Kimiko_0's Anime
take a look at Kimiko_0's Manga| Seen all▲▼ | Rating▲▼ | Comment▲▼ |
| El Cazador de la Bruja (TV) | Very good | I'm no fan of road movies, so that was kinda bleh for me. The humor (I still have that taco-taco-tacos song in my head :P) makes up for it though. Nice characters, although not as deep as those of previous Bee Train works. The ending (ep.25) didn't quite fit the rest of the story I think. After watching this series a second time, I think it's better than I remembered. There is actually a good deal of action, and the setting grew on me as well. Huh, so that makes this the third time I've watched it. Well, the ending was a bit weak. Ep.24 I mean. Ellis & Nadie both dying and then getting revived was just adding pointless drama, and the whole thing with the crystal sort of acting on its own to protect Rosenberg (but not Ellis) and Ellis acting possessed and that mystery witch possessing Lirio also came out of nowhere really. The post-ending (ep.25) was, well, on one hand it's nice to get a full ep. for that instead of the usual rushed montage during the credits, but on the other hand it didn't really feel true to character for Nadie & Ellis to be acting all domestic-like (not to mention Jodie). The four newly introduced characters didn't feel important enough, even though with this being largely a road story that has happened many times before. So yeah, quite decent Bee Train "girls with guns" series in general, but with a weak ending. |
| Elemental Gelade (TV) | Not really good |
It's sort of okayish, but not great.
The thing that annoyed me most was how the Edel/Sting Raids, who for some unexplained reason are all women, are either helpless and childlike pretty dolls who couldn't survive on their own, or evil vamps who abuse humans. Kuea is the only sort-of exception, and even she's not taken very seriously (she and Rowen are a team, but only Rowen is an officer in Arc Aile; when Rowen goes in to meet his superiors, she's left in the lobby like one would a child or a cumbersome piece of luggage). All in all I think it hits a little too close to home to how women in general have been treated historically. I was surprised to see Yuki Kajiura's name in the credits. I recognized her musical style right away, but figured it was some lesser talent trying to imitate her (and doing only a half decent job at it). Definitely not up to par for her. |
| Elf Princess Rane (OAV) | Weak | WTF did I just watch? o_O The second episode doesn't really make the WTFness any better. That's also the last episode made, which may or may not be for the better. :? |
| Elfen Lied (TV) | Very good | This was quite good. Okay, there were also several instances of female nudity that didn't add anything to the story (except maybe for those 12yo boys), but otherwise it was very intriguing, and heart-breaking. I wish this series was much longer. Many questions were left open (the diclonius' origins; Nana's and Lucy's pasts; humanity's future). Oh, one warning. Don't watch this if you can't stand (animated) violence, gore and abuse. This is one of those anime that make you wonder just how much blood a human body can spew forth when slashed. It doesn't go lightly on emotional pain either. |
| Elfen Lied (OAV) | Decent | Light-hearted fluffy extra to the series. Doesn't really progress the story, so it can be left out. |
| Encouragement of Climb (TV) | Decent | Looks like it's iyashikei? Oh, the eps. are very short (3½min. including ED). The characters are supposed to be in highschool, but they look like they could be in elementary school. I hope it doesn't get fanservicey, because that would be icky. Well, Aoi is pretty moe, and Kokona too. Only the last ep. (probably a BD exclusive one) is fanservicey, but ep.12 also has kind of a male gaze vibe. Overall this anime is nice, but it would've been better without the moe and "girls as nature documentary subjects" vibe. |
| Encouragement of Climb Season 3 (TV) | Decent | Hmm, the start of ep.1 is a bit confusing. Is the camping thing a flash-forward or something? Ah, it was, to ep.11 no less. Hmm, the rest is nice, but it felt like they drew out the "drama" thing in the middle a bit too much. Well, since they didn't get to climb Fuji-san again I guess they wanted some other source of tension? Not really a great choice though. Also, maybe we're getting a fourth season? I mean, Aoi is still training for Fuji attempt #2 by the end. I didn't like that Kaede didn't get to go with the others much. She doesn't need to study that much yet in highschool year 2, does she? Even in the OP she gets less screentime. Kokona appears much more than Kaede, but even she is a bit of a background character compared to Aoi&Hinata. I would've liked to see them do more as a group. Even that last trip Kaede and Kokona went off-screen for half of it. They could've shown more of the trip/scenery if either there had been more time, or less of it were spent on the semi-drama thing between Aoi&Hinata. |
