I would complain about the Sound Rating though. For someone like me, who loves
classical music in modern productions, one third of the OST is a masterpiece.
Another one third is simply brilliant(but not as good as the first one), and the
rest is well fitted to the series and various situations in the show.
Of course, I'm not saying that Bach and Rachmaninov would be the best for Puni
Puni Poemi and every other series.
I just think that a futuristic punk-opera taking place on the stage of a
retro-modernistic city of Paris just needs a good mix of music styles.
And it's just what the OST contains. Industrial/techno/metal/trash/whatsoever I
can't name + Classical = the theme of Gankutsuou.
So, the music fits the story well, and that's the most important thing. The
quality is also very good, and that's the second most important thing.
This series is unique not only because of the art, idea of Zetsubou-sensei, but
because it gets in contact with many subjects often ignored by media. Each key
character represents a troublesome group of the Japanese society. Depressed
antisocial people, hooray-optimistic naive people, hikkikomori, shy
insignificant people with complexes, pedants et caetera.
Taboo topics that Zetsubou brings up in every episode are also something that
makes this series stand out in the ocean of worthless cliche anime mass-produced
by studios that came up with one good idea in the past and try to survive on the
wave of money.
Anyway, thanks for the review. I'm looking forward to your next review after
watching the whole series
PS. BTW, Your note about "preview review" reminded me of one episode
about previews of everything ;D
While watching Nodame Cantabile you have to focus on the sound. It's the core.
Frankly, I think the series could be aired in the radio as a play. Because what
appears on the screen is not really important. It's not good to be distracted by
vision. Sometimes it's better to get a clean(even ascetic) reception, than to be
smashed by everything in one single moment.
The key is to focus on the core. I think that nowadays creators forget that cool
looking effects are not everything. This leads quickly to commercial
crap.
Anyway, There are some things that could be done better. More importantly, it's
not the music that needs improvement.
Excellent review. Now, I'm completely convinced to watch the series. Write more
often! The more reviews you write, the higher an average MT review level will
be.
merged: 09-14-2007 ~ 05:58pm
After reading this review, I couldn't help but watch the series. And I'm
completely satisfied. This anime is an excellent piece of music, comedy and
romance.
And I actually almost shed a few tears, which is extremely unusual for me. It's
a masterpiece.
@howtwosave: Then again, you completely forgot that a review should not be
written in terms like "i was bored", "I think".
"not everyone ilkes the same anime" <-- Somebody writing a review
takes that in mind. But what you wrote was only your limited point of view, as
you didn't consider the existence of some other people's sense of humour. That's
for the trivial reason of other people not being you. I don't know how many
things we have in common, and reading such a review can't give me sufficient
information.
Remember that 'review' can mean also 'a second reading'. Since you wrote 'I will probably never watch this show again... I
couldn't even finish it.', I cannot say you actually wrote a review.
Don't you think you could just make a forum comment about azumanga?
If watching this piece is too much for
you, then this so called review is simply warped. Of course, just like many other reviews that glorify other
series. Having an objective view isn't something easy, it's true.
An excellent review of an excellent series
Such a review would quite possibly make me consider watching Tsukihime, but
since I have already seen it, it's impossible
You forgot to mention that the game, which was the base of Tsukihime, was a
brilliant debut of Type-Moon, creators of one of the most the popular series -
Fate/Stay Night.
Yup, Air is one of the best series I saw. Of course there are lots of people
that think it's boring, or even freakin' boring - like some of my friends. But
I'll stay an egoist and savour this wonderful series without these laymen!
@howtwosave:
You know, there is a lot of series with characters with superpowers, or
unnatural events. A lot of series that have a level of originality limited to
the TITLE.
De gustibus non est disputandum. When reviewing a series, you cannot consider
your taste. Do not compare the reviewed series with you favourites.
Moreover, it's impossible to rate a 13 hour-long series of 26 episodes by just a
digit. It's like summarizing the Bible by "Fucking boring" or
"Freakin' huge brick-book".
An attentive watcher will notice many hilarious gags, jokes, metaphors, values,
advantages... You could e.g. say that "Pokemon" is a piece of shit,
but for many kids it's an awesome show, and for many parents it's a pain in the
ass.
