Anime & Manga Teh CX Anime Review Thread

Captain X

Well-known member
Osaul
When I first started out, there was a part of me that wanted to watch basically everything that looked remotely interesting, and when I first started doing reviews, there was always that part of me that wanted to make sure I had the full context of everything in order to do a review/analysis properly. Because of that first part, my watch list very quickly grew, and it soon became an aspect of my reviews to basically give the people who read them an idea of whether something was worth watching or not. So I'll basically try to follow the old stereotypical 3 episode rule, but honestly if it's boring or stupid, I might not even give it that.

As for Chrome Shelled Regios, I've honesty pretty much forgotten the majority of what I did watch of it. Well, all of it really. I pretty much just remember that I watched it, so I can't really comment on it as an Evangelion clone. Mostly all that's left in my memory of it is how horribly generic it was, and this is an aspect of anime that annoys me when I find examples of it. I have watched a few other Evangelion clones, and the two that stand out the most are probably Argento Soma and RahXephon. I'm kind of biased in that I really don't care for Evangelion, so I found aspects of both to be better executed than Evangelion, even though both had plenty of their own flaws. For example, Argento Soma was the most coherent of the three in terms of my ability to follow what was actually going on, but still had a really annoying protagonist I really couldn't stand.

Sky Crawlers was actually a pretty interesting commentary on the generic formulaic anime that I tend to find so frustrating, as well as the odd focus on youth in modern anime. Hopefully I'll get back into reviewing and do a write-up on it.
 

Captain X

Well-known member
Osaul
Claymore
(26 episode series)

So, we have a show set in a medieval fantasy world, following a beautiful female knight wielding a giant sword that she uses to kill demons. Sounds kind of awesome, right? Well, that's what I thought, but really it wasn't quite what I was hoping. It really came off as basically any other anime involving a sword wielder, though usually the sword is a katana. In other words, this series was nothing really new or special. It wasn't really bad, but it wasn't that good, either.

As far as the story went, most of it has to do with these demon creatures, yoma, which have a craving for human innards. They are pretty nasty creatures, often hiding out by eating the brain of a victim for their knowledge and memories (not sure how that works, exactly) and then shape-shifting into that victim's appearance in order to imitate them. They're basically impossible for normal humans to beat. The answer seems to be from a mysterious organization with no name: create human/yoma hybrids by implanting the flesh and blood from yoma corpses into a human's body. Oh, by the way, they only use women because men don't last as long. Seems the long term result of this is that the new warriors will eventually lose their human side over to their yoma side, and as it turns out having your body morph into a monster feels like having an orgasm, or something, so men don't last as long. Hah, long elaborate sex joke. -_-

I was sort of hoping the show would do something interesting with the yoma, but aside from a little bit in the very beginning of the series, they were pretty stereotypical enemies. While mysterious origins can be interesting, the show never really even went there, and while it might have added some depth to them by having the victims who the yoma are imitating survive and come through some times, like I said, that only ever turned up briefly in the first episode. A little more interesting were the "awakened beings", which were really just Claymores who have lost control to their yoma halves. Mostly, though, the yoma simply served as something for Clare, the title Claymore whose adventures we follow, and her other fellow Claymores to hack apart.

What the story ended up being, though, was a pretty basic story of revenge. Clare had a pretty messed up childhood, which we did get to see part of, and someone important to her was killed. Naturally the shadowy organization isn't exactly made up of "good guys", and it's made clear that they didn't create Claymore warriors to wipe out the yoma and in doing so preserving humanity, but rather for profit. And while it is very difficult to produce warriors like Clare, the organization is perfectly fine using them as expendable assets.

The show also dabbles a bit in romance and romantic drama, or rather tries to. Raki is a teenaged boy who is exiled from his village because of some suspicion that he might become a yoma because his entire family was killed by one, which then imitated Raki's older brother until Clare killed it. He's also a whiny loser, who constantly cries like a little kid. And, despite being a little weakling even by human standards, he has it in his head that he can somehow protect Clare in return for her saving his life (which at the time was only incidental to her job at his village). Still, somehow we are to believe that Clare develops romantic feelings for Raki. I just never really got into it, despite part of me kind of wanting to. I know it was probably an attempt at reversing gender roles, because Clare was strong, able, and relatively stoic, while Raki was weak, practically useless (though a good cook, apparently), and constantly cried and whined. I've seen other attempts at doing this kind of thing that actually mostly pulled it off, primarily because they didn't turn the guy into a pathetic whiny loser and weakling in the process.

Anyway, I wouldn't say that this series is completely uninteresting – I did watch all of it, after all – but there really isn't anything particularly interesting that might help this series stand out or make it different from any other hack and slash anime. 7/10.
 