| Encouragement of Climb Second Season (TV) | Decent | The eps. are a lot longer this season, even though they're still much shorter than regular ones. The fanservice and moeness were increased too, unfortunately. Overall an okay anime. I'd have liked to see a little more actual mountain hiking and less generic slice-of-life though. And of course a lot less fanservice/male gaze/moe. |
| Encouragement of Climb: Gift of Memories (OAV) | Decent | Similar to some eps. in the middle of S2. It's 26min. long, but basically 2 eps. stuck together. One about Kokona going on another walk, and one about Hinata/Aoi remembering stuff from their past. Well, the first has memories of the past as a theme too, so in that way they fit together. Kaede appears but doesn't really do anything, and no new adventures happen. |
| End of the World (OAV) | Decent | Part 2 of Sweat Punch, discussed here. The art is a little rough, but the animation is quite decent. Not a whole lot of story though with only 9 min. or so. |
| Endro~! (TV) | Very good | As in "end(ing credits) ro(ll)". Looks like a fun story; cute girls doing fantasy heroing. Well, they lay on the DQ-style classic RPG terminology a bit thick, but the premise is okay for a CGDCT anime. Well, that was quite nice. The ending went a bit weird, but still okay. |
| Ergo Proxy (TV) | Not really good | This was crap. I suppose it would appeal to the goth/emo folks with its dark atmosphere and pseudo-psychological navel-gazing. Heck, one of the main characters even looks like a typical emo/goth, and the emo hairstyle (bangs that would get in your eyes, pushed to one side) is worn by several others. Since I'm not part of that culture, I didn't like it much. Half the time everything is so dark that you can only tell what is happening by the sounds and conversation. The other half the color palette ranges from murky to grey to mud to charcoal. The story hardly makes sense (post-apocalyptic, with a touch of cyberpunk dystopia) and even tries to pull an Excel Saga imitation genre change twice. The only really likeable character was cute little Pino (although Real kinda grew on me over time), but she never really got to be more than a main support character. Not at all recommended unless you're the emo/goth type who loves brooding and navel-gazing. |
| Escha Chron (OAV) | Very good | 2-ep. OVA. It looks like it could've been an Anime Tamago entry (except for the length). Maxine from IRC is subbing it and described it as slice-of-life. It looks interesting in any case. That was pretty good. Cute and sweet. It begs for a longer series, but what's there is good. |
| (The) Everyday Tales of a Cat God (TV) | Very good | Oh, this looks fun. It's humor slice-of-life instead of iyashikei slice-of-life like Kamichu, but otherwise it feels a lot like that. Hmm, I'd say it's a sort of Lucky Star Lite meets Kamichu and Moonphase. Or something like that. Quite gentle, sometimes just plain silly. I liked it ^_^ |
| Excel Saga (TV) | Good | It was sort of fun at first, what with all the parodies of anime clichés and stuff, but after that it got a little boring with two recap eps. and the not very interesting side-story of Pedro. The end was a little better, but by then the jokes weren't funny anymore and I was just glad that it was over. Pity, because it started out quite good. |
| Fairy Musketeers (TV) | Excellent | Cuute. I love Akazukin's shoes that go 'fwip, fwip, fwip' ^_^ I think this is one of the best magical girl anime out there. Its fantasy setting completely changes just about all of the Grimm fairytales, and Akazukin herself is just too adorable, in a strong way that's different from regular genki-ness. I wish there was a boxset available of this. Second: Yep, still good. The ending had some flaws (Marlene not being saved as you would expect with Souta's general attitude; all the Fandavele folks leaving Erde for vague reason, despite Sayo/Sylphine staying without any trouble; final battles a little too drawn out), but otherwise I still wish I could own this. |
| Fancy Lala (TV) | Good | Another anime where I don't remember when or why I put it on the to-watch list. I wonder what kind of magical girl anime this will be. It seems to be a classical magical girl anime (i.e. not fighting crime or evil) aimed at kids. Any tricky questions are dodged or ignored. Can someone strangle that Tarou kid already? Also, Chekhov's gift necklace out of the blue. Oh, the necklace was just in one ep. Kinda strange how this anime seems to forget anything that could maybe influence the status quo. The ending (2 eps.) was sad, and a little Mary Sue-like. |
