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.
Okay more reviewing and we return to the Cartoon Vault for Dumbo.
An American Circus gets a visit from the stork, back in the days where the concept of babies in media was that storks bring them which hasn't been a concept since the 90s but then again this film is 75 years old.
Any who, one elephant in particular receives a baby that has overly large ears which attracts shock and awe from the other elephants who dub him Dumbo but the mother isn't that interested in their comments, meanwhile the Circus is traveling up through the state of Florida accompanied by musical sequences such as Casey Jr the Train (yep that's the name of the train) and the workman's chorus.
Unfortunately opening day in a new town doesn't go according to plan as an incident with a stupid child gets Dumbo's mother imprisoned leaving Dumbo to fend for himself which leads to him being rejected by the other elephants; luckily a mouse named Timothy (Yep that's his name) sees some potential in Dumbo and tries to improve his image by helping him get involved in some spectacular Circus acts only for that to go wrong as well demoting him to clown. After a tender moment with his mother and a drunken hallucination, Dumbo finds himself in a tree where a murder of crows (not an actual murder but the right term for them) encourages Dumbo to fly thinking that's what he actually did to get up in the tree. After a spectacular display during a Circus act, Dumbo becomes the famous Flying Elephant making the Circus and Timothy Mouse very rich.
So after 75 years what have we discovered now about Dumbo that wasn't apparent during it's first release? Well for one thing Dumbo doesn't talk and that makes his curiosity and emotions show a lot more, you instantly sympathize with him when he gets separated from his mother and can't help but cry during the more emotional scenes. Equally other characters aren't as clear cut in the black and white, good and evil books. The Ringmaster is often portrayed as a villain but he's only really doing his job, he's just a product of the time and old evils of circuses, equally Timothy Mouse acts more like a manager than a friend to Dumbo and you get the feeling that he would walk away with tons of money the first moment he gets, but in his defense, he did encourage a change of heart from the crows who were only making fun of the situation, so the characters aren't always as clear cut as you might think. On the other hand the other elephants are incredibly hypocritical about their pride when you consider that THEY ARE IN A CIRCUS! I hardly call what they do respectable or proud, it must be very degrading being forced to balance on a ball and get trod on by other elephants for entertainment.
And finally props have to go to the fact that Dumbo only flew thanks to a drunken hallucination episode which would be very dangerous in real life so don't try it at home but the sequence is by far one of Disney's finest works of animation and is a great representation of why not to drink too much and what might happen if you did, remember this film is from 1941 and social responsibility didn't start until the very late 50s early 60s.
So yeah the film is ultimately very charming and worth the watch and has a timeless feel, but knowing that a live action remake is being directed by Tim Burton makes me both excited and disturbed, so watch this space.
You lucky, lucky people I just finished another anime and this one is a film, One Piece Film Z.
We start off on an island where a guy going by the name of Z sporting a heavily weaponized arm steals some high powered explosives from the marines and proceeds to blow up a Volcanic Island while battling a Marine Admiral.
Cue later on and the Strawhat Pirates are having a party when they bring Z onto their ship when he's floating in the ocean. Sadly not being very grateful to Luffy proceeds to destroy him and his crew upon hearing that they are pirates with some crew members getting younger thanks to a female subordinate of Z having the power to make people 12 years younger leaving Robin, Nami and Chopper in dismay while Brook simply enjoys having a fuller head of hair.
Upon the second Volcanic Island, Luffy with advice from a former Admiral and enemy named Aokiji has a rematch with Z only to lose again and that island blowing up as well. Apparently Z plans to blow up the three major Volcanic Islands in order to create a chain reaction that destroys the New World and everyone with it, Pirates, Marines and Civilians. The story comes to a climax on the final island where Luffy settles the score with Z once and for all.
Now this is not entirely a typical One Piece film as the villain has a lot of depth to him, rare when you consider most One Piece film villains to be 1 or 2 dimensional with very little reason to care for them, but with Z you do sympathize with his cause and you do get a sense of why he feels so strongly about his beliefs that he'd want to cause wide spread devastation. I wish I could say the same about the rest of the film. Don't get me wrong it's a good film but lacks a strong story to go with it's strong villain. You get a sense that this is all been done before and while the initial payoff at the end is a good one you feel that the experience is as typical as every other One Piece film before it and that's a real shame.
Dubbing is top quality, and despite my disdain for anything Avril Lavigne does in anime since the whole "Make 5 Wishes" incident, she does do a decent cover of "Bad Reputation" and "How You Remind Me", a rare choice of Western Music in an anime.
Final Verdict: It's a One Piece film and behaves like one, it's got a lot going for it but fails to take full advantage of it's greatest strengths. Still a fairly decent watch.
Back to reviewing anime and we have a good one in A Certain Scientific Railgun.
Academy City is a student run city packed to the brim with Espers, a group of gifted humans with psychic abilities but inevitably with a city packed full of this kind of power is constantly full of crime. Thankfully a crime busting group called Judgement is on hand to stop Academy City's crime problem with officer Kuroko Shirai on the case whose best friend and love interest is an especially powerful esper able to control electricity at high levels named Mikoto Misaka, better known by reputation as Railgun. Together with allies Kazari Uiharu and Ruiko Saten among others, the girls attempt to solve the ever growing mysteries that keep popping up in Academy City, especially when Dr Harumi Kiyama starts making an appearance.
This series is a spinoff of another series named "A Certain Magical Index" set in the same universe and some of their characters even turn up in Railgun. Where this series stands is before and during the events of Magical Index so you won't feel too confused if you watch this before Index as this probably sets things up better.
The show itself is very good, it showcases it's morals in the correct way, the action while a little limited is awesome to watch, the payoff in the last few episodes of season one is worth it and it's not always obvious what's going to happen which keeps things unpredictable, however there is a lot of filler to stomach in-between major plot moments which aren't all bad but can disrupt the flow of the story especially when all the characters are doing is messing about, so you can probably cut out 5-6 Episodes and still have a full story.
Also while I generally enjoy the majority of the cast such as anti hero Harumi Kiyama and main character Mikoto Misaka, I absolutely despise Kuroko Shirai for being a patronizing bitch, made even more so by her dub performance. Yeah Kuroko rubs me the wrong way, guess I'm not a fan of the "I work for the law so that gives me the right to be a preachy pretentious bitch" Type. I don't much like Uiharu either as she reminds me too much of Miracle Rookie Yoshika Miyafuji from Strike Witches.
The dub is reasonable but some performances can make the characters seem off in personality.
There's much more of the series to go so I'm open to watching season two and watching Magical Index; if Railgun entertained you then Index should be more of the same.
Final Verdict: The anime is good and knows how to keep you thinking and well entertained but a couple of characters will test your tolerance and the series could probably be 5-6 episodes shorter but what it keeps is very good.
