Twin Angels: Twinkle Paradise... From Hell.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The show of the devil."][/caption]

I don’t have a natural aversion to magical girl shows, in fact there are quite a few I enjoy (Cardcaptors, Princess Tutu, Shugo Chara) but this show... this show was utter bull...

I should have known better, based on the horrid intro and even the tittle... Twin Angel: Twinkle Paradise. At first I thought this show was a joke, but as it continued, I realized to my horror that everything was done seriously and in earnest. This show was the worst thing to have ever come out of Japan. It gives such a bad name to anime everywhere. It’s like it just used every used worn out trope and put it in there to attract as many fans from as many different places as they could. The result? A huge disgusting mess of a show.

Cat God

That’s right folks, time for another review of a new show by yours truly.

This time, I’m expanding into the comedy side of the season with Nekogami Yaoyorozu, or Cat God, by AIC Plus+. As this is my first time watching anything by this studio (they have a very limited catalog), I wasn’t expecting much.

A dark rabbit has 7 lives... ugh

Veiw at our new site!:  animepantry

Well, I’m back for a new season! I hope anyone who reads this blog didn’t miss us too much. (not that we have much of a following anyway)... But seriously, if you’re reading this, thanks for your interest!

I’m just going to get this out of the way so I don’t have to complain about it later, this season really looks bad. There are very few shows that even hold a mild appeal for me... compared to last season, this one is a real stinker. But don’t worry, in anime it usually goes like that. One relatively good season followed by a bad one.

Anywho. The first show I saw of the new stuff was Itsuka tenma no Kuro Usagi, A dark rabbit has 7 lives by Zexcs. For those of you who don’t know, they are basically a master studio of bullcrap moe (moe is explainded in this article) shows. They are also the ones, incidentally that did chuubra, as reviewed by one of our staff, Dr. Freezerburn (shameless plug).

Anyway, let’s get down to the nitty gritty...

AI Ore!

Ai Ore! is an interesting twist on the very familiar realm of gender bender. Gender benders, for those of you not accustomed to the genre, is a medium in which girls are disguised as boys or vice versa. Honestly though, you don’t come across a series very often in which the main guy is the cross dresser. Ai Ore! does just that.

HIATUS IS ALMOST OVER!

Awesome

My work place is awesome...

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Cloud hides some more

No one would ever look here.

Please, don't ruin me any further SE...It hurts...I used to be somebody!

Fractale Episode 1 Review

When I first started watching Fractle on Funimations video site, I was surprised at what the show was offering. I knew that the world was supposed to be set more or less in the distant future, but I wasn’t expecting it to be presented in a way that very much resembled earth today as we know it. At first the presence of faux humans, called dopplars, confused me, and I couldn’t understand why they were present at all. They didn’t seem to fit the art style, nor present any real purpose to the show.

However, as I slowly started to get used it, I realized that they had a deeper meaning. In a world where there are no troubles to speak of, and indeed when interaction with your own race is optional and unnecessary, dopplars represent the escapism in every person. The feelings of wanting to withdraw from society. Basically, that sums up the world in which the protagonist, Clain, lives.

As I was watching this show a few things became obvious, the foremost being that this show is the only animated television show I’ve ever seen to have so closely replicated a Hayao Miazaki movie. This in and of itself is a feat, however, it not only replicated a master storyteller and artist, it is still able to maintain originality and put its own thoughts into the development of its story.

The moment I first realized its closeness to a Miyazaki movie was during an airship scene. As we all know, Miyazki is infamous not only for his air scenes with fantastic flying ships, but also his style of drawing them with bug like precision. When I saw this girl on her airship, I immediately thought of the classic scene from Naussica: Valley of the Wind.

Another scene which screams Miyazaki shows Clain climbing down a cliff in order to reach the wounded heroine.

The animation is also INCREDIBLY fluid. I was pleasantly surprised because one normally doesn’t see such great animation unless it is a feature film. I understand that it is the first episode, so I’m doubtful (but hoping) that the quality of the animation will remain consistent.

The music for this show is amazing as well (Keeping in touch with the Miyazaki vibe.)

It gives off a major Joe Hisaishi feel. It's mostly orchestral, and it matches what is going on incredibly well. This is one of the very rare times when I have fallen in love with a soundtrack on the first episode. It’s so good, the music is noticeable. It’s like weaving a second layer of mastery over an already good product. The person in charge of this mastery is Souhei Kano. Little is to be found on him through your standard Google search, so I shall have to dig deeper and perhaps write something on him once I can find out more.


