3,000 Pageviews!!!

 

It's been another 1,000 pageviews, and what have I accomplished? Not that much, to be honest. (Reviewing hiatus intensifies)

But, yeah, thanks for the support, your comments, and here's to another great 1,000 pageviews!!!

Cheers,
~Selena

Last Updated: 18 January 2015
Originally Published: 18 January 2015

Sailor Moon Crystal Halfway Point Thoughts

Because I am extremely lazy, this will sort of count as a review for me. Also, this post will contain SPOILERS. 

As I write this, we are 13 episodes into the 26 episode ONA remake of Naoko Takeuchi's precious shojo series, Sailor Moon Crystal. It was created in honor of the original series' 20th anniversary, (though the start dates aren't actually 20 years apart for either the manga or the anime) and so far, has been more of a bed of controversy than one would imagine. These 13 episodes encompass the "Dark Kingdom" arc, with the "Black Moon" arc to be covered in episodes 14-26. We were supposed to be 14 episodes in by this point, but episodes were delayed a week twice so far.

First and foremost, I WOULD NOT have gotten into this anime, had I known the episodes were supposed to be released every two weeks. Quite often the wait for the new episode has been painful, especially those two times where the wait was three weeks, not two. If I wanted to experience the true Sailor Moon story, I could have read the manga. I actually thought about doing that quite often. But, I guess there's some part of me that wished I could have experienced the Sailor Moon boom back in the 90s, and this is sort of my way of "making up for" the experience.

During the first few episodes, I was often smiling uncontrollably, because what was on the screen was really cute, if not a little stupid and superficial. I loved seeing each of the Sailor Guardians get their episode spotlight, although I thought the antagonists were a bit repetitive. However, looking back on the 13 episodes so far, the story came off to me as very cliche, because it borrows tropes and plot points that have been used time and time again, particularly ones involving romance, that came before and after Sailor Moon. Tragic lovers, love triangles, reincarnation, forbidden love, etc. The story was all right up until about episode 9, where the Sailor Senshi actually felt like they had different personalities and the plot actually stuck to the manga. But, the producers decided to deviate from the manga, and that's when the story really fell apart. Sure, this adaptation of the manga is much more faithful than the 90s series, but I am not fond of the changes that were made here, the most prominent change being the worst offense. In episode 12, Usagi uses the holy sword to kill Beryl. However, in the manga, it was Venus. My guess as to why this change was made was to make Usagi seem less useless. For every episode I was engaged and glad I was watching this anime, there was an episode that made me feel extremely unsatisfied and felt a bit angry that I would have to wait at least another two weeks for an episode. The best example I can give is episodes nine and ten. Episode nine just felt so superficial, while episode ten gave us a major plot point that actually surprised me. The pacing was fine in the beginning of the anime, but then things slowed down considerably, which is part of the reason a few of the episodes felt unsatisfying. So, overall, do not expect a good plot from this anime at all.

Usagi is not a good "strong shojo protagonist." I realize she does change a bit, but Usagi is just as much of a whiny crybaby relying on Mamoru to save her in episode 13 as she is in episode 1. Sure, people make the excuse that she's just a lovestruck 14-year-old girl, but it just feels like she's completely dependent on Mamoru to be there for her. The rest of the Sailor Senshi are better characters than our protagonist. Personally, my favorite is Ami, though Makoto is a close second. My problem with these four girls, however, is they seem to all be connected to Usagi, rather create this sort of web of friendship. Here, let me show you with diagrams.

This is the friendship web in Sailor Moon Crystal:

 

And this is what the friendship web should look like.


This problem becomes much more noticeable when Usagi doesn't care as much abut her friends as they do her. She expects them to help her, but she doesn't help them when Evil Mamoru was attacking them in episode 11. Heck, she even thought of "joining" him, and abandoning her friends. Mamoru Chiba started off as a fabulous, but adorkable male protagonist, and I finally felt that feeling plenty of girls felt when seeing him in the original series from the 90s. I was really, really liking him, (yes I think he's hot) but he just doesn't have that *heart* I've felt from better male characters. The villains are all very cliche, but I did not expect the plot twist regarding the four kings. That was without a doubt one of the highlights of this anime.

I do appreciate the cleaned-up artwork to Crystal in comparison to its 90's counterpart, but the manga, in my opinion, has the best artwork. However, countless people have pointed out art and animation missteps in the past 6 months, ranging from little tiny things to stupid shortcuts.

Up top is the original, on the bottom is Japan's Blu-Ray edit. *sigh*

I really don't know why anyone thought animating the transformation sequences in 3D was a good idea, because a) it's much more effort, and b) just doesn't look good compared to the rest of the show. I don't like how it makes the sailor fuku or their hair look like plastic.