Captain X

Well-known member
Osaul
Space Pirate Captain Herlock: The Endless Odyssey
(13 episode OVA)

This is actually a fairly complex story, and it was worth the time to watch it. There was some oddball philosophy to go along with it, not to mention some serious male stereotyping and the usual romantic vision of pirates, but for the most part the story this OVA told was interesting.

The story starts on a trash heap planet, which people live on despite it being a trash heap. A scientist type has a rebelling son, Tadashi, who is heading down the path to his own destruction. Like father, like son, as it turned out. Naturally, Tadashi ends up joining the mysterious Captain Herlock after the death of his scientist father. He's basically the odd man out, as things aboard the ship, Arcadia, are not what he expects. Yet somehow through this, he becomes a man, or so everyone in the OVA insists.

One thing I really liked here was the complexity of the characters. There were some definite stereotypes, but there was also at least one exception. There was one character who, for all intents looked to be the next Hitler, turning the "space sheriff's" department he is a high ranking officer of into the space Gestapo. Later this character seems to realize the error of his ways, and even comes to respect his enemy, Captain Herlock.

The subject matter was surprisingly serious considering the seemingly cartoonish nature of the visual design. Most of the characters looked kind of like monkeys, and then there were things like a prison satellite being connected by a chain to an artificial planet (the stereotypical ball at the end of a chain), or that the Arcadia had an old galleon style stern and wooden wheel, and sprouted a big knife in its bow for ramming attacks.

As for the story itself, well it's kind of reminiscent of Babylon 5's Shadow story arc – a scientific expedition is entirely wiped out save one person after coming in contact with a mysterious and ancient evil that has remained hidden for a long time. That's about where the similarities end. Basically it goes overboard on the whole demons and hell theme.

Actually, one of the things I really didn't care for was how invincible Herlock was. I know he's supposed to be the one we're all rooting for, but he literally was impossible to beat, which made him something of a Gary Stu in my opinion. I guess you could say the same about his ship, the Arcadia, which was also basically impossible to beat, and could even run without a crew. It wasn't enough to ruin the show, but it did kind of annoy me a little. Then there’s the unresolved cliffhanger ending. Talk about a Kobayashi Maru.

Anyway, I'd say this OVA is definitely worth a watch, and I'm actually interested in seeing the original version of this now, if nothing else to see if the same kooky philosophy of some ancient evil force being responsible for all the evil in the world and even for the spiral shape of galaxies (instead of gravity, and ignoring all the other types of galaxies) is also present in it. 7/10.
 

Captain X

Well-known member
Osaul
Cosmo Warrior Zero
(13 +2 episode OVA)

In some ways I'm still trying to decide what to make of this OVA as I write this. It's mostly a fairly typical space opera, espousing the principles of getting along with one another despite differences, living by a code of strong principles, and so on – everything one would expect from something of this genre. It was also mostly fluff, with a lot of comedy relief; too much comedy relief to really be taken seriously. The thing is, the series tended to bounce back and forth between having a serious storyline with some actual drama and being a comedy that happily makes fun of space operas. So that's why I'm having some trouble making up my mind about this OVA.

It doesn't help things that Crispin Freeman is playing the lead role as Captain Warrius Zero, because for those who don't know, he also played the title character in The Irresponsible Captain Tylor, which pretty much was just entirely about making fun of space operas. It also took place on a crappy old space ship and was crewed by a bunch of misfits who had to learn how to work together as a team. Then again, Crispin Freeman wasn't using his buffoon voice for Captain Zero like he was for Captain Tyler, so there's yet another thing that only adds to the question of if this series was supposed to be taken all that seriously or not. I'm leaning toward "not," though.

That's actually a little disappointing, because there were some elements about this series that could have made for a pretty good, seriously played science fiction story. The background of this story is that cylo- I mean "machine men" have just gotten done kicking humanity's ass, but rather than wiping humanity out completely, they stopped and agreed to a tenuous peace treaty. This treaty is then put at risk when the pirate Captain Harlock (now called rather than Herlock) and his green ship Deathshadow (rather than Arcadia though it looks about the same) start attacking ships, stations and colonies of machine men. That could make for something pretty interesting, especially given how dedicated Captain Zero is to treating machine men as friends and equals worthy of his protection even though his entire family was killed by them during the war. And that doesn't even matter if the machine men were aliens, originally created by humans as a slave race, or as in this OVA, humans who have somehow become machines and given up their humanity for various reasons of their own. But, this show doesn't really go there, and what it basically amounts to is a grudge match between Zero and Harlock, though the two of them apparently decide that they respect one another. As an aside, I have to say that casting Steven Blum of Spike Spiegel fame as Captain Harlock was very fitting.

