Hromino

So it does exist after all! An intelligent coming-of-age psychological drama and a funny romantic comedy with elements of magical realism. This is so despite its title and poster being severely misleading, as there is no superficial perverse rabbit ears bullshit to be found here. The greatest strength of this anime is undoubtedly in the characters, who all have soul, wit, brains and depth all rolled into one. This is all topped off by the main character, with his distinctive humor, and an excellent performance by voice actor Kaito Ishikawa, which I would not be afraid to point out as a lifetime achievement. I also appreciate that although the creators have in many ways set off skating on very thin ice, which in many other anime means a steep downhill slope towards being total excrement (the uptight little sister fixated on her brother, the conspicuous gathering of girls around the hero, moving into his home, the smart little scientist with glasses...), here they managed to dispel all my doubts incredibly ably and present an engaging, entertaining – and I will stress this again – intelligent anime. The only criticism perhaps, is of the episode with the step-sister, which, although it was also done well, seemed a bit unnecessary in the shadow of the other episodes, and for the purpose of merely dramatizing the story, but otherwise one cannot complain. It has been a long time since I have seen such a well-crafted adaptation, in which mistakes could only be found using a magnifying glass, and which gave me one pleasant surprise after another. The excellence of this anime is only underlined by the quality of the animation and the soundtrack, and I believe that, except for the movie, the creators should not work too hard to get a sequel, because it is best to stop on a high  – and that is now. Definitely full points for this.

The characters are well-crafted and plausible, there is a nice chemistry between them, the pacing is suitable, the drawing and animation are precise, the soundtrack is good, and it is mature for its genre, while relatively avoiding the most well-worn tropes. All this was put into Sing "Yesterday" for Me, but as time went on, the scum came to the surface, with which all the good around it gradually turned bitter - and that scum was the story that remained. This is a story that got tangled up and lost in itself, as if there was not even really a story there in the end. The initial exposition was good, excellent even, but what followed it was like trying to sober up after a night of heavy drinking. Slow, tiring and full of waiting for change that in the end never comes in the end. The characters check each other out a few times, a polygon is outlined, there are some hints at the characters’ having some conflict and inner dilemma, the molecules weakly bump into each other a few times, but in the end they return to their original positions and the expectation of some more significant reaction remains unfulfilled. I can certainly recommend this anime to those who are comfortable with anime that is about nothing, and are content to check out an anime that throws around sketches of slight characters without any proper development, but to the rest I would rather recommend they invest their time more wisely. I give this a mere 3 stars.

There is a glossy cover, but underneath it there is something brown of a very thin consistency. The rapid pacing cursed by many audiences need not be a problem in itself, as much as the creators wisely gauge their storytelling skills, and the depth and weight of their story, as successfully demonstrated by, say, Ping Pong the Animation. Here, however, the creators’ wanking spaffed their chakras all over the place, and the result of their efforts looks like the wet dream of a teenage ADHD otaku that someone thought to turn into an anime in its basic form, without any intervention from the screenwriter or script editor. Although the hilarious dubstep opening promises a proper audiovisual rush, the subsequent episodes, with their inability to deliver plausible character or story development, throw the audience off the scent, and as more and more unbelievable twists are added, the belaboured fights between the characters grow stale, their meaning fades away, and Hromino is just waiting for the whole ride on this raging attraction to end. It started with one ordinary high school martial arts tournament and ended... so absurdly that I was expecting Ashtar Sheran and the Klingon space fleet to arrive on the scene in the last episode. It would have fit seamlessly into that fictional world. A total triumph of form over substance and I give it a weak 2 stars.

Imagine a cake where you use good quality flour, home-grown eggs and season it perfectly, but at the same time you add a splash of sour milk, throw in half-rotten apples, do not even preheat the oven, and after ten minutes you take the half-baked goop out of the oven and present it immediately to the poor guests for consumption. That is roughly how the anime adaptation of Tower of God comes across. I had the privilege of reading the Korean original a long time ago, and the extent to which this adaptation has shown itself formidable in conveying the spectacularly mysterious atmosphere of the original manga, along with a reasonably-paced dispensing of the story, sent a shiver of surprise down my spine. All the characters are about as solid as marshmallows, their depth is comparable to that of a puddle, and it is hard to muster up sympathy for any of them. They shuffle about like figures in a panopticon, the audience learns little more about any of them than their name, there is very little to discuss regarding any of the internal development of the characters, and if the characters are not screaming at you, the pace and suspense of the story definitely are. The level of the drawing regularly reminded me of the early days of my experiments with the Paint app, but at least the animation saves it a little, and so does the soundtrack. So, for the soundtrack and a few good moments that remind you that the original Korean manga draft is several light-years ahead in quality I give it 2 stars.

