[Anime] The Perfect Insider Review

Subete ga F ni Naru: The Perfect Insider - 6.5/10

"The Perfect Insider" is an anime that is unintentionally self-referential: just like Dr. Magata, it also suffers from multiple personality disorder.  It wants dearly to be a profound metaphysical series while still staying rooted in the practical intrigues of a murder mystery.  Unfortunately, it comes up short on insights, which in turn hurts what otherwise would have been a perfectly good thriller.

In order to understand what the Perfect Insider is attempting to do philosophically, some explanation is necessary.  The story centers on a group of software engineers: Saikawa the reserved professor, Nishinosono his enamored student, and Magata Shiki the unfathomable genius.  Watching the ED you will see that it draws heavily on the imagery of  Conway's Game of Life, which is a program that digitally recreates complex, evolving patterns from simple rules.  This has garnered some interest in the intellectual community.  Some mathematicians, namely Wolfram, have gone so far as to say that this could represent a new way of understanding the world.

The idea then is that these software engineers are, in a sense, plumbing new views of reality in their research.  Dr. Magata is the pinnacle of this detachment from normal reality.  She is reminiscent of the uberman idea, that morals and social trappings are merely fetters for those who are truly profound.  She has committed some acts which are considered unconscionable: sleeping with her married uncle, murdering her parents, and using her daughter's mutilated body as a decoy for her escape.  On top of this, she is additionally removed as she has "taken in" what she valued from the outer reality in the form of her multiple personalities, with each one representing something she lost on the "outside."  And finally, she has cut herself off from for 15 years and has even invented a virtual reality chamber to allow the inner world to be projected as though it were the real one.

However, this is also where the series falters.  The process of revealing Magata's background and inner workings is interesting in itself, and along with the mystery could stand alone as a compelling anime.  But then it tries to take one step further by trying to be just a bit too clever, giving contradictory indications as to what it is trying to express.  On one hand it holds up Saikawa and Magata as unfathomable beings, lost in their deep and moving thoughts.  On the other, it has Nishinosono acting as a normal social anchor and the explanation of how Saikawa supported and raised her in her worst times shows how important normal human morality is. Unfortunately I could not detect any indications that it was using this as a subtle conflict, and so was left simply dissatisfied that it ruined a perfectly good mystery with its quibbling.

The Good: The actual, honest-to-goodness mystery at the core of its real world story.  I was really interested to find out what had happened in the past and what was actually happening at the laboratory.  I really think this was the strongest aspect of the series and it's what kept me watching every week.

The execution of more sensitive scenes and topics were also very tastefully handled.  Magata is a minor and basically seduces her uncle.  This has the potential to be a very disgusting topic, but the way the narration is done, how it stays far away from any visual depiction, and the general way that it treats the scene as fundamentally negative keeps it from being any sort of voyeurism.  The same applies to the murders.  They are scenes of horror and confusion, not excitement.  All in all, it managed to have a very dark story in places without using the topics to get cheap views.

To support its story, the art is also top notch with its design and pallet.  The style is, for lack of a better word, antiseptic.  If you pay attention you'll notice that everything looks an unearthly level of clean, as though it's not entirely real.  This supports the general themes that I mentioned above, and overall gives an eerie atmosphere that is perfect for both a philosophical and mystery piece.

Finally the OP and ED were both great and I watched them nearly every time.  They were visually very appealing while at the same time connected firmly with the themes and feel of the series.  As somebody pointed out, in the OP they can never actually touch Magata unless she lets them.  Otherwise she is always elusive.

The Bad: As already mentioned, the biggest issue I took with the series was its attempts at being profound.  In particular some of the final statements made really got to me:

In the last episode, Magata has a philosophical chat with Saikawa and has several statements that were just painful.  The one that really got to me was her statement, "Nobody fears death, just the life and suffering before death."  No, I'm sorry, that's entirely and completely off base.  In fact, if anything a crushing sense of mortality is what scares most people into never thinking about it.  I mean, perhaps Magata is expressing a truth for herself because she is so alien, but she was such a poor observer of humanity (she was locked up for 15 years...) that it made me cringe.

Perhaps it's the biologist in me, but in this day and age I consider any speculation on the nature of humans to require an understanding of and reference to evolution and biology.  They don't explain and account for everything about humans (I'm not a reductionist), but the time for baseless speculation of this sort without science has passed.