In any case, there is the typical big bad who is behind the scenes plotting some evil scheme, which as it turns out doesn't make much sense when he could have just used brute force all along, given his uber-ship's capabilities and how he just ends up doing that anyway. The show tries to change things up by adding a villain who is apparently supposed to be worse, but nothing ever comes of it.

And then there's the "special," which basically adds two more episodes to the OVA. Most of the characters from the rest of the series aren't present, and Harlock and Zero both insist on fighting despite Zero already learning that his assignment to hunt Harlock down was a sham and that Harlock had been in the right all along. It's like everything leading up to and culminating in the reveal of the evil secret plan at the end of the series proper never happened. It's mostly played for laughs, and the tone set in the special was definitely lighter than the rest of the OVA.

Oh, veering off the track for a bit, I have to say that I can't understand at all why so many shows like this insist on doing a romantic pairing with the captain and the first officer of a ship. Fraternization regulations aside, it just really irks me that there are rarely any shows that show a male and female in these roles simply being friends and maintaining their professional relationship. It's like there's this expectation that men and women can't be adults and work together like grown-ups, and I find that ludicrous.

Don't get me wrong, this was an okay show, maybe worth a watch if you aren't looking for anything that's really serious. It's definitely not the kind of show Endless Odyssey was, which was way more philosophical and serious. It definitely had its moments, both positive and negative. Trying to decide which it had more of is a little difficult, but I don't think I can really rank this higher than a 6/10.
 

Captain X

Well-known member
Osaul
Coyote Ragtime Show
(12 episode OVA)

This was actually a pretty good anime; fun to watch, with a good pace, entertaining storyline, and interesting characters. This show reminded me a lot of Firefly, or at least aspects of it did - a sci-fi action following a small ship and its crew of misfits looking for the next big payoff. In other ways, it reminded me of Chiko, both in how there was one under-aged girl traveling around with a band of thieves and acting as their cook (you know, since she's a girl), and in how she was a protégé of the master thief.

This show wasn't good in the normal sense –it wasn't some deep, thoughtful drama or anything- but what it had was a lot of over the top action and never bothered to take itself all that seriously. Basically this is the kind of show you'd want to watch for some mindless entertainment. There is a lot going on, and it's one wild ride, but while it would have been easy for this show to get bogged down with politics or some other kind of message, that was mostly averted. There was some, but it wasn't as in your face as in other animes I've seen, and it thankfully wasn't the focus or even integral to the story.

Otherwise, this show has a lot to enjoy and laugh at, like say the killer androids that look like cutesy anime girls dressed in Victorian goth style clothing, laughing gleefully as they slaughter people by the dozen. There's also plenty to keep gun geeks entertained, as the people who made this probably crammed as many as they thought possible into this short series.

There's also a certain romanticism of piracy present in this show, which is what the name "coyote" is supposed to be standing in for, given the context. That makes it a little more amusing considering the people who are actually called coyotes tend to be pretty bad people. The pirate theme is still played through pretty thoroughly, including a scene in a pirate-themed bar, with pirate music playing in the background before the big bar fight breaks out. Then there were the bad guys, who looked like more modern versions of the soldiers in Jin-Roh, yet somehow made me still think of the faceless Cobra mooks from G.I. Joe. Despite absurdities being present, it was pretty much all acknowledged in a kind of tongue-in-cheek manner and played for laughs from what I could tell.

About the only things I didn't much care for was the female inspector, Angelica, constantly chasing the coyote simply referred to as "Mister," the protagonist of the show. She did add a little to the show, but naturally she ended up being played as secretly being in love with the over-the-top pirate. She also was played as a voracious eater, which I guess is supposed to be funny, but really wasn't. Also not funny was her partner, Chelsea, who while supposedly being a police officer, was actually so stupid she couldn't read much above a grade-schooler's level. Monica Rial's moé voice tended to get to me, too.

Those are the only real down-sides to this show, and it was mostly just fun. I'm definitely adding this to my list of favorites. 8/10.
 

Captain X

Well-known member
Osaul
Cromartie High School
(26 episode series)

It isn't very often that I get to finish an entire series in a single day, even if it's one of my days off. Of course it helps when each episode is only about 10 minutes long.

I'm not really sure how to describe this series, other than that it goes out of its way to be as over the top as possible, and that it's both hilarious and awesome because of it. A lot of shows will make fun of themselves or other shows like them, so in that way this series isn't any different with them, but it's still pretty good. It touches on a lot of subjects, including the anime fandom, the manga vs. anime argument(s), and stupid things like getting into arguments on the internet. There are also times the show actually gets thoughtful and discusses things somewhat seriously, usually to comedic effect. In a way, it's kind of like South Park ... but not really, that's just the closest comparison I can make.

Other than that, I can't really describe why this show is awesome and hilarious, so I suggest you watch it for yourself if you want to know why. I'm going to give this an A/Z.
 