I actually like the soundtrack to this anime. The soundtrack overall feel very classic, very fitting for a fantasy-romance anime. I actually appreciate this feeling,in comparison to the original anime's soundtrack. Some of my favorite tracks include the Moon Tiara Boomerang, and the *MOON PURISUMU PAWAAAA...MEIKUUUU APPUUU!* (I'm sorry I had to). The opening and ending themes are good, but not as iconic as the original Moonlight Densetsu.

The biggest point I'm trying to stress here is Sailor Moon Crystal doesn't stand up other shojo and magical girl anime, even to its original manga counterpart, because we've seen what's come since, and what it has inspired in the 20-something years since it first came out. The Rayearths, the PreCures, the Mew Mews, the Peaches, the Mermaids, the Sakuras, the Charas, the Utenas, heck, even the Madokas all have Sailor Moon influences within them. Before Sailor Moon, magical girls rarely teamed up super-sentai style, and didn't necessarily have to use their powers to fight evil. Sailor Moon paved the way for a lot of anime, we owe it that much, but it's just that the stuff that came after it is just better than the original by building on the original concept, and taking it to greater heights.

If I were to give a score to these 13 episodes, I would probably say around a 6/10, but I will not completely judge this anime before it has the chance to redeem itself. Do I recommend this anime? For now, no, mainly because of the two-week wait. But once it's done, I would probably recommend this to little girls who haven't really seen a whole lot of anime. All the hardcore Sailor Moon fans are already watching this, so there's really no one for me to recommend this to. If you want to experience the Sailor Moon story, go read the manga. You know what, I'm probably going to do that eventually.

If you wish to check out this series for yourself, you can do so legally on Crunchyroll and Hulu,

Cheers,
~Selena

Last Updated: 13 January 2015
Originally Published: 13 January 2015

Squeaky Clean Anime Taste Test: WataMote Episodes 1-3 (12 Days of Anime 2014 Day 6)

I know, I know, I'm doing a Taste Test of a short anime! But the only reason I am doing so is...
BECAUSE I WAS CHALLENGED!!!

It all started when Glass Reflection started his "Review Week of Awesome," and he gave the "F**k It" rating to this anime. I posted a comment (Here's the important part: I skipped to the end of the review because I was busy, and soon after, I was specifically asked to watch the first three episode because "I can't form my own opinions." I later watched the entire review here) Here's the screenshots of the comments:

(I thought the first episode of Lucky Star was the most boring first episode I've ever seen in anime)

By the way, the original video was taken down, then re-uploaded.

So, as you can see, I was told to try the first 3 episodes before calling it a bad anime. And thus, this Taste Test.

Yes, WataMote, is a slice-of-life, but with a concept I don't think has been used to this extreme before. The story is quite simple. Tomoko Kuroki is an unpopular girl, sometimes referred to as a "mojō." She hoped that with entering high school, she would magically become popular. Well, she didn't, so using her "research" from otome games, as well as the almighty Internet, she seeks out ways to be popular, or at least get boys to notice her.

I definitely see the appeal of this anime, and the otaku references certainly got a laugh out of me. (The Death Note one was the best by far) But the problem with this story is, it was most likely made for all these otaku to reflect on their past experiences and laugh at themselves with retrospect. Instead, it brings up some not-so-good memories of my shut-in otaku self, and I know others have felt the same way when watching this anime. I'm pretty sure many of you reading this have felt the pain of a close friend who was once really dorky suddenly blossom and mature, while you stayed behind. Or get told off by a teacher really loudly in the middle of class because you forgot something. Tomoko is often put into embarrassing situations, and she is constantly feeling horrible as a result. This is where the "cringe" in cringe comedy gets put. And I'm not fond of those "awkward moments" in anime. At all.

As a character, Tomoko is probably the most relatable one I have EVER seen, almost to a scary extent. Some of Tomoko's spiteful lines she spouted off have come out of my mouth, or at least, brain, almost word for word. However, it's her motivation overshadowing her common sense that makes me think this show didn't treat her with much respect. Which is a bit of a shame, considering that they chose to make our recluse character a female, which doesn't happen that often in media. Tomoko legitimately has social anxiety disorder, and she cannot help that. The fact that this show tries to sort of mock that has led some people to dislike this anime. Tomoko's younger brother, Tomoki, is the brother character I don't think I've seen in anime before either. He's always annoyed, crabby, and doesn't like putting up with his sister.  The great thing about this brother-sister relationship is that it's very realistic. As I'm only three episodes in, there really aren't any more characters for me to talk about.

