You can tell I've fallen behind, this is my second review tonight as we move onto Steven Universe.
Steven Universe is from a group of writers from Adventure Time, about a boy named Steven who inherits a power gem from his late mother; her mother's friends the Crystal Gems, adopt Steven into their lives and attempt to teach him to be a Crystal Gem himself but there are many troubles along the way.
Now Steven Universe is a bit of a bogey cartoon, on the one hand the clever story telling and its ability to take it's audience seriously along with Steven's believable personality can easily make this one of the best cartoons of all time but on the other hand, Steven has no indoor voice, (Which never sits well with me) your not given much to work with in terms of backstory or learning anything about the main cast and compared to Adventure Time which can hold it's own better, it doesn't really capture the same creativity.
It's not bad but doesn't really encourage itself to be really good, not helped by Cartoon Network's poor scheduling which seems to relegate it to a weekend showing (in the UK at least)
Compared to other new shows that premiered around the same time it's certainly the strongest of the lot and really shows that Cartoon Network hasn't completely lost it's creativity but don't expect another Adventure Time for a while.
Back to reviewing after a lengthy break, this time it's food fight anime Ben-to.
You Sato just started high school and on a normal day at the local convenience store, he gets beat up trying to grab Bento boxes, this is a wolves battle for half price Bento boxes and Sen Yarizui the Ice Witch as she's known is the master of these battles and drafts Sato into the half price food lovers club alongside Hana Oshiroi, a creepy novel writer, as to why? Well students are poor and fighting for cheap yet good quality food is the best way, especially if you're a half decent enough fighter to be able to accomplish it and the other customers don't seem to mind that much.
Now this is Japanese anime at it's finest, take a silly idea and run with it and that's exactly what Ben-to sets out to do but in doing so it seems to abandon it's own rules very quickly as the story is too scatterbrained to work properly, not backed up well by it's unsubtle attempts at fanservice or it's attempt at establishing good side characters.
For instance, the main core cast are fantastic, especially Shaga but the rest of the cast are split up into their own different problems including those who don't get enough screentime, those who get too much screentime and those who really don't belong in the story such as the psycho lesbian Shiraume or the what the hell villain at the end Heracles. These characters really spoil the show especially Shiraume whose random smack downs are uncalled for.
I think it's a shame that the balance of characters is so scattered that it makes following the story really tough, the anime's saving grace is Shaga and of course the high octane battle scenes which are some of the finest you'll see, anyone who can make shopping baskets and chopsticks into deadly weapons knows what their doing, and the Sega cameos are welcome to see. Dub is pretty good with many characters being spot on.
Final Verdict: I wouldn't watch this anime if your looking for story but I'd certainly watch it for action and Ben-to has plenty of it.
It's not uncommon to find anime characters of ambiguous gender but every now and again you need to check your eyes to see if what your looking at is really what it is. Rules this time will only cover cross dressers not anyone who has been turned into a girl so Ranma Saotome is instantly disqualified.
Update: Includes honorable mentions
Boy? Girl? or is Hideyoshi a Gender itself?
Honorable Mentions
Kuranosuke from Kuragehime
Gives away too many clues about his gender early on and it's obvious in the face.
Nuriko from Fushigi Yuugi
Not helped by the fact that pretty much every male is a pretty boy.
Naoto Shirogane from Persona 4
A rare female entry, but still pretty easy to figure out.
Haruhi Fujioka from Ouran Host Club
Again another rare female entry but extremely easy to figure out.
10. Ciel Phantomhive from Black Butler
Dressed in an extravagant ball gown to catch an evil count, Ciel manages to fool even his own fiancee. The dress is so famous that it's become a cosplayers finest challenge.
9. Kazuki from Getbackers
Not as convincing as the higher ups on this list but played well for comedy when he ends up in women's clothes; even more so he hates being mistaken for a homosexual.
8. Rosiel from Angel Sanctuary
I never got on with Angel Sanctuary as a series, but Rosiel certainly passes for this list to the point where a simple voice change would make him female.
7. Haku from Naruto
Mistaken straight away by Naruto and fans alike with some wishing he was female, even now it's difficult.
6. Loran Cehack from Turn A Gundam
Mistaken early on as a girl and dubbed "Laura" for a while. Made even more convincing during a convenient fancy party plot where Loran pulls off his disguise more convincingly.
5. Tieria Erde from Gundam 00
Speaking of convenient fancy party plots, in a possible homage to Loran, Tieria dons a fancy dress to meet up with the enemy; also goes the extra mile with fake breasts as well.
4. Hibiki Amawa from I My Me Strawberry Eggs
The whole plotline is him cross-dressing but manages the entire series without being discovered, he really cares about teaching that much.