Captain X

Well-known member
Osaul
Cybersix
(12 episode series)

This was actually more like 12 episodes of disappointment. I'd read some things about this series that made it sound promising (you mean you can't believe everything you read on the internet?), and the opening sequence even made it look like it was in the same vein as Batman, only with a cybernetic chick in a stripperiffic costume. Even the first episode made it look more interesting than that, because the "hero" of the show was actually going around hunting the bad guy's Frankenstein-looking henchmen so she could feed on them (sort of) in order to survive. So really there was potential there for a kind of anti-hero who wasn't fighting crime, but was instead only incidentally foiling the plans of the bad guy through her interference. Unfortunately all of this potential for awesomeness vanished before the first episode was even over, and it quickly became apparent that this show was aimed at an even younger age group than Batman: The Animated Series. Oh, sure, there's some humor derived from that, given that the Cybersix is basically a Clark Kent, only instead of just glasses, she also brushes her hair slightly differently, and dresses up like a nerdy high school literature teacher (though the high school looks more like a stereotypical university). There's also the humorously stereotypical way some Japanese characters were drawn, especially as this series was animated by a Japanese company. Yes, there are those things, but it wasn't enough to make me overcome the boredom I felt watching this series, and since most of the humor is the type you would find in an American Saturday morning cartoon aimed at the kiddies. If anything this show is actually slightly bad instead of just staying safely within "meh" territory. If anything, the more mature elements that were apparently left in from the source comic book series seem to be more like artifacts from that source, or maybe a parental bonus at best. Not really worth it to watch, and frankly, I'm surprised I put up with it for the six episodes I did watch. 2/10.
 

Captain X

Well-known member
Osaul
Cyborg 009: Legend of the Super Galaxy
(1980 movie)

You know all those stereotypes about anime and sci-fi (especially the two mixed together) everyone loves to make fun of? This movie has pretty much all of them: a horribly bad English dub with laughable dialog, a retardedly stupid plot that's just full of holes, characters that know everything despite just encountering something or someone, or leaping to conclusions that happen to be right, and a really dated appearance and soundtrack.

Speaking of appearance, it was made by the same people who made 009-1, so it has about the same character design, which is a bit cartoonish and looks like something from the '70s. Of course in this case it pretty much was from the '70s.

As for the plot, well, some big bad wants to conquer the universe, and it's up to our plucky group of cyborgs and their alien friend to stop him. Along the way, a lot of time is made for the cyborgs to angst about being war machines despite wanting to live peaceful lives, and other such clumsy attempts at drama. Oh, and one of the cyborgs is an infant who can levitate, talk, and has telepathy.

As you can tell by my lack of any real effort on this review, I don't really want to waste much time writing it, which should tell you that you don't want to waste time watching this movie. It might be good to watch to make fun of, and it would probably be improved with a Rifftrax, but other than that, it pretty much just sucks. 0/10.
 

Captain X

Well-known member
Osaul
Cyborg 009: The Cyborg Soldier
(51 episode series)

Probably the most notable thing about this series is that it does a fairly decent job of blending the old '70s character designs with a more modern visual direction. A "darker and edgier" reboot, I'm afraid I don't have any real basis for comparison other than the 1980 movie I reviewed not that long ago. Compared to that, there is quite a bit of difference, first and foremost that there aren't any aliens or secret evil plans to conquer the entire universe. Instead, a secret evil mercenary group plots to keep the world at war with itself so it can make money and because it just gets off on that kind of thing. The big bad of this series also bears a striking resemblance to Darth Vader, albeit actually somewhat more comical in appearance (almost friendly-looking, if it wasn't for the ruthless killing part). As I tried to watch this, giving it the requisite 3 episodes to sort itself out, I couldn't help but feel that this series was aimed at a younger age group due to the abundance of some rather immature humor.

I tried to get into this series, I guess because I was hoping that it was at least as good as 009-1 or Casshern Sins, but while those series weren't much above okay, they did have something to keep me just interested enough to keep watching. This series, however, lacked any real draw that I could get into. I might not have been as quick to give up on it if it had been shorter, but I'm just not willing to sit through 50+ episodes that might all be just as boring as the first 3 episodes. So I guess I'll pass on this one, but throw it a bone for at least trying to do something: 1/10.
 

Captain X

Well-known member
Osaul
Dante's Inferno
(2010 movie)

This was a fairly good movie with a coherent if basic plot, considering that it was made using quite a few different animation studios. I've seen this kind of work before with Halo Legends and Gotham Knight, but this is the first time I've seen all of the different segments edited together as one story – the others were collections of shorts each animation studio produced. So this movie is impressive in that way.

