“The 1000th Summer”

I was visiting MAL one day, and saw that in my blogging club, one of them opened up a contest. Basically, it’s a contest where everyone had to watch an anime (Air, in this regard) and make a review out of it. Whoever wrote the best review will win and obtain the spoils. I jumped on the opportunity almost immediately, though it’s still kind of dead at the moment. I hope I’m not the only one joining this >_>

Not including the 2003 Kanon, Air is probably one of oldest animated works by Key, being adapted into anime from the visual novel by early 2005. Air stars Yukito Kunisaki, a young traveler whose only source of money making is his puppeting skills. His objective is to look for the “Winged Maiden”, after hearing an old childhood tale from his mother. As he arrived at a quiet town, his journey was put on hold for a quick while and stayed there temporarily. However, his search for the “Winged Maiden” may inches much more closer then he thinks..

Air presents it’s storytelling with great pacing in just 13 episodes. Key uses their signature non fanservice-y humors at the beginning, and at the same time, it doesn’t waste any time and uses the chance to introduce and set up the characters. Later on, the anime breaks up into 3 “story arcs,” and show the more dramatic part of Air. The first arc deals with Kano, the second one dealing with Minagi and the last one dealing with Misuzu. The anime may be be short but as whole, the anime doesn’t feel rushed at all. Each arc ended splendidly and while they may seem like they didn’t relate to each other much, their subtle relations to each other works perfectly nice, since it sets and build up the final arc pretty well.

As Yukito began solving the problems of the final heroine, Misuzu, this is when the anime begins unveiling the secrets and truths behind the characters, in which they are connected even throughout the eras. While the former two arc is great in their own rights, it doesn’t take rocket science to know that Misuzu’s arc is the canon arc, as more then half the anime is concentrated just on her. At this time, there are scenes which showed perspectives from different characters, which is nice. I also like how they uses a lot of time to develop Misuzu’s mother/aunt, and her change in character is positive to the series.

Speaking of characters, Air had one great cast, as expected of Key, who is known to create many likable characters. Yukito, is Air’s main protagonist and is at times cool, always putting his hands into his pockets, and at times goofy, always messing around with Michiru. He is also compassionate and had no problem lending a helping hands to those in need, even when he still has his own mission of searching for the Winged Maiden.

The other heroines are quite likeable as well, the outgoing girl Kano, the reserved girl, Minagi and the dojikko, Misuzu. I also like how some of the supporting characters relate to the main plot more so then you think, from the dude who brings a cake out of nowhere, to the housewife who carries multitude sacks of rice, and from her to the kids. There is no way of telling just what character will be the main focal point of the series, one character who showed up all of a sudden, might have a major involvement in one of the arcs. The only flaw I can find for the characters is that in the later part of the series, the heroines for the previous arcs are hardly ever shown anymore.

As for the visuals, it’s not bad. Yukito’s character designs look pretty stylish. As for the other character designs, specially the girls, are a reminiscence of old typical Key-style designs, round face and big eyes, and looks slightly unoriginal. I can’t help but feel the designs of the character faces look quite disproportional at times too. Some of the backgrounds are a feast to the eyes though, and the vibrant colors used in the anime is eye-pleasing, especially dat beautiful sunsets.

Likewise, the audio department isn’t the greatest, especially if we are talking about the background music. Although they sound calm and soothing, most of them are bland and doesn’t sound quite much attractive. Most of the tracks use almost the same instruments and tones throughout, without a hint of diversity. This is actually a recurring problem within most of Key’s works, and I can say they are improving slowly over the years. The seiyuu’s voice acting is great and natural, not much problems I can find generally. Ono Daisuke, is ironically my favorite seiyuu in the anime, probably because I was so used to his calm demeanor in his portrayal with Koizuki (Haruhi) and Sebastian (Kuroshitsuji) so much that I can’t help but admires how he can use his calm voice for loud retorts as well, shown countlessly with Yukito.

Air is a great piece of work, and showed just what Key is capable in. Though in my opinion, it is easily overshadowed by Kanon and Clannad, Air has a lot of great elements too; The soothing atmospheres, the fairy-tale romances, the lovely characters, all these make Air a force to be reckon with in it’s own rights. Air is definitely an anime worth your time watching.

Rating

Final Score

“The Daily Lives of The Demons”

Inu X Boku SS is this year Spring’s hidden gem. There were some spectacular anime this Spring, and within the huge stash of treasures, there may be some minor ones you overlooked, and it turns out these unpolished, minor treasures, are much better then you thought. One of those, is Inu X Boku.

The anime follows Shirakiin Ririchiyo, seemingly bold and confident girl but those are only a facade of her own more reserved and timid side. Most families of the supernatural, like hers, always had strict policies to upheld, and from her childhood, she had been living in strict environment. She wanted to live independently, and so, moved to a mansion named “Ayakashi Kan,” a mansion where all of the supernaturals reside. Each resident is accompanied by an agent of S.S (Secret Service), and her S.S agent, is a nine-tailed fox youkai named Miketsukami Soushi. The story basically centers on these two, how they deal with the struggles and emotional rifts of their everyday lives.

