Now to kick off a bonanza of reviewing over the next couple of days we begin with Panty & Stocking.
Daten City is on the edge of both Heaven and Hell, and is under constant attack from malevolent spirits, so the Afro wearing Reverend Garterbelt acquires the help of the anarchy sisters Panty & Stocking who are trying to get back into heaven after being expelled; from there each episode which is 10-15 minutes long is a mixture of shameless antics, pop culture references and art styles very similar to Western Style Cartoon Network.
I can tell much fun was had with this series by the way Jamie Marchi and Monica Rial portrayed the title characters in the dub, it feels almost therapeutic for an actor to just swear as much as they want and it shows in the quality of the series. How much they get away with has only been surpassed by South Park but like South Park it doesn't always get it right.
The villain team of Scanty & Kneesocks are active in far too many episodes and get tired very quick, there's an episode dedicated to a washed up salaryman that has no place in the series and has a rather jarring shift in tone for a series that relies on adult jokes and outright anarchy as it's selling points and lets not go into the final scene of the series.
So while the series really goes all out to beta test the censors to the maximum it falls fowl of it's own creation when it tires out it's jokes by the end of the series. It's still enjoyable regardless and I welcome the dub for best viewing.
Final Verdict: Panty and Stocking achieves what it set out to do and while it does grow tired in places, the stuff it does well prevents it from being bad. It is definitely not for younger fans, so please respect your country's age viewing laws.
Those who regularly read my reviews can usually tell if I'm preparing a big review as the hiatus is usually long and today is no exception as I review Space Dandy.
The opening narration does a better job of explaining the plot so I'll post that instead.
Space Dandy: he's a dandy guy in space. He combs the galaxy like his pompadour on the hunt for aliens. Planet after planet he searches, discovering bizarre new creatures both friendly and not. These are the spectacular adventures of Space Dandy and his brave space crew, in space.
Yeah he's actually called Space Dandy, together with a vacuum cleaner robot named QT and a Bettlejuician named Meow (Or a space cat if you prefer) the crew of the Aloha Oe try and make a bit of money out of registering rare aliens so they can enjoy an easy life by going to the unsuitably named Boobies bar and restaurant chain which is basically a fictional space version of the real life equivalent Hooters. For those who don't know it's a chain of bars and restaurants where all the waitresses are rather well endowed and Boobies is just a simple goal for the suave Space Dandy. As for the actual alien hunting well, it's a little difficult to review, there's no such thing as a typical episode, every episode is unpredictable, you don't know if you've been dropped into a comedy, drama or down right depressing and thought provoking thriller and depending on your tastes, some episodes come off better than others but you're almost guaranteed to find at least one episode you'll love and at least one episode you'll hate.
The endless possibilities of Space Dandy can keep this series going for ages and you'll never feel out of place in any episode, you can watch this show in a random order and the only episode that will matter is the first episode as it introduces Meow, the other episodes can be seen at any time in any order, even the final episode, the universal law in this anime allows it. I hope there are more seasons because there's so much more Space Dandy can do.
The dub is good and suits the show better than the Japanese audio.
Final Verdict: It's unpredictability makes every type of anime fan welcome even if they're not interested in the show itself, it has the setup to do anything it wants and runs with it, making it an unforgettable ride. Definitely worth the watch and I hope more is made.
Two reviews? You lucky, lucky people, next up is Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi.
In the land of Osaka we join childhood friends Arumi and Sasshi as they contemplate the changes going on in their shopping district Abenobashi which involves Arumi moving away after her family's restaurant closes, but an incident with Arumi's grandpa triggers a series of events that sends the two kids to different worlds all called Abenobashi but themed after different genres such as Fantasy, Space, Film Noir etc. Arumi and Sasshi must navigate each world to get home but Sasshi is hiding a terrible secret from Arumi.
