Toradora Review

                                                        Toradora AKA Tiger X Dragon.

Story

Toradora AKA Tiger and Dragon, is a romantic comedy that involves a group of High School friends the story centers around Ryuji, who is often mistaken as a delinquent due to his fathers looks that he inherited. Ryuji has always liked Minori since middle school but they never talk to each other. At the start of his first year in high school. He manages to be placed in the same class has his best friend Kitamura, who is very popular. He is also in the same class as Minori and Taiga. Taiga is known as the Palmtop Tiger because of her height and feisty attitude. This show is about how Ryuji and Taiga form a relationship in order to solve each others problems. Eventually this relationship turns into something more. The group of main characters help each other with their problems though each have their own motivations for doing so. While still a generic slice of life show, it handles all the dramatic or touching moments with expertise.

Characters

Taiga

Taiga despite being small has a vicious personality. Ryuji bumps into Taiga on the first day of school, Taiga takes this as a show of dominance and punches him in the face.That night she breaks into Ryuji’s house with a wooden sword, initially seeking more violence. She is, however, won over by the food Ryuji makes her.

Ryuji

Ryuji looks like a delinquent thanks to his father. This is not an accurate impression because he is really a nice guy, who is borderline feminine due to his love for cooking and cleaning. He has a goofy single mother that he often has to take care of. His goals for the school year are to look more approachable and to talk to Minori. He meets Taiga and the two become friends, after a few fights.

Ami

Ami is an old friend of Kitamura, she shows up at the High School to escape from her modeling problems. She first meets Ryuji and Taiga in a diner and right away she gets a slap to the face. Ami is the typical double faced bitch, she is nice to people she likes and she is a bitch to everyone who she doesn’t like. Kitamura shows Ryuji this on the first day so he doesn’t get the wrong impression.

Kitamura

Kitamura is the most popular guy in school adored by most everyone. He is on the student council and is generally in a cheery and motivational mood. He is best friends with Ryuji and is the only one who really understands that Ryuji isn’t the troublemaker people make him out to be.

Sound & Music

The sound and music his handled very well throughout the series, including all the opening and ending songs as well as the voice acting. Especially the songs during the dramatic scenes really work to perpetuate the tension and emotion. All the opening and ending songs are catchy and reflect the tone of the current story.

Art & Animation

 The Animation is unique but very crisp and clean looking. It’s good at showing fluid movements and character expressions. There is a good variety of environments and backgrounds. Each character is designed uniquely which makes for good variety.

Enjoyment

 I really enjoyed Toradora. It keeps things interesting the whole way through with it’s small story arcs spliced across one large one. I always wanted to continue on with the next episode. This anime does a great job of satisfying all your requires for a rom/com.

Overall

The only flaws I could find with Toradora is the fact there isn’t anymore, I think sometime similar to Clannad’s after story would be appropriate for this series. Also at some points in the show you had to suspend disbelief on some of the drama so that the plot could advance or deepen. I would give it an 9/10.

A Certain Scientific Review. (Part 2)

A Certain Scientific Railgun

~Part two~

Sound

                The sound is handled fairly well throughout the show. The voice actors for roles that are in the main series are the same for this spin off, so you don’t have to get use to new voices. As far as the overall quality of the voice actors go it's pretty solid but I found Uiharu’s voice grating at times. The music is pretty typical. The show seems to handle it with a thematic approach, giving each character or situation a theme track.  The show mostly features upbeat tracks, and really encompasses this in its opening and ending songs. It was also good at changing moods during scenes, which didn’t always match up I felt. The best part of the sound mixing I felt was the sound effects for abilities; showcased best with the railgun or, Kuroko’s teleport. It really gives it an epic action, comic book feel to the show.

Art and Animation

                One of my favorite things about this show was its stunning use of backgrounds and just how good academy city looks. The environments they go to are all unique and the fight scenes play well off of them (generally by destroying them). They also followed the manga designs for all the characters, which is nice for a sense of continuity. The fight scenes could have been animated better, they tend to cop out when they have to show something complex like the railgun actually destroying something. Also the characters tend to move awkwardly when fighting. However on the plus side they handle Kuroko’s teleportation beautifully, one of her hallmarks is to teleport pegs into people’s guns so they can’t shoot her. Whenever it happens there is a sound indicating and it shows the pegs one by one get shot into the guns.

Overall

                You can’t argue that this show doesn't have flaws. Be its comic relief fan service or its bizarre story arc pacing. Even when you take that into account however, this is one spin off that’s every bit as good as the original. In my opinion it is superior to the original because I found Index in the original series to be very annoying. If I were to rate this show out of a ten I would give it a 7.5. It has a ton of potential to be around a 9 with its unique story (Academy City concept really is genius) but, they handled a view things poorly.  I would still recommend this show to anyone who likes shows with a strong female lead or a unique sci-fi, action plot.

Who Cares?