Now the opening for the show, although simplistic, is a very stand out song. Entitled Harinezumi, it is preformed by Azuma Hitomi. The single will be avaible on March 8th, and you can bet your bottom dollar that it will be mine. The art for the opening is very psychedelic, and very effectively imitates the same effect one would have of setting fireworks off inside a dryer. The thing that made me love it, despite its simplicity was the text. Instead of standard sit-on-the-screen text it flows with the backgrounds, making it the thing that stands out more.

The ending came as a surprise to me, because I found out halfway through that it was being sung in English...

I say that because the singer’s accent was so thick, that it was hard to make out the words she was trying to say. Even worse than that. I found out that she was attempting a classic Irish folk song, Sally Gardens, a song I have many fond memories of playing on my Irish tin whistle. Now I’m not saying that it isn’t a right feel for the show, I’m just saying that I wish it was better done, perhaps with a singer who obviously knows what she is singing. The animation to this song is just like the rest of the show. Simple, yet artfully presented. I very much enjoyed the fact that the only movement was the nature centered around the girl. It presented a very Miyazaki like statement, and I must say, like the opening it only added to the presentation of the credits.


Overall this show is probably what I have seen to be the best of the season yet. I am very excited to see where it goes and I’m hoping that this show becomes the most popular yet. I’m also pleased to know that it already has been licensed and is going to be released in the US. I am for sure planning on purchasing this, if the rest of the season has what the first episode had to offer.


Final Scores:

Animation: 10/10
OP: 9/10
ED: 6/10
Characters: 9/10
Story: 9/10
                        All in all this show was...

Overall Score of the episode: 10/10
Overall Score of the show: 9/10 (I’m tentative to have this much faith in a show after 1 episode, so we’ll see how it goes.)

Bakemonogatari Review

Well hello there my fellow otaku, its Fatalefromage again reviewing Aniplex and Shaft’s mystery and supernatural anime Bakemonogatari!

First of all Bakemonogatari or its English synonym, Ghostory is filled with myth, action, and plenty of unexpected laughs along the way. It is based off a light novel by the same name. Make sure before watching this that you find a good subtitled version if you’re not familiar with Japanese Kanji, Hiragana, or Katakana. I found myself having to pause the episode at the beginning of almost every episode just to read the screen cuts. And these screen cuts can be also found thought each episode. Its an interesting addition to the anime indeed, of which the likes I have never seen before. This anime is split up into 5 arcs in which another female character is introduced and their mysterious oddity must be taken care of.

Now as the anime opens up, I was confused as to what the hell was going on. After what seems like a calming walking to school scene unfolds into a plethora of action and blood. In reality this is a flash back from Araragi Koyomi, the male leads past spring break. Without spoiling the plot too much I will say that this event left him almost perfectly human again thanks to a middle-aged man dressed in a Hawaiian shirt named Oshino Meme.

Back in the present time, Araragi-kun is running up an extremely long spiral staircase in this school when a seeming frail girl with long purple hair named Senjougahara Hitagi falls from the highest floor. He catches her but is baffled by how light she is. As if she doesn't weight anything at all.

Sometime after Senjougahara attacks Araragi with an exacto-knife and then a stapler explaining to him that she met a crab during her freshman year and has been weightless ever since. This instance changed my entire view of her completely. She takes up his offer for help rid her of the crab possessing her after realizing that Araragi is different when the cut she gave him from a staple has healed instantly. So basically their situations are similar.

Story wise, at first this anime is confusing, but once you progress though it becomes less of a head scratcher. There aren't many characters to keep track of, so in time it was easy to learn each of their names and strange situations. At times there is a long stretch of two characters talking and no action going on, but its not entirely painful to sit through. If you're not familiar with Japanese myth you may learn something from each of the arcs. As for the flash back at the very beginning of episode one, little will be explained, but fear not a prequel to Bakemonogatari called Kizumonogatari will be coming out soon. The prequel is also based off a light novel.

Animation varies from time to time. At one point it looks like any other anime with colorful characters, but at others the scenery looks like its straight out of a photograph. For instance two of the openings posses this quality quite well.



There are 5 different openings one for each new arc. There seem to be alternate versions of a few of them and one of them actually has been made into a meme.

The sound is nicely done. When it comes to changing the track to set the mood of a certain scene this anime delivers. Wether it be sad, happy, or tragic the music kept me on the edge of my seat. But, I found the music a bit repetitive after hearing it before in previous episodes. Other then that, the openings and ending theme are catchy and cleaver.

