Heartcatch PreCure! Heartfelt Review!

Heartcatch PreCure!

Director:                   Tatsuya Nagamine
Production:               Toei Animation
Original run:             07 Ferbruary 2010 - 30 January 2010
Episodes:                 49

Tsubomi Hanasaki is a 2nd year middle school student who loves plants. One day, she dreams of a mysterious flowering tree that wilted, causing fairies to disappear. She also saw two mysterious people fighting, one wanting to destroy the tree and one protecting it. When she transfers to Myodo Academy, the fairies that she saw in her dream appear. They beg her to become a Pretty Cure to protect the Great Tree of Hearts, but she refuses. However, a mysterious enemy called the Desert Messengers came, and the Heart Flower of her new classmate, Erika Kurumi, is stolen. To save Erika, she has to become a Pretty Cure and fight.

It's hard to get more magical girly than the Pretty Cure franchise. All of the key elements set forth by such predecessors as Sailor Moon and Mermaid Melody are there. Cute little animal mascots? Check. They even have their own catchphrases. Inane transformation items? Check. A perfume bottle that's utterly useless except for the spraying on of a new outfit. Color coded hair and outfits? Check. Not necessarily the colors of the rainbow, and how pink was used twice, but the sentai is still there. Powerful evil bad guy dudes bent on destroying the world? Check. Though at least they have a reason why they need to only operate in the same city as those blasted meddling kids. Recycled final attack always used to hurt/destroy the monster of the week? Double check. Though, to their credit, they don't use big hearts or musical notes, instead being bent towards a more violent method of purifying the beasties. 

 
Almost every episode has a feel-good story. The main characters (the Precure) walk in on someone being depressed about something, find out what it is, then run around like it's their life's purpose to rid the person of their woes. Fashion club? Maybe they should rename it to the volunteer club! What a pity it is then that they are never able to actually resolve a single issue themselves. It always turns into the badguy's using the person's depression to create a rampaging monster, and the magical buttkicking layed upon the monster is what actually manages to cheer up the person, but the sentiment is still there. Girls find people who are upset, and at the end of the day that person is happy again. If you manage to ignore the violence, then Pretty Cure is sweet on an injecting frosting directly into your bloodstream proportions. 

Then again, the violence is still there, and redeems the show in the eyes of another target audience entirely. 



A concept employed but never detailed in previous magical girl series' is the empowerment of the magical girl transformation. When transformed, these otherwise innocent, frail, and entirely human children can suddenly jump across rooftops and be crashed through a building without being hurt. To them however, instead of reveling in these new abilites, they decide to only blast a single recycled magical attack to hurt or destroy the monsters every time. Not the Precure. The first thing the Pretty Cure notice when they first transform is that they are suddenly super strong and super fast. The second thing they notice is that there is a giant, rampaging monster over there tearing up the landscape. Therefore, they fall on the very human response to the situation of a nail needing hammering, and beat the monster up. Punches, kicks, throws, Who cares if they accidentally crush that apartment building with a monster shaped projectile? It's the monsters fault for existing! Then once it's weakened enough they can resort to the recycled magical attack sequence to finish it off.



Actually, the fight scenes that occur in every episode could be attributed to Street Fighter in content, where the recycled finishers are considered the super moves. One cannot win a fight with a single super move from the beginning of the match. The enemy has to be beaten up and weakened alot before that could happen. Therefore, while the super move finisher is visually the same every time, the entire fight leading up to it is unique. They even throw in random flashy special moves in a truly non-recycled fashion! 

The Character designer/art director is Ryuutarou Masuda, so the series shares the same style as works Ojamajo Doremi and Street Fighter Alpha. Namely, slightly more simplified, more cartoony than would otherwise be common among Anime. The rounder shapes and flat but more colorful images serve as a boost to the overall quality of the show. Scene continuity isn't as necessary, so character development occurs faster. This makes for improved sentimentality, one-shot characters who's plights we can better understand, while still allowing time for the other stuff. The fighting also improves because they can afford to be flashier without having to resort to rotoscoping (animation style where real life footage is traced onto an animation cell. Outlines are squiggily and the art looks terrible, but it allows to seamless fluent motion and is easier to animate). 


Recurring characterizations are a stark improvement over previous magical girl shows, especially with the bad guys. Instead of mindless manifestations of evilness, the bad guys are pretty much Human in personality. They are all of them fully aware of, and approve of, the methodology and expected result of their actions, so they cannot be dissuaded through words or exposure to love or some other thing (and with that level of action, who would want them to?), even though they are perfectly capable and willing to sit down and discuss their reasons. In addition, they show an ability to argue and hold conversations, and partake in things like hobbies and activities. At one point, a desert messenger said "I'm bored, so I think I'll try and beat up the Precure today!", which leads to a noteceable lack of urgency on their part. Because of that lack of urgency, it leads us as viewers to wonder why they even bother to begin with? The show needs not be a full year-long if so much of it feels like filler. 

