Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni: Anime review

Title: Higurashi no naku koro ni (When the Cicadas cry)
Author: 07th expansion (creators of the original visual novel)
Studio: Studio Deen
Released: April 4, 2006













What's it about?

When High school student Maebara Keiichi and his family move to the rural little town of Hinamizawa everything seems peaceful and idyllic at first, it's not long before Keiichi is befriended by four girls who soon initiate him into they're after school games club and everything seems to be nigh on perfect, but Keiichi will learn there is more to his new friends and his new town than meets the eye, revelation after revelation are followed by a string of brutal murders in this enigmatic series told in a variety of scenarios and viewpoints, just what is it that links these scenarios together? All is revealed as the series progresses.

What's good

If you like mysteries then Higurashi will certainly deliver, and the series will keep you in suspense well beyond the first season. Interesting and amusing characters along with light-hearted segments in some of the scenarios means that this series is a definite favourite for this reviewer. I especially liked seeing characters portrayed in different lights depending on the scenario, giving the characters a somewhat more complex feel. Being a fan of mystery stories as well, I also enjoyed watching the story unravel as the series progressed.

What's bad

If you're not a fan of being kept in the dark this series won't be for you, being based on a visual novel the series stays true to the original, taking you through the first few scenarios designed for the viewer to try and piece together their own idea of what's going on before seeing the truth with their own eyes. Another downside is that fans of violence might be disappointed with the second season while conversely squeamish viewers won't be too fond of the first one. The series can also be somewhat confusing at times, with a sometimes convoluted plot combined with a pair of characters who are twins who like to switch places at times. Mix all this together and you have a chaotic recipe for viewer confusion.

Conclusion

Despite its few bad points this is a solid series, the long and drawn out suspense creating the foundations needed to make the plot deep and interesting. In this reviewer's opinion Higurashi is an amazing series, though that is a somewhat biased opinion. Will you like it? Chances are if you're put off by anything mentioned in this review then you already know the answer. But if you're looking for a gripping new series I recommend you give this one a try.

Hello from the new guy

Hi, I'm Turbo Weeaboo and I am the newest reviewer to this blog. I will mainly be reviewing Anime and Manga along with Gilder and Casinha, and will also review other things from time to time. My reviews will be posted on Saturdays

I love watching Anime and reading Manga, but I am able to see why series are considered 'bad' and will faithfully try to make sure these points are reported. I will also try my best to list good points and things that I myself enjoyed about a series, as well as the points I didn't like. This way I will try to find an unbiased opinion and express my own judgement of a series.

Love & Collage: Manga Review

Title: Love & Collage (Ai Kora)
Author: Kazurou Inoue
Volumes: 12
Released: 2003-2008 (however, it has been republished and continuing since July 2008)



When preparing your “Love & Collage” recipe be sure to keep knives and other sharp objects away from children, thank you. First thing you do is you find a copy of Love Hina and a blender. Put Love Hina in said blender and leave it on medium speed for about 30 seconds. Take the now finely blended Love Hina mix and apply glue to the setting of the Manga you would like to create. Now carefully sprinkle the Love Hina and spread evenly around the surface of the setting. Congratulations, you now have the setting for Love & Collage.
While my little recipe for Love & Collage did go on for longer than necessary, I'd say it's pretty damn accurate. Now don't get me wrong, it certainly has the same setting. One lone young boy living with the usual people, a tsundere who punches him 100 feet into the air, a timid girl who “secretly” falls in love with him and a martial arts (in L&C she's a ninja) straight and serious girl, in an all-girls dorm. There are “oh hey I'm going to the bathroom oh look there's the tsundere undressing and LOL Naru punch!” moments and the main character is also quite the loser who defied his parents and went to Tokyo, sure he's a high school student rather than someone applying for University but he was just as defiant, nonetheless. However while the setting is nigh-on identical, the Manga itself is completely different and sets itself apart from the Love Hina stereotype quite well.

The main character, Maeda Hachibei, is a pursuer of “girl's parts”. He has the picture of a perfect girl painted in his head; straight legs, a husky voice, cat-shaped and clear blue eyes, and bullet-train breasts (bullet train being a reference to the shape of the front carriage of a bullet train in Japan). He has more wants and if you're interested they can be found on Wikipedia, but will be revealed eventually in the Manga anyway. With this beautiful girl's image strong in his mind he sets off to a high school in Tokyo, hoping to meet with said girl.
In all fairness, he does indeed find his perfect parts, but at the same time they're on four different women. Ameyagi Tsubame is the landlord of the dorm and a teacher at Hachibei's school with perfectly straight legs the same size from hips to feet. Tenmaku Sakurako is the man-hating tsundere with his perfect clear-blue, cat-like eyes. Tsukino Yukari is the timid middle-school student with the perfect breasts. And Ootori Kirino is the stoic Ninja descendent with the perfect strong bass voice.
Hachibei's dorm was burnt down by a vengeful arsonist and, having nowhere to sleep, is invited to stay in the shed next to the girl's dormitory. The next few chapters are the typical relationship-building chapters which have him realising and sorting out the problems of his neighbours (while I have yet to read one where he helps out the teacher, it wouldn't surprise me if there was one). While Hachibei turns into a killing machine whenever one of these parts are threatened in some way, most of the time he is your average shameless fetishist. If the part isn't to his liking then he pays no attention, and so you don't get the usual spurting of blood when he sees someone in their underwear, simply because he has no desire for what he is looking at.

Some of you may know the name Kazurou Inoue from his popular series “Midori Days,” and you can certainly see it in the style of drawing. He tends to stick to the usual style for this genre of Manga, but certain details can be seen here and there that give it an original feel (like Ootori's eyes, for example).

Love & Collage is basically a Manga depicting the growing strength and value of the relationships the various characters have with each other. As it goes on and on, more and more characters are introduced, and will no doubt end with everyone being one big happy family, and I like that.

Galerians: Rion : Film Review

Title: Galerians: Rion

Director: Masahiro Maesawa

Year: 2002

Written by: Chinfa Kang

My interest in Galerions: Rion stems from having owned the game Galerians as a child. I use the term ‘owned’ in its original form, to mean that it was in my possession, not to imply that my gaming skills were astounding. In fact I was awful at it, which was incredibly frustrating as I was very attracted to the premise. Imagine my joy, then, to discover a non-gaming adaptation of the game.