What is worse is that in order to make room for some of these musings, the series had to cut short some of its story elements.  Basically we're presented with some of the pivotal story realizations in the forms of flashes or Saikawa staring blankly into space while essentially spanning what were plot holes for the audience.  The scene that got to me was when Saikawa finally figures out that the daughter was brought inside with Magata.  Rather than any sort of reasonable cues as to what he understood, we're treated to a deluge of visual images that would confuse even Picasso.  Apparently the image of ostriches represents that ostrich meat is considered good for mothers, but the fact that I had to go research this to even make sense kind of ruins the impact.  A little more time spent spelling out the steps for the rest of us would have gone a long way to improving the story from a practical stand point.

Finally, I found Nishinosono Moe completely insufferable as a character.  I'm not necessarily saying she was a bad character, but the fact that she went into super-possessive mode of Saikawa every time another female so much as entered the room got really old.  The truth is that she didn't understand him in the slightest the entire time, and the fact that she keeps trying to aggressively foist herself on him romantically was painful.  I contemplated that maybe she was important to the series for some reason, perhaps acting as a foil to the more ethereal characters, but in the end I just couldn't make myself appreciate her.

So in conclusion, The Perfect Insider aimed high with its blend of interesting story and philosophical introspection, but became tangled in its own "complexity" and found itself a bit lost.

[Anime] Death Parade Review

Death Parade - 7.5/10

Parade (noun): a procession of people, often in costume, celebrating a special day or event.

Death Parade is a cavalcade of people whose time has come, usually in an unexpected manner.  So shocked are they at the transition that they have forgotten that they are dead, and so they continue to put on their usual face (farce?) until they are apprehended by the inescapable truth of their demise.  It is the purpose of arbiters to prompt and observe this transition, using it as the basis on which to judge the nature of the person.

At its core, Death Parade asks what constitutes a good person and a meaningful life, using the clarity of death to expose people to their essence.  The series begins in a fairly straightforward way, with it being assumed that a good life is one which results in reincarnation and a bad one the void.  However, cracks begin to appear in this narrative almost immediately.  The verdicts rendered often seem strange...misplaced.  What becomes apparent is the judgments of the arbiters are, in fact, flawed.  Or, more precisely, perhaps the very idea of judgment is flawed.

This is where the series comes into its own, with the dawning realization of the conundrum of Quindecim: how is it that judges, lacking empathy, can fully comprehend the nature of the people whose fates they are deciding?  And, more deeply, is judgement even possible after having truly felt as another?

The Good: 

The stories of the people who come into Quindecim.  The way in which the layers are peeled back, exposing people's loves, desires, fears, and hopes is what makes the series tick.  It is the concreteness of the individuals that allows Death Parade to pursue its central themes so effectively.  To merely state that judgement is flawed is one thing.  To see desperate, confused humans struggle against their own weaknesses and mixed motives, is another.  This brings me to what are two of the most diametrically opposed, yet equally powerful, scenes in any anime: the judgement of the murderers and Chiyuki's ice skating.

At the end of episode 9 it has become apparent that the murderers are entirely different.  On one hand is a kind brother who was driven to rage and violence by the assault and rape of his beloved little sister.  With the other is a man who is dedicated to the eradication of evil, but at the cost of allowing it to occur so that he may justify striking them down.  Goaded beyond restraint the brother gives in to his darkness and inflicts heinous suffering on the older man, in vengeance for his inaction.  The sad episode ends with Decim overwhelmed by the evil he has produced, sending both to the void.

By comparison, Chiyuki's ice skating scene is sublime.  A beautiful, wordless review of her life and a potent reminder of its waste.  Set to the lush Moonlight Night, I have found myself on more than one occasion rewatching this scene just to dip into its poignant tranquility.  It is a reminder of how much love went into just one person's short life.

Supporting all these events, the art of Death Parade is on point.  The design of Quindecim is elegant, with its muted ambiance and cool colors falling away into the darkness.  Combined with the silent jellyfish above, it generates a sense of the otherworldly.  The smooth musical score also adds to the calm background.  Also as an outlier, the opening song is incongruous yet extraordinarily catchy; I can't hate it even while feeling it is such a mismatch with the rest of the series.

Finally, as I close out this segment, I would like to make mention of miscellaneous touches that I personally enjoyed:

• Chiyuki's "skin" first comes off at the wrist where she cut herself.  Later as she further degrades it is from the knee, where the wound that precipitated her death was located.
• The visual designs of Nona and the young Chiyuki were particularly enjoyable for me.  The former was diminutive yet imposing, an appropriate stature for her role.  The latter was simply adorable.  When she said her favorite part about Chavvot was her smile, and then mimicked it with her own big grin, was really sweet.
• Spike and Yagami Light making cameos was pretty funny, and both extremely appropriate for their respective series.
• Chiyuki's name means "knowing happiness."  I love that.