When I first saw this anime in the Spring anime chart, I seriously didn’t know what to think of it. I thought it might be a shounen action anime, with a touch of Japanese supernatural folklore, yes, like Nurarihyon no Mago literally. I was doubtful of my speculation though, because of the anime’s shoujo-ish designs, it doesn’t look like shounen in the slightest bit, even though the anime is practically branded as “shounen.” What is this? Only one way to find out I thought.

It turns out the anime isn’t actually about action or anything. There may be some random sword flashes and the likes, but what Inu X Boku focuses on, is the struggles of how these youkai adopts to everyday life, and their mental stability. Some had trouble getting along with human friends, some had trouble expressing themselves, and some always feel the inferiority compared to others. The anime is about how these people, treat the fate of their childhood, due to their supernatural background. Each of the supernatural family is like a cult, and each lived in an unique manner in one way or the other, before they moved to Ayakashi Kan.

The anime played out in a simple slice-of-life manner at first, with the youkai living in disguised within human society. There are bits of comedy here and there, and there are something which provide you a soft feeling and makes a smile on your face. Some of the jokes may be overused at times, but due to the fun characters, it’s something easily overlooked, since the characters successfully gave us something, an enjoyment, which is certainly an important factor in anime.

Towards the end, as the characters gets more open with each other, they also begun to realize feelings hidden within them. And thus, the anime takes a turn for a more romantic side and ironically, that’s basically the highlight of the show; I’m sure most of you will find the ending so HNNNNNNGG.

The interactions and developments between Ririchiyo and Miketsukami is indeed a good part of the show. These two had been “alone” every since young. They had experienced a lot of socializing mishaps since childhood, due to their supernatural background. One way or the other, making it to Ayakashi Kan takes a turn for the better, signified by the character’s subtle changes. The way the characters were presented were certainly high in quality. However, that applies if we only include Ririchiyo and Miketsukami.

As for the rest of the characters, they were left out, and served nothing more but for amusements. This is quite a let down since the author had created such a great character cast. Sorinozuki, Watanuki and of cause, Karuta, are among, the few of the best in the supporting cast. They couldn’t elaborate more on the story behind these great characters, which is a major disappointing factor in my opinion. Now, I certainly wouldn’t mind if they release a spin-off, an OVA, or anything, which focuses more on Karuta and Watanuki.

Aforementioned, the anime may be officially branded as “shounen”, but looking at the art, it looks more like a shoujo show. The art in that regard, certainly had that shoujo-ish look you could viewed at other well-known shoujo titles. Suave handsome guys, pretty looks, clear eyes, you get the drift. The character designs are detailed for sure, and each characters has a distinguishing features to set them apart. Aside from that though, both art and animation are, generally speaking, just somewhat above average in my opinion.

The background soundtracks are great and fits accordingly with their atmosphere. I had doubts that they will be great as standalone tracks but there are a few memorable tracks from time to time.

Inu X Boku’s strongest part audio-wise isn’t the soundtracks nor the voice-acting though, but it’s the opening/endings. “Nirvana” by MUCC, which is the first opening and also served as an ending for some episodes, is a pretty typical rock song, but the highlight of the songs, are the endings sang by the seiyuu themselves. Some of them, are actually astounding singers, take Hidaka Rina (Ririchiyo’s VA) for example. Her vocals are sweet and pleasant to hear I recommend checking out her song “Kimi wa”, which can be found in episode 3 and 8′s ending. Another great song to check out on is “Taiyou to Tsuki”, performed by Sorinozuka and Yukinokouji, where the ones doing their voice respectively are Hosoya Yoshimasa and the one and only Hikasa Yoko! This is actually my favorite song in the series so again, I recommend it to everyone, especially to those who love Hikasa Yoko, her vocals are just smex to the ears. It will definitely be a nice change of pace to hear Hikasa Yoko singing songs for something aside from K-ON.

Inu X Boku is a decent anime, and attracts me in a way unexpected for me. Although, the anime is officially a shounen, it looks like shoujo. Although the characters look shoujo, some of their personalities, especially the comedy retorts, are definitely what you would expect from a shounen. It’s really hard to categorize Inu X Boku as either but incidentally, it has a wide audience because of this, since the anime caters to both the male (loli everyone?) and female (yes, the suave handsome shoujo lead, I know) audiences.

Ultimately though, there is no need to know just what the anime belongs to right? It delivers enjoyment and an interesting perspective of youkai we had never thought of seriously before. Youkai don’t just fight, they are also delicate and fragile beings, much like we humans.

