AKB0048 First Stage - Review

What happens when you take mecha battles, outer space idols, great music and freedom of speech?
Well, Macross II - Do You Remember Remember Love? but aside from that. AKB0048!!

The series is based around the highly successful girl group in AKB48, named for the city of Akihabara and the original roster consisting of 48 members. While they have been around in Japan since 2005, they made their world wide debut with the release of 2012's "Wreck-It Ralph" and the song "Sugar Rush".

Story:
At the Beginning of the 21st Century, Interplanetary War broke out, Earth's Economy becomes incredibly unstable and as mankind begins to flee Earth and spread out across the stars anything considered unnecessary for our survival, especially entertainment becomes illegal.
Imagine a world where almost all entertainment is banned, no music to listen to on the way to work, no TV shows or movies to enjoy in your free time.

On the small mining planet of Lancastar (an allegory for England (what... Don't believe me? look for the Union Flag in the background)), 4 young girls, Nagisa, Chieri, Orine and Yuuka, sneak out during riots in town to bear witness to the intergalactic Pop Idol group known as AKB0048. During the concert the girls see first hand just how much they have been missing and how brutal the anti-entertainment police can be. Inspired by the music and bravery by the members of AKB, each of the girls decide then and there that they will join AKB one day and fight for freedom of speech and to bring joy to the hearts of those oppressed.

Cut to years later and the girls are leading very different lives, Cheiri has returned to her home planet, Nagisa is attending school and constantly getting in to arguments with her father (an anti-entertainment minister), Orine has become orphaned due to attacks in the ongoing war and now works in a munitions factory and Yuuka attends school with Nagisa while trying to maintain a relationship with her boyfriend. Why scrolling through an illegal AKB0048 forum one day, the girls discover that AKB are holding auditions for their next batch of recruits to fight along side them and eventually succeed them.

Nagisa, Orine and Yuuka decide to leave their lives behind and follow their dreams, on the way to the auditions they come across others that share their dream including the now runaway Cheiri.

Their journey teaches them exactly what freedom means, having to fight side by side in the trenches, defending fans and the successors, realising just how hard  it is to stay in the limelight or even get there in the first place. Die hard fans and terrorist threats, heart pounding practice sessions and beautiful sights across the universe, a journey for the soul that test the girls to their limits and beyond.

Animation:
The animation is gorgeous throughout, using a mixture of 2D and 3D cell shaded models, each planet and setting gives off its own atmosphere that plays off everything well. Each character is well defined and easy to pick out in a lineup.

Acting:
Voice acting in both English and Japanese is solid. In Japanese, the entire main cast is played by actual members of AKB48 (known collectively as NO NAME). For those interested the AKB members and teams include:
Nagisa Motomiya - Karen Iwata (Team A)
Chieri Sono - Mayu Watanabe (Team B (also the inspiration for the character of the same name))
Orine Aidda - Sayaka Nakaya (Former Team K)
Yuuka Ichijou - Amina Sato (Former Team K)
Suzuko Kanzaki - Sawako Hata (Former SKE48 Team KII)
Sonata Shinonome - Kumi Yagami (Former SKE48 Team S)
Mokoto Yokomizo - Mao Mita (NMB48 Team M)
Kanata Shinonome - Haruka Ishida (Team K)
Mimori Kishida - Sumire Sato (SKE48 Team E)
Megumi Wanibuchi - Momoka Kinoshita (NMB48 Team M)

The Actresses for each of the Successors are all seasoned professionals and all do their jobs remarkably well.
The English cast are all fan favorites, featuring Luci Christian (Nagisa), Brittney Karbowski (Orine) and Monica Rial (Yuuka) all roles are well acted and during the occasional English translated song, all actresses preform admirably.
One a personal note, I originally saw this on its original Japanese run and when running through possible English cast in my head, I had Imagined Monica Rial as a member but was supprised to see to see her as Yuuka and not someone like Sonata. It took some getting used to on rewatch but in hind sight all cast members are well chosen.

If you have a gap in your watch schedule and feel like watching a modern day "Space Opera" (for lack of a better term) then check it out. It's become a bit of a guilty pleasure and It's because of this show that if I ever EVER get to pilot a mech I will be playing "Blue Rose" as load as possible and singing along.

