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therik

  • Farnborough, United Kingdom
  • Joined Nov 22, 2008
  • ? / M
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Shugo Chara!

Jun 27, 2009

Story
I have absolutely no business liking Shugo Chara!. The series is aimed primarily at an audience with approximately half my age and precisely double my X-chromosomes, and at no point does it betray its target market by veering wildly off the well-trodden mahou shoujo path. As such, the fact that the show found a place deep with in my heart - somewhere between ice-cold beer and mid-week football - is the result of either luck or utter, blinding awesomeness. And I don't believe in luck. It would serve this review well to point out that the series' allure is not down to it resonating with the... See full review

8.5/10 story
8.5/10 animation
8.5/10 sound
8.5/10 characters
9/10 overall

Gakuen Alice

Jun 22, 2010

Story Having finally recovered from reviewing a succession of average to utterly dire anime at the cruel behest of others, I decided to take my destiny into my own hands, and publish my thoughts on an altogether more acceptable anime. While I didn’t expect to be able to remove the sordid memories of the last show I reviewed, I was hoping to at least find enough of a claming influence to dispel my fury and perhaps even convince the judge that the psychotic rampage was merely an environmentally-induced episode and not at all indicative of my true nature. For the purpose, I selected Gakuen Alice - a... See full review

7.5/10 story
6/10 animation
9.5/10 sound
9/10 characters
8.5/10 overall

Gag Manga Biyori

Nov 28, 2008

Story
What do you get if you cross a rabbit detective, a surprisingly patient Grim Reaper, and an American Consulate dripping with blithe insanity? The fact that I watched all of these characters in action and still don't know the answer says quite something about the nature of Gag Manga Biyori. This show is surreal. Not surreal in the Dadaist tradition of putting an apple on a chair and inviting the audience to draw conclusions about the meaning of life. No. Gag Manga Biyori's conception of surreal takes a cricket bat, hammers fourteen nails into it, and then uses it to repeatedly strike the part... See full review

9/10 story
7/10 animation
8/10 sound
8.5/10 characters
8.5/10 overall

Love Hina

Feb 12, 2009

Story
It's a generally accepted rule that you mustn't judge a book by it's cover. Clearly whoever came up with such sage advice had never seen the opening credits of Love Hina. Indeed, if the bouncy, riotous and wholly carefree opening was any more indicative of the show's content, you could probably put it on a 20-minute loop and watch that instead of the episode it precedes. In so doing, however, you would deprive yourself of a surprisingly enjoyable experience. Love Hina is a series with no delusions of grandeur. It recognises which genre it pertains to and never attempts to stray outside of it... See full review

8/10 story
7/10 animation
6.5/10 sound
8/10 characters
8/10 overall

Kodomo no Jikan

Jul 25, 2009

Story
I've lately gained something of a reputation around the Anime-Planet forums for my outspoken and energetic opposition to lolicon material in general and loli doujin in particular. As such, you can probably imagine my vexation when I lost a high-stakes game of Tetris against fellow reviewer KiraRin and was forced to watch and review Kodomo no Jikan - paragon and shameless champion of loli fanservice. Perhaps you can also imagine my surprise when - against my better judgment and sensibilities - I found myself liking it. The show centers around the antics of its main character, Rin... See full review

8/10 story
5.5/10 animation
6/10 sound
8/10 characters
7.5/10 overall

Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei

Mar 4, 2009

Story
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei's central protagonist, Mr. Itoshiki, is the very paragon of negativity and a man who sees the worst in everything. While this hardly seems like the best fodder for laughs, the series functions as a satire with the titular character casting his morose gaze onto society. This said, I found that the satirical humour lacked the cutting edge that normally makes the genre enjoyable. Certain sketches appear to be more of a neutral observation of society rather than a critique, and when the series parodies and exaggerates society's practices and tendencies, it does so in a... See full review

6.5/10 story
9/10 animation
8.5/10 sound
5/10 characters
7.5/10 overall

Eureka Seven

Jun 16, 2009

Story
Bafflement. For close to half an hour, I have been sat here, trying to think of a word which sums up both my immediate and my considered reaction to Eureka Seven, and I think "bafflement" is as close as I'm going to get. This is a show that combines good ideas with poor pacing, great characters with unbalanced development, and moments of transcendent perfection with stretches of mundane stupidity, wrapping everything up with an ending which seems to expect the viewer to take pages of detailed notes throughout proceedings. The pacing (or lack thereof) is probably the most glaring of Eureka... See full review

6/10 story
8/10 animation
9.5/10 sound
7.5/10 characters
7/10 overall

Kanon (2006)