Rating

Final Score

“Survival of the Fittest”

With love, wishes and world’s salvation on the line, one must survive in the most cruelest battle ever, a survival of the fittest, where 12 combatants fight with each other, and only the last survivor will be granted a wish of his own.

The anime revolve around Amano Yukiteru, an unsociable boy who prefers to be alone. He observes the surroundings around him as a bystander and writes just about anything in his diary. He even talks with his imaginary friend, Deus Ex Machina. Little did he know that Deus is actually real, and is the genuine god of Time and Space. Since his reign is almost over, he forced a battle royale upon him and eleven others, a total of twelve. The twelve contestants are bestowed upon special diaries that can predict the future, each of them predicts the future in it’s own unique ways. The last one standing in the end will become the new God of Time and Space.

Mira Nikki is a psychological thriller, and is one of the best in it’s own game. The system created behind the battle royale feels a bit odd at first. Twelve diary holders, which possess an ability to predict the future. However, this simple concept turn everything and everyone into a manslaughter, with each trying their best to outwit other combatants and ultimately murders them. Information becomes your main weapon and knowledge is the ultimate power.

Stuck in a game where survival is the fittest, meet Yukiteru and Yuno, two individuals with two very contrasting personalities, yet, they work together to defeat the other diary holders. Yukiteru for one, doesn’t want any part of the survival game, and only desired a peaceful life. Because of his weak nature, he quickly befriended anyone in order to protect himself, most notably, Gasai Yuno, the yandere girl who is madly in love with him.

Yukiteru is just like any other kid, an ordinary boy, who desired a peaceful life more so then anything. The anime highlights the normality of Yukiteru quite well, presented in his development. His mind is fragile, he is weak, he is unbearably human. He had to protect himself no matter what, and even relied on Yuno, who is basically a “walking bomb”, for protection. Like any other kid, he is quick to panic and make rash decisions: his fake confessions, his aim to return everything to normal and so on. At the end of the day, he is still just an ordinary boy at heart, which makes him pretty controversial or to be more blunt, somewhat lame.

Unsurprisingly, Gasai Yuno is the most groundbreaking character of the series. Yuno is the epitome of obsession and insanity, she stalks, lies, fights and murders everyone, just for the sake of “Yukki”. Like any other classic yandere, she is quick to jealousy and wouldn’t mind a corpse or two just in order to be with her beloved one. Her thoughts are always centered around Yukki, even if her actions may be a bit wild and extreme.

What I find a bit repetitive with Mirai Nikki’s character developments, are how almost all the twelve diary holders, had a reason or logical conclusion in the past which manifested into the characters they are now, as if they are using their past experiences to justify their current actions. Yuno, for example, had a bad childhood experience where her parents, demands Yuno to be a better person overall, then proceeds to lock her up in a cage and strictly controls her need of food and sleep. Undoubtedly, she murdered her own parents. Likewise, Minene’s hatred for religion, which stems from her past where her parents were killed, leads her to become the harbringer of destruction to those associated with God.

The visuals are good. The animations are up to par with modern anime, which provides us with excellent battle sequences. The designs for Yukiteru’s imaginative world is excellent too, and paired up with a bit of modern 3D animations is beautiful. But if you prefer to watch all of Mirai Nikki in it’s gory glory, I would suggest trying out the blu-rays, since there are quite a lot of censorships without them. Usually, anime blu-rays are just a way of watching your favorite ecchi anime with a “bit more exposure” but I think Mirai Nikki, it actually heightens the overall excitement and enjoyment, since you will be watching all the killings and murders in more open manner. Speaking of which, I wonder why Mirai Nikki had to even censor a knife stab.. even some random shounen anime would air that with no problem at all.

Mirai Nikki has great of OPs and EDs. In fact, both “Kuusou Mesorogiwi” and “filament” by Yousei Teikoku, is the best openings and endings respectively I had ever heard. It’s rock, which gives you the feeling of energy and yet, the melodies give you the feelings of despair and misery. Its a nice combination which fits Mirai Nikki’s general atmosphere.

It is also interesting to know that most of the creation behind Mirai Nikki’s characters are directly connected to the gods and goddesses of Rome, especially Jupiter (Yukiteru), Juno (Yuno), and Minerva (Minene), where said characters were the main focal points of the anime. The lyricists even inputted the names of the Gods and Goddesses into the OP track: “ConsentesDei/Juno/Juppiter/Minerva/Apollo/Mars/Ceres/Mercurius/Diana/Bacchus/Vulcanus/Pluto/Vesta/Venus.” Smart move.

Mirai Nikki is unpredictable, even when some of the presentation towards the near end of the series seems slightly generic, the revelation in regards to the multiple world surprises me. The battles in the third world are pretty hard-boiled, and incorporating time paradoxes in the third world reinforces the excitement. I’m lost at the ending though, while it’s nice that all the other twelve combatants had respective pleasing closures to their part of the tales, there are some things I don’t understand, like is it even necessary for MurMur to have multiple world selves? And why did Yuno and Yukiteru took 10,000 years just to presumably reunite with each other. I think that epilogue scene from the anime is from here, and I really wonder why the producers left out that part, it looks so damn awesome, a giant Yuno!

