Anime, completed series, 13 episodes
Rarely do I find anything on TV that can make me laugh with legitimate humor, engross me with a unique visual style, and make me cry on 3 separate occasions. Angel Beats! (Angel Boats after this point, since boats sounds better) is a masterwork than incorporates several different genres without overwhelming itself.
Otanashi awakes one night outside a large school with no memory of who he is or how he got there, watching as a schoolgirl aims a sniper rifle at a strange white haired girl, some ways away. When the sniper, Yuri, tries to recruit him into an "afterlife battlefront," he decides that he may have better luck reasoning with someone who doesn't aim guns at other girls. He tries to talk with the silent and robotic white haired girl, or "Angel" as Yuri calls her. She tells him that this is the afterlife, and when he asks for proof, she promptly stabs him through the heart. Otonashi wakes up the next day, entirely fine, but his shirt still ripped and bloody. He once again meets Yuri, along with a big cast of characters who can't agree on a name other than the "afterlife battlefront" to call their group.
The plot follows Otonashi and the other members of the battlefront, who are waging war in a world where wounds and death are cured the next day, against the mysterious Angel. While things seem serious at first, Yuri explains that by following the rules (attending class, etc) will make you disappear forever, probably to be reincarnated as a barnacle. Therefore, the battlefront basically causes chaos as best they can in a world filled with unresponsive dummy classmates to simulate a real school. While this seems like a trivial plot, what really makes the series shine is the excellent writing and execution of characters and animation.
While most of the battlefront is easily forgettable (except for the most important characters and TK, a hip dancing guy who spouts engrish like a DDR machine) they all play a part in making the world seem alive. Someone is always moving in a group shot, and while this may seem like an obvious choice, it is a breath of fresh air to anyone used to limited animation. The production values are high and well utilized, evidenced especially in the first episode where a concert is expertly rendered with beautiful flowing animation and colors. Dramatic parts are emphasized by intense lighting usually only seen in feature length films. The quality never goes down either, making every episode as visually pleasing as the last.
As the plot unfolds it deftly intertwines comedy, tragedy, and action. We start to learn of the horrific circumstances under which each character died before arriving in the afterlife; each is fantastically hear-wrenching without ever going overboard or seeming to try too hard. The writing is keenly aware of itself and strikes a perfect balance of emotion and realism. Characters who at first seemed important but turned bland were written as growing more emotionally distant from Otonashi, just as the audience grows more distant to them. Angel Boats flawlessly guides your thoughts and feelings just the way it wants you to, making you think that it's just you that started disliking this character and liking that one when it is really a carefully crafted plan to get you to feel that way. It not only does this in its tragic and dramatic moments, but in the comedy where it creates such a good dynamic between characters that you can't help but like everyone Otonashi likes.
Angel Boats is not without flaws. I have trouble recommending it to someone who doesn't watch anime because at first glance it seems to be so terribly steeped in anime cliche. The drawings are the only thing that slips into this style, however, as everything else takes a delightfully original direction. Yuri is a direct rip-off of Haruhi Suzumiya (titular character from a far less creative and original show) but even then the writers seem aware of this and slowly downplay her role. The soundtrack is woefully lacking, but the music it does have is decent in it's own respect.
Overall, I have no choice but to recommend Angel Beats! to every man woman and child that I meet. The writing is crisp, the atmosphere is masterfully manipulated, and the animation doesn't skimp. Best of all at 13 episodes it doesn't overstay its welcome and leaves you both satisfied and craving more. I urge you to look past the style it is drawn in and try watching it. It takes everything bad you've heard about anime, puts it in a sleeper hold, and blazes a trail.
New favorite series.
5/5 stars
(No really, episode 4, 7:00 in. Watch as it literally takes everything terrible about Japan and chokes it.)
Monday, June 28, 2010
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Review: Durarara!!
Anime, completed series, 24 episodes.
I'm told that Durarara!! (Known as Dura from here on) is a masterpiece from a writer's standpoint. That it's plot and characters are the best of any other contemporary anime. For the life of me, I can't see why.