                First of all I’m obliged to say that anyone who has read the manga or seen Index has to watch this, it doesn’t surprise or disappoint if you have. There are a few other good tie-ins however. Like I mentioned earlier I found this show to have a great comic book fan appeal. It nails the sound effects and the vigilantly sense of justice that most heroes tend to exhibit. It also has namely all girl main characters much like the show Charmed, so if girls with powers kicking ass is your thing, the Railgun has it. It’s hard to pick an anime similar to it. If I had to describe it in terms of anime would say it’s a fusion of Soul Eater and Canaan.  Which isn’t entirely accurate but I guess if it were the genome of anime like Pandora is on music, then it has the same show qualities. Which is what I’m aiming for in this section a sort of Genome of anime or, TV tropes comparison.

               

               

               

               

A certain Scientific review. (Part 1)

A Certain Scientific Railgun

The Breakdown

Wouldn’t it be great to have special powers? Or would it cause more problems for you than you had already? Academy City is a place for those with such powers. Toaru Kagaku no Railgun or, A Certain Scientific Railgun, follows the events around Misaka Mikoto and her core group of friends and their adventures within the City. They are students aiming to better their powers as espers through attending school. The show takes place within a city that is shaped through peoples powers and using those powers to usurp fame and riches. So in such a city of course, there are going to be people using their powers criminally or just plain deviously. Two of Misaka’s friends belong to a group called judgment, which acts as a police force to keep others in line. The group of four stop many unscrupulous folk, and also deal with their own problems along the way. The show is a spin off of the popular Toaru Majutsu no index.  The show highlights the struggle between good and evil and the consequences of exploiting your powers.

Characters

left to right: Uiharu, Misaka, Kuroko, Saten-san

Misaka, the railgun, electric princess, biri biri, Tokiwadai’s Ace (yes she has a lot of nicknames for good reason). She has her own brand of vigilantly justice which she backs up using her level five ability, which is the highest level, to generate electricity and manipulate current. Her trade mark, ace in the hole ability, is to fire a coin using her rail gun which accelerates a coin into a laser 3 times the speed of sound. The prize student of Tokiwadai’s Middle school, she is both intelligent and powerful. You don’t want to piss her off or pick on someone weaker than you, because she will stop at nothing to find you. Her favorite thing of all time is a frog toy character named Gekota. If you have one of those toys then the end result for you may be the same as picking a fight. This quirky, bashful, fierce chick is the show stopper and main character of the series. It’s nice to see a strong independent female as a lead of the show.

Misaka prepping the rail gun, both cute and deadly.

Shirai Kuroko is a level 4 esper with the ability to teleport and is the affectionate roommate of Misaka. They both attend middle school and Kuroko “highly admires” Misaka to say the least, referring to her as Onee-sama (older sister). Kuroko works for Judgment and spends her time out of school fighting crime. She must balance her duties of fighting crime while keeping a leash on Misaka. She wants the criminals behind bars instead of smoldering pieces of char after being rail gunned. Kuroko adds a lot of humor to the series whether it’s when her advances are stopped cold by Misaka, or when she gives some funny perspective on their past.

Uiharu Kazari, is the girly friend (highlighted by the fact she wears flowers on her head) that attends the same school as Saten Ruiko. She is only a level 1 esper but she works on the same team of judgment as Kuroko does. She has a great sense of duty and loyalty to her friends and the city she works for. I found her character to be the least interesting but she grounds the four member group to a reality that is more relatable to us viewers than that of Academy City.

Ruiko Saten is the unfortunate powerless esper in the group, a level zero, or ugly duckling in the eyes of the City. For the most part, this doesn't keep her down though because she loves having a great group of friends and living in Academy City. Like all people especially teenagers, she isn't perfect. When rumors of a special tool that increases psychic powers called the "Level Upper" are spread, she considers obtaining it out of envy as she does not have any apparent powers. I liked her character as she provided a good foil to the people with powers, and how the problems she faces are just as real as the higher level espers.

Stay Tuned

Next to come is my review of the art, sound, and my overall impression of Railgun. Also, my column on “Who Cares?”  ties the show to other examples, be it in anime or elsewhere.

PS:

Several people suggested the pacing of my first review was far too quick and left out too many details. So this review will be done in multiple blog entries. This may have taken it too far in the long direction, please leave comments with your opinions and follow me on twitter xD thx.

Future Diary Review

A Glimpse into the future (diary)

          

  It would be hard to pick a genre that Mirai Nikki (future diary) fits into wholeheartedly, since this show is  so many things; none of which are boring. If I had to peg the story into one genre, I would probably choose love story. Since the love story is between Yuki and Yuno the two main characters. That is of course if it was the most thrilling romance ever.  It contains thrills, chills, and downright bloody violence. If you’re up for a psychologically thrilling battle royale, anime style of course, you must watch future diary. Without spoiling anything, the story is about two middle school students named Yuki and Yuno that are thrown into a death match to decide the fate of the world by god. All 12 contestants are given a diary that predicts the future in their own special ways. Then they must kill each other until only one is left, thus crowning the new god of time and space.

