Scalpelexis

Talking is silver, silence is golden? Komi Can't Communicate would convince me otherwise, unfortunately. A series of short sketches from the life of a spunky, yet shy and verbally uncommunicative high school student, the series delivers a mix of banter and "wholesome" situations that wouldn't pose a difficult obstacle for the average teenager... but for the shy Komi, each one is literally the trial of a lifetime. In this respect the anime is original and Komi's communication with the outside world amusingly reminded me of the likeable Celty from Durarara!!. The pilot also has a downright stellar opening with a beautifully poetic scene of the main couple at the blackboard, and I really liked the idea (even if it is a bit "Facebook-ish") of finding 100 friends. Unfortunately, this glimmer didn't last very long and Komi quickly slips into the very clichéd templates of high school anime, kept afloat by a single variable – the character of Najimi (played superbly by the seiyuu Rie Murakawa). I’m not exactly critical of the duo of Komi and the insufferably ordinary Tadano, but surprisingly they're not the ones driving the plot forward, because if it were up to them we'd get nowhere for the entire running time. They're likable characters, but terribly passive. Good-hearted, but maddeningly uncreative; without the souped-up jet turbocharger of Najimi the development of their relationship would waver between sleepy and flatlined. I'd welcome it as a sign of progress and advancement if I wasn't constantly being given descriptions of what happens to Komi when he's nervous – even a marginally interested viewer can tell when he’s introduced! Similarly, I wasn't particularly keen on Komi's very early endearing attempts at spoken conversation, only for the plot to subsequently give up on such attempts altogether. Even though after 2 episodes we sadly never hear any mention of finding a hundred friends and look back longingly to the unattainable romance of their chalkboard meeting, Najimi's craziness, self-interest, eccentricity, wit, and comedic potential iron out a ton of ills. This is where the sketch form is one of its biggest triumphs; it gives Najimi's character room to constantly invent new and innovative scenarios of petty hardships and travails for poor Komi to overcome. But isn’t that a bit lacking, Anton Pavlovich? It is to me. There are plenty of jokes, but the hints of romance are indicated visually rather than atmospherically. The absurdity of Komi accepting her surroundings quickly gets old and the rest of the characters are rather unoriginal, overblown, and easily forgettable. While Komi is no gem, I'm glad that studio OLM has finally found the source material for a decent anime. Slightly above average and an unspoken "thank you".

A pathetic and lackluster cashgrab that spends a third of its running time reminiscing about previous installments, another third illogically fumbling with a confused Reeves, and the rest with attempts at spastic jokes, inept attempts at cool scenes (Harris' speech about bullet time was sooooo lame), and action that desperately lacks inventiveness. It's naive the way Wachowski tries to dig characters out of their graves who are now being portrayed by different actors (because many of the originals, thankfully, refused). The world they’ve built has some perspective and potential, but it's all for naught when the script uses DOOM-like cheats to achieve its goals. I miss the elegance, tension, logic, and awesome philosophy of reality vs. the virtual world incorporated into the originals. What the hell went wrong with "Mr. Anderson"? I fell asleep out of boredom.

I'm getting used to thematically putting on something thematically appropriate in order to observe the pre-Christmas peace and quiet: Last year Detroit Metal City, this year Prison School. As with DMC, I must score highly and point out the creators’ absolute lack of inhibition and boundaries. Prison School shifts from 1st gear to 5th in the space of a minute, and I don't think even Krauser would be quite prepared for the tsunami of inappropriateness and unholy profanity that the main boy band revels in. All the central characters are perverted, sadistic, or masochistic (or all of the above combined) freaks who invent ever newer ways to fuel their next perverted escapades. And it freaking works! If someone were filming me watching this, they'd first see me yawning all over the place (whether in the uncensored or more censored places), then covering my face, then muttering "No way" louder and louder, then eventually roaring with uncontrollable laughter. The opening episodes about the start of their punishment are insanely creative, helped along by the perversely charming qualities of the performers (the literally self-sacrificing coward Gakuto, the perpetually unhinged Hana, or the principal walking nearby as a joke), the caricature faces, and the absurd coincidences that leave you wanting more and more! Unfortunately, all these excesses get rather stale in the middle of the series, and you find that not all the characters are given sufficient time and depth (like Andrew, Joe, and even Shingo a bit), so after a while they're as neglected as Gakuto's bathroom toys. I would never have believed that I'd end up being indifferent to the frequent upskirt camera shots of properly sweaty female genitalia, and frankly I stopped rooting for the guys in their prison break because, ironically, I enjoyed their bondage the most. The almost bland story was hurtling towards its supposed climax from the very first urination, dragging on like Andrew's hair at the end, and I was flipping out like the vice president when her zipper didn't work; I started wishing for the finish line sooner than I'd unexpectedly hoped, because the anime didn't have much to offer except for the indomitable and all-defining question: Are you into oppai or asses? After all, this is not a question to be answered lightly... nai?! A properly petrified 3 stars.

