Next on the review train is Shonen Jump's Gintama.
In alternative Edo Japan, aliens attack and take over after the Shogun wusses out on the battle and betrays the samurai, handing power over to said aliens.
The characters we focus on are Gintoki and his two friends Shinpachi and Kagura, each with their own unique talents and past as they do odd jobs around the Edo region to pay the bills, sort of feudal Japan Cowboy Bebop. However old allies come back to haunt Gintoki and his many allies.
Plot is fairly straight forward but it's hard to really understand what's going on when there is so many gags going on, the film I watched which I'm basing this review on is part of the main story abridged into an easily digestible film and I can honsetly say the experience is unapologetically crass and vulgar and Gintama is very self aware of this as it lampshades the fact that a) it's no where near the level of the likes of Naruto and Bleach and b) the 4th wall breaking stuff with Warner Bros.
The dub especially takes advantage of this as it uses every possible gag in the book and while the majority of the gags hit the mark it does take away the impact of it's more serious scenes leaving me unsympathetic when a character dies or not feeling invested in a good fight scene and that can be Gintama's biggest problem.
Do I enjoy it? In a way, it doesn't do anything different that Shonen Jump hasn't already done better and the fact that it's self aware can make it seem 2nd rate but I do enjoy the experience on show.
Final Verdict: Gintama can be fun but it doesn't break any new ground that hasn't already been tried and tested by better Shonen Jump anime. Not to say it's bad but it is very predictable.
This is the first anime that I've finished which was inspired by a personal event, more on that later, as we review C3, (Because the full title is ridiculous)
Yura Yamato is starting a new school, however she's naturally shy and socially awkward making fitting in difficult, to top it all off she's felt isolated since her last school and is a lucid day dreamer but more on that later.
Her strange behaviour and the fact that her roommate is the leader of the Airsoft club gets her scouted for the C3 club, (derived from Command, Control, Communication an actual military term)
During her time in C3, she enters several tournaments and feels the experiences through lucid daydreaming where she feels she's in a real battle, however her past and the desire to get noticed starts complicating things for her as she starts showing a darker side.
Characters are a mixed bag and quite a number of interesting characters get overlooked in the story department in favor of Osaka's Gainax cousin, which is a shame because there's a number of characters who need some context for existing in the first place no less the other members of C3 barring Yura and Sonora who actually got a backstory.
This does have the typical sports theme of newbie trying to find herself after being dragged into the sport and is usually influenced by others to improve and actually has talent, see Hajime no Ippo, Princess Nine and every other sports anime in the last few decades, but in 13 episodes it pretty much follows the set trend without needing a thousand more, as the sport of Airsoft is niche enough to not be noticed and with a title this long and forgettable it doesn't really help it's popularity, no dub as there wasn't one but if there was, some character voices would be too predictable.
Final Verdict: Sadly its forgettable, the title is too long, it fails to stand out among its peers and doesn't really give me much to work with in terms of characters, which is a shame because I can see potential in this series.
Extra: I have done Airsoft and it's punishing, while fun its very painful; it's portrayal in C3 is fairly accurate and does have a very niche appeal and is easier to manage than paintball not to mention cheaper.
In my home town of Gloucester we have the biggest Airsoft arena in Europe taking up an old abandoned Match Factory the size of a Rugby pitch, if you ever want to try it, visit Gloucester and ask about Strikeforce.
Everyone is probably sick of the fallout from the Ghostbusters reboot so I'll keep that commentary to a minimum if I can, in the meantime lets look at the first attempt at a reboot, Extreme Ghostbusters.
Following on from the Real Ghostbusters Cartoon, the team have gone their separate ways since the work has dried up leaving only Egon to keep an eye on the containment unit while teaching a college class on the paranormal to further his understanding of the subject, however when ghosts start returning, Egon decides to form a new team of misfits, and these are our main characters.
Role Call
Eduardo Rivera
A Latino slacker full of wisecracks, jokes and the occasional pop culture reference, he's a bit of a woman chaser but is intelligent enough to back up some of his short falls.
Roland Jackson
The level headed African American mechanic, he helps improve much of the machinery used by the team.