| Fantastic Children (TV) | Decent | The first ep. is interesting, if somewhat confusing at first. The art is peculiar, not the usual anime style. Wow, how many groups are there in this story? I think we're up to seven now. The reason it seems to move so slowly is probably that episodes end just when things are getting interesting. Hmm, it's somewhat narrowed down now. The shocked expressions all the time though. They're just too much :þ With a flashback this long (several eps. now already) it's almost like two anime in one. This limited animation is starting to annoy me. Always with the loooong close-ups. It was just weird at first, but now it's just stalling. Well, in the end it was a story about men behaving like bad children, and women suffering because of it, in silence. The last episode was kinda unsatisfying too. Seth should've gotten a Disney Death too, and Dumas got off too light as well. The 'what happened afterwards' part was just soppy, and again not quite satisfying. An intriguing setup, but super slow execution, bad people doing bad things to good people, good people just suffering in silence and fading away without redemption, unsatisfying conclusion. Yah, it could've been good, and at times it actually is (slowly), but mostly failed to live up to the setup. |
| A Farewell to Weapons (movie) | So-so | Part of Short Peace. See there for comments. |
| Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya (TV) | Weak | Somewhat loli/male-gaze, but with good action scenes and some yuri hints. S3 in 2016-07. Yes, very male-gaze/loli indeed. The setup is also very unconvincing. No alien or magical threat, only a quarrel between the previous magical girls and their wands. It's like they aren't even considering girls as viewers. Not enough time is spent on introducing and building up the characters, so it's hard to care about them. For an anime that's only 10 eps. long, it sometimes wastes a lot of time on very slow-moving scenes and fanservice. The battles are cool, but are timed weirdly. Slow, split across parts of two eps. (with recap in the second one of course), then suddenly all action for a while, then another long pause. They look impressive, but I get the feeling a lot of it is service for Fate/ fans. Ep.7 again out of nowhere spends half the ep. on fanservice, then cuts a battle short and ends with Illya suddenly undoing the bonding that happened earlier in the same ep. Yep, it's one of those anime again that uses the characters only as props to toss around as the writers feel like, without giving them proper motivation or personality. I guess I'll finish the rest of this, but I doubt I'll want to watch the other seasons. This anime basically takes the magical girl template for granted and only fills in the parts that the assumed adult male audience cares about. No need for such things as world building, character motivation, foreshadowing, only girls fighting, girls getting hurt, and lots of fanservice/ecchiness. Well, I guess I've confirmed that this anime is indeed not for me. |
| Fight! Iczer-One (OAV) | Not really good | Well, we know the main characters' names, but, aside from Nagisa, not their origin or motivation. So far it just seems like a flimsy excuse to show giant robots, alien monsters, and naked girls. Hmm :/ In ep.3 we get an infodump explaining vaguely what is going on, then lots of battles, then a reset ending including bury-your-gays. |
| Figure 17 (TV) | Good | I liked the characters a lot. Especially Tsubasa, whose personality I recognize a lot of myself in. The story is also pretty good, taking the time to show the characters' feelings. The ending is quite sad though, even if it was heavily foreshadowed. Some plot holes were left unanswered. So in the end it was a rather mixed bag. |
| (The) Final Flight of the Osiris (OAV) | See Animatrix. | |
| First Squad - The Moment Of Truth (OAV) | Good | Looks interesting. Sort of like Blood The Last Vampire in Russia? The art is pretty good. The effects are sometimes a little distracting, but overall they fit the scenes. The voice acting is rather wooden though, like you're watching one of those old silent movies, with voiceovers instead of inserted text. It would've been a nice touch if the Germans actually spoke German, but they're voiced in Russian, just like everyone else. It was pretty good all in all. In many details it is quite different from Blood The Last Vampire, but there are definite general resemblances. The way the movie ended makes it look like it was intended as potential setup/pilot for a series. It would be cool if that were true. |
| FLCL (OAV) | Good | Only six eps. long. It's definitely not '80s. The style reminds me of Serial Experiments Lain a little, but fortunately the story is more coherent than that. Still, with only six eps. you shouldn't fall asleep because it moves quickly. Not that there's any danger of that with all the action really. The idea behind it (Naota's head is used as an intergalactic portal for robots and whatnot by a strange alien girl) is pretty far out really, but it was fun to watch. |
