Finished watching Megazone 23 Part II

Finished watching Megazone 23 Part II (1986, Artland, AIC, Tatsunoko, 80 mins.) on 12/05/2017.

Attempting to return to a normal life with "Trash", his bike gang and Yui, his girlfriend, Yahagi Shogo finds himself answering the call for help from EVE, the digital songstress idol programmed to protect the city of Megazone, as the government that rules the people plots to take control over EVE's capabilities.

Well, this was... interesting. And a bit hard to follow. The first thing you'll notice about this second entry in the Megazone 23 series is the drastic change in the visual style. And it's one I'm not very fond of, to be honest. It got a bit distracting. But I can't say I completely hate it either. I think I understand its appeal. It has to do with the age it was produced in, and I have to say it's certainly a style from the 80's. I'm sure they picked it up from some other media, maybe even western media like the Heavy Metal movie. The art style is especially distracting with the scene where human ships get attacked by alien robots and it's really gory, unnecessarily so and they just keep playing it over and over or whatever. And then there's the Captain of the ship who just looks like a Muppet character. It was cringy for sure. But let's move on. The visual style was not the only thing that changed. It was the character's basic design. The girl's hair, for example used to be blue, now it's just brown. Funny enough however, EVE, the digital music idol seems to have retained her original appearance from the previous movie. Other than that, the movie was alright. Animation quality was pretty good and the story wasn't too bad, maybe some plot points were skimmed over.

6.5/10 - It didn't really catch my attention that much, but I still enjoyed it... somewhat.

Finished watching Megazone 23

Finished watching Megazone 23 (1985, AIC, Artland, Tatsunoko, 80mins) on 10/18/2017.

Yahagi Shogo is given ownership of an unusual-looking, red motorcycle from a friend. Immediately after, black suits show up looking for the bike and Shogo drives off with it to later find out that the bike turns into an armed fighting robot. Looking for a place to hide, he then contacts Takanaka Yui, a girl he had just met to help him out. After a series of strange events, the two find themselves in the middle of a government conspiracy hiding secrets that question what's real and what's not, including a popular musical idol named Tokimatsuri Eve.

So first off, this movie was put together by the same staff as the original Macross series. Cool, right? I love their style. There's a lot of similarities with the two IPs. Visual. Thematic. Robots. Idols. Space. 80s. It's great! The music of course is pretty awesome with Eve's songs and the soundtrack just has that typical 80s synth stuff. What I enjoyed about the story was the conspiracy going on with Eve and how she gets the main characters involved in it. It's an interesting concept.

8/10 - But despite all my praise, I think the storytelling suffers from its age. Old anime seem to always have thing that don't quite add up and this one's no different. But it wasn't too bad.

Finished watching The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013, Studio Ghibli, 137m) on 07/13/2017.

Miyatsuko is an old man who makes a living as a bamboo cutter. One day he comes across a bamboo shoot that unravels itself to reveal a miniature child. He takes her home to his wife and the two raise the child as their own but notice that her growing rate is much faster than any other child. Miyatsuko and his wife consider the child a blessing from the Heavens and try to raise her to become a respectable princess.

There's a couple of things I should point out about The Tale of the Princess Kaguya. The movie is based on a popular, traditional Japanese folk tale. Also, despite it being a Ghibli production, it is actually directed by Takahata Isao.
Setting this feature apart from other Ghibli movies is its visual style. Backgrounds are lightly hand-drawn and hand-painted in pencil and watercolor respectively to give the audience the impression of watching a children's picture book come to life. The characters and everything that moves is drawn in organic pencil lines and rendered digitally in gentle colors that add even more to the movie's picture book-like aesthetic. And this is all woven together with a narrative that is sure to pull at your heart strings.