Story-wise, it was a pretty basic premise of a crusading knight going quite literally to hell in order to save the soul of the woman he loved. So basically it was a visually impressive hack n' slash, without much depth. Famous names were dropped and ancient Greek myths were shoe-horned into the Christian view of hell. Yeah, you could say I was a bit turned off by the viewpoint being presented. The movie did try to make up for this by pointing out that the Crusaders were a bunch of hypocrites, and that the holier-than-thou protagonist was one of the worst sinners in hell, but it was still selling a viewpoint on religion I just really can't agree with.

As for the characters, the fall-back to a lack of a story, well, not much depth here either, but I didn't really expect that much from an action-oriented movie that's based on a video game. There were some occasional tales of woe and attempts at drama, but I didn't really get into it.

Don't get me wrong, though, I'm not coming down all that hard on this movie. I didn't like it, but I didn't exactly dislike it either. Confused? Well, I like it as a kind of guilty pleasure, because it's full of action-packed ass-kicking. It might be worth a watch if blood and gore and the like aren't going to upset you, because this movie seems to go out of its way to gross you out. But if you want some mindless action and don't expect much out of this movie, I'd say go for it. 4/10.
 

Captain X

Well-known member
Osaul
Daphne in the Brilliant Blue
(26 episode series)

It was clear from the title sequence that this series was pretty much just about fan service. Basically it's a lot like Burn Up Excess – a group of women fighting crime for money while wearing as little as possible. There's even a loud mouth, violent, lazy blonde who's perpetually in debt. That might mean I'd actually like it, except that it actually tends to be a bit boring to watch, and what comedy there is just isn't really all that funny. I'm a little surprised to say this, but for all the fan service, I just don't find much interesting about this series, at least not enough to watch the whole series. Hell, I was getting so bored watching this series, I started doing some other writing as I let it play in the background.

At first I thought it might be something akin to a space opera, only underwater with the elite ocean agency the main character was trying to get into in the first episode. But as it turned out it was basically just another girl cop show like every other one I've seen. By now I guess I'm just bored with them. 3/10.
 

Captain X

Well-known member
Osaul
Dead Leaves
(2004 movie)

As I write this, I'm still trying to figure out just what the hell it is that I watched. No, really, I have no idea. Considering what I've come to expect from Production I.G, the visual direction was very abstract, and well, I really don't understand what the plot was supposed to be about. Basically it has the same kind of gross-out humor as Super Jail (and vague memories of Cool World), with the kind of "what the frak am I watching?" style of FLCL's storytelling. I think the movie was poking fun, but I'm not sure what at exactly. There are guns and explosions, a hot chick, a dude with a TV for a head, and a guy with a giant drill penis all trapped in a prison in the tattered remains of the moon. I really don't know how else to explain the movie. I mean, honestly, as messed up and confusing as it was, FLCL still made more sense than this movie. Don't get me wrong, it does have a kind of appeal, as in something to laugh hysterically at that doesn't make any real sense. I bet watching it drunk would be even more fun. In any case, I can't really rate this movie higher than a 4/10, even if I did find it kind of enjoyable to watch. The soundtrack is also pretty fun in its own right. I'm just not sure what to make of what it was I experienced.
 

Terthna

Professional Lurker
Dead Leaves
(2004 movie)

As I write this, I'm still trying to figure out just what the hell it is that I watched. No, really, I have no idea. Considering what I've come to expect from Production I.G, the visual direction was very abstract, and well, I really don't understand what the plot was supposed to be about. Basically it has the same kind of gross-out humor as Super Jail (and vague memories of Cool World), with the kind of "what the frak am I watching?" style of FLCL's storytelling. I think the movie was poking fun, but I'm not sure what at exactly. There are guns and explosions, a hot chick, a dude with a TV for a head, and a guy with a giant drill penis all trapped in a prison in the tattered remains of the moon. I really don't know how else to explain the movie. I mean, honestly, as messed up and confusing as it was, FLCL still made more sense than this movie. Don't get me wrong, it does have a kind of appeal, as in something to laugh hysterically at that doesn't make any real sense. I bet watching it drunk would be even more fun. In any case, I can't really rate this movie higher than a 4/10, even if I did find it kind of enjoyable to watch. The soundtrack is also pretty fun in its own right. I'm just not sure what to make of what it was I experienced.
For context, the guy who directed Dead Leaves is one of the co-founders of Studio Trigger; Hiroyuki Imaishi. He also directed, among other things, Gurren Lagann, Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, Kill la Kill, and Space Patrol Luluco.
 

Captain X

Well-known member
Osaul
I am somehow not surprised to hear that. That movie is very much in the vein of things like P&S, and Space Patrol Luluco.

ETA: Keep in mind I wrote the majority of these in like 2010 or so. :D
 

Captain X

Well-known member
Osaul
DearS
(13 episode series)

You know, it's hard at times to separate crap that I just can't get into, and crap that I can. On the surface, this series was pretty much like Chobits or Ah! My Goddess, but whereas I hated Chobits and was barely able to keep watching Goddess, I actually liked DearS, just probably not the way one was expected to.

