Honey & Clover Anime: Attempt at a review of both seasons

Gosh, this is becoming the weekend of endless posts. I finally have a weekend where I’m not busy~ And I’m FINALLY doing a real review of Honey & Clover. Although I might not even call it “real” since I don’t think I’m going to be able to review this objectively. However, I will do it in the usual categorical fashion.

This came up again because… hm. I was watching something… yadayadayada… I wanted to rewatch Michiko e Hatchin? That reminded me of Spring, which reminded me of Honey & Clover… listened to the OP; thought I HAVE TO REWATCH AND REVIEW THIS! So over the past few months I’ve sort of been rewatching Honey & Clover. I’ve almost finished the first season for the second time. I think it’s (sadly) helped me see some of the faults, and why maybe it’s better to wait like 3 years before rewatching Honey & Clover (rather than 6 months, which is what I did…) Anyway, ANDALE.

PLOT

This is slice of life. It centers around Takemoto, and his friends and their life at art college in Tokyo, and where they’re all going with their lives. It sounds melancholy and reflective. You have no idea. It is UNBELIEVABLY melancholy and reflective. Like Fruits Basket times 100 minus the cute animals. That’s not to say it will drag you down to the point of collapsing with the weight of the meaning of life. There are definitely comedic moments, too. Aughhh this is too hard. I can’t review this. To quote myself of last spring,

“Ahhh I love Honey and Clover. Happiness in a box.”

CHARACTERS

I’m realizing now that you can’t review Honey & Clover. You just have to watch it. But I will continue to half-heartedly try, by stealing stuff from my posts from last spring.

“I’m so happy to see this after the slight train-wreck of a Jdrama that it was… I should have ditched the drama and watched this lonnggg ago (the only thing that kept me watching back then was Ikuta Toma). All the characters are so wonderful (especially compared to their drama counterparts!) Okay, I’m gonna stop comparing this to the drama, because there’s no reason to. They are completely different. Hagu still gets on my nerves a bit, but I like her.”

So by now upon my second viewing, I have discovered that hearing all those monologues again isn’t the best experience. And Ayu has also become a bit irritating to listen to AGAIN. However, I do still love them all despite their melancholiness. Okay, let me just remind you here that this is a review upon a SECOND VIEWING. I’m not caught up in being a fangirl anymore. You will still love this the first time around. I am just being a party pooper.

“Anyone else notice that while Mayama, Takemoto, Ayumi, Hanamoto-sensei and even Nomiya all get their chances to narrate a bit, Morita and Hagu never do? You never know what they’re thinking. You might know what Takemoto THINKS their thinking… Haha. Well, I don’t have much else to say for now, other than yeah HAPPINESS IN A BOX.”

Oh, can’t have a Honey & Clover post without mentioning NOMIYA x AYUUUU! Best H&C pairing ever. For some reason my computer still sucks at screenshots of MPC playing files, so I’m just stealing profile pictures from MAL. I feel guilty, though.

ART & ANIMATION

Quite nice, classic JC Staff-slice-of-life style (see Nodame Cantabile). At first I disliked the washed out colors, but I got used to it. It’s relaxing to look at.

MUSIC

I love all the OPs and EDs from both seasons. The first OP was so weird; with the food and everything. But it’s now a part of Honey & Clover. This has a BIG soundtrack. There are a lot of insert songs. AND, I actually remember a lot of the BGM melodies, but NOT because they were bad. They’re just the sort that stick with you in a nice way. So THAT’s good. I particularly like the track that plays when Takemoto does his little “When I was still little I used to ride on my blue/green (still haven’t figured out which color aoi is… the subs say green, but that bike is definitely blue! Such a mystery) bicycle and I would wonder how far I could go without stopping, etc etc” spiel. Amazing that I remember it. Also the second ED “Mistake”, if only because of the performer’s name: “THE BAND HAS NO NAME”. LOL.

