Top 5 Anime of 2013

#5 - IGPX: I’ve long been a huge fan of mecha, and as a result, I tend to be more highly critical of how these stories of giant robots pan out. I was pleasantly surpsied by IGPX, a show which I had missed out on during its original Toonami run, because of just how fresh a concept it was. The best description I can provide is that IGPX is much like F-Zero, but with robots and greater emphasis on the dynamic of the teammates and pit crew than the actual races. Which is not to say the combination of breakneck-speeds and exchanging of metal punches isn’t incredibly satisfying to watch unfold in a curiously graceful manner, but there is certainly something to be said for putting the spotlight on a crew of young pilots who have to learn to cooperate if they want to succeed.

#4 - Wolf Children: A heartwarming tale about a single mother attempting to provide her children with a secluded upbringing so that they can one day determine for themselves if they wish to live as humans or wolves, Wolf Children is the most emotionally human tale to be conveyed in the anime medium in a long while. The kids, Ame and Yuki, are simply adorable, and the movie is genuine in its timing of making viewers laugh, cheer, and tear up along with the characters. For a film that seems to want to sell itself largely on its fantasy elements, Wolf Children is, at its core, about family and the challenges a single mother faces in raising two young kids who just so happen to harness the ability to transform into wolves.

#3 - Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: I appreciated Gurren Lagann for reasons similar to why I have come to love Gundam, Evangelion, and many other mecha works over the years, except that in the case of Gurren Lagann, it was because it made fun of all the staples that have defined giant robot action over the decades. Combining robots for no apparent reason other than it looks equal parts silly and cool? Check. Ridiculous monologues that don’t actually mean anything but somehow strike fear into the hearts of foes and instill courage and determination in the heroic main cast members? Check. Gunmen mechs that just keep getting larger to the point where galaxies become viable options for Frisbee-like weapons? Check. It’s a series that punches subtlety in the face, but it’s a heck of a lot of fun.

#2 - Steins;Gate: Too few works dealing with time travel and divergent realities steep themselves so deep in real-world scientific theory. The fact that Steins;Gate lays out its rules before it really gets running not only makes for a more intelligently-scripted show, but a more entertaining viewing experience as well. Knowing how the ripples across time and space can cause either subtle or drastic changes keeps you guessing until the very end, the diverse and very human characters are ones you care about and want to see succeed, despite how great the cost to some might be. Other time travel-related works, anime or otherwise, could learn a thing or two from Steins;Gate about how to balance the nerdy factual elements with humorous pop culture nods and self-referential humor.

#1 - Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo: By the finale of Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance, we had a pretty good idea that the story was headed into bold new territory. What I don’t think I was fully prepared for, however, was how dark and complex the narrative would become. The Rebuild of Evangelion films have done a phenomenal job thus far of consolidating one of the most deep and thought-provoking anime works of all time into hour-and-a-half/two-hour installments, but there is a lot at play in Evangelion 3.0, and the attention to detail as well as the sinister nature of some of the grander schemes in motion are on par with 1997’s End of Evangelion. It’s a perfect follow-up to the groundwork the previous two films laid out, and is an exciting marker as the beginning of the end of this masterful tetralogy of films.

Kill la Kill trailer

Debuting in Japan later this month, Kill la Kill is an anime from Studio Trigger. Trigger is comprised of former Gainax employees, which explains why the animation style of Kill la Kill bears such a striking resemblance to that of Gurren Lagann. While the premise of Kill la Kill appears to be one girl's determination to face off against the school and its staff (as shown in the trailer), it also seems to be something of a spiritual successor to both FLCL and Gurren Lagann, blending some of the themes present in both of those shows like a strong lead female protagonist, the goal of taking down a force much larger than oneself, as well as exaggerated weapons and character designs and, of course, a glowing drill or two. Gainax is easily one of my all-time favorite anime studios, and I'll certainly be keeping an eye on the up-and-comers over at Trigger as they prepare to release this very interesting and exciting looking anime.

Top five video games and anime of 2013 - Spring/Summer contenders

As we are now well into the month of July, I thought it an appropriate time to preview the contenders for my end of year ‘top five’ anime and video game lists. These are, of course, contenders that I feel currently have a strong shot at making said top five lists, but are not necessarily confirmed, as other anime I view and games I play later this year could oust them from their current positions (I think this weighs more heavily on the video game portion of my blog, as most of the 2013 releases I am most looking forward to – Pikmin 3, Watch Dogs, The Wonderful 101, Killer is Dead, and Pokemon X & Y - will be coming out between late summer and mid-autumn).

- Video games -

Mass Effect 2/Mass Effect 3 – Both games have different strengths and weaknesses, but they do well to build off the groundwork laid out by the original Mass Effect (and by extension, Knights of the Old Republic) to create one of the most interesting and lively contemporary science fiction universes. Learning about the Collectors, the Cerberus loyalists, the Krogan genophage, and the Asari lifecycle is equally entertaining as shooting up enemies as you venture through the ruins of Tuchanka or the undercity of Omega. The relationships you build between Shepard and his/her crew members as well as the decisions you make regarding the outcome of various subplots will echo across the grander storyline, making the experience a truly engaging and rewarding one.

