Julia's Reviews on Various Media

[Juliko]

Meh, I'm over it. Still don't like Rain Reign, and my review still stands, though. This review was written on June 24th, 2019.

(I wish I could find a bigger picture in higher quality, but I've come up empty)

I give one of the most beloved games in the Mana franchise...an 83/100!

If you ask a fan of the Mana series what's generally considered the absolute best game in the series, the most common answer is one called Seiken Densetsu 3. But it also had the awful distinction of being the only mainline game in the series that never got released in the United States. This was for a number of reasons, such as being released late in the SNES's life cycle, a number of bugs that technology back then couldn't quite address, a general lack of interest in the series, and so on. But it was considered the holy grail of not just Mana games, but SNES games as a whole, to the point where devoted fans made their own English translation of the game and clamored for Nintendo or Square Enix to release it here in some capacity. But it was seen as a hopeless cause, and as the years passed, people began to lose hope for the game ever coming to the US.

That is, until now. In June of 2019, Nintendo announced that a remake of Seiken Densetsu 3, titled Trials of Mana, was not only in the works, but would also be getting a US release...and on that very day, the Collection of Mana, a game bundle that had all three original versions of Adventure, Secret, and Trials, came out on the Nintendo Switch, with Trials FINALLY receiving an official English translation after nearly two decades of being ignored! Fans went nuts, and since I was dabbling into the Mana series myself, and wanting to support the series in some capacity, I bought the Collection and played Trials about three times. It's a great game, don't get me wrong, and it definitely improved on a lot of flaws that Secret of Mana was bogged down with, but I honestly don't feel it's the masterpiece people are making it out to be. But let's see how the game holds up.

The story goes that the Mana tree is dying once again, and the Goddess sends several fairies to the world below to find someone who can restore it. All the fairies are unable to make it there save for one, due to the steady loss of magic, and the remaining fairy settles on the first person she can find. That person turns out to be chosen as the Mana Knight, who can wield the legendary Mana Sword and save the world. The thing with Trials is that instead of playing as one character, you're allowed to play as one out of six, with an additional two as your party members, and all of them have their own unique skills, strengths, weaknesses, weapons, and storylines. Whoever you choose determines the villain you fight against in-game, and while the differences between storylines aren't apparent at first, as they're mostly limited to near the end of the game, you fight different final bosses as a result. You can also upgrade your character's classes, and you can choose either a light path or a dark path. For example, with Duran, the knight character, the light path allows him to use healing spells and be more defense oriented, but his dark classes can beef up his attack strength and not only attack more than one enemy, but absolutely obliterate them with massive amounts of damage.

One thing I can definitely say that Trials has over Secret is that its sprite artwork and backgrounds are much better. The sprites are detailed but not as pixelated as Secret's did, and the colors aren't as obnoxiously bright and blinding as they were in Secret of Mana. Some of the boss sprites are especially great. I mean, where in any other game do you fight three floating clown heads in a spacial dimension or a giant blue lizard chameleon thing that hops around and underneath ice floes? It helps that the text boxes aren't see-through this time, so you don't have to squint your eyes just to read the text against a light background! Furthermore, Trials gets rid of the tedious weapon grinding, so that's a massive point in its favor. The gameplay and story progression are much more streamlined, so you never feel like the game just randomly stops at some point leaving you wondering what the hell you need to do next. I don't have much to say about the soundtrack. I mean, I liked it, but I didn't feel it was as memorable as Secret's was. I do appreciate that each enemy has its own battle theme, so the battles don't feel stale with the same music playing in the background whenever you fight a boss.

What about the characters? They're...alright. They have more personality and depth to them than Secret's did, and each of them have their own reasons for going on their journeys. You have the dutiful knight, the mischievous magician, the flirty thief, the motherly amazonian princess, so on and so forth. But honestly, I kind of feel like more could have been done with them. Riesz, the amazon princess of the kingdom Laurent, is solely focused on finding her brother and cares about her subjects, but we never see anything of her beyond that. Duran is a knight who wants to get revenge on the magician that killed his friends and wounded his pride, but again, he doesn't really have anything beyond that. All of the main characters are like this, and while some of the villains are more interesting with their backstories, with the exception of Malocchio who's basically just a flat villain who never does anything, they're still your typical evil villains who want the holy power for their own purposes, whether its to take over the world or achieve immortality. I've heard people praise this game for having great characters that have a lot of depth, but I'm not really seeing it here. Other games I know have done these archetypes better. But for all I know, maybe the remake will address this and have the characters interact more, or maybe expand on their personalities and backstories. I mean, I like them fine, but I wish the game had fleshed them all out more.

But even with these flaws, Trials of Mana is a genuinely fun game with a ton of replay value. You have to go through three playthroughs just to see most of the game's content, and the number of ways you can arrange your main party, both by party members and the classes you upgrade them to are limitless. There's a ton of possibilities to choose from, so depending on the choices you make, you won't feel like the game plays the exact same way, even if it feels like it does when you first start. I say Trials, while not perfect, absolutely deserved to finally come to the US, and to all the fans who clamored for Square Enix to finally release it, pat yourselves on the back. You wanted it, and now your wish has been granted. The remake is due to come out in a year, and I'm looking forward to it! (Though I admit, I'm not a fan of the overly revealing costumes for the girl characters with the exception of Charlotte, since her costumes are fine)

 

[prog rocker]

Now that I think about it, Mana is one of those series that I see people keep mentioning, but I still forget to try them out. Which is kinda strange for me, since I'm always looking for different RPGs, and I have tried really obscure games (like Tengai Makyou 0 and Momotaro Densetsu).

 

[Juliko]

This review was just written and finished today.

I give this controversial movie based on Japan's most popular game franchise...a 69/100.

My history with Dragon Quest is...non-existent. I only played some of the GameBoy Color games as a kid, but even then, I never completed them because they were hard. But Dragon Quest is a pretty popular game series in Japan, with the most recent game, Echoes of an Elusive Age, being released on the Switch with glowing critical reception. So when it was announced that a movie was being made, based on what many consider to be the best game in the series, Dragon Quest 5, people were ecstatic...until they saw the very end of the movie, which had a very strange plot twist put in that was so out of place and came out of nowhere that after the fact, reviews poured in that lambasted the movie for it. Even people in Japan hated it, feeling like it was a huge cop-out. As of now, Your Story is on Netflix, and I just finished watching it. What do I think of it? Well...I honestly don't feel it's as bad as people are making it out to be, but even without the twist, the movie still has a lot of problems.

The story focuses on a young man named Luca, who is the son of a famed hero named Pankraz. After his mother is kidnapped by the evil Bishop Ladja, he and his father attempt to save her, but Ladja kills Pankraz and takes Luca and his friend Harry to be slave labor. When he and Harry escape a decade later, Luca decides to return home and find answers. There's a legend about a hero being able to wield a magical sword, and his father left a final message in his diary, thinking that Luca might just be that hero. Armed with this knowledge, and joined by a saber cat and a friendly slime, Luca embarks on a worldwide quest to find the magic sword, stop Ladja from summoning an evil being named Nimzo, save his mother, and by extension, the world.

Overall, if I were to use one word to describe this movie, it would be overstuffed. Being that Your Story is adapted from a video game that can be about 20-30 hours long, it's inevitable that a lot would get lost in the transition from game to movie, since that's plagued video game movies for years. However, Your Story is clearly trying to adapt as much material as possible within a one hour and forty-five minute time frame, but at the expense of pacing. The pacing in this movie is very fast, so you'll never feel bored, as there's always something going on. However, some segments, which should have been more fleshed out in order to make us care about the characters, such as Luca and Bianca's entire childhood together, aren't given any focus at all, so when we actually meet those characters, the audience is confused as to why she's so important and why they should even care about her or her relationship with Luca. It doesn't help that the very beginning of the movie just blatantly uses footage from the game to set up said relationship and just glaze over the events that led to the entire plot, which to me is just lazy. Honestly, that part bothered me more than the plot twist, because using game footage in favor of, you know, doing your own interpretation of the beginning of the game with your own fingerprints just makes you seem lazy and insecure. The game footage was completely unnecessary, because the creators could have used that time to show Luca being born into the world and flesh out his character more.

It's especially insulting from an animation standpoint, because in all honesty, the CG animation here is absolutely stunning. Like, practically Pixar-level quality. I've never seen a CG anime movie that looked this amazing before now. This makes Land of the Lustrous look like Rapsittie Street Kids. The textures and overall look of the movie are amazing to look at, with the environments all rendered in exquisite detail. If you didn't know any better, you'd think the environments were live-action. The human characters actually look like people, and not like polygonish-looking humans with weird faces and awkward mouth movements. One other thing people didn't like about the movie was that Akira Toriyama's designs weren't used in the movie. To be honest, I don't really mind, as I think he's kind of overrated, and I figure his style would be really hard to animate, especially in a CGI movie, so I think the animators dodged a bullet on that one. I also really like that the animation doesn't skimp on really small details, like the scars and scratches people get on their bodies when they're fighting monsters, the texture and myriad of strands in someone's hair, or the transluscence of a slime's body. Those little things really make the setting and the animation feel much more alive. The actual character motion is just as amazing, and every movement is fluid and smooth, with little to no sluggishness or choppy frames. Seriously, Japan really set a new standard for CG movies, and considering their CG movies tend to have a bad rep, they should really learn from Your Story.