AWHOOPS

This is kind of spoiler-y; you probably don’t want to read it if you haven’t seen the second season. I stole this from my old, silly post about Honey&Clover II that I wrote in the spring after finishing it.

One thing I really liked about this continuation [Of Honey&Clover] was that it kinda let you understand Hagu more. At first she seemed kinda personality-less… and I didn’t like her. But by the end, I like her better. OMG I totally predicted that would happen with Shuu-chan! Because it was pretty obvious she wasn’t going to end up with Takemoto, or anyone necesarily. And Morita… just didn’t seem to work out. So I was like… But wait… She likes Shu a lot, righttt? So what if he’s old and her cousin? She’s totally dependant on him no matter what she says!

But nobody was really paired off for good like “We are now together. Let us kiss and smile and be happy forever.” I liked that. Who knows what’ll happen? I like to think Yamada and Nomiya end up together.

OVERALL

Well, I tried. Honey & Clover does not lend itself to easy reviewing. I think you really just have to watch it. You’ll probably know by the second episode whether you want to continue watching it. I would say the likely suspects to watch this are those who miss Natsume Yuujinchou or Nodame Cantabile and want to be relaxed. As for rewatch value, I would definitely wait awhile to rewatch. The second time around is considerably less fangirl-ish. But I still love it, the music is still relaxing and lovely, and it’s still happiness in a box.

For my slightly more fangirl-y intial reactions, I link:

Michiko to Hatchin, Honey & Clover and MORE + Spring Anime

Honey & Clover again; Skip Beat; and excitement~

Honey & Clover II: Season 1 on crack

Also the drama… grrr… first I was deceived, I was petrifie–wait, I didn’t say that. Anyway, the reason I initially liked the drama was ONLY because the material it’s based on is good. I quickly learned otherwise.

Honey & Clover

Full Metal Panic!: Complete Series REVIEW

Okay, I’m writing this after finishing FMP Season 1 and Fumoffu. I’ve decided before that it’s silly to review different seasons of the same series seperately, but I that’s actually what I’ll be doing here. Fumoffu kind of has to be reviewed seperately… also I haven’t watched The Second Raid yet, and I’m getting a feeling that if I wait to blog AFTER I watch that, then I’ll lose momentum. I’m getting better at thinking up stratagies to avoid losing momentum. Anyway, this’ll be in 3 parts: Season 1, Fumoffu and the Second Raid. Will definitely add in TSR later. For now, SEASON 1~

Part 1:

FULL METAL PANIC!

Well, for some reason I feel ashamed, but I really did enjoy this. So I’m going to try and figure out the source of both the shame and the enjoyment here. I’m thinking I got kind of a Ranma 1/2 feeling from this. Plus I’m kind of (purposefully) shounen deprived, and this was a little shounen-esque at times. But I don’t think I would classify it as shounen. At least not cliche shounen. Yes, the amount of pantyshots in the first 6 episodes almost made me stop watching. Anyway, I think it would help if I went about this in a more organized way.

PLOT

I don’t even want to go here. The plot is random and unlikely and it’s DEFINITELY not the reason I continued watching. But you know what might have helped keep me watching? This was my first MECHA ANIME! So exciting! I’ve always found mecha to be cheesy and wondered how dressing up in a gigantic mechanical armor suit could fascinate so many people. My curiosity about why it’s so enthralling for those legions of fanboys (and fangirls) made me continue opening up the next episode. Part of it was also that I actually don’t watch this type of anime very often. So it was kind of (oddly) fresh. To much fresh anime leads to extremely un-fresh anime seeming fresh. Interesting.

Anyway, the basic plot premise is that Sagara Sousuke, a Sergeant for a secret seigi-no-mikata-like organization called MITHRIL, is assigned to be the secret bodyguard of Kaname Chidori – a teenage girl who lives alone. Hrm. Violent, hilarious antics ensue as we discover that Sagara, a genius when it comes to war, is totally lacking in social skills and common sense. The main villain is Gauron, your classic cardboard cutout never-dying villain. Turns out Chidori is a “Whispered” who has subconscious knowledge of black mecha technology imbedded in her mind which evil people want. But who cares about that when you can have a) mecha fights or b) comedy between Sagara and Chidori.