The stamp of Yasutaka Tsutsui is very noticeable here, the show is visually stylish and manages to combine suspense, action and humor quite artfully. This all applies to the first half of the season. Then, subtly at first, a more coherent plot starts to emerge, where the creators managed to grab my attention, the show starts to pick up momentum and the season struts like a peacock, adding more characters and cliffhangers as if it is going to run for another 20 episodes, only to quickly fizzle out in the last few episodes and all the suspense fades away like a beauty, who walks away in the morning. The choice of a new voice actor for the main hero was excellent, the characters are well written and the absurdity goes hand in hand with the hyperbole, which are delivered in an entertaining way, but by cranking the story up in the second half of the season, the creators bit off a bit more than they could chew, and they only managed to push it out through their anuses in the last few episodes. As a small snack to stave off the boredom for a day or two, however, it is perfectly satisfactory

It is hard to find a Japanese anime in the new millennium that is truly "Japanese" and demonstrates the essence of the word shōnen more clearly. The success it has enjoyed on home soil is well-deserved and understandable, as it has everything a Japanese audience wants to see: excellent acting, well-written characters and their credible development, a sense of progression and alternation between serious and comedic moments, a strong message and, above all, the civility with which the events on screen are presented. It is this civility that makes it easy even for a non-Japanese audience to project themselves into the story and empathize with the individual characters, who remind them of the times when they too were trying to realize their dreams and goals against adversity - even though they may not have had the support that the boys have here in the form of their teacher Kawato. After that, it would have been a clear five stars, yet in the final episodes, a completely unnecessary dramatization of the story creeps into the series in order to convince even the most hardened mofo, that no matter what happens to them in life, they need to just spit on their hands, grit their teeth and get on with it. Which is a real shame, because it takes away from the realism I mentioned above. Still, I would warmly recommend it to everyone and give it a lovely four stars.

Yes, we could have made a normal seinen anime for you, and it would have been beautiful. It could have had characters who were psychologically sophisticated, plus, an interestingly crafted vision of the moral decay in Japan, and then some ballsy action scenes. Only we said no. Deadman Wonderland is a prime example of an anime whose subject matter itself had potential, but then the creators completely squandered it and went down the wrong road, getting everything terribly wrong. I think that the main problem with it is that despite the mature subject matter, this anime is aimed at a teenage audience, but raises a range of issues that make my blood boil when watching such anime. First and foremost is the creators' resignation to attempting anything to elaborate on their vision of the future world. Nothing makes sense, including the behavior of the characters and their development. The heroes and villains are clearly black and white here, and you know that just by looking at them, because psychopathic outbursts, and pulling faces as sternly as possible is what all the real bad guys do, right? Once a character's tragic backstory is introduced, it is quickly dispensed with in the space of two minutes, and the characters' features are basically limited to the following four manifestations: cuteness, innocence, cruelness, and devotedness. The ratio in which you mix them together is completely irrelevant, because in the end all the characters are one-dimensional and completely idiotic. No one cares how prisoners could grow flowers in a high-security underground prison, how they could basically move around wherever they wanted to, openly rebel, even have their own bar (??!!). Also, how they could get strawberries and other food, and how they could obviously live a life very similar to the one they could live on the outside, where they lack nothing. The plot pacing is atrociously fast, with characters randomly disappearing and reappearing again throughout the story, but everyone and everything centers around the main hero. Is he in danger of death? Relax, just hang on a minute and someone will obviously come to save him. Prison officials having fun depriving prisoners of organs and limbs for losing a fight? Well, obviously just before the main hero approaches, they are still intact. Are we going to stage a revolt against the prison authorities? Then it is best to wait for the moment when the main hero arrives, that is for sure. Coincidences alternate with other coincidences and my head is filled with despair and boredom. I am giving one star more or less only for the reason that I reserve a BOO! for anime that is impossible to finish watching, and also for the excellent ending.

