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News Report Archive - April 2010 |  |
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News Report Archive - April 2010 | |
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After celebrating a joyous Easter with my congregation, I wish I had better news on the anime front. Sadly, I can't say that Princess Army Wedding Combat is particularly special, even though I think it has a great title. It's a shoujo work from many years ago, and it starts off promisingly enough, almost as a self-parody. However, it devolves quickly into something much worse. Read my review, though, and you'll get some discussion of how moe has been around for a lot longer than the average person thinks, as well as a brief conversation on gender roles across cultures. Fun stuff, no really, I promise!!!
By now, you probably know that I review short programs often in order to keep up my self-imposed weekly deadlines. What does it matter if a thirty minute show stinks if it's only thirty minutes out of my life? Thus, when I review a short OVA that doesn't make me despair for the hope of anime, I'm pleased greatly. When it's a show like Canary, a one-shot made out of an H-game, it surprises me to no end. It's proof that, sometimes, material from mediocre beginnings can become something more if given enough tender loving care. Though it won't surprise you, its humor made me happy for its running time, and that's a good sign.
While it wasn't on my upcoming lineup, the opportunity afforded itself to take a look at Astro Boy (2009), the computer-animated reworking of the classic Osamu Tezuka show that essentially launched anime as we know it. Seeing that the original is over fifty years old and has been remade before, how does the feature movie stand up? Not badly, it turns out, though purists will be unsatisfied. There are significant nagging problems that will especially affect younger viewers, but it's also surprisingly entertaining and to the point. Read the review and you'll also find my answer to the question: is it still anime?
I love independent films. Yeah, sometimes they're self-indulgent or obtuse, but often there's something to them that normal films are missing. And when it comes to independent anime, I always think of Makoto Shinkai's brilliant debut, Voices Of A Distant Star. But what happens when independent simply means amateur? That's what happened with Magical Chocolate, an independent project that, according to an article on Anime News Network, actually was broadcast in Japan. That's hard to imagine, since this thing makes South Park look like spendy animation. Read the review to find out just why you should be glad the studio system for anime is still in place, despite its faults.