The soundtrack is pretty great too, with big, epic orchestral pieces that really make you feel like you're on an adventure to save the world. From what I've heard, these are redone versions of pieces from the game soundtrack, and I think they've been rendered pretty well here. However, in light of some really disgusting things fans have learned about Koichi Sugiyama and his political views, that's the only thing I'm going to say about the soundtrack. I like the music, but I don't like the composer as a person. But that's neither here nor there, so I won't waste time dwelling on it.

Because of the movie's brisk pacing and its attempts to tell a huge story in a limited format, the characters don't the development and fleshing out that they deserve. As a result, they all come off as bland archetypes that we've seen in a million other fantasy movies of this caliber before. Luca's the idealistic hero, Bianca is the tomboyish childhood friend, Nera is the friendly princess, Ladja is yet another Saturday morning cartoon villain who is just evil for the sake of it, so on and so forth. I'm sure they got a lot more depth and development in the game, but again, I haven't played the game, so I can only judge them based on how the movie portrays them. Honestly, Ladja was just terrible. He was just a stereotypically evil villain who's there to just laugh all the time and be a dick to the hero. Nimzo was basically a non-entity as a character, and he only appears for a few minutes and that's it.

The story itself isn't really anything special. It's just another sword hero saving the world plot, only he gets married and has a kid later on. That's not a spoiler, by the way. The game does this, too. As for the controversial twist in the movie...well, I agree that it did come out of nowhere and seem lazy in concept, but I don't hate it nearly as much as other people do. Don't get me wrong, I do hate the twist, but considering the movie's other problems, the twist is only a small part of a very flawed product overall. Honestly, I thought the Ni no Kuni movie's final twist was much worse, more out of place, and much more mean spirited. Do I feel like Your Story could have benefitted from leaving this twist out? Absolutely. It would have just been another fantasy movie if it did so, but I'm okay with that. From what I heard, the creators meant for this movie to be a love letter to fans of the franchise, so the twist was put in there to appeal to them specifically. But when you put it like that, you wind up alienating audiences who have never played Dragon Quest, me being one of those people, when the movie could have done just fine without it. Sometimes trying to add in a bunch of out of nowhere twists can hurt a product rather than make it better (Looking at you, Guilty Crown). They say less is more, after all.

Do I think Your Story is bad? Actually, no, I don't. True, there are a ton of other movies that are way better, but for what it is, it's a fairly decent, if very flawed and bumpy fantasy romp.

 

[prog rocker]

I have some comments about this:

On the games' difficulty: with the exception of the final and super bosses, the games are not hard, but they're grindy as hell. Which is something I recall happened in a lot of 80's and 90's RPGs. If you have the money to get new weapons and armor then you should be alright

On it re-using game footage: I thought people learned from the Uwe Boll House of the Dead movie that doing this is a bad idea. What the hell were they thinking?

On the soundtrack: I am extremely curious about this one: while I have played the games I-IX I cannot recall a single song from the games. It's like I played the game with just the sound effects on. It was that unremarkable, which is sad because I like videogame music. Seeing how you're praising the soundtrack here makes me curious about the improvements they did to it.

 

[System Error]

Haven't seen this myself. But I mostly played through DQ5. I in particular have (and had) Words for how it handles "childhood friend" Bianca in particular, but this is neither here nor there. In regards to the movie though, I heard a streamer I know talking it up, mentioning the ending in particular.

Also nice

 

[Juliko]

Oh yay, another stinker. Not Elsie Dinsmore level bad, but still pretty bad. This review was written on February 20th, 2020.

I give this book about a girl living in poverty (supposedly)...a 49/100.

They say not to judge a book by its cover, but even covers can lie on occasion. So I randomly came across Maggie: A Girl of the Streets in my local Barnes and Noble, and it sounded interesting. But I prefer to rent books before deciding whether I like them or not, that way I can see what a book is like before making my decision. I admit, I've never read anything by Stephen Crane, but I found out the book was rather short, and I'm always up for a short read, so I figured why not try it out. Unfortunately, I came out mighty disappointed. Seriously, I've never read a book before that straight up lied about who the main character was.

What do I mean? Well, the story...there is no story, really. It's just a bunch of vignettes focusing on the Johnsons, an impoverished family consisting of a father and mother, their son Jimmie and their daughter Maggie as they try to make their way through life. But the father and mother are abusive drunks who never go through a day without yelling or destroying things, Jimmie gets into fights with street gangs from other cities, and Maggie works at a shirt factory but it doesn't pay her enough to help her get out on her own. She falls in love with one of Jimmie's friends, a guy named Pete, but her family and neighborhood cast her out for it and she has to make ends meet all on her own. The story itself is really short, only about a little over a hundred pages long. Short stories have their perks, but the characters rarely do anything here, and I think having a stronger plot and more time to develop its characters could have really benefitted the book's overall quality, because as it is, it's pretty bland and barebones.

Honestly, the only good thing I can say in this book's favor is that it has great prose and Stephen Crane does have a great narrative voice, creating a portrait of a severely dysfunctional family with words and dialect. All of the dialogue is written in vernacular, but it's still fairly easy enough to understand, unlike works such as The Yearling. Unfortunately, everything else about this novel is piss-poor. Let's start with my biggest pet peeve with this novel: For a novel that supposedly touted Maggie as the main character, she rarely gets any screen time, and any dialogue she has never goes beyond a four word sentence. No, seriously, most of her dialogue consists of "He's neat" or "I need to go" and literally nothing else. We never learn anything about her, such as her hobbies, dreams, flaws, weaknesses, what she likes to do in her spare time, how she feels about her situation, nothing. She's little more than a background character despite her name being in the title of the book! Her brother Jimmie actually gets much more screen time and dialogue than her. You might as well call this "Jimmie: A Boy of the Streets," because he gets the most focus out of anyone in this entire novel...and that's not a good thing.

Because every single character in this is bland, one-dimensional, annoying, and, with the exception of Maggie, needlessly cruel and hypocritical. Maggie is so devoid of any kind of personality she's pretty much a cardboard cutout who does stupid things, her mother and brother Jimmie are both violent jackasses who always wallow in their own misery while heartlessly and hypocritically hurting others around them, blaming each other for all the mistakes they themselves made. For example, Maggie falls in love with Pete, one of Jimmie's street buddies, but the second her mother and brother find out, they completely rip into her for it, kick her out of the house, and joyfully talk trash about her. All the mother does is be a violent harpy, and Pete is just a tool who uses other people for his own convenience. Crane, I get you wanted to highlight how poverty really hurt the lower classes back in those days, but would it kill you to try and make them somewhat sympathetic? Because nobody's going to care about a bunch of jackasses who continually wallow in their own misery!

Do you know why I rated books such as Amal Unbound higher than this one? Because while the characters did face adversity, they never sat around wallowing in the misery that came with it, and were in circumstances where they had no time or chance to even do so. The characters in that book made the best of their bad situations while still trying to find ways to escape it, and the book cared enough about characterization and development to give them depth and nuance, so we as the audience cared about them, even in their vulnerable and lowest points. Maggie: A Girl of the Streets is completely devoid of all of this, and because the book is more interested in making its characters as abhorrent or bland as possible, without even caring about their plight or giving us reason to care about them, the wanton misery in this book turns me off to the idea of caring about any of the characters in it. And people said some of my fan fics were filled with nonstop drama and misery!

So I honestly wouldn't bother with this one. It's little more than a piss-poor, shallow, misery-laden whine fest that's perfectly content to sit in its own poop and nothing else. This is not one of Stephen Crane's better works, and I hate that this was the first novel of his I decided to read. Don't waste your time.

 

[prog rocker]

What does it mean "written in vernacular"?

 

[Beth Pavell]

What does it mean "written in vernacular"?

Not standard English, in this context. In the context of dialogue, this usually means a dialect or creole

 

[prog rocker]

Not standard English, in this context. In the context of dialogue, this usually means a dialect or creole

Oh, then I get it now. Kinda like "Concherias" by Aquileo Echeverria. That book is written in the way the people that live in the rural zones of Costa Rica talk (like saying "ñor" instead of "señor", etc).

 

[Juliko]

Alright, enough of the crappy stuff. Time to review something good! This review was started on February 19th, 2020, but only finished today.

I give this lovely romance by one of anime's most acclaimed director in recent times...a 93/100!

Romance movies are a dime a dozen. They're practically everywhere, so any attempt at making any form of romance media will inevitably seem cliche, because at this point, there's literally no original storytelling ground for them anymore. I myself have never been much for romance stuff, mostly because many of them are either annoyingly cliche, formulaic, melodramatic, or indulge in tropes that are so aggravating, you just want to punch a wall. I especially hate it when the main leads come across an obstacle, NEVER talk to each other about it in favor of dragging out the drama longer than it needs to, thereby ignoring healthier solutions, or when a love triangle gets shoved in and the writers feel the need to make everyone as mean-spirited and antagonistic about it as possible. So when I heard that famous animator/director Masaaki Yuasa, famous for works such as Mind Game, Kaiba, Devilman Crybaby, and his most recent TV series Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken, was making a romance romp called Ride Your Wave, I thought I'd check it out. It looked nice enough, and he can be good at character development and storytelling when he actually puts effort into it, so when it aired in theaters in my area, I decided to see it, thinking it'd be a cute and serviceable, but still formulaic, unmemorable movie.