ZombiU - A surprisingly well-designed survival-horror game, ZombiU really set the standard for third-party developers on Nintendo’s new console. It requires you to be careful, tactical, and smart, limiting the number of item slots in your backpack but also offering multiple paths and strategies in defending yourself against (or avoiding, if you so choose) the rather durable infected that now roam the streets of London. Each area visited is packed with unique assets, and clever additions like a thin layer of fog and occasional specks of dust that show up on the gamepad screen show that the developers put a ton of time and care into creating a real, believable post-apocalyptic London. ZombiU may not be consistently terrifying, but the atmosphere is always spooky and the limited range on your radar will make for a tense experience. To that end, it is one of the most masterfully handled survival-horror games released for any console in a long while.

Persona 4 - While I still have a decent ways to go before completing this JRPG, I will say that what I’ve experienced so far has been a welcome break from conventions of the genre. Though the process of repeating portions of each dungeon is a bit unusual, it is not as tedious as I initially expected, as there are only a handful of dungeons to begin with. The game places just as much emphasis on traditional dungeon crawling and turn-based combat as it does on building relationships with classmates, friends, and relatives to further enhance your abilities in fusing personas and developing combat strategies. Though Persona 4 was released after the PS3 had effectively taken over the PS2’s role as Sony’s main console, it is a game that still looks and sounds great on the hardware.

- Anime -

Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo - The third entry in the Rebuild of Evangelion tetralogy, You Can (Not) Redo takes us down a path both similar and different from End of Evangelion. 3.0 carries arguably the darkest tone the films have seen since End of Evangelion, and with good reason – the world has largely been reduced to a state of ruin. With former allies now enemies and his friends failing to provide him with any answers as to what happened since the Near-Third Impact that occurred at the end of Evangelion 2.0, Shinji Ikari finds the only person he can truly depend on is Kaworu Nagisa. Evangelion 3.0 has a much slower pace than its predecessors, with most of its runtime spent on exploring what happened since the events of Evangelion 2.0. That said, when the Eva units start duking it out, the action is intense and exciting, and the animation (somehow) looks even better than before.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann - A satire of all things mecha, Gurren Lagann is a series that knows little about subtlety. Every Gunmen mech is colorful and displays fighting poise that is over-the-top, while the character designs are highly stylized and the dialogue all about standing up for what you believe in and making the impossible possible, no matter how much the odds are stacked against you. There are two story arcs, each simultaneously taking jabs at and drawing inspirartion from both old-school and new-school mecha anime. The first story arc is understandably longer, as it devotes plenty of time to introducing the world and characters and developing them to set the stage for the second story arc. That said, the second arc (known as the Anti-Spiral War) does seem to take its sweet time in setting the stage for the last major conflicts, and probably could have been expanded to run nearly as long as the Beastman War arc, as the final few episodes do feel as though they are sort of rushing to reach the series’ conclusion. Regardless, Gurren Lagann is just plain fun to watch, and is action-packed from start to finish.

Steins;Gate - A story about the ramifications of time travel, Steins;Gate is grounded primarily in real-world theory, despite the means of time-travel being quite different from Doc Brown’s DeLorean or the Doctor’s TARDIS (both of which are poked fun at in the series’ English dub). Instead of physically moving backwards and forwards, protagonist Rintarou Okabe – a daring scientist who, despite truly caring for the well-being of his friends, fashions himself a mad scientist alter ego named Hououin Kyouma – sends text messages to the past via the frequencies emitted by his custom-rigged microwave, which in turn move him sideways onto timelines that diverge off the original one he started on. It’s a complex web, and the series – while genuinely funny throughout – does take a turn into dark territory near the halfway point. It’s a great balance of science fiction and comedy, and does exceptionally well at grounding itself in real scientific applications, despite how odd the devices used to achieve the jumps from one world line to another are.

Anime review: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

Gurren Lagann is effectively one giant satire on the mecha anime genre. Delightfully cheesy catchphrases like “Mine is the drill that shall pierce the heavens!” as well as the combination of two Gunmen to form the series’ titular mech harken back to the mecha boom of the 1980s. Meanwhile, the wastelands that team Dai Gurren traverse, the eventual foray into space, and the focus on character development ring closer to more modern takes on the genre.

The series is split into two story arcs, with the first being slightly longer and of a slower pacing in order to familiarize viewers with the main cast and the desolate world in which they live. This arc, known as the Beastmen War, places the spotlight on Kamina, Simon, and Yoko as they fight the human-animal hybrids known as the Beastmen and rally allies as they forge a path toward the enemy’s capital city. Simon, having spent the majority of his life digging tunnels in his home city, is excited about the opportunity to venture into the wild expanses of the surface world, but is frequently uncertain of his own potential. Kamina prefers to dive headfirst into a battle, and while he might not always have a plan in mind, he constantly provides Simon with words of encouragement. Yoko, lacking a Gunman of her own to pilot, provides support with her powerful sniper rifle and seems to be the most gathered of the three. While Yoko sometimes finds herself frustrated with Kamina’s brash nature, it is quite obvious that she has a romantic interest in him after just a few episodes.