The story follows Rion Steiner, a pristinely gelled teen sporting a waycool short-sleeves over long sleeves number, capped off with red shorts and converse boots in an example of 90s Japanese punk-chic. Perhaps not the most usual design for a lead character in what aims to be a psychic-based survival-horror piece. Rion awakes in a futuristic nightmarish research lab, memory-less and confused, and therefore proceeds to bulldozer his way out of the totalitarianesque laboratory through instinctive use of his psychic powers.

This is rather an abrupt beginning to a film, and is the first example of a trend in the case of Galerians: Rion where I make the concession that: “It probably works better in the game”. A main character under your control in a game is essentially you, the gamer. Bearing this in mind it is a powerful and inclusive device to have an amnesiac main character, as then the story is set up so that as the main character learns things fluidly as the game continues, so does the player. A film is a less immersive format, and having a clueless main character can prove troublesome, especially in a story as chaotic as Galerians: Rion.

Drug-use is a large theme of the story, with injecting various fluorescent liquids endowing Rion with various psychic powers, and eventually, as in real life, leading to both physical and mental breakdowns. The ‘baddies’ of this piece are very much in the syringe-happy camp, and go to great lengths to look the part.

We are treated to Dr Rem; a lanky, eye-patch wearing android, Birdman; a madly cackling Lawrence Llywelyn Bowen-alike in dungarees, Rainheart; a fat kid in a heavy bomber vest and a hairnet, and Rita; a very out of place scarlet-haired bombshell. The oddness of these characters adds to the frenetic feel of the story, where the world feels skewed because of Rion’s wanton drug abuse.

The main problem with this film is that it is badly paced. The story is solidly good, but is ill at ease when squeezed into a feature length time frame, it is clearly meant to be spread out over a longer period, as characters will switch violently from being fierce enemies to having an understanding of one another, which I feel may sit better in the slower, more methodical game format. The film feels like a series of disjointed PS1 cut-scenes. Names of locations flash up on screen as they would as you reach new areas in-game. Enemies are introduced and dispatched in a very short time frame, which left me feeling as though there was no point introducing the character at all. Similarly, there is an over-reliance on Rion’s flame abilities, which leaves the character looking like a tedious one-trick pony, especially when he has access to both lightning and telekinetic abilities.

The story also relies heavily on vague disjointed flashback sequences, which are purposefully disorientating due to the dodgy state of Rion’s perception, but without the gameplay aspect with which to anchor these frantic flashbacks, it is possible to be left confused, rather than frightened, as is the aim.

The settings of the various areas are the messy bastard son of old-school Resident Evil and Portal. This is likely aimed at providing a stark contrast, between the grotty, rusty dilapidated haunted mansion areas and the sterile white blankness of the laboratory style arenas. Perhaps this duality aims to convey the fragile state of Rion’s mind, however it merely made the areas feel more disjointed and clearly like different ‘levels’, another probable leftover from a messy game-to-film adaptation. One particular area design also borrowed heavily from the Mt. Nibel Reactor scene in Final Fantasy 7, which may not bother the vast majority of people, but is sure to niggle Final Fantasy fanboys (like me). Another game leftover are the cut-and-paste sprite style of the enemies, who are either beefed up super-soldiers or comical cartoon ne’er-do-wells in heavy overcoats and trilbies.

The writers clearly had trouble making the fighting translate fully, as battles that would have been difficult, drawn-out affairs in the game are effectively castrated. The importance of ‘survival’ in the game ensures that despite the player’s ability to will spontaneous combustion onto enemies, it is necessary to use the ability sparingly, or run out of power. This methodical, tactical element is absent from the film, which ruins the ‘horror’ aspect of fighting, as Rion just wanders around trailing behind him a mobile bonfire of flammable grunts.

There are a few instances of intelligence-insulting lines in the film, such as the aggravating: “the future of the world lies in your hands”, which does indeed set the scene, but in the most pedestrian way possibly.

The film aims to fit into the Silent Hill school of horror, favouring creeping, suggestive scares rather than the cheap, jumpy variety. I’d argue that it is indeed a student of this school, but where Silent Hill is an honours student, Galerians: Rion is a troubled child suffering from ADHD. The story has the cake of freaky horror well within its grasp, and then proceeds to shovel it into its own face, with sequences that could fit wholesale into any shounen-adventure story. The backbone of Silent Hill’s horror is an everyman main character, Galerians skews this all over the bed by having an obscenely powerful main character who, despite looking incredibly young and frail, wanders around frantically with eyes shining with murder. An over-abundance of screamy powering-up sequenced led me to wonder whether Vegeta and Goku were standing off-camera letting loose. The only horrifying thing about Dragonball Z is the English dub (that is a slam-down my 13 year old self would be proud of).

Despite that, however, the film does show a certain flair when indulging its horror parts, with particularly unsettling imagery including a dead body in a fridge with a pocketwatch forced in its mouth. The film also gathers from the plentiful font of horror that is children. There is hardly anything more viscerally worrying than including children in a horror situation, and a wandering child in a plain white hospital-style gown with a full head of bandages is shudder-inducing. The let-down of these creepy scenes however is there is very little reason for the particulars of them, there is seemingly no purposeful symbolism, the presence of a pocket-watch in the mouth of a corpse is inexplicable beyond a vague sense of “Ooh! Isn’t this freaky?”

The true triumph of the film, in terms of evocative imagery; are the eyes, which are animated magnificently. In every scene, the emotions of the characters and captured and conveyed astoundingly, the tortured, manic madness of addiction, the smug and hateful stare of enemies and the unreserved malevolence of the pitiless monster. Never has the blank dead-eyed stare of a corpse been so affecting.

I began to fear that the story would pan out to be disappointingly shallow, but further layers unravelled grippingly as it progressed. Characters that had seemed two dimensional and very basically ‘bad’, began to be portrayed sympathetically, with their own personal troubles highlighted; addressing self-loathing, schizophrenia or just plain madness. Though the story, arguably, dealt with these issues slightly too simplistically, it was at least an interesting and thoughtful message being offered, where drugs were exposed as the actual cause of the suffering, with the characters themselves portrayed as victims. I feel that this is a heavy handed offering, perhaps, but also a worthy message, especially with attitudes toward drug users today still erring toward the criminal, seeing addicts as criminals to be punished rather than sufferers to be helped.