Boy, was I wrong. I went into this with absolutely no expectations, and not only did the movie blow my ass away, it officially became the gold standard for which I hold all romance media as a whole! Where has this movie been all my life?!

So what's the story? A young surfer named Hinako just moved into a new town, happy to be able to surf in the nearby beach. But when her apartment catches fire thanks to irresponsible kids setting off fireworks, a young firefighter, Minato, manages to get her out of the building. The two gradually become closer to the point where they start dating. For a while, things are great for Hinako...until Minato gets into a surfing accident and dies unexpectedly. Hinako and Minato's friends and family try to cope with his death, but Hinako is the most hurt by his passing. Then, one day, she starts seeing Minato's face in bodies of water whenever she sings a song they heard on the radio. Hinako is shocked by this development, and decides to make the most of this discovery by spending as much time with spirit Minato as possible, never wanting to be apart from him. But the two realize that this kind of lifestyle can't go on forever.

In terms of premises, this isn't exactly new material. Coping with the death of a love interest is the kind of story that's been done over and over again since the beginning of movies, and Ride Your Wave is no different. Since you can't really break new storytelling ground with that kind of premise anyway, it all really depends on the execution, and honestly, Yuasa and his team at Science Saru really brought their A game for this one, and I'm still wonderstruck by just how well everything came together and how great the whole thing turned out. The animation, for one, is absolutely sumptuous. Yuasa is well known for his dynamic, fluid animation and his use of bold colors to really make everything pop and feel lively, and it really shows here, especially when it comes to animating the water, and considering the series has a very heavy water theme, it really works. From tiny droplets hanging off leaves to roaring waves crashing into the ocean, with good use of camera angles that show Hinako surfing as if she's part of the ocean. It's pretty much on par with Ponyo in terms of how great the water animation is, and everything else is great, too.

The soundtrack I have mixed feelings about. I mean, the background music itself is good, though nothing too memorable, but the main theme, "Brand New Story" by Generations from Exile Tribe (Yes, that's the band's actual name) is not only a fun song, but is a vital part of the story. It becomes Hinako's way of summoning Minato after his death, and it's sung professionally and by amateurs all throughout the movie, being both its opening, the insert song, and the ending. The song itself is good, but...I'm not gonna lie, the movie REALLY milks it, having it be literally the only song in the movie, and having it sung over and over and over, especially by people who can't sing for the life of them, really starts to get grating and make it lose its emotional impact. I think it'd be better if the song was just the insert song, and have different ones be the opening and ending, rather than having the same song for all three. I'm docking points on this one, because the movie could have benefitted from not milking the song for all it's worth, even if the song itself is both good and a really important part of the story overall. But I'm probably just nitpicking, as the positives far outweigh any negatives I can find.

One of those positives being the characters. It's hard to develop a cast of characters in a movie in a believable way, even more so when it's a romance. In the hands of less talented people, something like Ride Your Wave could have easily been a complete disaster. Some creators force characters to be in a relationship just for the sake of it, even when they have no reason to be together, or try to make a really unhealthy, even abusive relationship seem romantic or even the ideal relationship (Looking at you, Twilight saga). Most of the time, especially in scenarios involving love triangles, characters are either too stubborn to talk about their relationship issues or are needlessly mean to each other all for the sake of forcing drama. Boy am I happy to tell you that Ride Your Wave has absolutely NONE of these things. All of the characters here are intelligent, relatable, three-dimensional, and they all get their fair share of development and have great chemistry with each other. For one, when they have issues and problems, THEY ACTUALLY TALK TO EACH OTHER AND TRY TO SOLVE THINGS!!! You have NO idea how much I wanted this in any romance movie I ever watched! When Hinako asks Minato about why he went out to sea and wound up dying, Minato gives her a solid answer. When Minato's friend Wasabi (Who names their kid Wasabi?) develops a crush on Hinako and tells her about it, she outright rejects him in no uncertain terms, but is still nice about it. Youko, Minato's younger sister, is blunt and doesn't sugarcoat anything she says, but has no hard feelings towards Hinako in regards to her brother's death, as she knows full well it wasn't her fault and tells her such. Both Minato and Wasabi see that Hinako's lifestyle is hurting her because she still wants to be with Minato as a watery spirit, and explain to her in detail how she needs to come to terms with things and heal so she can move on in life. There's no dumb love triangle, no stupid romantic hijinks, nor is there really any antagonist. Do you have ANY idea how much I wanted to see a romance movie that avoids all of these terrible cliches? How rare this even is? Because Yuasa completely eschews the typical formulas and tropes involved in romance media, cuts out the bullshit, and plays the whole thing completely straight, showing a perfectly healthy, loving relationship between two people and their friends, he manages to make the audience, me mostly, care about the two leads. Wasabi and Youko both have their own arcs as well, where they have their own different ways of coping with Minato's death and finding peace with it and themselves.

The film has a typical three-act structure, but the first part focuses on Hinako's relationship with Minato, the second her struggles with accepting his death and the lifestyle she lives by summoning him in water bottles or water filled inflatable fish, and the third centers on her healing: How she's learning more about Minato and herself as people, and making the effort to try and move on, even if her attempts at doing so don't succeed at first. There's also the running theme of what it means to save someone, whether it be actually rescuing someone from the edge of death, or how simply saying the right thing at the right time can help someone just as much as the physical act. More than that, it's even possible to save someone without even being really aware of having done so. Seriously, I want to just gush about this movie all day long, it's that good! As far as where it places on my top favorite movies of all time, I wouldn't say it reached the top, as let's face it, nothing can beat Dog of Flanders for me. But seriously, the past few years have been great for anime movies. There's no denying that. But Ride Your Wave did place pretty high in my overall favorites list. Maquia was great but does have some storytelling issues caused by questionable writing decisions, Mirai had a concept that sounded good on paper but doesn't make sense when having a four year old as a main character, Liz and the Blue Bird was held back by its setting and lack of conflict, Okko's Inn had an annoying soundtrack and may seem too kiddy for certain viewers, and Your Name had too many convoluted plots and overused many dumb jokes to the point that they overstayed their welcome.

So, yeah, Ride Your Wave is awesome. It's simple but very effective, making optimal use of its run time to develop its reasonably small cast of characters, the romance was sweet and genuine, if a little twee at times, and while the premise is nothing new to romance movies, all of the positives outweigh the negatives in my personal opinion. If you're looking for something genuinely sweet and touching that's actually free of so many of the problems that consistently plague the romance genre, Ride Your Wave is a good way to get your feet wet.

 

[Juliko]

This review was just finished today.

I give this cute oneshot manga about witches and their cats...a 91/100!

Stories about young, cute witches practicing magic and having fun with their powers are a pretty popular subject in Japan. Famous anime such as Ojamajo Doremi, Sally the Witch, Kiki's Delivery Service, and recently, Little Witch Academia and Flying Witch, have capitalized on the idea of cute little girl witches messing with their powers and they've been very successful. Even some cartoons and books here in America have started to take part in this trend. I randomly found this manga, Majo to Neko no Hanashi, or Stories of Witches and Cats, online, and I decided to give it a read, as it looked quite cute and nice. It pretty much met my expectations and then some, and I have no qualms about recommending this manga to anyone who just wants to read a short, sweet, heartwarming manga about various girls, their cats, and their experiences.

The manga is very short, only being one volume long, and each chapter focuses on various girls, how they meet their cat familiars, overcome their insecurities, and come to bond with them. It mostly focuses on a group of four female friends, one girl's grandmother, and one of their teachers. There's no set main character, as the chapters always focus on one individual character each, giving them all a day in the limelight, from happy-go-lucky Suzu trying to cope with the fact that her cat isn't an elegant black one, to quiet, red haired Nina who doesn't like getting angry out of fear that people will hate her for it, and even Suzu's grandmother, Chise, who started off hating magic but eventually finding her calling in life. There's no real conflict in this manga, as every chapter follows a set formula. Unlike most series that use a set formula to use the same narrative over and over again, Witches and Cats uses the formula to flesh out each character, their motivations, their weaknesses, how they deal with the problems they face, and so on, therefore aiding the story and giving the audience a reason to care about the characters.

Speaking of the characters, they're all very charming and likeable, and even with the manga's short length, every character is given their fair share of the spotlight and clear development that shows them changing throughout the story. Suzu is your typical cheerful, energetic girl who wants to be like her grandmother and wants a black cat, but her assigned cat is nothing like her grandmother's, and the two often quarreled more often than not, but once they managed to meet each other halfway, they finally start to bond and work together. Kei, one of Suzu's friends, starts off as stoic and practical, and a little too blunt for her own good, but a situation with a cat she summons by accident teaches her to be more sympathetic to people and their problems outside of her own experience. I found all of them sweet and relatable, even with the magical setting, and even the minor characters have their own stories to tell, with multiple sides to them and all feel fresh.

I must admit, I'm not that great of a critic when it comes to actual artwork, especially going into detail about things like shading, linework, and chapter layouts. I'm trying to rectify this, but I don't think I've improved all that much. But I'll do the best I can. For the most part, the manga's art style is very simple, with thin linework for both the character designs and the setting. Some of it looks rather crude, and sometimes the way the characters are drawn look like unfinished pencil sketches. At the same time, the author does make certain things detailed, such as food, flowers, window panes, the weaving of a basket, and so on. It's not Witch Hat Atelier level of detailed, but the art style is nice and pleasant to look at, and the character's faces are all very expressive, showing exactly how the characters feel.

