Rate the last anime you watched out of 10

[awadama]

One Piece: Stampede

This is awful, even by the very low standard of One Piece movies.

Movies based on shonen shows usually have a flimsy story, but Asda Smart Price toilet paper has more substance than this. The first 30 minutes is some kind of Fortnite/Wacky Races routine - the remaining hour is just one big fight against a boring man.

It's hyped up as some kind of "love letter" to One Piece, but all that means is that dozens of characters from 15 years ago show up, have a line or two, then vanish again. Oh it's Wapol. And there's Django. It's Foxy now. There's Jewelry Bonney. And Crocodile. Wow.

The story is crap. The animation is...fine, I guess. I had to watch it over three nights because it's just so boring. I couldn't have coped sitting in the cinema to watch this all in one go.

2/10

 

[awadama]

We Without Wings

Absolutely abhorrent.

1/10

 

[Neil.T]

We Without Wings

Absolutely abhorrent.

1/10

Yeah... Innit.



Actually, what was the one mark you gave it in recognition of, if you don't mind my asking?

 

[awadama]

@Neil.T It really doesn't deserve that one star, but I'd get annoyed if I had something without a star rating by it on Anime Planet. I gave this absolute mess half a star (out of five stars) on there, so I guess that translates into 1/10.

Really though, there's absolutely nothing good about the show. The story is nonsense but also horrible. The characters are a hateful shower. The dub just seems to be a huge piss take. Even the OP and ED songs are bad.

But on the bright side, at least it's another DVD I can get out of the house! At the minute I'm split between leaving it on a bus for some poor soul to adopt or just burning it in the shed.

 

[Professor Irony]

Patlabor: The Mobile Police (1989) Scotland Loves Anime cinema showing

Very much enjoyed revisiting the first Patlabor movie after quite a number of years - and in the cinema, no less! Seeing Special Vehicles Section 2 tangle with an increasing number of unmanned mecha going berserk around Tokyo Bay, following the death of renowned computer programmer Eiichi Hoba, this is very clearly a Mamoru Oshii film, with the familiar combination of high tech crime and political manoeuvring, but it's frequently a lot warmer and funnier than his later work, finding plenty of humour in the very human foibles of our heroes.

In many ways the film does seem to predict Oshii's later films however, particularly Ghost in the Shell, with its equally meticulous attention to background detail employed for some very similar scenes of environmental storytelling, as pair of detectives wordlessly navigate the city's slum districts in search of Hoba's former homes. Something that particularly struck me on this viewing was how the characters never explicitly discuss Hoba's motivation for doing what he does, but we can certainly infer a lot from what Oshii shows us, with these richly detailed shots of the junk left behind from demolishing what were clearly peoples' family homes, and the (rather less subtle) motif of the empty birdcage.

Despite it being part of a wider franchise, I think it's also impressive to see how well the film works as a stand alone piece. The OVAs and TV series both provide a backstory for the characters, but I feel their personalities and situation are conveyed so well during the film that it's hardly a requirement for any newcomers. I'd go as far as to say I think this might be Oshii's most accessible film, although I've certainly not seen all of them.

My only minor complaint about the film is that I would dearly have loved the climactic assault to be just a little bit longer. The scenes of SV2 battling their way through a hoarde of security drones while Kenji Kawai's guitar wails in on the soundtrack are spectacular, but rather brief, and, much as I can appreciate that the whole sequence was no doubt difficult and time consuming to animate, I think a few extra shots of the battle becoming a desperate scrap would have really added to the scene.

It's unfortunate that the sequel film isn't also playing as part of SLA's cinema lineup (although I believe it is available through their streaming service at the moment) as, while I've seen this first one a few times over the years, I've only ever watched Patlabor 2 once and I'd be curious to see what I'd make of it now. Patlabor 2 is highly regarded, and usually seen as the better film, but I remember finding it very dry and dialogue heavy compared with the first. Although I do always have to qualify this by saying that I was about 12 at the time and would most likely appreciate it more now, even if I'm not sure it would ever quite replace the first film in my affections.

 

[awadama]

Ace Attorney season 2

I really enjoyed the first season and I was excited to see the followup, especially because it's based on my favourite AA game (and one of my fav games of all time) - Trials & Tribulations.

I had no objections - it didn't let me down at all.

