Okay back to cartoon reviews and I did promise more Disney so here is Quack Pack.
In the 90s Disney tried all sorts of different cartoons in order to keep up with the changing trends of the decade leading to the whole teenage rebellion phase which allowed this cartoon to exist, which followed on from the success of very similar program Goof Troop.
In this series, Donald and Daisy work as a cameraman and reporter respectively but also have to deal with teenage versions of the triplets Huey, Dewey & Louie as they pretty much act as more "extreme" versions of what they were portrayed in the Duck Tales cartoon. I use the term "extreme" loosely as it's more the 90s lingo over actual plot and development as you can copy and paste the triplets into several other cartoons of the era and get exactly the same cartoon.
To put it into perspective it's like the Ninja Turtles but all of them are Michelangelo, sure they do display a lot more noticeable personality traits that seem to separate them more but it never lasts any longer than a few minutes per episode and then they return to being their normal annoying selves, not made any easier by the whole super hero thing which seems like a forced decision on the directors part.
So to conclude I can say that this show had good intentions but ultimately tried to cash in on a trend that had already out stayed it's welcome and because of it, it has aged poorly, the only thing I can really salvage from this show is that this is probably the best version of Daisy Duck in cartoon and comic strip form that you'll ever see.
Next up a hybrid of European and Japanese deity culture in Campione.
Godou Kusanagi travels to Italy to return a stone tablet on request by his Grandfather only to be confronted by an Italian woman in a large red dress named Erica Blandelli, their fated meeting triggers the events of the arrival of the god Verethragna who Godou kills earning him the title of Campione, a term used for people who slay god. Having taken Verethragna's power, Godou along with Erica and a harem of other women take on other Campiones and rogue gods in order to keep the world in balance.
This is a poor man's Tenchi Muyo; I get really sick of seemingly powerful male characters get completely overwhelmed by the women in his harem; it got so bad with Tenchi Muyo it became an in-house joke, while much of Godou's achievements get completely overshadowed by his inability to control the women around him. This makes the anime especially messy as there are far too many moments where you get the feeling they spend too much time messing about with typical cliche harem moments rather than keeping the story in check, there are moments such as Godou knowing and fighting the Campione Salvatore Doni despite never being seen on screen in the same place that needed some back story to explain. If they wanted to make a show with action and a hint of ecchi they should've gone all out and made a hentai; that seems like a strange criticism but in the state as it is, it would've done so much better as a hentai, it would've made some of the more awkward moments seem less awkward.
Added to the problems are bad cases of overacting by the dub cast, not enough time to establish a solid flowing story, characters that don't need to be there and a complete reliance on Athena to make up the bulk of the Villain role.
On the plus side, the way the gods are cut down to size is extremely clever, their authority gets overruled by their less than stellar histories which grants the Campione the power to slay them easily, so there is a good anime in there somewhere, just don't bother trying to dig deep as you'll only hit more mud.
Final Verdict: Yet another 13 Episode series with barely enough time to explain what's going on, along with poor acting, ecchiness over story and a cast of completely unlikable characters, Poor Man's Tenchi Muyo is the only term needed to describe Campione.
Now to put to bed an anime that's been asking for it for the last few years, it's Bleach.
Ichigo Kurosaki is a kind hearted delinquent who can see ghosts, no this isn't Yu Yu Hakusho but at least you know where the inspiration came from. During the night, a monster known as a hollow appears and is fought off by a Soul Reaper named Rukia who is surprised by Ichigo's ability to see her. As the trouble escalates Ichigo is given some of Rukia's power but ends up taking all of it and becomes a Soul Reaper himself. Not looking too kindly on the events, the Soul Society capture Rukia and sentence her to death. Ichigo feeling responsible goes after her to rescue her but things are not as it seems as someone from inside the Soul Society is using the execution to create their own plans. The rest of the series beyond the Arrancar arc is pretty much making it up as they go along so feel free to stop at that point, which brings up the elephant in the room. What went wrong with Bleach?
At the time it had the same popularity as Attack on Titan does today, the characters were incredible, the story and fighting was epic, it taught One Piece and Naruto to up their game and made them better, so why would that fail?
Well the story that took so long to build up had no payoff in the end, the whole thing with Aizen was ended poorly and as if to rub salt into the wounds, the series kept going with some of the worst writing I've ever read, it came to the point when coming into the last arc, the imagination faded, the action became dreary, the story made no sense and after suffering the Fullbring Arc, none of us couldn't care less if Bleach was cancelled, and by that point the anime already was.
It was like Tite Kubo was insulting our intelligence, he had a chance to close when the opportunity came and didn't, he was too blinded by his ambition to write more that he lost his way, it felt like Dragonball GT all over again only this time the creator made it happen rather than the marketing people. Naruto at least knew it was getting too hard to follow and stopped, Dragonballz is making amends for GT and One Piece is learning to pace itself with it's story to avoid Bleach's downfall.
