(12 episode series)

Sekirei? Moar like Ecchirei, amirite?

Okay, for those of you who don't know what ecchi is, that basically translates into lots and lots of bare boobs, with the nipples actually drawn on them. Or, put another way, that fine line separating an R rating from an NC-17 rating, because showing genitals is one of the few taboos Japan seems to have, at least in their normal television programming. And what I'm getting at is that this show is one of the most pathetic excuses to show as many tits as possible. Now those of you who have been keeping up with my reviews on a regular basis know that I have nothing against fan service per say; I even prefer to have them show the bits instead of using anime anatomy if they're going to bother. No, what bothers me is when that's the entire point of the show. Oh, there's a plot, and even a weak story, but mostly this show is about how many different ways it can get women topless, and how many ways said women can practically throw themselves at some pathetic loser only for him to act like he's bloody afraid of them.



You know, like every harem anime ever. Oh yeah, that's the other thing, this show is also all about pairing this guy up with almost every woman he comes across, and even one small girl in order to cover all the fetish bases. Oh, I'm sure some people will claim it was all innocent, and they were just playing that tiresome moé trope straight. After all, most of the time she calls the loser protagonist "big brother", but later on when one of these women insists that being kissed by him makes her his wife, the token loli was fighting over him like all the others (don’t worry, I'll explain that part a bit later). Oh, Japan, what is it with you and loli?

And just as a brief explanation of what moé is, basically it's the really cutesy character with the big eyes who talks very meekly in a high but quiet voice, and is also usually really clumsy. This was supposedly to instill the "big brother" instinct in viewers, but apparently for a large number of anime nerds it actually causes a boner. Don’t ask me to explain; I don't understand it either.

For me, though, one of the more amusing/pathetic aspects of this series was that despite the fact it was all about throwing as many female characters as possible at the whiny male protagonist, it apparently felt the need to cover all of its bases. So not only was there an implied lesbian couple, but there was some implied boy love, too, and even a really femmy looking boy for a female character to fawn over and even dress up like a girl. You know, to hide him, I guess.

Anyway, I suppose I should actually get around to explaining what this show is actually supposed to be about. Sekirei are actually a race of aliens which just happen to look human, and most of whom happen to be attractive, large-breasted women. Their ship crashed on Earth in 1999 (the show takes place in 2020), and it was found by some crazy frakker with a dream of world conquest. He names himself the "Game-Master," and founds a large military organization called the MBI Corporation out of nothing. He then sets in motion the "Sekirei Plan", which basically involves all these large-breasted women fighting each other, sometimes to the death, because apparently there can only be one. The idea, though, since they’re magic and stuff, is for them to find a human and kiss them, thereby getting their "wings", which unlocks special powers they can then use in their fights. These humans are called ashikabi. Minato Sahashi ends up becoming one such ashikabi one day when Musubi literally falls out of the sky and into his lap. You have no idea how common something like this is in the "romantic comedy" genre of anime, and in fact when this first happened, I thought this was going to be a "magical girlfriend" series, which basically entails some pathetic loser suddenly getting the perfect girlfriend one day, who is really awesome at cooking and doing other household chores while also usually having some kind of special powers or abilities. But since Minato ends up with five or six of them, that makes this a harem anime.

It all started because Minato helped Musubi out against a couple of other sekirei, who were trying to take her out before she could become "winged." As a way of saying thanks, she kisses him, which causes her to become "winged." It also means she basically belongs to him, so you can guess where that kind of leads, or would lead anyway if Minato wasn't afraid of women who want to have sex with him. But since he lives in an apartment rented to him by an old fart who had a morality clause in the lease, he loses his apartment and ends up living in a boarding house of some kind, where it just so happens that a bunch of other sekirei also live, which includes the landlady by-the-by. He then ends up collecting sekirei, either by rescuing them, or because they seek him out and sexually assault him.

The fun part of all of this, though, is that supposedly at least in the beginning, all these fights are supposed to take place in secret. That's funny, because right from the start these fights were taking place in the open. The other fun part is how the fights usually result in shredded clothing and mostly naked women, because their clothes are apparently made out of something even weaker than tissue paper – just getting punched is enough to shred clothing.

