Update: Kimi ni Todoke Video Review

     It's now up on YouTube! Yup!

     Also, I am currently working on some great new stuff that I'm really excited to share with you guys! However, you probably won't get to see all of if for a bit because I like to keep up my content buffer....

     So in the meantime, go watch this video!

Anime Review: Silver Spoon

Note: To read my first impression of this anime go here.

Anime Review: Silver Spoon/Gin no Saji

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Genres: comedy, drama, coming of age, shounen

General Setup: Hachiken Yuugo doesn't know what he wants to do in life. He does know that his prep-school junior high was too intense for him and he doesn’t want to continue that path. So when Hachiken’s counselor recommends an agricultural-focused school out in the boonies Hachiken readily agrees. However, farm life has its own challenges, like getting up at 4 a.m. and sending animals to slaughter. As Hachiken makes new friends and tries his hand at novel experiences he comes to a new understanding of who he is and what should be valued.

Characters: Silver Spoon displays a wide cast of characters that I won’t be able to completely cover. So, in the interest of time, I’ll just be covering who I consider to be the three MAIN main characters.

First we have Hachiken (obviously). Having experienced being a clueless high school student who has no idea what the future will hold, I feel like Hachiken is a very relatable character. He is trying to figure out what he wants to do with his life, as well as gaining confidence in his abilities. Also, Hachiken serves as the middleman between the agricultural-crazy characters and the viewers who don’t know the difference between a heifer and a holstein.

Mikage Aki is a girl who Hachiken befriends shortly after starting at Ooezo High. She is also the one who gets him into the equestrian club.  Her family owns a small ranch, but Mikage’s dream is to work with horses. Hachiken has a crush on her, and she just might like him back.

Komaba {name} is a self-described muscle-head. He and Mikage are childhood friends. Also, Hachiken and Komaba are in the same group for (practicums). One of Komaba’s passions is baseball. He hopes to catch the eye of recruiters in high school and go pro before retiring to take over his family’s farm.

Plot: A lot of this plot centers around Hachiken’s activities at school. Because this is an agricultural school the focus shifts away from the academic aspects of high school to the more agricultural aspects. This gives the plot a fresh take on the standard life of a high schooler.

Ending: I wasn’t as satisfied with the ending as I was with some anime. However, with only two seasons and an ongoing manga of base material, the anime had to end somewhere. As is the norm for most anime based off of ongoing manga, the conclusion of the anime resolves some of the issues, but leaves plenty in the air for a later continuation of the story.

Things to Watch For: There are a few crude jokes in this anime, but nothing you shouldn’t be able to watch with your parents (I speak from personal experience on this one).

Sights and Sounds: The style of animation for Silver Spoon is clean, if a little lack-luster. The style of the art is distinctly Hiromu Arakawa (the creator of Fullmetal Alchemist and one of the only mangaka I know by name) so fans of Fullmetal Alchemist and Arslan Senki should enjoy watching this series. The soundtrack has a very orchestral feel (think Legend of Zelda). It ranges from calm and flowing to upbeat and march-like. Also, I especially liked the first opening and the last ending songs.

Other media: As mentioned previously, Silver Spoon is based off of an ongoing manga. There is also a live-action film that has been released in Japan.

Fillers: There are no fillers in Silver Spoon.

Length: Silver Spoon has 2 seasons, with a total of 24 episodes.

Where to Watch: You can watch all of Silver Spoon on Netflix and Crunchyroll.

Update: More pictures!

     I've been busy guys! Last fall I got a Nikon Coolpix L840 camera and have been enjoying using it to take higher quality photos for you all, as well as my own personal pursuits. Today I am adding not one, not two, but three pictures to the blog! So, without further ado, here they are:

TV Series Review: Young Justice 

Anime Review: Nagi no Asukara

Anime Review: Death Note

Update: Akagami no Shirayuki-hime video

     Yay! A new video! Another reason to celebrate!

     Read the written review for Akagami no Shirayuki-hime here.

     Another thing to get excited about: I finally figured out how the video card and end screens work, so now all of our videos have a polished feel at the end with resources to connect you with another video. Sometime in the near, yet distant, future I hope to tackle getting the channel verified and standardizing (somewhat) the video thumbnails. Onward and upward!