Mirai Nikki is filled with constant plot twists, some thrilling, some exciting, and some ridiculous. They are suspenseful and drags in viewers, leaving them not what to expect of next. It is a great anime for sure, and it is worth trying it out even if these genres aren’t your cup of tea.

Rating

Final Score

In anime, stories are always told in a specific manner, perhaps one with a slowly consequential manner or perhaps even one with structureless pacing. The latter one can sometimes be a mess, yet it can sometimes be a success, and DDD’s first chapter, JtheE (Junk the Eater), definitely leaned more on the success side, and can be said nothing more but an exquisite introduction to the madness.

DDD (Decoration Disorder Disconnection), is a light novel series written by Kinoko Nasu, a renowned Type-Moon author. Kinoko Nasu had been writing dozens of mind-blowing stories, Fate/Stay Night, Tsukihime, Kara no Kyoukai; all these has plots which sparks considerable intrigue. DDD doesn’t let up as well and already on the very first page, we are already introduced to the very maddening ambiance of DDD.

Before we continue on this mad post ourselves, I guess I need to structured my post better and provide some insight on the settings and the characters first. For the former, I’ll just take this from wikia:

“Abnormal Antagonist Syndrome, commonly known as “Demonic possession” prevailed in Japan. Patients of the syndrome have malfunction in the secretion of the neurotransmitters and it gives rise to the acquisition of new parts in the body and supernatural power. The patients of “A-Syndrome” were unnaturally concentrated in Shikura city. Arika Ishizue lost his left arm in the A-syndrome related accident and hospitalized. After he left the hospital and went back to Shikura, he met a beautiful boy named Kaie Karyou who has no limbs and is living in a dark basement. The boy asked him to exorcise the “Demons” possessing A-Syndrome patients. Arika was involved in the bizarre cases and the fights with the Demons”.

Anyhow, I’ll talk about the two major characters, Arika and Kaie, who both have quite prominent presences in the first chapter, JtheE. Arika is a man who somehow lost his left arm in a bizarre accident from way back. The accident also caused a side effect where Arika was diagnosed with slight mental instability.

Being incredibly disabled, he struggled when finding a job, and somehow found out about Kaie, who became his employer. The beautiful young boy, who had appearances like a girl a trap, in other words is completely limbless, and Arika’s job include attaching and detaching prosthetic arms and legs for him.

Of cause, this job is more then meets the eye. Kaie is from an incredibly rich and powerful family, in fact, the existence of Kaie itself is shrouded in absolute mystery. Kaie possessed “demon” limbs, which contain extreme powers. At times, Arika is tasked by Kaie to handle A-Syndrome cases, where he might even need to exorcise said “demons”, and in order to do so, he borrowed one of Kaie’s “demon” limb.

As you can see, the story is incredibly interesting, and it’s improper structure serves nothing more but to reinforces this strength of the light novel. Characters are charming too, which brings out the story. The main character, Arika, is an apathetic yet sarcastic individual; his narrations and monologue are always fun to read. Other characters are quite interesting too though aside from Kaie, the rest aren’t being exposed as much as of this chapter.

It seems like the next few chapters will focus on other settings and characters, and the perspective of the main character is shifted as well: we will no longer be following Arika’s footsteps. I feel that the madness in first chapter was already at peak point, and since all good things must come to an end, it’s a good choice to take a break from that and focuses on other views and perspectives. In a way, I think DDD represents Kara no Kyoukai a lot with their structure, though I couldn’t say for sure since I have yet to read Kara no Kyoukai’s light novels (only watched the anime movies).

Little Busters was a breath of fresh air, instead of focusing on romance with the heroines, the themes are more about friendships and trust. Key, including some other visual novel studios, had been using their simple formula of nakige for quite a long period. While they are good, some begun saying that the formula is starting to get repetitive, so in that sense, Little Busters was really refreshing.

However, just when you thought Key had exhausted their options, out came Rewrite, which is probably one of their most unique visual novel they had ever made. The basic principles of nakige is still there, but overall, it feels totally different, which is obvious, considering the fact that Maeda Jun, the main scenario writer of Key had stepped down. In place, Tanaka Romeo became the main writer of Rewrite, in addition with some other authors.

Rewrite sets in the fictional place known as Kazamatsuri city, a place where afforestation is active. Although the city is just like any modern city, the place is filled with attractive greenery. The trees provide a beautiful ambiance in an otherwise, bustling environment, it is the ultimate balance. The city is also situated close to the forest, which hides a number of intriguing secrets as well.