School Days - "Review...." eh, no Impression (for lack of a better term)

What the Hell did I just watch!! (Contains Spoilers)

I was originally introduced to this anime by a few friends online stating that it was one of the worst things they had ever seen. So when I was looking for a new show to watch, this poped in to my head, only 12 episodes long so it wouldn't take me too long to watch. How bad could it be?
Episodes 1 and 2 actually left a good impression, the characters were fairly cookie cutter but had room to improve and the romantic story being built up seemed fairly sweet and especially by the end of the second episode I had some high hopes. By the end of episode 3 (in the Very Last Scene, I want to stress this) Makoto, our "Protagonist" goes from a fairly naive, if hormonal, teenage boy, to a pig headed moron who pretty much just wants to use the, at this point in the story, sweet seeming Kotonoha for sex and has very little interest in any thing else.

Sekai the, I want to say, leading lady was probably the only character in this whole show I actually cared for, though I'm sure the show was trying to make you hate her. Midway, if that, through the series Makoto begins sleeping with Sekai behind Kotonoha's back, but instead of actually breaking up with her, he continues to lead her on. By episode 10 he is sleeping with every female character introduced (bar one who has her own boyfriend but does consider sleeping with him briefly). Sekai eventually reveals that she is pregnant, causing everyone to stay away from Makoto, except for Kotonoha who has deluded herself into thinking that herself and Makoto are still boyfriend and girlfriend.

At this point I advise you skip the next two paragraphs unless you have already seen the show or really don't care about the mother of all spoilers. 

Sekai and Makoto decide to raise the baby together so spend Christmas Eve together in an almost living together situation. While Sekai is cooking, Makoto decides to go for a walk were he finds Kotonoha sat under a Christmas tree, they decide to go for something to eat with Makoto texting Sekai that he will be late home and to not wait for him. Sekai goes out to try and find him and eventually spots them both. Going back to Makoto's house she throws away the dinner she had made and goes home. Makoto and Kotonoha decide to spend Christmas together and Makoto finally decides that Kotonoha is the one for him, they decide that Kotonoha will stay at Makoto's on Christmas and then spend Boxing Day on Kotonoh's boat.

Makoto decides to do the right thing and break up with Sekai, meeting with Sekai at his house, he things that the break up is going well until Sekai walks out of the room to make some tea, text's Makoto a message simply saying "Goodbye" and proceeds to stab him repeatedly with a kitchen knife. A few hours later Kotonoha arrives at Makoto's to find him dead. Using Makoto's phone she texts Sekai saying to meet on the roof of the School. They confront each other with Kotonoha pointing at a bag on the bench insisting that Makoto is sat right there, when Sekai opens the bag she is greeted with Makoto's head staring back at her. Kotonoha begins accusing her that the pregnancy was a lie and that she should admit it now before its to late. Sekai attempts to run away but is stabbed to death by Kotonoha after which Kotonoha slowly cuts open Sekai's womb Stating "Just as I Thought". The show ends with Kotonoha lying on her boat hugging Makoto's disembodied head saying "Now we can finally be together"

The Animation was fairly slandered given this being a Slice of Life show that was all that was needed. How ever I think the Animation could have taken a Page from Haruhi Suzumiya and taken there approach to splice of life scenes. Being also confined by being an adaptation of a visual Novel there are some limits to animation style, as well as the limitation with story. With the Normal visual Novel Adaptation, the studio picks one of the female leads and sticks with it, this on the other hand decided, 'forget that, lets have him sleep with everyone, than everyone is happy'.

The Characters are all fairly bland and one note with the only real exception being Sekai, who isn't a great character but actually has some personality as apposed to, the rich girl, the jock, the Rei Ayanami clone etc. The voice acting (given that I only speech basic Japanese) is fairly good considering what they are working with, the highlights being Sekai's Seiyu Shiho Kawaragi and Kotonoha's Seiyu Tae Okajima. Soundtrack wise there are no real stand outs even the opening is fairly forgettable, the only exception being the piece that plays during the last episode (you know the one I mean!)

As Seele once said " The Pain of destruction is also the joy of Rebirth" and believe me I have been destroyed and will hope fully be reborn with my next Anime Conquest: Madoka Magica
Side Note: I actually burst out laughing when I finished this Show, For the life of me I don't know why!

BECK Mongolian Chop Squad - Review

Heart pounding music and the journey of 6 young musicians. Welcome to BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad.