Basically, it’s random and I didn’t really care.

CHARACTERS

Possibly the real reason why I kept watching. Nope, they’re not deep. Do they develop? Not really. Are they amazing and completely, totally uncliched? Not that either. So why don’t I hate them? Let me see if I can explain this rationally and not turn into a fangirl.

Sagara Sousuke

Not completely like any cliche guy character I’ve seen. He does have uncommon skillz at war and fighting. Aaaand he’s only 17. But let’s ignore that. It’s his total lack of common sense that makes him charming. In short, he’s an idiot. He seems oh-so-competent during mecha battles and he always knows how to deal with dangerous issues. But apply the same character to regular life and he just ends up paranoid and ridiculous. I would think “Is this getting old?” and then I’d be like “…nah” and keep watching.

Chidori Kaname

Her main cliche is probably tsundere, the hot-tempered kind. Yes, she yells at and hits Sousuke with a paper fan when he’s being ridiculous. Yes, this gets old. But she’s also sort of rational. She does need to be rescued often, but not because she’s incompetent. And of course Sousuke is better at fighting than she is, he’s in a secret organization for christ sake. I have Balsa if I need an amazing female fighter. Anyway, the thing that allows you to put up with her damsel-in-distress problem is that she also helps Sousuke out with her “Whispered” skillz. They end up becoming more of a combo than a guys-rescues-girl thing, especially later on. Plus she has to help him out of all the situations he gets into in the real world. I’m really happy with how they turned into a partners/combo relationship. It’s cool.

The rest of the characters were pretty standard, but I did like Melissa Mao and Kurz Weber as side characters. Oof, and Tessa was a bit hard to take at times, but in reality some people are like that. I dealed.

ART/ANIMATION/MUSIC

None of these 3 categories worthy of its own paragraph for this show. The art is classic early-2000’s. The animation is completely normal. The music is Jpop-like. Nuff said.

IN CONCLUSION;

There’s not much worth mentioning in this show other than the characters (Chidori X Sousuke SPECIAL COMBO ATTACK) and the fact that it was a little funny at times. It’s diverting. It’s the new Inuyasha.

Part 2:

FULL METAL PANIC? FUMOFFU

Fumoffu is basically a side story to FMP, leaving out any millitary action or real villains. This gets more like Ranma 1/2 since there really is no main plot AT ALL. But I actually managed to enjoy this equally if not more than the first season. First off, the focus was on comedy; one of the parts I liked more in the original series. I’ve been comdey-deprived in my anime lately… Also, there was no stupid never-dying villain lurking in the background. And while the episodes definitely followed a formula (something strange happens, Sousuke does something ridiculous, Chidori smacks him with a paper fan, everything is solved) there were only 12 of them so it didn’t get tiring.

Also, I actually surprised myself at how much I laughed when Bonta came on. Of course the first time Bonta appeard was the funniest, but I was really quite happy to see him appear again later on. One more time and it could’ve gotten old, but I was enjoying it too much.

Anyway, I’ve been trying to rationalize, but I think this is really just something I liked because I was comedy deprived.

Part 3:

FULL METAL PANIC: THE SECOND RAID

Coming soon

Kimi ni Todoke: Episode 3 (with a slight chance of 4 and 5)

Wow, everyone loves Kimi ni Todoke now, right? I confess… IT’S WON ME OVER TOO~ There are still some parts where I think to myself ‘Now if I were writing this, would I have put that in? Or does it justtt cross the line of cheese?’ but DEFINITELY nothing as awful as the awkward Ioryogi moments in Kobato. I can’t believe I gave that a higher first impression score. And I think I’m quickly getting over that acquired aversion for shoujo, if only for this one show. Yessss if I wanted I could think of some more issues. BUT I DON’T WANT TO. It’s too lovely~ Plus I’m gonna have to do that for my series review anyways, so at least now I have to relax and forget about critique.