Sweetness and Violence don't really go together. It's like oil and water. You cannot make soup with oil and you cannot deep fry with water, so it's difficult to make a singular dinner with both. The Sentimentality is sweet enough for the girls to put up with the violence, and the action is good enough for the boys to suffer through the sweetness, but both parties still encounter a full half of the show that they can't like, so I have to give it an even steven 2.5 out of 5. Bonus points for having an actual history and previous generations of magical girls, including a still-living grandmother who was the previous incarnation who herselfdefeated  the main bad guy some 50 years beforehand. 


*Note* - The video clip below shows off the typical quality of fight scenes, however it contains heavy spoilers.




- Ben M.

Katanagatari.... reviewed.

Katanagatari

Writer:                     Nisio Isin

Director:                   Keitaro Motonaga

Production:               White Fox

Original run:             January 25, 2010 - December, 2010

Episodes:                 12.

Yasuri Shichika is the 7th generation heir to the Kyoutouryu sword less, sword fighting style, who spent 20 years isolated on an island in exile with his family. 20 years after the war, a girl named Togame beseeching his help approaches him. Togame is a stratagem for the Shogunate (Japanese Empire) who was tasked with finding and collecting all 12 of the perfected deviant blades created by the ancient legendary sword smith Kiki Shikizaki. She needs Shichika's help because his sword less sword fighting style would allow him to collect the various swords without succumbing to the poison that the blades inflict on whoever wields them.

The first thing to notice about this show, which makes it so alike to it's artful sister series "Bakemonogatari", is that it is Dialogue-centric. The majority of every episode is spent in conversation. Unlike other shows which claim vastly more dialogue than anything else, Katanagatari doesn't limit it's banter to "I'm strongest more than you! No you're not! Yes I am! Are not! Am to! Are not! AM TO!!". Every conversation in this show is masterfully done, and deserving of the best in the oxford debate club. Characters intelligently pose their opinions, support it with short but detailed elaborations, listen to each other, ask questions for clarification, and post insights and arguments and counter opinions. Also, like the conversation over tea about the taste of the cookies that could sway the difference between life and death in the next upcoming war, the conversations are loaded down with many subtle layers of deeper vocal conflict and double, triple, and quadruple entendre. We foreigners tend to miss most of those layers, because we don't speak the language and most of it is lost in translation, but mostly because we be too stupid to see anything but the most clear-to-face and obvious meanings to everything, and therefore require long, lengthy paragraphs of constantly repeating words that describe what we are already looking at before we can get it. What I'm saying is, this show isn't a Tits and Explosions kind of action. It is a show for intelligent people to listen to the words and try to understand the various meanings behind them. If you're not that kind of viewer, then the anime is pointlessly long and frustratingly boring. If you are one of those intelligent types, then the show is a never-ending crux of engaging conversations and inspiring concepts.

As a compliment to the dialogue, is the length. Unlike a 23 minute per episode show released every week for exactly 1/4 of a year (13 weeks), This show is OVA style, each episode being 45 minutes long and released only once a month for an entire year. 12 months, 12 swords, you can see the pattern. This isn't an OVA (that is a really one long movie broken into 3 or so smaller parts). Each episode is an independent episode, and the end product is such that it is unimaginable to try and picture a compressed version for the usual half an hour lengths. None of it gives off the impressions of being too jammed packed, or even delay tactic filler material. The pacing is perfectly gentle, allowing for proper dramatic buildup.

And what a dramatic buildup it has. Not only does each episode work its way slowly from a calm beginning to a catastrophic crescendo, but each episode builds upon each other in a symphony of intertwined plots to make for a reverberating tension you just can't rush into. The individual sword plots are somewhat predictable in the results, but as the sword capturing comes closer towards the end, we all sit there waiting for the other shoe to drop, with a big difficulty in imagining just what that other shoe is going to be. I personally couldn't predict what could possibly be more exciting than episode 4, what could be more different than episode 5, what could be more absurd than episode 6, what could be more dangerous than episode 7... and yet it did get more exciting, more different, more absurd, more dangerous, and continues to do so, right up to the end.

The action is severely lacking at the best of times. For a 45-minute episode of a show about a legendary swordsman fighting off the worlds best swordsmen in order to collect the most exotic swords, quite frankly the action sucks. The real fight scenes are limited to maybe some quick buildup followed by the climactic moment. Heck, the only fight worth its weight in time was the only one that didn't actually involve any swords. That's not to say that the show is in any way slow(er than previously mentioned), but the whole project could have served just as well as an elaborate graphic novel for all the motion that was involved.

The graphics, too, are another point that might be taken against the overall quality of the show. Like any good 4-letter comedy or a quack experimental anime, the art style itself tends to change rapidly. From photo realistic to stereophonic to shoujou pretty-boy to video game sprites, there just doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason behind anything visual. If anything, I might have to say that the purpose of the visual shift is as a shortcut. The few action scenes are all broken up or hidden by odd angles, styles, or after effects. Even setup scenes that require the visual aid to support the plan or reason is left to the simplest or most repetitive style available. That's not to say the art is bad, it's just wildly different and expertly used to hide the purpose (animation shortcut). It could even be surprised that what action we do get is a bonus, because the art is nothing more than a means of keeping our eyes from getting bored while we concentrate on the dialogue.