Dura follows Ryugamine Mikado a high schooler moving to a new town, his friends Kida Masaomi, Anri Sonohara, and fifty thousand other characters; so many that both openings of the series are dedicated to naming them. We are introduced to the city of Ikebukuro where the story takes place, and the many strange people who inhabit it. Foremost is Celty Sturlson, the local urban legend who is a headless motorcycle rider. There is also talk about lingering gangs, kidnappings, serial attacks, and basically anything else you can think of. Each element is introduced early in the series, then forgotten until the second season. Celty's story is fairly interesting, and dominates the first season, but after the 13th episode she is thrown to the curb, and the magical headless motorcycle riding woman becomes nothing more than the 3 main character's personal ferry.
There are so many characters that while all of their stories fit into the main plot in some way, almost none of them are resolved. Like Celty, after they serve their part, they are totally ignored. As for the 3 we stick with, none are interesting enough to warrant a spot as a main character. Anri serves the purpose of being the only character more bland than Mikado, who spends most of his time being sheepish and entirely useless. Kida's only redeeming quality is he adds some semblance of life to the party in his loud, maybe-he's-gay way. The best characters in the entire series were the bit characters, good only because of their outrageousness (A bartender who throws vending machines, a black ex-black ops russian who know serves sushi.) At first I thought the main villain was interesting, putting people in stressful situations in the same way Jigsaw would, because "He loves humanity." I waited for more development, as he single-handedly orchestrated all the events of the series, but there was none. There was no explanation to his motivations for targeting these 3 highschoolers and changing their lives with headless riders and gang wars and soul crushing agony other than it being interesting.
The musical score tries so hard to be different and avante-garde that I actually feel sympathy for it. The series is littered with the same instances of random strings plucked on a doublebass, discordant notes on a trumpet that it manages to be more interesting than the series in it's badness.
The few highlights of this series are maybe instances from 2 episodes, which were remarkably dull considering what it could have done with it's large cast and multiple storylines. Saying that this is written well is the same as taking a shotgun full of buck to an archery range. Yes, you hit the target, but the buck is all over, and most of the pellets flew off into the distance, totally forgotten...
2/5 stars
I'm told that Durarara!! (Known as Dura from here on) is a masterpiece from a writer's standpoint. That it's plot and characters are the best of any other contemporary anime. For the life of me, I can't see why.
Dura follows Ryugamine Mikado a high schooler moving to a new town, his friends Kida Masaomi, Anri Sonohara, and fifty thousand other characters; so many that both openings of the series are dedicated to naming them. We are introduced to the city of Ikebukuro where the story takes place, and the many strange people who inhabit it. Foremost is Celty Sturlson, the local urban legend who is a headless motorcycle rider. There is also talk about lingering gangs, kidnappings, serial attacks, and basically anything else you can think of. Each element is introduced early in the series, then forgotten until the second season. Celty's story is fairly interesting, and dominates the first season, but after the 13th episode she is thrown to the curb, and the magical headless motorcycle riding woman becomes nothing more than the 3 main character's personal ferry.
There are so many characters that while all of their stories fit into the main plot in some way, almost none of them are resolved. Like Celty, after they serve their part, they are totally ignored. As for the 3 we stick with, none are interesting enough to warrant a spot as a main character. Anri serves the purpose of being the only character more bland than Mikado, who spends most of his time being sheepish and entirely useless. Kida's only redeeming quality is he adds some semblance of life to the party in his loud, maybe-he's-gay way. The best characters in the entire series were the bit characters, good only because of their outrageousness (A bartender who throws vending machines, a black ex-black ops russian who know serves sushi.) At first I thought the main villain was interesting, putting people in stressful situations in the same way Jigsaw would, because "He loves humanity." I waited for more development, as he single-handedly orchestrated all the events of the series, but there was none. There was no explanation to his motivations for targeting these 3 highschoolers and changing their lives with headless riders and gang wars and soul crushing agony other than it being interesting.
The musical score tries so hard to be different and avante-garde that I actually feel sympathy for it. The series is littered with the same instances of random strings plucked on a doublebass, discordant notes on a trumpet that it manages to be more interesting than the series in it's badness.
The few highlights of this series are maybe instances from 2 episodes, which were remarkably dull considering what it could have done with it's large cast and multiple storylines. Saying that this is written well is the same as taking a shotgun full of buck to an archery range. Yes, you hit the target, but the buck is all over, and most of the pellets flew off into the distance, totally forgotten...
2/5 stars
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