Because after episode 3, I just got this tiny urge to wach the next episode (I had gotten behind). And then episode 4. Nnnnext one too! Gahhh why is episode 6 not out yet? I just now realized that what they’ve done is they’ve built in some drama to keep me watching! But they did it so slowly I didn’t even notice! Those sneaky bastards XD!

Ahhh my shoujo fangirl has resurfaced. After so long… (not really, actually…) but in my defense, this definitely has something over regular shoujo. And that is the plot doesn’t feel driven by the need to get Kazehaya and Sawako together as quick as possible so they can be thrown into dramatic situations. Some shoujo avoid seeming this obvious by using a sideplot to distract you. At first glance it could look like Kimi ni Todoke is doing that too. (Hopefully) Alternate Situation: Ohhh Sawako needs to make friends (sideplot). But KAZEHAYA is here. And here. And he’s over here too! FORGET THE FRIENDS, here’s KAZEHAYA! However, I’ve crossed my fingers and I’m practically convinced that Kimi ni Todoke has avoided this. I sense there WILL be rivals, though… grrrr… Peach Girl has kind of traumatized me when it comes to rivals. Hopefully I’ll be able to stay calm. Twitch.

Anyway, fall season has turned out okay, I think. We’ve got some interesting sequels, and 2 refreshing/relaxing series. Plus, Aoi Bungaku which I haven’t watched yet but I WILL and seems like it will be good.

So.. yeah. That’s Kimi ni Todoke for me, as of episode 5. Maybe subsequent episodes will inspire me to post again? No matter what, I’ll definitely end up writing a review. Urgh just reminded myself of Phantom... must review… must review…

One last thing:

ONCE AGAIN PRODUCTION IG~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

!

Toshokan Sensou REVIEW

Alright so here’s one post to cut down on my backlog of completed yet un-reviewed series. Though since I watched this over like 2 days in the summer, I feel like I should rewatch it before I try to make a serious critique… La~ too late.
I’ll be doing this in the usual organized way; here goes.

PRODUCTION IG

!!!!!!!!!!!! Alright, alright. I am such a Production IG fangirl. And this isn’t even a review category. But still, when it comes to reviewing a show by Production IG, the first thing you have to say is that it’s by Production IG and that they are undeniably filthy. Filthy in the good way of course.

PLOT: Summary

Back on track here. Toshokan Sensou translates to “Library War”. Sound nerdy? Oh yeah. But it’s not, really. Despite the weird name and unusual premise, I enjoyed watching this short 1 season show (12 episodes). Might bring to mind a currently airing series called “Armed Librarians”; as far as I know, they’re totally different. Toshokan Sensou is like war in as pure a form as possible. I don’t think Armed Librarians is even about war… Anyway, in Toshokan Sensou the Japanese government has pulled a Hitler and decided they want to ban and censor Japan to the moon and back. However, the Japanese libraries have enough power to oppose this new attack on their collections. So basically you end up with highly organized battles being fought over books. Quite interesting, really. Add to this our main character, holdonletmelookuphername Kasahara Iku, the first woman to join the Library Defense Force. The story centers around her and her encounters as a member of an army-like defense force. Free speech for all! Based on light novels by Arikawa Hiro.

