Category Archives: Anime

Review: Highschool of the Dead 6

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"Hold on, Takashi. I think I see a quarter."

So, remember when I said last week’s episode of Highschool of the Dead was the worst one yet? Allow me to amend that statement.

Episode 6 is even worse, by a large margin. It’s misogynistic, insulting, stupid, and some of it doesn’t even make sense. In was a complete and utter waste of my time, and I probably lost a few hundred brain cells just watching it. I kid you not, it’s quite possibly one of the worst episodes of any anime I’ve ever seen. And that’s counting Angel Cop.

So if you really want to know why HotD has inspired such rage in me, click the jump.

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Bakacast Briefs – Put Ya Guns On!

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ARE YOU READY GUYS?

Now that I’m back from my vacation, I can finally inject some much-needed silliness (and bromance) into the podcast with Sengoku Basara 2. There’s no news for this week, so you might notice that all that pent up discussion energy causes us to GET SERIOUS about…well…every show we talk about. So if you decide to listen, I hope you like arguments about world-building theory. Otherwise, you’ll need LOTS OF LUCK to make it through.

We take on:

You may notice I’m more forgiving of HotD #5 in the podcast than I am in my review. Funny how time makes the heart hate stronger, isn’t it?

Anyway, we like hearing from you, so feel free to leave a comment or two. Just don’t get SO CRAZY that the mods have to BREAK IT UP.

…okay, I’m done now.

[The opening and ending music is “Boy Walks Girl to Work and is Followed by a Ghost” by .hnz]

Review: Highschool of the Dead 5

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DRAMATIC TEAM POSE!

The fifth episode of Highschool of the Dead is a perfect example of how to kill your momentum. Even though I may not have liked all of the previous episodes, I think they did a good job of slowly building the tension and scope of the zombie epidemic. By contrast, this week’s episode meanders toward the resolutions of problems that were brought up last week. It doesn’t help that the writing is a mixed bag of good, mediocre and terrible characterizations. These problems combine to create what is arguably the worst episode of the series so far.

I’ll explain why after the jump.

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K-ON! Manga Ends in September

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Could the K-ON! manga be coming to an end? This story just went live on ANN.

A footnote on the bottom of kakifly’s K-ON! manga in the September issue of Houbunsha’s Manga Time Kirara magazine lists the next installment as the final one. The September issue officially ships on Monday.

Now, don’t start panicking just yet. This only means that K-ON! will no longer be serialized in Manga Time Kiara. It’s entirely possible that kakifly could continue the manga in another serial magazine. On the other hand, this could mean that the next chapter will indeed be the final one, and the series will end with the girl’s graduation from high school. This theory is further supported by the K-ON!! anime, which will finish airing in late September. Perhaps the manga and anime will end simultaneously, like Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

Personally, I think it’s about time for K-ON! to take its last bow. It’s been a fun ride, but the show has become somewhat creatively bankrupt and repetitive as of late. But don’t despair, moe fans! Kyoto Animation’s next project, Nichijou, is already in the works.

[Via ANN]

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Bakacast Briefs: The Death of Anime

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Will moe be the death of anime?

Last week, Dai Sato claimed that anime will disappear within the next thirty years, due to a lack of creativity in the industry. On this week’s Bakacast, we address that controversial issue. Is the over-saturation of moe to blame for the anime studios’ financial woes? Or is this just another genre craze that has overstayed its welcome? Does too much focus on merchandising limit quality storytelling? We debate these difficult questions and more.

After that serious business, we move on to lighter fare with this week’s anime reviews.

That’s it for this week. We’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know what you think in the comments below! [Opening music is “Invaders Must Die” by ChipDudeRoss]

Review: K-ON!! 17

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Use the Force, Yui!

After last week’s slight disappointment, I was hoping that this week’s episode of K-ON!! would be an improvement. Thankfully, it did succeed to some extent, but there were some noticeable problems in it. This episode felt like a giant tease, making us think the girls would stop procrastinating and actually practice for once. How foolish of me to get my hopes up; they spend the whole episode goofing off yet again, not getting a damn thing accomplished. But despite that, I somehow still ended up not hating this. The inherent moeblob charm that kept me sane throughout the more aggravating scenes. It’s one of those,”not bad but not good either.” episodes, in my opinion.