Anyway, as the series progresses, Minato meets other ashikabi and sekirei, including one pair of them that actually wants nothing to do with the "Sekirei Plan" and wants to get the hell out of dodge. This kind of becomes the "drama" of the series, because by this point, MBI has completely taken over Tokyo, and for some reason the JSDF is powerless to stop them, though the series never bothers to explain why. Minato agrees to help them get out of the city, and talks most of his harem, and another ashikabi with two sekirei he's managed to befriend, into helping him out with this plan. But naturally things go wrong, and drama supposedly happens, including a part where Musubi is defeated and it looks like she's a goner. Then the show pulls a miraculous recovery out of its fourth point of contact that makes no sense at all, but somehow involves a multiple personality that Musubi has.

I guess if there's one positive aspect to the series, it's that Minato actually shows a little character growth from the beginning of the series – a little. Instead of being a whiny pathetic loser that cries at the drop of a hat, he's a whiny pathetic loser that cries at the drop of a hat, and actually throws a punch to defend himself. Of course he manages to knock himself on his own ass in the process, so there you go.

I'm not even going to discuss the characters any further. There are a lot of them, but there isn't a whole lot to them. Of course this show is about boobs, so I guess that's to be expected.

I'm sure some of you are probably wondering why I bothered watching this series since it's obvious I didn't like it. Well, to be honest my friends talked me into it. Every once in a while they pick out a show they know is going to be bad and subject themselves to it, and since this one didn't seem as bad as say My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute or Ouran High School Host Club, I decided to go along with it. I'm just glad it was only 12 episodes long, or at least that's all that was on Netflix at the time. As it turns out there's an OVA and a second season, but I'm not going to bother watching those, and if you actually like this show you probably wouldn't want me to review them.

I really can't think of a show more deserving of a low score. Originally I gave it a goose-egg, but that was mainly because I'd also originally scored Ah! My Goddess a 1. Time and retrospective has led to me being a bit kinder on some of my ratings, and that's the case here, too. So basically I'm throwing this series a bone because, well, I kind of like boobs and this series had some rather nicely drawn ones. I guess you could say it was the only real substance the series had... 1/10.

 

[Captain X]

Huh, I had no idea that some of these (in)famous ecchi/hentai OVAs, movies, and anime series were actually made by the same studio, which I suppose just illustrates the lack of research I do when approaching reviews. Anyway, someone linked this video on one of the vintage anime groups on Facebook that I follow, and it is actually a rather interesting look at the different anime the studio made (somewhat hampered by being on YouTube) and the people who made them, so I thought I'd post it here since some of you might be interested. It is a bit over an hour long, but like I said, it's interesting.

 

[Captain X]

Night Raid 1931
(16 episode series)

I hate to say it, but probably the most positive thing I can say about this series is that it tried. I mean, compared to the moé/fan service –filled crap that's been coming out more lately, it was nice to see a new series that didn't revolve entirely around boobs. By comparison, this series was actually pretty mature, though it did still indulge in a bathhouse scene.

This series is a bit like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen meets Forest Gump in that it follows the exploits of a secretive group of spies called "Sakurai Kikan" during significant historical events, yet has been lost to history. Oh, and these spies all have special talents, like telepathy, Nightcrawler-like teleportation, and the ability to deflect bullets using some kind of kinetic field. This show uses something of an ensemble cast of characters, so there isn't really any one protagonist. If anything, there's something of a big three between the characters of Aoi Miyoshi, Kazura Iha, and Yukina Sonogi. I know some of you are probably wondering who the hell these characters are, and why you should care, but I honestly can't be arsed to say much about them. "Meh" is the word here.

The story has both stand-alone filler episodes and story arc episodes that revolve around a plot by a rogue group of Japanese soldiers who have disappeared in Manchuria. This also just happens to coincide with the Manchurian Incident, which as you might recall was a fairly transparent excuse that Japan used to invade and occupy the region so it could exploit its resources. As you might guess, the story is very involved and somewhat dramatic as our group of spies tries to figure out what's going on, as the Manchurian Incident is only just the beginning of another plot. The stand-alone episodes serve mainly to break up the tension a bit, and to do a little character development.

