[New January 2011] IS: Infinite Stratos

Japanese title: IS〈インフィニット・ストラトス〉
Info/download: http://animesuki.com/series.php/1742.html
Genres: Action / Drama / Mecha / Comedy?!
I've watched: 1 episode

Summary: Infinite Stratos is a exoskeleton machinery that normally only female could operate (why?). When the world's only male that can operate IS enters the all-female IS academy, things start to get interesting.

Familiar Voices:

• Youko Hikasa (日笠陽子) as Houki Shinonono. It didn't take long for me to recognize her voice: Mio of K-ON!.
  
• Yukana (ゆかな) as Cecilia Alcott, best known as the voice of C.C. from Code Geass, Teletha from Fullmetal Panic!, as well as Akiko from Eve no Jikan. Because of the way she talks in this series, I think she sounds more like Teletha than others.
  
• Megumi Toyoguchi (豊口 めぐみ) as Chifuyu Orimura, probably best known as Revy from Black Lagoon series, who has almost exactly same tone in the voice here.

First impression score: 80 ~ Funny but lack of coherency

Personal comments: The setting of this series is a bit absurd. While they make the claim only female could operate IS, they give no reason what so ever on why male couldn't operate IS. On top of that, I find the actions and conversations of the main characters greatly lack of coherency. I'm not sure whether they're only trying to make themselves look like a B-grade anime or are they really intend to make a B-grade anime. I hope it'll get better as it goes.

[New January 2011] Starry Sky

Japanese title: Starry☆Sky
Info/download: http://animesuki.com/series.php/1741.html
Genres: Romance / Reverse Harem
I've watched: 2 episode

Summary: Some dude came to a school looking for a girl he met in his childhood. She happens to be the only girl enrolled in the school which used to be all male and just recently accepting female students.

First impression score: 78 ~ Huh?!

Personal comments: This is a short episode (~10 minutes) series that is broadcasted via web. I think I know what story they're trying to tell, but, somehow it just doesn't feel right.

[Yearly Review] Year 2010 in Review

Think 2009 is a bad year for anime? It seems 2010 is worse. In 2010, I think I've dropped on average more anime per season than any past year. How sad is that.

Before I start to hand out awards for the year 2010, let's have a quick run down of what we have seen in the year of 2010. I'm going to starting with the "carryovers" from 2009--Not only we have a long season carryovers such as Kobato, Letter Bee, Tatakau Shisho - The Book of Bantorra, Kimi ni Todoke, Kiddy Girl-AND end in 2010, there are also carryover of multi-season long series like Hanasakeru Seishounen and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

January 2010 was diluted by quite a few garbage animes, namely Ladies versus Butlers, Chu-Bra, Omamori Himari, Ookami Kakushi, Hanamaru Youchien, most of them didn't last two episodes for me. However, this is far from a bad season, because good series such as So-ra-no-wo-to, Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu, Durarara!!, Dance in the Vampire Bund, Nodame Cantabile Finale, Katanagatari also came out of this very season. Then there's Seikon no Qwaser, that's just a strange beast of its own. It's really beyond what can be measured using conventional means.

Then April season rolled around, while it didn't disappoint me and presented good series such as Kaichou wo Maid-sama, Angel Beats!, Working!, Giant Killing, K-ON!!, Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou, Yojouhan Shinwa Takei, it's also been diluted with many mediocre to bad series such as Ikkitousen Xtreme Xecutor, Shink Koihime Musou ~Otome Tairtan~, Heroman, B Gata H Kei, KissXsis, Hakuouki, Arakawa Under the Bridge, Mayoi Neko Overrun, Senkou no Night Raid, Rainbow, Saraiya Goyou.

July season is probably the smallest of all year, however, it produced highest good to garbage ratio. Out of 14 total series released in July, 8, include Amagami SS, Kuroshitsuji II, Densetsu no Yusha no Densetsu, Seitokai Yakuindomo, Sekirei ~Pure Engagement~, Occult Academy, Shiki, Sengoku Basara 2, are what I'd consider good to excellent animes. While the other 6, Asobi ni Iku yo!, Nurarihyon no Mago, Mitsudomoe, Shukufuku no Campanella, High School of the Dead, Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakamatachi, I would consider to be mediocre to bad series.