Most music anime follow a stricked formula, characters come together, sound amazing right off the bat, are set for a big concert, something happens, will they make it or won't they? They succed and thats it. No Character development, no engaging side stories and music wise you have nothing but J-Pop (not that theres anything wrong with that, if this is your cup of tea I point you towards Love Live! and K-On!). Music anime nowadays has started branching out (for example see AKB0048), but if you want a realistic Slice of Life, Music anime with interesting characters, abrilliant story and music in the style of 1970's Rock, Punk, Rap and a touch of the Beatles. Then I highly recommend this Show.

The Story centers around Koyuki, whose outlook on life is after 14 years of living, his life is going

nowhere. while walking home one day he ends up rescuing a strange Frankenstein like dog from a group of kids. The dog, Beck, belongs to Ryusuke, a half Japanese half American 16 year old guitar player. Through Ryusuke he discovers the joy of music, meets Ryusuke's 14 year old sister Miho and eventually decides that this is the life he wants. Learning how to play the guitar from the school swim coach, Saitou in return for cleaning his house. After establishing himself as an Average guitar player, Miho discovers that Koyuki is an incredible singer with untapped potential. After all the twists and turns, establishing the band, the ups and downs, releasing there first album, mafia ties and the greatest opportunity of their lives. Will they be able to make it through?

Characters are all fairly enjoyable with every one having there own personality and growth. Plenty of colorful characters ranging from the students, teachers, bullies, music producers etc. Voice acting in both English and Japanese are top notch and worthy of praise. Greg Ayres and Brina Palencia are absolutely brilliant, both seasoned professionals with brilliant singing voices. If you want an example look up 'Moon on the water' (Koyuki and Miho version) and 'Slip Out a little more than before'. Japanese wise Daisuke Namikawa does a great job as Koyuki's everyday Voice but the real stand out is Kazuya Hirabayashi as Koyuki's singing voice, having to sing a mixture of English and Japanese with a great care not to trip over words. The only fault I had with the acting was with a few episodes early on in the Japanese dub were Ryusuke and Miho attempt to speak to each other in what is essentially engrish, other than that, good all round.

The animation is a bit jarring at first especially with the character design but doesn't ruin the
experience. backgrounds and crowds have a fair amount of detail but the art really shines during concerts and especially the instruments. Guitar players will know straight away that Koyuki's guitar is defiantly a Fender Telecaster and Ryusuke certainly plays a Gibson Les Paul (certainly looks cooler than mine).

Most of the music is by a Japanese band named the Beat Crusader, some of there original tracks can be heard throughout the show, including the opening theme "Hit in the USA" and during an early episode "50c Wisdom" (although stated to be by the fictional band Dying Breed). A number of other tracks of theirs include, "Love Discord", "Moon on the Water" and "Gymnasium". The Ending theme "My World Down" is by Meister. This Anime got me in to Beat Crusaders so I gotta say even if you don't watch this show, check them out. It's Worth it. Another good band to check out would be Typhoon 24, Responsible for the songs "Like a foojin" and "Spice of Life".


All an all this is highly recommended, and while it may appear slow to start, it is well worth the watch and if your a music fan you should find your moneys worth. ^_^

News - Netflix Developing "Legend of Zelda" TV series

It was announced today that Netflix are working with Nintendo to create  a series based on the successful video game series "The Legend of Zelda". The main premise around this show is to create a "Game of Thrones" type show for the entire family.

The Idea of this, will most likely be met with one of two reactions, 1. "That sounds relatively interesting, I might check it out." and 2. "How could they do that!! Well excuuuuuse me Nintendo! but what are you thinking!!"

The problem with this is that Link has always been a mute character, intended to be the "link" between the player and the world of the game, while plenty of mute game characters have been done relatively well in other media, e.g. Makoto Yuki from Persona 3 into the Persona 3 Movies(2013) and Red from Pokemon Red, Green and Blue into Pokemon Origins (2013).

An obvious conclusion you could make for Link in this case would be the "Legend of Zelda" cartoon from 1989, the Link shown in this incarnation is Brash, Cocky and above all annoying (here's hoping Netflix ignores this incarnation). Another Nintendo Mute character that has also suffered from gaining a voice would be Samus Aran, in the last Metroid game "Other M". And I'm just gonna say it "Super Mario Brothers the Movie"(1993)
So far not a great track record for Nintendo characters.

With all this in consideration, things don't look good for the Elf boy at all. However, a series like this could actual work out if they took the perspective of "Wind Waker". Instead of having a series revolve around Link himself, this could be an interesting experiment in the lives of those living in Hyrule with The Hero of Time remaining a legend. Some characters such as Zelda, Impa, and even Ganon remaining as background characters. Or having the Hero of Time disappear (Ala the adult time line) and a new hero (or passably heroes) band together and travel the country, either appointed by Zelda or find Zelda along the way in order to stop the resurrection of Ganon.