The thing is, while I like a good steady pace, and a series that takes its time to unravel a plot and let us get to know the characters, there just wasn't enough in this series to make me feel all that strongly about it. I like history, and I'm even something of a history buff, but there just wasn't enough here to keep me interested. If the series had focused more on the real historical problems, or just more on the group of spies, it might have been a bit better, but as it was, I never found myself much caring about any of the characters or what was going on around them. For a brief time there, I was thinking that this series was taking an alternate history route because the big evil secret plan was for the development and deployment of an atomic bomb in the name of creating a world-wide peace, because, you know, the Cold War was an awesome, really peaceful period in our history that never threatened to turn hot at any point. And then of course there's the whole destroying Shanghai and spreading nuclear fallout all over the Chinese countryside thing that was an integral part of their plan. But, much like The Daughter of Twenty Faces before it, despite everything that happened, including a telepathic attack that made a huge number of people experience a nuclear detonation, everything was neatly wrapped up and never spoken of again so history could resume the course that we're all familiar with.

I wanted to like this series – really, I did. It was a break from the usual tripe that makes up most of anime these days. But, it just wasn't very interesting to me. Others may feel differently, but overall my experience was very bland. It wasn't quite boring to the point that it was a chore to watch, but it certainly wasn't compelling or dramatic either. It tried, but it just didn't quite succeed, at least not with me. 6/10.

 

[prinCZess]

Sekirei? Moar like Ecchirei, amirite?

YEAH !! - Sound Button

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www.myinstants.com

PrinCZess watched maybe a half-dozen episodes of Sekirei back when she didn't really grok how to sort out this wild wooly world of Eastern animation shows based upon their probability to be bouncing-booby-obsessions centered around sweater-puppy "PLOT" rather than plot. Because the plot synopsis she read sounded vaguely interesting and risque.
The plot she got, of course, was not a plotline but "PLOT" centered around sweater-puppies which galloped and grommled in the wind.

It had some vaguely-recalled Looney Tunes-y physical comedy type stuff that was snort-worthy. And the stock Arrogant Blonde character always stands out as emblematic of that whole character trope in my mind...But I think just because it's the most absolute cliche-fitting by-the-book example and one of the first I'd run into rather than it being done well.

Frankly, I'm sure that bouncy-booby obsession shows can be done better. Sekirei is even harder to laugh at than garbage like Eiken because it rather obviously and to its detriment takes its excuse-plot seriously for some unexplainable reason.
Guys--If you're going to anime for the boobs, at least find one offering a steady stream of the things rather than letting them get used to promote an incompetent story. It's less offensive.

 

[ATP]

YEAH !! - Sound Button

Click here to play the sound!

www.myinstants.com

PrinCZess watched maybe a half-dozen episodes of Sekirei back when she didn't really grok how to sort out this wild wooly world of Eastern animation shows based upon their probability to be bouncing-booby-obsessions centered around sweater-puppy "PLOT" rather than plot. Because the plot synopsis she read sounded vaguely interesting and risque.
The plot she got, of course, was not a plotline but "PLOT" centered around sweater-puppies which galloped and grommled in the wind.

It had some vaguely-recalled Looney Tunes-y physical comedy type stuff that was snort-worthy. And the stock Arrogant Blonde character always stands out as emblematic of that whole character trope in my mind...But I think just because it's the most absolute cliche-fitting by-the-book example and one of the first I'd run into rather than it being done well.

Frankly, I'm sure that bouncy-booby obsession shows can be done better. Sekirei is even harder to laugh at than garbage like Eiken because it rather obviously and to its detriment takes its excuse-plot seriously for some unexplainable reason.
Guys--If you're going to anime for the boobs, at least find one offering a steady stream of the things rather than letting them get used to promote an incompetent story. It's less offensive.