The characters are colorful, and all of them original. From the animal themed Maniwa Ninja, to the Kaleidoscopic princesses to the sharp sword owners, to even Shichika's changing Oak patterned life, there is not a single named character whom you could look at and say "he/she looks like a rip-off of _____". Instead, all of them would each make for an instantly recognizable cosplay at any convention, one flooded with awes on the difficulty it must have been to tailor the costume.

Due to the existence of the Howard Stern Syndrome (you either love it or you hate it, but there's no in-between), I find it difficult to properly rate this show. It all really comes down to the dialogue. If you are the kind of person who can follow and appreciate it, then Katanagatari rates a whopping 9 out of 10, held back only by the annoying shifts in art and the existence of a better precedent (Bakemonogatari had, mysteriously enough, much better dialogue and much more appropriate radical art shift). If you need more explosions and cleavage in your sword-fighting, then the show drops to a miserable 2 out of 5 for hiding all the good stuff and boring us all with big words, saved only by the originality of the characters and the concepts of persona la badass. Penalty points taken for replacing the episode shaping up to be one of the most epic swordfights in the history of ever with a side story, bonus points given right back for that same side story being totally worth it!

-Ben

Welcome to Philadelphia's TAKII 10

So for a while now, I’ve been wondering why there haven’t been many anime events in Philadelphia. Honestly, the city is big enough and you run into a lot of anime fans if you know where to look. But considering that everyone can’t travel to Otakon, AnimeExpo, Katsu-con and other major anime conventions, you have a good amount of people wishing there was something here.

Then I found out about The Asian Karaoke Idol Invitational - or TAKII for short.

What exactly is TAKII, you ask? TAKII is a local Asian culture gathering held at the Rotunda (a small concert/event hall next to The Bridge Theater) right in the heart of University City. From what I know of it, it's been running for almost 5 years on a bi-yearly basis. Anime fans throughout the city come to this event to meet up with others and embrace their love of all things anime and Japanese on this two day event. And it's not just sitting back and watching anime, there are events ranging from a talent show contest (Asian American Idol), a cosplay competition, live concerts, a video game tournament, and even a rave for all the ravers in the building.



From first glance, it seems that TAKII is a mini-con held for the Philly anime fans. However, after experiencing the first day, you can tell that it’s deeper than just anime love. TAKII pays homage to all Asian Pop Culture, including video games, music (mainly Japanese and Korean Pop), cos-play, treats and – obviously – animation.




D-Chan judging the winners of the
Asian American Idol contest.

 

One of the things that are attractive about TAKII is the atmosphere itself. To be honest, TAKII feels like it’s just a large family reunion rather than a convention. For starters, you get in for free. And that’s something that anybody will fall in love with. It’s one of the things that organizer Damian “D-Chan” Christopher has kept to make TAKII stand out as a gathering with friends.



And does it feel like a gathering with friends? That answer is yes. The atmosphere’s a highly sociable one, meaning you’re guaranteed to be cool with a few people by the middle of the day. Even one new attendee had this to say about it:

“What I like about TAKII was the atmosphere. The atmosphere made it fun to socialize with people while having fun and not making me feel uneasy.”


The TAKII 10 Cosplay Competition's entries.



This being my second time there, I had to make a return trip. My first time there was at the insistence of a friend and well, what I experienced there was more than enough to bring me back again. And when I came back, it was an epic experience despite the cold weather. Just remembering the acts that took place in the Asian American Idol Competition on Saturday keeps me laughing still.

The second – and final – day of TAKII was the perfect end to the festivities. I won’t go into much of it because of space constraints, however I will say that between the musical chairs event that I walked in on to the Cosplay Competition, it was the perfect build-up for the final event: the video game tournament. This season, the game was Soul Calibur 4 but was switched to Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit due to technical difficulties.

And that’s one thing that I give D-Chan: he came prepared for that situation. This is something that I’ve seen some bigger local conventions fail at when it comes to game tournaments.

Needless to say, the tournament was insane. From the opening where two contenders ran onstage and held an air guitar jam session to the opening video – yes, that actually happened – to the matches, it kept everyone on the edge of their seats until the end. Both teams had good matches and for an instant, it seemed that the team that took an early lead was destined to lose in the second round. But in the end, the team that took the early lead managed to make a comeback and take the win.

Saturday night's performer Sin with a back-up dancer as she performs "The Real Folk Blues".

And that’s all I have to say on TAKII 10 at the moment. Even though the memories will stay fresh in my head – and my laptop via .MOV files – TAKII is done for the year. However, the date for the next season of TAKII is already set. So if you want to experience this event for yourself, mark down May 14th and 15th on your calendars because that’s when TAKII returns for its 11th season. And check out the TAKII site here: http://takii.pdnmz.com

Hope to see you there next year!
- Ray Riley