Compared to other game adaptations I've seen (Danganronpa), Ace Attorney really works. It gives the story time to breathe and doesn't rush through things (unlike Danganronpa). If anything, the last case went on a little bit too long - but I can forgive it, because it was still very enjoyable (especially compared to something like Danganronpa).

It looks good, the dub cast is pretty much perfect and it all makes sense (it's easy to follow, even if you've never played any of the games). There are a couple of anime-exclusive/filler stories in there, but they're interesting and both offer something new - one of them focuses on young Edgeworth and the other is a trial set on a train.

After the first season, I was pretty sure this one would be a winner and I was totally (W)right!

I find this show guilty of being a 9/10

 

[RadFemHedonist]

Ace Attorney season 2

I really enjoyed the first season and I was excited to see the followup, especially because it's based on my favourite AA game (and one of my fav games of all time) - Trials & Tribulations.

I had no objections - it didn't let me down at all.

Compared to other game adaptations I've seen (Danganronpa), Ace Attorney really works. It gives the story time to breathe and doesn't rush through things (unlike Danganronpa). If anything, the last case went on a little bit too long - but I can forgive it, because it was still very enjoyable (especially compared to something like Danganronpa).

It looks good, the dub cast is pretty much perfect and it all makes sense (it's easy to follow, even if you've never played any of the games). There are a couple of anime-exclusive/filler stories in there, but they're interesting and both offer something new - one of them focuses on young Edgeworth and the other is a trial set on a train.

After the first season, I was pretty sure this one would be a winner and I was totally (W)right!

I find this show guilty of being a 9/10

Wow you rly didn't like Danganronpa (glad you enjoyed Ace Attorney so much though!)

 

[awadama]

Wow you rly didn't like Danganronpa

How did you guess?!

 

[RadFemHedonist]

How did you guess?!

IDK maybe I'm psychic

 

[fabio de lunatico]

Patlabor: The Mobile Police (1989)
Despite it being part of a wider franchise, I think it's also impressive to see how well the film works as a stand alone piece. The OVAs and TV series both provide a backstory for the characters, but I feel their personalities and situation are conveyed so well during the film that it's hardly a requirement for any newcomers. I'd go as far as to say I think this might be Oshii's most accessible film, although I've certainly not seen all of them.

I'd agree with this. My first exposure to Patlabor was this film as that and the sequel on VHS were all we got over here from Manga. Outside of there obviously being some kind of backstory for Kanuka, I never felt I was missing much for not having seen the OVAs.

As much as I love the second film - I think you will appreciate it more now than you did then - the first better captures the spirit of the manga and TV/OVA series in that it has moments of levity. One of my favourite scenes is where Azuma and the chief are having a shouting match while their angry faces are distorted fishbowl-style. This film was perhaps the last time we saw this kind of visual humour from Oshii, most evident in his Urusei Yatsura directorial work, though I haven't seen Vlad Love.

Great film.

 

[Dai]

Overman King Gainer
I've seen quite a few Yoshiyuki Tomino shows at this point. If there's one word I wouldn't use to describe most of them, it's 'goofy', but King Gainer sure is a goofy show. Turn-A Gundam had its odd moments and the first half of ZZ was heavy on comedy, but this is on a different level. I suspect the famously weird opening is designed to make the viewer cast aside notions of expecting a typical straight-laced real robot show, and buckle up for some super robot madness.

That said, it takes a few episodes for King Gainer to hit its stride and for it to become apparent what kind of show this is, mainly thanks to some sloppy plotting while it's setting up the scenario and character motivations. This is especially problematic in a series-long plot thread involving the murder of Gainer's parents. We never meet them, they're killed off-screen between the first two episodes, and we only find this out a couple of episodes later when Gainer starts shouting about it in the middle of an unrelated robot fight. That's the worst example, but the show generally falters when it tries to be serious.

Fortunately, most of the series focuses on one over-the-top super robot battle after another, and these are the highlight. Enemy mecha have a plethora of bizarre abilities that make for varied and interesting battles, and the designs are some of the quirkiest you'll see this side of Gurren Lagann. The robots wear interchangeable clothes, for example, and the cockpits close with a giant zip. Most of the characters are likeable oddballs, with some of them adding an almost Ghibli-esque feeling of comfiness to the series. The villains chew the scenery in classic Saturday morning cartoon fashion.