October is the season of everything. I think it is by far the best season the of year since series from this season so far have the highest retention rate for me, even though the good to garbage ratio is nowhere near the July season. Series came out in this season include Sora no Otoshimono: Forte, MM!, Shinrei Tantei Yakumo, Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai, Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Girls, Yosuga no Sora, Arakawa Under the Bridge x Bridge, Otome Youkai Zakuro, Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai, Motto To Love Ru, Togainu no Chi, Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru, Shinryaku! Ika Musume, Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, Fortune Arterial: Akai Yakusoku, Tantei Opera Milky Holmes, Iron Man, Kuragehime.

As you've noticed, I've color-coded the titles of anime to mark the ones I deem that are worth watching in green and not worth a while in red. You can take that as my general recommendation for all animes that came out in year 2010.

Now the moment you're waiting for, the award ceremony :)

2010:

Best Short Season Comedy: Working!
Best Short Season Drama: Angel Beats!
Best Short Season Action-Drama: Otome Youkai Zakuro
Best Short Season Light Drama: Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai
Best Short Season Romance: (Vacant)

Best Long Season Comedy: Kaichou wo Maid-Sama
Best Long Season Drama: Shiki
Best Long Season Action-Drama: Durarara!
Best Long Season Light Drama: Kaichou wo Maid-Sama
Best Long Season Romance: Kaichou wo Maid-Sama

Best Fantasy: Densetsu no Yusha no Densetsu
Best Horror: Shiki
Best Sports Anime: Giant Killing
Best Multi-Season Anime: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Most Touching: Angel Beats!

Most Bizarre Concept: Seikon no Qwaser
Most Sexually Explicit Anime: Tie between Seikon no Qwaser and Yosuga no Sora
WTF of the Year: Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt
Most Explosive fight scenes: Sengoku Basara 2
Biggest Disappointment: Ookami Kakushi
Most Ridiculous Scene: Bullet Dodging Boobs from High School of the Dead

Before I hand out my final award for anime of the year, I'd like to point out something that had never happened in my past yearly review--Kaichou wo Maid-Sama clinching 3 awards in the general category. I never even had any one anime that took 2 awards in the general category. However, the reason behind this is not because Kaichou wo Maid-Sama is such an extraordinary anime. It's because there really no other anime in that category I consider award worthy. That is pretty sad.

On that note, I would now present my final award:

Anime of the Year for 2010 goes to

Durarara!!


It's somewhat of a hard choice between this and Angel Beats! because I think they both deserve to be the anime of the year. But if I have to pick one, the sophistication, craftiness, and great characters in Durarara!! ultimately wins out.

That concludes my year-in-review for 2010. However, there are something else I'd like to say about a particular anime that did not get an award but was very close in clinching one due to the very tough competition in specific category. It is runner up for at least two categories, Best Fantasy and Best Long Season Action-Drama. The name of the anime is

Tatakau Shisho - Book of Bantorra

Last time I checked, while there are some positive opinions, more people seem to have given it unfavorable ratings. Many had dropped it only a couple of episodes into the series stating nothing in the story makes any sense.

While I don't disagree with them, I think they had fall to the victim of lack of patience. Unlike stories that doesn't make progress in early episode by playing off fillers (*cough* Gurren Lagann *cough*), every single early episode in Book of Bantorra actually serves a purpose and moves the plot forward. On top of that, there are many things hidden in those early episodes that you don't realize their significance until much later in the story. This structure, in my opinion, is actually quite similar to Witch Hunter Robin or Ghost in the Shell. The difference, I think, probably mostly lies in the setting--WHR and GitS are presented in a world that is much easier to understand, to accept, whereas Book of Bantorra's world would take quite a bit thinking to just wrap you head around it.

Many may completely disagree with me (just as I have disagreed with many about Gurren Lagann), but I think Tatakau Shisho - Book of Bantorra is definitely one of the top animes 2010 had seen.

