A dating sim anime in 2013? Surprised there was still an audience for it.
Kazuya Maeda starts high school having inherited his father's camera with the intention of finally having a purpose in life, after reluctantly joining the photography club, Maeda unlocks a new world of possibilities as he finds himself intertwined with romances with one of seven girls through photography.
Photo Kano is even animated like a dating sim, after four episodes, each girl gets their own episode with Maeda each ending in a love confession.
It's more proof that romance isn't dead in anime and one of the few anime to keep the genre alive in the 2010s era, Maeda isn't exactly the most interesting character though but you never play dating games for the protagonist, how he acts is based on your choices, so depending on the route, he can act differently such as blackmailing the class president, something he wouldn't do in other routes.
As long as you treat it like a dating sim, you can get around the disjointed storyline, the presentation and photography motif more than keep you engaged.
No dub, probably wouldn't work to be honest.
Final Verdict: A pleasant school romance presented like a dating sim so every girl gets to shine, it's presented well and the photography motif gives it it's own unique style that cannot be copied, just remember that it is a dating sim as the story doesn't have a typical structure.
Oh yeah, I review anime.
Piccolo is concerned that Gohan is no longer training especially when he's doing more errands for him such as training his daughter Pan, and with Goku and Vegeta training Broly to be a better more controlled warrior, Piccolo is worried they are unprepared for the next attack.
Cue the Red Ribbon army as Magenta, the son of it's former leader recruits Dr Hedo, the grandson of Dr Gero. Piccolo infiltrates the group after fighting the newest android called Gamma 2 and learns of a much bigger threat known as Cell Max; knowing that Gohan is a target, Piccolo pretends to hold Pan hostage disguised as a Red Ribbon Army grunt in order to trigger Gohan into battle.
As Gohan and co fight the two Gamma androids, Cell Max is released triggering the final battle.
Two ways to look at this.
Super Hero acts as a nostalgia trip along with a look at what Dragonball Super is starting to become and had we not known at the time that Toriyama would pass away, a look at what the franchise will look like with Toriyama getting less involved. It's also nice that Piccolo is finally getting some proper screen time.
On the other hand, the plot reads like a fanfic and it's hard not to see future projects going the same way, it gives me flashbacks of early 2000 internet rumours of Dragonball AF, a series post GT with ever increasingly ridiculous super saiyan forms and Gohan personifies or even references this with his Beast Gohan form.
While I enjoyed the film it does fill me with caution knowing that we are closing in on that AF fanfic ridiculousness from early internet forums, a testament to Toriyama's world that can cater for it and still come out in a decent state.
Dub maintains it's high standards.
Final Verdict: Maybe because I'm old enough to remember the Dragonball AF phenomenon that I can't help but think that Dragonball Super is turning into this but I do feel at least confident that it's in good hands.
Arthouse has it's own appeal.
In the year 3195, a thousand years after an apocalyptic war, a girl named Ikuru finds a robot named Shaian abandoned, having lost his human pilot and buried under sand, finding out his rival is still operational, he joins forces with Ikuru to defeat him and his army.
40 minutes is far too short to really explain how this story is meant to go, so the only thing to really draw from this anime is the art style, it takes inspiration from the French artist Moebius, in fact the anime is a little too inspired by Moebius, not the first time the French has provided inspiration for many an anime; British artist Roger Dean has a similar style.
I call it abstract science fiction, a lone desert dweller stumbling upon unexpected wonders in what is otherwise a vast horizon of nothingness, one can even draw upon the fantasy genre despite not being related to traditional Tolkien, European Folklore, fairy stories or medieval settings. It's an aesthetic that is rare and cannot be easily replicated.
Dub is non existent.
Final Verdict: It's a massive art and tech demo from the 80s, whether you like it or not, it's worth watching.
I really hate these long titles.
Nishimura is a regular player of Legendary Age a popular net game, having been stung by rejection from an alleged female player for in-game marriage, he ends up marrying a cleric named Ako vowing to keep the real world and gaming separate, but when the guild master asks for an offline meet up, the players are revealed to be Nishimura's classmate, the class president and Ako all being girls, however Ako still treats Nishimura as her husband unable to really exit her game persona, a school club is formed with the mission to help Ako open up to real life.
This is an interesting one as it covers a subject that isn't often talked about, there are real life cases of shut-ins not being able to distinguish real life to gaming life often ending more tragically, you are left guessing quite often how bad Ako's case is, at one point you even believe she's a game character who enters the real world but there are many points where she does have a high degree of self awareness like her high level of FPS skill compared to the others, the anime isn't long enough to really explore this and fails to take advantage of it's gaming plotlines, we get baited a few times into thinking were about to have a common trope only to subvert it, despite being technically a harem, it doesn't act like one.
Dub is fine if very basic.
Also the art style makes it look like all the female cast wear lipstick.
Final Verdict: It doesn't really take advantage of it's setting but it's at least competent at writing characters.
Strange I've not reviewed this yet.
The Spooner continent is divided into two sets of people, Parsoners and Sorcerers, however it soon becomes clear that the Sorcerers are abusing their powers against the Parsoners, under the guidance of Big Mama, the head of the church, a small band of heroes made up of Carrot, Marron, Tira, Chocola and Gateau set out to eliminate the rogue Sorcerers but there maybe more to the team than what it seems especially when Carrot is such a pervert.
The series is a nice transition between Grindhouse and anime more akin to today, they never pull punches when it comes to eliminating Sorcerers but the cast is much lighter in tone compared to anime before them and no characters shows this better than the Misu sisters Tira and Chocola who both become dominatrixs in battle, equally Carrot who absorbs magic to turn into a monster, it achieves a balance not seen much in anime at the time of the mid 90s and really underrated as a series.
At no point does anything feel over done or out stays it's welcome, it's a solid anime.
The only complaint is the horrific treatment it got in the West, in fighting at ADVFilms caused the series to go through many re-writes of the localization and voice actors were quitting in protest, in fact this is probably the first example of westerners going against the original script, a practice that quickly died out in ADVfilms but came back in a worse form more recently with the inserting of political statements that have nothing to do with the anime or changing characters to suit an agenda when that isn't what the original writer intended.
It's a bad practice and needs to stop.
Final Verdict: A great series spoiled by a bad western release, it fits proudly in the middle of an era that transitioned from it's more violent era into what anime is still today.