When Astra Lost in Space aired and I saw the character designs, I wasn't willing to pay a shred of attention to something that looked like an archetypal high school shōnen. I continued to give it a chance despite the indifferent recommendations, and honestly, the opening episodes validated that decision. A bunch of teenagers on a planned road trip for a holiday adventure suddenly find themselves in an unfamiliar universe and must learn to deal with this new crisis situation, a la Lost in Space: nothing original, especially when the trip still has a very lighthearted and pleasantly adventurous undertone of exploration and you suspect that no harm will come to more than a single hair of the characters’ rainbow locks. But if there's one place I’m always willing to give leeway, it's with series that get qualitatively better as they go along. There are plenty of those (I’m usually thinking of Gosick), and I'm happy to add Astra Lost in Space to that precious column. Even when it's clear to everyone that all is not as it seems, a friendly adventure turns into a drama at the exact moment and the audience starts getting hit with effective twists and turns. The 1st and 2nd could probably have been anticipated, but I could no longer do a Neo-style dodge of the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and above all despite the over-the-top number of them, I didn't find them over-the-top at all! The illustrated detective mosaic managed a meaningful portrayal in my eyes and mind and I was pleasantly amazed at the appealing ideas the authors were reaching for. For the mouthful of explaining that they had bitten off, and which could have benefited from far more episodes, the narrative was pulled together with grace and art (I commend the choice of 40 minute lengths for the first and last episodes). It feels like a given, but how many similarly difficult closing acts fall on their asses. Even if the ending is a bit too run-on (slightly cheesier would have packed more punch) and Astra Lost in Space is far from any kind of magnum opus, I would have dismissed similarly daring projects with the remaining left hand. Visually successful as usual by Lerche. A weaker 4 stars, but a pleasant surprise nonetheless.

I'll take (or at least try to) this from an uninitiated and objective point of view first and say that after the markedly unconvincing opening trailers that put chills down the back of more than one anime fan, the live-action Bebop danced out of it decently. The main trio are relatively easy to get used to, the dialogue has just the right mix of wit and charm, the acting, especially by Cho and Shakir, is above average, the excellent stylization and outerspace sets are attractive, and the music is literally sexy (no wonder they brought back the legendary Yoko Kanno!). The plot often finds time for lighter parts, and as much as I was worried that the action might be lame (I was bothered by moments where they paused for a second or two), I was satisfied on that front as well. What I wasn't happy with, on the other hand, was the Syndicate storyline annoyingly patched into every episode, which I found torturously boring. Here you could that when the writers made this decision, they couldn't rely on the source material whether they liked it or not and had to start inventing something of their own, which didn't exactly work half as well. When I start comparing this slowfox to the iconic anime source material, the flaws in the adaptation start coming to the surface. I can easily overlook details like the fact that Spike should be played by someone much younger and Faye is more fun as a neurotic femme fatale. I liked the original episodic format, the more laid-back and carefree nature of the plot and characters on that cartoon screen; it was all more wrapped in cool garb and the jokes rattled out with the cadence of a machine gun compared to the sometimes spastic nervousness of the show. The villains are the worst, though, as the whole ensemble around the coarse and whiny Vicious is a disaster compared to the cold and calculating killer of the source material. All finished off with a hideously disrespectful and overwrought ending, senselessly mutating the characters into areas personally unacceptable to me. I don't even want to see where the live-action series could go from here, because the immature sprouts of the notorious power of friendship are beginning to break through, disrupting the previous standardized behavior of the characters. However, there's no denying that this series has found a solid compromise of respect for the source material and its own creativity to offer passable entertainment that is rarely found among anime adaptations. 3 stars

Wow! I wasn't expecting such a racket from 86, but this one thumped through all open channels. Exactly what the chef ordered.

Imagine a world. A world where there are ninjas who are something like goblins, who shoot curved arrows and travel around Europe in a submarine. There they meet a white-haired lady with a Dutch name who is rescued by two seeming Englishmen from a retirement home on a Tortuga-like island, accompanied by a Pomeranian. Random excursions in the company of a terminator and pirates on a quest pilgrimage await them for a painting of a La Puzzle doll and for a block of glass in search of the mysteries of a world no one can remember. Fena and Brule exchange a bonk, dance and hair; the end. I understand your confusion and I ask the same question you are asking: Where is James Bond, Formula One, and the fight for Jupiter's independence? In all honesty, the script is the kind of drivel that would frighten the inhabitants of Lunik IX. I respect the screenwriter's opulent creativity, her grandiose vision, but you can't come up with 23 mysteries and 59 conspiracies if you can't pull off a single one. Or, alternatively, the main character solves them in a way that makes Indiana Jones, da Vinci, and Einstein look like total losers. The vast majority of the characters are about as important as a salt shaker in the desert, the villain is a hard-luck child with a poster fetish, and in general a bunch of them disappear off the screen faster than the French out of the war. Logic and physics are out the window - for example, a character calmly paddles a sailboat. Treating an injury? Who on earth has time for that, right? The character motivations were running sushi, I didn't know where my head was from that story and the only somewhat sensible element was the more tender romance present, which admittedly doesn't deliver anything we haven't seen before and was overdone with pathos in places, but I found moments that appealed to me. I didn't mind the incorporated elements of adventure and the feel of the western hemisphere. I was very pleased with the almost literally Disney-esque artwork, but that's finito with the list of pluses. Next time it might want to get its thoughts in order, organize the art direction a bit more moderately, so that the phenotype of similar anime will be successful and then I won't have to blow-dry it like this with my undisguised disappointment (besides, longer hair is easier to blow-dry!). You can keep the empty vases. A barely managed 3 stars