8/10 - This was certainly a gem of a movie for me. I felt all sorts of emotions watching the characters go through the many ordeals that came with being part of Kaguya's life. But I also very much enjoyed watching the really interesting art style of the movie in motion. I've always imagined what animating traditional media would be like. But I still wonder if it was an easier task or more difficult than doing regular animation. *SPOILER* I was left with a bitter taste at the end. The movie certainly doesn't leave off on a joyous note, and I felt like it was very unfair to Kaguya's parents. However, that's not necessarily a bad thing as I feel it proves the moral points it's trying to make, and that is that life's too short not to enjoy it for what it is and the things and people we already have in our lives.

Finished watching Macross Do You Remember Love

Finished watching Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love (1984, Studio Nue, Tatsunoko, 115 min.) on 03/17/2017.

A massive alien spaceship crash lands on Earth and is years later reverse engineered by Earth's UN Spacy who names it SDF-1 Macross. It is then launched into space as part of a ceremony celebrating the project's completion, but the launch attempt is interrupted by an attack from an alien species called the Zentradi and the ship teleports itself to the edge of the Solar System taking an island city along with it. In the midst of the messy launch, Valkyrie pilot Hikaru Ichijo rescues pop idol Lynn Minmay and in doing so they become trapped in an area of the ship for days. The Macross must now return to Earth all the while dealing with various Zentradi attacks.

8/10 - DYRL? is supposedly an alternate retelling of the original Macross series with certain events unfolding differently than the TV show. While the movie itself is pretty good, I still prefer the original story. Specially with how Roy Fokker is handled. But the animation quality is great, specially with Lynn Minmay's shows. And it's always nice to hear her songs as well. I'm not trying to say the story isn't interesting just because it's a different retelling, on the contrary, that's what's interesting about it. Oh, and Kaifun doesn't have much of a presence in this movie. So far as him being replaced as the actor for Shao Pai Long. Ichijo plays the part instead which I thought was great. I can't stand Kaifun...

Finished watching .hack//G.U. Trilogy

Finished watching .hack//G.U. Trilogy (2008, Bandai, 1hr 33min) on 10/28/2016.

After leveling up his virtual character in an MMORPG called The World, Haseo butts heads with Tri-Edge, a powerful virus character who deleted Haseo friend's character effectively putting her in a real coma. Haseo is also defeated and but instead of a coma, all the progress he's made so far in the game disappears. That's when a group called TaN picks him up and promises to awaken a fearsome power within him.

7.5/10 - Trilogy is a CGI movie, and the graphics are appealing and smooth with attractive colors. The only thing that threw me off was the facial animations, specially with characters speaking. Often times the shape of the mouths didn't match the words or would open and only move slightly for each word before closing awkwardly slowly. Although I do have to give it to them for really showing Haseo's emotions with his crazy eyes and stuff. What I did enjoy the most was the fight scenes, they were very powerful!
The story got a bit dull at times though, and I found myself almost falling asleep or my eyes wandering off the screen. Also, I think the movie is an adaptation of the final moments in the games, which is pretty cool. I'd like to try reading the manga adaptation of all the games though.
But overall it was a good movie. Like I said before, the fight scenes I think hold the movie together pretty well and despite it getting dull at times the plot is interesting, albeit a little predictable too. I also liked to see the voice actors reprising their roles from .hack//roots.

Finished watching Guin Saga

Finished watching Guin Saga (2009, Satelight, 26 episodes) on 7/09/2016.

Based on a light novel, this show follows the adventure of two young twins, Rinda and Remus, heirs to the throne of an invaded kingdom, and Guin, a leopard-headed warrior who's origins are unknown even to himself. Along the way the three are captured and team up with two other prisoners, a mercenary named Istovan and a monkey girl named Sunii to make their escape.

What attracted me to this show was the fact that Final Fantasy series' composer, Uematsu Nobuo composed the entirety of the soundtrack for this show.

