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.
Now for some cultural lessons with Disney's Cinderella, and mainly because it's just had a live action makeover.
I shouldn't need to tell this story but for the uninformed, Cinderella is about a downtrodden girl who gets a chance to go to the ball with the help of her Fairy Godmother. In this Disney version, it maintains the setting depicted by Charles Perrault and includes it's own whimsical charm through the talking mice and the beautiful animation of the famous Dress Transformation scene, a personal favorite of Walt Disney himself.
And 65 years later, the live action version gives us more of the same but many feel that Cinderella is outdated due to the fact that it paints an unrealistic depiction of romance and doesn't speak with the same Quasi-Feminist views that Elsa of Frozen championed. Well lets stop this crap right now.
If the 1950s film did anything wrong, it was the lack of character development for the Prince, the screen time is taken up more by the mice than any other character including Cinderella herself and finally there could've been more story from all sides, there's enough interesting characters to pad the story a bit and actually give the Prince some actual background. A lot of criticism is still aimed at Cinderella and it plagues the 2015 live action version as well seeing as every female lead is expected to act like Elsa but it's not the end of the world if the lead female doesn't.
1. There's not really much you can change from Cinderella.
2. Attempting to make it like Frozen would seem like a forced decision and will likely ruin it.
As popular as Frozen is, girls are still very diverse in their interests, more so than boys, for every girl who likes Elsa, there's a girl who likes Cinderella but you maybe surprised by the reasons why.
For Elsa it's her ability to accept her faults as part of who she is and the importance of reconnecting to your family.
For Cinderella it's karma giving her a reward for tolerating the hardships that life throws at you with the kindest of hearts and trust me that's a more valuable life lesson, but there are mundane reasons as well such as good singing voices and having a pimping dress, so don't expect a revolution.
Despite the direction Hollywood thinks the female lead roles should go, there is still a place for the traditional heroine even if the film is 65 years old, it shows that a timeless story can still entertain a modern audience.
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.