There is logical explanation for this kind of anime.I never been in Japan,but read many books wroten by those who be there - and,according to them,blonde boobzillas are,in fact,dream of almost every japaneese man.
So,anime must produce that.Thera are also flat traditional japaneese girls,but tdemand for them is lesser.

But,enough about boobs.Now - anime which could be great/and i would leave it then to you or somebody else/ but lost it potential.

Jinrui wa suitai shimashita/humanity has declined/ - 12 episoes and 6 shorts.

Start with great idea - post apocalypse world with dying humanity being replaced by fairies - but everybody is happy or do not care.Humans,just becouse,fairies becouse they are dumb/even if they have great,superior technology/ and multiple when they are focused and happy,and die from boredom or being depressed.

As a result,few fairies could multiple and create town with supertechnology - which vanish after few weeks with its inhabitants.
They also want from humans sweets and nothing more - but,becouse they are dumb,they could accidentally blown themselves with nearby humans.

Thus humanity created mediators,which gave sweets to fairies so they do not misbehave.One of them is protagonist,unnamed girl which made sweets for fairies,and is MC.
Unfortunatelly,there is no any plot,but we get few sub-plots,and entire anime turned into series of gags.I have nothing against gags,but they should be tool for story,not story itself.
If they made it as slice-of-life from the start,or made some actual plot,it would be great,but they wasted very good idea.
But,for good gags and paint-like style - 6/10
If you want to see what faerie spoon could do,look 6 mini episodes.Funny and scarry both.

Now,to show what it is - MC found part of ancient human technology in form of...bread.Here:



Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou OVA are example how made post apocalyptic world looking nice.Pity,that creators of Jinrui could not made the same.
But,becouse it is really good,i leave reviev of "Yokohama"to somebody who is better writer then me.

 

[Captain X]

Gunsmith Cats
(3 episode OVA)

You know, it's shows like this that kind of makes me appreciate older anime. It actually has a half-way interesting plot, characters, and a story that doesn't focus entirely around fan service. Oh sure, it still has fan service, but it's definitely not as in your face about it, or nearly as frequent, because, you know, there's a story going on.

In this case, the story follows two young female bounty hunters as they become involved in a gunrunning investigation. And by involved, I mean the ATF blackmailed them into helping, because as it turns out Irene "Rally" Vincent, and her petite partner, "Minnie" May Hopkins also run their own gun shop, and they apparently don’t quite comply with the oppressive gun laws in Chicago.


You tell 'em, ladies.

Oh, yeah, that's the other thing, this takes place completely in Chicago, and as an aside, I really have to give kudos to the people who made this, because it's obvious that they really did their homework. While the look of the series is still somewhat cartoony, they still managed to capture the look of various American vehicles, official symbols and seals, and of Chicago itself. Hell, they even managed to convey how much Chicago hates the Second Amendment, and I bet they weren't even trying.

Anyway, the story follows Rally, Minnie, and the ATF agent that blackmailed them into helping his investigation as they discover what looks like a fairly typical gang-related gunrunning operation actually goes a lot higher. This is somewhat amusing in light of more recent events involving the BATFE, which has added a few more letters to its alphabet soup since this OVA was made – you know, that whole "Fast and Furious" operation aimed at undermining the Second Amendment. Oh, don't ever change, ATF…

Okay, this show isn't really about politics, and it also isn't what might be called especially thoughtful or deep, but it does have a coherent story and a plot that moves along at a nice pace, so I still feel this is a good show overall. It also really helped that Rally and Minnie were my kind of action girls, and that even the ATF agent that blackmailed them managed to endure himself a bit to me. There are plenty of action clichés to go along with everything, but the series manages to not take itself all that seriously without quite crossing into the mindless crap that a lot of action stories often do. That being said, the big reveal at the end wasn't very surprising, but it was still interesting watching everyone get there.

So if you enjoy light action fluff, this is definitely a show you might want to watch. Honestly, my biggest disappointment with it is that this wasn't a full-blown series. This isn't quite a favorite, but it's pretty close. 8/10.