Don't get me wrong, there's plenty on the shit list, like the whole slavery fetish, and the female protagonist/love interest being back of the short bus special, and it did annoy the hell out of me, but there was way more for me to laugh at. The humor written into it could have its moments, but really, what I was laughing at most of the time was all the stereotypical stuff I like to make fun of about anime. I mean, there was even a catgirl who constantly said "nyah". You know, the kind of stuff you would probably just think was weird if you didn't know anything at all about anime. There's just so much there, I was cracking up quite a bit. Hell, they even threw in a couple of stereotypical "cool dudes" with the lamest come-ons and innuendos I've ever heard just for fun.

Of course they also threw in weird kinky S&M sex tidbits, and some of that even involved minors, and that was just so very wrong. And I never got into the whole romance plot either, even though that's basically what the whole plot was, played for laughs with the usual "shy, nerdy dude has hot chick foisted on him" stuff that's in basically every show like this. And hey, if you’re into that kind of thing, here you go. But even if you aren't, then there's plenty here to make fun of without being bored out of you mind while you wait for it. 4/10.
 

Captain X

Well-known member
Osaul
Demon Fighter Kocho
(Single episode OVA)

Since this OVA is pretty much all about the fan service, I wasn't expecting a whole lot out of it, and that's pretty much what I got. The story is told mostly from Kosaku's perspective, a young, male college student. There is a teaser opener that plays out like pretty much every teen slasher movie you've ever seen, where a young promiscuous couple end up having bad things happen to them. We're told right afterwards that they're in the hospital and weren't actually killed, but we never see them again so it's not like it really matters.

The whole rest of the story is mostly devoted to seeing Kocho naked so both Kosaku and the old man acting as their Astrology club advisor/teacher can drool over her (and subsequently get beat up by her). Just to make that angle even more fun, even though it's really obvious that Kosaku and Kocho want to hook up and the nutty professor just wants to watch, Kocho's sister shows up and literally throws herself at Kosaku. The "love triangle" bit of Kocho and her sister competing for Kosaku was obviously meant to be funny, but mostly it came off as the tiresome teenaged male fantasy that it was. Not that seeing animated boobs and camel toe doesn't just brighten up my day or anything, but the humor pretty much fell flat. Probably the only thing that got much of a chuckle out of me was when the professor had a magical girl transformation scene, complete with a black dot to cover his bits.

Oh, there was also a plot going on that had something to do with the ghosts of some young master (who turns out to be really young) and his servants haunting the community college this OVA takes place at. Kocho kicks one of them in the nuts, they swing some katanas around, and that's about it.

While anybody who knows me knows that I don't mind fan service at all, or a show not having much of a plot as long as it's funny, I have to admit that this OVA was kind of ... "meh". It was okay-ish, and that's about all I can sum it up as. Burn-Up W and GoldenBoy were both a lot more entertaining and had a lot more laughs despite not having much of a plot and consisting almost entirely of fan service. Demon Fighter Kocho just lacked jokes that worked very well, or characters that I could really like, even as a lovable buffoon. I'll throw it a bone though for trying and give it a 3/10. It didn't completely suck, but I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone. I guess if you do want to bother watching it, it only wastes about a half-hour of your time, so that's something.
 

Captain X

Well-known member
Osaul
Detroit Metal City
(12 episode OVA)

I guess this could be called Japan's answer to Metalocalypse, mostly because it deals with an insanely popular death metal band that has a legion of obsessive fans. Of course while Deathklok from Metalocalypse lives the kind of far out "metal" life that the manager of the title band Detroit Metal City wishes its members would live both on and off the stage. they aren't very "metal" at all off stage. The thing is, only the drummer is like that, with both the bassist and the lead guitarist/singer being more or less normal. But then the Death Records President judges how good songs/movies/concerts/whatever are based on how wet they make her, so there you have it.

Oddly enough, with a character like that, there isn't really all that much in way of fan service (fan dis-service if anything). The focus of the series actually is on a male protagonist, Soichi Negishi, a somewhat meek character who you would never take to be the very metal band member Johannes Krauser II. Negishi claims to only be doing it for the money and at a few points actually threatens to quit the band, but really he's just too good at being Krauser. Actually, a lot of the humor is derived from the fact that things tend either work out to make it look like he's being very much in character even when he isn't trying to be, or how he'll get caught up in the moment and instead just slip into being Krauser, usually when he's trying to woo a girl he knows from his days in high school.