Any time King Gainer doesn't take itself too seriously, it can be a joy to watch. It's just a shame that the writing for its series-long arcs is relatively poor.

7/10

 

[Spark_Heal]

One Piece Film: Gold

What a waste of a genuinely great idea for a Shonen franchise movie and lovely soundtrack.

A heist film staring the Straw Hat Pirates? Robbing a casino vault using all their crazy and varied powers? Brilliant idea. There's so much you could do with all their personalties in this wildly unusual adventure. And the film does an admirable job establishing the conflict and setting up sneering yet charismatic villains. The flamboyant and grinning Gild Tesoro is very similar to Doflamingo but the overlap can be forgiven because he is entertaining in his own right. Someone despicable and hateful enough that you want to see Luffy and the gang to outsmart and overpower him by the end.

Unfortunately Film: Gold fails to deliver on its promises despite its strong beginning and solid animation throughout . The actual heist part of the film disappoints and ultimately feels redundant. The constant introduction of new characters and out of place set pieces leave it feeling disjointed. And despite a surprising amount of the film focusing on Nami as a leader, adding to her backstory while also using her status as a capable burglar: it never really amounts to anything. The heist might as well not exist because the resolution is borderline nonsense and it leads into the disappointing climax.

It's fine to have a One Piece story end with the crew splitting up and squaring off with their chosen adversary. But the action just isn't good enough. And to reach a speedy conclusion, the film throws away the core of the setting and has to completely ignore Gild Tesoro's power so he can loose within 10 minutes. It also starts hinting towards him being a more complicated person than the monster he acts like but does nothing with it. Which is the ultimate issue I have with the movie. There's a lot it could with its ideas and it refuses to engage with them and for us away all the good will it builds.

I'm trying to decide if this is better or worse than One Piece Stampede. Film: Gold at least has one of my favourite 'Brook is a skeleton' jokes in the entire series. But it also disappointed me much more because it starts so strong.

4/10

 

[Dai]

Bartender
My opinion of this show changed significantly when I gave it a second chance. Initially I dropped it after five episodes, and now having watched the whole series I can see I did so because I hated the main character in episode 5. My other complaint about the series initially was that I found it unconvincing that people's whole attitiude or direction in life could be swayed by being served a particular cocktail, but on a second viewing (and watching the rest of the show), that's rarely the case. More frequently it's the anecdotes and arguments that the bartender builds around the drinks he serves that have an impact on the customers, and that's more effective for the stories it tells. He understands people and how to give them a nudge in the right direction. I must not have been paying attention the first time I watched Bartender.

Watching it as a whole, this really is the show I wanted it to be. It has adult characters facing adult problems, and mostly tackles them in a measured and thoughtful way. It's not perfect, but has a relaxing atmosphere that's enjoyable to settle into.

I'm raising my score from 5 to 7.

Original (now defunct) review below:

I wanted to like Bartender. Anime where all the characters are adults are a rarity, and the concept was interesting, but the result was merely okay. Each episode centres around a drink that is important to the customer in some way. The better episodes are the ones where this idea is smoothly integrated into the story, such as where the bartender helps a woman identify a particular brand of liqueur that was intended as a gift from her late father. Unfortunately, some episodes fall into an odd pattern where a customer is having a major life crisis and the bartender serves them a cocktail that magically changes their outlook on life in an unconvincing way. The show tries to be profound with its nuggets of trivia behind the origin of different drinks, but I'm forced to question how accurate any of them are when a show called Bartender gets the origin of the word 'bartender' wrong in its first episode.

I believe a great show could be made from this concept, but sadly Bartender isn't it.

 

[João Gomes]

Yaaasss, love re-evaluations and knowing Bartender delivers on an adult anime. As you said, they are so rare that we can but hope the few we get are actually good.

It's now been a year since I ordered it I think, but I'm still very much interested in watching it.

Cocktails and chill, I guess

 

[Aeon]

Aggretsuko all seasons

I finally got around to watching this absolute gem on Netflix and it was well worth it; first off this is rating not any individual seasons but all of the ones released thus far.