PLOT - Guin is my favorite character and the sole reason why I kept watching. I wanted to know where he came from, why he is leopard-headed. His character is also very awesome. He's cool and composed and always wins even after getting thrown around like a rag-doll. But the plot seems to take a while to pick up decent speed and eventually towards mid-season it picks up, but for some reason Guin and the twins aren't exactly the main characters anymore as the show ceases to follow their tracks and focuses on more political characters that only mildly interest me. Regardless, all the characters in this show have very interesting personalities, although I did find myself rolling my eyes a lot at those traits, but nonetheless they were interesting and sometimes even made me giggle at how unexpected they became sometimes.

ARTWORK - The animation and art quality for this show are both amazing and beautiful. I loved watching the fight scenes with Guin. They were very exciting.

MUSIC - Like I've mentioned, this soundtrack is composed by Uematsu Nobuo. However, it was nothing like his Final Fantasy compositions. I think he tried to go for something different with this show. Unfortunately the vast majority of the soundtrack didn't quite stick with me. But I'm not saying it was terrible, it just wasn't as catchy as what I've come to expect from his work.

7/10 - It's an interesting show with great quality and interesting characters, but the plot can get so dull sometimes. I admit falling asleep to an episode or two. There is a continuation but as of yet a second season hasn't been announced.

Finished watching xxxHOLiC Kei

Finished watching xxxHOLiC Kei (2008, Production I.G., 13 epi.) on 4/25/2016.

It's been a while since Watanuki has been working for Yuko in her shop. As such, he's seen his fair share of spiritual phenomena and other unbelievable things from the other world. But now these strange events seem to be affecting his life more and more, and even the people he loves. Could this be an omen of things to come? Watanuki must be strong!

8/10 – Continuing on the 2006 series, this show now seems to focus more on the main characters and their relationship with the supernatural world that Watanuki has known his whole life. The show is also a bit of an improvement in terms of quality. The art is good, and the animation quality as well. Long gone are the days of tall, exaggeratedly disproportionate bodies with tiny little heads. The story, above all else, is quite juicy and intriguing. You really come to learn more about the characters and meet new ones that really grow on you. Simply put, great things come in small packages.

Finished watching Kaleido Star

Finished watching Kaleido Star S01 (2003, Gonzo, 26 epi.) on 4/18/2016.

Sora, a young acrobat from Japan, travels to America to join a world famous acrobatic circus known as Kaleido Star. With much luck she gets accepted and a small, floating, masked man the size of a beer bottle reveals himself to her as Fool, the Spirit of the Stage, seen only by those who have a burning passion to perform.

7/10 – This show was alright. The story, although with minor plot holes and trivial awkwardnesses was pretty decent and somewhat engaging. And while the art style wasn't that bad, I feel like this show could've benefitted from a bit better quality. The animation itself only got better when the characters performed complicated maneuvers, otherwise it would be pretty mediocre. The soundtrack doesn't have much to say about itself. Nothing really stood out to me, not even the opening and ending themes. I don't have anything too bad against this show, it's pretty decent for what it is and I would recommend it. But it didn't really convince me to watch the second season arc.

Finished watching Tsubasa: Tokyo Revelations

Finished watching Tsubasa: Tokyo Revelations (2007, Production I.G., 3 OVAs) on 4/13/2016.

With the services of a dimensional witch named Yuko, a boy named Syaoran and his childhood friend Sakura continue their journey together with a warrior named Kurogane and a magician named Fai in search for Sakura's memories which turned into feathers and scattered throughout various parallel universes. Far into their travels, they reach a dismal land known as Tokyo Country where factions fight eachother for survival and resources while acid rain constantly pours from the sky. Our heroes are taken in by a faction and reluctantly fight bloody battles as secrets are revealed changing their lives forever.

8.5/10 – Wow! Holy Mokona! Y'see what happens when you hand this show over to Production I.G.? Seriously! In just three episodes this OVA mini-series revealed so much more content, and did so much more than two whole seasons of RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE ever did. I honestly don't know what Bee Train was thinking. I mean, this show really kicked it up to 11. There's so much bloody violence, really not for the weak hearted. And then there's Sakura. Wow. She had to pull her own weight this time around, all on her own nonetheless and boy, did she take it like a champ! You really don't need me to keep going here. This show is amazing! I just wish it continued with a few more episodes. But, anyways, go watch it, you won't regret it.