[Ended] Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt: Awed

Take one of the most crude ideas/concepts that originated in the western world (more specifically, America), hand them to a group of Japanese anime creators. They then in turn would pull out the most derogatory parts, magnifies them about 10 million times of its original size, then stuff it back into the same package. The result? Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt.

While the story is mostly just nonsense made up mainly with parities from western pop cultures, I can't help to notice some crafty cleverness, including a somewhat crafty plot that actually utilizes some anchors that left in the story early on that you would not think it has anything to do with the overarching plot line. Depending on how much you actually could take this derogatory nonsense, I think it's actually pretty fun to watch, not in an intellectual way though.

Final scoreboard:

Drama: 80 (Crude)

Comedy: 82 (Lewd)

Action: 80 (2 dimensional)

Art/Animation: 80 (Very 2 dimensional, lol)

Sound/Music: 88 (Love the music)

Character: 86 (Highly offensive)

Plot: 80 (Got some clever parts)

Ending: 88 (?!)

Re-watch value: N/A

Overall: 83 - Awed

Recommendation: You either love it or hate it, and there is nothing in between. That's the type of anime Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt is. Personally, I though it's actually quite fun. Grant it I'm actually watching it in the background while I'm doing something else. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it. But that doesn't mean anybody else would enjoy it. You really have to make your own judgement for this one.

[Ended] Kuragehime: Extraordinary of Ordinary

No matter how unremarkable a story concept sounds, there's always a possibility to make something extraordinary out of it. That's what you can always count on anime programs came out of Noitamina.

Kuragehime is a story about ordinary people, ordinary otaku more to be more specific. On the surface, it doesn't have a stunning story like Eden of the East did, nor did it have the time allow people build up attachment to the people in the story like Honey and Clover did. So, how did they made such an interesting anime out of simple and ordinary people? I think it might have something to do with the fact the story itself is closely related to the very audience they're targeting--maybe we're just all tricked by the clever story writer, but even that is the case, it's still a damn interesting story.

I guess the only thing isn't as satisfying is the way it ended. True it has some closure, but it left us mostly hanging.

Final scoreboard:

Drama: 86 (Interesting)

Comedy: 89 (Some are pretty brilliant)

Action: N/A

Art/Animation: 81 (Strange but interesting)

Sound/Music: 83 (Nothing special)

Character: 89 (Otaku)

Plot: 82 (Kind of...)

Ending: 80 (Not really)

Re-watch value: 60 (Unlikely)

Overall: 86 - Interesting

Recommendation: While I think some people may consider this story to be too uneventful, if you're interested in getting away from the highly dramatic ups and downs and switch pace into some thing slower, but equally interesting, you ought to give this a shot.

[Ended] Iron Man: Beyond Far-fetched

I was quite skeptical about this anime before the season start, mostly due to the bad memory from the previous anime adaptation of a well-known western fiction, Ultraviolet. But soon, I realized that I'm actually in for a somewhat pleasant surprise...until the last episode.

Even though the story itself rides on a far-fetched concept to begin with, the last episode, in my opinion, is just a bit way out of whack. I don't know whether it is their true intent from get-go to create a plot hole that is big enough for a aircraft carrier to cruise through so they can plug it up with loads of nonsense, or did they just by accident cornered themselves by going off in some weird direction early on. Whatever it is, it had made the last episode into a something that I felt completely out of sync with rest of the series. But that's not to say the rest of the series is any better.

I guess it all depends on the level of expectation. If by any chance you had high expectations for it, you'd be in for disappointment. But if you don't set your bar so high and be able to turn your common sense down just a bit, you might actually enjoy it.

Final scoreboard:

Drama: 80 (Somewhat dramatic, almost overly dramatic)

Comedy: N/A

Action: 88 (Pretty good)

Art/Animation: 86 (Very...marvel looking)

Sound/Music: 89 (Exciting BGM)

Character: 82 (Already pre-defined)

Plot: 71 (Holes, big holes)

Ending: 70 (Out of whack)

Re-watch value: 30 (I don't think so)

Overall: 80 - B

Recommendation: I'm not going to recommend it, nor am I going to recommend against it. But if you do watch, as long as you don't set your expectation too high, and are able to ignore some major plot hole, you should be able to enjoy it.