Jan 5, 2009

Story
Sayuri and Yuuichi sit in the cafe.. The steam from their coffees wafts through the air which is filled with gentle strings of some classical music. "Do you know this piece?" Asks Sayuri. "It's Canon. Pachelbel's Canon. That central melody repeats itself again and again, as layers are slowly added to the music, making it richer and more beautiful each time." She pauses. "Wouldn't it be lovely if life was the same way? If it changed delicately and softly as we live from day to day?" If there is a line that more effectively underpins the series, or if there is a clearer example of Kanon's... See full review

6/10 story
8.5/10 animation
9/10 sound
7.5/10 characters
7/10 overall

The Diary of a Crazed Family

Dec 2, 2008

Story
Kyouran Kazoku Nikki roughly translates from the Japanese as "Frenzied Family Diary". As family diaries go, it's certainly more frenzied than the diary of the Swiss Family Robinson or the diary of the lot from Lost in Space. In fact I can barely think of a better phrase to describe the series. It chronicles a family who are frenzied, partly as a result of their hasty composition, and partly as a result of the peculiar universe which serves as their home. So, fair play on the title, at least. The majority of the show is a series of almost stand-alone episodes, each of which seem to... See full review

5/10 story
7.5/10 animation
6/10 sound
8/10 characters
7/10 overall

Sailor Moon

May 25, 2009

Story
Like Metal Gear Solid and Hello Kitty, Sailor Moon is a seemingly random sequence of English words, ostensibly put together by some Japanese person with no regards to their meaning or grammatical function. And yet, like the other two examples, they form a combination recognisable even to the lay man. The reason why such a bizarre collocation trips off the tongue has something to do with the anime's long-lasting appeal. An appeal which I am only beginning to understand. Following Sailor Moon's story requires quite considerable suspension of disbelief, even more so than other shows where... See full review

5.5/10 story
4.5/10 animation
8/10 sound
7.5/10 characters
6.5/10 overall

Aishiteruze Baby

Jan 12, 2009

Story
I'm almost twenty-four now, and I've recently found that my paternal instincts are becoming more and more prevalent. It was therefore with something of an open mind that I approached Aishiteruze Baby, a shoujo anime which chronicles the life of high school student Katakura Kippei and Yuzuyu, the adorable 5-year old girl who is thrust into his care by circumstance. Kippei is portrayed as something of a flirty, playboy-style character. As I began watching, therefore, I expected the main focus to be on his coming to terms with responsibility and learning to love the dependent sprog rather than... See full review

4.5/10 story
4/10 animation
8/10 sound
7/10 characters
6/10 overall

Hanamaru Kindergarten

Apr 29, 2010

Story My Easter weekend this year was in its entirety spent stripping waterproof wallpaper from the spare room. For those of you uninitiated with this particular pleasure, it is akin to removing the world's largest and most awkward price sticker from an abjectly disappointing present - in this case, masonry. Needles to say, my mental and physical exhaustion left me demanding nothing less than the most mindless entertainment available. This was one of the reasons I ended up watching Hanamaru Youchien. The other being the fact that anime-planet's own KiraRin continues to take much vindictive pleasure in... See full review

3.5/10 story
6/10 animation
5.5/10 sound
5.5/10 characters
4.5/10 overall

Toward the Terra TV

Feb 11, 2010

Story
I've never been a real sci-fi buff, but I always had the general opinion that technology is cool and that the future is definitely going to be awesome. I say "had", because Toward the Terra - presumably on behalf of a particularly resourceful Luddite lobby - stepped up to shatter my utopian illusions and present a vision of the future so utterly drab that I feel entitled to add "sat through ALL 24 episodes of Toward the Terra" to my CV. To its credit, Toward the Terra's particular brand of boredom doesn't result from a lack of things happening. In fact, it exhibits... See full review

3.5/10 story
5/10 animation
6/10 sound
3/10 characters
4/10 overall

A Spirit of the Sun

Feb 20, 2009

Story
As scenarios go, Taiyou no Mokushiroku's is packed with potential. Japan is rent asunder by the awesome forces of nature, literally cleaved in two by a succession of earthquakes. Half is given over to Chinese control, half to the United States. If you're thinking to yourself "this would be a great basis for a political intrigue epic, set amidst near-apocalyptic devastation" then I would agree with you. The creators of this film, I regret to inform you, would not. Instead - and quite inexplicably - the spotlight hovers over the island of Taiwan where some of the Japanese survivors live as... See full review

3.5/10 story
6/10 animation
4/10 sound
3.5/10 characters
4/10 overall

Queen's Blade: The Exiled Virgin

Jul 10, 2009

Story
Can boobs carry an anime by themselves? This fascinating conundrum appears to have been the question going through the minds of the makers of Queen's Blade: Rurou no Senshi. I'm sure their surprise was as great as mine when the answer turned out to be a definitive "no". I was convinced that it would take a quite cataclysmic failure to screw up a premise such as "women with easily damaged clothing engage in close combat", but Queen's Blade forced me to eat my words, my hat and what little pride I have left in my anime tastes. To give credit in one of the... See full review