The supporting cast is surprisingly large, especially for a series of this nature. Due to the action-heavy nature of Gurren Lagann it would be easy for the writers to use many of them purely as cannon-fodder and write them off as quickly as they are introduced, but this proves not the case. It’s true that not every character makes it to the finale, but the show does a solid job of rounding out each member of Team Dai Gurren enough to give you reason to care for them as well as tugging at your heartstrings a bit when one of them meets an early end. Granted, few of the supporting cast outside of flamboyant mechanic Leeron, hotshot pilot Kittan, and soft-spoken Rossiu do more than pilot their own Gunmen, but it’s an admirable effort to make viewers sympathize with the cast in a manner that seems neither forced nor distracts the focus of any given episode.

The animation is gorgeous throughout – perhaps even more so during the second story arc, due to the fact that the wasteland environments have been discarded in favor of a futuristic city setting filled with production model Gurren Lagann mechs as well as a journey across the Milky Way and beyond. Bright colors like the red and yellow that decorate Gurren Lagann itself pop on screen, while the dark and dusty interior of the old underground human cities create a mysterious, almost sinister atmosphere. The Gunmen perform many dynamic (and often ridiculous) actions as they combine with one another, dash up mountainsides, fly through the air, and exchange blows with their opponents. It’s hard not to find yourself cheering inside as Kamina and Simon perform one of their silly signature attacks, whether it’s a set of giant sunglasses being flung like a boomerang or the Giga Drill Break tearing an enemy to shreds.

Gurren Lagann does not spend much time explain its backstory. Rather, it opts to show the audience just what sort of a world the characters live in and how the Gunmen operate as a faction. There are a few episodes that are dialogue-heavy and spend a decent amount of time exploring how the world came to be in the position it is now, but by and large Gurren Lagann is a series that knows just what its fans want to see – borderline-ludicrous fighting robot action.

In fact, most of the ‘story exploration’ occurs during the latter episodes of the first story arc and the first half of the second story arc. This lends to the second story arc feeling a bit less action-heavy at first, but ultimately the payoff is nothing short of superb. For a show that follows so many of the conventions Gainax has set forth in their anime over the years, the finale – thankfully – avoids the ‘Gainax ending’ syndrome so many in the anime community have come to hate.

Above all else, Gurren Lagann is just plain fun to watch. While perhaps not the most mind-blowing anime to be released by Gainax, the combination of colorful characters and way over-the-top action makes for one of the most genuinely entertaining viewing experiences I’ve had with an anime in a long while. Its pacing, atmosphere, and themes are consistent throughout, so don’t expect any transitions to dark territory in the style of Neon Genesis Evangelion. Instead, strap in for some intense mecha action, good laughs, and positive vibes (and don’t feel bad if you find yourself marathoning episodes because you are unable to put it down).

My rating: 8.5 (out of 10)

Anime update: Row, row, fight the power!

This year, I have been focused primarily on video game reviews and haven’t posted much that relates to anime… yet. Whereas last year I tried to keep a more consistent schedule by posting at least one video game review and one anime review each month, I’ve opted for a more free-form schedule in 2013. That said, there are a few anime films I viewed last month and the month before and simply have not yet written up a review for due to my busy schedule as of late. But I hope to write up the majority (if not all of these) reviews in the next few weeks, making June a month more for anime reviews than video game-related posts. The list of anime I’ve already finished is as follows:

- Cowboy Bebop: The Movie
- 5 Centimeters Per Second
- The Wolf Children Ame and Yuki

In addition, I’ve nearly finished viewing Steins;Gate, and am a little less than halfway through my viewing of Gurren Lagann. I also have Tekkon Kinkreet in my collection, and have simply neglected to pop it into my DVD player as of yet, so there is a chance that film may be reviewed early this summer as well.

As for the Toonami block, I’ve grown a little frustrated with their insistence on altering the schedule to accommodate earlier time slots for Bleach, Naruto, and One Piece, three anime which I have neither patience for nor any interest in. However, I have found Soul Eater quite entertaining, and I plan to follow it through to its finale. I’m really hoping that Toonami picks up some new shows this summer to present greater variety – at the moment, I’m really only tuning in for Soul Eater and IGPX, as I’ve already seen Thundercats, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, and Cowboy Bebop through to completion. Inuyasha (while enjoyable enough) is on far too late for me to stay up and watch, and Eureka Seven really isn't my cup of tea.

Admittedly, I am a bit behind with Unicorn Gundam and have been meaning to catch up on everything that has been released since episode four (where I last left off). I plan to return to watching Victory Gundam before the end of the year, and I’d like to give another old anime, Space Runaway Ideon, a shot, as it is another of Tomino’s works and is apparently something of a spiritual predecessor to both Zeta Gundam and Neon Genesis Evangelion (two of my personal all-time favorite anime).