In terms of flaws, I can really only think of one: It's too damn short! I would absolutely love to read even more of this manga! I want to know more about these characters, the world they live in, the history of witches, and where the cats come from. It does leave quite a bit of questions unanswered, such as what determines which cat is assigned to what witch and the nature of their world, but the story's main focus is simply telling heartwarming tales about young witch girls, their cats, and the lives they live. As far as I'm concerned, that's perfectly fine with me. So far, the manga hasn't been licensed, but if someone like Seven Seas or Yen Press would release this, I'd buy it in an instant! If you're looking for a sweet, short, heartwarming read that's full of magic and charm, Stories of Witches and Cats is definitely a sweet treat to enjoy!

 

[Juliko]

Hoooo boy. This review has been a long time coming. I first attempted to write this on March 12th, 2017, but I didn't finish it until today. I know, right?

I give one of Bamco's most divisive games in recent years...an 80/100!

So...in case you guys couldn't tell, I've been on a HUGE Tales of Zestiria kick since summer of last year. I kept seeing commercials of the anime version on Daisuki.net whenever I watched an episode of Mother Is a Fourth Grader, and since that anime was testing my patience, I decided to check out Tales of Zestiria The X and see if it was any better. The Age of Chaos episode almost put me off entirely, but I perservered and saw the first season. Then I began watching playthroughs of the game and found myself wanting to play it myself. On Christmas Eve of last year, I finally made a Steam account and bought ToZ on sale for $15. I never regretted my purchase. As of now, I've written four fan fics for ToZ and have been more involved in the fandom. Now, I won't lie, Zestiria definitely isn't one of the best Tales games. But I do feel it deserves more love than it gets and that the controversy around how it handled its characters does seem blown way out of proportion. Plus, Zestiria is now the first Tales game I've ever fully completed on my own (Abyss was the first I bought and played, but I didn't get too far with it. I ought to get back to it once I finish Symphonia), so it's only fitting that I give it a review!

In the days of old, humans and a magical spiritfolk called the seraphim used to coexist in peace. But due to wars and other calamities, people lost their respect for the seraphim, thus losing their ability to see them. But whenever chaos would fall upon the world, a being called the shepherd would be called to save the world from disaster. Sorey, a human living in a village full of seraphim, starts a chain of events that would lead him to become this generation's new shepherd, thus tasked with saving the world from the evil Lord of Calamity. But is there really all there is to it? His dream in life is for humans and seraphim to coexist again, just like in the past, but being the shepherd is serious business, and Sorey may have to learn some harsh lessons and do things he may not want to do in order to not only achieve that dream, but to make sure that he himself doesn't fall into the hands of evil.

Now, with a premise like that, it's easy to say that the storyline is rather cliche. A random chosen one appears to save the world from evil forces. That story's been done since the dawn of time, and it's hard to come up with an original spin on it anymore. Zestiria's take on the premise isn't exactly the most original. However, I am a strong believer in that cliches aren't bad. It depends on the execution. It can be easy to botch up a story like this and make it into a tepid black-and-white morality tale. But the Tales games are known for going against typical RPG tropes, and Zestiria, while not as deconstructive as its predecessors in the story department, is no exception. The story isn't entirely the best, but sometimes it's nice to have a simple story that's easy to understand, even if some aspects of it are left unexplored. Plus, it still gets very deep and emotionally heartrending near the end, when it becomes a very morally gray tale where Sorey has to make very agonizing decisions in order to save the world, and there's no easy fix for anything. I really like that aspect of the story, unoriginal as it is, because life isn't black and white. Sometimes good people have to do things they won't want to for the greater good, and in that department, Zestiria definitely succeeds, even if it does hit a few bumps in the road along the way.

One of those bumps happens to be the battle system. The Tales games are known for having very complex battle systems, which get more and more complex with every new game that comes out. As of now, that's actually become a point of contention among the newer games. Unfortunately, Zestiria's battle system suffers from being needlessly complicated and hard to understand. I don't know how it plays on the PS4 or PS3, but I bought my copy off Steam, and I was hardly ever able to use any Martial Artes without pressing a gajillion buttons at once, and that barely helped because I wanted to use a certain arte like Tiger Blade but it wound up using all the other ones, but with initiating Seraphic Artes, I was able to do it just fine, but a random arte appears every time unless I have them set. Plus, unlike in Tales of Symphonia where you can set whatever spell or arte on whichever button you use, Tales of Zestiria doesn't allow that unless you meet certain requirements. Even now, I still don't quite know how the battle system works. The arte system always forced me to put the same attack twice in two slots, no single attack for a single slot unlike in Symphonia where you were allowed to do that from the beginning. Heck, the battle system is so complicated that there are even entire skits in the game dedicated to explaining them. Oh, and you need to upgrade your weapons. A lot. So in this game, you're not gonna be able to just mash the A button to save yourself. You really need to plan and strategize if you want to get through this game.

I'll go over the game's positives first before going into the negatives, because I like this game and I don't want to be a killjoy. First off, the graphics are great. A lot of people I know hate that the game doesn't run at 60FPS like other games before it did, but personally, I never found this to be a problem. Why does a game have to run at so many frames per second to be beautiful to some? I don't see it that way. An anime or game can have terrible art, but if other aspects are great and make up for it, I'm willing to give it a pass. Zestiria's artwork and graphics are great. The dungeons and buildings are all delicately detailed and you really feel like you're a part of Sorey's party, exploring all the different dungeons, going through every nook and cranny, and they're all so big. You can go through every aspect of whatever area you're in, and there's still so much more to see and explore. The Tales series has really come a long way since Symphonia in terms of world maps and world exploration and design. The actual fighting and attacks and spells in the game are also beautiful to look at, especially the Mystic Artes. You can tell the creators went all out in making the Mystic Arte attacks look as beautiful, epic, and jawdropping as possible, complete with awesome effects and execution. In that aspect, I think the game succeeds.

I've also heard people say that the characters in Zestiria aren't as complex and interesting as other Tales games. Then again, Symphonia kinda set the standard for characters, so I'm not surprised there. In some way, I do agree. The characters don't really look or act all that different from others who have the same archetype. Sorey's the nice, sweet, idealistic hero, Mikleo's the serious snarker, Lailah is the wise, caring mentor, Zaveid is the token skirt-chaser, Dezel's the lone wolf with the super tragic backstory who hates everybody, Rose is the happy-go-lucky genki girl, etc. It can be easy to dismiss them as cookie cutter or stereotypes of stereotypes. However, I feel that Zestiria's greatest strength when it comes to its characters is its subtlety. On the surface, the characters seem cliche and by-the-numbers, but various small actions and skits show that there's so much more to them than meets the eye. For example, one skit reveals that Sorey sucks at writing poetry, Mikleo dreams of writing a book someday, Dezel loves studying animals and insects, Rose was an orphan before being taken in by the Scattered Bones, etc. Sorey is actually smart, and not dumb as a rock. Mikleo actually acts like a friend to Sorey, has believable chemistry with him, and never teases him in a needlessly cruel or mean-spirited way (Take a lesson from this, Twin Spica), Alisha cares about her kingdom and wants to take ruling it seriously, etc. One of the reasons I came to love anime so much as a kid was that the characters in most anime I saw, while they looked and acted cliche at first, had a lot more subtle layers and complexities to them than what was shown on the surface, and I feel Zestiria captured that perfectly.

I don't think I can say much about the soundtrack that others haven't said about it already. The Tales series always has great soundtracks. There's no way Bandai-Namco would ever let one of their famous franchises have bad music, Zestiria being no exception. I do think the theme song by Superfly is a bit too hard rock for my tastes. I like it, but I feel it's a bit too bombastic and screechy for my ears. It really says something when I like the official orchestrated version way better...and the two opening themes for the anime version. Both the English and Japanese tracks are also above average in quality, especially the English dub, which I think is absolutely stellar. Seriously, this was the media that got me to notice Robbie Daymond (English voice of Sorey) in particular. He's just adorable as Sorey, giving him a simple, typical everyman kind of voice but without making him come off as annoying or whiny. He sounds like he'd be a regular kid, and not once does he ever sound like he's trying too hard, and I love that! Then again, one of my absolute favorite anime voice actresses, Wendee Lee, had a hand in the cast directing and the direction of the English localization as a whole, so I think she deserves a standing ovation for that one.

Alright, now its time to get into the negatives, and believe me, I feel bad about pointing out its flaws. I already talked about the overly complicated battle system so I don't need to get into that again, so I'll just talk about the other stuff. First off, some of the sidequests can either be really missable if you don't know where to go or what to do, but are really, REALLY tedious. Some of them even get in the way of the main story, and often times you're not given directions on where to go in order to get the item or thing you need. One important part of the story involves getting these items called Iris Gems, which you gather during most of the early parts of the game. At one point, you need to get all of them in order to progress the main story, but you have to go through some sidequests to get them, and there isn't anything in the game that tells you that you need to go to certain places or activate certain events in order to get them, so unless you have a guide or got them all on your own, you're gonna be clueless. There's also the fact that the game requires you to go through four trials, and they can be done in any order, but they're considered not only really slow and tedious, the game doesn't give you anything else to do during those times, locking you into certain areas unless you progress, slowing down the game's already rushed pacing. Yeah, the game doesn't seem to know how to pace itself, and makes you either go really fast, breezing through the story like crazy, or forcing you to literally stop and finish a tedious task if you have any hope of progressing, and not giving you anything to really make the dungeon crawling worthwhile.