Of course the idea of a death metal band living very normal lives that are nothing at all like their band personas while their fans insist on living as "metal" of lifestyles as possible is entertaining as it is. This also separates it from Metalocalypse, which is pretty much just played straight. It's actually a bit unfortunate that there couldn't be a bit of a crossover there somehow, but the closest it gets is in the form of Jack ill Dark, a death metal artist from the United States whose "metal" lifestyle turns out to actually be true, unlike the members of DMC, who have all made up stories to go with their death metal characters.

I've read that all of this is actually based somewhat on KISS or is at least a tribute to it, which can kind of be seen in the form of the makeup and costumes of the DMC band members.

This is definitely a fun little series, and I'd definitely suggest it to you if you like Metalocalyse, because it is very much in the same vein. I'm not actually sure what to rate this, since it doesn't really fit into any of the normal categories I tend to rate things by. The characters are fun and the series is fun, and that's mainly what matters, so I guess I'll give it a 8/10. If you're wondering why it's not higher, there were still a few times that it felt like things were dragging, and the jokes involving Negishi telling his love interest that he wanted to rape her and/or kill her got a bit old after a while.
 

Captain X

Well-known member
Osaul
Devil Lady
(26 episode series)

I can't say that I really cared for this series all that much. For as much fan service as there was (combined with lesbianism), I still frequently found myself bored while trying to watch this series. And while it was supposed to be a horror series, I can't say that it really ever got particularly scary or creepy, at least not in my opinion.

The series follows a Japanese supermodel, Jun Fudo, who as it turns out is a monster. The basic premise of the series is that humans are evolving into these strange beast-like creatures (simply referred to as "beasts") who have a tendency to kill humans in horrible ways that usually involve dismemberment and/or eating them. Some of them seem to be able to go between looking like a monster and looking like a normal human, and Jun happens to be one of those, who can also keep her mind intact while in her "beast" form.

Now, turning into monsters would put most people off just by itself, but seeing as most of them tend to kill any humans they can find, it's not hard to understand why Japan has reacted to this problem by having the military and a special police force blow them away as soon as one reveals itself to them. That doesn't stop the series from repeatedly sermonizing that this is somehow wrong and humans are just evil bastards. Mostly this comes after they've turned on Jun, though they claim that she is the traitor. Kind of like the other beasts accuse her of being since she's being used to kill them by this special police force and the psycho lesbian/tranny in charge of it, Lan Asuka. I found that amusing, too, because she only ever killed any of these beasts after they tried their best to kill her first.

Pretty much what the series turned into was a very formulaic format where Asuka would say some pretty mean things to Jun, Jun would cry, some monster would appear and kill a bunch of people, Jun would be forced to fight it, the monster would make some attempt at being a sympathetic character, and Jun would either be forced to kill it or someone else would finish off the monster for her. Either way she'd end up being lectured, and Kazumi Takiura, the young girl she saved from a bunch of other beasts who killed her family, would mope about Jun never being around to sleep with –I mean spend time with, and some creepy little boy monster would threaten to kill Jun and Kazumi. When every episode of your series can pretty much be summed up the same way, I'm sorry, but your series kind of sucks.

Now there was a kind of ongoing evil secret plan involving Asuka in the background, but it never really came out much until towards the end and we see that Asuka is pretty much exactly what you could tell she was from the first episode. I guess there is the odd gender switch that never really got explained (Asuka started out as a man and then somehow became a woman), but that doesn't really count as much of a twist or surprise.

There's also some US-bashing, but in the end that turns out to be more amusing than anything.

Now I know some people may like this, but really the whole monsters fighting each other every week thing doesn't really appeal to me. It ends up getting so boring that I end up fast-forwarding through a lot of it, which is exactly what happens here. In fact the only reason I didn't just stop watching was the fan service, so this review owes most of its length to me being a pervy bastard who likes seeing animated breasts and girl on girl action. In this case the girl on girl action wasn't as nice though, because most of it ended up being rape. Yay. 1/10.
 

Captain X

Well-known member
Osaul
Divergence Eve
(13 episode series)

This series started things off by doing something that really annoys me – it started at what was actually pretty much the end of the story and then jumped back to what was superficially supposed to be the start of it. That style of storytelling has been done so many times that it just grates on me whenever I see it. This isn't helped by the fact that while suddenly finding myself immersed in the midst of what's going on is supposed to make me interested, in this case it just left me wondering what the hell was going on.

Even as the story went back to what was basically the beginning and I learned more, the series still tended to be kind of hard to follow. I could tell that it was trying to mess with my head and trying to be something in the vein of 2001, but no, sorry, didn't work. While I did find some of the aspects of the conspiracy developing in the background interesting, the plot constantly skipping around just tended to ruin my enjoyment of what little there was to enjoy, at least of the story, anyway. Not a lot in the story made sense.

