Archive for the 'Comedy' Category

Great Teacher Onizuka

Published by
FDimension
at January 4, 2007 in Anime Review, Comedy and GTO. 0 Comments

Episodes: 43
Rating: Teen
Genre: Shonen, Drama, Comedy

Introduction

Great Teacher Onizuka is an anime about well, a teacher (Onizuka) (who is 22 years old) who seeks to be the best teacher out there. He’s a bōsōzoku member (a Japanese gang type thing that likes to modify cars) and is as close to a thug as you could imagine.

There is a lot more to the story, but it centers on a class full of delinquents who drove several other teachers insane. Onizuka being the glorious thug type guy seems like the perfect disposable teacher and is hired to take care of them. The only problem, of course, is that Onizuka doesn’t give up so easily.

Review

GTO is one of the better shows that exist in Japan for lots of reasons. The main reason being that it lacks most stereotypical anime clichés and is completely devoid of any moe type characters and instead focuses purely on the dramatically plot. There are a lot of character advancement going on in this anime and it happens perfectly with action filled scenes and great humor.

Actually, to be honest, GTO is one of my absolute favorite shows. It could stand above other anime based solely on how awesome Onizuka is as a teacher. His ideals, ability to teach, and physical badassery add together for an entertaining experience unlike any others.

Some anime, like Nadesico, really get me going when they end. GTO is one of these where I just feel sad and disappointed when there are no more episodes to watch. I will often go back and rewatch GTO to experience everything all over again.

With all of the praise, I might as well go over what the anime is actually about. Onizuka wants to be the greatest teacher out there. He’s also kind of like a gang member (but doesn’t have the hilarious curl roll) so this goal is obviously more difficult for him then being a guy riding around on a motorcycle beating people up.

His first adventure involves him being part of a public school full of punks. Throughout a quick adventure involving an attempted blackmail of him, he changes the attitude of everyone through his gang skills. The next day they’re doing all of their chores and paying attention in class.

He’s then picked up by a private school (since he missed getting his license) and assigned to a classful of intelligent students who ruin every teacher they get. The rest of the anime focuses on this and how he wins over the entire class.

Actually, know what, I’m not even worthy to review this anime. That’s how good it is, to be honest; I probably shouldn’t even write a single word about it. However, I will just say go watch it.

Rating

Score: 9.5/10 (Amazing)

Pros:

  • Enjoyable story full of drama and passion.
  • Lack of the majority of anime clichés and unique storyline.
  • Onizuka being completely badass.

Cons:

  • May not be for everyone, since it doesn’t involve robots or some kind of stupid moe plotline.
  • The ending and most of the series doesn’t follow the manga’s which is much better.

Ouran High School Host Club

Published by
FDimension
at October 27, 2006 in Anime Review, Comedy, Ouran High School Host Club and Slice of Life. 0 Comments

Episodes: 26
Rating: Teen
Genre: Drama, Comedy, Shōjo, Romance

Introduction

Ouran High School Host Club (Ouran for short) follows the lives of several members of a high society in a school for the privileged. The members run a Host Club, or basically a club that sits around and entertains women. They pay to sit around and watch the guys drink tea with them, basically. There is a lot more, but I’m going to just do you a favor. If you want to read on and spoil the first episode then go ahead. If not then I’ll give you the rating upfront and you decide if you want to watch it or not.

Rating: 5/10

Review

Alright, I’m going to warn you. I’m going to spoil the first episode. This is a big deal ya know. That’s part of the charm of the anime is that the first episode is really interactive. Alright, if you still want to read…

The anime follows around Haruhi Fujioka, a member of the Ouran High Host Club. Haruhi starts at episode one as a guy. You can’t really tell, but “he” is a girl who just wears slacks and a polo shirt. As the first episode progresses you eventually come to find out that Haruhi is indeed a girl. At the end, for those who don’t catch on to it, the secret is reveled to everyone.

There isn’t much to say about the plot of Ouran. The storyline follows the general school calendar system that most anime follow with. There is spring when they go to the beach and winter when they stay inside and hang out. Episode to episode you pretty much have different storylines going. Some storylines continue for multiple episodes, but overall there is no major plot past abunch of super rich kids having fun.

Oh and Haruhi is pretty middle-class. This means that she lives an alright life, but she has no room excess spending. This means that she is distanced from the Host Club’s group of people. I thought this was a pretty decent way to establish character with Haruhi.

Most of the anime focuses on fleshing out the back story of each character. There isn’t much past that. It’s entertaining, but there isn’t much action. It’s to be expected of a drama targeted at girls.