Keeping Link as a legend through out the series, and maybe only mentioned in passing by Zelda or others, would build up the viewers opinion of him without tainting his image as a hero and reflection of the player.

Interested to here what anyone thinks about the series in general. What are your hopes for the series? What are your Fears? Do you even care?

Source: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2015-02-06/wsj-netflix-is-developing-a-live-action-legend-of-zelda-series/.84181

Soul Eater Not! - Review

 A sound soul dwelling with in a sound mind but unsound body. Missed opportunities and what could have been.

About a year ago, I found a copy of Soul Eater Not! on the shelf of my local bookstore. Having been a big fan of the original anime and slowly but surely been reading the original manga, I decided to give it a try. A few weeks ago I found that Not! had been adapted to an anime. So in the last few days I chilled out between classes by watching it. While writing this I even have a copy of the Soul Eater and Soul Eater Not! Manga next to me just to get spellings right.

I felt this little introduction was necessary just to explain the mind set I was in when watching this. After all, someone who has been expecting this show and been hyped as hell for months will probably have a different opinion from those who just stumble across it or are just casualy viewing it.

Right with that out of the way, On To The Review!!

After spending sometime away from a world, weather it be your hometown, your favorite video game or, in this case, the world of an anime, you feel a curtain nostalgia on some level. Exploring the streets, seeing the people, grabbing a cup of coffee with your old friends, but after a while you start to notice all the changes. You start to remember all the flaws and even though new elements may appear appealing at first its never as perfect as you remember.

The story of Soul Eater Not! takes place about a year or two before the original series, following the school lives of three girls just starting at DWMA and the adjustments they must make to there new lives.
We are introduced (Or rather re-introduced) to the school through Tsugumi Harudori, a young Japanese student about to start her first year after having recently discovering that she is a weapon. Tsugumi is, in simplified terms, a younger less competent Maka, even stating a number of times to be inspired by Maka. She is kind hearted and loyal but suffers from a lack of confidence, this isn't necessarily a bad thing since it gives the character ample space to grow. Throughout the series we see her numerous fears about the future and how she overcomes or at least learns to live with them. Not a great protagonist but not a bad start for one.
Second is Anya, a meister in training and a runaway princess. Starting the series she is gives the appearance of a spoiled brat and viewing the others as low class commoners, while this would get annoying relatively quickly (and at times it does) it is nicely juxtaposed with her inner monologue. As the show progresses her monologue become less frequent and her attitude begins to sum what subside. While this was an interesting way to show growth, it becomes slightly less meaning full when the character practically regresses during the final few minutes.
Lastly is Meme Tatane, an incredibly absent minded girl with big boobs. That's it. Meme is the kind of character that fifty percent of the time could be replaced with any other background character. Aside from being a plot device at the end, the only thing her character brings is the on-running joke of being incredibly forgetful, which gets old really quickly and becomes inconsistent at times.

A number of our old favorites return as background characters or even side characters. Black Star, Tsubaki and Kid make occasional appearances usually with only a sentence or two. Maka and Soul appear in a few episodes but usually just so Tsugumi can get some advice from Maka, sometimes good, sometimes Tsugumi doesn't even get to ask her question, needless to say during there early appearances I was hoping that the story would suddenly switch to Maka's perspective. Liz and Patty become side characters around the 4th or 5th episode and actually gives them more character development then our protagonists, not a good sign. During the series we are able to see Sid, pre-Zombie and Stein, pre-Teacher. There's very little difference.

The Main villain of the series is nowhere near as good as Medusa or Arachne, though in this case the villain was never that important. The feels as though the only reason there was a villain was to give the three main characters a major obstacle to over come.

The Animation throughout the series is great and on pare with the original series at times. Character designs are solid and backgrounds are great and rarely reused. The occasional effects for things like transformations are just as good though rarely used so there would have been no excuse. Standard Bones quality.

Compaired to its big brother the music is incredibly forgetful, the opening song is descent enough for the show but is fairly bland and doesn't really stick in your head as well as T.M.Revolution or Paper Moon.

For a casual watch, its an ok slice of life with some fantasy but as a side story to Soul Eater it pails in comparison. If your curious give it a try but otherwise your not missing much.