The Bad:

Death Parade, for all its grandeur, often stumbles when it comes to the details of its execution.  In particular, the depiction of Quindecim and its inhabitants.

Quindecim is part of an overall apparatus for judgement, which has various departments, overseers, a bureaucracy, and all the trappings that come with a government agency.  This peculiarly Eastern view of the afterlife never sits right with me, because it clearly moves beyond metaphor into a quasi-literal interpretation.  In Death Parade we are given just enough details that the setting is concrete, but with many loose ends that it is insubstantial with many dangling issues.  The most egregious of these is Oculus' comment that God has since departed to leave the running of things to him and the other arbiters.  Wait!  What was that again?!?  This may be slightly important...and it is never touched on again.

Speaking of Oculus, he is a prime example of the type of addition the series did not need.  Quin, Nona, Ginti, and the rest are fine characters in their own right, but are ultimately a detraction simply because they take time and focus away from the better elements.  Their own stories and interactions are just not that important compared to the real people.

Finally, an issue that stuck with me from my particular translation was that the arbiters were continually referred to as having no emotion.  Their depiction was entirely incongruous with this statement.  They display exhaustion, anger, frustration, disillusionment, boredom, and even sadism.  Perhaps this was a translation error, but it was one that nagged at me the entire time.

Even with all these problems taken into consideration, I still give Death Parade the highest recommendation.  It is extraordinarily powerful and moving when it is at its best.  It will make you think over your life and, if you are receptive, remind you not to take its wondrous confusion for granted.

[Anime] Your Lie In April Review

Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso (Your Lie In April) - 4/10

"It was only a hopeless fancy
It passed like an April dye
But a look and a word and the dreams they stirred
They have stolen my heart away"
-George Orwell, 1984

"Shigatsu" is a saccharine middle school drama, centered on the recovery of the Kousei Arima's will and ability to play the piano.  I was drawn in initially by the promise of good music and the setting of two people connecting and helping each other through their passions.  However, what starts as an intriguing premise becomes an excuse to wallow in adolescent monologues and sentimentality.

Before beginning the review in earnest, a discussion on the difference between good and bad sentiment is in order.  All series aim to make us feel something.  To accuse a work of trying to manipulate feelings is to point out the obvious, and we are rightfully disappointed when it fails to do so.  We pay good money for this experience.  The difference is in the intent of the manipulation.

A good series has content that causes the viewer to feel something because of its meaning or impact.  It is confronting a situation which is emotionally evocative, either positively or negatively.  It is legitimately trying to do or say something with regards to its subject.  If executed well, the viewer responds emotionally to the creation.  By comparison, if a series' primary objective is to make its viewers feel, rather than be substantial, then its emotional content is meaningless.  It is put on for show in an attempt to fish for the reaction, but the content is insubstantial.  It's the equivalent of an artificial sweetener: there are no actual calories, but it tastes (mostly) like the real thing.

While I get ahead of myself for "The Bad," I found that Shigatsu fell into the latter category.  It took a collection of emotionally-charged subjects (young life, romance, spring/awakening, music, and sick/dying children) and packaged them together in hopes of getting some easy tears.  This was the inspiration for this review's quote.  In 1984 there is a segment where Winston is visiting the entertainment wing of the Ministry of Truth, and he comes on the music department:

"Here were produced...sentimental songs which were composed entirely by mechanical means on a special kind of kaleidoscope known as a versificator."

In other words, a list of emotional words and phrases are thrown together in a tumbler and the order that they fall out is used to create a song.  Shigatsu has all the earmarks of being produced in an equivalent human fashion: "hopeless fancy," "April dye" (spring rain), "dreams they stirred," and "stolen my heart" sum up much of the anime.  It lacks any real substance, but it's enough to trigger emotions and get the results it wants.

I loved these stills.

The Good:
The production quality of this series was superb.  The colors were very soft but vibrant, giving a gentle look to the visuals.  The backgrounds in particular struck me, as they seemed to stray into an almost pastel range with their presentation.  Character design was also very pleasant.  What impressed me the most was how effective the incorporation of small amounts of color into their cheeks and lips made them feel more alive than most anime characters.