 

[prinCZess]

The following is definitely a totally unbiased commentary that is totally unrelated to PrinCZess' deep love for the series, usage of it's character as an avatar, having it as one of few shows introducing her to anime or...A variety of things, really...None of those impact this at all. This is a totally independent and nonpartisan opinion:

Gunsmith Cats is both entertainment and a work of art. Perhaps even accidentally, it manages to capture a picture of Americana in the pop culture vein while also using that as a veil for a lightly-touched upon but very present theme centered about personal responsibility and self-reliance in full High Noon-ian, near-philosophical vein that is distinctly American. It is deep! It is!

The pop culture Americana is the easiest to spot. Despite Japanese origins, the characters, the theme of the story, and the aesthetics are all American. It's a buddy-cop movie that also plays on the 'cops are useless, I'll do it myself' vigilantism angle of American movies. Firearms, explosions, and fast cars in chase sequences play a central role. The only big deviation and Japanese (anime)-ification present, really, is the fact that the main characters in the action flick are both women. Even the one character trope or type that would be most outside American sensibilities and familiarity (Minnie May the explosion-loli) sees the American 'buddy cop'/partner aspect of their character played up heavily while the rest of her character is downplayed or glossed-over. It's a late-80s, early-90s action flick/cop-show that is visibly building upon preexisting Western action-movies in the same vein. It's just animated (and at times a little silly).

The 'deeper' stuff is blink-and-you-miss-it. Either successfully left to undertones for most of things in a cinematic success that demonstrates the directors brilliance and excellent grasp of subtlety...Or just not highlighted because even the creators weren't consciously aware of what they were doing . But very well-summarized in the final words of the show before the credits:

Sub: "I can stand up by myself. I have to stand up by myself. That's what you've got to do in order to live in this town."
//
Dub; "I'm fine, I can get up by myself. I have to be able to stand up for myself. you gotta' be tough to live in this town."

Throughout the show it hits, both in the story and in just the setting (as mentioned, Chicago is no paradise of gun rights, whatever the Japanese might think, so there's a meta-commentary throughout ), on this general bent of the glories of independence, the skeeziness of the system/government, and the need for self-reliance. It's not only (eventually) the criminals, but also the system in the show out to get the heroine to use her for its own devices. But that system is corrupted at its very heights--and the token 'renegade lawman' out trying to investigate the system from inside IS the one strong-arming the heroine for his own/the investigations benefit.

It presents a MORE American version of that 'renegade cop' storyline than even Dirty Harry or the like managed--because it's from the perspective of the everyman who's getting strongarmed BY the renegade. The everyman just happens to be kind've a badass. And that theme is present enough that even as bigger threats come up and the renegade becomes more sympathetic, the assholishness and unfairness of the renegade having this authority to abuse in the first place is a very present thing. The 'good people' in the system are still tainted by it and overstepping boundaries they're supposed to have, while the actual heroine is separate from that system--and even though she's breaking the boundaries the system has in place, she is presented as BETTER for it and isn't hurting anyone in the process (whilst the warantless wiretapping and strongarming the renegade cop does has its consequences highlighted from the end of the person on the receiving end).

It BAFFLES me that a foreign production managed to capture that kind of byplay in so short a time...And perhaps doubly so that it was a Japanese one that did, because--as far as I know--'the superiority of the individual over the system over them' is not exactly the most prolific or popular of Japanese storyline tropes (I could be wrong--that's somewhat of a stereotype I don't have immediate counterexamples in mind for speaking).

It also needs to be noted it has a kickin' jazzy intro theme that I'm personally sure inspired that of Cowboy Bebop in both tune and styling.

 

[Captain X]

I thought that review might get a reaction out of you.

Incidentally, did you come to the end of that readthrough of the manga, or just kind of give up on it?

 

[prinCZess]

My read-through kind've stalled as I did some reorganizing and moving of books and comics.
Should get back to it now that everything's accessible easily once again...But, then, I should also finish some writing projects I've had going even longer.

Procrastination (and laziness, let's be honest) is a hell of a drug, kids.

 

[Captain X]

Same thing with me. I've been procrastinating on my Star Trek fan series for like a decade now.