Read more after the jump. Continue reading →

K-ON! Dub Cast Announced

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More news about Bandai’s upcoming K-ON! release! They’ve announced that the show’s English language dub will be handled by Bang Zoom! Entertainment, the studio responsible for dubbing both The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and Lucky Star. The role of Yui will be played by the prolific Stephanie Sheh, who played Mikuru in Haruhi and Akira in Lucky Star. Mio will be voiced by Cristina Vee, most famous for her fandubs of various anime songs on YouTube. Here is her rendition of Super Driver:

I must say, I’m a bit conflicted about these choices. Stephanie Sheh is an experienced voice actress, but her take on Mikuru was too high and squeaky for my liking. On the other hand, she did a GREAT job as Akira, so I honestly have no idea whether she’ll be good as Yui. As for Cristina Vee… she has an awesome singing voice, but little anime voice-acting experience. Is she really up to the challenge of playing Mio, K-ON!’s most popular character? Also, does this mean she’ll be dubbing K-ON!’s music into English?

More importantly, who will they get to dub Ritsu?

OVA Review: Black Rock Shooter

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Flaming eyeballs? There's a Visine for that.

In case you’re unfamiliar, Black Rock Shooter was originally a character designed by the Japanese artist Huke, which the band Supercell adapted into a wildly popular Hatsune Miku music video. The video itself doesn’t feature much plot; it’s just the titular protagonist travelling around a post-apocalyptic world, looking all emo and angsty. That means when Yutaka Yamamoto and Studio Ordet decided to make a full-length original video animation from this concept for their first independent project, they had their work cut out for them. Not only did they have to prove their little startup studio could produce quality anime, they had to create an entire universe and mythology for Black Rock Shooter from scratch.

So, did they succeed? Did Studio Ordet prove it could hold its own against the older, larger and better-funded anime studios? Sadly, no. This OVA was a disappointment on nearly every level. It’s a pity, since there’s a really interesting concept here. Unfortunately, it was dragged down by poor animation, badly paced storytelling and low production values.

Read more after the break.

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Is Anime Doomed?

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Editorial Comment

Could we be living in the last days of anime? One industry insider seems to think so.

This article featured on ANN is from an interview with writer Dai Sato, credited with writing episodes for Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell. He paints a rather grim picture picture of the decline and death of anime within the next few decades.

Sato dismissed the idea of “Cool Japan” and complained that much of the in-between animation work in anime is outsourced to people in other countries, who may not be aware of or invested in the work itself. Similar to director Hayao Miyazaki, Sato criticized politicians and other who promoted the image of Cool Japan for their own purposes. Sato also decried series that were more about escape than about confronting real problems, and proclaimed that the anime industry in Japan is a “super establishment system” rather than a creative force, focused more on characters and on merchandise. He suggested that manga was “the last hold out,” and that if manga was lost then anime would not last without it.

While this reflects one person’s opinion, there are others who think the industry is growing. However given the subpar offerings for the summer 2010 season I can understand the reasoning behind Dai Sato’s statements.

Read my own opinion on this after the break.

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Bakacast Briefs – OneManga’s Doom

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First off, sorry for the lateness of this Bakacast episode. Since Dustin is on vacation this week, I got to try my hand at editing the podcast, and it took friggin’ FOREVER. On the plus side, I did get to pick the theme music this time around…

Anyways, this episode features a greatly expanded cast. Although Dustin is absent, I brought in Konata (aka Jeagle) and Shamisen (aka Larry) to fill his place. That means you’re getting twice as many bakas for the same low price!

As always, you can download it directly, subscribe to our RSS feed, or let iTunes do all the work for you.

We start off with a discussion about the demise of One Manga, as well as the new Seven Seas licenses. Then, after drooling over recently-announced sequel series to Avatar: The Last Airbender, we get into reviewing this week’s new anime.

And that’s pretty much it. See y’all next week!