Gargantia began with a sci-fi bent and a cleverly written juxtaposition between new and old, and culture and utility, and it’s grown into a wonderful comparison between strife and life. Ledo remains confused by the concept of culture and the seemingly wasteful traditions of the fleet for which he’s become a feature.
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Zettai Boei Leviatan is, in a nutshell, incredibly boring. Going on episode five, the story has yet to develop… there are random, awkward scenarios thrown at the characters with arbitrary obstacles and nonsensical, easy-out solutions that do nothing to foster a sense of fear or tension.
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I will say that the artwork is very beautiful, however – it’s shaded more than a typical anime and looks a lot like watercolor. It has a very illustrative feel, which makes me hope that the story itselfwill be very smooth, atmospheric, and interesting.
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I just completed episode 1 of Valvrave the Liberator, and all I can say is ‘WOW!’ and ‘OH MY GOD! WHAT EVEN?’ Suffice it to say, this anime blew my mind away in ways I never expected, and completely took me by surprise. Instead of being the typical run-of-the-mill giant robot anime, like Majestic Prince was last week and the many others that came before them, this anime is already displaying some themes that just hit home on many levels.
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The year is True Calendar 71. Humanity has moved 70% of its populations to space colonies known as “Dyson Spheres” (no, they are not styled after vacuum cleaners), and on the neutral colony of JIOR, at least, things seem to be at peace. However, teenage agents from an aggressing force invade the colony and the academy found there in search of some sort of secret base.
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Without being aware of too many of them, I get the feeling that “slice-of-life school club comedies” are a dime a dozen now. After Azumanga Daioh set the standard for the genre (well, without the club bit) in the early 2000s, it’s difficult to call the rest true “copycats” – they all explore different clubs, even if the style of humor is largely the same. It’s not like a ton of these all run concurrently, so it’s kind of like a burger that you keep ordering over and over again. It was great the first time, and it’s still good the other times, except for the occasional bad lettuce or old bun or something like that.
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First, the animation was just plain awful. Its only possible mark of quality was that it was in color. The movement was terribly awkward and the character designs did not fit the environment. The musical opening was also pretty unmemorable and did nothing to even remotely explain the anime. Once I regained my composure from the animation and accepted it, the plot – if we can even call this a plot – kicked in.
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I initially agreed to pick this up because of the director, Hiroshi Nagahama, who directed two of my favorites – Detroit Metal City and Mushi-shi – and the premise sounded interesting – psychological slice-of-life teenage drama. There’s a lot here to turn off potential viewers – the art style contrasts highly detailed backgrounds with character designs
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The epic bro-meets-sis romantic comedy continues on in Season Two. When we last left our heroine, Kirino had returned to Japan with the encouragement of big bro Kyosuke after a brief time attending to a track camp in America (for anybody keeping score of things from season one, this is a continuation of the season one True Route Ending, NOT the Good Ending).
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Shingeki no Kyoujin comes out of the gate strong. Its style, design, and sound are all superb, as is the attention to detail in animating even highly dynamic sequences. There are a few odd choices regarding what doesn’t get animated but that’s a minor bump in the road for the first episode. The story begins with the reveal of a titan more than 50m tall and the decided lack of sound that fades into eerie music is a fantastic choice to develop instant foreboding.
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