I can rarely say an anime has got it all, but Samurai Champloo is certainly one of that rare breed. The critic Madsbender used a simile in his review that I was going to use as well - that is, that this is a sort of anime variation on The Name of the Rose - simply because everyone can find their own thing in it. As the name of the anime itself suggests - chanpurū is the name of an Okinawan dish characterized by the variety of ingredients used - this is a stylish ride across time, genres, moods, and (pop) cultures, based on well-written characters, sound animation and a story framework whose ending gets a well-resolved pay-off. Although most of the episodes have self-contained plotlines, each of them has its own place in the season, and the audience never knows what direction it will take with the next episode. The diversity and originality of the show are also reflected in the now-iconic soundtrack, which features collaborations with some big names in Japanese hip-hop, and has made many Western anime fans aware of the legendary Nujabes. As much as Watanabe is feted mostly for Cowboy Bebop (which I also cannot deny the qualities of), for me, it is Samurai Champloo that remains unsurpassed among his work and has a firm place in my top ten anime list, and since so much has been written about it, like Cowboy Bebop, I have no choice but to end my review with a challenge: Just watch it!

This is pretty weak for Juasa. There is no doubt that Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! is still more imaginative than most contemporary anime production, but that does not necessarily mean that it is also an entertaining show, and that Juasa could afford to give up refinement of other aspects of the episodes. The primary problem lies primarily with the poorly written main characters, who, with the exception of the sarcastic Kanamori, have no depth, and strongly remind me of the recent Carole and Tuesday, which also lacks the slightest bit of development throughout the show. In both shows the main characters are boundlessly enthusiastic about their hobby, one is also the daughter of a famous person and the other a nobody, they are both equally gifted from the beginning of the season and do not need to improve themselves in any way. When the screenwriter's hand decides to put some obstacles in the way of the protagonists, it is more for effect, so to speak, to have some semblance of a plot present across the season. As far as the introduction to the world of anime production goes, unfortunately the season just skims the surface for most of its running time, creating suspense only through chatter and dream sequences that, whilst intriguing during the first few episodes, become repetitive and tiresome over time, especially when coupled with the same wailing musical theme music. Too bad, expectations were much higher. This is not a bad show, certainly still worth watching - but we are now used to a different standard with Juasa, and the results here seem rather tired and anemic in the context of his other work. However, I give a big thumbs up for the excellent opening!

The Tatami Galaxy is not easy for me to rate with stars. It is obvious that director Juasa is very picky in his choice of material to adapt, and does not sign up for something totally bland, meaning he would have to pass up on the opportunity to let loose and show off his creativity to the fullest. Given the nature of his work to date, it is not too surprising that he took a liking to the similarly idiosyncratic writer Tomihiko Morimi, who wrote, among other things, the premise for The Eccentric Family. As is usual with this gentleman, his stories are set in Kyoto, so the reality of life in Kyoto and urban fantasy elements are not spared in them at all, and his works are literally peppered with all sorts of turns of phrase from poems and older books and subtle metaphors, so that reading his novels can sometimes feel like you have been reading old Japanese literature for hours. Juasa therefore attempted to bring this style to the screen alongside his idiosyncratic audiovisual style, combined with the killer pace of the main hero’s chattiness, so that in the end it does not matter if you are a foreigner who cannot follow the subtitles or a Japanese person who cannot keep up with the linguistic puns blasting out of the speakers at the speed of a salvo from a machine-gun - you would both break a sweat watching this. Only a complete ignoramus would deny this anime its originality and inventiveness, but let it be a clear warning that originality is far from everything. Originality does not necessarily mean an entertaining show, and while the formulaic story was certainly intentional here, this anime is overly burdened by its desperate attempt to be as imaginative as possible, and it is at times almost soul-destroying to watch it. Although the last two episodes try to balance out the content anemia and bring the audience out of their lethargy, it gives the impression of an apology from someone trying to make up with you after they were at a party kicking back one shot after another, taking a photo of you looking awful, and putting it on Instagram, them singing drinking songs while dancing on the table, spiking your cola while your back was turned and pretending they had nothing to do with it, trying to break into the toilet when you were on it, accidentally spilling a glass of beer all over you, throwing up outside, and then falling asleep with one shoe left on the curb somewhere, saliva dripping from their open mouth. However, it is definitely still worth seeing whether or not this very imaginative play on the audience's patience suits you. For me it was kind of 50/50, so I give it 3 stars.