| Flip Flappers (TV) | Decent | Got a lot of praise early on, then people went kinda quiet about it. At some point it got reviewed as being symbolic about figuring out one's gayness, but I haven't heard anything else about that. Seems the last part might be disappointing? Well, I guess I'll have to see it for myself. The first two eps. were fun and colorful. I'm getting a definite lesbian love story vibe, but also a creepy post-Madoka magical girl vibe from the robot, the shady boss, and the clothing damage. I hope the latter doesn't mess it up. Oh, add the transformations to the creepy category. They're too detailed in ways that indicate that this anime is aimed at (and made by) dudes foremost. *sigh* It has some good potential, but it doesn't seem like it'll live up to it. Hmm, it seems also a bit abstract/stylized, sometimes literally, but also in symbolic way. I hope it doesn't go completely symbolic though; those anime I usually don't like too much. This anime keeps changing basic elements of the story, which makes it hard to care about what happens. Like, Papika×Cocona was a given for a long time, but now Papika seems to not be Papika, Cocona isn't quite Cocona, and the × is also kinda broken. Well, ep.10 put everything in a new perspective, but it's like, everything. As in, what were the eps. before about? After that it continues being weird, with the plot swerving about randomly. It seems to end happily for Cocona & Papika, but it's not really clear what the rest of the cast are doing now. Like, what about Yayaka? She was also a real friend, but she's just kinda cast aside in the end despite being built up for a few eps. as a worthy part of the group. And the girl randomly added to the twins didn't really seem to have any purpose in the plot. So, yeah, this anime is kind of a mess. And that's not even taking into account the icky stuff. It's a pity really, because there are plenty of parts that are cool and interesting with impressive art. |
| A Flying Princess and a Secret Island (movie) | So-so | Trilogy of movies, with a pretty good review here on ANN. This is part one. Part two, three. The art style is very Ghibli-like, kinda fitting for a fairy tale with some flying in it. Despite Sana being the character driving the story, Sindbad is definitely the central character. I guess it's kinda unavoidable when adapting a story that was originally only narrated like a fairy tale into a movie, that some details that were skipped in the original stand out as kinda weird. Like the captain being obsessed with Sindbad from the moment he sees him, the Bahar's crew likewise centering him in everything, them not really doing any trading or whatever their original occupation was before they became Sindbad's party members, the island just popping up despite the super vague directions that only say to go west. Sindbad's mom Latifa seems to be there in the story only to give the insert song an anchor. They could've given it to Sana instead without changing the overall plot, though I guess they'd have to fill that time with something else then. If I were Sana I'd feel super uncomfortable being the only woman on a ship with an all-male crew btw. All in all it's not really bad, just kinda bland in story and visuals. The end isn't even a cliffhanger, just a convenient point to pause the story. |
| Flying Witch (TV) | Excellent | As expected, this looks and feels really lovely ^_^ I think I must've read a bit of the manga some time, because eps.3 and 4 felt familiar. This anime is just so cute ^_^ Aww, it's finished. I want more Flying Witch.. :( |
| Fragtime (OAV) | Not really good | The manga was nice, but a little uncomfortable to read now and then. I wonder how closely this will adapt it. It's short, so probably fairly closely. Friedman's review was pretty damning, and I can't say I disagree. The ending of the manga was nice, but before that it varied from quite uncomfortable to okayish, not really good. I suppose I'll give this a try for completeness sake. Hmm, if you're going to turn a short manga into an hour-long OVA, wouldn't it be better to introduce the basic time-stopping thing first, before moving on to the MCs meeting? Well, with rather ponderous pacing it does fill an hour with the story. In fact, some of the uncomfortable moments from the manga have been left out. The spying on other students and harrassment by the teacher parts come to mind. Unfortunately, the underwear stuff (peeking at, showing) was not removed. The former being the opening scene would make it hard to remove completely, but overall it's quite male-gazey. Haruka and Misuzu are both flawed, but not that badly. Overall this OVA actually feels shorter than the manga. There's a few short dreamy interludes now and then, but no additions to the story. As in the manga, Haruka and Misuzu's relationship doesn't feel very deep, but it's not bad. I feel like it's just the start of their relationship, so it's okay. Removing details from the story makes some aspects not quite connect. Haruka being able to move while the rest of the world is stopped because she was interested in Misuzu is a conclusion that takes them a while to figure out. Here it's just mentioned in passing and doesn't feel as profound. The part where Misuzu is able to stop time for progressively shorter periods is also more important in the manga (I think it was because she's getting more comfortable with others). Here it's mentioned once and then doesn't really affect anything. So yeah, some of the removals were good, but in other places it was maybe too drastic, and some things that should've been removed weren't. Overall I guess it's better than the manga, but that's not saying much. Certainly not a yuri anime highlight. |
