Anime Reviews

[Woody Alien 2]

Recently I saw several anime on Netflix and made by/for Netflix: the Onimusha adaptation, the Scott Pilgrim series and Akuma-kun.

I will not dwell on them too much because I don't want to write one of my usual overlong posts: Onimusha was fairly good and well made in a blend of 3D CG characters and environments and 2D backgrounds, though it was basically a single movie divided in 8 episodes af about 20 mins each. Strangely it came and went almost completely unnoticed for some reason, maybe because Onimusha has never been one of Capcom's most popular franchises (but at least this one was good unlike that Resident Evil crap).

Scott Pilgrim was made by the famed Science SARU studio as another 8-episode anime, it's pretty damn good (with the same actors from the movie lending the voices to their characters and Anamanaguchi at the soundtrack like in the game) but it's not a straight adaptation, rather a what if/alternate universe where Scott loses against the Evil Exes and Ramona investigates their whereabouts to understand what happened to Scott. Quite cool, dynamic and fun, though many people were pissed because they wanted a 1:1 adaptation and the marketing hid the fact that it was not the case.

Akuma-kun is a series based on Shigeru Mizuki's manga of the same name and the direct sequel of a 1989 anime based on it. I always heard about Mizuki's magnum opus Gegege no Kitaro and its several adaptations through the decades, but I never started to read/watch it for whatever reason. So I decided to prepare myself by watching Akuma-kun. Unlike Kitaro, that is a celebration of Japanese folklore, Akuma-kun is based on Western occult stories, demonology and the like, basically a series of investigations on demonic possessions/pacts led by the titular character and his half-demon assistant. However the cool "occult detective" stuff gives way to the real story that is linked to the old anime's characters and, since for obvious reasons I could not have nostalgia for it and its characters were unknown to me, and I also found the "modern" characters to be dull and uninteresting, I kinda lost interest halfway through it and finished it just for completion.

Still on Netflix I am watching Pluto based on Naoki Urasawa's manga of the same name, a sort of modern retelling of Astro Boy as a political thriller: it's very good but I need something less overwhelming at the moment...

[jorpho]

Just finished watching Summer Time Rendering, and I'm feeling sad that there's nowhere I can go to rant about it or read other people's thoughts. It was the first anime series I've properly watched all the way through in a long, long time – mostly because I temporarily have access to Disney+, which carries it in Canada.

Lots of people seem to say it's the best anime of 2023 and... have standards just fallen? It's not bad, really, but it just gets bogged down in mechanics to the point where everything's borderline meaningless. There's more than a couple of times I had to rewind a couple of seconds to figure out exactly what was said. It's like reading a manga with a few pages missing here and there.

If I had known it was from the director of Children of the Sea, I might have skipped it entirely. It's strongly reminiscent of Children of the Sea, but with less aimless spectacle and more blood. The big hook is that it's a time-loop story, but the time loop is very much second place to the plain old supernatural horror.

[Revolver Ocelot]

Man... I can't believe this thread is still going on 13 years after I wrote my last review.

[Snake]

Let's keep it going!

Solo Leveling - Pretty good adaptation of the Korean webtoon/manhwa.  The first 12 episodes thus far leaves off at a reasonable cliff-hanger where the main character begins to get really overpowered.  The action and the skills really come to life in animated form.  I like it. It's fun to see the progression of the main character start as a Level 1 weakling, gradually grow in strength and skills, like an RPG story.  


Captain Tsubasa, Junior Youth Arc - while the budget and animation isn't exactly top notch, it's still decent for this 2nd remake of the classic soccer manga/anime.  What is welcome is how flashy all the new shoots are, from Tsubasa's Drive Shoot, Hyuga's Tiger Shoot, and even the Twins and Jito's Sky Lab Twin Shoot.  Even having read, and watched the original anime and Road to 2002, the new remake still manages to keep a sense of suspense and tension.  

Rurouni Kenshin, 2023 - Honestly... I'm still not sure if I like the new character designs.  Kenshin's new voice isn't bad; though the original had more of a disarming contrast with the original voice actor's effeminate vocal quality.  The soundtrack is revamped, and lacks the epic and symphonic drama of the original.  But here's to hoping this time around, this series will do justice to the Jinchuu arc, and even continue to the ongoing Hokkaido arc, instead of that seriously depressing, non-characteristic ending of the OVA series.

Shaman King 2021 - A pretty solid remake that stays faithful to the manga from beginning to end.  Megumi Hayashibara reprises her role as Anna Kyoyama, with that twinge of Ayami Rei creeping into the voice quality.  I absolutely love the new opening song, Soul Salvation.  Since studying and practicing shamanism recently, I have newfound appreciation for well the concepts are represented in a global encompassing sense that it is in Shaman King.  While not my favorite shonen manga series, I do like the sense of comraderie, and the way it ends isn't exactly the way most shonen mangas end.  

The First Slam Dunk - Excellent movie, that chooses to frame the whole final game from Ryota's persective, expanding his back-story.  While I'm still not a fan of the 3-D animation design and style, overall, the direction and action is top notch.  I have to really give it up to I'll pray with all these remakes, some studio will decide to redo Rokudenashi Blues.

[xolta]

After my re-watch of the original dragon ball. I can say the Red Ribbion saga/arc is my favorite one. Now I need to finish z lol.

[vnisanian2001]

May 7, 2024 18:14:58 GMT -5 xolta said:

After my re-watch of the original dragon ball. I can say the Red Ribbion saga/arc is my favorite one. Now I need to finish z lol.

I remember I was kinda bored early in that saga when I watched the original DB. Maybe because it had a fair bit of filler episodes.

Though I like that the original series was three Dragon Ball quests, and each of them culminated with a tournament.

[spanky]

I think the RR arc is very underrated by the fanbase in general but I wouldn't say it' my favorite. I think I like the Saiyan arc the best but that might be the ol' nostalgia talking.