Anime Review: ERASED

Title: ERASED (English) Or Boku Dake Ga Inai Machi (Japanese) Translation: The town where I am no longer

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Genres: Mystery, Psychological, Thriller,Time Travel, Drama

General Set-up: Satoru Fujinuma is a failing manga artist and also works part-time at a pizza place. While in all respects he looks underachieving and ordinary, he has a power that he calls “Revival” which enable him to travel back in time a few minutes in order to prevent a tragedy. In the first episode we see Satoru prevent a small child from being killed by a truck, but because of his actions, Satoru gets hit by the truck. By the end of the episode he has a sense of hopelessness, believing it might not be worth sacrificing his time and health in order to help others. His mother visits and another Revival happens, but Satoru is unable to find what is wrong. Later his mom admits that she saw a failed kidnapping that reminded her of when they lived in Hokkaido and some of his classmates were kidnapped and killed. Later that week, she is killed and Satoru is framed. In order to save his mother, his Revival takes him back 18 years to the week leading up to the original kidnappings and murders.

Characters: Unlike many shows the characters feel very real and believable. Satoru changes the most. Because at the beginning of the show, Satoru goes back to grade school, there is a dual cast of characters. For the cast in the “present time” (2006), the most notable is Airi and his Mom. Sachiko. His mom is well, his mom. She is intelligent, likeable, and dynamic (and quite possibly a yokai, because she doesn’t appear to age). More than most animes, you get that “mom vibe” of “if you try and hurt my child, I will seriously mess you up!” Airi is the name of his co-worker at the pizza place (who seems to be his only friend). The second cast of characters is those from 1998. Of course Satoru and his mom overlap, but an entirely new cast of character is introduced. Most notable are Hinazuki Kayo (who he tries to save from being murdered) and Kobayashi Kenya (his friend).

Plot: The anime follows the manga until the last two episodes as they came out when the final chapters of the manga were still coming out. Because of this, the ending in the manga and anime are different. However, here I am talking about the anime. The pacing was amazing until the end. It keeps you on the edge of your seat, while taking the long view. This is a thriller that you can sit back and appreciate the everyday life of those who live in north Japan and the nostalgia of the childhood years. The ending (the last two episodes) very much have this feeling of “Oh, snap! We only have two episodes to wrap this up!” Other than that, enjoy!

Ending: The most common issue that people tend to have with ERASED it that it was too easy to guess who the serial killer was. Yes, using deduction and criminal psychology, it was rather easy to figure out who the killer was. But if you think that’s it, you have missed the point of the show. Yes, the show is a mystery thriller, but there is so much more. The theme of the show lies in the Japanese title: The Town where I am no Longer. In fact, the theme is brought up in the first episode: how far would you be willing to go so save someone’s life? That is the point of the show.

The ending of the show and the ending of the manga differ in the way they are carried out, though it has roughly the same conclusion. I like the ending of the manga better, mostly because it goes more indepth with psychology and medical information, the two things I love to learn about. The ending of the anime is rushed--there’s no way around that. Just over all, the ending of the anime seemed less satisfactory, more like a victory on a mere technicality.  [Note: Unlike in America, there is a statute of limitation on murder in Japan. Meaning, that if it has been X many years, the murderer cannot be punished for that crime.] I felt that the anime ending was also less satisfying because they did not nail him as much as I had hoped. Sure they had the killer’s testimony, but lacked concrete proof that could exonerate the other suspects. It lacked the “smoking gun,” if you will.   

Sound: The open theme for ERASED is “Re:” by Asian Kung Fu Generation. Like most of Asian Kung Fu Generation’s opening songs, this song blew it out of the water. With a catchy tune, relevant lyrics, and beautiful animation, it is near perfect. Sadly, I have not had the chance to listen to the English dub, but the Japanese dub is very solid. I was afraid that the “kid” voice for Satoru would sound very girlish, but they chose well. It was interesting how well the main character switched back to speaking like a kid (i.e. using given names rather than family names, using smaller words, etc.), but I guess it is easier reverting back to how you used to talk, then learning to talk in a new way. The sound effects for the “Revival” was exactly how I imagined it in my head when I read the comic. Because of this I found it perfect, but my friends have told me that it fits.

Animation: With many manga, when turned into animes, the drawing style has a noticeable change. This is not so with ERASED. The drawing style is the same as the manga, with the same attention to detail. It is very fluid, especially considering that ERASED is a drama. The colors used are absolutely beautiful for the Revivals and the red is very prominent for Kayo as she seems to symbolize hope and life in the series.  

Things to watch out for: ERASED deals with several difficult topics. I feel as if it handles them correctly, but they are still hard to watch. Abuse by a parent is a central part of the first few episodes. It made me want to jump through the screen and save the victim! Also, touched on was how many people may pity the victim, but not want to get involved. This is something that I see everyday, and is so common that it even has a psychological name: the bystander effect. The bystander effect is a fatalistic way of thinking, the thought that surely someone else will intervene and stop the abuse so I don’t have to. I don’t know how many thousands of lives would be saved if people would take into their own hands the protection of those who cannot defend themselves. The main character takes on this attitude of “I will do WHATEVER it takes to save a life.” And that is the point of the show.