2/10 story
2.5/10 animation
6/10 sound
3.5/10 characters
3.5/10 overall

Ai Yori Aoshi

May 12, 2009

Story
The reason why certain premises are recycled and re-worked time and again without so much as a twist is a pretty simple one - you don't mess with success. After all, if you put one male character in a house with a bunch of quirky females and layer it with a simple romance plot, what can possibly go wrong? To this last question, rhetorical though it may have been, Ai Yori Aoshi provides a comprehensive - if excruciatingly overlong - answer. Predictability will always be a calling card of the harem romance, as much a part of its makeup as colorful hair, cute girls and awkward situations... See full review

2.5/10 story
6/10 animation
6.5/10 sound
2.5/10 characters
3.5/10 overall

Prince of Light - The Legend of Ramayana

Apr 27, 2009

Story
Religious epics are always going to be hit or miss in terms of enjoyment value. Either you want to see the triumph of Good over Evil in a simplified but drawn out battle or you don't. Therefore, I would have to preface my review by stating that my failure to care for Ramayana is as much attributable to its nature as to its presentation or execution. With this said, the story is about as bland as they come. Predictable and uninspiring in equal measures, Ramayana's plot can be summed up in a handful of words - "Prince marries Princess, encounters adversity, fights evil, wins". This alone is not... See full review

3.5/10 story
6.5/10 animation
5/10 sound
3.5/10 characters
3.5/10 overall

To Love Ru

Nov 26, 2008

Story
Oftentimes, the arrival of a pink-haired, amply bosomed alien girl would be cause for great joy and celebration amongst the male population of the globe. Quite how To Love-Ru takes this premise and turns it into an unsatisfactory 12 hours is anyone's guess. I suppose, with my stall set out thus, you might expect a brutal savaging of the series, but it is my nature to at least attempt to give balance to my thoughts, so I will begin with the show's strengths. Ostensibly, To Love-Ru is a love-comedy, based around a love triangle, epic awkwardness on the part of the male lead, and... See full review

2.5/10 story
6/10 animation
7/10 sound
2/10 characters
3/10 overall

Chu-Bra!!

May 24, 2010

Story My regular readers – working on the egocentric assumption that such a species might exist – will remember my most recent review as having been commissioned via TACO by KiraRin in an attempt to offend my sensibilities. This time round, sothis herself has got in on the act, deciding to exploit my utter distaste for lolicon material and underage nudity by forcing Chu-Bra!! upon my unwilling person. Thus did I end up watching a show about young teens in underwear. At least that’s what I plan to tell the police. In a way, Chu-Bra!! is like multiple-Oscar-winning film Rain Man. Its... See full review

2/10 story
3/10 animation
3/10 sound
2.5/10 characters
2.5/10 overall

Da Capo

Dec 9, 2008

Story
Imagine, if you will, an end to conflict, a world of peace, a universe where seldom a cross word is exchanged, much less an utterance of aggression. Truly, this would be a wonderful place to live - but watching it for 26 episodes? My, does it ever drag. Da Capo crawls unapologetically from the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" school of harem anime. In this school, a generic male lead is pursued by a series of improbably acquiescent girls, who differ from one anime to the next solely by virtue of having their hairstyles and personality hooks randomly reassigned. As a rule, the next step is to... See full review

1.5/10 story
5/10 animation
2/10 sound
1.5/10 characters
2.5/10 overall

Iron Virgin Jun

Sep 12, 2010

Story Hell, they say, hath no fury like a woman scorned. Some time ago I was given a TACO commission by KiraRin, who broke her usual pattern of unprovoked abusive behaviour towards me and asked me to watch and review the excellent Gankutsuou. However, after arbitrarily deciding that I was taking too long about my duties and that she was “sick and tired of your crap, therik”, KiraRin – cruel mistress extraordinaire – made an about face and thrust at me a new obligation: to review the pungently pointless Iron Virgin... See full review

2/10 story
4.5/10 animation
5/10 sound
1/10 characters
2/10 overall

Yawaraka Sangokushi Tsukisase!! Ryofuko-chan

Jun 10, 2010

Story Picture the scene. A forest clearing at dusk: two disfigured crones stand hunched over a cauldron, plotting and cackling and plotting some more. Into the bubbling mixture they toss eye of newt and toe of frog, wool of bat and tongue of dog. Their cackles become shrieks as their evil magic takes form. Yes, these witches are none other than KiraRin and sothis, and from their unholy brew, still dripping with the pungent juices of its own inappropriateness, rises my latest TACO commission - Ryofuko-chan. Nevertheless, I put their mocking laughter to the back of my mind and approached the anime with... See full review

1/10 story
1.5/10 animation
2.5/10 sound
1/10 characters
1/10 overall