The visual novel puts you in the shoe of Tennouji Kotarou, a carefree high school sophomore, and also the main protagonist of the visual novel. Like every other kids, he also had some teenage problems that caused him some level of loneliness. In his second year, aside from his only friend, Kanbe Kotori, who is also his childhood friend, and also his rival, Haruhiko Yoshino, he also befriended other people, the clean-freak class president Konohana Lucia, the new school transfer student, Ohtori Chihaya, the “witch” of the school, Senri Akane and last but not least Nakatsu Chizuru, who seem to always wears an eye patch. He reopened the inactive Occult Research Club, and gathered them together for their occult activities. Throughout his daily activities however, Kotarou experienced countless supernatural phenomena; for reasons unknown, mysterious happenings seem to occur around him a lot. As if a counter-measure to those, Kotarou himself is far from your typical Key lead as well, he has a power of his own, the ability to “rewrite” parts of his body, rebuilding his body with supernatural strength and speed in return.

The common route feels a bit too lengthy, but it serves as an ample introduction to the beautiful and expansive world of Rewrite. From the pretty sides of Rewrite like the man-made trees to the dark sides featuring bizarre supernatural occurrence, mysterious creatures, uncanny individuals; everything is also slowly build up, manifesting a very mysterious vibe. We learned that Kotarou isn’t exactly the most normal human, and we learned that the world of Rewrite isn’t exactly ordinary either. The alluring forests may seem dazzling at first, but once inside, the areas covered by the tall forest canopy caused a dark, depressing darkness over the surface. The forest gives off a feeling of loneliness, coldness, solitary and also, anxiety and even fear. Metaphorically, Rewrite’s settings is a reflection of the forest, it is not as it seems.

A mappie segment – found a porn mag and talking to a random stranger.

However, being Key, it does not forget to pinch in some comedic slice-of-life moments. While good however, Little Busters feels like it’s definitely stronger in humors, and what’s more, Little Buster has a much more vibrant character cast for their humors too. Basically, the whole common route in Rewrite had Kotarou and his Occult Research club running around investing on seemingly supernatural phenomena, only to find out that everything that happened is completely humanistic. Throughout the game, there are “mappie” segments, where players can explore around the place through scrolling around a map. Instead of going straightaway to the area where the story is progressed, moving around the place is a good way to feel immersed into the world of Rewrite some more, talking with neighbors or classmates, messing around with pet animals of other households, and luckily finding a porn mag out of nowhere; this is a reminiscence of Little Buster’s mini-games. Although while the idea of “mappie” is good, I still find Little Buster’s mini-games to be more fun. Furthermore, Rewrite’s gameplays (if scrolling around the map can even count as one..) feels too simplistic and “tacked on”, the mini-games in Rewrite isn’t implemented well enough as Little Buster did. All this contribute to the fact that Little Buster is definitely the stronger adversary in the comedic slice-of-life area.

Once the common route is starting to branch out into separate heroine’s route, you will probably be noticing the inconsistency. You will be surprised by the overall staff in the scenario departments. To those uninformed, the visual novel had Tanaka Romeo (Yume Miru Kusuri: A Drug That Makes You Dream and Cross Channel), Tonokawa Yuuto (he contributed to some routes of Little Busters) and Ryukishi07 (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, Umineko no Naku Koro ni) on the scenario department. This caused a slight rift of disproportional condition when advancing through the routes. At times, the difference between the routes is a comfortable contrast, while at times, it feels too out-of-the-world. Kotori’s route feels too mediocre (it however, serves a very perfect introduction to all of Rewrite’s plot points, so I recommend playing this first for starters), Chihaya’s route suddenly became a shounen and Lucia’s route feels astonishingly creepy, in which I’m sure you know who’s the “culprit” behind such creepiness.

I feel that it would be better if Romeo write all the scenarios themselves, instead of sharing between authors. All the routes feel a bit too disjointed, as if they are different games. An honorable mention to Ryukishi07 however who contributed to Lucia’s route, which ended up better then I thought. Lucia’s character is exposed to tremendous depth, much more then most other heroines as well which is surprising, considering that I initially thought of her as more one-dimensional.

In the end however, Romeo contributed to more then half of the game’s scenarios, and in my opinion, the visual novel might even make it out fine if he alone tackled on all the routes. Sadly, I didn’t read much of Romeo’s other works, aside from Cross Channel. However, I’m well aware of his skills, and no doubt he did a fine job in Rewrite as well. Meticulous foreshadowing, poetic phrases and inspiring thought-provoking themes are some of the magic behind the writing. The visual novel feels like a darker version of Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita, exploring the concepts of humanity, society and evolution.