Oh, and because one of the characters in the show is a serial killer, they do talk about kidnappings and gruesome deaths in some detail. The anime tends to gloss over most of it, whereas the manga goes into details about the kidnappings/murders and the psychological profile of the killer.

Other Media: As you have heard me talk about, ERASED has a manga. For the official English release, it will be released under the title of ERASED like the anime. However, the Japanese version is released under the original title of 僕だけがいない街。

Anime Review: Beyond the Boundary

Anime Review: Beyond the Boundary (or Kyokai no Kanata)
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Genre: Drama, action, supernatural, fantasy

General Set-up: Beyond the Boundary doesn’t really do a very good job of explaining itself. Viewers of the show are kind of pushed face-first into a full-immersion experience and left to flounder to the surface by themselves. Thankfully, the world isn’t too complicated and after an episode or two the viewer should be able to figure things out. With this in mind, I would like to give you all a bit of a road map to this show.
     This show is set in a world similar to ours, but with an emphasis on supernatural elements. These include monsters called youmu (pronounced yo-moo) that form from the negative feelings of humans. Most people are unable to see these monsters, so it is up certain gifted members of society, called Spirit World Warriors, to deal with these monsters. The two main characters of this show, Mirai Kuriyama and Akihito Kanbara, meet in a somewhat unconventional way. Their relationship gets off to a rough start, especially after Mirai stabs Akihito in the chest with a sword made of her own blood (see what I meant by it not being very well explained? - don’t worry, it gets worse). She is surprised when Akihito calmly asks her to remover her sword. Her surprise grows when she finds out that he is a rare breed of half human, half youmu, thus making him immortal. The story starts out with Akihito helping Mirai gain confidence in defeating youmu, but the true purpose of the series soon comes forth (sorry, I can’t spoil it for you).

Characters: Is it possible for characters to be both dynamic and static at the same time? Because that’s the way it feels in Beyond the Boundary. It’s not that the characters are poorly written, just that they don’t seem to have made any significant changes, but that could just be me. As mentioned before, Akihito Kanbara is an immortal half-youmu. He is part of the literary club at his school and has a thing for glasses. Mirai is a recent transfer to Akihito’s school. She is the last living member of a clan who can manipulate their blood as a weapon. Because of her ability she is ostracized and hated by most of the Spirit World Warrior community (a dark past is hinted at!). Hiromi and Mitsuki are members of the prestigious Nase family. Mitsuki is also in the literary club with Akihito. She reminded me a bit of Chisaki from Nagi no Asukara. I like to think of Hiromi as a Haruka Nanase (Free! Iwatobi Swim Club) with green eyes and a scarf.

Plot: As I mentioned previously, the main conflict takes a while in appearing. It is not that the story is boring at the beginning, just that the true ‘villains’ lurk in the shadows before revealing themselves. As such, there is a decent handful of plot twists that liven things up (gotta love those plot twists!). Also, when the action gets going, it stays going until the end.

Ending: I’m just gonna be honest here, and say that the ending didn’t make a whole lot of sense. I liked the ending, but it didn’t really make sense. There were still questions I had at the end of the anime and some things felt like they needed to be explained, but the plot felt resolved and was enough to satisfy me.

Things to Watch For: The show has some darker aspects to it (ex. Some of the youmu are scary), but keeps clean for the most part.

Sights and Sounds: The style of this anime is very clean and vibrant. It is a joy to watch. I really really liked both the ending and opening songs. Both were catchy and just seemed to fit. The opening builds up in intensity before slowing to a stop at the end, releasing tension in a way that I thought was novel. The ending song is more relaxed, providing a period of down time between episodes. Also, the inset song for the 'filler’ episode is highly entertaining.

Other media: Beyond the Boundary is based off of a light novel series by the same name. There are also two movies, one that retells the events of the anime, and another that is set a year after the anime takes place.

Fillers: One could argue that episode 6 is in fact a filler, and I might agree. While extremely entertaining the episode accomplishes little in the way of advancing the plot. However, it does not detract from the overall flow of the show and I would encourage you to watch it even if you are against fillers as a rule.

Length: Beyond the Boundary is short, with only 12 episodes. Even with the one filler episode it manages to pull off a full-fledged plot that connects from beginning to end.

Where to Watch: You can watch this show on Crunchyroll.

Recommendations: If you liked Beyond the Boundary, or think it sounds up your alley, here are a few other shows you might be interested in:
- Bleach
- Noragami
- Ao no Exorcist
- Nagi no Asukara