 

[Captain X]

Riding Bean
(single episode OVA)

Ah yes, the '80s. I don't quite know what it is, but there's a special something about watching old action anime like this. I mean, I know there's plenty of more modern anime that isn't afraid to show blood and guts, but for some reason the stuff from the '80s really stands out.

Anyway, as some of you no doubt know, this is actually a spiritual predecessor to Gunsmith Cats, and it even features a character by the name of Rally Vincent. Of course, like a lot of anime, as the chick, she's playing second fiddle to a male protagonist, in this case named Bean Bandit. He's a mercenary, working odd jobs as a courier of sorts, whether as a getaway driver, or to deliver a kidnap victim. Naturally, this has caused him to earn the animosity of the Chicago Police Department, and at points I couldn't help but be reminded a bit of Blues Brothers.


Can't quite put my finger on why, though...

Bean himself actually reminds me a bit of Johnny Bravo, between how he looks and how he sounds, he's basically the darker skinned, brunette twin of good ol' Johnny. Of course he actually succeeds at most of what he does and he probably does plenty of Rally racing, too, if you know what I mean (of course you do).

A one-off, this OVA is about an evil lesbian and her convoluted plan to kidnap the owner of some big made-up company. To do so, she hires Bean as a getaway driver after robbing a bank in the middle of a mall, and manages to get him on camera with what appears to be the daughter of the business guy in the back of his car, not long after they'd actually kidnapped said 11 year old girl. But, as it turns out, the little girl who went on the bank job with the evil lesbian is actually working for her, in more ways than one. Yes, yes, corrupted loli lesbian, lover and submissive to the evil lesbian. Oh Japan...

So the evil lesbian went through a lot of trouble to get $2 million and a hostage, all while framing Bean for kidnapping, though to be frank he was already a wanted criminal, so it's not like she'd have had to do much to get the cops on his tail. And, just as you'd expect for a simple action flick like this, everything works out for our anti-hero and his partner. And since Bean has a soft spot for kids (no, not that way, perv), he even seems to adopt the corrupted lesbian loli as an added bonus.

This is not what would really be considered a good anime – generic, simplistic, clichéd, and a bit predictable – but it was still somewhat enjoyable to watch. I'd blame it on nostalgia, but I actually only got into anime starting in 2001/2002, so it probably just has more to do with shows like High School of the Dead and Sekirei making me appreciate older anime a bit more. Of course, I've always kind of appreciated older anime, so I've never understood why so many people dismiss it out of hand. I mean, I get that the older dubs can be a bit grating, and this one's dub doesn't do it any favors either, but the stories and characters tend to be a bit more interesting, so I tend to overlook things like that.

To sum it up, this isn't quite as good as Gunsmith Cats in my opinion, though it did have a charm all it's own. I think it's still worth a watch, though. 7/10.

 

[Captain X]

[C]: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control
(11 episode series)

I have to admit, when I first heard about this series, it didn't strike me as something I'd be interested in. I forget why I ended up deciding to watch it, so all I can really do is shrug my shoulders after the fact. To be honest, I almost didn't finish watching this series after watching the first couple of episodes, but being a believer in the "three episode rule" I decided to give it one more episode before I gave up on it entirely, and it managed to keep me interested just enough to keep watching.

This series follows an average college student, Kimimaro Yoga, just trying to make it through college without ending up in debt or having to ask others for financial help. This is a nice break from the norm of watching the antics of some average high school student, but as far as the story structure goes, that fact is pretty irrelevant because everything plays out in about the same way. The series tried to make up for this a little by giving us something kind of different to introduce itself with instead of starting by introducing its rather unremarkable protagonist. That basically translated into a kind of video game battle between some generic loser who's down on his luck already and the guy who will come to be known as the antagonist. I can't say that I was especially wowed or impressed in any way. In fact, for the first two episodes, I was kind of bored by what looked like another generic fighting anime to me.