"A point of view can be a dangerous luxury when substituted for insight and
understanding"
I was watching Azumanga Daioh when I was leaving High School. It made a great
impression on me. Most of the series we can find nowadays is warped by commerce,
and seeking popularity in order to provide money for some producers. Thus, most
of them are similar. Almost every new shounen is a copy of an other hit from the
past.
Azumanga lacks plot - but does your life have a plot? I wonder. It's a 'slice of
life' genre. We see different people act in situations we also experience
sometimes. It's actually a hard task, to make a decent series without a
plot.
There are also philosophical anime, like "Kino no Tabi"("Kino's
Journey"). But I doubt that you see a talking motor everyday. Or travel
from town to town without an actual destination.
Once, I heard a very wise advice in a popular series you probably know - "A
ninja must read underneath the underneath". And, from a manga: "When
you look at the leaf, you can't see the tree. When you look at the tree, you
can't see the forest. You must look at the whole."
There is this thing called "objectivity" or something like that.
___________________________________________(...)
Of course you're not the only one that rates a favourite/hated series without
second thought. I disagree with e.g. giving FMA a 9.5 rating. This series is for
Troglodytes, if we compare it with e.g. Shinigami's Ballad.
But then again, what am I expecting from otaku's, laymen, simple fans, and pop
culture kids?
There are probably very few professional journalists here... or maybe
none.
If we think that way, all these reviews are just another way to say "This
is an awesome series! I like mecha!" or "Crap. All of this is crap.
There are no superpowers, no swords, and Ichigo would beat them all up!" or
"I don't get this shit. I may not be a philosopher, but anime are not for
philosophers, right?"
The higher the verdict is, the better is the review
You should have given a "9" in the sound. Why? Each time I hear the
first second of the opening - I'm unable to stop listening. It's stunning
When you hear the sound wind, you know that "Air" is the name of the
series
Nice review
But there always are complaints! If you write a review about a series with
"samurai" in the title, it's obvious that it would be read mainly by
people who are interested in this genre. Among anime about the Samurai, Samurai
Champloo is second to none.(Maybe except Ruroni Kenshin, but the difference
between the series is too radical to let me compare them). You underrated
Samurai Champloo
Oh, but I completely agree with you that it's not a family video xD
See Ya!
I have seen the movie(but not read the book - now I'm going to do something with
that ), and I totally agree with you about the final verdict
The movie has maybe one bad trace of Disney's lobby - the ending is overly happy
On the other hand, Miyazaki managed to make a great contrast. When nothing was
going right, everything suddenly changed thanks to a kiss
This is a remarkable masterpiece
It shows us that
1)a human without a heart eventually becomes a monster(figuratively, not
literally)
2)Your body can be old, but you are as old as your heart is
3)Love can defeat every monster
4)Even if you're weak, old, and an army of blobmen and two witches are against
you - you can change everything
5)single does not mean alone
6)Like in that song - "All you need is love!" (and friends, luck, a
scenario with a happy end...)
Well, since Azumanga Daioh is a slice of life, the plot simply must be
'non-existent'(If life had a good, visible scenario, every movie would be called
a plagiarism )
One of my friends has a general opinion about every anime of the school-life
genre - "Crap". But he has two exceptions : Azumanga Daioh and
Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
One thing about AD amazed me... Regular series focus on one or two characters.
For example: Naruto has over 200 episodes, and maybe a half of them is about
"I gonna be Hokage!". The hokage thread in this series is completely
exploited
Azumanga Daioh focuses on six characters, which gives 4 episodes per capita.
And still, we never have enough of them
This review is a bit underrated, but gives quite a good image of this series.
I totally agree with you about the art and sound here. Well anyways, great
review!
The review is quite fair....
altough i think the Art should be 6.5(the style of Osska and "Daddy"),
just like the Sound - the ending tries to repeat im my head and never
stops....
Ah, and one more thing!
This serie has The One Extraordinary Thing!
This is the ONLY School'ish anime which was not spouted by my friend - he is
very, very critic...
Well, this is all i can complain about
May your paths be green and golden!
See ya!
Good review of a really good series
I would complain about the Sound Rating though. For someone like me, who loves classical music in modern productions, one third of the OST is a masterpiece. Another one third is simply brilliant(but not as good as the first one), and the rest is well fitted to the series and various situations in the show.