Certain characters’ death scenes were given a full white backdrop as they performed their earnest, heartfelt soliloquies, outlining their troubles and angst, in a format most recently plundered wholesale by Assassin’s Creed, and to a less wholesome effect by Metal Gear 4. Those of you with the eyes of a hawk will have noticed that the vast majority of comparisons I have drawn for this film are games, and that is because the adaptation isn’t quite complete enough. I would certainly recommend the story highly, but I think I probably would have enjoyed it more, and been more frightened, had I gone back to the actual game.

Despite not being blown away by the film, it does offer a hauntingly bleak ending which a certain type of person (me) would find gratifying and, considering asinine ‘Happy Ever After’ positivity is the well trodden path, grotesquely refreshing.

Yotsubato: Manga Review

Title: Yotsubato
Author: Kiyohiko Azuma
Volumes: 8 (60 Chapters)
Released: Q1 2003 – Ongoing



If there is a cuter entity way out there in the universe somewhere you would have to show it to me before I could possibly show a hint of believing you and then proceed to melt with said cuteness. Yotsubato is a Manga about a five-year-old girl (called Koiwai Yotsuba) who moves to a new town with her father and proceeds to have various small adventures with her father, the god-knows-feet tall Jumbo and her next door neighbours, the Ayase family. The Manga consists of Yotsuba wandering around on these adventures infecting everything with various deadly levels of cuteness, her childish naivete and misunderstandings fuelling an even higher level of the word “cute”. To be honest I do think I will be using the word “cute” more than a schoolgirl in a soft toy shop, so you'll have to forgive its abundance in this particular review, otherwise you either haven't read Yotsubato or you don't have a soul. Kiyohiko Azuma's art style really shows in this series, which has a likening to her other series, Azumanga Daioh, and is thus tailored to be cute beyond what the average human being can handle.

One thing that is always apparent is her innocence. She could annoy the shit out of you and you would still forgive her thanks to those watering puppy-dog eyes and quivering lip. She doesn't know that what she's doing would be considered bothersome, and simply follows the advice of whoever is around. The fact that she is easily distracted doesn't really help her situation, either. There was a particular point where she is sent on an errand to get pot noodles for her and her father. She isn't fond of spicy things, but her father is, and so she gets the shiny red spicy pot for him, and a less spicy one for herself. Not really know what to get next, she comes to the conclusion that the next item on the list is candy, and gets a few small snacks. Unfortunately the money her father gave her doesn't cover it all, and so she is told she needs to put an item back. While she is confused about what to put back, the shop assistant offers the solution of “Put back what you like the least.” Completely forgetting the original reason the went to the shop, she proceeds to put back the spicy pot noodle, and the chapter ends with her arriving home happy as a daisy. While the chapter ends there, it's not hard to imagine her father sighing, giving her a bonk on the head and going to the shop to get the pot noodle himself.
Each character adds his or her own element to the series. Jumbo is the guy who everyone finds amazingly huge and stares at like a zoo exhibit. Her father is probably one of the best fathers in the Manga world, teaching her lessons by making her go through the ordeal, always watching her to make sure it doesn't get out of hand. The Ayase family is also filled with some pretty interesting characters. Ena is the friend closer to Yotuba's age who goes to school, does her homework, and enjoys the company of her stuffed bears. Fuuka is the procrastinating high school student, forever putting off her studying for something else, like exercise balls. Asagi is the older of the thee sisters, but this doesn't show in her attitude. She is constantly playing around with Yotsuba, tricking her into some funny situation, making her, oddly enough, the most childish of all three sisters. Between these characters various friends and acquaintances are slotted in and the all make a bunch of happy peas in a happy pod.

One of the nicer things in this Manga is how happy everyone and everything is. Even the torrential rain is made into a cheerful event with Yotsuba running out and yelling “Wheeeee! Raaaaaain!” Typhoons are turned from horrid weather into mesmerising events, and every time Yotsuba trips, falls or screws something up, you can't help but look into her eyes and go “gyaaaaaawwww.” There isn't a single unhappy moment in the entire series (not yet, anyway), and I want it to stay that way. Plenty of Manga and Anime will get a smile out of me, but there are few that actually make me feel happy while reading them, and Yotsuba is one of those few.

Wicked City: Film Review

Title: Wicked City (aka 妖獣都市 - Yōjū Toshi)

Director: Yoshiaki Kawajiri

Year: 1987

Based on the novel by Hideyuki Kikuchi.

When I first heard of this film, someone claimed that the only reason it wasn’t classified as hentai is because it is too disgusting for anyone to get kicks out of. For the uninitiated, ‘hentai’ is the term for animated pornography. For me, this echoes a Mary Whitehouse-style sentiment first brought to my attention by someone ignorantly describing all anime as 'demon porn'. That is like saying that because the Nazi party existed in Germany, all Germans are Nazis. So, clearly, if you denounce anime as demon porn, clearly you are a racist, clearly. Being an adventurous and valiant anti-prissy type, I plunged headfirst into the viewing of this ‘horror neo-noir’ film.

The story centres around Renzaburo Taki, by day: a salesman for an electronics company, by night: an agent for the Black Guard, an organisation seeking to preserve the peace between the human and the demon worlds. Every few centuries the truce must be renewed, which requires special emissaries to seal the deal. The human world’s representative this time around is grey freak and ancient runt Giuseppi Mayart, who is entrusted to the care of Taki. Mayart is of vital importance, as he is necessary to sign the contract.

Taki is therefore allotted a compulsory sexy partner, named Makie, who, despite her sexiness, and her membership of the Black Guard, is a demon. Taki is then warned: “we are giving you a new sexy female partner, don’t get any funny ideas”, in a sequence that could be replaced by a sign saying “He is going to get funny ideas”.

On his way to the airport to 1) meet his sexy partner and 2) pick up Mayart, we are treated to artistic shots of Taki, decked out in his businessman’s suit, in which he looks like a cross between James Bond and Bruce Lee. Renzaburo Taki wouldn’t be out of place in a smithy, probably being put to use as an anvil, or perhaps outside, serving as a brick shithouse. Cue the first demon ambush, which begins a trend that runs throughout the film. A terrorist demon group wishes to stop the re-signing of the treaty, and wish to kill as many of the main characters as possible.

Fights in anime can often be tedious affairs, like the repetitive arm-flailing and screaming of Dragonball Z, but the fight sequences in Wicked City are slick and incisive, never overstaying their welcome. Early in the film the battles are realistically brutal, with the fighting including scrapping and strangling, and one particularly cruel struggle ends with Makie being kneed in the spine. As the film progresses, the battles become more supernatural, though it doesn’t fall into the trap of merely declaring characters more powerful and then running through the same techniques, instead opting to introduce new and unique twists and abilities.