PLOT: Execution

I think it’s a very fresh, original and interesting idea. I love near-future dystopia-esque things like this. Of course it’s not really a dystopia. But it’s close enough to satisfy me. And it’s not like dystopias are ALL I care about. The problem with the plot execution here is that Toshokan Sensou just tries to tackle too many things in too short of a timeframe. It’s like; the moral issues of censoring, the struggle of war, romance, relationships with parents, finding and doing what you want in life, growing up, gender difference issues, overcoming obstacles in the workplace… within 12 episodes? No DUH it’s rushed feeling! I guess you could say it’s the same problem as Jyu Ou Sei, although really Jyu Ou Sei had a LOT more problems… (I still love you, Jyu Ou Sei!). I think even just 4 more episodes would have left the series some room to stretch and think about which aspect of all the many possibilities it wanted to focus on. Am I talking about this show like it has a mind of it’s own? I’m sorry, I always swear I’m not going to do that… JEESH this paragraph is long already. Wrapping up… pacing isn’t the best, too many things to think about.

ART & ANIMATION

Unusual style, not unusual like Gankutsuou or anything, but there was an interesting line variation technique used for a sort of shading effect… in short, there were some really thick lines and some really thin lines. It had a unique feel, but it wasn’t screaming in your face “WE’RE COOL”. And as always, it was lovely. CONSISTENTLY lovely. Fufu, ProIG~

MUSIC

It took a few episodes, but I definitely warmed up to the OP and ED. I feel like I’m not being cynical enough. Am I being to nice because I can only remember the good parts? This is why I should have rewatched it first! Ahem. Anyways, as usual I can’t remember the BGM, but I know that it wasn’t bad because BGM actually stands out more the worse it is. Anyone else thinking of certain cheesy moments in Inuyasha? OH and the OP animation was cool.

CHARACTERS

Iku was definitely cool. I can’t remember who I was comparing her too, but in a recent post I used her as an example of someone who doesn’t start out completely competent, but who definitely isn’t annoying. Oh yeah, it was Mai in Ghost Hunt. DAMN she was incompetent. Anyway, definitely a good main girl character. I mean no one can match Balsa, but she was definitely solid. Naive and still learning, but that’s realistic; which is good. However, there wasn’t much development in the other characters. If it had been the kind of show where the character development is all about the main character, it would have been okay to leave the others alone for a bit. But I didn’t feel like Iku got a whole lot of development either. Must be cause of the goddamn 12 episode length again. Gahhhh extend it 4 episodes, will you?!

Dojo kind of reminds me of Otani from Love Com. Just a little though, in retrospect. Maybe it’s cause he’s short..? Yeah, their relationship also seemed like they WANTED to spend more time there but couldn’t because of the series length.

ZENBU

Everything. All in all; I did enjoy watching Toshokan Sensou. There’s definitely some things in there like censoring that will make you think a bit. But I think mostly I would say it’s “diverting”. It’s so short, and so fast-paced; I ended up watching it all in basically 24 hours. Maybe it’d be better to watch over time? I’m not sure. But I think it’s definitely a good single-season show to watch, if you need something to fill time with. Also, any librarians out there? You should definitely give this a watch. I don’t know how realistic it would seem to a librarian, but if they had a sense of humor I’m sure they’d enjoy looking into it.

Side note: May just be cause I watched it in summer, but very summer-y! =) Sigh… I miss summer so much.

Kobato: Episode 2

So I’m still liking Kobato, but I’ve discovered some problems with it.

Basically, it’s the comedy. They are just trying WAY too hard. And yes CLAMP can be funny in a cute sort of way. But their type of humor is one of the kinds that just gets really irritating when it’s overused. It wouldn’t bother me so much if it was so blatantly obvious that Ioryogi is supposed to be the comic relief. But god, whenver he does that thing where he gets all fired up and starts yelling at Kobato for some little thing she did, it’s just so hard to watch! It’s like, alright, you tried; but it’s JUST NOT THAT FUNNY. Please. So the character’s roles are a little too obvious (who am I kidding, they’re WAY too obvious). Like the preschool teacher who’s the guy version of tsundere, whatever you would call that. OF COURSE he’s going to eventually warm up to and love Kobato along with everyone else.

Plus the whole healing hearts thing is just a little too cheesy for me.