| Frakenstein Family (TV) | Decent | Not sure why ANN gives it this name (and misspelled too). Normally known as either Jikken-hin Kazoku or (official subtitle) Creatures Family Days. From what I can find about it (no synopses on ANN or AniDB) it looks interesting/cute? It's not being subbed very quickly though. Update: fully subbed now (2018-11-25), but that's with Chinese audio. Let's wait for original Japanese audio then. JP BD came out this month, so maybe soonish? Update II: turns out "Frankenstein Family" is what some American streaming site (CR?) decided to call it. Still not sure why ANN misspells it though. Anyways, under that name it was already horrible-subbed, so here we go. Hmm, it looks like the eps. are pretty short (~15min.) with 1min. flashback and 6min. live-action segments before and after. It's just seiyuu variety talk, so not very interesting. Too bad, the premise still looks interesting after ep.1, so 12×15min. will be quite short. It really has an interesting mix of characters. Maybe it's the Chinese manhua origin that makes it feel fresh? Ep.10 set up some drama that feels kinda forced. I wonder if that was part of the manhua or if it's anime-original. Drama resolved as expected, but then ep.12 ends with a cliffhanger. And most likely no sequel. Well, that was kinda disappointing. Like I said, it has some interesting ideas and feels fresh. The background art is also very good. The story is sometimes a bit rough, but part of that could be the translation from Chinese to Japanese. Too bad it's so short and unfinished though. |
| Franz Kafka's A Country Doctor (movie) | Not really good | Came across this while browsing Wikipedia, under 'kyougen' (an old kind of comedy performed with noh theater). Apparently the narration in this anime is done in that style. Well, Kafka isn't exactly known for being happy and upbeat. This story doesn't seem to have a point, and it's pretty surreal and depressing. The animation uses an interesting style that accents the surrealism. The narration isn't particularly interesting really. I might have heard something like it before, but I don't remember where. It isn't used often in any case. Other than that about the only nice thing about this anime is that it's short. Literature (capital L) isn't my thing really. |
| Fresh Precure! Omocha no Kuni wa Himitsu ga Ippai!? (movie) | Good | Huh, that was a lot tamer than previous movies. Still with the silly lights, but at least only once. |
| Fresh Pretty Cure (TV) | Good | So, instead of continuing with more old anime with English DVDs, I started another season of PreCure. I just felt like something happyhappy. CureCom's subs take some liberty with the translations. It's well-intended, but instead of explaining their choices in notes at the end, I'd rather they'd stuck a little closer to the original text. Oh, I just noticed that all the previous Cures appear in the OP. I guess they're getting ready for the All Stars movies? Isn't ep.8 a little early for a power up? Oh, they're just pushing more toys. Pfft. This series could do with less toys and more anime. They keep showing this text saying that Cure #4 will show up soon. Maybe it was a bit much to tease her presence so early and then wait ages to add her to the team? I guess they did that to keep up viewer ratings, but you can't keep your audience waiting forever. It takes until ep.26 before she makes it into the OP&ED. Ugh, more comedian guest stars. They're just as awkward as that guy last season. Do people really like that stuff? And then Kaoru gets his spotlight ep. This writing is even worse. Urgh. Can we just get rid of that Daisuke guy already? Annoying spotlight-stealing jerk. The new power up is so long it noticeably cuts into the time left for the story. The ending eps. were as tacky as the movies. Ah well. This season was definitely better than the two PreCure 5 seasons. It also mixed things up a bit with not having two tiers of villains, and Eas becoming Setsuna, and revealing PreCure's identities, although that ended up not having any consequences. Love still tended to be the leader and spotlighted teammember too. The subs started out not quite good, but got better later on. There were still inexact translations at times, but defensibly so. All in all this season wasn't as good as the first or Splash Star, but not all bad. |