The horror aspect of the film comes through most powerfully in the characterisation of the demon terrorists, who often have insidious and sinister powers. This sort of creeping horror is where, for me, Japanese horror wins out over the Western 'jumping out and shouting “rargh”' strategy. This is where I take issue with the individual who posted that the film should be hentai. There is a difference between a sex film and a film with sex in it. Sex certainly features heavily in this story, but it is used as a stylistic technique in order to propagate the horror. The sex scenes are hugely romanticised and overly sensual; they lure the viewer into a false sense of security which makes the horror all the more, well, horrifying as it creeps its way into the scenes.

The design of the demons is shudder-inducingly grotesque, including a disembodied head with tentacles whose eyes pop out on stalks and then open up into a small fanged mouth, as well as a man with ribs that burst out of his chest to bear-hug people (to death, obviously). And they are merely the grunts, with more important antagonists including a woman whose arms and legs stretch out into double-jointed spiders legs, who is able to spin webbing from her befanged vagina. I was shocked as well. Not content with only one demonic undercarriage, another demon-lady’s power is to have her torso open up into a huge hypnotising love-canal, which mesmerises people and lures them inside (to their deaths, obviously). The demon-lady claims that “No man can resist this”, which I protest against vehemently, as does the main character, although he protests with the business end of his oversized pistol (not a euphemism).

Despite this, the fighting is annoyingly inconsistent, often with characters flipping from useless weaklings into all-powerful fonts of apocalypse in an instant. There’s no point introducing a character as a kickass if they are going to spend half the film captive and meekly awaiting rescue. Also, it rings slightly hollow when the main character is called a weakling and then walks into a room, shoots everything that moves and then punches the only survivor in the face so hard that his eyes literally fall out, in a scene that wouldn’t be out of place in Barefoot Gen. The difference between the respective eye-popping sequences in the two films is that in Wicked City someone is being punched in the face, and in Barefoot Gen an atomic bomb is being dropped.

Another problem with the film is its eagerness to use seizure inducing background flashing. It is an old film, and therefore it likely came out before the animation world at large decided to be more epileptic-friendly, but even for non-sufferers, it is very difficult to watch those sequences. Even if they are merely highlighting that someone has been punched so hard their eyes fall out.

It is enjoyable to see characters decked out in fashions which haven’t stood the test of time, and were likely gaudily out of style even in the late 80s. At one juncture a demon leaps out of the floor kitted out in a white rolled-sleeved vest and heavy black sunglasses, looking like a steroid-infused re-animated Michael Jackson. The big baddie of the piece also makes his first appearance clad in a red pinstripe monstrosity of a suit, topped off with a dashing white tie.

For me, the icing on the filthy cake is the soundtrack. Bad music can hamstring any story, but coming straight out of '87 we have a track that is as retro as dancing sunflowers, yo. There’s nothing quite like it. Cheesy synth and drum machines as they were meant to be used, before suffering the abuses that they now do in the pop charts. Tracks conjured by one man, his tortoiseshell glasses, a keyboard, a computer and a sense of occasion. Real effort went into the soundtrack, even creating an English language pop ballad tearjerker, as only the 80s could deliver.

My main gripe centres around the sometimes hairy justifications for the progression of the story, the biggest being the line: “the laboratory concluded that in order to conceive the couple had to have a spiritual bond of love”. Laboratories, places of science, should not be factoring in elements such as ‘spirituality’ and ‘love’, but in a story centred around demons, maybe I am being slightly too pedantic.

The design in Wicked City is cited by Todd McFarlane as having been an inspiration, and fans of his work will certainly find Wicked City a worthwhile watch. As someone who first became acquainted with anime through late night recordings of the films they used to show on Sci-Fi, Wicked City struck a nostalgic chord with me, though I am glad I didn’t experience it as a child.

Wicked City is warped, eerie and grotesque, and is definitely worth a viewing if you are a fan of horror which doesn’t make you jump, but will ensure you have trouble getting to sleep.

Similar Oldies

Sex and Demons: Urotsukidoji

Sex and Violence: Violence Jack

Sex and Suit-Wearing Agent of Death: Golgo 13.

Nodame Cantabile Paris Chapter: Anime Review

Title: Nodame Cantabile Paris Chapter
Author: Tomoko Ninomiya
Studio: J.C.Staff
Released: Q4 2008



Having watched the first season of Nodame Cantabile I have had to fight with my biased opinions while watching the second season and writing this review to come up with a quaint little neutral observation. Happily enough, though, I did not have to fight for long; the second season has more than lived up to the standard set by the first one.

If you haven't watched the first season I recommend that you stop reading and go watch it. Either that or read the first ten or so volumes of the Manga considering the Anime follows it like a carriage follows a horse. In fact, you could probably say the first season walked the exact same path as the Manga, taking in the sites as it ambled along, content and enjoying itself. As for the second season, all you need to do is take that description, add a bottle of Vodka and a pogo stick and you've got it. Considering the second season addresses the thicker part of the story, it covers everything quite well, however certain things are skipped over and when compared to the Manga some of it can seem rushed or unsteady.

In the first season we watched the characters go through various changes according to the influence of each other; Chiaki Shinichi learned to tolerate an orchestra that might seem terrible, but had the ability to become the fantastic R*Star*S Orchestra, something that he helped create thanks to the efforts of himself and everyone around him. Noda Megumi (Nodame) learned that if she wanted to be able to stay by Shinichi's side she would have to be more serious in her playing just to keep up with him. Other smaller characters also go through small changes as the first season progresses, making the overall watching process pleasant and enjoyable.

The second season leads on directly from the end of the first one, Shinichi having invited Nodame to join him in Europe. Nodame herself passes the exam and enters Paris' “Conservatoire”, a music school that cultivates the talent of young musicians. She was invited, in fact, by the teacher Auclair at the end of the first season after he saw her astounding performance in the competition. During her studies she is staying at an apartment filled with music students and artists (the artists get the attic...yay for Art), and it's not long before both Shinichi and Nodame have friends and the series has a cast.
There aren't only new characters, either. The second season sees the return of perverted conductor Stresemann, his dominatrix PA Elise and Samurai-like Oboe player Yasunori Kuroki. Throughout the series both Shinichi and Nodame have their own challenges and events to pass through, always coming back together at the end of each one, and always giving each other support.
This series is filled to the brim with some fantastic humour and great variety of characters. Paul Dubois is a Bassoon player with a whimsical attitude who fights against the trend of French orchestras replacing the Bassoon with the German Fagott. On the other hand Song Rui is a Chinese piano prodigy whose relationship with her mother nicely defines the situation of a parent pushing and pressuring their child to “be all that they can be” without concern for what the child actually wants to do, even when Rui is in her 20s.