The atmosphere is also supported strongly by the music (which, frankly, it would be an embarrassment if a series like Shigatsu had bad music).  Both the pieces composed for the series itself as well as the classical arrangements played by the characters are well-chosen, and run the range from discordant frustration to serene sadness.  Even as somebody who is not particularly musical I could appreciate the attention given to this facet of the show.

While I was unimpressed by most of the characters, one did stand out to me: Saki, Kousei's mother.  This may seem strange, but for the first half of the series I found her the most compelling.  Saki was a person at the end of her rope.  She was clearly somebody who was always ambitious and in control.  When sickness took her, there was nothing she could do except wither slowly until she died.  In the grip of this, she turned all of her remaining attention to the one thing she could control: her child.  Devolving into an abusive relationship, she pushed him relentlessly as an extension of herself.  By the end she was deranged, and through the sad psychology of abuse her child was manipulated into feeling that he was at fault for things that were never under anybody's control.

Sadly, they completely ruined her character around the halfway point.  In order for Kousei to come to terms with his abuse the series attempts to explain away Saki's behavior.  It turns exclusively to remembering the early days, before she began her long descent.  Using this, it justifies Saki in the light that she simply wanted her child to be the best and that the beatings and emotional torment were only a little excessive.  This is an insulting resolution, glossing over the real damage she did to her child in favor of an easy fix.

I was similarly excited-then-disappointed by the scene in the hospital where Kaori loses her composure.  She lashes out at Kousei, blaming and berating him.  In that moment she mirrored Kousei's mother more strongly than ever.  I hoped that perhaps they would connect the two more firmly: that Kaori's childish forcefulness and selfishness, her impulsive behavior, and her erratic violence were actually natural precursors to somebody like Saki.  That perhaps there is a dark side to living your life on the whim of your feelings.  But then this parallel never manifested itself and the show swiftly moved on.

Finally, I am a sucker for good death scenes, and Kaori's final moments were indeed excellent.  It was a very sweet last duet to have her spiritually playing alongside Kousei, knowing what this meant for her surgery elsewhere.  That the series decided to skip the actual funeral scene would have been brilliant, by making sure the final impression of her was so glowing.  Unfortunately, the gains made by this move were completely lost by the over-the-top 10-minute letter reading at the end.

Dead giveaway what was going to happen.

The Bad: 
I have already thoroughly covered the cardinal sin of the series: that it is suffused with purposeless feeling.  However, there are several other aspects which sink the series into mediocrity.

First is its total inability to keep an even tone.  It raised the art of bathos to such heights that I could only be impressed.  Any serious interaction, if extending for longer than ten seconds, was promptly interrupted by what can only be described as "anime outtake" mode.  If this was a subtle attempt to mirror the rapidly vacillating emotions of its subjects, it was lost on me and served instead to ruin the mood.  There were many satisfactory scenes that became a hash of incompatible impulses under such direction.

Paralleling this, many of the performance scenes were also disrupted by the injection of excessive introspection.  In that moment of performance, all of one's attention turns to the task at hand.  It is a moment of flow.  At that time, conscious thinking actually decreases.  The immediateness of the experience is produced by a reduction in our thoughtfulness.  For the moment at least, we are in the here and now.  It is totally incompatible with "deep" musings about one's self, and the fusion of the two is nonsensical.

The pacing of the series also felt off to me.  It felt like thirteen episodes of content stretched to twenty-two.  The amount of reminiscing and remembering, coupled with frequent flashbacks, padded the series.  This was most egregious where sometimes the flashbacks were of the same episode, now brought back again to lead to another...um...epiphany.  Similarly, while I appreciate Kousei's trauma is real, the scene of him huddling and crying as a child was replayed practically once an episode for the first half of the series.  The introduction of completely unnecessary and unimportant side characters in the latter half of the series also soaked up screen time, extending what was functionally one cour of content into two.

So in conclusion, I had high hopes at the beginning of the series.  The appearance and music drew me in and promised a lush experience.  Unfortunately, its shallow emotional underpinnings and protracted execution destroyed the impact it could have had.

[Anime] Gunslinger Girl Review

Gunslinger Girl - 10/10

The first impression one might have of Gunslinger Girl is that it is another "cute girls with guns" show. The name does not help the series any either, as it sounds cavalier in its use of violence. When I first watched it a few years ago I was not expecting much, but thirteen episodes later it had impressed me more than any series has before or since.