| From the New World (TV) | Good | Looks like one of those stories that leaves you wondering what's going on exactly for a while, then tries to surprise you with what's really behind all that's happened. I hope it doesn't disappoint. At least the art looks high-quality. Things keep getting more mysterious, until ep.4 finally gives a large dose of backstory. For a world this complex you can't help but have some big infodumps. Not everything is revealed though, just enough to make a little more sense of things, but not enough to figure it all out. I still expect there to be a surprise twist somewhere. Ep.5, did the character designs change? The kids look older now. From the staff listings it seems that different people/companies worked on different eps. Ep.5 doesn't have any in common with earlier eps. it seems. Weird. Finished. There's a lot to say about this anime. It's pretty good, though not without flaws. The infodumps are one, some weird logic another. Like I said though, the infodumps are somewhat forgiveable. Overall the anime keeps things thrilling/scary most of the time. It has some characterization, but it leans more to the "world/history is primary, characters are props" side. In that subgenre of sci-fi it's not a bad entry though. I don't think I want to own this. It's certainly worth watching, but a little too horror for me. |
| From Up On Poppy Hill (movie) | Decent | A classic nostalgic!Ghibli movie. At first it felt very gender-role conforming, but in the later half that got toned down a bit. Well, it is set in the early '60s after all. Story-wise it's not really special, just nostalgic. The art is as always top quality, although I found the 'light patch' thing quite noticeable, and indeed the mouths did look a bit too emphasized red. Overall, quite okay. |
| Fruits Basket (TV 1/2001) | Decent | The synopsis doesn't sound too appealing to me (reverse harem or something), but it gets very high ratings, and is often referred to in reviews, so I guess it's one of those must-see anime. As expected, the art style is very shoujo. I wonder how they'll fill 26 eps. though, since the first episode basically laid out the whole plot already. Or was that just the backstory? It's just simpleminded comedy mostly. The whole zodiac thing only got attention here and there, and then the last three eps. suddenly turned off the comedy completely and went all dramatic just because. I expected to find the harem aspect bothersome, but it doesn't get too bad really. Overall it's an enjoyable anime. Not one to watch more than once, but not a waste of time either. |
| Full Metal Panic! (TV) | Very good | This was good. The episodes with actual plot development that is. The series is about half plot, half comedy. The comedy basically depends on one joke (Sousuke acting like everything is a dangerous military operation) which is repeated in many forms. The actual plot is quite good and interesting. Lots of mecha action, but also character development. The comedy I could've done without, which is why I didn't watch the Fumoffu series of episodes. The first series and the The Second Raid series are mostly plot and definitely worth watching. |
| Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid (TV) | Very good | See Full Metal Panic! season one. |
| Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid (OAV) | So-so | See also Full Metal Panic! season one. One extra episode to the The Second Raid season, and not all that interesting. Only bother if you're a huge fan of the series. |
| Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu (TV) | Good | I bought the Heavy Metal edition of Full Metal Panic, which includes this series, so I figured I should watch this too. If you expect nothing more than 12 eps. of silliness it isn't bad really. The resolution seems rather low though (and 4:3 too) for anime made in 2003. Maybe it's because they had to fit everything on just two DVDs? Or am I expecting too much because I just watched something else in 1280×720? |
| Fushigi Mahou Fan Fan Pharmacy (TV) | Very good | Cute witch. Recommended by Leah. This is pretty cute. There aren't as many characters as in Kuromajo Ga Tooru!, mostly it's just Potpourri and Fukiko. Eps.29, 36, 40, 43 are double length. Ep.43 reminded me a bit of The Blue Bird. The 3DCG they use now and then really dates this anime to ~2000. The ending (eps.47 and 48) is a bit weird. Was it really necessary to have Potpourri move away like that? I'm guessing this was based on a manga or something. Otherwise it's quite surprising to see characters from the whole series appear in the OP. |
| Fushigiboshi no Futago Hime (TV) | Decent | I hope the fansub group who did this will release a better version some day. Hardsubs and really bad video quality. A slightly different take on the magical girl genre. Princessy, but so far not overwhelmingly. It seems to go for comedy more than usual too. Ep.15. Just when I was beginning to wonder why there hadn't been much of a plot yet, we finally get the shady villains introduced. Okay, there is a plot, but everything's very simple and obvious. I guess this anime's aimed at an even younger audience than PreCure? Not really bad, but it's all very traditional heterocentric :/ In the final few episodes the villains start to decay quickly, which contrasts rather starkly with their earlier villainy. It feels forced. Well, overall it was nice, but the plotting was a little too simple, and the princesses' contests are uncomfortably gender-stereotyped. Definitely cute though. |