First off I at first didn't like the style but it eventually grew on me, for a long time I didn't like tween based 2D animation and I still am not the biggest fan, with that said I think it works well with the style that is presented; this was the reason it took me so long to get around to watching it though I recently started to broaden my horizons, getting back into western animated films after so many years of telling myself that I grew out of them, this shift in my preferences made me think it was time to give this show another chance as well and it was well worth doing so.

The story seems fairly simple on the surface, an anthropomorphic red panda (Retsuko) is doing accounting work for an anthro pig (Ton) who picks on her specifically because, reasons and Retsuko gets mad and lets it out doing heavy metal at the karaoke bar, but it becomes so much more than that, the characters have hidden depths that make them so much more than they seem on the surface; there are some characters who you will probably despise at first only for them to turn out ok later on, with one deranged exception but the exception gets his comeuppance very shortly after the fact.

I particularily like how the characters, despite being anthropomorphic animal characters, behave no different than humans and have to deal with very real human issues, very few shows/films/etc present anthro characters as proper people and it is good to have a show that does that for a change.
Another thing I like is how the episodes are not any longer than they need to be, I always felt like I could sit through more episodes than I usually do because they average around 15 minutes aproximately, cutting out the fluff.
The show is also really funny at times, and I don't usually laugh at many anime shows.

As for what I didn't like; I was not a fan of the heavy metal parts, I get they are Retsuko letting off steam but I couldn't help but cringe, especially when it is used to try and convince another character to take a certain point of view, I don't like it when characters sing for this purpose when they can just say it normally; this is perhaps my biggest gripe with the show but it gets less common as time goes on thankfully.

Regardless of this gripe I still had a blast watching the show, without saying too much it starts off pretty good in season 1 and mostly goes up from there, the ending of season 3 is particularily dark by this shows standards and season 4 gets really good in the second half; with season 5 just around the corner I have yet another thing to look forward to on Netflix.

Score 9/10

 

[Girls with Guns]

I always watch the Ghost in the Shell and Innocence movies back to back, as I think of them as one long movie. Plus double the good soundtrack to listen too, as well...

 

[Professor Irony]

Gosenzosama Banbanzai (1989)

Mamoru Oshii's esoteric and oddly personal postcard from the height of the economic bubble, is a tragi-comic satire following the breakdown of a middle-class family, whose lives are inextricably changed by the arrival of Maroko, a smiling young woman claiming to be the granddaughter of their teenage son, Inumaru, come from the future to meet him.

Oshii allegedly once said in the early 2000s that this was the only time he was ever given absolute freedom to do what he wanted, and that certainly seems to ring true. With its flatly composed shots, emphasis on lengthy character monologue and rampant breaking of the fourth wall, Gosenzosama is as much about recreating the feeling of watching a live stage play as anything else. As an experiment, it's often fascinating to look at and think about how the different storytelling techniques have transferred to animation, but as a piece of entertainment, I don't know that it's quite so successful. It's certainly funny at times and it's often thought provoking - this is clearly a series with something to say about Japanese society at the height of consumerist hubris - but with its lengthy expositional diatribes, it seems deliberately designed to try the viewer's patience, and any definite message it wants to convey remains frustratingly elusive. It's appropriate that one of the most noticeable visual tics is how the characters, particularly Inumaru and Maroko, have awkward limbs with clearly deliniated joints in the manner of marionettes; at least until the final moments, they never quite feel like people whose lives we can become invested in, they're just avatars there to move the plot along.

Much like the more recent Vlad Love, once it got past its initial gesture towards popularity, Gosenzosama feels like something Oshii made to satisfy his own curiosity about what it would look like, and without much interest in what anyone else thinks about it. If you're onboard with Oshii's particular vision, this is definitely worth seeking out, otherwise, it may just feel like a slog.

Interestingly, the series was later compiled into a film version released as Maroko! and I'd be curious to see how that compares. It feels like having this boiled down into a single 90 minute feature might be the better way to watch it.

 

[Spark_Heal]

Gundam Reconguista in G

An unexpected return to the Gundam franchise by its creator Yoshiyuki Tomino with mixed results. Reconguista definitely does not make a good first impression. The first few episodes are confusing and disjointed, bombarding you with information but providing little context and having wild tonal shifts that prevent you from understanding how to engage with it. All the while establishing tons of characters and with the mobile suits of these episodes easily being the worst in the series. But then it shapes up around Episode 7 and everything improves. In hindsight it's clearly structured like a series of films instead of a TV show. Every five or six episodes features a big change in the story, often coupled with an impressive action scene. Making Tomino's choice to revisit the series and re-adapt his own work more understandable.

