The Legend of Black Heaven

JAhU Jun 24, 2014

5

Moved from my blog (I clearly haven't written a proper review for this series and I wrote the original post back in 2011): It's been a while since I watched Legend of Black Heaven, so I don't remember all the details, but here are some of my thoughts on the series. At first I thought that, because the story is really crazy, the show has a potential. Unfortunately I was wrong, this anime is quite disappointing. The only good thing about this anime was Oji's wife, who was the best character of this series and a also really good character in general. But I'm writing again in a way that people, who haven't watched this anime, would not understand. Let me fix that mistake. I mentioned earlier "really crazy" plot, it goes like this: An ex-rock star is working as a salaryman to feed his 3 person family (it consists of him, his wife and their child). His pay isn't great and what's even worse his, wife starts throwing away his treasured possessions, including a LP collection and Gibson Flying V guitar. She does that because the flat they live in is really small and as their child grows, it gets more and more cramped. Oji (the protagonist) gets really upset about the guitar. Not only it had a great sentimental value to him, it also had a big monetary value, so big that he could not afford to buy another out of his small salary. At this point he is approached by aliens (let's call them good aliens) who ask him to save universe and earth from some other aliens (let's call them evil aliens). He is suppose to do that by rocking really hard in front of those evil aliens. The good aliens even recover his lost guitar. Also something starts to spark between Oji and a female officer of the good aliens. The show suffered from following problems the main concept got old really quick, the animation was poor, even though it was a show about rock music, there were only 2 (3 if you count the ED) songs (the BGMs were poor and they don't count). In the very first episode Oji manages to complete a feat, which he should definitely not be proud of. He manages to commit adultery without committing one. The office he works at has a new boss. It is an attractive young woman and she seems to hit on Oji. Oji, being upset with his wife throwing away his precious guitar, tags along with that woman's advances, as he believes, it would end up  him getting laid. However he misunderstood that woman's intentions all along, as she was only trying to recruit him for saving the world on behalf of the good aliens. Yet, as the anime goes on, something does start to develop between those two. Oji's wife notices that something is amiss and realizes that she went overboard with throwing away that guitar. She even tries to make it up to him to the best of her abilities (she buys him some cheap guitar out of her own savings). If I remember correctly, she also started to suspect that her husband might be cheating on her. If what I remember is true, then she wasn't that far off. In the end, what saves the universe is the fact that she believed in her husband despite all weird circumstances. She was probably the only thing preventing this anime from being really bad. I forgot to mention that she was doing the all important work of a housewife. The three chick which appear in the ED, were rather annoying. By the way the ED had yuri written all over it. "Cautionary Warring" sounds great, but the lyrics are somewhat suspicious. The bits of cultural references through the series were a good thing. They joked of X-Files, Super Sentai. I wonder if the alien woman's name Layla, was a reference to Star Wars. As far as I know, sound needs a medium (e.g. air) to travel and if there is no such medium (as it is in vacuum), there will be no sound. I don't remember exactly if they put speakers in space in this anime, but if they did, it was a complete nonsense. Maybe I should rewrite this post into a proper review...

