Next up on Digital Week, an Anime Film that set a new standard for the Genre, this is Summer Wars.
OZ is a super advanced online system that controls every notable function that can be computerized on Earth, everything from basic communication and gaming right down to the serious business and government systems. In the meantime a maths genius named Kenji is drafted by his school friend Natsuki to pose as her fiancee for her Great Grandmother's 90th Birthday along with meeting the large extended family Natsuki belongs to.
During his visit Kenji is tricked into cracking the security code for the OZ mainframe which unleashes a rogue AI named Love Machine onto the network wreaking havoc on the system and disrupting a number of world services which gets worst by the minute.
It's up to Kenji and Natsuki's family to save the world using online battles of Martial Arts and Hanafuda in the truest Samurai Spirit that so follows the family.
Summer Wars is one of the best anime films you'll ever see, a unique blend of family bonding along with some of the best animation and action seen in a long time; you can tell that the same director worked on Digimon as you can see alot of the scenery of OZ was lifted and improved from the Digimon Movie.
The threat from the Love Machine AI is convincing and paints a haunting picture of what might happen if the world continues to put everything online, Skynet has nothing on this guy.
Also when watching King Kazma fight or seeing Natsuki take on Love Machine in Hanafuda, you see this film put to shame a lot of popular mainstream anime including many Shonen titles and most notably Yu-Gi-Oh.
My only complaint is that the dub is a bit lacking and is way more effective in Japanese.
Final Verdict: I've been an anime fan for close to 20 years now; from the earliest memories of wondering what Dragonball Ice Cream was on my holidays in Spain, why a Giant Panda in my Gameboy game is throwing Kettles and Buckets at me, the sheer happiness of seeing Sonic the Hedgehog on film leading to the Trailer of my first proper anime watching of Dirty Pair Flash to writing this review for Summer Wars and having just come back from an anime convention a few days ago, I now find myself in a position of witnessing an Anime Film that personifies the art form so perfectly that it irritates me that it didn't at least get nominated for an Oscar the year it was released. Summer Wars is an emotional roller coaster that offers the truest meanings of family, grouped with the limitless potential of human imagination to the surreal scenarios that no live action show could copy, the Holy Trinity of a Great Anime.
Summer Wars is great and all of you should watch it.
Next up on Digital week is Digimon Adventure 02.
I've already reviewed the first season of Digimon so lets see if the sequel does any better.
Trouble brews in the Digital World as the Digimon Emperor conquers the lands, but most of the digi-destined from season one have moved on and are three years older with not only higher commitments but no crests and digivices to use as the Dark Spires built in the Digital World block digivolving. Using a new Digivice and recruiting three new kids, TK and Kari enter the Digital World to stop the Digimon Emperor.
Now lets start with the elephant in the room which is the new kids which consists of Davis, who is so not exactly the same as Tai, Yolei who keeps the Tomboy trend going and Cody who personifies the quiet geek boy better than Izzy and Joe combined. Apart from Matt, the three new kids are essentially perfect copies of the six digi-destined that retired with Yolei filling in for both Sora & Mimi and Cody with Izzy & Joe respectively and canonically speaking as well.
So yeah, don't expect this series to be as ground breaking as the first season, but the first story arc delivers well enough that it's only a nit pick and at least Yolei manages to break her predefined character traits and become her own character. The second story arc still hits the same notes as the first arc if a little bit slower while the final story arc leads to a bit of an anti-climax and a sickeningly sweet epilogue worthy of a fanfiction writer.
So yeah a few niggles but still a worthy enough successor to the original series, voice work and charm still intact also.
Final Verdict: Lack of originality aside, Digimon Adventure 02 is worthy to be called a sequel and while the story gets a bit stale towards the end it doesn't take away the experience that Digimon always offers.
Next up on Digital Week is Dot Hack Sign, one of the founding anime of this genre based on the Namco game of the same name.
Dot Hack Sign is about a player named Tsukasa whom after logging into "The World" online game finds that he cannot leave and doesn't remember much on how he logged in to begin with or why he's even there. This leads to a lengthy search and mystery which all works itself out by the end of the series.
This show actually put me off the Dot Hack franchise; it bothers me that an anime based on a fantasy JRPG with a core storyline of being trapped in an online world or solving the mysteries behind certain incidents within said world, cannot seem to blend a serious mystery plot with the action elements it has open to itself. There are warriors with swords that can take down cavalry riders yet Dot Hack Sign is cursed with infinite amounts of dialogue and little to no action.
