Another dime dozen OVA from a game no one played.
Spun off from the Graduation franchise, Tanjou Debut revolves around a group of four girls, Aki, Kumi, Sachiko and Saori; with only two episodes to work with, I can summarise both pretty easy.
Episode one focusses on red haired girl Aki who daydreams of becoming an adult imagining herself in a beautiful red dress leaving behind school, but her current life is full of disappointment as a misunderstanding leads to her being rejected by the boy she likes.
Episode two centers on Saori with Kumi and Aki recovering a time capsule from ten years ago but the girls discover that something was left behind by a forth girl, after discovering who it is, they set her spirit free with the item she left behind, if you're wondering why there is no continuity, it's because they showcase in the opening that they are just actresses for a drama show, so what we see isn't even real in universe so the investment is lost instantly.
The 90s anime aesthetic is strong with this one, the characters are interesting enough to want to know more but nothing they star in is interesting, if they had more episodes I'd be more tempted to give it a pass but as it is, not really selling it well.
No dub but I doubt it could acquire any decent voices.
Final Verdict: It feels like it could work if given more episodes especially if it kept to the same themes, there's alot to like for the character designs but sadly the two episodes we did get failed to deliver.
Spoiler warning is in effect, you have been warned.
Mitsuha is bored of her rural life and oddly wishes to be a boy in Tokyo, what follows is an out of body experience as Mitsuha switches bodies with a Tokyo boy named Taki, they somehow communicate through phone and written messages as both attempt to adjust to their new lives, this continues for some days until Taki stops switching into Mitsuha's body, with only clues of an Autumn Festival from Taki's last body switch, he tries to find the town of Itomori only to come to a tragic discovery that the town was destroyed by a fragmented comet and Mitsuha was killed with the entire town three years prior, not only was Taki switching bodies but switching times, praying to the shrine for a chance to prevent Mitsuha's death, he is able to switch again in order to evacuate the town before the comet arrives. They succeed only for Taki not to leave his name for Mitsuha to find him when the body switching ends for good, the ending several years later finishes with them crossing paths again in a very touching ending.
This film looks stunning, it's like a constant canvas of all the most beautiful images of Japan, the story is very fatally flawed.
If this was just a simple body switch story, I honestly think it would've still been highly acclaimed but adding a time travel element just muddied the waters too much, it's a plot point that cannot easily be done without serious plot holes and here are just a couple.
1. Considering how often they use phones, on all phones with any screen the first thing you see when you look at it is the current time and date, how they didn't click that it was a different time is beyond me.
2. A disaster on the scale of what happened in Itomori would be world news and would resonate in Japan for much longer, Taki should've witnessed it heck even felt it as it would likely cause a nation wide quake. There's no way he wouldn't know, the gap is only three years he wasn't that young when it happened.
The plot is so over complicated and melodramatic that the first half of the film quickly gets overshadowed by everything that happens in the second half, this only gets more noticeable and exhausting with every viewing.
Dubbing is fine, stick with Japanese for full effect.
Makoto Shinkai even said himself that the film was rushed and under funded, you can only imagine what could've been if he was allowed what he needed to finish it.
Final Verdict: A beautiful canvas like world let down by over complicated writing riddled with plot holes and melodrama.
Sometimes I'm faced with anime that doesn't really help convince the naysayers that what we as Otaku watch is quality entertainment.
Princess Lapis is extremely powerful but has a terrible habit of destroying things with her Magic Eraser ability, hoping to teach their daughter more responsibilities, the King and Queen banish Lapis to the other side of the world tasking her to make her way back to the Diamond Palace, joined by her sprite friend, her immortal bodyguard and royal tutor, Lapis makes it her mission to return home while crossing paths with many tyrannical rulers and wizards along with a persistent sorceress who collects young female warriors to fight for her.
Thanks to this anime, I'm now sick of pudding, this is a fantasy gag anime where everything is put into as much cliches as possible, our rogues gallery includes a gold digging ruler who over taxes her people for stupid reasons, a nerd obsessed with a certain plant food wants to destroy a forest filled with Pudding and a bunch of sickly brothers obsessed with fitness forces an entire town to workout to death, along with Topaz who wants Lapis to herself, it's a pretty lame anime for what looks like a grand setting, sadly no where near Slayers level of high fantasy.
Not heard the dub but I doubt it's worth listening to.
I wonder if this is what Star vs the Forces of Evil was inspired by, they have the same basic plot after all.
Final Verdict: A lame comedy that leaves you feeling drained giving you no appetite for Pudding.
This one's a doozy, Tekken the Motion Picture.
Right from the beginning we see child Kazuya comfort his friend Jun until father of the year Heihachi arrives to throw Kazuya off a cliff for being weak.
Kazuya survives selling his soul to the devil for revenge.
Jun now an Interpol agent working with Lei Wulong, infiltrate the Tekken tournament set up by Heihachi Mishima in order to investigate what the Mishima Zaibatsu are up to on a private island where the tournament is held.
Kazuya reunites with Jun but Kazuya is fixated on his revenge, surviving run ins with the Williams Sisters sent by Lee Chaolan, along with other fighters and beasts while Lei Wulong with Jack and a mysterious girl finds Dr Bosconovitch for answers as to what's going on.
All leading to a climax with Kazuya fighting Heihachi to the death while Jun helplessly looks on.
This movie has the same problem as most Fighting game anime, it nevers takes full advantage of the extended cast of characters instead only focussing on a small handful of plot relevant characters, would've been nice to see what Paul, King and Yoshimitsu could do but they are limited to cameo only, the story is a weird mash up of the first three Tekken games with the least content coming from Tekken 3, it's only when you really play later games where you see how much of a curveball the cast is in terms of personalities with Lee Chaolan suffering the most, not helped by a laughable dub that contains some god awful acting.
You are much better off playing the games, at least you can choose which character to focus on story wise.
Final Verdict: A poor attempt to translate the Tekken games into anime, failing to take advantage of it's extended cast in favour of a poorly mashed up plot.
Back to schedule with KO Century Beast.
Earth is split into two, the Northern hemisphere ruled by the beasts and the Southern hemisphere ruled by the humans, the cause of the split made by a falling out between Gaia and Uranus over the evolution of the planet, Nature vs Technology. Uranus attacks the Northern hemisphere with villain duo V-Darn and V-Sion with their manic devil pixie named Akumako.
Professor Password leaves his granddaughter Yuni in the hands of four beasts, the tiger Wan, the bird Bud, the mermaid Mei Mer and the turtle Tuttle. Yuni is the key to Gaia and the Totem Guardians of Earth, Sea and Sky.
It's up to Wan and co to lead the group to Gaia to stop Uranus' attack even if they're too stupid to succeed.
With all that lore, very clumsily put together, the fact that it's a comedy really makes it difficult to take seriously not made any easier by both the American and British dubs treating it like a gag comedy, the British dub in particular being hilariously terrible.
Other than Tuttle I never found any of the beasts had any real ability to do their job properly, the anime is built in a way that should make them way stronger than their forms and comedic personalities suggest, it's kind of a let down that they failed to take advantage of the setting they were given. I was half expecting the franchise to be bigger as well.
Final Verdict: KO Century Beast lacks the agency that the plot demands and leaves it's characters to clumsily stumble through the anime through sheer dumb luck.