Now I can see what they were aiming for in this anime, an Excel Saga style reference filled gag anime, but the execution is a little to be desired but it's not because it doesn't meet Excel Saga's high standards of humor or the Gainax trademark of twisting the story, it's actually the language barrier between Japanese and English.
Quite a weird assessment considering that anime starts in Japanese but that's the problem; Comedy in Osaka is done with a series of stand-up routines usually between two people and relies on a lot of play-on words and puns as part of it's jokes, this makes Abenobashi very dialogue heavy and hard to translate into English despite the best efforts of the dubbers, subtitle translators and reference notes, it's still amusing when you do get it but it makes it a chore to watch and when you do reach the end you feel a little short changed by the twist at the end.
The dub is a good effort on ADVFilms part but can't get passed the language barrier, I would go as far as saying that it probably shouldn't have been exported.
Final Verdict: While the show is funny, the very Japanese comedy is hard to translate whether your reading it or hearing it and it can become a chore to watch as a result, if you do understand the culture enough to get the jokes then give yourself a cookie, but it becomes a salty cookie when you reach the plot twist.
Taking a break from the heavy theme of Gender Swap and moving onto regular anime I've seen in the last couple of months starting with Doujin Work.
Doujin Work starts on a train, keep an eye on it as it'll appear in every episode, anyway; Najimi Osana is a college girl who wants an easy way of making money, but after being fired from her part time job, things start to look down until her friend Tsuyuri shows her how to make money through selling Dojinshi, disillusioned and with help from a tall male college student named Justice and his little cosplay girlfriend Sora, Najimi attempts to make her own Dojinshi to sell at Comiket.
The show is in an unusual format as it's 12 episodes each running 15 minutes long but consists of 12 extra episodes of live action footage from the main cast, the live action stuff is distracting so were focusing just on the anime itself.
The anime is okay, it's just long enough to not get tired and it's innuendos are amusing and even when the jokes were looking like getting tired they change at just the right moment to keep it fresh. The characters feel a bit weak apart from Sora and Tsuyuri who are both magnificent and the plot really doesn't lead to a satisfying conclusion, and above all, Najimi isn't really deserving of a happy ending anyway as nothing she does really warrants her earning it.
No dub as there wasn't any on the DVD, it may have worked better if it did.
Final Verdict: Charming in places but never really encourages itself to be anything other than average, worth the $12 price tag I paid, £8 in English money.
My next review is a Manga only work that shows a unique relationship between it's Gender Swap victims, this is Mahou Shounen Majorian.
Iori is a timid, feminine boy. Masaru is an aggressive boy who leads the other boys in bullying Iori. One day, they encounter a pair of strange extraterrestrial bunnies who turn them into magical girls in order to fight aliens that are invading their town but Masaru isn't totally on board with being turned into a girl but is given no choice when the only way to turn back is to beat the aliens together with Iori.
Now there are factors in this show to consider, the first one being that the boys are young say about 8-10 years old at most and they are being transformed into I guess 16 year old teenage girls judging by their Magical Girl forms.
Now the main premise is that Masaru bullies Iori for acting girly, so the situation of the alien invasion and the Magical Girl stuff gives him a taste of what it feels to be an actual girl while Iori doesn't seem to mind being a girl at all. It really gives interesting takes on how two different types of personalities take to being turned into a girl.
The overall message the manga is obviously trying to give is that you shouldn't bully males who are more feminine by nature just because the norm is to be tough, like sport and I guess in some circles be an obnoxious jerk. In forcing Masaru to work with Iori both as girls forces the two to bond together, while Masaru tries to resist fiercely as it breaks apart his whole persona as a school bully but eventually by the end he respects Iori for who he is and that's quite a powerful message. It's actually quite surprising how little this manga is used to promote zero tolerance on bullying.
As this is Manga only, obviously no Anime.
Final Verdict: An obscure title that has deeper meanings you need to search for in order to appreciate the message it's delivering but it requires patience and a lot of digging up through Manga Scan sites to achieve that, otherwise study Japanese and find the Manga yourself.