Likewise with Clannad and Little Busters, you need to finish all the main heroines routes to have access to the “true end” route. In Clannad’s case, it was After Story, in Little Buster’s case, it was Refrain, and Rewrite’s “true end” routes come in the form of Moon and Terra, the former being one huge prologue to the latter. When playing visual novels, I dislike it when I had to finish all the other routes to play the true end route, when that particular true end doesn’t even have much of an impact at all, feeling just like the rest of the normal routes: this is one issue I find with some other visual novels. However, for Key, they had always made great, emotional and epic true ends, and Rewrite is no exception. Moon is a route of revelations while Terra is a route of conclusions, both routes effectively tied up all the key elements of the story, and the execution behind the attempt is top-notch.

Rewrite’s artwork is certainly appealing. In a world of both greenery and modernization like Kazamatsuri city, the illustrations are the perfect reflection behind such scenery. The lush world of Rewrite is an embodiment of radiance and elegance, but it also empathized relaxation. Cunningly, the backdrops are at times deliberately colored in monotone aside from the usual vibrancy; the grey skies, the dark streets, they signify that something is wrong. This and the former is a skillful way of reflecting both the beautiful and dark sides of Kazamatsuri city.

Character designs however, I had a few pet peeve about them. Most of them look pretty good indeed, however, at times, Koutarou look like a scrawny, elementary school kid. The overall artwork for Rewrite is good no doubt, but some CGs look terribly awkward too, like this, which looks like a cheap art drawn from the oldies. At times, I also feel that the way the characters are drawn do not really complement well with the backgrounds, the mixture between them looks slightly unnatural. Those are just a few minor nitpicks however, overall, Rewrite is probably the most visually stunning piece of work by Key so far, the backdrops are just too beautiful, in fact, there is even a separate CG section for these backdrops for you to feast your eyes upon them!

In my opinion, music in Little Buster feels somewhere above average, and Rewrite is more musically superior. The great illustrations paired up with such music made Rewrite is great piece of art. The mellow intro tone as you opened up the title screen, with a picture of a “tree” with the heroines around it, is a comforting introduction to the visual novel. There a great number of musicians working on the tracks behind Rewrite, and this spawned a great variety of tracks. The mellow intro song by Maeda Jun himself is one example, and when the scene becomes a thrilling suspense, an oddly matching creepy song comes into play as well. Orito Shinji made some great contributions for some battle-hardened songs like “Eruptible” and “Retribution”. They even had luchi Maiko (To Aru Majutsu no Index) working on the majority of the tracks too. Interestingly, they also have a song titled “Philosophyz”, and Rewrite, being extremely philosophical in itself, I’m sure it’s no coincidence.

Rewrite tells a great, dark fairy tale. Story progressions underwent careful pacing and build-up, characters explorations are plentiful as well, in fact, much more then Little Busters, making the latter inferior in terms of seriousness and characterizations. Very beautiful illustrations and music, coupled with magnificent writing, create an almost ultimate form of art and literature. There may be flaws somewhere, but it is something easily overlooked in an overall, wonderful visual novel.

Rating

Final Score

Shakugan no Shana, one of the most “unique” series ever…

Back when I first watched Shakugan no Shana, I thought it’s an unique anime, but now not so much-this was also at a time where I didn’t even realize the series is based from light novels. I also love the Index series a lot when I first stumbled upon it. Fast forward to the present, I had begun to feel that it’s harder to appreciate these types of light novels-in particular, these types of action/supernatural-themed light novels and their over-ambitious natures.

These days, I realized I had begun to prefer a niche in the light novel industry. I mostly prefer light novels if they are slice of life or if they really want to be supernatural-themed, make it a parody (Ore Twintails) or a deconstruction (Inou Battle), these types makes it more fun and endearing naturally instead of forcing themselves to be over-ambitious. The reason for this is because it’s mostly very difficult to take light novels seriously otherwise, and some light novel authors just love to make their stories excessively ambitious for no reason. It’s not even uncommon for a series to introduce you with a moe girl at first, then few episodes after that, the world is in peril, and you need to save it.

A few examples I could give here would be series like Black Bullet, Strike the Blood, Absolute Duo, Seirei Tsukai and the aforementioned Shakugan no Shana and Index. Most of these series are incredibly ambitious and sometimes, unnecessarily expand their universes beyond their own scopes. Additionally, there are also A LOT of internal terminologies for these light novels which usually consist of cool, complicated, chuuni-esque names.

Look at all these names, chuuni as fuck.

I think light novels’ general amateurish writing plays a major part in this too, sometimes, when I see these light novels narratives, I can’t help but feel that the authors are just cramming in whatever archetypes they think are cool, but in the end, it just makes the story a mess. Furthermore, drama for these stories are usually pretty forced.

Hilariously, a light novel about zombie ended up having a magical girl, ninja and necromancer in it as well (*ahem*). A story about a vampire ended up also having shaman, mages, espers and so on. It’s fine to expand your universe, of course, but most light novels I came across do such a poor job of tying the knots together that I ended up finding it hilarious instead. Light novels relied heavily on concept, but I feel in this direction, they are just committing a narrative suicide by fitting in too much at once. Oddly enough, I find that in general, light novel authors seem to have a more focused narrative and thematic direction when writing a simple slice of life story-I love Sakurasou, Hyouka and OreGairu, for one.

