Sunday, January 19, 2014

Streamed Anime titles x 4

For this review I watched four series from Netflix and Crunchy roll. Each of the series was neither something I'd call a masterpiece nor something that was just not watchable. Each series just didn't warrant its own entry on the blog.

Netflix:




Chaos: Head (Dubbed)Mad House 2008 12, 30-minute episodes

SYNOPSIS:

A high school gamer and otaku recluse (Takumi Nishijo) witnesses a gruesome murder, from there his life becomes one long question of sanity and just what is going around Shibuya, Japan. Also as you delve into this short series prepare to be dumped into a sea of psychology and some scientific terminology.

Review:

There are few different anime out there that focus with psychology and some pretty heady ideas (theories, train of thoughts, and so on) in fact you may want to pause here and there and look up some of the definitions if you're not familiar with them to get an idea where this anime is going with some of the terms thrown around. Outside some of the scientific terms watching the developing plot where Takumi literally begins to question if he's actually sane or insane is entertaining, but when you thrown in the other supporting characters and the resulting plot devices the anime is actually pretty good watch. At times it feels a little slow, but around the last few episodes you sort of get an idea of just what the heck is going on in that world. I would love to really open this up and write just what is going on with the worldand characters, but I don't want to to detract you from watching this...and see if you can wrap you head around it. The science is almost the only detractor to the entire series. If you're not familiar at all with the theories and terms this story can become quite confusing and almost not watchable.On a side note if you think the character is similar to the protagonist of "The World God Only Knows" before watching this, the only similarity is their gaming, and the fact they think school is a waste of time. Takumi is a fan of dolls or collectible figures of his favorite character.Also this was original a text-role playing adventure game that was released on the consoles and later adapted into an anime.

Legend of The Legendary Heroes (Dubbed)Zexcs 201024, 30-minute episodes

SYNOPSIS:Ryner Lute really desires to sleep/nap his days away. But the king of his country has dispatched him on a quest to find powerful ancient relics that might be used militarily to give the country an edge and maybe prevent blood shed.

Review:The synopsis is pretty bland right? Well that's because it's really what Ryner is trying to do. But as the story goes on revelations are made about the world, the country, Ryner, supporting characters and so on. What occurs is there is a dual story that happens with the King and just what each is trying to do in their own way to reshape the world. Ryner's back story is sort of typical of the character a complicated past that drives his actions. But his back story opens up a very complex world. There's a few supporting characters that have what Ryner is questing for you and at times you have to wonder how Ryner doesn't know about relics that are in his own country? As the series goes on you do see some characters develop, and the world change as well. Unfortunately this anime is sort of an introduction to the world as by the end of the 24th episode there's climatic finish. It's more of a season ending. Meaning if you actually like the title and its world you'll need to read the manga for more of it...That is probably one of the only major negatives to the whole series. I'd say the title, seems a bit embellished too, but eh what are you going to do?

Tenchi Muyo! GXP (Dubbed)AIC2002 26, 30-minute episodes

SYNOPSIS:Seina Yamada is a teenager with the curse/gift of bad luck. His situation causes him to be basically a social pariah as anyone (including himself) will encounter bad luck if they are within his vicinity. His bad luck leads him to join the GXP (Galaxy Police), thrusting him into a cosmic adventure as a Galaxy Police agent.

This is a series that occurs within the Tenchi Muyo! OVA Universe (the older series) and mostly everyone from Tenchi Muyo! do make an appearance.

Review:Tenchi Muyo! is probably one of the very first anime I watched, and actually it was the Universe version that ame out after the OVAs. I remember hearing about this series and caught glimpses of it, but I never really gave it a thought as it wasn't something that focused on the main characters. Good thing I gave this a chance! Being a harem anime (a series where the protagonist has several possible love interests), Seina ends up with a few different interests. Granted he is a teenager so nothing happens, just plenty of misunderstandings and situations that create some chuckles here and there. Character development wise, Seina and his supporting troop of women do go through some events, and by the end of the series through some of the laughs a rather good ending is established unlike the core series' characters. The negative of this series though is there is a couple of plot moments that make little sense. The inclusion of a perverted robot in a comedic series that gives more comedy?By the end of the series the robot just seems as an annoyance. Seina's role by the end of the series also makes little sense as well, as he is an Earthling and what happens near the end is just...wow. He gets a status simply because he ended up being attached to something. The last minor thing is cameos from the main universe characters. The voice actors in the English dub are NOT the originals, and hearing their English speaking replacements just doesn't sound right.

Crunchy Roll:

Super Robot Wars OG: The Inspector (Subtitled)Asahi Productions201026, 30-minute episodes

SYNOPSIS:Earth has repelled and recovered from the alien menace known as the Aerogaters. The Earth Federation is busy trying to finish off the remnants of the Divine Crusaders (an organization that doesn't see eye-to-eye the Earth Federation Government). But a new threat looms...

This is a follow up to another Super Robot Wars series, and this series is Banpresto's video game theme where the player pilots a humanoid machine called a Paratrooper, or PT, and battle on various stages/missions. Intially Bandpresto would utilize existing designs from other series like Gundam, Getter-Robo, and so on. But the company has moved to use their own design and designated the series OG for Original Generation.

Review:Having not watched/played any of the games/series I wasn't really aware there was a previous story to this series, and for a awhile I hadn't a clue what was going on. But eventually everything is pretty established enough that you don't have to look back to the source material. It's a straight up Military faction versus other factions versus enemies with some plot twists. Also there is no main protagonist, sure the intro titles show the main members of the military team as the protagonists, and they are prominent for a good chunk of the series. But the supporting cast also gets their equal share, and it feels more like a series centered around a crew versus, not two versus. Robot designs can be seen to hark back to a variety of different influences from transforming units to units that can combine. Character development is not really in depth, but enough to show some change(s) and to progress the series along. The only real negative thing is the series starts with a huge battle, and drops. Then the series begins to the climb up to the climax and this climb is a bit boring, but eventually the suit versus alien versus suit picks up and the story is fairly entertaining for a video game based piece.
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