Secondly, the writing is wildly inconsistent at times, particularly with characterization. At one point, Rose, one of the main characters, is revealed to be part of an assassin's guild, and the game makes a point about how she has to make hard decisions based on her profession, and shows that she's willing to kill if she feels the world will be better off for it. It tries to make her a morally grey hero, and hey, who doesn't like characters who aren't always heroic? But at a later point in the game, during a skit, she claims that killing is wrong no matter what...so says the professional assassin! Do you see the contradiction here? An assassin, who makes a living off killing people saying that killing is wrong. The game is littered with quite a few of these kinds of contradictions in its writing.

However, my biggest beef with the writing in this game is that the creators seem to go out of their way to completely ignore things that are really important to not just the overall narrative, but missing huge opportunities for character development. For example, there's a BIG revelation near the end of the game that completely redefines the main characters' roles in the story, turning everything on its head, and you'd think its potential would be used to its fullest, have the characters have some healthy angst about it, and having them be forced to actually confront the full ramifications that come from it. But instead, it's treated as a mere afterthought, and the characters have little, if any reaction to it at all. Uhhh...no. You don't drop a massive bomb and have the characters treat it like a pebble in their shoe! There are several storylines that are implied to be important and, if explored, could have been great chances for fleshing out the characters and making them more three dimensional, but the game either ignores them (Dezel, Lunarre, Lailah, and Symmone's backstories, the latter's only being revealed in a freaking game manual!) or doesn't make any effort to explore their potential. To me, this is the game's biggest setback as a whole. There's so much the game could have done to be even better and make good use of its story and characters, and instead just ignores them or only scratches them at the surface level without even making a mark. There's a reason people love Tales of Symphonia so much, flaws and all.

I do feel kinda bad about ragging on this game, because personally, I enjoyed every minute of it, even with its flaws. Do I think it could be better? Of course. But does that mean the game itself is bad? I don't think so. There are far worse games out there than this, and while I do like Symphonia better, Zestiria has a lot to like. It's not for everyone, and there's no denying that it does have problems beyond its pacing issues, glitches, and inconsistent characterization, but if you're looking for a decent adventure game that requires you to put more thought into your battle strategies, than Zestiria gets my vote.

 

[Juliko]

This review was written on December 17th, 2019.

I give this charming yuri OVA about two girls in love...a 76/100.

Being an anime fan for 14 years straight, I've refined my tastes over the years, so I know what I like and don't like, and if you like what I don't like, or don't like what I do, that's cool. You win. Everyone has their preferences when it comes to anime/manga. That being said, I've never really been fond of yaoi or yuri manga, and that's because many of them tend to play up the sex too much, especially sex that's dubiously consensual at best, are just poorly written in general, and don't necessarily reflect the experiences that actual LGBT people go through, since those works aren't written with that audience in mind. For me, they've just never been my thing. However, like any form of media, there are exceptions to the rule, and some of the more recent yaoi/yuri/shounen-ai/shoujo-ai stories are making an effort to actually be good and high quality, such as Shimanami Tasogare, Aoi Hana, Bloom Into You, and for today's subject, a little OVA called Kase-san and Morning Glories, based on the manga by Hiromi Takashima. I've only read two volumes of the manga, so I won't be commenting on that.

The OVA centers around two girls, shy gardener Yui Yamada, and popular sporty track star, Tomoka Kase. At first, the two barely know the other exists, but after a few meetings in school, they gradually become friends and start spending a lot of time together. Over time, the two find themselves crushing on each other, realizing they love each other, and after some initial awkwardness, they eventually decide to start dating. The OVA begins after they start dating, so they're technically already in a relationship at this point, so it focuses more on how they deal with their romantic feelings, the awkwardness that comes from being in a relationship, and showing how they work together as a couple, so there's a heavy focus on character driven conflict.

The OVA is only 50 minutes long, just short of an hour, but it's slowly paced in that it focuses a lot on the girls' lives, finding wonder in mundane things such as talking to your loved ones and going on vacation to a sunny beachside, and putting heavy emphasis on setting up a mellow, soft atmosphere. The animation sells it wonderfully, with bright colors, subtle but smooth character movement, great use of light and shadows, and giving the whole series a warm, welcoming palette. If you're not the patient type or someone who prefers heart pumping action and stuff happening all the time, then this isn't the show for you. It takes its time to really flesh out the leads and show their relationship evolving.

Honestly, while I do like the main characters, and their chemistry is really nice to watch, they don't really get fleshed out all that much. I mean, this is a 50-minute episode that leaves out a lot of important details from the manga, so this is inevitable. But I think the characters suffered quite a bit in the transition. Granted, I've only read two volumes of the manga thus far, and while they're not poorly executed or anything, they do come off as rather one note archetypes, with Yamada being the shy girl, Kase being the sporty energetic one, Mikawa being the typical spunky friend character who snarks a lot, so on and so forth. I've seen them done worse, but Kase-san doesn't really try to do anything with them other than play them straight, without doing anything to spice it up or make them somewhat interesting.

Plus, you'll find a lot of romance tropes used here that may or may not annoy you, such as a bunch of misunderstandings that don't get cleared up right away, the girls not always walking to each other about important things, sexual advances getting interrupted, melodrama resulting from things getting blown out of proportion, and so on. Granted, it does manage to do these things much less obnoxiously than most TV shows I've seen, so I'm willing to cut it some slack on that, but for those who utterly hate these things overall, you should probably look elsewhere. Furthermore, the anime is very fluffy and lighthearted, focusing heavily on cuteness, fluff, and sweetness than the downsides of being in a relationship, which is totally fine if done well, and in this day and age, we need more stories about LGBT people that don't involve lots of angst and drama. However, piling on too much sugar can detriment a product more than anything, and I like that Kase-san is trying to present a lesbian relationship in a sweet, positive light, I feel like the short length of the anime rendered any growth and chemistry the characters developed to be rather shallow, as we don't see them actively trying to work together or encounter genuine problems that could require them to strengthen their relationship. Romance isn't all rainbows and unicorns, you guys.

But for what it's worth, it's still a sweet, fluffy shoujo-ai anime that you can watch if you just want to relax and dream of good days ahead.

 

[Juliko]

This review was originally written on May 23rd, 2015.

(Note: This review only covers the first season of Aikatsu, as this iteration has four seasons total, all with their own stories, and sometimes different characters. Seasons two, three, and four will receive separate reviews, as they manage to be different enough from the first season to warrant being reviewed separately despite being direct sequels to this one)

I give this joyful anime about singing...a 78/100!

Lots of people have favorite singers. Many I know have very devoted fans who would go to concerts in hurricanes just to see them. I liked some singers back in my day, but never to that extent. Due to lack of enthusiasm and money, I could never go to concerts for my favorite singers. I'm not into singers as other people I know are, and TV shows that often star those singers often turn out really bad. So...anime about singers? Meh, I wasn't sure if I would like it. But then I saw people praising Aikatsu up the wazoo. Being bored and having no other good anime to watch, I decided to give it a try. I expected to hate it, but...after seeing the first season, I'm saying this: Why won't America broadcast this?! If this had been shown when I was a kid, I probably would have ate it up, and thus, its popularity is 100% justified.

The story is about a normal girl named Ichigo Hoshimiya, who works at a bento shop alongside her mother and little brother. When her brother asks her to take her to an idol's concert, Ichigo and her best friend Aoi accompany him. The idol in question is Mizuki Kanzaki, who is world famous. After watching her concert, Ichigo is smitten, and decides she wants to be an idol just like Mizuki. She and Aoi manage to find a special idol school called Starlight Academy, and they audition to get in. Together, they encounter friends, rivals, endure intense training, and are determined to fulfill their dreams. But some obstacles may be too much for even them to handle.

For a kids show, the animation starts off rather bland and wonky, especially the CGI. At first, the CGI is pretty atrocious. The movements are stiff, the girls look like plastic Barbie dolls, and it doesn't blend well with the 2D animation. Thankfully, both the 2D and 3D animation get significantly better as the show goes on. Gradually, but definitely. The CGI is at its best in the second season, and this review is about the first season, so it's safe to say that it takes a loooong time to get better. But the 2D animation itself isn't bad. It's reasonably good, but not particularly great either, with plenty of bright colors, special effects to make the concerts flashy, outfit designs being detailed and elaborate, etc. But it is a kids show, and kids love bright colors and intricate designs, so its definitely not a detriment to the show. I do have some problems with the character designs, namely with the girls' legs being drawn extremely thin and stick-like. But that's just a personal nitpick so don't take it seriously.