Black Bullet-A loli harem amidst the dark setting.

Furthermore, there’s the fact that light novels sell their archetypes like crazy, and can sometimes be extremely pandering, which unfortunately, is a culture transitioned to the anime adaptions. A lot of these visual designs are mostly colorful, vibrant and even cute, but sometimes, these kind of designs just don’t make sense in the settings of said light novels. The visuals for Shingeki no Kyojin works because it’s dark and gritty, the visuals for Usagi Drop works because it’s emulating a family show, the visuals for Kill la Kill works because of it’s over-the-top nature. In comparison, light novels just look “pretty” and pandering without any aesthetic/thematic purpose.

Mahouka PLEASE. How do you expect me to take this seriously?

What do you think of light novels and their over-ambitious natures?

Silver Cross and Draculea. The title itself is already a big giveaway, but it’s a light novel about vampires. The novel is written by Totsuki Yuu and illustrated by Yasaka Minato.

When vampires suck human blood, said human would turn into a vampire and a servant. That seem to be the consensus as far as vampires myth goes, however, that does not apply to Hisui, who apart from his unique constitution, is just a normal human. So when Hisui really did get his blood sucked by a vampire, a “True Ancestor” at that-the vampires of the highest class, Hisui obviously… still stayed human, there are no visible changes, not even a mark on his neck. Rushella was dumbfounded and furious-the amnesic and clumsy vampire decided to stay with Hisui until she figured out a way to turn Hisui into her servant. Even worse, Hisui ended stumbling into various different supernatural cases as well, turning his life into a blood-sucking hell… and more.

Original setting, huh? I generally have pretty good things to say for most of the light novels I read and reviewed on the blog so far, but this one is just as generic as they come. Light novel is an extremely conceptualized medium, and Silver Cross and Draculea very blatantly highlights the flaws I mentioned in this post. In Silver Cross, despite being a vampire light novel, it also ended up having other supernatural archetypes like ghost, witch and artificial human which makes it’s universe more hilarious than expansive. Though in it’s defense, the inclusion of werewolf and dhampir at least makes some sensible sense.

“My hand is moving on it’s own!” says Hisui.

Despite supernatural though, the series is more romantic comedy than it is action, with level of ecchiness that could even rival DxD. So when viewed in that manner, I guess Silver Cross is at least decent in what they are accomplishing to do. It’s when the story shifts to drama that the novel can gets hard to savor, since one thing I noticed about the novel is that the transition from (ecchi) comedy to drama is awkward at best-resulting in pretty forced drama. This although, does gets better on later volumes though.

Also, another interesting aspect of this light novel, is the reverse gender dynamics. In this novel, it’s actually Hisui, the main character who’s the weakest and even the most feminine, something which the narration repetitively mentioned; while the other heroines are actually the powerful ones, and are obviously the more masculine and dominant in the relationship. It’s still not a formula Totsuki followed thoroughly however, since Hisui was given kind of an OP power, and ended up barely having any damsel-in-distress moments himself-which would had been interesting to see in concept.

So the story is structured thus-the first volume introduced the first few characters, namely, Hisui, Rushella, Mei and Eruru, and subsequent volumes introduce further new characters in a “Monster of the Week” format, before tying the story to a conclusion on the last few volumes. While this is fine and all, volume 1 seems to has the most solid pacing overall, since that volume is the only one where so many characters are fit together at once, and things are actually happening. Unfortunately, the “Monster of the Week” on later volumes mean spending entire volumes just to introduce a new character/supernatural being, so story developments slowed down significantly. But despite anything, I have to say, the finale is actually good-it’s a pretty open end unfortunately, but some plot points did get resolved, predominantly, there’s an aspect of Hisui’s characterization which finally gets closure.

As for the characters, by them alone, they are pretty much walking LN stereotypes, but I have to admit some of their interactions are actually pretty good. Hisui and Eruru have a more intelligent and professional relationship and they are the ones who would actually be solving the cases, I also like how despite not admitting it, Eruru is actually pretty dependent on Hisui and his knowledge on the supernatural. Hisui and Rushella have actually some coherent development in their relationship that you could had sworn that they could be a canon couple at any moment, which is also another reason why I’m slightly disappointed with the open end as well.

While the light novel is generally pretty ecchi and fanservice-y, the illustrations did a fine job in showing it too-especially how shapely and curvaceous the female character designs are. To that degree, I guess the illustrations are completely fine in that it accomplished it’s role successfully. That aside though, pandering or not, I feel that the artwork is pretty beautiful in general. A lot of focus and details seem to been given for the character designs, they all have such distinguishable designs that you can feel Yasaka, the light novel’s artist, actually pulled off a great deal of effort to translate Totsuki’s character ideas into his drawings.