The art and animation never sticks to one style an entire episode. Sometimes this is to indicate Tomoko's fantasies, her nightmarish predictions of what is to happen next, or simply for the purpose of reference/otaku humor. Lighting also had an effect on the scenes, and a lot of times these polygons of light will fill a scene or set. Tomoko's fantasies are usually in a particular filter, while her nightmares have another. I like the character designs of putting marks under the Kuroki siblings' eyes to indicate that they're constantly under stress.

As far as dubbing goes, I was a bit skeptical when I found out Monica Rial was cast as Tomoko a few months ago. I thought, "She's a great actor, but only the directors at Funimation are good enough to utilize her talent to the fullest." However, she really worked well with the material she was given, and made her performance as Tomoko very believable. What Monica did better than her Japanese counterpart Izumi Kitta were the times when Tomoko was forced to interact with regular people. Aside from David Matranga as Tomoki, there were no other stand out roles in the dub, which was filled with Sentai Filmworks regulars. The Japanese version, however, made it sound, I want to say, a bit more natural. Izumi Kitta did a phenomenal job as Tomoko, and her performance shines the best when she's being her forever alone otaku self.

I did notice a little bit of 8-bit in the soundtrack, which I thought to be incredibly fitting, considering out main character is an otaku girl. The rest of the OST, however, is rather mundane, and comprised of those "little sounds" and "short repeated melody runs" that tend to fill up soundtracks of slice-of-life anime. The opening, on the other hand, is this awesome, really unique almost-hard-rock song that totally blows the rest of the soundtrack out of the water. The ending theme is alright, I guess.

WataMote is selling itself as a 12-episode chunk of high concentration cringe comedy. The problem with this type of setup is that the "comedy" may actually hit a little too close to home for much of the audience. Some people might watch an episode and walk away feeling better, and some may feel worse. Me, personally, I was actually split about halfway. For every time I thought I was looking into a portal of my past self, another time forced me to realize I am doing exactly what Tomoko is doing wrong. Now, if this anime was trying to get otakus to change themselves...well...that actually opens up another can of worms that I don't think I have enough time to discuss on this Taste Test.

As far as enjoyment goes, it was fine, but the show did have those moments where I just wanted to look away or mute the sound, just because the situation was so awkward. I will say though that the references made up for this show a lot more than it probably should have.

Now, you may not know this, but I have a policy about anime. No matter how bad it is, no matter how boring it is, I will almost never drop an anime (There are exceptions, such as Negima and the previously mentioned Lucky Star) I almost always plan on finishing an anime sometime in the future, whether that be in two days or two years. And it is this that forces me to watch the rest of WataMote. The question is then, of when I will get around to watching it. If I'm looking for a comedy, I might pick this one up. But I don't think I'm in that big of a rush to finish this, even though I've only got nine more episodes. As far as if I recommend this, I'd say watch it if you're prepared to feel uncomfortable at least a few times. This is not a show for regular people at all. 

If you like the sound of this anime, you can watch it for free legally here.

Cheers,

~Selena

Last Updated: 25 December 2014

Originally published: 19 December 2014

Christmas Episodes in Anime! (12 Days of Anime Day 4)

I realized the post I was planning on publishing today should be held off until next week. So, instead, you get this.
I'm making this post one step above TV Tropes' Christmas episode page in that I am telling you exactly which episodes they are. Hooray for Wikipedia!


Let's get an obvious one out of the way. If you're REALLY looking for an anime to put you in the Christmas spirit, there is no better option than Satoshi Kon's Tokyo Godfathers. Sure, it's a feature-length film instead of an anime episode, but it's far less darker than Kon's other work. Three homeless people find an abandoned baby on Christmas Eve, and they set out to find its mother, encountering many quirky characters along the way. While I actually didn't think this movie was that great when I first watched it, I don't think I've seen or heard of anything quite like it since regarding anime.


In a complete contrast to Tokyo Godfathers, episodes 28 and 31 of Hetalia: Axis Powers are short, ridiculous, and about as rudely stereotypical as the rest of the show. Episode 28 finds Finland dressed as Santa, while episode 31 has many of the countries being interviewed as to how they spend their winter holidays.


Episode 17 of Azumanga Daioh sees our 6 girls in plenty of Christmas shenanigans. (Sorry, on those I have not seen, I'll only provide a brief description, with the help of Wikipedia and TVtropes)


Episode 7 of the first season of K-ON! has a Christmas party for our moe-troop.


Love Hina has a 45 minute Christmas special. It's the first of only two TV specials, so it should be pretty easy to find.


Season Two, episode 19 of School Rumble is almost exactly what you'd expect from the series. Harima's rush to bring in a manuscript, curry, and misunderstandings.


Back to the cute girls! Episode 22 of The Idolmaster involves *sigh* all of our girls having a Christmas Party together.