Overall each of the main characters possess redeeming qualities and each has a story to tell. I liked how each of them were connected to Araragi or Senjougahara in some way. Also a few of these character's minds and personalties evolve as they become closer to each other. I'm defiantly going to be looking forward to the prequel, because as I could tell by opening scene that its going to be a lot darker then this. So Bakemonogatari gets an 8.5/10.

Kore Wa Zombie Desu Ka? Episode 1 Review

Let me just start by saying, moe is probably one of my least favorite parts of being an anime fan. Looking at the picture for this show I feared the worst. I've seen many moe shows and I can safely say that I haven't enjoyed it once. They're manipulative and don’t have much to offer plotwise. I wasn't looking forward to Kore Wa Zombie Desu Ka?

With a heart full of dread, I pressed play and waited to begin pulling out my hair in frustration.

At first, I was surprised by the mature arty flare it had. I thought this would turn into a more serious moe moe, such as Air or Kanon. It was very pretty to look at and the main character seemed the serious sort. I was thinking this was going to be one of the boring type shows that made me want to kill every character off by the end, because the characters themselves had no real way to endear themselves to me.

Oh how wrong I was.

After a certain point, the main character tries to save a cat, gets hit by a bus and is sent reeling through the trees... knocking off all his clothes, of course.

This would normally kill anybody, of course, however...

So, after those antics were through I started to become mildly amused with this show. Instead of cashing in as a completely moe trope filled horror, it started to have a slight promise of a comedic moe show (This would give the show a 50/50 chance of me being able to stand it.)

The opening, I must say, is completely generic.The song, Ma Ka Se Te Tonight by Iori Nomizu, is the standard high pitched Japanese with a beat electro intro you would expect for a moe comedy. Even if I were to listen to this intro a multitude of times, I can’t see it growing on me. The art for the show, although interestingly colored doesn’t hold my interest. Basically, the art is used as a device to introduce the characters. When I see an anime opening, I want it to be a symbol of the best the show has to offer. The music should be catchy and get stuck in my head, and the art should be really eye catching and memorable. Over all, this opening left me lacking on so many levels.

Anywho... moving on.

We meet our first female moe character. I personally like her construct (but I have a thing for white haired characters.) During the scene where we meet her, I was surprised by the main characters outright moe classification of her. In these types of shows, they tend to try and pretend that they are not moe, while adhering strictly to the moe stereotypes. The main character, Aikawa, outright calls her a tsun.

For those who don’t know here is a quick moe lesson 101: Tsun and Tsundere
These are both terms to describe the characters who appear to be bitches (excuse the language.) They are outwardly mean to the main character, but deep down inside they are really love-dovey with them. Basically like a person with an outwardly hard appearance and soft chewy center.

Eventually Aikawa ends up at a graveyard. Boy, a zombie at a graveyard. How original right? Well enter the next character, Haruna. A magical girl, complete with a magical girl transformation. Antics ensue, in which Aikawa ends up chopped in half in a very graphic manner.

So basically those are the three characters who have been introduced. Though for any moe harem show to be complete there needs to be 3 or more females for every male lead. Knowing that to be the case, I’m sure there will be more characters introduced in the next few episodes. All of whom can be neatly classified into their respective moe tropes and groups.

PedoBear was just trying to enjoy his Lolis! WHY?!

I know I make it a point not to cover plot to much, but there is one part of the episode that I have to cover. It was towards the end, so if you don’t want spoilers I suggest you stop here--

Like I said, this show was supposed to be like an everyday moe, however after laughing so hard at this scene, I can only say that I have never enjoyed a moe show so much. It was a hysterical scene in which Haruna and Aikawa are attacked by a giant crayfish. Scratch that... more like...

Yep. So, to save the day, Aikawa ends up making a magical girl transformation. Complete with the sparkling lights and ribbon wrap around clothes. It was pretty funny and I wasn’t expecting it at all.

-- end of spoilers

Now as for the ending. It’s very much a moe ending, with the characters dancing in chibi forms andincredibly generic music. Personally though, I prefer the ending. It does a much better job of matching the show and I get the right feeling from it. Also, the part at the very end is kinda cute.

So here are the final scores:

Story: 8/10 (the hightest rated moe EVER for me)
Art: 6/10 (really generic)
OP: 5/10
ED: 7/10
Characters: 8/10

That about wraps it up for me. “Take easy, gang.” (that’s right Hieronymus Bosch, I stole it~ you scrub.)
Ha ha, no, just kidding, Bosch is literally the best human being~~~~!
(HB: don't make fun of someone who can edit your article, you muppet)

My face when watching this show.

Ham. This is the future you.

You can't possibly be useful now. Ah well.

I hate when that happens to, man.

No, he's just a regular cosplayer.