The only problem I found with the anime was a character named “Honey” who is something like 17 with “growth problems” or in other words looks like a kid. He’s really annoying and rarely adds anything interesting to the story. Don’t worry though, rarely you see anything too ecchi in this series.

Rating

Score: 5/10

Special Score: BOOOOONUS 2 points for having a decent ending for a drama anime that actually is entertaining.

Pros:

  • Funny moments.
  • Wacky antics.
  • Entertaining story with great visuals.
  • An ending that isn’t open or just out of nowhere.
  • Makes you feel good when watching it for the most part, except on the boring episodes.

Cons:

  • Honey is really annoying and is the worst character in the whole series but gets a ton of screentime.
  • Another crossdressing anime, it’s not like there isn’t enough of them!!
  • Episodes are hit and miss.

Genshiken

Published by
FDimension
at September 24, 2006 in Anime Review, Comedy, Genshiken and Slice of Life. 0 Comments

Episodes: 12
Rating: Teen
Genre: Slice of Life, Comedy

Introduction

Genshiken follows an after college club called Genshiken: Contemporary Visual Culture Research Organization or Gendai Shikaku Bunka Kenkyūkai in Japanese. The club, in reality, is an otaku club where members watch anime, build models, and do various other otaku things after school.

The story follows their adventures they deal with various Otaku issues while a non-Otaku attempts to adjust to their society in an attempt to win a boys love.

Review

Genshiken is an extremely well done anime. You ask how in the world can an anime about otakus be any good. Well, I don’t know either, but it’s very well done. The story is well thought out and the progression is extremely well paced.

Basically you have a typical college club, but instead of drawing manga or doing other college club type things, they just goof around. The anime has two key plotlines. One is the very cute Kasuga attempting to fit in with the otakus in an attempt to win the love Kosaka, an extremely “KAWAIIIIIII” guy who is a major otaku. The other is following the general things Genshiken does which are often times random but always related to anime, models, manga, video games, etc.

Genshiken has the somewhat unique ability to keep you watching even though there, well, isn’t much going on. No matter how you analyze it, it just follows people hanging around talking about anime and doing otaku related things. You want to keep watching even though all your watching is two people discuss model building. Truly amazing.

I want to say that Genshiken was too short in a way. Twelve episodes didn’t feel like enough, but I asked myself what else could they have done to keep it interesting? There really isn’t much you can do to make an anime following the lives of nerds interesting.

There are a few more downfalls. The anime isn’t too true of a portrayal of otakus and their culture. You see a lot of the fascination with eroge (Hentai Games) and erotic Doujinshi but you don’t really get into the stereotypical looks of an otaku. The overly nerdy looking person who no girl would ever set eyes on that you see in a lot of anime. This isn’t really THAT big of an issue, considering if you look at the major hub for Otaku activity, Akihabara, you will see that really isn’t very true of a stereotype. You do though, wonder why all of the characters are well drawn and fashionable.

When I said few, I really meant one and by one I mean not really. There just isn’t much to complain about. It’s a very true look at otaku life in Japan! Oh well, other then if you don’t like anime you will not like Genshiken, or even get some of the jokes.

There is some really good artwork in Genshiken. The anime is fluid and well drawn and the music is well placed. Genshiken takes a more serious approach to the art-style, often lacking the stereotypical anime emotions more facial expression. That doesn’t mean you won’t find some sweat drops or extremely cartoony scenes.

Oh, while I’d love to review Kujibiki Unbalance in the same review, I can’t. It’s going to be an actual serious anime upcoming sometime in October. Basically Kujibiki Unbalance is the mega-stereotypical anime that Genshiken watches. It includes most everything “major” inside of anime. Childhood promises, aliens, swimsuit scenes out of nowhere, combat, etc. It was made into an OVA and will soon be released as a real series (taking away some of the ridiculous character models in the process that is kind of its charm).

One last thing, the English dub is done VERY well. The voices actuall fit and it’s not painful to listen to it. Even the Kujibiki Unbalance voices for the most part are well done. So if you don’t like reading subtitles while people speak in some kind of strange language then pick up the DVDs and watch the dub. Not that, a real otaku wouldn’t want to hear it in it’s original Japanese version.

Rating

Score: 8/10

Pros:

  • Well thought out storyline Interesting plot. A slice of life anime that doesn’t put you to sleep.
  • Great visuals, musics, opening, ending, and artwork.
  • English dub is well done, so be sure to pick up the DVDs!

Cons:

  • People not in Japan who want to be otakus.
  • If you don’t like anime then you probably won’t really care or even understand this anime.