Garrett Miller
A Jock paraplegic stuck in a wheelchair his entire life yet he's into sports and doesn't seem phased by the whole disabled label, in fact he mocks his condition constantly.
and finally Kylie Griffin
A Goth styled girl with a high degree of knowledge in the field of paranormal, a very complex character with tons of hidden depths and a worthy backstory to go with the show's tone and is often portrayed as the leader.
Tone is an important factor in this sequel to the original cartoon as much of the comedy is mixed with dark, grittier and more older audience themes and it really works well. It's living proof that you can have a different team of Ghostbusters and still do the name justice even if it goes in a darker direction, in fact I'd rather have the reboot with this team over the all female team any day.
I don't hate the new film, I'm just disappointed by it; it was always going to be judged unfairly due to it being a remake of what was a cult classic that really influenced the interests of geeks of my generation, this cartoon got the same treatment yet it succeeded enough to be judged as it's own product because it didn't try to imitate Ghostbusters, it just approached it with a new perspective and that's what the reboot film should've done to begin with and not appear as a gender swap Ghostbusters made to please corporates who think they can make tons of money making more of Frozen's Elsa rather than respecting the franchise they have and realizing that there was already a strong female Ghostbuster they could've used instead of what we got and to top it off, Kylie Griffin is in the extended comicbook universe which would be more canon than any other Ghostbusters media outside the films.
Back to reviewing anime and next is the World is Still Beautiful.
Nike, the 4th Princess of the Rain Dukedom has been reluctantly picked to marry King Livius of the Sun Kingdom, a man dubbed as a tyrant for conquering the world in three short years, upon arriving she discovers that Livius is still just a child and will have her work cut out for her to try and make the marriage work, in doing so Nike discovers that there is more to Livius than his reputation suggests and with everyone else being reluctant to see the relationship succeed it's up to Nike and Livius to beat the non believers. Did I mention that Nike can make Rain with singing?
As a romance story, World is Still Beautiful really gives you a good indication of how a real romance works, there will be non-believers on both sides who take one look at this child and seemingly unknown woman and think "this will never work" but work they do and it takes a lot of communication, effort and understanding faults and weaknesses to really succeed and that's real life and this anime does an excellent job of portraying it. Okay so Livius looks like the forbidden love child of Ciel Phantomhive and Lelouch vi Britannia and Nike's song sounds laughable when they speak the English Phrase "It's a Tender Rain!" but it really adds to a fun atmosphere when it focusses on more lighthearted moments and it makes the show more accessible and even the moments of drama seem stronger for it.
There is no dub but I doubt it would be as effective and the voice acting choices would be a little too obvious if it were.
Final Verdict: A good story with a very believable romance and while it tires out some of it's plot elements near the end it doesn't become a burden on the series and ends on a tender note, hoping for more to come.
Canada we need to talk, now I love your country, your people are the nicest in the world and that's only scratching the surface of the compliments I can offer you, but I can't stand your cartoons, don't get me wrong a handful are decent but the majority are just god damn awful and this one is inexcusable.
Basic premise and that's all it is, four kids and a monkey try and make the mundane awesome every episode but it always goes wrong in some way, now this comes from the early 2010s era where the term "Awesome" was exhausted to the point that I feel the word is now resigned to history along with Gnarly, Bogus and Cowabunga.
This cartoon is trying way too hard to please it's audience and it feels like a direct ripoff of the much more popular Phineas and Ferb who were at the prime of their popularity. It's main issue is that it feels obnoxious, you really get the sense that none of these characters really deserve to have such abilities, the animation style is a little creepy and I just want to shoot the cheerleading in the background. I don't even like the characters, Lars is an obvious stereotype, Lester and Thera may as well be Johnny Test in both genders, the Monkey is the standard cookie cutter Monkey mascot and Noam is........actually he's okay in fact the cartoon would be an improvement if the main character was just him but as he isn't the cartoon is a piece of crap.
In fact apart from League of Super Evil, everything made under the Nerd Corps banner is total crap, I hope I don't have to review the other shows anytime soon.
