No I'm not lazy, I've been really ill lately, so the posts I've been wanting to do have been put back, but now I'm at least well enough to write one or two so I'll start with Maid Sama.
Something about this couple seems familiar to me
Seika High used to be an all male school with a rough reputation until it switched to a Co-ed school; running the school presidency is Misaki Ayuzawa, a girl with a hatred for men thanks to her father running off and leaving her family poor; Misaki has made it her mission to reform the school so that girls feel safe in the former all male environment but stalking her every step of the way is Takumi Usui, the school's most popular male whose very being is an annoyance to Misaki but gets even more complicated when Usui discovers that Misaki works in a Maid Cafe to support her family which would ruin her built up reputation if revealed to the school; rather than tell the whole world Usui keeps it to himself as he attempts to reveal the inner most emotions that make Misaki function with the possibility of love on the horizon.
This show has some clever writing and some intriguing romance twists; Misaki's hatred of men isn't focused on very much avoiding the obvious pitfalls that come with that character type, in fact it gets turned against her when the student council revolts when Misaki goes too far in insulting the male students.
In fact the main focus is exactly what you expect, the building of the romance between Usui and Misaki, any drive away from that is temporary and sometimes even serves to make Misaki or Usui better, the anime doesn't finish the story but it ended on a sweet note, so I'm not too disappointed.
Now the crap stuff.
Maid Sama has a tendency to abuse it's main instrumental theme which becomes an annoyance late on in the series.
The dub suffers with horrific sound issues in the first half of the series DVD sets making all the characters sound quiet which is ironic when you consider Monica Rial's portrayal of Misaki to be on a higher volume compared to the rest of the cast, while the dub is fine minus the issues, the sub is a better experience.
I can't stand Hinata Shintani, not that I have anything against the country bumpkin type it's just his appearance in the anime is an unnecessary distraction from the show's leads.
And finally, this was also echoed by twinkie88 who watched shortly after I did, it's too safe. There's enough moments in the series that warrants a higher age rating than what we actually get, not that I want this to be a hentai but it could've used more adult situations.
Other than that, what I got was enjoyable enough on its own.
Final Verdict: Maid Sama is a well written romance story that could use a little more adult situations and a better soundtrack, otherwise it's worth the time to watch.
I'm back from a convention that's why there's been a lack of posts lately but I plan to rectify that with a new review, this time it's Naruto's Last Movie.
Two years after the end of the Forth Shinobi World War the world is now at peace until the Moon starts descending towards Earth courtesy of movie villain Toneri who requires a Byakugan user to complete the ritual but after Hiashi Hyuuga barely escapes alive after refusing to join, Toneri kidnaps Hinata's sister Hanabi, meanwhile Naruto has become village hero and the icon of all the Leaf Village's girls, which leads to a very nervous Hinata attempting to make a scarf for Naruto in the hopes of confessing her feelings, but once Toneri kidnaps Hanabi. Naruto along with Sai, Shikamaru, Sakura and Hinata travel to save Hanabi but with Toneri's real target being Hinata it isn't long before she gets kidnapped. During the journey through flashbacks and hallucinations Naruto begins to realize that he's falling in love with Hinata and through their love stops the evil plan of Toneri and stop the Moon from destroying the world.
I normally have a love hate relationship with Naruto films, there have been plenty that have been bad while others have been decent, I put this under decent but it's not without it's problems. Essentially what we have is a very tortured love confession that takes a long time to payoff and relies almost entirely on flashbacks and that damn scarf that Hinata never finishes but on the other hand it manages to tie together a loose end of one of Anime's best couples and some of the battles are nice to watch and it's always a pleasure to watch Hinata be a bad ass.
Dub is decent as to be expected with Naruto which finishes with one of the most touching endings to a film and considering the last film I reviewed it made up for a lot of disappointments.
Final Verdict: The film was very enjoyable despite it's over reliance on used footage and left quite an impression on me.
Extra: Let me speak seriously for a moment. I normally give Naruto a hard time but only because I know how much potential it has but when it does something well it really shows. I didn't really get to speak much on the ending last time and I thought I bring up the Naruto, Hinata couple in particular; a line that sticks with me in particular from the film is when Naruto says that love is like making a scarf, it takes time and effort to create, and he's exactly right; the one you love the most is always the one you make the most effort to build in terms of relationship and Hinata and Naruto is a good example of this relationship
Now for another film, this time Tales of Vesperia First Strike.
For those already familiar, this is the prequel to the game of the same name featuring the origins or partial origins of the two characters Yuri Lowell and Flynn Scifo.