So that’s my rant. And you may be wondering, why the hell am I still watching it, then? I’m still not sure. I feel like it might get better, or go somewhere eventually. Also I might have made it sound worse than it actually is. It might be one of those shows that’s enjoyable to watch, but when you try to review you just can’t remember why.

———————————-

That aside; Christ, I feel so BUSY all the time. So even though I said I would, I’m not gonna do 3 posts for 10 fall series. Sorry for being such a flake.

a) Letter Bee – I watched the pre-series special. It pissed me off. Dropped.

b) Inuyasha – I still feel like I’ll download this and watch it eventually. Maybe next Spring. So you won’t be hearing from me about this anytime soon.

c) Kuuchuu Buranko – Yes, I love NoitaminA, and I know this is supposed to be cool, but I just don’t feel motivated to watch it now.

d) Darker Than Black 2 - I STILL HAVEN’T FINISHED SEASON 1. How? Halloween happened, that’s how. I sitll love it and I only have 2 episodes left, but I don’t want the agony of waiting a week to watch one episode so I’m gonna wait till it finishes and get a batch torrent (also doing this with Cross Game and Kemono no Souja Erin).

e) Romance of Three Kingdoms - What the hell happened to this? Better find out.

f) Seiken no Katanaji – Urgh, and I’d almost forgotten about this. For shame, Manglobe. Sorry but I haven’t been able to bring myself to watch more. Dropped.

Still planning on watching Aoi Bungaku plus more Kimi ni Todoke posts soon.

Kimi ni Todoke: Episode 2

Slow and steady wins the race, right? Hrm… I’m getting to the fall shows, I promise. I’m getting to them. But hey, on to Kimi ni Todoke.

As I’d hoped, I think I’m going to be liking this more as it goes on. And you KNOW that about 75% of the reason I’m watching it is because PRODUCTION IG is so awesome. I can’t say it enough. They are in a completely different league. I love them.

This episode was centered around “Changing Seats” and how Kazehaya is super nice and all that. I like how this isn’t just a “high school anime”, it’s actually an anime about high school. It seems like each episode will have a theme of a different part of Japanese high school. I think that helps freshen this slightly dead-end seeming plot a little bit.

There were still a few cringe-worthy moments in this episode, but I can get over that. The classic finding-an-abandoned-puppy part… god… And it still doesn’t seem too realistic to me; but anime isn’t usually. We should be used to that by now.

I’m liking the little friends group that’s forming right now. I think the two Bando-esque girls are a lovely addition (excuse the Nobuta wo Produce reference there).

So yeah, I’m feeling more positive about this now. Or I might just be in a good mood. I’ll be putting up my episode 3 post soon, too; but I’m really not sure if there’s enough substance to actually keep blogging every episode. Of course, I will write a review.

On a side note,

DARKER THAN BLACK! Only 3 episodes left ~ I’m excited for the new season, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to watch it weekl by week without biting my fingernails off.

Natsu no Arashi: Episode 2

Man, this is turning out to be too much like Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. I mean SZS is good. But if you’re Shinbo you can’t just make everything SZS. Plus in my opinion it’s already getting old. The first season was amazing. But you can only take it so far, you know? So if they continue to go down this path, I will be most disappointed.

Another thing is the fanservice. Is it me or has it gotten worse this season? I’m worried that the same thing is going to happen to Natsu no Arashi that happened to Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei – it’ll just become to repetitive. And I really hope they avoid that since the first season was so enjoyable. And the music was better… everything was better… but I’m just complaining here.

In this episode Arashi, Hajime and everyone are still at the beach but now it’s nighttime and they’ve gone to the onsen. Not much happens. It’s not like I completely hated this episode, I’m just waiting for the good stuff. I wonder if they’re gonna introduce more characters from World War II? I did catch the School Rumble reference, that was amusing.

Honestly, unless they start up the plot again there’s not much to say about this. Sigh. Of course I’ll keep watching though.