If you’re familiar with anime adapted from light novels, Silver Cross and Draculea is a light novel which would fit right into the mold of trashy LN-based anime. It’s very similar in nature and while the formula may have worked before, it arguably isn’t as effective anymore since it’s done to bits. That said though, if a silly spin on the vampire archetype sounds like your thing, you may give it a try-since despite how critical I sound here, it’s actually kind of a fun read, if anything.

Rating

Final Score

Tokyo Ravens is an anime aired way back in 2013, though I never really knew about it and first found out about the anime through Animax. I heard some people singing praises of it so I decided to check it out. While I find that it’s definitely better than a lot of it’s LN anime peers, it’s not exactly amazing either.

The Tsuchimikado refers to an infamous onmyouji clan, but perhaps the most infamous tale of all dated way back during World War 2-and involved one of their key member, Tsuchimikado Yakou and his failed ritual, which caused a phenomenon known as the “Great Spiritual Disaster” and has since thrown Tokyo into a state of spiritual disarray. Fast forward to the present, Harutora is a family member of the prestigious Tsuchimikado, but he himself has shown no interests in becoming an onmyouji, after all he can’t even sense spiritual power. An incident occurred however, which forced him to stop running away from his responsibilities as a Tsuchimikado, and became a familiar to his childhood friend and true heir of the clan, Natsume, to aid her in battles.

As what you would expect from LN action/supernatural titles, Tokyo Ravens has a habit of really making things overly-ambitious. Battles between factions, spiritual disasters, and plots lasting over 50 years. It’s to the point that sometimes, it can even get a little confusing to follow. It’s however still much better than it’s LN anime peers for a few reasons. For one, the transitions between comedy slice of life and plot-centric moments aren’t as jarring. Even better, some of the former are also important in delving a little bit more in the characters, which is otherwise impossible during the more haphazard overarching plot-progressing episodes; so they aren’t exactly without purpose either.

In fact, I would even go the extra mile and say this-Tokyo Ravens handled the serious and dramatic moments exceptionally well. Tokyo Ravens may be a little confusing at times — LN terms-expository a flaw in it just like much of it’s peers (although Tokyo Ravens is better in this regard, admittedly), it has a knack for being genuinely emotional when it needs to. In fact, the first few episodes already begun in an emotional hailstorm, and a lot of people praised the near-end episodes for very similar reason. It just knows how to turn up the emotions when it needs to.

It’s hard to feel anything if the characters aren’t any good though, but boy are the characters good in Tokyo Ravens. All the main characters truly carried the show, with some mysterious adult characters as the icing on the cake. The main characters especially look like basic LN archetypes at first glance but not as simply one-dimensional if you would scrutinize; though admittedly, I wouldn’t go as far as to say that they are deep though, just that they are deeper than I thought they would be. Harutora for example, is possessed of the nice guy-archetype but is uncertain of himself due to his lack of magical ability. Suzuka has a villainous-archetype but struggles with her guilty conscience. I’m satisfied with the extra layer of characterization the story went into, as it really helps me delve into the characters myself. Even better, the dynamics and chemistry between the main cast are great-even the romantic progressions between Harutora and the heroines are believable; standard and cliche, yes, but believable. Despite the archetypal cast, the narrative engages their relationships with each other in a genuine, sincere manner-and this aspect is truly the main highlight of Tokyo Ravens.

If I were to be frank, the animations aren’t really the best in this show. The biggest offender though is definitely it’s usage of CGI for their familiars, which made them look stiff-y, robotic and just generally out of place if anything. Other than that though, visuals overall are decent. The magic battles are always a sight to see, bolstered by it’s incredible cinematography (despite the shitty animations and jarring CGI). And besides, while animations are a love-or-hate thing in Tokyo Ravens, there’s no denying it has great designs. Character designs are good and distinguishable, the familiars’ designs are also pretty detailed and it has excellent backgrounds that reflect it’s urban fantasy setting well.

While there aren’t a lot of really noteworthy songs in Tokyo Ravens, most of them are able to etch themselves into the scenes naturally and supplement the stories-the dramatic and emotional scenes are especially accentuated nicely this way. Combined that with excellent openings and endings, and with a great cast of seiyuu to boot, the audio side of things certainly satisfied me too.

Aforementioned in the introduction, I find Tokyo Ravens superior than a lot of it’s LN peers of similar genres, though I still don’t think it’s truly amazing or anything. It has a few issues I expected out of the genre, but it also has some things that made the show stand out from the rest, in particular-it’s genuine and sincere characterizations. To that end, Tokyo Ravens won’t be a masterpiece anytime soon, but it’s definitely on the higher tier of LN action/supernatural anime for me.

Rating
Story: B-
Character: B+
Art: B
Animation: C-
Sound: B

Final Score
7/10