One of the funniest parts of this series is the relationship between Nodame and Shinichi, compared to in the Manga as something like a Manzai comedy duo and the Anime is no different. Shinichi's air of maturity and intelligence greatly contradicts Nodame's impulsive and childish nature. What I loved was Nodame going around telling everyone she was his wife, and him eventually not bothering to even correct her when meeting other people. It starts off as a blatant “We are not married,” which eventually broke down to him just thinking it rather than saying it out loud.

Something else that I realised while watching this series was my ignorance of how musicians actually learn. There are so many classes including analysis, history, sight-reading, language and practicals that I can honestly say I was greatly underestimating the amount of effort needed to play classical music at a professional level. Even so you can see that this effort does not go to waste, and the rewards are great. Nodame herself gets to play a recital during the series, which was amazing and funny to watch.

When comparing the Anime to the Manga it is important to note that both are delivered completely differently. Manga doesn't have the advantage in audio that Anime has, it needs to rely on the imagination of the reader, which is all well and good until you bring in something like Classical music, something that not a lot of people might be able to recall by ear. You can show me some Liszt or Beethoven and I'll think “Well hey, that's classical music, that is,” but chances are I won't be able to place names, and in a Manga that constantly brings up names and genres, it doesn't have the ability to communicate through sound. It substitutes that with simple explanations and analysis of the music, as well as going through the history and feelings of the composer, and the actual story behind the piece itself.
The Anime, on the other hand, is able to use both explanation and sounds to communicate to the viewer, making it a more powerful experience overall. While I would urge you to both watch the Anime and read the Manga (in that order, considering the missing out of certain parts might annoy you while watching the Anime if you read the Manga first), if you want to for one go for the Anime. While a couple of interesting parts of the Manga are missed out, it doesn't have any particular impact on the story, and you won't really notice it unless you have read the Manga, in which case you know everything you need to know so it's all good.

The music used in this series is one of the best examples of how music can be used effectively to express emotion, easily setting whichever atmosphere the director wants. Simple, light, happy music is used in the background for the more common scenes, while a powerful orchestra and a hypnotising piano are both used to provide and awe-inspiring experience.
It's unfortunate but I can't quite say the same for the opening and ending titles. The OP (Sky High by the Gospellers) is a standard Jpop-ish song that's nice enough to listen to but doesn't really capture the series and seems more happy-go-lucky than anything else. The ED (Tokyo and Paris by Emiri Miyamoto x solita) is more or less the same. It sounds better, but I think could be better again.

I don't think there is any way possible that I could regret seeing this Anime without someone pushing a gun against my head and saying “You shouldn't have watched that,” and even then the regret would be half-hearted.

Yonen Buzz: Manga Review

Title: Yonen Buzz

Author: Christina Plaka

Label: Tokyopop

Volumes: Ongoing

I’m a sucker for a story based around a rock band, both NANA and Beck place highly in my favourite anime/manga estimations. Yonen Buzz, for me, attempts to inhabit the same space as these titans, and does a fantastic job of it.

The main premise will be familiar to all; it follows the fortunes of a struggling musical foursome attempting to make a living from their music. I am not a proponent of the “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it” school of storytelling, favouring more the approach of “If it’s not broken, great! Now go and make something new”. However, Yonen Buzz does not merely follow in the footprints of its megastar predecessors, dancing a merry jig and presenting you with nothing new, instead, it manages to carve out its own niche, in so doing telling a gripping tale.

The story is still very much in its infancy, and so far we have only hints as to the underlying back-story of the characters, for example; while we know that guitarist and frontman Imai Jun lost his parents as a child, we know none of the details, which promises to be an important reveal later in the story. An interesting, and for me, welcome, change from formulaic romance plotlines is that the story begins with the two main characters already in a relationship. This means that there is an absence of the moribund long, drawn out ‘Will they? / Won’t they?’ plot line where both characters nervously judder into their pillows, plucking up the courage to say ‘it’. This is a huge breath of fresh air in manga-storytelling, due to that particular storyline having been done to an ugly death. Constantly. Repeatedly. Over and over again.

The characters are lively and likeable, without resorting to gimmicky repeating jokes, again a novelty in the ‘teen drama’ genre. Importantly, the characters all feel genuinely rounded, which is no small feat in what is, necessarily, a fast moving story which has to assume that you haven’t read the prequel. There is little explained in the prequel (now re-released as Yonen Buzz: Plastic Chew) that isn’t skilfully and succinctly recapped in the actual series, although if you enjoy the series it would certainly be worth going back to the very beginning. The members of the band are straight-up earnest, without being sickeningly twee, again, a fine line deftly navigated by the author. My personal favourite is reliable nice guy and bassist Kato Atsushi. What is perhaps hugely enjoyable about the series is that the characters, the members of the band at least, are able to create a sense of honest friendship, which isn’t interrupted by the usual shallow misunderstandings that lead to ‘hilarious consequences’ that are a formulaic blight on all mangakind. Having said that, the characters are put into testing circumstances, after all it is a drama, however the solidarity of the friendship shines through in an honest and real way (as opposed to the Grandia 2 way). While the mandatory fallings out and grumpings of the band are rectified, there is a degree of brooding and angst-filled sequences, however it is a story following the antics of a 90s influenced grunge band, so to complain that it is angsty would be a little ridiculous. As though I’d read a story about swimming and complained that there was too much water in it.

The art is also a departure from bog-standard manga design, with a noticeable lack of V-chinned, inter-changeable, androgynous characters, plumping instead for still-stylised, but perhaps more honest representations of human beings. The differences are particularly noticeable in the jaw-lines of the male characters, which are more squared off than is usual in manga, and also indulging in a splash of stubble here and there. The design of hairstyles is also a far-cry from the ‘fight with a glue gun’ variety of DBZ-fame, and while I have no qualms with ludicrous, gravity defying styles (the very opposite in fact) the realistic styles are far more appropriate.

The clothes in the series will be enjoyed by lovers of rock, especially if you are feeling nostalgic for the 90s, now that we are almost an entire decade away from then. As the story has progressed, Jun has transformed more and more into a lookalike of Kurt Cobain, but since the manga itself references this fact, it seems almost a redundant observation.