For shows about singers, music obviously has to be an important factor in marketing a show. Aikatsu...well, it tries, but while its soundtrack is good, most of the songs...are rather mixed, at best. Some songs are great, some are good, some...are badly sung. The soundtrack is pretty mellow and bouncy, and some are even instrumental versions of songs that the characters sing in the show. I feel some of the best songs are Glass Doll, Signalize, Wake Up My Music, and Happiness On The Same Earth. But some songs are not only bad, but very badly sung. For some reason, the characters all have different speaking voices and singing voices, provided by different people. I don't know what made the producers do this, but for some characters different singing voices work, such as Aoi, Yurika, Ran, and Sakura, but Ichigo's singing voice...isn't the best. She sounds like she smoked too many cigarettes when she sings, and her singing voice is nasally. I actually feel Ran's singing voice would be better for Ichigo than the person doing Ichigo's singing voice. Not only that, some songs try waaaay too hard to be cute and poppy, and some songs have really stupid lyrics and premises. So yeah, even though music should be the show's strong point, it isn't in this case, and it continues in the second season.

The characters are a bit of a mixed bag. At first glance, they look like simple stereotypes, and for the most part they are pretty simple. But over the course of the series, they show many subtle characteristics that make them more than just stereotypes, and many cliches about them are toned down so they feel like real people. For example, Ichigo is a cheerful girl who eats a lot, but the show puts emphasis on her working hard to achieve her dreams and learning about the idol world. Aoi is smart, but she isn't over the top about it, and Ran at first comes off as a snob, but she shows hidden depths later on. My favorites are Yurika because she's gloriously funny and takes pride in pretending to be a vampire (and she has the best song in the series) and Sakura because she's more than just a shy yamato nadeshiko character, and also has great songs. I do feel that the characters don't always make mistakes or mess up, especially during their idol performances. Ichigo only messes up once, and never does it again, even though she doesn't always win everything. Even the characters who look perfect show hidden depths later on. I applaud the show for keeping the characters all on the same level regardless, and they're never more or less talented than each other. Everyone gets a fair chance, and I especially love Mitsuishi. She's a teacher who actively wants her students to do their best in everything, but doesn't coddle them. She challenges them for their benefit, and genuinely praises them when they do well, so she's not a stereotypical good teacher or bad teacher. She's everything a good teacher should be.

Unfortunately, there is one character who is the sole exception to this rule, who really shouldn't be in the show, and that's Kaede Ichinose. I hate her. Why? Because she embodies the following tropes: Mary Sue, Deus Ex Machina, and Broken Aesop. Imagine this: there's a big competition coming up, and you work your butt off to try and win, putting in lots of effort. But then, out of nowhere, a random person leaps into the competition, forces her way in, and gets accepted into the contest without any repercussions whatsoever. This person claims to be able to pull off impossible feats, manages to perform without any effort, and wins, making everyone else's efforts, and by default the entire said competition, completely pointless! That's basically Kaede in a nutshell. She appears completely out of nowhere, steals the girls' chances of winning the Tri-Star competition, outright wins without any effort, forces herself in a competition she didn't officially sign up for, doesn't get called out on it, gets everything good handed to her on a silver platter, and is basically a perfect, idealized idol girl who is good at everything. She even claims to have scaled the entire Grand Canyon WITHOUT ANY CLIMBING EQUIPMENT WHICH EVERYONE AND THEIR DOG KNOWS IS COMPLETELY AND PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE FOR AN ADULT LET ALONE A FOURTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL. (Ichigo pretty much does the same thing on Angely Mountain, which is also impossible). The worst part is, she doesn't appear in the show until episode 33 despite being shown in the opening, very late in the series, so there's literally no time to develop her. Had she been introduced earlier and given some episodes to show human strengths and weaknesses, she might have been given a chance, but the creators just throw this overly perfect Mary Sue in here, and considering she does everything right without any effort, it not only completely destroys the show's dynamic, but renders its morals and ideals about working hard to fulfill your dreams completely pointless. Not only that, she has absolutely ZERO realistic flaws that make her more human, whereas the other girls do. Yurika pretends to be a vampire because she thinks her fans won't like a nerdy shy girl, Aoi doesn't have faith in her abilities, Ran tries too hard to be perfect, Sakura is too reserved, and Ichigo sometimes takes things the wrong way. Even the top idol, Mizuki, has flaws in that the only reason she's so good is because she works her butt off, which leads to her overworking herself. Kaede has absolutely no weaknesses that allow us to root for her or identify with her. A perfect character isn't interesting, creators! I take back everything I said about Yuuko from Happiness Charge, because at least Yuuko had SOME hints of weaknesses even though they weren't utilized, and she at least was still on the same level as the other girls! Kaede is just a poorly written character who shouldn't be there. It seems the creators realize where they went wrong, as Kaede doesn't make many reappearances in later seasons, and the girls get their times to shine again, so I guess I can give them some credit for realizing where they went wrong.

But Kaede isn't the only flaw the show has. I have to admit, things do tend to go a little too smoothly for the girls on occasion. Other than Ichigo, almost no character messes up during their performance, nor does anything really prevent them from showing off nothing but their best, which can push people's suspension of disbelief a lot. Success comes from failure, and even though the show has good morals about hard work and perserverance, they don't really mean much if we don't see the characters struggle or even fail at times. The show also has a very...odd view of scandals. One episode featured Yurika flipping out because...someone caught her without her vampire persona at a hospital, fearing that if her fans see who she really is, they'll stop loving her. Uhh...that's not a scandal. If it was discovered that Yurika was actually really mean or did bad things, I'd believe it, but her fans dropping her because she's really a nerdy shy girl? I can't see that happening, and I fail to see how this is viewed as scandal material. Scandals are something like people having illicit affairs, doing drugs, overstepping their bounds, or doing genuinely bad things such as robbery, murder, dog fighting, you name it! True, this is a kids show so the writers aren't allowed to explore topics such as this, but honestly, I felt Fancy Lala did the whole scandal episode a lot better. Also, as much as I like the characters, they don't feel like well rounded individuals to me, in that they don't seem to have any lives outside of being an idol. We hardly ever see other aspects of their characters, such as their family lives, their hobbies (and I mean hobbies that DON'T involve idols of some sort), their weaknesses, their habits, their daily routines, etc. Almost every single day of their lives is devoted to being an idol. It's good to be passionate about something, and that's great, but there's more to a person than their dreams, and giving characters those little extra tid-bits about them makes them feel more human and even more relatable so we can have more reason to care about them. I love anime that make use of their episodes to show aspects of their characters that normally people wouldn't notice, as things like that show how much producers care about their characters. Unfortunately, this isn't the case with Aikatsu, which is a shame, as there's so many characters who deserve so much more development than they've gotten.

Overall, if you want a cute anime about singing, idols, cute girls, and good morals, Aikatsu is the perfect anime franchise to show to your little sister, daughter, niece, etc. It's gotten super popular over the years, to the point where it's become a million dollar franchise on par with Pretty Cure, Yokai Watch, and Pokemon, so it's safe to say Aikatsu isn't going away anytime soon.

 

[Juliko]

This review was written on July 8th, 2016.

I give the most recent game in the Story of Seasons franchise...a 89/100!

I never even HEARD of Harvest Moon or Story of Seasons until a few months ago. If someone told me one year ago that I would fall head over heels for a Harvest Moon game, I would have said, "What's Harvest Moon?" But I was bored and still lingering in my current existential crisis and wanted something new to try out. I wound up randomly coming across info about the Harvest Moon series a few months ago. I bought the first two GBC games off the 3DS eShop and I wound up really liking them! Not only were they really fun and addictive, but also very relaxing. I wound up buying Story of Seasons shortly afterward, namely because it was on sale on the eShop and partly because it received rave reviews. I thought, "Why not?" and decided to buy it, completely blind...and wow, I am so glad I did, because this is seriously one of the best games I've played in years. Where has Harvest Moon been all my life?!

Now, the game itself doesn't really have a linear story. You start off as a kid who lived in the city but filled out an application to own a farm. You go to Oak Tree Town, stay with an old lady for a week, get your farm, raise livestock, grow crops, participate in festivals and social events, talk to villagers, make your own clothing, trade with other countries, etc. On the side, you also get to court potential bachelors and bachelorettes, and if your affection with them is high, you'll get to marry them and have kids. So...yeah, don't expect any dungeon exploring, swordfighting, or sexy fanservice here. It's all about farming and enjoying being among nature, which isn't a bad thing. Sometimes its nice to play games where you can just relax and enjoy the scenery.

Anyway, the animation and 3D sprites are beautiful. Granted, some of them are a bit too chibi-style, but the overall character designs are very well done. Everyone has their own distinct look, and despite it adopting a very anime-esque style, they all manage to stand out in their own way. Plus, you get to customize your character and give them different hair, eye, and skin colors, and different hairstyles and clothing! One aspect I especially like is that the game lets you put boy clothes on a girl character and vice versa. I really wish Pokemon would do this. Plus, the 3D sprites are well animated and they move very fluidly, when walking, running, swimming, etc.

The music is very much the same way. Every season has its own theme song, and all of them match the atmosphere perfectly, with spring being light and cheerful, winter being soft and somber, and autumn being mellow and spritely. They also have night versions of said themes, too, kinda like Pokemon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum, and those are very good, too. However, the soundtrack itself doesn't have a whole lot of range. I only heard about maybe fifteen pieces of BGMs throughout the entire game, whereas other games have over a whopping 30 or more BGMs. It's rare for a soundtrack to have very little variety. While the music itself is very well done, I think it would have been nice to hear a little more.

