http://www.mangafox.com/manga/love_so_life/
If ever there was a title that really didn't tell you anything about a show, Spiral would be a good answer. If there was ever a box cover that didn't give you an inkling of what the plot of the show might be, the answer would again be Spiral. The reality, however, is that these are the most telling things about Spiral, a show that's all about mystery, intrigue and keeping your cards close to your chest.
And that's really what Spiral does best, throwing out plot points like shrewd bets from a poker-faced card shark. A bold opening move, answered by bluffs, cunning bets and a quick move into the call, where the episode comes to a nail-biting conclusion. Each episode manages to surprise at the end with its expertly woven drama and suspense.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Anime Magico (IWAMOTO Naoki) Chapter 8 7 9
http://www.mangafox.com/manga/magico_iwamoto_naoki/
When high schooler Ayumu Narumi is a suspect in the murder of one of his classmates, he doesn't take the matter lightly. He sets about solving the girl's murder himself. In the process Ayumu uncovers a web of mysteries surrounding the murder victim, the murderer, and his own brother. Caught up in the strange plot, Ayumu has no choice but to go on fighting battles of wits to keep himself alive when he becomes the target of the mysterious Blade Children.
When high schooler Ayumu Narumi is a suspect in the murder of one of his classmates, he doesn't take the matter lightly. He sets about solving the girl's murder himself. In the process Ayumu uncovers a web of mysteries surrounding the murder victim, the murderer, and his own brother. Caught up in the strange plot, Ayumu has no choice but to go on fighting battles of wits to keep himself alive when he becomes the target of the mysterious Blade Children.
live action Akuma to Love Song Chapter 51
http://www.mangafox.com/manga/akuma_to_love_song/
If you recall from the first episode, some lady-thugs have burned down a village. Being the chipper do-gooder she is, Hideyoshi realizes that the best way to cheer them up is to roll up her sleeves, help them pull up some radishes, and make them laugh. Because even though their entire village and livelihood has just been razed to the ground, all they need is a song and dance, and a feather in their caps. Good ol’ Hideyoshi. If she were King, there'd never be any sorrow in this heavy world of ours. But to add insult to injury—injury being the assumption the creative staff has made that all their viewers are mindless twits who will consume anything they cram down our collective throats—later in the episode, we find out that Hideyoshi is actually somewhat proficient in kung fu, because she once saw it in a TV show.
The creators of Battle Girls - Time Paradox seem to care so little about this brainshart of theirs that at some point, they probably had a writers meeting in which someone intrepid intern said, “Wait, none of this makes sense.” And then the senior writer said, “Yeah, I don't care. People will watch it anyway, and we'll sell body pillows, and it'll be fine. Go get me a latte.”
This is the last episode of Battle Girls - Time Paradox I will ever watch in my entire life. All the riches in Atlantis could not prompt me to watch another minute of this show, and I will be the merrier for it.
If you recall from the first episode, some lady-thugs have burned down a village. Being the chipper do-gooder she is, Hideyoshi realizes that the best way to cheer them up is to roll up her sleeves, help them pull up some radishes, and make them laugh. Because even though their entire village and livelihood has just been razed to the ground, all they need is a song and dance, and a feather in their caps. Good ol’ Hideyoshi. If she were King, there'd never be any sorrow in this heavy world of ours. But to add insult to injury—injury being the assumption the creative staff has made that all their viewers are mindless twits who will consume anything they cram down our collective throats—later in the episode, we find out that Hideyoshi is actually somewhat proficient in kung fu, because she once saw it in a TV show.
The creators of Battle Girls - Time Paradox seem to care so little about this brainshart of theirs that at some point, they probably had a writers meeting in which someone intrepid intern said, “Wait, none of this makes sense.” And then the senior writer said, “Yeah, I don't care. People will watch it anyway, and we'll sell body pillows, and it'll be fine. Go get me a latte.”
This is the last episode of Battle Girls - Time Paradox I will ever watch in my entire life. All the riches in Atlantis could not prompt me to watch another minute of this show, and I will be the merrier for it.
Anime Kono Oneesan wa Fiction desu!? Chapter 5 6
http://www.mangafox.com/manga/kono_oneesan_wa_fiction_desu/
Look, if someone from the future strolled into your house waving some fancy future technology around, you would flip out. Your first question would be, “What on Earth is that?? Why can it read my mind/teleport food/whatever-future-whoop-de-doo??” And then maybe you'd ask, “Wait, what the hell are you doing in my house?” This is what normal humans do. Don't tell me that if someone rolled into Sengoku Era Japan that nobody would care about a cellphone. This is two episodes in a row now of Battle Girls – Time Paradox where nobody is even remotely curious about this magic future technology. In this episode, Hideyoshi even uses her cellphone to play some chirpy J-Pop for some villagers, and they just think, “Oh, hey, music.”
