Breaking the Boundary

Title: Air Gear
Genre: Action, Comedy, Sports
Rating: 8/10

Summary: Minami “Ikki” Itsuki, is a student and a delinquent. Also known as the “Unbeatable Babyface,” Ikki is the leader of the youth gang by the name of “East Side Gunz.” Upon his return home after being humiliated by a street gang of Storm Riders called the Skull Saders Ikki discovers a secret hidden from him by his benefactors, the Noyamano sisters. The sisters belong to a group of Storm Riders who go by the team name of Sleeping Forest. Ikki eventually settles his grudge with the Skull Saders, but in the process he receives more than the simple satisfaction of revenge. Determined to experience the sensation of “flight” for as long as he can, our headstrong protagonist is quickly sucked into the mysterious, yet irresistible world of Air Treck.

Review: Air Gear is a pretty unique anime, first I have seen that revolves around blading (or ‘trecking’ in the anime). The first thing that came to mind though was Jet Set Radio Future for the Xbox; having magnetic, future-like roller blades and gangs roaming the cities competing in skate races and fights felt very familiar. But enough about that, let’s get back to the anime. Air Gear is based of its manga counter-part (which is still ongoing) like most other animes. I have read and watched both versions, and overall I prefer to the anime. Why? Well for multiple reasons, one are the competitions. The anime  did a great job with the art style that brought the fights too a whole new level. Anime usually does better action scenes for obvious reasons, but Air Gear made it seem like the manga didn’t even try. The fast pace skating really gave me a jaw-dropping feeling, and I couldn’t praise the artist more. The anime also kept the series interesting. The manga was a bit of a bore, and probably because of the small tweaks made. For example, in the manga Ikki’s sisters gave him a pair of Air Treks to help him win the battle against Skull Saders. Kind of boring compared to the anime where he learns about his sister’s secret of being apart of an AT gang and steals the Treks for himself in anger. The soundtrack was brilliant, having an appropriate up-beat, hardcore sound. The opening theme was worth listening to and watching. The characters equally likable. Each had their personal reasons for picking up a pair of Air Treks, and each had their own special ability. I found it fun to meet new characters and learn about their unique skills. The best part was is their skills were based heavily on their personalities and physical structure. I did have a couple problems with this series, mainly the ending. Understanding that the anime couldn’t do much for continuation due to being based on a manga the ending still felt very anti-climactic and hurt the series as a whole. Also the humor was so-so, and I didn’t really laugh despite the genre selection. The main character also isn’t anything special, and you probably wont feel very attached.

Final statements: I would pick up this anime for the music and action alone. They did a great job with the battle scenes and story, but be prepared for a rather boring ending. Like I said the manga is still going if you feel like you need more Air Gear, but don’t expect anything close to as epic. Preferred watch.

Title: Nodame Cantabile
Genre: Musical, Romance, Comedy
Rating: 8.4/10

Summary: Megumi Noda, or “Nodame” is a piano student at Momogaoka College of Music. An extremely talented pianist who wants to be a preschool teacher, she prefers playing by ear rather than reading the music score. She is messy and disorganized, takes baths several days apart and loves to eat, sometimes stealing her friend’s lunchbox when it is filled with delicacies. Shinichi Chiaki is Momogaoka’s top student. Born into a musical family, he is talented in piano and violin and has secret ambitions to become a conductor. An arrogant multi-lingual perfectionist who once lived abroad in the music capitals of the world as a young boy (namely Prague), he is trapped in Japan because of his childhood phobia of airplanes and the ocean. They meet by accident. Nodame quickly falls in love, but it takes much longer for Chiaki to even begin to appreciate Nodame’s unusual qualities. Their relationship causes them both to develop and grow. Along the way, they meet some crazy people (like Masumi, Mine, and Stresemann) and make lasting friendships.