Gunslinger Girl is not an action series, but a drama without plot. The structure is primarily episodic, focusing on each of the individual girls in the organization, along with their "handlers" and back stories. But this does not describe its true purpose. It is profoundly sad, but the sadness is muted.  It isn't about what happens in the series, but the fact that it can happen.  At the core is a desperate questioning of how the world can be so distinctly wrong. The phrase that comes to mind is a title somebody used for an AMV: Expendable Innocence. Nothing cuts to the core better than that epithet.

"I am very happy to be here at the Social Welfare Corporation..."

The essence of the conditioning is what is most perverse.  The girls are stripped of much of their humanity so they may kill, but left with enough to suffer.  Referred to generically as "brainwashing," observing it in action makes it clear what it is. These girls have had their fundamental need to be loved and appreciated turned to the ends of the organization. This is why it works best on children: it is a deformation of the most basic child-parent bond.  For the entire series you can see them desperately seeking the attention and approval of their handlers, and everything in their world is distorted for it. The scene that hit home the most for me was Angelica's trainer watching her on her first mission: she moves through the targets, killing them in rapid succession, then turns to the observation camera with an innocent smile, as if to ask, "Did I do a good job?"

However, it is the final episode that makes the series whole.  For humans, the essence of spirituality is connectedness.  We experience a vibrancy of our being when we feel fundamentally linked to something else, whether this be a higher power, the universe, or other people.  In a sense they all mirror each other.

As the series comes to a close, Angelica dies.  It is a tragedy, but it is not unmitigated.  She has suffered so much, but as she leaves this world she is cared for, appreciated.  Her affection, so long unrequited, has finally been returned in these last moments.  I know it is taboo to use such a word on the internet, but "spiritual" is the only proper description.  It can be said that this does not fix anything, but that is missing the point.

The Good:
The visual design is subtle and exquisitely matches the tone of the show.  The color pallet is subdued, but not dark.  Instead, there is always light, coming from elsewhere, seeming to suffuse through the world.  This approach also acts to heighten the shadows, often creating strong visual cues throughout the series.  This low-key, unextravagant approach is reciprocated by the appearance of the characters.  The girls in particular are well-designed: young, vulnerable, but not "cutesy."  Matching these visuals, the direction of the series is to a slower pace, giving us time to think.  Many situations pass silently, the shots slowly shifting across the scene, lingering on single people or objects.  It is, in a word, contemplative.

Further complimenting this design, the series places great stock in the accuracy of its world.  Scenes take place in well-established locations, such as the Uffizi Gallery, the Spanish Steps, and the Apennine Mountains.  There is also a curiously high level of detail given to the weapons and their technique, which are exceedingly accurate despite being employed by young girls.

Another thing Gunslinger Girl is to be commended on is its restraint.  In a series which features abuse, rape, human trafficking, and the suicide of a child, it stays above utilizing them for vulgar shock value.  What has happened to these girls is something nobody ever needs to see.

"If you ordered her to practice last night, she should still be there."

The musical score of Gunslinger Girl also deserves mention.  Starting off is the OP of the series, set to the haunting, "The Light Before We Land."  Matched with the meaningful visuals and simple introduction of the characters, it is one of the few openings that I never skipped while watching.

Beyond this the series possesses a melancholy Western-sounding classical score, which fits perfectly with the Italian setting.  The score is not just beautiful, but it is applied with great poignancy.  The main theme, Tema I, is sorrowful and captures a powerful loneliness and grandness in its notes.  Another of my personal favorites is Etereo, played when irreparable damage is being done: the training of Henrietta and the dismissal of Elsa.  The confusion comes pouring through in the disjointed notes, fading slowly into a quiet end and a dark last chord.

Finally, Gunslinger Girl ends with Beethoven's Ninth, a song that like "Light Before We Land" is not written for the series but finds exquisite application.  I would like to end this section with a translated section of the lyrics, sung as Angelica dies:

Joy, beautiful spark of divinity
Daughter from Elysium
We enter, drunk with fire,
Into your sanctuary, heavenly (daughter)!
Your magic reunites
What custom strictly divided.
All men become brothers,
Where your gentle wing rests.

The Bad: 
I find no major faults with Gunslinger Girl as a series, aside from the occasional drop in visual quality.  However, I do feel compelled to mention that the anime is slow. It is very slow. In fact the first two episodes are the same day, repeating much of the same content. This can be particularly off-putting for many people. This is doubly bad if the show doesn't really "click" with the watcher, because many of the scenes have no explanation. An example that comes to mind is the moment when Henrietta watches the couple ride past on the motorbike. She doesn't say anything, they don't explain anything; we just track her gaze. But in the context it's her mind obviously trying to understand that existence, as it is so far outside of her. I found it a poignant moment, but it and many others can slip by easily. So I highly recommend that if the show isn't clicking to just drop it, because it won't "get better."