ThatAnimeSnob Apr 22, 2012

6

ANIME MINOR JEWELS SERIES Full list of the review series can be found on this page, 3rd post from bottom: http://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?uid=251338&show=userpage&do=blog&blogid=29009&page=0TEASER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vThuE-6EAXUBlack Heaven is a very unorthodox anime since it doesn’t follow a formula to the most part and that is what makes it very strange to watch. The first surprise comes from the opening itself, which has very little to do with the actual series. Where openings are normally something to give you a first impression of what is going on with the story, over here it is nothing but a psychedelic hard rock tune that will fool you to think it has something to do with a rock star group.Well pity because as soon as the show starts you find out that the rock group has already dissolved years ago and each one settled down to have a normal simple life. The lead character is the singer and main guitar player of that band and from a famous superstar, now he is nothing but a minor worker, with a wife and son. This element is almost like a parody of shonen stories in a way; showing what follows after the protagonist wins and marries the girl he wants. Well here you go; his glory slowly fades away as other younger superstars appear and he turns to a normal commoner, the kind of which he never dreamed of being. I know how most rock stars never really settle for such a simple life after they taste power and worship from their followers. They rather overdose to death with drugs than become pathetic nobodies. But in this case the members chose to not do that and use the rest of their lives to have a good family. Sounds weird but that is what the show is about. … NOT! For as soon as the story begins, two alien armadas are fighting in space and an agent is sent to Earth in order to find a trigger for their superweapon. That trigger is the protagonist’s music and so she needs to convince him to return back to his music life and use his talent to fight the aliens. Sounds weird but, well, that is the show all about.Ok, that is not really what is all about. The whole interstellar war is nothing but a distant plot element to keep things going. In reality, it is the interaction of the characters that only matters. The protagonist must still find a way to not look bad in the eyes of his son and to convince his wife he is not cheating her with an alien babe… although she does give him signs she likes him a lot. He also must find his old gang and have them play again, thus to get back on shape and use the superweapon in its fullest capacity. Yet each victory seems to make things worse, as the enemy armada keeps sending more and more ships and a simple skirmish escalates to an all out war and Earth becomes ground zero. It becomes even worse when they clone one of their dead members to use the superweapon against them as well. But as I said the whole war is just there as a climax of sorts and not the actual objective of the show. It has more to do with people not forgetting their ideals as they grow older, not to betray their loved ones for duty, not to become cogs of the status quo and stuff like that. It all plays light and superficial but the messages it emits are very real. That is mostly aided by the very powerful main rock theme that repeats on every episode, practically unchanged (even when it’s supposed to be improving along the way). It is just so awesome, your blood just starts to boil and your disbelief with the flimsy premise of the show just goes away. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP1rmbs8Jjw&feature=relatedYou are almost willing to not mind much the rather poor production values in animation and artwork, as well as the fact there is only ONE good song in the entire show. Ok, there is a second one in the finale but by then it is too late to get to like it.Down to it the anime is still about the age old cliché of hard work and guts being the ultimate power and nobody should expect realism around how everything is achieved. It mostly has to do with getting to like the rather simple but very colourful characters. They do develop in some way and despite not having memorable personalities they do aid in getting to like the whole deal.Although the anime is way too unorthodox to the point it really feels like random genres exchanging places with one another at intervals, it is still a different watch and although never refined with good production values or good storyboard, it can still be entertaining for the most part. SUGGESTION LIST Detroid Metal CityMacrossBeck And now for some excused scorings. ART SECTION: 5/10 General Artwork 1/2 (generic) Character Figures 1/2 (generic) Backgrounds 2/2 (basic) Animation 1/2 (basic) Visual Effects 1/2 (basic) SOUND SECTION: 7/10 Voice Acting 2/3 (corny but fitting with the feeling of the series) Music Themes 3/4 (great but lack in numbers) Sound Effects 2/3 (ok I guess) STORY SECTION: 7/10 Premise 2/2 (interesting) Pacing 2/2 (ok for its duration) Complexity 2/2 (rich in themes) Plausibility 0/2 (none) Conclusion 1/2 (cheesy) CHARACTER SECTION: 6/10 Presence 1/2 (generic) Personality 2/2 (rather cheesy but well founded) Backdrop 1/2 (generic and simplistic but it’s there) Development 1/2 (subtle but it’s there) Catharsis 1/2 (subtle but it’s there) VALUE SECTION: 5/10 Historical Value 1/3 (still remembered by some as an interesting retro title) Rewatchability 1/3 (low because of too little plot) Memorability 3/4 (dynamic enough to bother remembering it) ENJOYMENT SECTION: 6/10 Makes little sense but does great on the emotional level. VERDICT: 6/10

angelsreviews Aug 6, 2013

7

I started watching it and in first impressions, I did wonder what the hell I was watching. It’s heard to rate something that does not have a definite feel to it and this one seemed almost all over. It’s a slice of life with a lot of other things mixed into it and it just feels… off a bit. It’s not bad, but its not good ether leaving it in what I call no mans land along with a couple others that I have watched. The characters are rather likeable, Oji not really being my all time favorite but I think it really wasn’t created for my age or gender. This feels more like it was made for those that were about 30 and up men that are in their mid-life crisis and find out that they lost several of their glory years stuck behind a desk. It’s something you might have to just go though before the character stands out. In this story, it’s a rocker who just wants his old life back after having it cut short. Unlike slice of life, he has to fight an alien race in order to save the planet and all with the power of his rock. It’s not a school boy or girl in trouble with love which is really different. The animation is all over the place. The characters look almost abnormal in how there bodies are created, Oji’s chin seems to fall off when he’s surprised, and all sorts of things happen. There is a lot of fan service and a lot of drama because of it.. If you’re going into this for amazing battle scenes, forget it. When there are battles and it isn’t much, most of the time it’s the weapon going off to rock and roll and mostly just the guitar. The rest of the time, its mostly slow images of life. The music, you really have to be the judge of. It’s alright for the 90’s but not really present day music.