Review: This review combines season one (Nodame Cantabile) and season two (Nodame Cantabile: Paris) just as a heads up. Nodame Cantabile is probably one my favorite romance comedies because it has a good balance between drama and comedy. The character development is steady and continues over the two seasons, which for some may feel like a long haul. After watching the first season I couldn’t wait to jump into the second because the directors did a great job giving you a satisfying “ending” while still having the audience beg for more. Nodame, the main character of the anime is very likable with her crazy antics, cute outbursts, and strong will to progress further into her musical career. Chiaki, the lead male role, at first didn’t seem like that great of a guy. As the anime progressed the two characters are such opposite personalities but still managed to help one another. I found this to be the most amazing thing about Nodame Cantabile. I really enjoyed seeing how two completely different musicians can create equally beautiful music. Even the support characters actually did something to progress the story. I couldn’t believe the number of personalities there were, and how many characters the designer created that remained in the anime for a long period of time. The picture above shows almost all the characters that make multiple appearances, how often do you see that? Nodame Cantabile: Paris takes place in Paris (duh), yet people from season one still make guest appearances. Best part is they actually have closure instead of leaving viewers wondering “What ever happened to [insert character name here]?”. Personally I found the second season better than the first because they didn’t spend multiple episodes trying to introduce a new character’s personality. The quicker pace really did make the music scenes a lot more bearable. Also, the second season focused more on romance than music. There were a few downsides to this anime. For example, if you don’t like classical music then fast forward through half of it. The music scenes tend to get very dry, but are obviously important because it is what the whole anime is revolved around. I’m a fan of classical music, but I still drifted off from time-to-time when it would just flash scenes of the performer and the reaction of the audience members. The art style was also kind of strange. The characters and coloring are really simple, but when they show an orchestra playing it obviously computerized. They did a great job trying to give detailed arm and finger motions but it didn’t look natural. The soundtrack is great if you classical music like I said, but if not then it probably be a complete bore.

Final statements: I said earlier that this is one of my favorite romance comedies so I would suggest anyone to check it out. The beginning may seem boring (as it did for me) but keep watching I’m sure you will enjoy it. It isn’t for everyone because of the classical music theme, but the romance comedy portion is done very well. Preferred watch.



Title: Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Genre: Comedy, Supernatural, Psychological
Rating (season 1): 8/10
Rating (season 2): 5/10

Summary: On the first day of high school a beautiful girl named Haruhi Suzumiya introduces herself as having “no interest in ordinary humans”. She asks for any aliens, time travelers, sliders or espers to join her. Watching her weird behaviour is Kyon who sits in front of Haruhi and is the only person who talks to her. When Kyon comments about Haruhi’s joining every club in school and then quitting he unwittingly gives Haruhi an idea to start her own after school club. Thereafter Kyon and several others find themselves dragged, literally, into the Save our world by Overloading it with fun Suzumiya Haruhi’s Brigade (the S.O.S. Brigade for short).

Review: You have probably noticed that I generally write a single review for a multiple season anime, but this one really does deserve to be split. The first season doesn’t deserved to be dragged down due to the not-so-lovely second season. Let’s start with the soundtrack and art style which were both pleasing to the eye and ears. Songs like “God Knows” and “Lost My Music” were actually sung by the voice actress Aya Hirano bringing a refreshing new sound to anime. The artist took into account the details of mouth movement and sweat drops during the concert scene in the first season. A lot of recent animes have been doing the same thing, but this one really stood out to me. The scenes that the artist actually took the time to sketch every little muscle motion brought out a great side to this anime. Moving onto the storyline of the first season I would give it a pretty good rating. The story was more about trying to find out the secrets of Haruhi Suzumiya and distinguishing the difference between reality and fiction. The first season ended on a pretty good note considering they knew a second season was coming along. The season left viewers with interest because it didn’t answer all the questions, but enough to satisfy. The first season also brought rich comedy with play on words, awkward moments, and cute scenes.
The second season is when the anime really started to go down hill. Although the characters didn’t change much, and it still stuck on the comedy genre I got so bored with the anime I really contemplated dropping it all together. Many of you probably have heard of the Endless Eight. The endless eight will make you feel like the producers got very lazy, and probably stopped caring about the anime. Although I would like to give the director the benefit of the doubt and say that it is a unique art sense. The problem is that unique is not always a good thing. I would have tolerated the “Endless Three” maybe even four, thinking that it brought out a great sense of anime, but eight just killed me. After the Endless Eight the anime didn’t get much better. It felt like filler episodes with no hard storyline. It was fine at first, but the comedy remained the same which got tiresome after a while. The second season really didn’t live up to my expectations given from the first season.

Final statements: Short review, but I believe I got my point across. I suggest sticking with the first season and skipping the second completely. You may feel tempted to keep watching but trust me it isn’t worth it. Low priority watch.

Happy Valentines Day!