The other thing I must mention is the existence of a second season, which I would normally not mention because it's terrible. Studio changed, VAs changed, tone changed, theme changed, everything changed. Even worse, Angelica doesn't die according to the second season. This is such a horrible mangling of the first season's ending, robbing it of the power that it has. I just pretend it doesn't exist.

Gunslinger Girl is a series that is deeply resonant, subtle, tragic, and beautiful.  It is my recommendation that every thoughtful person take the time to view it.

[Anime] Gankutsuou Review

Gankutsuou - The Count of Monte Cristo - 8/10

"Moral wounds have this peculiarity - they may be hidden, but they never close; always painful, always ready to bleed when touched, they remain fresh and open in the heart." - The Count of Monte Cristo

Gankutsuou is the science-fiction reincarnation of The Count of Monte Cristo.  While it borrows much of its substance from the original there are significant changes to the plot, focus, and pacing. As somebody who enjoyed the original, I found that most of their alterations worked surprisingly well.  However, there were some liberties that I did disagree with and I feel made the series worse for their inclusion.

When reviewing this series I attempted to keep the original and the anime separate, but frankly I failed.  I now know how manga readers feel, continually comparing the fidelity of every character and scene.  Below, "The Bad" is principally devoted to the juxtaposition of the two, although I will endeavor to substantiate why I feel the changes were negative rather than simply being disgruntled that they were not identical.

The Good:

Just as in the source material, the Count is the dynamic center of the series.  It's hard to go wrong with such an intriguing character, and he made the transition well.  He is foreboding, charismatic, impressive, terrifying, commanding, mysterious, generous, and dangerous.  Riveting in the original, he continues his dominance into the anime as well.  What makes him so interesting is his mixture of traits.  The original character of Edmond Dantes is gentle, but has since been riven by the events of his life; at this point neither the original or the damaged is the "real him."  Only together do they make up the man that is now the Count.  There is no simple way to separate the two anymore, allowing a single man to visit generosity on some and hellfire on others.  He is not, "A good man that does some bad things" or "A bad man who does some good things."  He is the grey checkered man that he is.

I also want to give special mention to Haydee and the other female supports.  While Haydee's general role and primary scenes are not altered much, the anime enhanced her character and animated it beautifully.  I was captivated by her when she was on-screen.  Her varied expressions of anger, shock, sadness, longing, terror, and complete rage were amazing.  Peppo was also a fun character whose role was significantly expanded from the original, but who also worked quite well (and I still maintain he was FAR too cute to be male).  Even Eugenie is given better development, with her screen time transforming her elegantly from "aristocratic shopping bimbo" to a surprisingly thoughtful personality.

Beyond the characters the visuals are strange, but oddly mesmerizing once I had become accustomed.  They lent a charm and identity to the series that it may have otherwise struggled with.  The surreal aspect worked especially well at the beginning Carnival as well as the ritzy scenes in Paris, where the superficiality found clear voice in the imagery: full of color and glamour, but lacking in depth.  Beyond this, they were simply a treat at many times, even without secondary meaning.

Finally, I want to give recognition to the small details that were forged in translating the series into the future.  The small touches such as the Count recording conversations and the DNA evidence against Villefort felt very natural.  If Dumas had written his book today, these types of details are precisely what I would expect.

The Bad:

My primary charge against the series were two changes that I strongly disagreed with in the nature and fate of the Count.  The first is that the Count dies at the end.  The second is that he gained his power through a contract with a type of supernatural being.

My issue with the Count's death is that it alters the message drastically.  In the original the Count is successful with his revenge: he destroys Villefort's reputation, Danglar's finances, and Morcerf's future.  There is nothing left to do.  The final scenes of the book are now his intent to commit suicide after he's returned Valentine to Maximilien (who act as the innocent inspiration for Albert's character in the anime).  He has nothing to live for.  This is when Haydee impresses upon him that there were those who cared for him and that his life wasn't entirely compassed by revenge.  They depart on a voyage to see the world together, and the book ends.