Can persistent romantic conquest in X number of ways bear the desired fruit (except pineapples on pizza) and love? Koikimo will try to show and prove that it's not impossible, even if the age difference between the actors pushes the boundaries of social acceptance. Our cup is overflowing with the age-gap theme and I'm not against it in any way, it just needs caution, as clumsy handling would result in the worst possible audience reception. If there's anything Koikimo fails at that in my eyes that really bothers me, it's the repulsive character of the all-powerful Jesus-kuns and the boundless stalking. The two come together in the main character of the mildly narcissistic Ryo, who the freaking series unabashedly criticizes in a rather cheap and mechanical way from the very beginning. He reminded me of a similarly uncomfortable Takumi Usui from Maid Sama!, but unlike that yucky slimeball, Ryo was pleasantly aware, socially sophisticated, and sycophancy was non-existent in his vocabulary, so despite his insufferable intrusiveness, I was able to turn a blind eye to him. The disproportionate reaction to his behavior was saved by his coveted teenage Ichika, who overcomes him with a healthy dose of flamboyant innocence and stubbornness, leaving the pieces in constant civilized check. Koikimo is, after all, incredibly consistent, with all the pros and cons that entails. From the first minutes, the dice are rolled, the playing field is firmly set, and the anime never, ever tries to screw the viewer over. On the flip side, from the opposite angle, the plot never encounters even a single bump in the road, the characters don't engage in any deviousness, and so after the first episode, the bookies couldn't even calculate the odds on how it all turns out because it's so unhappily obvious. I can't even say I laughed uproariously, but a couple of cute gags satisfied me, and every now and then I found myself longingly lifting my tonsils or, conversely, stroking a more sentimental heart. Ultimately, the biggest plus of the whole piece is that I never felt insulted or demeaned as a viewer and I found the script surprisingly intelligent and charming (though the ending classically began to have hints of minor nonsensical decisions). The characters and their relationships don't overdo it and play 100% fair; did I really not find even a single more awkward moment? Wow! I have minor admiration for the mediocre character design and deteriorating animation around episode 10, but you couldn't expect any miracles from the smaller studio Nomad. Koikimo is far from brilliant and it hardly discovers America; a more thematically conservative audience might well take offense at it, but I never found myself in the drop waters and I’m walking away moderately satisfied. A very close and highly subjective 4 stars, because it's not disgusting to call this a decent anime.

My attention is kept at a high by the classical music they’ve incorporated and my curiosity as to how this hitherto effective alternating collaboration between MAPPA and MADHOUSE will develop. As long as it's more Madoka than Symphogear.

Ergo Proxy is truly one slick false prophet: it preaches and promises grandiosity, things holy and catastrophic; talk of God, life, and everything. It talks a good talk, but the reality is quite different above those overcast clouds, and all these fairy tales all lose their thread. The famous opening episodes are pumped up with adrenaline and perfectly interspersed with questions that pinned me to my seat with blissful delight until I cried. I have a deep affinity for film noir mysteries, I'd have intricate hideous and robotic dystopias for lunch any day, and everything was concealed behind smoky curtains everywhere I looked and I shivered with anticipation at exploring it. But sometimes things just don’t work out, do they? Too soon. A giant unchewable bite of philosophy on the one hand, another endless serving of lightly affronted existentialism, caricature allusions and hints to important plot elements, all in a dreadfully boring multi-episode center in which the series literally survives by the skin of its teeth. At that time, I had no idea what was happening on screen and, more importantly, why. Why were there suddenly several completely pointless, out-of-context episodes? If there was an attempt at a joke anywhere, it was straight out of the prime minister's cookbook. The realization that the whole biblical journey of discovery was completely pointless and it was time to freaking go back was a totally irrational insult. By that time I was so mentally broken that I found refuge even in trolling Pino with his childish rants. Thank goodness the ending adds to the pacing, symbolically reverting to the style of the opening and decently tying up the muddled storylines into something sensible, if not quite as satisfying and also strangely reminiscent of NGE. I appreciate the effort at this kind of ultra-serious epic, and thematically Ergo Proxy would be hard-put for a colleague, but I can't help myself: Ultimately, it's a solid mess because it never feels coherent, substantial, or like a unified train of thought. Likewise inconsistent is the artwork, which ranges from awesome to very unhinged, depending on your mood, I guess. The English OP and especially the familiar ED by Audioslave are of note. I hate to give Ergo Proxy only the best possible 3 stars, because this had the makings of something fantastic, but the landing came with a severely clumsy impact on the seat.