Is there a gas leak in my apartment? Why doesn't anybody care about this?
I am willing to suspend the majority of my disbelief for any given series. I completely believe that Hideyoshi fell through a giant plot hole into ancient Japan. I completely believe that there is a talking dog, and that the entire country is populated by woman. That's fine. But dammit, don't tell me that someone pulls out a cellphone and people don't have a billion questions. All I ask for is a tiny shred of internal logic, because everything else in this show is so preposterously stupid that I am owed at least that.
Look, if someone from the future strolled into your house waving some fancy future technology around, you would flip out. Your first question would be, “What on Earth is that?? Why can it read my mind/teleport food/whatever-future-whoop-de-doo??” And then maybe you'd ask, “Wait, what the hell are you doing in my house?” This is what normal humans do. Don't tell me that if someone rolled into Sengoku Era Japan that nobody would care about a cellphone. This is two episodes in a row now of Battle Girls – Time Paradox where nobody is even remotely curious about this magic future technology. In this episode, Hideyoshi even uses her cellphone to play some chirpy J-Pop for some villagers, and they just think, “Oh, hey, music.”
Is there a gas leak in my apartment? Why doesn't anybody care about this?
I am willing to suspend the majority of my disbelief for any given series. I completely believe that Hideyoshi fell through a giant plot hole into ancient Japan. I completely believe that there is a talking dog, and that the entire country is populated by woman. That's fine. But dammit, don't tell me that someone pulls out a cellphone and people don't have a billion questions. All I ask for is a tiny shred of internal logic, because everything else in this show is so preposterously stupid that I am owed at least that.
Anime Nyotai-ka Chapter 25
http://www.mangafox.com/manga/nyotai_ka/
It also helps that Steins;Gate is pleasant to look at. The low-contrast artwork gives the series a hazy dreamlike quality, but there's still an almost obsessive attention to detail. Take the landlord's shop, for instance. By day, he also runs a TV repair shop. The animators at WHITE FOX could've easily just given the storefront a generic reflective glare, but even with the in-series sun shining brightly on the store, you can still see hints of old TVs through the window. If I was in charge of this show, I sure as Hell wouldn't make the effort to draw that. It's tiny things that one would never think to actually look for, but that's when it's the most impressive. If you can't tell they put any extra work into it, then it looks natural. Not bad for a relatively young animation studio, whose only other big projects were Tears to Tiara and some key animation here and there.
Even though only two episodes have been released, Steins;Gate is already in my Top 5 for shows to follow this season. The storyline is intriguing, but most of all, Okabe is intriguing. I can't tell if he's a joke or not, and that uncertainty has me asking for more. That, and the nerd part of me really wants to hear more about this time travel theory of theirs, because I've always referred to it as the 12 Monkeys Theory. Which, by the way, predates John Titor by five years, so he can go hang.
It also helps that Steins;Gate is pleasant to look at. The low-contrast artwork gives the series a hazy dreamlike quality, but there's still an almost obsessive attention to detail. Take the landlord's shop, for instance. By day, he also runs a TV repair shop. The animators at WHITE FOX could've easily just given the storefront a generic reflective glare, but even with the in-series sun shining brightly on the store, you can still see hints of old TVs through the window. If I was in charge of this show, I sure as Hell wouldn't make the effort to draw that. It's tiny things that one would never think to actually look for, but that's when it's the most impressive. If you can't tell they put any extra work into it, then it looks natural. Not bad for a relatively young animation studio, whose only other big projects were Tears to Tiara and some key animation here and there.
Even though only two episodes have been released, Steins;Gate is already in my Top 5 for shows to follow this season. The storyline is intriguing, but most of all, Okabe is intriguing. I can't tell if he's a joke or not, and that uncertainty has me asking for more. That, and the nerd part of me really wants to hear more about this time travel theory of theirs, because I've always referred to it as the 12 Monkeys Theory. Which, by the way, predates John Titor by five years, so he can go hang.
anime AKB49 - Renai Kinshi Jourei Chapter 8
http://www.mangafox.com/manga/akb49_renai_kinshi_jourei/
Does it still count as madness if the person everyone thought was crazy was right all along? It's a little hard to tell with Okabe, the self-proclaimed mad scientist of Steins;Gate. On the outside, he looks mad, acts mad, and even says he's mad. But the Organization that he's been muttering about all this time may actually be tampering with his stuff, and his microwave… well, if it's not a time machine, then it's something strange. Though at the same time, he is taking most of his research cues from some fraud on the Internet, so the odds are split on if he's a kook or a genius.