By having the Count die in the anime, this means that instead of release he is instead consumed by revenge until the end.  While the counterbalance that he did some good (such as saving Haydee) is still there, it loses much of its impact.  This issue is further exacerbated by the elimination of most of the book scenes in which the Count uses his great wealth and power for kindness.  We get a much shallower view of the man: in the anime he was only a destroyer, and destroyed himself in the end.

The second change, that the Count's power is from an outside source, further cheapens his character.  In the original the Count is the World's Most Interesting Man by his own merit.  He was granted immense wealth through chance or fate, but all of his other skills were the result of self-training and his iron will.  He has traveled the world, seen and experienced many things, and is a man at home in any place.  This highlights the essential waste of his revenge: he's learned so much, and done so much, just so he can return to Paris and cause his enemies to suffer.  He has tragically chained himself to his past.  In the anime, all of this is simplified.  Edmond Dantes is good, Gankutsuou that inhabits him is evil.  Most of his strange powers come from this pact.  It lacks the depth of somebody whose good and evil has been twisted together inseparably.

This is especially apparent in how the different Counts are affected by their collateral damage.  In the original the Count is deeply shaken by Madam Villefort's double suicide with her son.  He didn't expect his revenge to accidentally spill over to others, and he is even brought to questioning his own revenge knowing that it has cost an innocent life.  In the anime, Gakutsuou makes light of the death, even going so far as to laugh at the destruction he has caused.  If the original Dantes is in there, he is eclipsed by this evil persona.  Again, it is far less nuanced than the original.

Beyond the Count, I also felt that Albert was simply a weak main character.  As mentioned before, Albert in the anime is actually a mixture of multiple personalities from the original. On top of this, he is given the standard anime whitewash: his primary occupations are to cry the names of his friends repeatedly and break down in helpless tears of regret.  With so many better characters in the series (namely the Count himself), Albert felt like a relatively dull choice.  It was as though being an anime, the writers couldn't resist making the protagonist a teenager with his first love interest.  I guess I am at least grateful that he wasn't attending high school, sitting in the back corner near the window.

Even with these weaknesses, I still consider the series worth watching.  It was enthralling to see the original tale enacted in a surreal future setting, and even with the debatable alterations the quality of the narrative shines through.

[Anime] Akame ga Kill! Review

Akame ga Kill! - 5.5/10

Akame ga Kill! is a solid action anime. It's fun, it's flashy. It has action and romance, villains and heroes. It ends with an appropriately well-choreographed fight. If you want nothing more, you get nothing more, and can simply enjoy the ride.

The Good: The theme of all the pros is the same: it wasn't groundbreaking, but it did what it did better than most action series.

First off: people died. While a few characters had the plot armor feel, most did not. I recall my exact thought process early in the series. Sheele dies, and I was like "Okay, here's our token hero death that we feel sad about and avenge the whole series." Then Bulat dies. Then Chelsea dies. Etc. It was refreshing to have some actual tension about whether characters would live or die. This was enhanced by the series because a tight situation did not mean automatic death. Mine surviving Seryuu's self-destruct, Bols his Imperial Arms exploding, and Leone surviving....nearly everything are good examples of this. It was even better in Bols' case because he dies shortly afterward to Chelsea, which foils the "okay he lived, it's all okay now" feeling.

This aspect also connected well with the theme that when people fight, they die on both sides. I know that statement is so obvious as to be banal, but again it's something of a cardinal sin of most series to have the entire good guy team standing at the end (except maybe one token death) having all barely overcome their opponents. Casualties are not only common, but are pretty even on both sides, which was a touch that I could appreciate. When a team like the Jaegers is assembled it does its job, if at a cost.

Finally, there were a few abilities and fights I thought had particular merit. I'd like to give special mention of Lubbock's Imperial Arms. It was rather unusual as weapons/devices go, and they really pushed its implications. From movement, to surveillance, to heart pureeing it did it all. In fact, overall I felt the Imperial Arms were put to good use but his in particular impressed me.

Esdeath was also well-done. Her usage of ice was top notch and they did a great job demonstrating her mastery, rather than just stating it. That is, often the big bad has one trick and otherwise is just "powerful." To show how unbeatable they are, they take the super attack of some hero or another without flinching, and then via plot necessity fall to attacks that they shrugged off before. Esdeath just dominates everybody, and does it in a convincing way. And when she is cut by Murasame she doesn't evil-villain-power it off.