The feel of the entire series is of a story that the author is completely immersed in. It is a joy to bear witness to a tale that the author is dedicated to telling, not merely eking it out as anther half-baked idea. Every chapter is accompanied by messages from the author, sometimes providing commentary or insights to the story, sometimes with lyrics for the songs of the band, also providing short biographies of bands which influence the separate characters in the story. It is this kind of immense backlog which helps round out a character, meaning that they are not merely 2D cut-outs running through a story. It is also clear that the author feels as strongly as her characters about music, with the bands original name of Prussian Blue being changed in the re-release to Plastic Chew, due to the appearance of a real-life Prussian Blue, described by Wikipedia as a white nationalist teen-pop duo, and by me as a pair of racist cunts. So a good call on the part of Christina Plaka to distance her work from them.

Now one reason why NANA and Beck have the advantage over Yonen Buzz is due to their anime incarnations, which enabled them to record actual songs for their respective bands, adding an extra layer to the story. Now though Yonen Buzz does include the lyrics for the band’s songs, I was all set to say that it couldn’t quite live up to the other offerings. Before writing this review, however, I did some research (if typing ‘Yonen Buzz’ into a reputable search engine counts as research)(re: it does) and discovered that there were recordings of Yonen Buzz songs on YouTube. I assumed these were songs created by fans of the series that had taken the lyrics from the books and composed some noise around them. But no, the truth is better than that again. There are a series of recordings of the songs, composed and performed by the author, on YouTube. What makes this particularly fantastic, in my opinion, is that they are not professionally filmed; they are merely a short clip of a woman with an acoustic guitar, singing her own songs into a digital camera. For all the professional quality and big names involved in the recording of the songs for NANA and Beck (which, don’t get me wrong, is hugely impressive) the indie, home-grown nature of these songs is far more amazing, and importantly, very much in line with the nature of the story. Firstly, they are clearly a labour of love, and performing them herself is surely a brave step, and moreover, beyond the call of duty. You wouldn’t expect your favourite musicians to start writing stories, and I certainly didn’t expect an author to also write music. But I am incredibly glad she does.

There are a few slight niggles I have with the series, the biggest of which is that it takes forever for a new volume to appear. Having said that, however, it does make the series slightly special, with never-ending serials sometimes feeling pointless and throwaway, I am more than happy to wait for a new volume that is well thought out and structured, rather than getting a new volume every week and discovering that it is tripe. The translation from German to English is mostly above criticism, however one particular scene (in Vol. 3) indicates that one translator was perhaps not on the same wavelength as everyone else. It says on the back that the book is suitable for 13+, however in a sequence of dialogue where a drummer thinks he is going to be replaced, he angrily drops the c-bomb. Now it seems somewhat coy of me to have censored it there, since I used it earlier in the piece to describe a neo-nazi pop act, however I am writing this in the understanding that children will not be reading it. In a story marked 13+, where terms such as ‘dorkface’, ‘turd’ and ‘buddy boy’ feature, the word ‘cunt’ seems hugely out of place. I, personally, enjoyed the sudden plunge into no-holds-barred language, but I can imagine that the parents of children reading it might not.

All in all, the story isn’t an epoch-altering breakthrough, but it is an engaging story well told, and well drawn. I am awaiting the next volume with infantile, unrestrained glee.

Spice and Wolf - Anime Review

Title: Spice and Wolf

Studio: Imagin

Released: Q1 2008

Episodes: 12

Spice and Wolf seems to be set in some kind of fantasy era where everything is bright and everyone is happy. The series shows people who live a simple and pleasant existence, all of them content with a life in which you only really need to remember two things to get by: Church = good, Pagans = bad. Unless of course you're a merchant, in which case you have to think about every possibility for profit under the sun in the most complicated ways available. Complicated to the point where I was confused more often than not and had to have a long hard think at the end of the episode before I got an idea of how the plot worked, at which point I needed an aspirin and a nice lie down.

Lawrence is one of those merchants. He rides around the country with his little horse and cart trading whatever he can get his hands on that will bring him a profit; wheat, furs, salt, armour, pepper, anything that'll get him some extra money. I don't find that strange, really, but as the series progresses, his obsession with earning a profit would leave me with little surprise if he started smuggling illegal immigrants and selling children to salt mines. On his trading route is a small village called Pasroe. Each harvest a festival is held where the villager to reap the final bundle of wheat from the fields is called “Horo” and locked away in a cold, dark barn for a week. Apparently this is a good thing, and the winner of this competition is Chloe, a budding young merchant of the town and Lawrence's sort of student. While all the villagers are competing to be put in isolation Chloe collects the final bundle of wheat.

Enter Horo, wise Wolf spirit and ancient pagan deity of the Pasroe. According to legend, she lives in the wheat, and even if the wheat is cut, she is able to move to another bundle of the stuff as long as it is larger than the amount cut, and it is nearby. As it just so happens, Lawrence has a big bundle of wheat in his cart left over from his previous transactions. One loud thump later and she's sleeping soundly in his cart unbeknownst to the villagers and Lawrence himself.

That night Lawrence's plans to sleep with comfort in his cart full of furs are disrupted when Horo wakes up, stretches back and howls at the moon. After telling Lawrence that the village of Pasroe has forgotten about the importance she played in the prosperity of the town's crops, and the promise she made with a young boy many years before, Lawrence isn't really buying her story. He asks for proof otherwise he might turn her over to the church as being possessed by a daemon, at which point she munches on some wheat and gives him all the proof he needs. The first episode ends with Lawrence promising Horo that he will accompany her back to her home in the north, a legendary forest where the “Summers are Short and the Winters are long” called Yoitsu, and so begins their journey.

Watching this series was kind of like having a Teletubby punch you in the face. Sure it's a soft one, but it's a punch nonetheless. The environment is an awesomely colourful place; the days are bright and blue, the sunsets are serene and picturesque, the nights are filled with shining stars, and the people are cheerful and helpful. That is until Lawrence ends up being hunted down by thugs hired to kill him. It is around this point that the two-faced attitude of the merchant world shines through brighter than the aforementioned stars and suddenly everything has turned bad for Lawrence. He finds himself alone and helpless with only a bastard to turn to. Turns out that this bastard would much prefer a heap of profit over the life of a small-time merchant, and has to be blackmailed into helping him out by the bastards who hired the bastards that tried to kill Lawrence in the first place, so it's all one big circle of bastards with Lawrence stuck in the middle not really knowing what to do and I can't tell where the knife in the back begins and the confusion ends. Actually, that's kind of a lie, the confusion never really ends. Each plot is as complicated and vague as the next, and it never really gets sorted out, the plan just kind of “stops” with Lawrence having gained little more than experience and a slap on the wrist.