Title: Kiddy Girl-and
Genre: Science Fiction

Summary: Twenty-five years after Éclair and Lumière, (from the flagship Kiddy Grade series), rescued the galaxy from destruction’s doorstep, the GTO (Galactic Trade Organization), created after the defeat of the GOTT (Galactic Organization of Trade and Tariffs), act on behalf of universal peace by combating criminal activity. Their special ES division mirrored after the GOTT’s ES (Encounter of Shadow-work) force, now includes publicly acknowledged ES member candidates. The series follows three such trainees, Ascoeur, Q-feuille, and Di-air as they work their way to ES membership. (Wiki)

First Look: Kiddy Girl-and isn’t what most people have tagged it as. Yes, the first 7 or so episodes are simply fan service and to help “get to know the characters”. After watching a few episodes in (on episode 12) there is actually a story-line, a rather good one actually. The series is a sequel to the famous Kiddy Grade, and they do a pretty good job keeping the two related. Kiddy Girl-and takes place in the future, and as the summary says GOTT has now turned into GTO. They did go back into the old GOTT building in the earlier episodes which brought a pretty cool flash-back for anyone who has seen Kiddy Grade. I was happy that the characters didn’t happen to stumble upon the information about Eclair and Lumiere by coincidence, but instead you see them in one of the background. This shows that the anime has some realistic sense to it, and that the new characters are bringing a fresh scene to the organization. The main characters of Kiddy Girl-and Ascoeur and Q-feuille are in a world of their own it seems. They aren’t top rank ES members, and actually just recently graduated from trainee due to complications. I like how the anime is taking you through a growing-up phase like Kiddy Grade, helping the viewer feel more attached to the main characters. As I said before, the first few episodes are purely fan service and comedy, but if you get past the beginning I think it will be worth the watch. There are fillers after the main story line takes shape so be prepared! I don’t see this anime being longer than 24-episodes, so I do hope that they don’t rush the ending because they had too many fillers in between.

Final statements: Kiddy Girl-and is a more comedic version of Kiddy Grade but still shows potential to match its prequel which I enjoyed quite a bit. One can only hope they cut back on fillers and focus more on the main storyline/characters.  On watch.

Title: FLCL (Furi Kuri)
Genre: Science fiction, Action, Comedy
Rating: 9/10

Summary: Naota’s life is confined to going to school and living with his father and grandfather. The usually boring life in Mabase is rudely interrupted by the arrival of Haruko Haruhara, who bursts on the scene by running Naota over with her Vespa , then giving him CPR and hitting him on the head with a blue vintage Rickenbacker 4001 left-handed reverse strung electric bass guitar. Later, Naota is shocked to find Haruko working in his house as a live-in maid. Haruko’s search for the alien being, Atomsk, puts her at odds with Medical Mechanica, the monolithic industrial corporation. At the same time, Naota is being watched by Commander Amarao. The Commander believes Haruko is in love with Atomsk and that Medical Mechanica is out to conquer the galaxy. The combination of circumstances gets Naota involved in a three-way battle between Haruko, Amarao and Medical Mechani. (Wiki)

Review: Furi Kuri (or Fooly Cooly in North America) hit the anime scene with a blast. This extremely popular anime really deserves the credit, and I hoped to write this review to get people more interested in these kind of animes. The anime itself is very short (6 episodes long) but packed with quite a lot of content. Let’s start with the soundtrack first, probably being the most captivating thing about this anime. The Pillows played all the songs for the anime, and actually got me looking for their CD’s which is a first for any anime. They had a song for almost any occasion of the anime which really brought out certain areas. Songs like “I think I can”, “Ride on Shooting Star”, and “Hybrid Rainbow” fit very well. I would give this anime a perfect score when it comes to soundtracks. The art style was unique but not eye popping. It did get the job done, and they had a lot of amazing scenes with great backgrounds, but not very high attention to detail when it came to characters. This isn’t saying the art style was a bad choice, because the atmosphere of the anime really did need a quick-drawn (for lack of a better term) style. The story wasn’t really solid, probably because there were so few episodes. But it wasn’t the story that the director was actually going for.  The entire anime is a metaphor, and you do need to think to understand the message. I don’t want to give it away since that will ruin the whole point of it, but I do warn you that there is a literal interpretation that most viewers mistake the anime to be about. The characters play their own unique roles. They show has such a variety that you never get bored watching it. The side stories, main story, and “what was that part” stories all have their purpose. The title Furi Kuri does suggest a bit of a perverted theme, but please don’t let this discourage you. As for those who don’t know what Furi Kuri is slang for, don’t worry about it . The comedy can be selective, and probably not everyone’s cup of tea, but I couldn’t imagine anyone not getting at least a little chuckle out of this. Even if you don’t want a deep, mind-blowing anime I would still suggest watching for the entertainment factor. I actually watched this anime two or three times before I realized what it as actually about, and I enjoyed  it every run through.

Final statements: A great anime that deserves nothing less than the hype it is given. Even if the anime doesn’t seem that appealing give it a go, it is only 6 episodes so why not? Must see!