I don't recommend you watch this, unless you've seen the entire anime already, but episode 12 of Chrono Crusade is a bit more plot-oriented than most of the episodes on this list.


Aaaaaand, we're back to the slice-of-life genre, where we see episode 11 of probably the most famous slice-of-life anime out there, Lucky Star.


Episode 13 of Kamichu sees a Shintoist trying to combat Christmas. *grabs popcorn*

And, that's about it from me! (Although if you REALLY need your Christmas fix of anime, I suggest you do a bit of research...)

Cheers,
~Selena

Last Updated: 17 December 2014
Originally Published: 17 December 2014

Free! Eternal Summer English Dub Cast Thoughts (12 Days of Anime 2014 Day 3)

I know it's been a while since the cast was announced, and we haven't gotten a dub trailer yet, but I would like to express some of my thoughts on this casting.
I will do this in order of when the announcements came out.


J. Michael Tatum as Rei Ryugazaki

Awwwww, double megane! I was hoping for Rei to be voiced by Chris Cason, because I was imagining Chris' Hanai (School Rumble) voice with Rei's face, and it all fit together so well in my mind. That said, however, I can totally imagine the Tatum with a ridiculously flamboyant and fabulous voice deserving of the character.


Greg Ayres as Nagisa Hazuki

At first, I wished that the roles of Nagisa and Aiichro were switched around. However, after Anime America Podcast published this video, I quickly warmed up to the idea.


Johnny Yong Bosch as Makoto Tachibana

Alright, I'll admit it. This announcement had me fangirling the most. First of all, I'm very happy Johnny is doing dubbing work for Funimation, which is in Dallas, and not just staying in L.A. (But I believe that's because he's done working on Bleach with VIZ.) I have great confidence in him to properly portray Makoto. Although I wanted Vic Mignogna to voice him, because I was imagining his Tamaki from Ouran voice, but less crazy, and sweeter, as Makoto. And here comes the fangirling: MY HUSBANDO. VOICED BY ONE OF MY FAVORITE ENGLISH VOICE ACTORS. OHHHHH MYYYYY GOSHHHHH.


Todd Haberkorn as Haruka Nanase

In my opinion, Todd is at his best when he's voicing characters with a screw loose, see Natsu, Death the Kid, and Italy, which is why I wanted him to voice Momotaro. But I'm totally okay with this casting choice, even though I wanted Haru-chan to be voiced by Micah Solusud... 

But I know Todd has the range to pull off this role, and the chemistry between him and Vic, who plays Rin, will boost this dub's quality.


Vic Mignogna as Rin Matsuoka

I would like to say at this point that I think those who started the angry petition to re-cast Rin were completely out of their minds, and Justin Sevakis does a great job explaining why here (It's the last question and response, and the forum posts are a good read too.) And whoever "leaked" the announcement, well, yours did look good...(I swear that photo up there is the legit one)

When I was thinking of who to pick for Rin, I was having a very difficult time, actually. I think Vic is a great actor, and I was greatly troubled to hear all of the initial negative feedback from the community upon this announcement being made. I have good faith in him to portray Rin very well.

Josh Grelle as Aiichiro Nitori

I actually think Josh could pull off Nitori's quiet and sweet disposition quite well, in fact. I'm also happy Josh is in this dub to begin with.


Jerry Jewell as Momotaro Mikoshiba

First, I don't think I've heard Jerry in a recent dub, to be honest. I'm still a little skeptical of how he'll do Momo's crazy personality, but I am happy he is finally getting the chance to exercise his range.


Ian Sinclair as Sosuke Yamazaki

I knew Sosuke had to have a super-manly voice, and in my ear fantasies, I thought Robert McCollum would fit the bill perfectly. But, Ian is a very talented actor, and I am perfectly happy with this casting decision.

Jamie Marchi as Gou Matsuoka

Unless Jamie really impresses me with her range, I am most skeptical about this casting decision. In the original Japanese, Gou has such a sweet and girly voice thanks to Akeno Watanabe. So I was hoping someone with an equally girly voice, such as Luci Christian or Alexis Tipton, would be cast. Jamie Marchi, however, seems to do more of those seductive, sarcastic, bossy, and brash voices. Only the trailer, though will cement an opinion from me.

Caitlin Glass as Miho Amakata, Chris Sabat as Goro Sasabe, and Robert McCollum as Seijuro Mikoshiba were all great casting choices. I can't really form an opinion on Clifford Chaplin as Takuya Uozumi, or Micah Solusod as Kazuteru Minami, as these guys are only minor characters.

Those were all of my thoughts of the Free Eternal Summer English cast, but now I want to know yours! Which role do you think was cast the best? The worst? Let me know in the comments!

Cheers,
~Selena

Last Updated: 3 January 2015
Originally Published: 16 December 2014