The Path You Must Take Has Been Prepared For You Shoujo Kakumei Utena is a personal favorite of mine. I remember I spent one Winter holiday in school watching both Utena and Evangelion for the first time. So confused by the end. There are a couple of pretty good fan reviews up already, so I will just provide my own analysis (consider that your spoiler warning), and highlight a few things that I think are particularly outstanding. I look at Utena as a deconstruction of the Fairy Tale, using gender roles as a lever. The characters in it are actually trapped in a fairy tale... See full review
VIEWING CONTEXT Times Watched: about four Most Recently?: about a year ago Format?: Director's cut dvds (Platinum Collection) Introduction Shin Seki Evangelion is a behemoth in anime history. Probably the most influential production since Mobile Suit Gundam, it also tends to polarize the opinions of its viewers. In my case, Eva has grown on me like a persistent fungus over the years; my opinion has developed from initial bafflement and irritation, through amusement at its overly serious attitude, to appreciation of the depths of its strong points. I really do believe it... See full review
The two specials really ought to be reviewed and rated independently. One of them is pretty forgettable (for instance, I forgot everything that happened in it), but "Chapter L" is fall-out-of-your-chair hilarious. It's about a not-seen-before former resident of their dorm, named Lohmeyer, who is enormous and extremely jolly. If you enjoyed the humor in any part of the first season, I can guarantee you will love Legendary Hero Nyanzaburo.
See full reviewFractale is the first good Science Fiction anime I have seen in quite a while. I expect the story to eventually tank, or disappoint me in some major way, because that is the general destiny of high-minded SF anime, but so far it's maintaining a good balance of tone that is really impressive. A lot of anime go for the bait-and-switch tactic on their tone (see Mai HiME, Trigun) to lend gravitas to their later developments; this is a tactic I find entertaining, but a tad lazy. Fractale has instead interlaced a generally cheery atmosphere (lots of big beautiful outdoor shots, doing laundry on the... See full review
Just finished episode 9 of IS; ratings are based purely on what's been released so far. I may update this review after the show is finished or dropped. People are calling IS a mecha anime, which is misleading: it is really a harem anime where the characters occasionally do mecha cosplay. When viewed in this context, IS is a solid piece of genre work. It is a bit playful -- though certainly not daring -- with its genre conventions. For instance, there are TWO childhood friends, and at one point the MC actually calls them First Childhood Friend and Second Childhood Friend (well, give... See full review
The biggest mystery: why don't any bubbles come out of Victorique's pipe? I would appreciate it if someone could line up the fragments of chaos that answer that question.
See full reviewThe military academy in Freezing appears to only issue women's uniforms with tear-off chests. Also, the staff of Freezing would like to remind you that women have enormous breasts, with nipples on the ends of them. Also, they would like to trivialize childhood sexual abuse (lolspoilers) by using it purely as a justification for why the female lead can only ever be involved with the male lead, out of every other person in the world. Well, actually it doesn't explain why he's an exception to her general RAGEKILLYONOW reaction to human touch, but I'm assuming that has something to do with... See full review