[Ended] Shiki: Unique and Thought Provoking

Because this anime is adapted from story originally written by Fuyumi Ono, who also created 12 Kingdoms (Juuni Kukoki) and Ghost Hunt, which are two of my most highly rated animes of all time, from get-go, I had very high expectation for this anime. But people say, higher the expectation is, bigger the disappointment would be. In the case of Shiki, however, there's nothing but satisfaction.

This is a story about vampires. But this is no ordinary vampire story you've ever seen before. In fact, it doesn't even feel like a vampire story in many ways: the early heavy emphasis on "outbreak" paints a theme that is very similar to a pandemic disaster story; then, when the chaos takes over, you can't help to get the distinct feeling that you would only normally find in zombie movies. In fact, this story bares so little characteristics of a typical vampire story, the only reason you may categorize it as a vampire anime is that the so called "villains" sucks blood of live human and can be killed with a wooden stake.

Like any other story, in order to propel itself from good to great, Shiki would need something more than just the plot, the character, the environment, something that communicate in a much more subtle way than image and sound: a moral. It's possible that I'm making it more than what it means to be, but the story ask questions many of us would not want to answer: What standard do we use to judge ourselves on good or evil? And when the very fundamental principle that governs our own survival is at stake, are we really that much different than what we've deemed to be evil?

The overall art style of the story a bit strange, but it's pretty easy to get use to, except the eye thingy and the crazy hair. As for the ending, it felt a bit abrupt, but it did wrapped all thread within the story, directly or indirectly.

Suspenseful, exciting, dramatic, and thought provoking, this is the winning package Shiki has to offer. Without reviewing all the animes from 2010, I can't say for sure where would it stand for the anime of the year, but I could tell you it would definitely earn the

Horror Anime of the Year for 2010

Award. Fuyumi Ono hits another bull's-eye, again!

Final scoreboard:

Drama: 97 (Highly dramatic)

Comedy: N/A

Action: 94 (Not the strong side, but well made)

Art/Animation: 90 (Interesting, strange eye and strange hair)

Sound/Music: 96 (Love the music)

Character: 98 (Great depth and diversities)

Plot: 96 (Thought provoking)

Ending: 90 (Abrupt, but wraps up)

Re-watch value: 60 (Could still be interesting)

Overall: 95 - Among the Best in 2010

Recommendation: If you haven't caught the message from all those paragraphs above, let me spell it out for you: this is a MUST WATCH anime in 2010. Even if you're really really really really really not into horror or vampire, I still think you would enjoy it.

[End] Arakawa Under the Bridge x Bridge: Mindless yet funny, Stupid Simple yet Brilliantly Ended

As far as random comedy goes, I think this is probably as random as it gets. There isn't really much to say about this anime other than there are lots of random characters, and lots of random events.

The ending arc, however, in my opinion is quite interesting--it literally provided an alternative view on what could all these nonsense be about in matter of seconds. Hell, for all we know, that could be where the author got all of her inspiration.

Final scoreboard:

Drama: 81 (Maybe...)

Comedy: 87 (All over the place)

Action: N/A

Art/Animation: 81 (...)

Sound/Music: 81 (...)

Character: 89 (Lots)

Plot: N/A

Ending: 88 (Intriguing)

Re-watch value: N/A

Overall: 83 - mindless and fun

Recommendation: Mindless . If that's what you're looking for, go for it. Otherwise, unless you need a background noise anime, there's no need to spend 4 hours just for this.

[Ended] Amagami SS: Good and Bad

Due to the way the anime is made, every time a new arc comes around, it rolls over the memories of the previous arc. So in the end, only the latest arc or two leaves the most impression. That's one reason I'm not too fond of animes with the reset-loop--if people want to play game, people should go play the game. It is quite pointless to literally bring the entire game on TV. On top of that, majority of the arcs feel awkwardly unnatural and incomplete. I wish they had put more thoughts into writing better screenplay.

All in all, while I'm highly critical against this series as a whole, some arcs are actually pretty charming. I just wish they had chosen a different method to present it.