Scorecard

Story- (9) the story starts great and never really lets you down. There are a lot of twists and turns along the way that are executed way more originally and clever than most titles. It makes use of great flashbacks to fill in some of the characters stories along the way too.

Art- (8) All the characters are unique and animated very well, there is a diverse environment that is quite a comfort after seeing so many shows take place exclusively at a school.

Sound- (9) the opening and ending songs are all catchy, and contain spoilers of the show if you examine them carefully. The beauty of it though is that none of the spoil the show because of how cleverly they are done. Throughout the show you will hear an astonishing 61 songs, which adds great variety.

Characters- (10) this is what made the show for me. Every character is both dynamic and has a back story. There is someone for everyone to relate to in the show and there isn’t a character that feels unimportant the whole time. I’m obliged to say that Yuno takes the cake as best character.

Overall- (9) it was entertaining and enjoyable, of all the anime I’ve seen this is one of only three I’ve seen multiple times. Of course it was also the first show I reviewed on my blog if that’s any indication

                                                         Who cares?

Well you should, if you like good shows in general this is a show you have to see. If you’re not convinced let’s look at some tie-ins. If you’re anything like me you enjoyed the great summer blockbuster Hunger Games. They both are similar because they feature a strong female lead ( though Yuno is way more psychotic) and a battle royale theme, and a love story.  An anime tie would have to be death note, both are psychologically thrilling and have clever main characters. If you even remotely enjoyed the tie-ins I mentioned, go click play on Future Diary episode 1!

PS:

Following this I will be doing posts every other day so I am better able to write well thought out reviews in multiple parts, because one day and one post was not enough to cover an entire show.

Future blog reviews

I've done it! At least for the time being anyhow, I have decided the direction I want this blog to take. I want to focus on giving reviews and commentary about shows, without spoiling them for potential future viewers of them. In order to do this I won’t be doing an episode by episode review, but instead focusing on an overview. Disclaimer: This is all subject to change of course (hah). My plan is to go through My Anime List, and select shows I’ve already seen to start reviewing.


What will the format look like? Well a good overview would review generic things and rate them, Ex: Story-10… blah blah because I said so. Notice I said good, not exciting. I plan on adding extra commentary and tying it into other anime or real world examples to get you to care about it. I don’t want to just give my rating on it; I want to inspire some thought and/or discussion regarding the show. Now I’m not saying that I’m going full on untraditional, but if I were to go the generic blog route I would be the millionth person to review Code Geass (10/10 would watch again).

^Possible review spoiler^

My next blog entry, #tomorrow, will include my first review of a series. Speaking of the hash tag, (Since I’m new to twitter; was most likely used incorrectly) feel free to follow me @AnimeZac. Which series will I be reviewing? I may have to decide that in the near future. I’ll spin my giant roulette wheel and see what it lands on to decide, no seriously though, there’s an app for that. In other words I have no idea, but without fail you and I will both find out what it is tomorrow. Until next time Ciao!

Your intro as well as mine!

I first started watching anime because it was recommended to me by my friend Zack. I was already out of high school and got to witness the stigmas attached to watching anime first hand during my time there. People ranging from the overly obsessed, to the socially repressed types that spend all day in Japanese class.  I approached it carefully to say the least when I started. Growing of the tired of all of our so called "reality" programming here in America I decided I would fire up Zack's recommendation (Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood).

 I was quite captivated, it was all the action I wanted in a show, with a great plot to complement it. Things were going well and Zack and I discussed the first few episodes over Skype. I told Zack that I liked how I didn't have to put up with any bad acting, or weak filler episodes, and rattled off praises about the show in general. I went back to watching, starting to rethink my negative connotations toward it. That is of course until I reached episode 4. Now I don't know if it was how creepy this episode was or the stylized humor scenes, but it bugged me. I stopped watching for about a month until my friend Zack asked me what I thought of FMA: B. I had to tell him that I had stopped. Exasperated he brought up some plot point that sounded really interesting that I had missed (I’m leaving it out for sake of spoilers). Long story short both Zack and FMA: B hooked me into anime from there and I haven’t looked back.

Now that I’ve offered a little insight into my past; just where am I going with all this? Well fast forward to a little over a year since my story. I am still very much into anime, having watched about 40 different series. However I realized while discussing anime with my friends, that I enjoy that almost as much as watching it. So I decided that I should manifest that into other forms of media and offer useful commentary on anime. A month ago I started co-hosting a podcast about anime @banzaibeat and my latest project is this blog. I may also be expanding to YouTube and twitter. What can you expect to see on this blog? You know that’s a really good question, I’m sure I will be doing show and/or episode reviews as well as offering just some general commentary, beyond that we will have to see. I will try to post to this blog every day, and will keep you updated with the other mediums of media I offer.