Finished watching Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle's Second Season

Finished watching Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle's Second Season (2006, Bee Train, 26 episodes) on 4/7/2016.

With the services of a dimensional witch named Yuko, a boy named Syaoran and his childhood friend Sakura continue their journey together with a warrior named Kurogane and a magician named Fai in search for Sakura's memories which turned into feathers and scattered throughout various parallel universes.

5/10 – After this season I find myself really disappointed with this show. Like, really disappointed. While the animation and art quality remain mediocre at best, the story leaves much to be desired. Since I haven't read the manga yet, I can't say how it compares, but from other reviews I've read apparently it disgraces the manga. I really wish I had simply read the manga instead of wasting my time on this poor excuse of an adaptation. I'm being way too polite here considering how I'm feeling about it. I mean, I even was able to skip an episode and perfectly predict its outcome. That's how sad it is. One of the things that bothered me the most is how little exposition was shown throughout the series, on the exception of perhaps Kurogane. But what really got on my nerves was the ending. It made no sense, the production value was beyond par and the fact that *SPOILER START* the main characters just sit tight as they watch hundreds of feathers just slowly fly off into other dimensions instead of using their superhuman powers to collect them all. Heck, even Mokona could've sucked a good chunk in if not all of them. Like... seriously! *SPOILER END* The only exciting thing was seeing familiar faces from Chobits. I honestly think Production I.G. would've taken much better care of this series. Bee Train can suck it.

Finished watching Escaflowne

Finished watching Escaflowne (2000, Sunrise, Bones, 98 mins) on 3/8/2016.

Kanzaki Hitomi is magically whisked away from Earth to a planet called Gaea where she is taken in by a group of freedom fighters who believe her to be their fabled Winged Goddess, their only hope in awakening a legendary, weaponized, mechanical armor known as Escaflowne. With Escaflowne piloted by the young Van, they hope to fight and defeat the evil forces of a powerful man named Folken.

8.5/10 – It seems to me that the Escaflowne franchise likes to create parallel universes for each of their different media installments. The manga, anime series and this movie seem to be very different from eachother, yet the same. But the movie is more faithful to the series than the manga is in terms of character design. Just remember that it's a different story. But this movie is good. I especially like the visual aspects. The animation quality is very good, but the style differs a bit from the series, everyone is just so... attractive, gorgeous *coughallencough*. That's because Sunrise hired Bones to do the animation. Explains a lot, doesn't it? The movie has its own soundtracks while some are from the series, and others are based on them. And while the animation is awesome, the soundtrack is good, and even the story is interesting, the plot seems to develop at a slow pace, finally picking up a bit of speed towards the end. And Dilandau is still my favorite character. Just puttin' it out there.

Finished watching Gunbuster

Finished watching Gunbuster (1988, Gainax, 6 OVAs) on 3/3/2016.

In the near future gigantic, insectoid, space monsters pose a threat to human kind. Planet Earth's best defense lays in the hands of an army of giant fighter robots called RX-7, piloted by trained professionals. Two of those pilots, namely Noriko and Kazumi have been specially chosen to train for an even larger, more powerful robot, the Gunbuster.

10/10 – Yup, a 10. It's that awesome! This mostly female fronted show puts its two main characters in space, piloting giant fighter robots against giant space monsters and it even tries to be scientifically accurate as possible. Which it is! By a lot! SPACE! SCIENCE! Oh and did I mention this is directed by Evangelion's Hideaki Anno? The characters are well constructed and the soundtrack is pretty awesome. The animation quality, despite experimental on rare occasions, is pretty good. I should mention the boob physics here, they're not exaggerated, they're quite nice. And yes, there is some full nudity from the ladies on occasion as well. Gotta have that hot spring bath episode, yo! But let me tell you something, this show made me aware of Time Dilation, something I should really know about. Some of you know why. This concept is crazy and I'm happy Gunbuster brought it up to me.