The great thing about Steins;Gate is that even though it's still an ever-widening canyon of mysteries, it doesn't really feel like it's tricking people into watching. It's not using any cheap hooks to keep viewers glued to the show. Sure, there are plenty of unanswered questions, but to be fair, the characters don't know what's going on either. So instead of being duped into watching a show where the writers just flat-out refuse to explain something, we get to learn everything at the same pace as Okabe and his crew. Who was the weird girl that bumped into him on the street, looking for that IBM? We don't know, but he doesn't know either. Why did his goo banana reappear on the bunch? Nobody knows. But I trust the series to tell me once Okabe figures it out, so I feel fairly confident that this show isn't going to be a waste of time in the long run.
Does it still count as madness if the person everyone thought was crazy was right all along? It's a little hard to tell with Okabe, the self-proclaimed mad scientist of Steins;Gate. On the outside, he looks mad, acts mad, and even says he's mad. But the Organization that he's been muttering about all this time may actually be tampering with his stuff, and his microwave… well, if it's not a time machine, then it's something strange. Though at the same time, he is taking most of his research cues from some fraud on the Internet, so the odds are split on if he's a kook or a genius.
The great thing about Steins;Gate is that even though it's still an ever-widening canyon of mysteries, it doesn't really feel like it's tricking people into watching. It's not using any cheap hooks to keep viewers glued to the show. Sure, there are plenty of unanswered questions, but to be fair, the characters don't know what's going on either. So instead of being duped into watching a show where the writers just flat-out refuse to explain something, we get to learn everything at the same pace as Okabe and his crew. Who was the weird girl that bumped into him on the street, looking for that IBM? We don't know, but he doesn't know either. Why did his goo banana reappear on the bunch? Nobody knows. But I trust the series to tell me once Okabe figures it out, so I feel fairly confident that this show isn't going to be a waste of time in the long run.
Anime Movie Initial D Chapter 584
http://www.mangafox.com/manga/initial_d/
Like most bishoujo-game-turned-Kleenex-poppers of its ilk, A Bridge to the Starry Skies reliably delivers some key traits. For starters, it's very good looking. The characters are perpetually fresh-faced and well-coiffed, and have been keeping up a rigorous exercise and diet plan. All the backgrounds are effortlessly beautiful. The orchestral score is magical and tinkling. Everything looks and feels like it came out of some kind of fairytale, where poverty and anguish don't exist, and sunshine grows on trees. It's the ultimate feel-good anime.
But it's also incredibly trite. There is not a single drop of creativity in this used-up storyline. I'm sure at some point in the season, they'll all go to the beach. Maybe one of the girls will make Kazuma some food while she blushes. It doesn't really matter. Presumably, the only thing keeping people watching is wanting to know which girl he ends up with. But it's irrelevant. Who he chooses doesn't matter—what matters is which girl the viewer chooses. And with a script as painfully dull as A Bridge to the Starry Skies, they may as well save some effort and just send out slideshows on CD-ROM.
Like most bishoujo-game-turned-Kleenex-poppers of its ilk, A Bridge to the Starry Skies reliably delivers some key traits. For starters, it's very good looking. The characters are perpetually fresh-faced and well-coiffed, and have been keeping up a rigorous exercise and diet plan. All the backgrounds are effortlessly beautiful. The orchestral score is magical and tinkling. Everything looks and feels like it came out of some kind of fairytale, where poverty and anguish don't exist, and sunshine grows on trees. It's the ultimate feel-good anime.
But it's also incredibly trite. There is not a single drop of creativity in this used-up storyline. I'm sure at some point in the season, they'll all go to the beach. Maybe one of the girls will make Kazuma some food while she blushes. It doesn't really matter. Presumably, the only thing keeping people watching is wanting to know which girl he ends up with. But it's irrelevant. Who he chooses doesn't matter—what matters is which girl the viewer chooses. And with a script as painfully dull as A Bridge to the Starry Skies, they may as well save some effort and just send out slideshows on CD-ROM.
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