| Futari wa Milky Holmes (TV) | Good | Oh, I hope the rest of this anime is like the first ep. A little slow to start, but it's more like the Alternatives than the first two seasons. Oh, so that's why these eps. feel so short. They are short, 12min. including OP&ED. There is as much story as in regular-sized eps. though, which means on one hand there's no filler, but on the other hand, half the length means there is only the important main points of the story and nothing else. Events that would otherwise feel reasonably separated in time are now only a min. or two apart, which makes characters feel kinda wishy-washy in changing their minds so quickly. I must say the plot surprised me though. At first you'd expect it to be a series of cases against each of the phantom thieves in turn, but that gets upturned completely with everyone being related in some way. In the last ep. G4 and Arsène's gang are crammed in to make sure we don't forget this is a Milky Holmes anime. The ending is a little weak, but I suppose you can't have both action and a full resolution of everything in such short eps. It's decent at least. Overall I liked this much better than the first two seasons, though it would've been even better with regular-length eps. |
| Futari wa Precure Max Heart 2: Yukizora no Tomodachi (movie) | Good | This one was better than the first Max Heart movie I think. The art looked a little sharper, and the plot was a little better. It had its slightly forced moments though, like when Rina suddenly became uncharacteristically philosophical about friendship when Nagisa and Honoka were upset at each other. |
| Futari wa Precure Splash Star (TV) | Excellent | MFTGX had subbed eps.1-23 and the movie, but no one else seemed interested in picking this up for a long time. Then Zalis finally continued and subbed the rest of the series. Same good old fun as Pretty Cure, but a little different. The characters of Nagisa's mom and Akane seem to have merged into Saki's mom, but otherwise most of the cast seem to have counterparts in Splash☆Star. Cures Bloom and Egret's attacks seem more magical sometimes than Black and White's rather physical approach to battle. Splash☆Star is even better than Pretty Cure and Max Heart. The ending was pretty epic, although a little drawn out in some respects. It was nice to see Kaoru and Michiru come back and even join in the final battles. Maybe that's where they got the idea for PreCure 5. |
| Futari wa Precure Splash Star Tick Tack Kiki Ippatsu! (movie) | Very good | This takes place later than ep.30 in the series. The animation and art are top-notch. I guess a movie has more work put into it than a TV series. A nice short sidestory. |
| Futari wa Pretty Cure Max Heart (TV) | Good | Yay, it's Purikyua again, and with Makkusu Haato too this time! :D This is just unabashed fun for the little teen girl in all of us :) I felt that this second season focused a little more on the girls' lives, and the battles against the dark power were more of a distraction. With Hikari getting her own transformation sequence and an additional power-up sequence they are a large distraction though. The art/animation quality showed some bad lapses now and then. Maybe the budget wasn't quite enough? Overall Max Heart was just as much fun as the first season though. |
| Futari wa Pretty Cure: Max Heart (movie) | Decent | Takes place sometime during the second quarter of the Max Heart season I'd say. Both Porun and Hikari are present, but Lurun isn't. Otherwise it's pretty much unrelated to the rest of Max Heart. The girls visit the Garden of Hope, a small world much like the Garden of Light, but with diamonds instead of flowers, and fight together with some frog warriors against a dark servant out to steal their queen's jewelry. The plot isn't very deep, and sometimes even a bit clumsy (like when Nagisa gets upset at Square and runs off to sulk, only to have to run all the way back when she's needed as part of Pretty Cure, which is what she came for in the first place; the argument wasn't very convincing as a reason for Nagisa to be absent). All in all it's not really anything great. Just a little side story about Pretty Cure. |
| Futsū no Joshikōsei ga Locodol Yattemita (OAV) | Good | And that's two more eps. of this anime. They bring back the yuri hints again in this OVA. They're just hints here and there, but hey, at least it doesn't contradict shipping Yukari and Nanako. |
| GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class (TV) | Excellent | It is indeed somewhat like Hidamari and Sketchbook, adorable art students talking about art and design and stuff in a slice-of-life comedy. Which is great ^_^ And it even has chickens! Watched this again. It's more boisterous than I remember. A bit like Lucky Star in its non-sequitur humor now and then. Except more art-focused of course. |