Finished watching xxxHolic: A Midsummer Night's Dream

Finished watching xxxHolic: A Midsummer Night's Dream (2005, Production I.G., 60mins) on 2/23/2016.

Yuko, Watanuki and Domeki are invited to a mansion party where they meet a handful of collectors. While staying at the mansion, everyone starts to wonder who the master of the house is as they are guided into different rooms for dining, lounging and sleeping without any maids or butlers. Watanuki even finds himself going though puzzling mazes just to get to a restroom.

8/10 - Although it's a movie, it's a little short for one. But I think it's because this movie double-features with an even shorter movie, Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle the Movie: The Princess in the Birdcage Kingdom. The two are also directly connected. This movie was fun and interesting to watch. Animation quality got... well, a bit too stylized at times, specially with Watanuki flailing around to get spirits off of him. Watanuki reacts to everything very dramatically so this fun-house mansion filled the movie with comical sketches between him and the ever-stoic Doumeki.

Finished watching Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle the Movie: The Princess in the Birdcage Kingdom

Finished watching Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle the Movie: The Princess in the Birdcage Kingdom (2005, Production I.G., 35mins) on 2/23/2016.

Sakura and Syaoran crash land into yet another alternate universe where they must help princess Tomoyo foil her uncle's evil plans to cover his kingdom in darkness, all the while recovering one of Sakura's memory feathers from him.

7/10 – Although it's a movie, it's pretty short. But I think it's because this movie double-features with a longer movie, xxxHolic: A Midsummer Night's Dream. The two are also directly connected. I have to point out that the studio that worked on this movie is not the same that worked on the Tsubasa series and so you can definitely tell the difference in visuals. Specially with Syaoran's David Bowie-like eyes. In the show they don't draw them like they did in the movie so you can't tell that they're actually different. But the show, at least for the first season don't really explain very well this fact. Just that there's something wrong with his eyes. But whatever. This movie was good. Animation quality is good. It uses the same soundtrack as the series. But I wouldn't recommend watching it without being familiar with the plot of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle.

Finished watching The Vision of Escaflowne

Finished watching The Vision of Escaflowne (1996, Sunrise, 26 episodes) on 2/23/2016.

High school student and track runner, Kanzaki Hitomi's life changes when a beam of light shines from the sky teleporting her to another earth-like planet called Gaea. She is thrown between a giant robot war feud between the medieval countries of the planet. But she is not alone as she meets new friends such as young king Van and her high-school crush look-alike, knight Allen.

9/10 - Amazing show! Truly recommend it! The animation quality is great for the majority of the show. The characters and their relationships are all very interesting. Shout out to my favorite character, Dilandau! The giant robots, the Guymelef always have awesome battle scenes. And the soundtrack is also very top notch with some orchestrated, epic a.f. tracks. I just don't get where the animal people came from. But that's not a big deal.

Finished watching Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle First Season

Finished watching Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle First Season (2005, Bee Train, 26 episodes) on 2/22/2016.

With the services of a dimensional witch named Yuko, a boy named Syaoran and his childhood friend Sakura travel together with a warrior named Kurogane and a magician named Fai in search for Sakura's memories which turned into feathers and scattered throughout various alternate universes.

6.5/10 - This show's alright. While the first episode has a lot of things going on, the plot seems to advance at a slowish pace for the rest of the season. It's interesting to see all the different worlds they go to, but sometimes they stay a bit too long in some. Sometimes there are even worlds that don't have any feathers to be found. The very last world they went to I think had the most episodes. But it was actually a bit interesting as they were in an MMORPG without realizing it. The soundtrack doesn't seem very varied with two or three of the tracks being used way too often. The animation quality gets a bit poor at times throughout the middle of the season with even some character's faces looking a bit strange. But I guess that's a common thing with shows with lots of episodes. They leave the quality for the more important episodes, usually the first and last few ones.