We start in a small town that's experiencing trouble in a nearby forest as monsters begin to gather as a result of an unnatural phenomenon of aer, a substance used to power blastia a crystal catalyst used to modernize the world in various ways, call it electricity with the same properties as magic. Anyway the Niren Corps are charged with defending the town from this unusual phenomenon, however it's stand out characters don't really get along as Yuri and Flynn constantly fight much to the annoyance of the twins Hisca and Chastel as well as their captain Niren Fedrok.
As the situation deepens and help seemingly non existent, the Niren Corps track the source down to some ruins in order to confront the cause of the phenomenon with mixed results.
This film is a bit meh, I'm sorry I can't use a more constructive description for this film, there's nothing really wrong with it, it plays things very safe, the additional characters are welcomed to break up the mostly male cast, the plot twist was done okay and overall it's not that bad of a film it just didn't leave that much of an impression on me and there are a number of reasons why that is.
1. For a game so colorful, the film is very dark with it's color palette.
2. While the dub is okay much of the cast over acts, Flynn, Hisca and Chastel especially.
3. Flynn is a jerk when I expected him not to be.
4. The main theme music is over played.
5. It doesn't get me pumped up to play the game.
Overall I don't think it needed to be a film, as a DLC in the game maybe or even a TV special or part of an anime episode but not a film, it's not good enough to be a film.
Final Verdict: It's okay but it didn't leave me with much of an impression, mostly blamed on overacting and the fact that Flynn is an unlikable jerk.
Now for an anime I really wanted to like, this is Nichijou.
Nichijou refers to the tagline "My Ordinary Life" so we have a comedy slice of life in the vain of Lucky Star, Pani Poni Dash and the fantastic Azumanga Daioh, so hardly an original anime but hopefully it will deliver. The main focus is often around the household of eight year old scientist Hakase and her really realistic robot girl Nano along with a cat named Sakamoto who just do normal things while on the other side of the main character scale we have the three friends Yuko, Mio and Mai as they go through their own lives. Around them several smaller characters get their own scenes of randomness, some more random than others which gives off the same aura as the rest of the series.
The humor is based on the ridiculous moments of overreaction that often reaches surreal levels when you consider that this show should have some grounding in reality yet it almost breaks itself several times in an attempt to push it's only real strength and that's where it's downfall lies.
Japanese humor can be very difficult to digest if your from a western speaking nation, the majority of the interactions between Yuko and her friends relies heavily on typical Japanese play on word jokes that don't make a lot of sense translated into English regardless of sub or dub and that can be the difference between success and failure, the other three shows mentioned at the beginning of this review all share a common strength in letting the audience digest the gags, while Nichijou either can take a joke and run with it until it gets stale and unfunny or switch to a completely different scene altogether. The best moments are Hakase's scenes with Sakamoto and Nano, as the chemistry between them works to the strengths of their characters while the other cast members, the trio of Yuko, Mio and Mai included, have problems keeping a scene together especially if the joke outstays it's welcome not made any easier by the whole Helvetica Standard segment which doesn't make any sense, nor does the Igo Soccer Club or the Daifuku salesman.
I really tried to like this show and a good portion of it is good but it's cluttered and spoiled by it's own sense of humor, I get this is meant to be like it's older siblings of the same genre but it just doesn't work.
There is no dub which is just as well as it's hard enough subtitled.
Final Verdict: The only way you can really enjoy this series is if you have the right sense of humor, otherwise don't waste your time.
I must be in a good mood because I have another Disney film for you, this time Basil the Great Mouse Detective.
Right at the beginning, a young mouse girl named Olivia witnesses her father's kidnapping at the hands of a bat, and seeks out Basil of Baker Street a famous detective in London, in her search she meets up with Dr David Q Dawson a veteran army medic of the Afghanistan war who is looking for a place to stay, upon finding Basil they deduce that Olivia's father was kidnapped by Professor Ratigan who is trying to use the expert toy making skills of Olivia's father to replace the Queen with an anatomic clone of whom he can manipulate into declaring him king, so it's up to Basil to save the day.
I came into this film expecting more or at least a spectacle that may not look much on paper but is fun enough to enjoy.
Unfortunately I found the film a bit lacking in a lot of places, don't get me wrong it's still a good film I just expected a lot more from it, my big issue is that the big climax was spoiled by what I could describe as serious sound issues, it seemed to suffer from the 80s dark age animation syndrome where everything is rotoscoped to add a gritty realistic feel to it but can look cheap in places, which was fine for Don Bluth with Land Before Time and Secret of Nimh but not for Disney who were already feeling the pain from the Black Cauldron and while Basil restored a little bit of faith it would take another film before returning to fortune with the Little Mermaid.
The stuff I liked including the voice acting, characters and story was really effective, I just feel a bit cheated in terms of quality, the 80s seems to suit other animation houses better than others and the 80s just simply wasn't kind to Disney.
Overall Basil the Great Mouse Detective is still enjoyable but you may find the quality a bit lacking from this 30 year old film.