Kobato: Episode 1

Alright, alright. So I suck at this whole one post per episode thing. Well at least I got off to a good start. I WILL get around to writing posts for second episodes, and etc. I’m disappointed that there aren’t any subs for Aoi Bungaku or Kuchu Buranko yet. I know it’s only been like a week, but I want to at least hear about a group PLANNING to pick those two up.

Gahhhh I have to write a Phantom post too! Ahem. On to Kobato.

Wow this really reminds me of Cardcaptor Sakura. I DO like CLAMP, don’t I? I definitely want to get around to watching xxxHolic too.

First Impression:

8/10

I know, I know. How can I give this such I high rating?! But to be honest this has been my favorite first episode of the fall season so far. Maybe I’ve just been cute-deprived. And I really enjoyed watching it. It was relaxing. I mean it’s definitely no Natsume Yuujinchou replacement, but I think I’m going to like watching this weekly.

The premise is a little weird. This girl Kobato, who presumably isn’t human (?) has a wish, and to have that wish granted she has to go around helping people. And of course she has a plushy side kick who has to pretend to be a stuffed animal whenever there are people nearby. Sound familiar?

I’m not planning to watch this for plot, or for quality, or action. I just think it’s going to be pleasant.

Kimi ni Todoke: Episode 1

First impression:

7.5/10

Well, I did know this was going to be shoujo. Heh.

NOW I remember why I got sick of shoujo. Kimi ni Todoko suffers from classic Shoujo Syndrome, symptoms of which include a) shy main character b) popular guy character c) “she’s a girl, you know” complex d) a school setting with classic school events, for this first episode, a kimodameshi (fear trial).

I’d heard that Sawako was a good main character, but she doesn’t leave such a great impression on me. Plus everyone’s personalities seem so impossible. Like what high school class would apologize with candy without being forced to by a teacher? It would be different if Kazehaya turned out to be the world’s biggest asshole, but somehow I don’t see that.

This is kind of turning into an anti-shoujo rant here, which I didn’t mean to do. I’m going to keep watching this because it’s been awhile since I saw this type of show. But I don’t think I’ll keep blogging after the first 3 episodes, because each post will probably just turn into a rant about all the stupid things about shoujo. Actually THINKING about shoujo justs makes it that much more difficult to enjoy it. So I’m not going to think about it.

But still, APPLAUSE for Production IG for adapting a shoujo manga into an anime that DOESN’T look like shit. Really lovely animation, as expected. The art is a bit strange, it kind of reminds me of the art in the Lovely Complex anime. But yeah, we love Production IG.

Another thing that I noticed was that it seemed to go through like 10 chapters in one episode. I don’t know it that’s accurate, but there was a lot of zooming out onto a wide view of the town, sunset, sunrise, zooming back in on a new day and that type of stuff. They do only have one season to do this. I’m not sure how many volumes of the manga there are out, but it’s been running since 2006 and according to MAL it’s still ongoing.

Anyway I think I’ll definitely start to enjoy this more as we get into the story and characters. I remember I thought the first episode of It Started With A Kiss was the most horrid thing I’d seen in a  while, but I kept watching and I’m so glad I did. Becuse what girl doesn’t love ISWAK? So I’m hoping that 7.5/10 rating will go up. Next week better be good!

The Third: REVIEW

Ahhh I just finished watching The Third – Aoi Hitomi no Shoujo (The Girl With the Blue Eye). I’m kind of angry though, because I watched this on DVD from Netflix, and the stupid disc was scratched right where the end was. I was like, aw, it’s ending… and then at literally 22:30 out of 24:00 minutes, it started being all jerky. God. But it didn’t really ruin the ending since it wasn’t really a breathtaking one anyways.