Finished watching xxxHolic

Finished watching xxxHolic (2006, Production I.G, 24 episodes) 1/16/2016.

Watanuki has spent most of his life running from the ghosts and spirits that chase him from time to time. One of these chases eventually leads him to a mysterious house where a tall, gracious woman named Yuko runs a spiritual shop as a witch. According to her, whoever steps into her house does not do so by accident but because they have a wish she can fulfill... at a price. As for Watanuki's price, he is hired on the spot by Yuko to cook and clean for her. While working for her he becomes more familiar with Yuko's magical ways and relics as well as how they're used on and by her customers.

7/10 - I've never read the manga to its full extent so I can't say how they compare, but the show was interesting although at times it got a bit repetitive. The manga style portrays the characters with long limbs and bodies, but this doesn't translate very well into the show, specially in mid-show episodes where the art quality is considerably lower. This results in abnormally tall and skinny characters with unreasonably tiny heads during some shots. The final few episodes were good and kept me on the edge of my seat. They were quite the tear jerkers as well.

Finished watching Lucky☆Star

Finished watching Lucky☆Star (2007, Kyoto Animation, 24 episodes) on 1/15/2016.

Follow nerdy, PC-gamer Konata-chan and her classmates through their normal, everyday high-school life as they talk about regular, trivial things that everybody does differently or like the many different ways they eat a certain kind of food. More than likely you'll find yourself relating to their stories with an "Oh, I do that too!" reaction.

8/10 – This show is great. I mean, it's unbelievable the topics they bring up. Sometimes I can't even catch up to what they're talking about or even fully understand it. But most of the time I do and I'm just like "Yup. Yup. So true." But after a few episodes I found myself thinking that the main reason I kept watching the show – because I actually did think of dropping it at one point (I don't know, maybe I got tired of hearing funny, relatable stories all the time), was because of the Lucky☆Channel segment at the end of each episode. That segment had me rollin' every time. Thanks to Shiraishi Minoru (voiced by himself) who's an amazingly funny character when dealing with his co-host, Akira's bad temper. After a while the credits of the show were even played with live-action videos of Minoru singing on beach rocks while making funny or dynamic poses. I loved it.

Finished watching On the Way to a Smile: Episode Denzel

Finished watching On the Way to a Smile: Episode Denzel (2009, A-1 Pictures, 28mins.) on 12/27/2015.

After the events of Advent Children, Denzel is inspired by Cloud's feats and decides to join the World Regenesis Organization. To do that, he meets up with WRO's head, Reeve Tuesti for an interview in which Denzel reveals his past and everything that drove him into this decision.

7.5/10 - This short movie shows quite an interesting side of the events of Final Fantasy VII and it helped me understand the mechanics of Geostigma a little better. The animation is great and so is the storytelling. And I think that perhaps, Denzel might just be the future of Final Fantasy VII.

Finished watching Space Battleship Yamato 2199: Odyssey of the Celestial Ark

Finished watching Space Battleship Yamato 2199: Odyssey of the Celestial Ark (2014, Xebec, 111mins) on 10/23/2015.

While fleeing from an attack from an unkonwn enemy during Yamato's voyage from Iscandar back to Earth, Yamato warps into the vicinity of an unknown area of space with no stars but one single planet called Aquarius where apparently anything is possible and everyone perceives everything aesthetically differently. Yamato's recon team gets stuck on the planet and have to figure a way out of the planet's illusion.

9/10 – Yamato 2199 is the best thing to happen to the Yamato franchise and is the major reason why I'm into it. I started my Yamato journey with it and what better way to end but with this movie. Unless another one comes out in the future. This movie is interesting in which it combines some part of the White Comet arc with some sort of reference to the Aquarius planet from Final Yamato. Although it's a bit of a long movie, it's a really good one at that. I hope I get to live 184 more years.