This series reminded me a lot of what I've seen and heard about Pokémon, because the series focuses almost entirely on these one on one gladiatorial style battles between two people, called "Entrés," and the monsters they all apparently own, called "assets." The "gotta catch 'em all" would be the money the Entrés are fighting over, I guess. Add to that the way everything comes off as being from a video game, what with the loud announcements of the various powers being used sounding like the announcement for using a combo move in a fighting game, and I couldn't help but think of this as Pokémon with economics jargon. Oh, yeah, that's the other thing; I couldn't help but be left with the impression that this series used economic terms like the Star Trek franchise used science terms, particularly during the Voyager/Enterprise years, which is to say basically just as cool-sounding terms for the characters to rattle off while they did things. Combine that with the way the entire point of the series started coming off to me just as an excuse to fantasize about being rich and spending money on really stupid things, and I just wasn't very impressed with the series.

Thankfully, this series started to show a little depth starting in the third episode, when it became apparent that it wasn't so much about how rich some assholes were as it was about how messed up the effects of what they did in their little virtual world were when translated into the real world, like say a character losing all of his kids because he went bankrupt in this virtual Financial District. At that point it became more apparent that all the random background talk about suicides and crime being on the rise and birth rates being on the decline were more than just mood setting. To the series's credit, it did explain that the money of the Financial District, Midas Notes, used the future as collateral. However, this was rather meaningless until the series actually got around to explaining it. It also made Masakaki, the strange Mad Hatter character who invited Kimimaro into the strange world of the Financial District somewhat more sinister on top of just being generally strange and creepy.


It's kind of offset by his appearance, though.

The strength of this series is mainly in the depth it gives its characters rather than in its plot. The plot is basically all about saving the world, because this business with the Financial District can actually make entire nations cease to exist, landmass included. It helps to add a sense of drama as the story progresses, but it isn't terribly compelling on its own. The story is about Kimimaro and his growth as a person, which is amplified and reflected by his antagonist, Souichirou Mikuni. The two of them are both similar in that they both only wanted simple lives that they could enjoy on their own, but were caught up in the business of making money. They also both have similar goals in that both want to save Japan, but they are different in how they want to go about it. Souichirou's solution is to buy up the debt of Japan directly, but the problem is that he uses the Midas money of the Financial District, so in return for "saving" Japan, it turns Japan into a corporate financial wasteland not unlike what many dystopian sci-fis of the '80s envisioned. The main argument here is philosophical: is the present or the future worth more? Souichirou feels that the present is more important, and for a while Kimimaro isn't sure, but eventually he decides the future is worth more.

If I give this series props for anything, though, it has to be with Souichirou's character. I mean, it was obvious that he was supposed to be the villain of the series from the very start, but they actually gave him some depth and made him a somewhat sympathetic character. He was basically robbed of the happy life he'd wanted when he was younger, in part by his overbearing father and in part by his own inability to stand up for himself, and the ultimate irony was that while he'd taken Kimimaro under his wing, he was essentially trying to destroy the college student the way his father had destroyed him. Things like that carried the series for me.

There was plenty, however, that knocks this series down in score for me. Aside from the weak opening and the other things I mentioned, there's the way Kimimaro's asset, Msyu, looked like a prepubescent girl, dressed in next to nothing, and yet was pushed as a romantic interest of sorts for Kimimaro in a fairly typical fashion. Things kind of took a turn for the weird (more so) when it was revealed that Msyu actually represented a possible future daughter of Kimimaro's. Oh, and while the fan service wasn't nearly as obnoxious as something like Sekirei or High School of the Dead, it's also obvious someone on the staff had an oral fixation. There's also a -1 modifier for the unnecessary America-bashing in this series, because that shit really wears on me fast. I also can't say that I much cared for the story all that much. The series was probably trying something a bit different by making Kimimaro so unremarkable, but between there not being much for me to really root for with him, and the story being so economics-based, at least in theory, I was somewhat bored with that. What can I say? I'm an engineer, so the numbers I have to deal with actually mean something – it’s not like economics, which is basically about philosophy more than anything else.

Overall, I guess I'd say this was worth watching just the one time, but it really is unremarkable. It isn't horribly bad, but it isn't especially good either, and a good antagonist isn't enough to carry a boring story for me. 5/10.