The Bad: In their rush to kill characters many felt under-detailed. You meet them, they get a name, then they die. Between the frequency and lack of attachment to them, many of the deaths were emotionally irrelevant. The worst that comes to mind is the general guy (I don't even remember his name). They introduce him, talk him up as being second only to Esdeath, then have him die next episode. The demons in the religious movement town also suffered from the same underwhelming experience. I also really disliked Run for this reason. He receives no build up, no explanation, then a quick forced monologue during a fight to explain why he's actually not that bad of a guy. It was poor characterization for a character who spent the whole series being hinted at having more depth. I notice that most of my examples come from the end of the series, and I suspect a combination of manga deviation and forcing the show to fit 24 episodes contributed to these drawbacks.

Their attempts at moral ambiguity were pretty weak. A few of them were okay, like Wave who was obviously just on the wrong team. Bols was actually somewhat believable as well; not from a justification standpoint, but from how disconcertingly human opponents can be. But their attempts to make me feel much for Kurome were pretty weak; they first introduce her sitting on a pile of human corpses eating cookies, and the whole tenor of her Imperial Arms resurrecting dead friends didn't improve it from there. Similarly they had token, "we do evil things as assassins" phrases pop up in Night Raid...and then promptly went on to show how they were morally superior anyway. The series seemed more sure of itself when it stuck to, "Evil guys are really evil and good guys are really good" and had them fight it out.

At last, a tiny complaint of mine: when it's all over, building a nation is a thousand times harder than destroying one. It just seemed incongruous to the whole series that everybody was getting along and life was happy sunshine in the end.  Except Akame, who gets the Homura treatment. "Hey, life's better for everybody but you. You get to wander out into a desert and our last scene will be of you launching a post-credits attack."

So overall, I thought it was better than the average action series but nothing I plan on dwelling on or rewatching.

[Anime] Another Review

Another - 3/10

I knew going into this I wasn't going to be overawed. I think this was the result of having too much time and wanting to try something new again. I'd also heard the name come up a few times, so figured why not.

The Good: I'll give the series credit that I was curious during the first half. I wanted to know what was happening and why, and cared enough to sit through it to see the resolution. I also didn't figure it out, so there's at least that. And the fact that Misaki was actually alive the whole time surprised me; I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, because she was such a lifeless oddity.

Art quality was also pretty high. That's kind of damning with faint praise but I did appreciate how crisp the whole series looked.

Finally, it had some of the most unintentionally hilarious moments I've seen in a while. The scene where the guy crawls out from under the fallen chandelier, only to have the pillar immediate fall on him...I had to pause it and laugh for a minute. It was comic gold; it just needed a "wah wah" afterward to be complete.

The Bad: It's a suspense-horror series, and follows all the tropes.

1. Nice people with minimal screen time die first. We know it's getting serious when glasses girl impales herself on an umbrella and the nurse dies in the elevator. Their sole purpose is to demonstrate just HOW SERIOUS this curse is.

I have an image of these characters trying to get future jobs with resumes reading, "Can kill myself accidentally with common household items" and "Good at being the final part of a lethal Rube Goldberg machine."

2. The "oh no, will something happen?!?" music will be played for every scene that could potentially be scary. This includes, but is not limited to: opening doors, looking down stairwells, reading or listening to records, discussing the contents of said records, going to an abandoned location, using sharp objects, turning around, and feeding kittens with your grandma.

3. Somebody will break down psychologically, go on a rampage, then die. Another, not wanting to be outdone, has a case of mass psychosis strike the students and lodge faculty. I can only assume that they had been memorizing "Lord of the Flies" in class, preparing for this day.

4. Inevitably has that moment when somebody who's been around the whole series dies. Unfortunately your immediate reaction is, "Who was that again?" Another also went above and beyond in this category. Bodies pile up as the class is decimated by the curse, and I would have felt worse if Misaki's special desk had been destroyed. At least I recognized it.

5. There is at least one colossally stupid decision made. "So, I can see dead people with my doll's eye. I guess I should have mentioned that 10 episodes ago." Yes, yes you should have Misaki. "Oh, did I tell you that I saw the dead person murdered so I knew who it was all along?" Oh really? Tell me more. "I'm a twin who has an extensive backstory that doesn't matter until it's inconvenient." You know what Misaki? I don't think people ignored you because of the curse.

This is of course on top of the whole deadly school thing, that everybody-and-nobody knows about, so they keep sending their students there like cattle. I mean, sure it's only a few students every year. And a teacher coming to class and committing suicide is just one of those things that happen.

So my bar was low, and Another was about where I expected. But at least I got to have fun writing this review because of it.