PLOT

One of my major problems with The Third was the lack of a strong story to link all the episodes together. This show was based on a series of novels and short stories, and it really showed. It’s kind of like when you write an essay and you have all these amazing paragraphs but then when you try to transition from one to the next you end up scratching your head and then procrastinating. The Twelve Kingdoms was also like this a little bit, but it worked better for me since the setting was so amazingly detailed and thought-out. Also, each new arc would have a little bit of a different point of view. This changed things up a bit. But then, the Twelve Kingdoms also had 45 episodes in which to develop plots and characters (And it deserves more. Hint, hint.)

Individually, most of the arcs were quite interesting. However, I usually ended up wanting a more full understanding of what was going on, with more detail and such. Perhaps this is what happens when you try to be episodic and plot driven at the same time?

• Setting: I’m repeating myself if you’ve read some of my other posts, but just for the record: I love post-apocolyptic type settings. So no problems here. While the setting was intriguing, it was maybe TOO intriguing. I wanted to know more! I was expecting to have a more developed and detailed setting by the end of the show. But I guess they decided to pull the “throw you into another world and expect you to cope” stunt. Which can be fun too.
• The Third: I want to know more about them, too… are they a race that developed on earth, or are they descended from aliens…?

CHARACTERS

Honoka was a good main character. She was too strong… also, she kind of had a “Jack of all Characters” syndrome. Ha. Okay, that was really stupid. But her character was just way too “amazing” at times. I actually thought Iks was a bit of a weak character, especially opposite Honoka. He’s not even in a lot of the episodes, and yet he seems like he should be all important. I think I’m just griping here, though. I liked Paife, she was a solid enough side character. So was Millie. Overall, a step up from your stereotypical characters but I don’t feel any particular affinity for them.

SOUND

Heh, I liked the OP and the first ED. The second ED was quite unremarkable. I liked most of the voices, but the thing that bothered me in this department was the stupid narrator. He made me so angry! I don’t think I’ve ever heard a narrator in an anime before. His stupid voice would come on and I’d be like SHUT UP. It really seemed to distance you more from the whole show. Maybe they were trying to keep in touch with some of the original novels, but if I want a third person view of things I’ll go read the books (as soon as I learn kanji, which I must do).

Another thing that got on my nerves a bit was the overly dramatic background music. I know a lot of anime has this problem, actually ALL types of film are at risk for this. I mean Rose of Versailles? There were some ridiculous dramatic BGM moments there. But that was the 70’s.

ART AND ANIMATION

REALLY, REALLY DODGY. Episode 13 in particular. Oof. That was actually painful to watch. But it did make episodes 19-22 stand out as well-animated. I don’t understand why you would animate the second to last arc well, and then go back to slightly crappy for the finale. Que? But yeah, from distorted faces to distorted faces… to coloring and shadows being different for each episode… the CG was very obvious, too. Instead of pissing me off though, it just makes me feel bad for them. Poor things… if only they had a bigger budget…

OVERALL

This probably sounds backwards after all the griping above, but I actually quite enjoyed The Third. Maybe it was the element of not knowing what to expect? It was like Roulette! It was fun. But maybe it would’ve left a better impression on me overall if I’d been able to do more of a marathon with it. Or maybe not. Who knows?

I feel like I really want to compare this to Jyu Ou Sei, but I don’t know where to start. I did enjoy Jyu Ou Sei more, but honestly, I really can’t decide which one was better. I know Jyu Ou Sei had a LOT of faults, but at least it has consistant (and lovely) animation going for it. Hmm. Perhaps something to contemplate on a rainy day after some rewatching?

Bottom line: Is The Third right for YOU? Are you tolerant of varying animation quality? If you can be a bit of a snob, like me, you might not want to watch this unless you’re feeling particularly nice and open-minded. If you’ve been watching too much shoujo and you’re sick of it but don’t want something with a SUPER intense plot, this might be good. And of course, if the summary (sorry I’m too lazy to copy-paste from ANN) interests you, than by all means watch it. It’s definitely given me some stuff to think about. I wasn’t really “into it” but maybe you will be?!