Originally when I watched the series last year I ended up dropping it. But returning to it after getting used to Tomino's style and consuming his other works in the past year made me a lot more appreciative of this series' strengths. One of Reconguista's defining traits is the labyrinthine political tensions, lies and ever-changing alliances where everybody is working an angle and you have to wait to see who is lying and when. Which does make it feel like something that will need to be rewatched to fully understand but it does lead to several exciting moments where the cast have to gamble on who is and isn't reliable from their own faction. And while Tomino fleshes out this conflict he doesn't lose sight of the small moments. There's just a lot of little scenes and moments that made me really like the supporting cast. They might not be well developed but I like them a lot, be it Steer the bilingual helmwoman, the outlandish genius and moron Klim Nick, even the XO who only wears shorts and shades on the bridge. There's just a lot of likeable characters with excellent designs. And it's not just the humans, the mobile suits steadily improved throughout the entire show until you get to the final arc where there's so many good ones the story can barely give them any screen time. Getting to grips with the style and tone lead mets find a series bursting with flash effects, lovely setting details and an interesting setting.

It isn't perfect though. The broader conflicts are always layered and active while the personal conflicts don't develop and remain elusive. There are some twists and betrayals that are never explored in a character driven way. One of the core conflicts of the series is between Bellri and the elusive Captain Mask and it remains very one-sided. Despite how important it should feel Bellri never really has an opinion on Mask so it's hard to be invested in the struggle. And Bellri is generally really hard to connect with as a protagonist. I do enjoy the overall direction he takes and his attitude in the second half of the series. But he is a victim of the weak opening arc and it feels like he never recovers. It's hard to pin down what he actually wants and why. And while I'm fine with his mech, the G-Self, being overwhelmingly powerful but there is a point where Bellri just pulls out new tools without any build up to gain an advantage and it feels cheap. And while last few episodes make for a tightly packed climax the epilogueleaves much to be desired. I want to love it or at least find it funny but I don't think there's enough meat to it.

But I'm glad I finally completed the series. It was a very charming work with a lot of problems. It convinced me to order some of the movie versions on Blu Ray. Score - 7/10

 

[Dai]

More than a Married Couple, but not Lovers
I'm not usually a proponent of the three-episode rule. If a show doesn't grab me in the first episode, I drop it. This show opens with typical geek protagonist Jiro being paired with obnoxious gyaru Akari for their school's Marriage Practical, a course that requires students to live like married couples, where they're graded on how well they get along. This proves difficult for Jiro because Akari treats him like trash. I wavered on the edge of dropping it after the first episode because Akari was so insufferable, but I'm glad I stuck with it.

Akari, as you can probably tell from her hairstyle, is a tsundere. I've never seen one that deres so hard, so fast, and never goes back. By episode 3, Akari goes from insufferable to adorable. The conflict for the rest of the series is less about Jiro and Akari getting along, and more about the love polygon that the two of them become entangled in. To my surprise it quickly becomes one of the better romance shows of the year. Even its premise isn't that weird when you think of it in the context of a culture where arranged marriage used to be the norm. Why wouldn't you teach teenagers how to live with a complete stranger?

The main thing holding it back is a tonal issue. I'm all for fan service, but considering the innocence of the characters fumbling their way through their feelings, the show's approach to fan service can be jarringly sleazy in places. It's the kind of ecchi tone that you would expect a lesser series to take when it has nothing to offer in the story department, but this show not only doesn't need that crutch, it detracts from the strengths of its romantic drama. It ends up sitting in this awkward middle ground where it's either an unusually good ecchi show or an unusually ecchi drama.

The show covers a decent amount of ground in its 12 episodes, but as per usual don't expect a real ending from an adaptation of an ongoing manga.

7/10

 

[Girls with Guns]

^ I will definitely need to continue on with MtaMC; I watched the first two episodes at the beginning of the season and was liking it, but I just never got a chance to go back to it. Glad to hear its more a drama and not a full-on RomCom. And the ecchi will help satisfy my 'Dirty Old Man' cravings, lol.