But lack of music variety isn't the only problem story of seasons has. There's tons of things to do, and while that's usually not a bad thing, in this case, it can be kind of overwhelming. You can get awards for achieving certain feats, from catching fish to running a farm for thirty years straight. But some of them are VERY time consuming and VERY hard to achieve. Plus, certain items have to be of the absolute highest quality if you want to win contests such as the Harvest Festival or Fashion Fiestas. If you don't know what to do for those, you're pretty much screwed. Raising animals isn't nearly as hard, along with cooking certain items, but one needs to be able to make everything high quality if you want to win certain awards or contests. It doesn't help that some things such as certain vendors and items are near impossible to get until you meet certain requirements, such as selling X amount of Y item throughout a period of time. I still haven't unlocked Tropical or Ice Country yet! Plus, if you want to marry someone, you have to not only raise their affection by giving them items, but you can't unlock certain events until you've again met certain requirements. They're easy to look up online, but if you don't know what you're doing, you'll never be able to marry that one bachelor you love. While you're not required to complete the game 100%, if you're a hardcore completionist, then it's probably going to take you a LOOOOOONG time to complete everything here.

One of Harvest Moon's most beloved aspects are the characters and the amount of depth they get. Now, I haven't played games like Harvest Moon 64 or Friends of Mineral Town, some of the most beloved games in the series, but they're praised for having well developed characters. I must say, Story of Seasons has a pretty good cast of characters as well. Granted, how you interact with them is imperative to progressing toward marrying them, but unlocking the bachelors' flower events do a lot for their character. Raeger the chef doesn't like to complain and was neglected by his parents, Lillie is insecure around boys and feels like a burden on people, Kamil misses his hometown, Elise learns to be less of a snotty princess and do more work on her own farm, etc. Every character has moments where they show themselves to be more than what's on the surface. But, oddly enough like visual novels, you're given choices to either increase your friendship with them, or ruin your chances of ever being able to court them. Still, being able to see that relationship through is not only extremely cathartic, but more than worth the time you put into courting and even marrying them. Even minor characters like Veronica and Eda are very well developed in that they defy stereotypes that people associate with either the nice old lady archetype or the strict business woman. Seriously, interacting with these characters is a wonderful experience.

There's not much in the way of actual gameplay or story. All you really do is own a farm, raise animals, grow food, make stuff, go to events, court a bachelor, talk to people, etc. While this wasn't a turn-off for me, it's not a game for anyone who's impatient or wants something to happen immediately. In fact, the game starts off VERY slow paced, and doesn't really come into its own until you make a certain amount of money or unlock certain trading vendors. But that can be a good thing, as most people associate video games with violence and women with big boobs nowadays. Games like Story of Seasons, Mother/Earthbound, and Pokemon prove that video games, no matter their quality or target audience, can be viewed as art and a medium worthy of respect, and not only mindless entertainment, especially not blood, gore, violence, or sex. Every game is different. Assassin's Creed is violent about violence, Pokemon is about adventure and cute monsters, Story of Seasons is sweet and relaxing, Kirby is fun and cheerful, etc. Story of Seasons may not be a masterpiece in gaming, but considering how loved it is, that's a testament to how video games can not only be considered art, but teach meaningful lessons about life.

In the end, SoS is just a sweet, relaxing, and laid-back game that I think everyone should play. It's not perfect, but it doesn't need to be.

 

[prog rocker]

I don't know if this is only me or not, so I'm going to ask this: did the game lag for you? I played on a normal 3DS and the game was laggy in certain zones.

You can get awards for achieving certain feats, from catching fish to running a farm for thirty years straight. But some of them are VERY time consuming and VERY hard to achieve.

Oh God, I remember that house in FoMT that required you to be married to your spouse for 50 years to get it. Doesn't help that getting that house was a requirement for something else I can't remember (I think it was a gem or something like that).

 

[Juliko]

Good thing I never really cared about the harder, more tedious achievements when playing those games. And no, SoS didn't lag for me.

Anyway, this review was just written today.

I give this short book about a girl trying to find the meaning of happiness...a 62/100.

Last year, I reviewed a movie and novel titled I Want To Eat Your Pancreas. Both were not great, and it was pretty clear that Yoru Sumino, the writer, still had a lot to learn when it came to things like characterization and creating engaging prose. While browsing the internet, I found out that Seven Seas had licensed two more novels that she wrote, this being one of them. I Had That Same Dream Again centers on a young girl and her attempts to find the meaning of happiness through various people she meets every day. That's really it. Having read it, it seems like Sumino learned from the mistakes she made in Pancreas and tried to rectify them here. At least when it came to writing a main character who wasn't a one-dimensional wooden slab.

A more specific summary of the story is that Nanoka Koyanagi, a young, lonely girl with no friends but lots of brains, is given an assignment to define what happiness is and what it means to her. Nanoka is a rather eccentric girl who feels her classmates are spineless or idiots, but does have some friends: An elderly woman who gives her sweets, another woman who, I kid you not, is solely known as Skank (Yes, I'm serious, and we never learn her real name), and later, Minami, a high schooler who cuts herself. As Nanoka searches for answers, she makes mistakes and learns new things, not just about the people around her, but about herself as well.

One thing I will say in Sumino's favor is that Nanoka is a much better, more nuanced and three dimensional character than the lead in Pancreas was. Unlike the main character in that novel, who was just a quiet non-entity who was solely made so he can learn the beauty of life from his classmate, Nanoka has much more depth and personality to her. She's a precocious, outspoken kid who loves reading and tries to be as smart as she can, is a little egocentric, judges her classmates before getting to know them, tends to push her beliefs onto others without respecting their boundaries and wishes, and while she tries to be compassionate towards others, she makes plenty of childish mistakes that she has to learn from. She's not exactly a perfect portrayal of a child though, as Sumino makes it clear through the writing that she's not exactly the best at writing children. Nanoka often says a lot of philosophical things that no child in real life says, and she's always going on saying "Life is like X because Y and Z," and things of that nature, with a lot of gratuitous introspection that is unbelievable for a child of her age. Plus, her behavior in the beginning can make her very hard to like. Then again, it's very hard to write children realistically, especially if one hasn't really been around them all that much, which is understandable. As far as being a realistic child goes, Nanoka's not getting any points there, but as a flawed, three-dimensional character who actually grows, develops, and learns, Sumino fared much better here than she did in Pancreas.

Unfortunately, I can't really say the same for the side characters. The only ones I really liked were her classmate Kiryuu (For some reason the translators render his last name as Kiriyuu, but I have to wonder if that's right. I know Kiryuu exists but not Kiriyuu) and the unnamed elderly woman who gives Nanoka sweet treats every now and again. The rest of them were just bland and kind of milquetoast, with very little in the way of their own character arcs or development whatsoever. Plus, some of them felt like they were just there to be props for Nanoka's development, especially since many of them outright disappear from the story with no concrete explanation whatsoever. We never even know what Skank's deal is, or why she even goes by that moniker, nor anything about Minami, the high schooler Nanoka runs into or why she cuts herself. There are so many unanswered questions, and the book kinda winds up feeling empty because of that.

Furthermore, one thing Sumino still hasn't improved much on is her prose. She still favors telling over showing most of the time, and her descriptions of the setting are still rather stale. The fact that Nanoka tends to monologue about philosophical things that are unbelievable for a child her age only adds to just how stale the writing is, because her monologues tend to be gratuitous at best, and obnoxious at worst. The narrative voice feels muted, dispassionate, and distant, and combined with the prose, it feels like Sumino really didn't give a crap about giving the world she created some kind of life to it. So...yeah, I don't really have much else to say about this one. The story itself is simple, and it can actually be rather hard to do simple stories. While I feel this is better than Pancreas, I Had That Same Dream Again is still nowhere near the threshold of being called good, still bordering on mediocre at best. It's fine for a light read, but nothing more.

 

[Juliko]

This review was written on February 3rd 2020, but not finished until today.

I give this adorable anime about girls and their love of camping (The first season, at least)...an 81/100!

Ever since shows like K-On and Azumanga Daioh popularized anime about girls just having fun and doing mundane things, anime of that nature exploded in popularity, to the point where the anime/manga community gave them their own name, "Cute Girls Doing Cute Things." But as of recently, the label alone has garnered a bad reputation because many shows that came out after K-On exploded in popularity were mostly either generic, bad, ripping off other shows, or stuck in K-On's shadow. Some of them are just downright terrible. But most people prefer their anime to be more action packed, having no patience for slice-of-life anime with little conflict and barely any character development, which is fine. But just making an anime about people doing mundane things in and of itself isn't going to cut it, and you need to have something to make it stand out from all the rest. In the case of Yuru Camp, or it's English title Laid-Back Camp, it's camping. I really didn't think I'd like this, but after seeing some bloggers review it and praise it every week, I decided to check it out. While I wouldn't consider it the best slice of life anime ever, it still has a lot to offer, and it's a great anime to watch if you want to kick back, relax, and chill after a hard day.

The story focuses on a young girl named Rin Shima, who enjoys going off to various places camping all by herself, especially places that take in views of Mt. Fuji. One night, she finds a pink haired girl, Nadeshiko, lost and alone. The two become friends on Rin's camping trip, and this happenstance encounter makes Nadeshiko take an interest in camping herself. To this end, she joins the Outdoor Activities Club, where she meets two other camping enthusiasts, Aoi Inuyama and Chiaki Oogaki, and from then on, Rin and Nadeshiko begin sharing their camping trips and experiences, sometimes alone, sometimes together, and enjoying the wilderness around Mt. Fuji.

