Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Wizard Barristers: A Farce. A fun Farce, but a Farce.

even the courtroom is flashy

Pros: Action. Lots and lots of flashily animated action.
-Did I mention action? And flashy animation? The 3D kind too. Lots of it. I know it was a looong time ago, but I commented on how ridiculously massive this studios budget for animation must have been.
-A mildly interesting plot, at first. Very law oriented, not something you commonly get out of anime.

Cons: Action Overload. No. Really. The show overloads itself with the action.
-They must have literally over-budgeted on the action animation, because right around episode 11 the rest of the animation just...literally dried up on screen. I thought the video was just bugging at first, but no. They seriously just start using still shots with sounds and talking happening behind them, and single frame/object animations. Yet, the 3D super robot fights still have full animation, even right after those stills. It is both sad, and hilarious. I've never had animation actually stick out as bad to me before without making effort to look.
-The law bit? Hope that wasn't what you wanted to watch the show for. Because it dries up as soon as the magic starts kicking in. Like, barren dry desert, no water to be seen, dries up.
-It just goes full on magical combat action. At least it isn't magical-girl 'I have power, it wins because it is just and Light attribute and friendship'. The robots still have to punch each other to pieces, and the one that's better made wins...grant that it is usually contrived to be made better because a plot-battery was freshly wired to someone. Still, the final battle is resolved with...scientific physics. That was interesting in its own right I suppose.
-The plot is full of holes. The story? It holds together alright, but the plot is just...full of coincidences and sometimes events border on some of the characters outright having plot-armor.

My Opinion: This show is waaay old on my list, but no where near as old as some other stuff I still just haven't gotten around to dropping. A project of mine has hit a bit of a short hiccup, so I had some free time to just sit and burn through something...and I chose this because it piqued my interest way back when. I was so hopeful for this show because it was fusing TV's Law&Order and CSI'ish law aspects and investigation with anime magic and human drama. Welp, expectations kind of crushed. The show starts to channel some serious coincidences and plot-armor level nonsense. I said out loud 'wow, what a ... coincidence', like, three times in a row in just one episode. I mean really, I'm one of the hardest people to break the suspension of disbelief, and I never just talk out loud while watching something. This was grating.

Impartial Judgement: When all is said and done though...the show was alright. It could have been a lot more than it is...ah well. I really do need to do something about my easily raised expectations when it comes to innovations. I really like shows like Criminal Minds, and I used to watch CSI, Law&Order, and one of the last I watched was NCIS (yay Gib-smack!). Back when I picked this show up... I think I was still watching NCIS. It felt like this show would fuse anime magic and real world law investigation with the practical fact, that if we actually had magic, it would just be one more way for us to muck everything up. Like every other powerful invention ever. Dynamite, Planes, Nuclear fission. First we make it as a tool...then we kill each other with it...then we utilize it as a tool. Fun cycle.
Still, aside from the ending feeling more rushed than anything else I've ever seen, the show holds together okay. I'm still annoyed by the plot holes, but for now I say it makes for a decent dose of action. Only action. Nothing else.

Monday, March 16, 2015

[Ended] When Supernatural Battles became Commonplace


Pros: Comedy, and unexpected coherence.
-It's Funny. That is always an opinion based thing, but it had me laughing all the time.
-The first time I've ever seen 'Chuunibyou' and not just 'ugh whatever' at it. Mostly because the character in question isn't completely in another world. He's actually paying attention to reality, he just likes to have his fun too.
-The presentation of the powers is...unique. I liked how they explained it, but talking about it would be spoiler'ish.

Cons: Short.
-The story literally starts to wind up into full gear, just as the anime ends. The most vexing of story and plot cliffhangers.
-Many of the reasons and situations for the worlds setting are either unexplained, or only briefly explained. I feel this is probably a side-effect of the short length of the anime, because what they do explain is well explained, if shallow. Again, spoilers, or I'd talk in more detail.

My Opinion: This was a wonderful little gem when I watched it. I was expecting it to be pure mindless comedy...but it actually wrapped the comedy package up nice and neat with a pretty bow of Plot on top. The story is clearly striving for a great deal of depth. It actively manipulates your perception of characters to hide or slip in subtle plot elements, which it later draws on. I love that kind of thing.

Impartial Judgement: If you want a strong dose of sensible surreal comedy, wrapped around a solid core plot, pick it up. If you can't stand cliffhangers, or actually like that solid plot and its story to resolve, maybe consider skipping this. I don't really get the impression this is the kind of show that would get a second season, but I've been surprised before.