Final scoreboard:

Drama: 81 (Good, bad, and ugly)

Comedy: 80 (Some are, some aren't)

Action: N/A

Art/Animation: 84 (Typical dating sim style)

Sound/Music: 81 (Charming)

Character: 81 (Some are good, others not so)

Plot: N/A

Ending: N/A

Re-watch value: 20 (Unless you want to recall specific arc)

Overall: 80 - B, Barely

Recommendation: There may be people that are fond of this reset-loop, I sure am not one of them. I think this is literally a lazy way to play the game. If that's really what you want, go for it. Otherwise, I wouldn't recommend series.

[Ended] Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai: Crappy Ending

While the entire series plays off the cliche of all the gal games, the existence of the last episode makes very little sense to me. Sure, I kind of see the reason they put this episode here, but I don't think it warrants an entire episode just for that.

Other than that, I'd say it's generally mediocre to good anime, mostly depends on how much of this "cliche" play you can take. I can potentially see people get tired of this half way through the season because each arc really feels more or less the same.

Final scoreboard:

Drama: 83 (Nothing special)

Comedy: 82 (Has its moments)

Action: 81 (Really depends what you would consider "action")

Art/Animation: 82 (Eh)

Sound/Music: 81 (Nothing special)

Character: 83 (Archetypes)

Plot: 81 (Not much)

Ending: 75 (WTF)

Re-watch value: 30 (I wouldn't)

Overall: 82 - Mediocre

Recommendation: I think it really largely depends on personal taste, but for sure I wouldn't call this a "must-watch".

[Ended] Sora no Otoshimono Forte: WTF, seriously, WTF

Like ToLoveRu, rather than being a pure mindless comedy, it tries to squeeze in some "serious" content along the way. With what they had going, you would think they'd just ride that plot along and end the series right on the climax of the "serious" plot. Wrong. Instead, they decide to pull the break right before the last episode and resort to something completely out of whack, which in my opinion doesn't even feel like it's following the right flow (but again, when does a series like this ever follow the flow of conventional wisdom?)

Nevertheless, I believe the goal of this anime is to entertain people with no prerequisite of operational braincell, I'd say they did relatively OK. While I wouldn't recommend this for you to actually spend your time on, it'd make a relatively good background noise anime.

Final scoreboard:

Drama: 80 (Up and down, lots of fillers in between)

Comedy: 80 (Pervert jokes)

Action: 83 (Semi decent)

Art/Animation: 85 (Deformations are cute)

Sound/Music: 80 (Interesting)

Character: 77 (One dimensional)

Plot: 79 (Very little, but interesting)

Ending: 79 (Whacky)

Re-watch value: 30 (Why?!)

Overall: 80 - Background Noise

Recommendation: If you need more background noise, or you feel like not using your brain for 4 hours, it's not a bad choice.

[Ended] Shinrei Tantei Yakumo: Clever, but anticlimactic

Four episodes ago, I said this anime just played its biggest trump card with a quarter of the series still left to go, and I was right.

After the story had peaked in episode 9, while it didn't quite fall as low earlier part of the series, it never got high enough that I would consider it to be the climactic ending. In fact, I consider the ending highly anticlimactic. Seriously, you'd have seen that coming miles away. While the pace of the entire series isn't fast to begin with, the final battle is nothing short of painstakingly slow. Sure there is a small chase, but after that, everything just switches into slow-mo.

I admit there are some cleverness in this last two major arcs, but an anticlimactic ending killed them all: Audiences aren't going to get any satisfaction if the story moves so slow that they had enough time to figure everything out way before the story actually get their.

Final scoreboard:

Drama: 81 (Acceptable)

Comedy: N/A

Action: N/A

Art/Animation: 80 (So so)

Sound/Music: 81 (So so)

Character: 75 (Well developed, but doesn't feel too real)

Plot: 78 (Only if it moves faster)

Ending: 71 (Anticlimactic)

Re-watch value: 20 (Once is enough)

Overall: 78 - Clever but Anticlimactic

Recommendation: If this series had ended in episode 9, I still might actually recommend it. But since it had turned out as it did, I would not recommend this to anybody unless you have too much time to waste.