Regardless of the complications of the merchant's plans, the story itself is the opposite when it comes to how difficult it is to follow. Lawrence and Horo enter town, Lawrence and Horo trade stuff, Lawrence fucked/fucks something up, Lawrence and Horo argue, Lawrence finds a way out of the mess, rinse and repeat and you have Spice and Wolf. The actual story itself rarely looks at the reason why they're together in the first place, and it never really seems like they've made any progress towards Yoitsu until around the end of the series where Lawrence tells Horo they'll be going to a city in the north to trade some more, and so the actual series itself ends around half way through the actual story without any sort of conclusion or answer at all, leaving all of that up to its younger sibling, “Spice and Wolf 2”.

Even so, I did enjoy this series. While more often than not Lawrence's situation more than adequately described “in a pinch,” he is an intelligent character, and watching him get out of those dire, life-threatening situations is just as fun as watching him fall into them. Horo herself lives up to her title of “Wise,” and is constantly helping Lawrence make more of a profit during his trades. Her personality can switch from sage to child at the drop of an apple, and her ears and tail are used very well to help outline how she's feeling. When she's depressed her ears droop, making her cute, and when she's excited her tail wags uncontrollably, making her even more cute.

Just as you'd expect, one of the main focuses of the series is the relationship between Lawrence and Horo. I actually enjoyed this aspect of Spice and Wolf. The development is made apparent without the need for the typical “I d-didn't do this for you, you idiot. G-geez” said with a red face. Subtle milestones are passed as the series progresses, and the characters eventually get closer and closer to each other. Again, this is done without much physical interaction, so if you prefer a more in-your-face development you might be a little disappointed, although I don't doubt that their relationship will go even further in the second series. Horo herself seems to develop quite a bit during the series as you learn more about her and her ancient promise to the child and people of Pasroe village. Lawrence, however, seems to be anchored in place as far as development is concerned. He is more the catalyst for Horo's own development, sparking her change rather than his own. While this is all good and well some advancement from Lawrence would be appreciated. Of course, through experience his ability as a merchant is developed, but this is never really used.

Looking beyond the story, the animation is nothing spectacular, but it's more than enough to paint the scenery that comes about. When thinking of Yoitsu the big trees and pure white snow offers a fantastic picture of a magical and legendary place beyond human imagination, and everything from the bustling cities to the sheep-filled, quiet country roads are clear and well done.

The music is the same. While nothing actually stands out, the happy flute music and the relatively fast-paced dramatic tracks envelop the series in a manner that isn't harsh to the ears when switching from one to the other. The transition from content to danger is smooth and fluid while maintaining the drama that comes with it.

I guess you can't really say that any individual part of the series stands out, but in the end everything complements everything else in a way that makes the series itself a bright beacon in a pile of dead bulbs.

Ergo Proxy: Anime Review

Title: Ergo Proxy

Studio: Manglobe

Released: 2006

Episodes: 23

Ergo Proxy doesn’t so much as throw you in at the deep end, rather it pulls back the curtain to reveal that you were already treading water.

The setting will be familiar enough to anime fans, set very much in the post-apocalypse, the air has been polluted to the point where it is uninhabitable, forcing humankind to seek refuge in some form of sterilised citadel. The gathering place of this tale is Romdeau, a colossal dome raised above the wastelands and sealed off from the contaminated air, enabling human life to exist within it. However, as is so often the case, it becomes apparent that Romdeau isn’t the perfect haven it seems to be, in fact it is rather more dystopian, with all-controlling Bureaus overlooking the goings on of the dome a la 1984.

The city is also filled with subservient androids, or Autoreivs, that come in a number of varieties, such as the high-level and highly skilled Entourage autoreivs that assist Bureau operatives, the Law-enforcing Armed autoreivs that keep people in order, and the highly-suggestive Companion autoreivs that, well, keep people company.

The story follows a number of characters, the main players being: Re-l Mayer, an Information Bureau operative decked out in blue eye-shadow, skin-tight nu-goth attire and a seemingly perpetual impassive glare; and Vincent Law, an immigrant worker grafting away in order to become a ‘Model Citizen’. Also in the limelight is stony badass Raul Creed, Chief of the Security Bureau, and also, obsessive bishounen Dr Daedalus Yumeno, Chief Physician and Head of Research.

The other main player is Pino, a companion autoreiv infected with the Cogito virus that’s troubling Romdeau. The Cogito virus in essence does exactly what it says on its Latin tin, enabling infected autoreivs to think, allowing them to disobey humans and essentially listen to their emotions. This progression is displayed brilliantly using the melodica-playing child-autoreiv Pino, in no small part due to a brilliant and nuanced performance by seiyuu Yajima Akiko.

The series catalogues the journeys of these characters, with each one of them progressing and changing hugely. The main through-line is each characters search, or perhaps quest, for their raison d’être, or ‘reason for being’. It is hardly surprising that it is philosophical searching and existential quandaries that abound in Ergo Proxy, as even the language it uses is steeped in philosophy, both the title of the series and the virus within it borrowing from Descartes’ ‘Cogito Ergo Sum’. The characters, in their own way, are escaping from the authoritarian 'Don't Think Just Do' rule of the system, which is perhaps summed up by the reprimand: “Preaching generalizations is for those who do not practise business”.

The dystopian feel of the story is very much in sync with the style of the animation, with much of the settings being shadowy, brooding and unsettling, though this is contrasted by the brightness of other areas. Contrast is perhaps one of the themes of the series, with the main visual example of this being the ruin and darkness of the outside world compared with the sterilised false glow of Romdeau.

There is also much contrast in the pacing of the series, with the slow, thoughtful nature of the characters developments being interjected by delicious mind-boggling episodes, which are both surreal and disconcerting, and also viciously sidelined by bouts of severe violence.

The series isn’t tastelessly violent, inasmuch as you aren’t flooded by it at every turn. However, when these scenes do crop up, they are unreservedly sadistic and filled with enough animated blood to seriously upset a Viking. Or alternatively, to drown one in. For violence devotees this will be good news, but it is also worth noting that these action scenes are also visually arresting, the fighting is furtive and nervous, but also slick and smooth. It is disturbing when a series has very little remorse early on, and Ergo Proxy follows in the footsteps of Elfen Lied as it casually brutalises its way through a number of characters that seem as though they could be integral parts of the plot, only to be so much fodder mere moments later.