Of course, I'm not saying that Bach and Rachmaninov would be the best for Puni Puni Poemi and every other series.
I just think that a futuristic punk-opera taking place on the stage of a retro-modernistic city of Paris just needs a good mix of music styles.
And it's just what the OST contains. Industrial/techno/metal/trash/whatsoever I can't name + Classical = the theme of Gankutsuou.
So, the music fits the story well, and that's the most important thing. The quality is also very good, and that's the second most important thing.
Anyway, thanks for the review!
PS. You should really replace < i > with [ i ].
Boring? I wouldn't say so.
This series is unique not only because of the art, idea of Zetsubou-sensei, but because it gets in contact with many subjects often ignored by media. Each key character represents a troublesome group of the Japanese society. Depressed antisocial people, hooray-optimistic naive people, hikkikomori, shy insignificant people with complexes, pedants et caetera.
Taboo topics that Zetsubou brings up in every episode are also something that makes this series stand out in the ocean of worthless cliche anime mass-produced by studios that came up with one good idea in the past and try to survive on the wave of money.
Anyway, thanks for the review. I'm looking forward to your next review after watching the whole series
PS. BTW, Your note about "preview review" reminded me of one episode about previews of everything ;D
While watching Nodame Cantabile you have to focus on the sound. It's the core. Frankly, I think the series could be aired in the radio as a play. Because what appears on the screen is not really important. It's not good to be distracted by vision. Sometimes it's better to get a clean(even ascetic) reception, than to be smashed by everything in one single moment.
The key is to focus on the core. I think that nowadays creators forget that cool looking effects are not everything. This leads quickly to commercial crap.
Anyway, There are some things that could be done better. More importantly, it's not the music that needs improvement.
Thanks for the review
Excellent review. Now, I'm completely convinced to watch the series. Write more often! The more reviews you write, the higher an average MT review level will be.
merged: 09-14-2007 ~ 05:58pm
After reading this review, I couldn't help but watch the series. And I'm completely satisfied. This anime is an excellent piece of music, comedy and romance.
And I actually almost shed a few tears, which is extremely unusual for me. It's a masterpiece.
@howtwosave: Then again, you completely forgot that a review should not be written in terms like "i was bored", "I think".
"not everyone ilkes the same anime" <-- Somebody writing a review takes that in mind. But what you wrote was only your limited point of view, as you didn't consider the existence of some other people's sense of humour. That's for the trivial reason of other people not being you. I don't know how many things we have in common, and reading such a review can't give me sufficient information.
Remember that 'review' can mean also 'a second reading'. Since you wrote 'I will probably never watch this show again... I couldn't even finish it.', I cannot say you actually wrote a review. Don't you think you could just make a forum comment about azumanga?
If watching this piece is too much for you, then this so called review is simply warped. Of course, just like many other reviews that glorify other series. Having an objective view isn't something easy, it's true.
An excellent review of an excellent series
Such a review would quite possibly make me consider watching Tsukihime, but since I have already seen it, it's impossible
You forgot to mention that the game, which was the base of Tsukihime, was a brilliant debut of Type-Moon, creators of one of the most the popular series - Fate/Stay Night.
Yup, Air is one of the best series I saw. Of course there are lots of people that think it's boring, or even freakin' boring - like some of my friends. But I'll stay an egoist and savour this wonderful series without these laymen!
@howtwosave:
You know, there is a lot of series with characters with superpowers, or unnatural events. A lot of series that have a level of originality limited to the TITLE.
De gustibus non est disputandum. When reviewing a series, you cannot consider your taste. Do not compare the reviewed series with you favourites.
Moreover, it's impossible to rate a 13 hour-long series of 26 episodes by just a digit. It's like summarizing the Bible by "Fucking boring" or "Freakin' huge brick-book".
An attentive watcher will notice many hilarious gags, jokes, metaphors, values, advantages... You could e.g. say that "Pokemon" is a piece of shit, but for many kids it's an awesome show, and for many parents it's a pain in the ass.
"A point of view can be a dangerous luxury when substituted for insight and understanding"
I was watching Azumanga Daioh when I was leaving High School. It made a great impression on me. Most of the series we can find nowadays is warped by commerce, and seeking popularity in order to provide money for some producers. Thus, most of them are similar. Almost every new shounen is a copy of an other hit from the past.