For instance the existence of the massive station, Watcher's Nest made a kind of sense as it was vital to Earth's faster-than-light flight capabilities. But when the 10 million civilians who are there because of overpopulation on Earth, the point tends to be lost somewhat since if overpopulation is a problem, why are all these civilians on the station and not colonizing a new planet? Since the station is under constant attack, there aren't a lot of ships coming from earth bringing even more people, but the need for keeping those attacks secret from the civilians was entirely based on the fear that they would all want to head back to Earth, which is overcrowded.

Which brings me to my next example. One of the four female pilots the story focuses on decides she's no longer up to the task she finds herself facing, so she apparently has to have the last two years of her memory erased in order to keep the big secret of the attacks. Why so much when she hasn't been there that long is never explained, especially since while this pilot may have washed out in this "elite" area she was training for, she still would have theoretically had promise as a regular officer or even as a regular pilot who didn't have to kill monsters from another dimension for a living. Well as it turns out, they didn't just erase two years of her memory, they erased all of it and reprogrammed her to be some random janitor on the station. There is never any explanation as to why, and the matter is never even discussed after it is brought up.

Of course, I wasn't expecting all that much out of this series to begin with. Pretty much the only reason I watched this series was the fan service. In this case pretty much all of the women had massive breasts, with the type of exaggerated physics you'd expect to go along with that, and there was even some occasional nudity. Actually maybe a bit more than occasional. From what I've read, this apparently caused some butthurt from a lot of people. I can't say that I had a problem with any of the fan service, but then I usually actually like fan service. When it comes to shows like this, I pretty much like to make fun of it. You see the same kind of focus on breast size in a lot of other sci-fis, like the last two Star Trek series, which both featured large-breasted women in skintight "uniforms". I've criticized Star Trek for that, but I guess when it comes to most generic sci fi or action movies I just recognize it for what it is and laugh at it. Go figure.

Anyway, I guess if you like seeing large animated breasts that move around a lot more than they should in a generic sci-fi atmosphere, this is definitely the series for you. Anyone looking for something exciting or the least bit serious, don't even bother. 3/10 (1 for story and 2 for breasts, get it? ;) ).
 

Captain X

Well-known member
Osaul
Divergence Eve: Misaki Chronicles
(13 episode series)

The sequel to Divergence Eve was actually a little more interesting than the original, probably because there was more focus on the plot and characters. Oh, the fan service was still there to enjoy, though it was toned down a bit. Instead of showing the main characters naked at every opportunity it was only almost every opportunity. ;)

The plot this time wasn't the mixed up jumbled heap that the first series had, or at least it wasn't as mixed up and jumbled. This is in spite of a story that revolved almost entirely around time travel and the concept of multiple parallel universes. Which is to say that at times it still didn't make all that much sense, since at the bottom of it all was that the title character, Misaki, was trying to get back to her friends. Mostly the point of all the time travel seems to be to tug at the audience's heart strings a little, but since I don't have many of those left it didn't really work for me.

Since this series picks up right where the last one left off, the same evil secret plot is there in the background, only this time it revolves entirely around the main bad guy, Jean-Luc LeBlanc. I still don’t really get this character, who apparently has gone through a lot of convoluted planning and effort to destroy the universe because he hates science ("Of course!"). There's a revelation about his creation and his relationship to the rather odd female scientist Prim Snowlight (who also happens to have a huge rack). It doesn't really make all that much sense to me, particularly in light of his position of power aboard Watcher's Nest that allowed him to carefully plan and carry out his evil secret plan.

As for the characters, well, I hate to say it but I never really found any of them all that interesting. I suppose I could find some of them somewhat sympathetic, though mainly that would be Misaki because she's been trapped in the weird alternate universe/time, and Suzanna, who's had her memory rather unjustly erased. The thing with the later case, which I mentioned in my previous review, is that it is never really addressed beyond trying to tug at our heartstrings of how horrible it has to be for the busty British chick to have had the last two years of her life erased and false memories implanted in their place. But never once are the ethics of it discussed, and one of the people who was involved in it, Lyar Von Ertiana, never talks about it with Suzanna, much less apologizes for it, even if for the supposed necessity of it, and she's basically become the de facto protagonist of this series since Misaki is trapped in time. Actually having Suzanna participate at all in the important mission that takes up the last half of the series really doesn't make sense, because while Suzanna does recover some of her memory along the way, for all intents and purposes all of her military training has been erased and she's now just a janitor. A janitor who knows how to fly a spaceship and a mobile armored suit, apparently.

Overall, Misaki Chronicles was an improvement on Divergence Eve, even if it wasn't much of one. I'd say that the same conditions apply to this series as with the original if you want to enjoy it, mainly that you aren’t expecting all that much out of it. As this series continues right where the last one left off from, it might be a little difficult to skip the first series and dive right into this one, but there is a little flashback/explanation, so it might be possible. 4/10.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top