This has taken a long time but I'm finally tackling Kino's Journey
A lone traveller on a motorcycle rides the roads across the lands on a journey with no end, staying in each place no longer than two nights to avoid the idea of settling down as well as dealing with each nation's bizarre customs, armed with enough weaponry to protect her own life having run away from a potential life of being locked down in an Orwellian society and potentially being killed for going against it. Her only friend being the motorcycle she rides who communicates with her as if it were a person. That is the life Kino has chosen to live.
Anyone who has ever had the idea of travelling needs to see this, the topics covered range from fanatical religions to the dangers of helping strangers, from cautionary tales about knowing too much about how people think to forcing a perfect society by brain washing juveniles into quite disturbing ideas of the perfect adult. It's rare to look at a series that covers all sides of humanity with some subjects becoming more relevant 16 years after release.
Kino is quite an endearing character who you whole heartedly cheer on in every scenario well rounded by her relationship with Hermes her talking motorcycle.
If I have problems it's more to do with how it's licensing went in the west; you see when Kino's Journey was released in the west it was advertised as an action show and while Kino is very capable with firearms and knives it's a poor reflection on what the show is really about although that does get put right in another trailer, and while the dub is good, I think Hermes was miscast as it sounds like a Chain Smoking Teen Titan Raven; other than that it more than deserves the term beautiful in it's subtitle. The anime did get a 2017 reboot but I prefer the original 2003 release.
Final Verdict: Other than being mishandled by it's western release, Kino's Journey is a beautiful tale about the realities and quirky nature of travelling the world.
I really hope this is the last bad anime I cover, this is really starting to drag.
The kingdom of Sforzando has long had in place a barrier to keep demons away from the country but after 15 years the barriers weaken leaving it's Queen no choice but to call for the lost princess to save the Kingdom.
Flute is confused by her new status as a sudden Princess but reluctantly travels to Sforzando under the protection of Hamel, a sorcerer who can defeat monsters with music along with other would be Music Mages, but there's more to Hamel than meets the eye as he may soon find out.
There are two versions of the story, the manga is played more for comedy while the anime goes for dark fantasy drama with Hamel's personality most affected, in the anime he's an angsty edgelord, in the manga he's the jerk hero. I ended up watching the edgelord version, I think the only reason the anime became darker was to not be directly compared to Slayers, Violinist of Hameln does have more creativity to it's plot and plays a good selection of classic musical scores but it's characters don't lend themselves to more serious writing leaving the cast dull and underdeveloped, also it's lack of budget meant that it spends most of it's time with still frames and scenes so darkened you can't follow the action well. It's a pity because the series does have potential.
There's never been a dub although I can easily see the Slayers cast do this anime.
Final Verdict: There's a lot of good things to work with but it's decision to go darker and lack of budget has made the anime dull to watch.
I was just going to review the film but I may as well cover everything, this is Clamp's X.
The world is coming to an end and Kamui arrives into Tokyo as the one prophecy that will decide the fate of humanity and to which side he favours, the Dragons of Heaven or the Dragons of Earth, but he sides with the Dragons of Heaven as their outcome sides with Humanity and he likes his friends alive; not happy that Kamui has chosen their enemy, the Dragons of Earth create their own Kamui in Kamui's best friend Fuuma by baiting him with his sister Kotori. Fuuma's personality change sets the scene for the final battle as both factions go all out to decide how Armageddon plays out and all the angsty melodrama that goes with it.
I admit the animation is something to behold especially in the movie where the visuals are right up there with Akira but the story and characters are crap, made worst by the movie because no one is on screen long enough to make an impact because they die as quickly as Yamcha against a Saibaman.
The endings are pretty pointless as the story has been on hiatus for 16 years as of today with no plans to continue.
