Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 | JDrama + My Exciting Life

SUMMER ANIME 2009 – Jeanniex’s mini rankings

October 3, 2009

I’ve gotten jealous of those bloggers that watch like 10-20 series per season. I don’t have the patience to a) watch shows even if i don’t like them or b) blog about all of them. Plus there’re still like hundreds of series that I really HAVE to watch still. So I don’t have time either. But I so wish I could do seasonal rankings! I love making lists… I make Top 5 lists all the time… *planning more Top 5 posts* Anyways, I decided what the hell, if I want to rank em so much why CAN’T I rank the series I followed this summer? Even though there are only three. Hah. So here it is: the highly anticipated SUMMER MINI RANKING!

3: Tokyo Magnitude

Good stuff, for the most part. But it doesn’t compare to the others. Part of this is the decline of awesome in the last half, part of it is the next 2 were too good.

——————————————————————————————————

2: Spice & Wolf II

Spice and Wolf, only better. This was really a great series, and it was the type that’s pleasant to watch weekly. Very solid.

——————————————————————————————————

1: Requiem for the Phantom

Holy crap. WTF. Why is this number 1? When it started in Spring, I thought it might end up stupid. But I became a fan! I think it was all because of the music. Nanase Hikaru, you’re now my hero. Amazing, amazing OST. Not only that, but the atmosphere was really interesting, the characters were interesting and it made full use of its 26 episodes. Which I can’t say Tokyo Magnitude did with its 11 episodes. While the dialogue in no way compares to that of Spice and Wolf, the action is really addicting and well done. I’m sure there are more flaws though, and thinking about it Spice and Wolf might actually be a better anime, but this is ranking! Nobody ranks based on quality. And I enjoyed Phantom for the full 6 months I’ve been watching it. Though the ending… I’ll be writing a review shortly!

Leave a Comment » | Anime & Manga | Tagged: Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~, Spice and Wolf II, Summer Anime 2009, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 | Permalink
Posted by jeanniex1

Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 – the controversiosity of it all

October 3, 2009

I’ve been putting this off because of how surprisingly ambivalent I’ve felt about this past Summer season’s most controversial anime; but now is the time to get fired up and write my review.

Tokyo-Magnitude-8-wide

Let’s see, where to start? I almost want to do this like how I did Jyu Ou Sei, they both have such distinct divisions at episode 5, with 11 episodes total. Jyu Ou Sei pulled that 4 year time leap, and Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 lost it’s excitement and impact.

I’ve been following a lot of blogs about Tokyo Magnitude and I’ve noticed that some people think that Tokyo Magnitude went downhill after an awesome first 5 episodes, and the rest think the exact opposite, that the last 6 episodes salvaged the first half. Another thing that caught my attention was how many people said they teared up over this show. Um, what? Am I completely heartless? I didn’t think this was sad at all… okay, yes it’s sad, but I was definitely not crying at any part of it. And I am definitely prone to crying over animes. If you’re wondering, take a look at my Rose of Versailles post. Yeah. Maybe it was the WAY in which the sad things were told. It all seemed so ambivalent to me. Rather than “OH MY GOD MY PARENTS ARE DEAD” it was more like “Human life is very fragile and easily disrupted, but this is a natural thing”. And I have absolutely no problem with that. I actually like it better most of the time.

It should help to know that I LOVE apocalyptic and disaster and survival stories. One of my favorites is this book called “Life As We Knew It”. It is amazing. Even though it’s YA, I highly recommend it. Anyway, this is why I really liked the first half of Tokyo Magnitude. It was full of disaster, there was lots of tension and it felt fairly real. But once it started slowing down I just didn’t enjoy it as much.

I have to admit, though, the same thing would happen in reality. BIG DISASTER and then very slowly collecting yourselves. So that WAS well done. What Tokyo Magnitude added to this, however, was the overly dramatic process finding family, friends, etc. That really subtracted from the original brutal, honest, objective atmosphere. Even if seeing your family again is that dramatic and sappy in real life, I don’t want it to be like that on screen. Because if it’s not YOU who’s all happy, then it’s just cheesy.

Since Tokyo Magnitude was supposedly all realistic, when it started pulling the drama I was more disappointed than I would’ve been if it WASN’T supposed to be realistic. It might have been a combination of my expectations from the first half and my expectations from that little notice they put up at the beginning of every episode about how “realistic” it all was.

Despite this, and some faults and decrease in quality in the animation, Tokyo Magnitude was an interesting and unique watch.

Added plus: beautiful drawings in the opening animation

1 Comment | Anime & Manga | Tagged: Summer Anime 2009, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 | Permalink
Posted by jeanniex1

Anime Reviews (A-Z)

September 29, 2009

Aight, so let me explain this. I have tended to stick little mini reviews of different things in big, long posts the have many topics. Basically, I’m saying that I’ve been lazy. But no longer! I’m in the process of making this more organized and helpful. That includes reorganizing some posts so that everything about ONE show is in the same post. Eheh. This may take me longer than I hope.

Anyway. I linked the most review-like post to the name of the show. If there’s a name with no link (I know, there are a lot with no links…) it means I haven’t organized a suitable review yet. But I do have a search engine. I’ll get through this eventually. Soon there will be a lovely, alphabetically organized list ready for scrolling, full of reviews… *off in Dreamland*

By the way, if you’re wondering about shows with multiple seasons, I’ve been putting it all in one post. I find it less irritating that way. So “Full Metal Panic” means Season 1, Fumoffu, and The Second Raid. “Honey & Clover” means seasons I and II.

Itazura na Kiss