This seemingly uncaring attitude towards certain characters is, again, misleading, as more often than not these characters are not forgotten, and attain far more importance as the series progresses. Contrast is, again, apparent as the series can not only present horrific suffering blatantly, it is also able to bring a deftness to bear, with more subtle, suggestive scenes evoking poignancy, rather than out-and-out shock, such as showing two body-bags, one adult sized, the other the size of a child, rather than spelling this out with blood. Although if spelling things out with blood was a competition, this series is certainly in with a chance of winning, and, to be fair, it brought an enormous pen.

When watching the series, it feels less like a story that is travelling on a linear path, and more like a picture that you are slowly being allowed a fuller view of. What may seem at first glance a sci-fi blood-fest is in reality a suspenseful mystery / psychological thriller, with tinges of both steam and cyberpunk.

The series is also coloured by delightful and, more importantly, unique character design, with designs that are interesting, arresting and memorable. The characters fit brilliantly within the visual ethos of the world created in the story, with some reflecting the futuristic sterility of Romdeau (Re-l), and others the grittiness of the wasteland (Vincent). The technology is also tastefully unique, from the sleek minimalism of the autoreivs, to the distinctiveness of Vincent’s gun, which looks like a malicious Pez dispenser. In terms of sheer style, there is a frankly inspired, and for me, iconic scene featuring a helicopter which goes in my ‘wide-eyed, open-mouthed and dribbling’ scrapbook.

On a complete side-note I would suggest that viewers keep an eye out for a very minor character sporting a toothbrush moustache, more commonly known, perhaps, as a Hitler moustache.

On the downside, some of the more surreal episodes are slightly difficult to follow, though a challenge is always welcome, and they all help to round out the world and the characters, not falling prey to the lazy filler episode trap. There are also sporadic sequences of, non-gratuitous, near-fan-service, from the scowling Underworld-era Kate Beckinsale lookalike Re-l, though not frequent nor overt enough to put off those of you that may have a dislike fan-service. It’s quite tasteful actually, if you must know, now stop badgering me *cough*.

For me the icing on the cake of a good series, or even the icing on the turd of a bad one, is the music chosen for the opening and ending themes. The track which opens the show is Kiri by Monoral, which is a fittingly bleak track, the sound of which is similar to what I imagine would happen if you injected U2 with Oasis (the band not the drink). It is fitting then that the ending music is not a Japanese band with the sound of an alternative British rock band but a bone fide alternative British rock band with the sound of, well, of an alternative British rock band. The track is Paranoid Android by the legendary Radiohead. Despite their legendary status I am unfamiliar with them, and I am therefore unable to assess whether I am for or against, and therefore there is no witty Radiohead-based quip here. The track itself is well suited to the feel of the anime, which is the most important aspect of a theme (in my opinion). I think it is very easy indeed to scupper a good series with inappropriate music.

The series as a whole, then, is very well paced, choosing to take a lull in the middle for some surreal episodes, rather than plough on at breakneck speed. The characters are all very well rounded, where you will come to understand them, and their motives, over the length of the series. It is astoundingly polished in all aspects, with the sound, look and feel of the series being just right throughout. The story itself is masterfully completed, being told adroitly, with all loose ends drawn together at the end, though without it feeling forced or contrived.

Ergo Proxy is very much a series I would watch again, and one I would highly recommend.

Similar: Post-apocalyptic Dystopia: Appleseed, Sky Blue

Mystery, Intrigue, Killings: Death Note

Addendum to the Introduction

Hello from the other half of Animated Opinions (as I am now calling myself). I thought I should give a little smile and a wave of an introduction in order to celebrate the inauguration of what I’m sure will be the thinking-otaku’s review blog of choice.

Despite claiming in the previous post that there is unlikely to be a rigid schedule of updates, it is worth assuring you that we will do our very best to update once a week (each), with me in a mid-week slot (around Wednesday) and Casinha in the weekend slot (around Sunday).

We aim to provide a constructive account in our reviews, I’m sure we will be as even-handed and fair as we possibly can, though there will be a degree of subjectivity there as well, but that, after all, is what makes a review interesting. Perhaps.

We will also be staying clear of spoilers, especially when dealing with more recent or less known series.

I also aim to be slightly wry or amusing with my analysis, so keep your eyes peeled for that.

Greetings from some room that you'd expect to be dark and cold but isn't really all that bad. In fact, it's quite pleasant and bright.

Well a hello and a hiya to all of you who are reading this, and I must give a thanks for the time you have taken to check this place out, even if you are just clicking on random links and buttons for the sake of a boredom-driven quest, because I'm still totally counting that as a form of fandom, whether you like it or not.

Ultimately this blog will be used as a place to hold reviews for Anime and (sometimes) Manga, two things I thoroughly enjoy in life. Other media such as books, films and music might also be reviewed at points.
My own reviews will be accompanied by those of another author (and a friend) of this blog and will range anywhere from old manga to the latest episodes of anime. I'll do my best to avoid series that are currently running, although may pop up from time to time depending on my mood and whether or not it has been requested along with a good reason.
While I am drawn to specific types of Anime and Manga, I will try to be unbiased in my observations, although don't be surprised if certain signs of bias do trickle through. I'd like to think that my opinions are well founded, but don't hesitate to argue or criticise if you feel like it. Bear in mind I will be completely ignoring idiots, dunces, eejits, dolts, fools, dimwits, morons, fucktards/wits, twits, arses, imbeciles and nincompoops. Yes, you are completely welcome to think of me as a douche for listing eleven different synonyms for "idiot" (twelve if you count fucktards and fuckwits as seperate beings), I'd probably agree with you.

I don't have any particular intention of promising regular posting times, considering my sense of organisation could hardly be gathered and put into a small water balloon used to change an unsuspecting party from mildly content to slightly miffed.
I will try to write up a review when I finish a series, or when I dsicover a particularly good/bad ongoing one, but I repeat, I promise you nothing. Whether you care about that or not has nought to do with me.
Criticism of my writing ability (or perhaps 'lack of', if you feel that way) is also welcome and, to be fair, expected.

Anyhoo, thanks for giving the time to read this little introduction, and if you intend to continue reading our reviews, you have my utmost gratitude.