3. Hideyoshi from Baka & Test
As you can see from the image, you decide: Male? Female? or is Hideyoshi simply a gender itself?
2. Ruby Moon from Card Captor Sakura
Not helped by the dub who made Ruby an actual girl, despite that it can still fool most people. CLAMP sure have a strange way of portraying men.
1. Aoi Futaba from You're Under Arrest
Originally cross-dressed to catch a criminal, Aoi took on the whole female persona to the point where he is essentially one of the girls. So much so that you probably need the writer to point it out to you.
Time to have a crack at a big anime and this time it's the best shonen series not to be serialized in Shonen Jump. I am of course referring to Fairy Tail.
Fiore is a world full of wizards of all ranks of power and alignment all split up into Magical Guilds that keep the peace of the lands going. Wanting to be part of Guild life herself, Celestial Wizard Lucy aims to join the Guild Fairy Tail which leads her to a fated meeting with the Dragon Slayer wizard Natsu who himself was drawn to the port town in search of his adopted father, an actual Dragon named Igneel. From that meeting, Lucy finds herself among other high powered wizards such as Ice Maker Gray and Knight Wizard Erza as they keep the peace from the evils of the Dark Guilds.
It's very easy to write off this series as a One Piece with wizards but all the things it does often surpasses One Piece in quality; to give a fair assessment lets compare the two.
Characters
Many of Fairy Tail's cast start off as being strong and remain that way throughout so there's less emphasis on simple powering up and more time dedicated to character develop, One Piece puts too much time into being creative with it's powers that they ignore the weaknesses of the characters they develop.
Villains
Both series seem to have the same problem with it's villains, for every good villain they have, you have to put up with at least five bad ones; while many are creative in design, their personalities along with their motives are a bit silly and do little to move the plot and function as a punching bag for the main characters.
Spectacle
Fairy Tail always manages to end each arc with a bang and even some of the side villains go down in spectacular fashion as well. One PIece can do the same but many people would agree that Luffy's best moments passed ages ago.
Tearjerkers
Both shows are known for some pretty emotional moments but Fairy Tail can boast so many tearjerkers that it would empty a modest sized tissue box. I only remember crying once watching One Piece.
Comedy
Sometimes Fairy Tail's comedy moments can come at inappropriate times but the moments they get right are hilarious, One Piece has similar issues but current chapters seem to be taking away the humor.
Translations
Fairy Tail has a lot of translation issues early on, which is strange for a series not set in Japanese culture, many moments in the dub have made little to no sense whatsoever. 4Kids aside, One Piece rarely has issues with translation.
Story
Fairy Tail rarely keeps a story arc going for too long to avoid them outstaying their welcome and their cool down episodes contain some of the best comedy anime has to offer. One Piece goes on and on and on and on.
Dubbing
Fairy Tail boasts one of the best dubbing performances of all time with special mention to Cherami Leigh, Todd Haberkorn, Colleen Clinkenbeard and David Wald, honorable mentions to Patrick Seitz, Jad Saxton and Monica Rial. One Piece is just as good but is still haunted by the 4Kids dub.
So from that little analysis, Fairy Tail is a much stronger anime and able to out perform anything Shonen Jump can come up with. Yeah it still has the same weaknesses as other Shonen series but the stuff it does well is better than anything it's rivals can come up with.
Final Verdict: If Shonen Jump isn't satisfying your taste buds for action then Fairy Tail is the first choice anime for you.
This is your lucky day, I've got a second review prepared, this time it's Canadian cartoon Nerds and Monsters.
The story is about three nerds and a jock who end up stranded on a Monster Island when their school bus crashes into the ocean, the kids then have to use their book smarts to survive the constant onslaught of monsters that want to eat them or cause them pain.
Very much like the other crappy cartoons that get dug out of YTV's channel, it's terrible. It actually shocks me that it won an award for screenwriting when the cast showcases some of the worst qualities in nerds, which by this era the term "Nerds" should've been discarded along with the Millennium Bug.
If you're familiar with Dungeons & Dragons, the nerds always act like that one kid who can't stand losing and makes up impossible rules to avoid defeat, they are utterly obnoxious and lack empathy for everyone, even people who share their common interests, this makes the only Jock character Stan the big elephant in the room and makes us sympathize with the monsters who just want to be left alone and the idea of this cartoon is to support the nerds, so yeah the creators kind of missed the point there. You do get some amusing moments but the narrative leading up to these scenes are not worth the punchline in the end.
The sad thing is, the idea is actually genius but the execution is terrible and makes anyone who fits the Nerd Persona look like terrible people.
I wouldn't bother watching it, there are far more interesting cartoons out there.
