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=smQmzjrXNo8Animated by Studio Xebec, which is notorious for its badly made and boring shows. Nadesico happens to be amongst their best works and even that is not exactly a great show. Directed by Satou Tatsuo, who has made several uncommon and interesting shows, such as Shingu, Stellvia, Lagrange, and Miniskirt Pirates. They are also usually too slow and lack excitement, so you almost always end up being bored even before the second half begins. MSN is in a nutshell a tribute to otakuness. It is made to be at first a simple tale of good humans versus evil aliens but along the way it introduces more to it, to the point that you think you are watching 3 different shows at the same time. They don’t really feel that disjoined, so it’s a good mix too. Which shows would that be?1) The crew of a powerful Earth spaceship fending against alien invaders2) The romantic mishaps of a young pilot with his kindergarten love and various similar acquaintances 3) The tribute to retro mecha anime 4) ???5) Profit So you can always pick one of the three and stick to it for all you care and dump the rest. Each one has its own charm but to be honest, it’s only by combining all three you get a unique result that makes this anime not that average. It is hard to describe one without having to mention the other two, therefore it really does a good job at being more than meets the eye.Let’s start with the phenomenon that is Gekiganger. Gekiganger is a show within a show, a mecha series based on Getta Robo mostly, plus a few scenes from similar mecha shows of the 70’s. Many people in the series love it and still watch it for its simple yet direct and powerful message that inspired them to strive for something better. This is not a new thing in anime, there is also Kujibiki Unbalance in Genshiken as the most famous example of this trope. Yet unlike a cosmetic detail there, the show here is affecting the story in a most direct way. You take it out, you have no anime. I won’t spoil how but I will point out it is not there just for show. It is used all the time and just when you think it’s just an otaku obsession WHAM you realize that it’s the very driving force of everything. The anime in general keeps making references to plamo and voice acting, all part of showing how a fictional work can affect the real world. It is kind of a shock to see them being eventually used as war propaganda, against those villains, who are evil green lizards from Mars that want to destroy Earth and have sent a remote controlled army of ships and robots as the first wave … NOT! I don’t want to spoil it but, seriously, the revelation is what made this anime to stand out from the lot.It is still a tribute to mecha and even breaks the fourth wall at times. I mean, just look at the intro, it is pretty much made to tell you all the characters stare happily at the camera because they know they are in an anime… watching an anime. Wut!So how do the characters fair in this mess? Well, none of them feel special today but back then they were really uncommon. So yeah, everyone has huge stupid eyes, Yurika is the typical bimbo that as a kid promised to marry the typical shounen lead Akito, whose family was killed by evil lizards from Mars and has uncanny skills at fighting TM. So corny you can harvest your own crop out of it. But they still keep trying to excuse it all as part of incompetent leadership on part of the military, so everything is by default a joke. Everyone is stupid and thus the most inappropriate people end up in the wrong seats. And there is a war going on and most elites are already dead, so no time for rethinking. Great excuse for all the lunacy there. And the story is not completely retarded random jokes all the time as important characters do get killed and the military keeps trying to take possession of the lead ship for themselves. Also, Hoshino Ruri may appear to be an archetypical cooldere today but back then it was just her and Rei from Neon Genesis paving the way, so in a way she was a very unique character. She also has her own sad side story thrown in somewhere but unfortunately it doesn’t really get resolved. In fact, not everything is resolved in the end. After the big revelation I mentioned, the series ends in a rather open way and a movie was made later to wrap things later… And it was weird. Very weird. In an almost bad way as everyone turned emo or something like that. Anyways, in all the series uses archetypical characters and a very corny story and by the smart use of “story within a story” makes a lot more out of them. It doesn’t fully exploit all the setting had to offer, a big portion of the plot really is aimless comedy and the ending is open while the movie finale was rather bad. But I will go easy on them all, as the final result was definitely not typical and did entertain me. I appreciate how they used a goofy setting and turned it to something far more elaborate than that. Animation and sound are nothing spectacular. As long as you don’t mind the stupid faces the characters have and the old fashioned Gekiganger clips (which are done so on purpose as to feel retro) then you have an ok series to watch even today. The mecha have interesting designs, the battles usually have some strategy in them (albeit extreme as heck), and there is some fan service at times to break the boredom. The music score is good, the opening theme is likable for an otherwise silly pop-song. Voice acting is relaxed but it’s excused in such a setting. Some talk in very fake ways but it is also part of the whole joke / tribute thing. My grip is with Yurika’s voice, she usually sounds like she is a granny and having to listen to her irritating bimbo voice as a narrator in every episode can really test your nervesBottom line? See it as a typical show and you will find it mediocre. See it as a tribute to mecha and you will instead have a good show that doesn’t fully exploit its own merits but it’s fun nonetheless. And now for some excused scorings.
ART SECTION: 7/10 General Artwork 1/2 (generic) Character Figures 1/2 (generic) Backgrounds 2/2 (basic but fitting with the feeling of the series) Animation 1/2 (basic) Visual Effects 2/2 (lots of tributes) SOUND SECTION: 7/10 Voice Acting 2/3 (corny but fitting with the feeling of the series) Music Themes 3/4 (not great but fitting with the feeling of the series) Sound Effects 2/3 (ok I guess) STORY SECTION: 5/10 Premise 1/2 (typical) Pacing 1/2 (loose) Complexity 2/2 (rich context) Plausibility 1/2 (so-so) Conclusion 0/2 (open and messy) CHARACTER SECTION: 7/10 Presence 2/2 (funny) Personality 2/2 (rather cheesy but well founded) Backdrop 1/2 (generic and simplistic but it’s there) Development 1/2 (overblown but it’s there) Catharsis 1/2 (overblown 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 (its plot twists make it intesting enough to remember it) ENJOYMENT SECTION: 4/10 Art 0/1 (looks typical) Sound 1/2 (I liked the songs) Story 1/3 (good concept that is not exploited properly) Characters 2/4 (they are funny but not special) VERDICT: 6/10