Slice-of-life shows mostly elaborate on themes such as spending time with your friends and use that as their selling point. While Laid-Back Camp does indulge in this through half of its run, the other half of it focuses on Rin and her solo camping trips, respecting the fact that she's the kind of girl who just likes being by herself and having her own time to herself. I can relate, as even I, a normally shy person, am normally happiest when I'm by myself, doing something I love in a quiet place, enjoying the scenery around me and appreciating moments of nothingness. Those times when you can truly let go of all burdens and enjoy a brief moment in time. Rin isn't painted as secretly wanting friends or anti-social. She finds all sorts of ways to enjoy herself, like talking to a dog in a passing car, talking to other strangers, or finding ways to get around obstacles such as road blocks.

The other characters are fairly nice as well, even though they still conform to overdone anime archetypes, such as the ditzy pink haired girl who is obsessed with eating, the energetic girl who gets wound up over silly stuff, the smart girl, so on and so forth. Now, the show isn't interested in things like deep character development, and there's hardly any conflict, so if you're looking for a show where the characters are constantly changing and growing, this isn't the show for you. But as archetypal as the girls are, their overall chemistry is great, and any banter and conversations they have feel like conversations you'd have with your own friends. Good on the show for not having them talk about stupid stuff like boob sizes or winning over a boy. The warm, comforting atmosphere the show has throughout its run helps, and I admit, I'm one of those people who enjoys quiet solitude and appreciates moments of complete nothingness, when you can truly let go of all worries and burdens.

Animation-wise, the character designs are all stereotypically moe and cutesy, so you won't find any realistic designs here. The animation itself is solid, with light movement and little still frames, though the background art is a sight to behold. You can tell the background artists went all out in trying to make every scenic location and landscape look as visually appealing as possible, kind of like this obscure anime from 2008 called Porphy no Nagai Tabi. The score is pretty flash as well, with soft, soothing piano and flute tunes and upbeat, snazzy Irish fiddles that really capture the feeling of being in the outdoors. That being said, Laid Back Camp isn't perfect. The narrator and his camping tips seemed a bit unnecessary, as having Rin or the other characters demonstrate various camping techniques, gathering the right materials, and displaying various cooking skills would have served as a better substitute.

Now, the second season is due to air in winter of 2021, so I thought I'd review the first season and get it out of the way, lest I forget my original thoughts on this current season. Overall, Laid Back Camp is a fairly cute, solid slice of life show that knows how to use its ingredients wisely, and I can't wait for the second season to air. The manga is still ongoing and Yen Press is releasing new volumes at a steady pace, so it's available if you want to read it. Also, can someone license this and dub it into English please?

 

[Juliko]

This review was just finished today.

I give this lovely anime about a forest golem and the human child he adopted...an 89/100!

The thing about anime is that you're pretty much allowed to write any kind of story you want and it'll be sure to air on TV, and pretty much anything goes. Japan's standards for cartoons are much wider and higher than places like America and France, though even this is changing somewhat. Many studio executives in America seem to believe that cartoons are just aimed at children and that they have absolutely no merit or value whatsoever, and anything made for adults is just crass, gross-out comedy, like South Park or Family Guy. Japan has all kinds of shows, from blood pumping monster killing action, to experimental horror, lighthearted slice of life shows, or fantasy shows that aren't always about swords and sorcery and medieval knights. Hell, Japan is totally okay with airing TV shows about little kids just living their lives out in the country (Non Non Biyori)! Some cultures have different standards for their cartoons, and let me ask you: Where else in the world can you find a sweet, wholesome show about a golem adopting a human child and having it be one of the nicest, most charming, most heartwarming shows ever? Yeah, while not without the occasional bump in the road, Japan has better standards for their cartoons, and Somali and the Forest Spirit is no exception to the rule.

In a world where demons, goblins, and monsters rule the roost, a forest golem finds a human child in his abode, lost and alone. Taking pity on her, as a human child can't survive all on its own, he decides to adopt her as his own, naming her Somali (Yes, it's explained that he's the one who named her Somali). But he knows he can't raise her in the forest, as she needs to be with other humans, so he and Somali, disguised as a minotaur child, decide to travel all over their world, searching for a place where Somali can live freely and be safe. However, there are two big problems. One is that humans are scarce in this world because the monsters either keep them as slaves or eat them, having done so for centuries due to prejudice and vitriol on both sides. The second problem is that golems have a set lifespan of a thousand years, and Somali's adoptive father only has a little over a year to live. In a world that's hostile towards humans, the golem needs to find a place for Somali to live before his life ends.

Now the premise itself is nothing new in anime. Stories of single parents adopting a young child have become a dime a dozen in anime, but it's rather rare to see one done in a fantasy setting, especially if said father is a thousand year old golem with no concept of emotions living in a monster dominated world where humans are considered slave labor or food. But I gotta say, the world Golem and Somali live in is incredible. A world ruled by monsters, all with their own personalities, rules, cultures, beliefs, cuisunes, and so on. The animation makes great use of bright colors, detailed backgrounds, different locales, and every character, major or minor, all has a distinct appearance and design, so you never see the same background character twice in a scene. The setting is lushly detailed, from a town in the center of a giant crater, to the absolutely stunning witch village illuminated by glowing flowers in a sewer bog. Everything in this series is a visual feast for the eyes...except for one thing: For some reason, somebody thought it'd be a great idea to put sunbeams in every single exterior shot during the daytime, except when the characters are inside a building or cave. It's one thing to have them show up every once in a while, and I like sunbeams as well, but Somali uses them in practically every single outside scene, to the point where they start to make everything look gaudy and garish.

But you can't have a setting come alive if you don't have good, well defined characters to back it up, and thankfully, Somali definitely delivers on this front. The entire heart and soul of the series are Golem and Somali, and they couldn't be more different. Golem is a wise, stoic, unemotional being who always thinks logically and rationally, almost robotic in a sense, whereas Somali is a little kid who's bouncy, energetic, curious, and is always in awe of the world around her. Characters with very different personalities and views on life are a recipe rife for stellar character development if done well, and the chemistry these two build throughout the show is always a treat to watch because they're so well written. Golem always speaks bluntly most of the time, using big words around Somali that she can't understand, but in stark contrast to many main characters these days, Golem is also smart, rational, and down to earth. Seriously, this guy is a better main character than nearly every other male lead in certain other anime that have come out in recent years. Somali is similarly versatile and likeable, especially since children tend to be very hard to write. She acts childish and cheerful, but it's never to the point of being obnoxiously cute or annoying. Her behavior often gets her and Golem into trouble, and the fact that she's a human in a world of human-hating monsters makes her an easy target, but she's still smart enough to know when something's wrong and puts others before herself when the situation calls for it. It could have been very easy to make her an annoying little brat, and while she does have her moments, the show helps you understand where she's coming from while taking care not to make her obnoxious. But Golem and Somali aren't the only characters who are fun to follow, as there are quite a few side characters we get to know, all of whom have multiple sides to them and feel fresh and charming, with solid characterization all around.

Do be warned, because as sweet as this show can be at times, it can also be really dark, not just in its atmosphere but in its themes. Both various humans and monsters are deeply prejudiced towards one another, and the world Golem and Somali live in is very prejudiced towards humans. The series doesn't try to hide the fact that both humans and monsters don't get along, and the lengths they go to show just how much they hate each other can get pretty graphic at times, with episode 6 being one such example. But for the most part, the series is fairly light hearted, with a few conflicts sprinkled in here and there, only going all out when there's actual danger. Because of Somali's lighthearted atmosphere and general lack of conflict, this isn't a series for everyone. I personally had no problem with it, because stories like that can be great if done well, as I feel is the case here, but others might find Somali to be rather dull or feel as though it's constantly trying to avoid any real sense of danger or urgency. There are also times when the characters don't always question various events that have huge red flags, but even those are very few and far-inbetween, though when they show up, you kind of have to scratch your head. I suppose whether you like this show or not is purely a matter of personal taste.

In spite of its few flaws though, I still feel this is a wonderful anime that deserves all the love it can get. Definitely check it out if you want something sweet but substantial to watch. I know this anime's going on my top favorites for sure!

 

[Beth Pavell]

I just finished watching this today. I thought it was ... ok. Perfectly fine to pass the time with, but I think there's really two reasons why it won't find its way into my collection of favourites.

The first is that that Somali resembles a little girl in the same way that in anime cats resemble cats. The cutesy things she says and does are the sorts of things little girls only do in anime, to appeal to a (Probably) childless audience. She has all the rough edges of kids sanded off, with that relentless cheerfulness and lack of really annoying disobedience or messiness. So while not a completely nonsensical character, she just doesn't feel real enough for me to buy the surrogate father-daughter narrative.

The other problem, which to me matters more since it's really more the main plot than Golem trying to learn how fatherhood works, is the really childish way humans are portrayed. Humans are nowhere near as consistently fearful, stupid, or hateful as the anime insists - nowhere in there is any acknowledgement of how curious people can be. The monsters' disregard for humans as another kind of people is kinda handwaved by showing the humans as always attacking first, so to speak.