Then we come to Kamui, the best way to describe him is an early 2000s pretty boy with problems protagonist created by a yaoi fangirl who learned all her angsty writing from Twilight, he does nothing but burst into tears instead of I don't know actually using his powers to actually save someone and is only really there to be thrown into homo-erotic fanficton of himself being a play thing to every other male character from the series, now this is not me having a problem with Yaoi, in fact I criticised Fake for not having enough but if I had to watch the whole series with Kamui as a lead I'd lose my mind. I think Kira Yamato put it best in Gundam Seed, "what can you protect if feelings are the only weapons you have?" Clamp built a scenario with grand set pieces and enough creative freedom to go crazy and it completely wastes it on the wrong protagonist, this is why you are artists, not writers Clamp, you can make grand worlds with your beautiful art but all your stories are total and utter trash.
Dubs aren't really any better, the movie especially lacks decent acting as many under sell their performance.
I need pain killers after that.
Final Verdict: Setup like a grand master piece, performed by someone who thinks Twilight is literature.
We return to the 80s with this next review.
Kawa Yui has just started a new school but she doesn't show any interest in anything normal, luckily her new friend Uru Chie tells her about one of the many male gangs in the school the Kimengumi which translates to Funny Face Gang, led by the child like Ichido Rei. Throughout the series other male gangs such as the pretty boys, the sportsman, the delinquents (both genders) and the study freaks are introduced as a typical episode involves the Kimengumi interacting with everyday school situations.
This series is heavily reliant on pun style humour along with over the top reactions as the basis for it's comedy, anyone with a basic grasp of Japanese words could probably work out the puns, the easiest being Kawa Yui just being another way of saying Kawaii, however I mentioned in my HaruChika review that having to translate something that makes more sense in Japanese isn't going to work well with western audiences and this is especially important with comedy, so when you take the Kimengumi on face value (pun intended) you are left with two ways of viewing them, you either play along with their antics or they are just a bunch of retards, a term I don't use lightly.
I'm still on the fence with how to really view this, I get Rei's philosophy on how he portrays himself and it gives a good message of personality shining through despite what others think helped by some good voice acting but I doubt I could stand anymore episodes especially if they followed the same pattern each time offering no character development, so my conclusion is simply can you handle watching five ADHD kids for 86 episodes?
No dub, it's too old but I wouldn't ask for one.
Final Verdict: This is a challenge to watch, it's like being around an ADHD kid who's just snorted Red Bull. Good Voice acting does help make it more tolerable.
So next we look at a very well forgotten anime.
Dr Haruka Nishikikoji is the eccentric over weight Doctor of a major school whose clinic resides in a Medieval Castle built ontop of the School. While doing his best to help students, he has a mad crush on his childhood friend and nurse Miyuki, in which Haruka tries to impress with a number of crazy gadgets to make up for his insecurities, however these gadgets always go horribly wrong either affecting the students or faculty in hilarious ways and it's usually Miyuki who solves the problem usually after beating Haruka senseless first, rinse and repeat as most episodes will follow the same premise, it's almost a bingo game, so play along.
The situation is started by Miyuki being oblivious to what Haruka is planning, Yukihiro one of the students getting caught up in the situation or the Vice Principal's lackey hoping to get Haruka fired but ends up dragged into the situation.
The two kindergarteners playing along innocently.
The vice principal gushing over an antique and then getting it destroyed.
The muscular teacher getting every moment to pose his muscles.
The female teacher who pretty much faints every episode due to the craziness.
The principal herself not doing anything and just plays along.
Miyuki beating Haruka senseless.
Haruka's actual scheme being 90% of the time for perverted reasons.
Miyuki's sister teasing Yukihiro.
That's pretty much the entire anime, you can watch one episode and be done with the show because guarantee it doesn't improve from there, it's not bad but it's a one joke show that gets old quick and you can't help but wonder that Haruka should stop trying so hard and just do his job, he clearly has a degree and Miyuki would be more impressed by how he performs as a proper Doctor.
Any plans for a dub were rejected shortly after release as it didn't perform that well but it is Animax that had it and their dubs have a poor reputation.
Final Verdict: There's an endearing charm to the show but it's still a one joke show that rarely shows depth beyond it's need for pervy jokes and shenanigans.