Azumanga lacks plot - but does your life have a plot? I wonder. It's a 'slice of life' genre. We see different people act in situations we also experience sometimes. It's actually a hard task, to make a decent series without a plot.
There are also philosophical anime, like "Kino no Tabi"("Kino's Journey"). But I doubt that you see a talking motor everyday. Or travel from town to town without an actual destination.
Once, I heard a very wise advice in a popular series you probably know - "A ninja must read underneath the underneath". And, from a manga: "When you look at the leaf, you can't see the tree. When you look at the tree, you can't see the forest. You must look at the whole."
There is this thing called "objectivity" or something like that.
___________________________________________(...)
Of course you're not the only one that rates a favourite/hated series without second thought. I disagree with e.g. giving FMA a 9.5 rating. This series is for Troglodytes, if we compare it with e.g. Shinigami's Ballad.
But then again, what am I expecting from otaku's, laymen, simple fans, and pop culture kids?
There are probably very few professional journalists here... or maybe none.
If we think that way, all these reviews are just another way to say "This is an awesome series! I like mecha!" or "Crap. All of this is crap. There are no superpowers, no swords, and Ichigo would beat them all up!" or "I don't get this shit. I may not be a philosopher, but anime are not for philosophers, right?"
The higher the verdict is, the better is the review
You should have given a "9" in the sound. Why? Each time I hear the first second of the opening - I'm unable to stop listening. It's stunning
When you hear the sound wind, you know that "Air" is the name of the series
The review is very good :>
But I would give Mushishi eleven out of ten
The music, the art, the plot, the characters - everything remarkable
It's a series remarkable in every inch
It would be a spoiler it I told you ;-)
Nice review
But there always are complaints! If you write a review about a series with "samurai" in the title, it's obvious that it would be read mainly by people who are interested in this genre. Among anime about the Samurai, Samurai Champloo is second to none.(Maybe except Ruroni Kenshin, but the difference between the series is too radical to let me compare them). You underrated Samurai Champloo
Oh, but I completely agree with you that it's not a family video xD
See Ya!
I have seen the movie(but not read the book - now I'm going to do something with that
), and I totally agree with you about the final verdict 
The movie has maybe one bad trace of Disney's lobby - the ending is overly happy
On the other hand, Miyazaki managed to make a great contrast. When nothing was going right, everything suddenly changed thanks to a kiss
This is a remarkable masterpiece
It shows us that
1)a human without a heart eventually becomes a monster(figuratively, not literally)
2)Your body can be old, but you are as old as your heart is
3)Love can defeat every monster
4)Even if you're weak, old, and an army of blobmen and two witches are against you - you can change everything
5)single does not mean alone
6)Like in that song - "All you need is love!" (and friends, luck, a scenario with a happy end...)
Nice review! See Ya!
Well, since Azumanga Daioh is a slice of life, the plot simply must be 'non-existent'(If life had a good, visible scenario, every movie would be called a plagiarism
)
One of my friends has a general opinion about every anime of the school-life genre - "Crap". But he has two exceptions : Azumanga Daioh and Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
One thing about AD amazed me... Regular series focus on one or two characters. For example: Naruto has over 200 episodes, and maybe a half of them is about "I gonna be Hokage!". The hokage thread in this series is completely exploited
Azumanga Daioh focuses on six characters, which gives 4 episodes per capita.
And still, we never have enough of them
This review is a bit underrated, but gives quite a good image of this series.
I totally agree with you about the art and sound here. Well anyways, great review!
Whoops, I almost forgot about the review itself...
This review is just like the author of it says about art in FMA:
Perfect!
Well done, one of the BEST reviews in English i have ever read....
The review is quite fair....
altough i think the Art should be 6.5(the style of Osska and "Daddy"), just like the Sound - the ending tries to repeat im my head and never stops....
Ah, and one more thing!
This serie has The One Extraordinary Thing!
This is the ONLY School'ish anime which was not spouted by my friend - he is very, very critic...
Well, this is all i can complain about
May your paths be green and golden!
See ya!
FMA in the last episodes was somewhat..... mmmm unstatisfying...
Excel Saga was created to be a MEGASTUPID baka Experiment.
The list of the anime, movies, books, etc. paroded by Ex Sa is HUGE!
And is makes me Rotfl & Lol
The rating should be unique.... 6.66