Dub is good but doesn't excuse the fact that the show is now beyond help.
Final Verdict: It all started so well but after ending a major arc poorly it never recovered and started descending into an endless spiral of poor chapter after poor chapter before crashing into the ground in it's current state, on the last chapters, anime already cancelled and no hope of retaining it's former fans. Good riddance Bleach.
Moving onto my next review, a look at the colorful world of Vividred Operation.
In the distant future, the invention of the Manifestation Engine prevents Earth from experiencing an energy crisis, this seems like an ideal future but the peace gets disrupted by the appearance of the Alone, a malevolent alien race hell bent on destroying the world aided by a mysterious girl. Earth's greatest defense comes from a group of hi-tech magical girls with giant weapons and fusion powers to stop the Alone.
Now you'd think that by watching this show you would see an entirely original idea for the Magical Girl genre, certainly the colorful majorette costumes, creative fusions and weaponry certainly make this show stand out but tell me if you've heard these before.
Happy Go Lucky girl given superpowers to fight unseen nightmarish monsters whose fate is being manipulated by another girl with her own unique reality warping powers. (Madoka Magica)
The Alone don't seem to possess a normal form and are just shapes by nature who do a lot of laser shooting. (Strike Witches)
All female characters seem to show their butts to the camera once too often. (Also Strike Witches)
Characters are assisted by a talking rodent. (Negima)
Enemy is being manipulated by a crow. (Princess Tutu)
One of the characters is named Aoi Futuba. (Shared with a character from You're Under Arrest and Cat Planet Cuties)
All weapons are overly large and mechanical looking. (Symphogear)
Lead character seems to know what to do despite no training whatsoever and manages to persuade others into it. (Also Strike Witches)
Even the cast look like improved versions of the cast of Ground Defense Force Mao-Chan even down to the costumes.
So yeah, for something that looks original it looks like the forbidden love child of Madoka Magica and Strike Witches raised by Symphogear and that's a little disappointing for so much promise, it's good if your new to the genre or want a different setting to your magical girl shows, but in all honesty they wasted a lot of potential, and what a potential it had with it's fusions, it's so far the only Magical Girl series that's successfully forged fusion as a workable power without being completely stupid with it. Unfortunately unless a Season 2 is made, I can't overlook the fact that a series that looked like it had such a huge budget is really not as original as it seems and I deem that a failure.
Subtitled only, no dub, a dub would probably work though so I wouldn't write off one.
Final Verdict: It presents itself as original but anyone who's seen Madoka Magica and Strike Witches can see that Vividred Operation isn't that original at all. On it's own and without that prior knowledge, it's competent enough to keep your attention but you'll end up disappointed that the creators didn't run further with some of the ideas when you finish the show which spoils an otherwise epic showcase.
Lets review something, because I need to and I just finished this one, this is Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions.
Yuta Togashi is the Dark Flame Master! At least he was; back in junior high he developed this unusual persona, for reasons of sounding awesome at the time but upon going through middle school and starting high school he stopped being the Dark Flame Master and started acting normal. This is explained as Chunibyo, a state where you develop a behavior that draws attention to yourself which can take the form of a deliberate anti-social personality, a superiority complex or in the case of this series, complete delusional feeling of having supernatural abilities; this is surprisingly common and people simply grow out of it but for Yuta his past comes back to haunt him when a Chunibyo girl named Rikka Takanashi drops into his life who herself claims to possess the Eye of the Wicked Lord and even has other friends who engage in this Chunibyo state, with Rikka seemingly drawn to Yuta and Rikka's older sister blackmailing Yuta into watching over her, Yuta is stuck in the life he tried to leave behind.
This anime is a mixed bag, on the one hand it's clever story telling, brilliant voice work from both sides of the sub and dub, well written characters and some really emotional moments really give a believable feel to how the characters interact and react, it's almost as if a psychologist made this, made more plausible when you discover why Rikka acts the way she does through the episodes focusing on her family and past and why she's so desperate to find the Ethereal Horizon.
However on the other side of the coin, jokes out stay their welcome, there really isn't enough time to develop late arriving characters and quite a large number of scenes were poorly strung together, another 30 seconds was needed in each episode just to better thread the individual scenes together. I'm glad there's a season 2 because there are far too many things left unresolved and I won't tick this off as a good anime until season 2 can do that, otherwise it's at least half way there.
Again the dub is fantastic, so credit where credit is due.
Final Verdict: I would normally avoid these anime but it's clever writing kept me intrigued until the end, and while it's worn out jokes and pacing is an issue, it's vocal performances and story are worth sticking around for and with a season 2 available I hope I can finish this series strongly.