I know a series that relies on dialogue and character development can work, Aria the Animation does it perfectly but the setting allows that anime to work, Dot Hack Sign doesn't because the characters are designed to look like they should be fighting each other yet they don't.
Tsukasa is barely tolerable early on and if you went into the show expecting more than what you got then you'll be finished with it as early as episode 4 with 22 more still waiting to go.
If you can stomach the dreadfully slow pacing and the lack of action then you are rewarded with a great ending but tolerance for certain characters and a commitment is needed to fully finish this series, thankfully unlike Quantum which I reviewed last year, you are not required to know the games to understand what's going on.
Dub is average and can induce sleep so I recommend subtitles to absorb all the information on screen.
Final Verdict: An anime this beautiful looking and open to so many possibilities is stuck with it's slow and painful story and refuses to use the other elements the franchise is famed for. While the ending is beautiful and satisfying, the commitment to get there would be too much for some people and I only recommend it to those who enjoy reading novels which is where this anime should be instead of onscreen.
Hello and welcome to a special week of reviews called Digital Week, where I review seven anime shows based around the theme of Digital Worlds and the first of these reviews is Sword Art Online.
Now the reason I'm doing this is because I feel that the idea of getting sucked into a video game and forced to play by their rules is an interesting concept that can have limitless possibilities in the right hands so I'm hoping I can find that with these anime.
Sword Art Online is a fictional MMORPG that just came out that everyone is excited about playing as it involves virtual reality, however upon arriving into the game, the creator traps everyone inside with the challenge of finishing the game however if you die in the game the Virtual Reality helmet microwaves your brain killing you in real life, so it's up to former BETA tester Kirito to stop the game from killing thousands of innocent people.
This idea is good, it creates a sense of risk while not uncommon in this genre is still an essential part of the story, however it doesn't stay that way.
Part two takes you to another game called Alfheim Online with more of the same minus the risk factor and at the loss of Asuna losing her best defining character traits.
I find that annoying; it clearly set itself up for something special and looking at the light novels makes me hope it can return to form but based on the first season of anime it seemed to finish one anime halfway and start a completely new one in the second half. It's as if the writer was told to add more fanservice on purpose just for shameless ratings, an uncomfortable trend for many shows tackling a second season but this one does it halfway through season one.
I've seen anime go stale.
I've seen anime not use it's potential.
I've seen anime flanderize itself to very stupid levels.
But this is the first anime I've seen ruin itself from a great series into something I would find in a bargain bin.
I'm not through with this anime yet, I'm open for a return to form but I'll need some convincing.
Dub is okay, art style is nice as well.
Final Verdict: It was looking good until it went to Alfheim, then it just loses the risk factor and it's well established characters in favor of cheap fanservice, I do not understand why this anime is so popular knowing how badly they messed up so early on. Again I'm open to a return to form but for now, I'd say take it or leave it.
Back to a normal review, well I say normal review, don't expect it from this anime as I review Busou Shinki.
Busou Shinki is originally a toy brand by Konami, made up of pose-able action figures that all consist of female designs; they are popular with hobbyists.
Busou Shinki anime takes place in future land where the world freely accepts the existence of little robot girls who serve a select group of masters willing to look after them. This story features four such robot girls, Ann, Ines, Lene and Hina who serve Rihito, a geeky looking boy with a habit of forgetting things and despite the Mecha Armour these girls wear, it's the least combat orientated of it's genre.
It's hard to really pin point which anime it pays homage to as it borrows elements from any show that has servant robot girls and any show that has Mecha Armour, to give you an example Hand Maid May meets Infinite Stratos, or Angelic Layer if the dolls actually spoke and had cool Mecha Armour.
But like I said in the first paragraph, it's the least combat orientated as it focuses on fairly normal tasks such as helping other Shinki out or solving a problem Master runs into or doing something sweet like buying master a gift or throwing a party, and while it does dive into occasional peril moments it never breaks the tone of the show.
While it does seem unusual for little robot girls dressed for proper combat to do all these mundane every day things, it manages to give itself some charm and as a result I really enjoyed it.
No dub for this one but it wouldn't be very good anyway as it doesn't really suit it.
Final Verdict: A surprising twist on a genre normally plagued by repetition, Busou Shinki is charming and easy to watch and doesn't out stay it's welcome. I recommend you give it a try.
