December 6, 2007

Romeo x Juliet Review - 56/100

Filed under: Other:/Anime Reviews


Gonzo… on one hand they search the borders of anime and storytelling, and work with greatly original premises…

… and on the other hand, we have this; generic premises that only stand out in their mediocrity. While others may have loved it, all I saw was a dull, predictable story and annoying characters. For this series, the people from Gonzo decided to bring their own version of the classic by Shakespeare, but this series might also just as well be called “Pete X Catherine”, because the only similarities are the names of the characters. Oh, and the Capulets and the Montagues are still mortal enemies.

This is another anime that suffers from the “bad main-character-syndrome”, as I’d like to call it. Both Romeo and Juliet are incredibly whiny teenagers who prevent the storyline from progressing smoothly, and instead they force the series to delve in cheesy and naive morals. Their relationship starts out nicely, but once they’re in love, their relationship starts behaving like that of a bad soap-opera, with excessive amounts of “I love you but I can’t stay with you”. Predictably, the ending for the series is a horrible one, where characters have convenient increases of powers for the sake of storytelling, complete with some screwed-up physics.

In terms of storytelling, this series also leaves much to be desired. It took me twenty-four freaking episodes to realize that the characters are supposed to be living on an island, floating in the sky. If that wasn’t bad enough, the characters themselves didn’t even know this. I mean, why was there nobody who would have thought at one point: “gee, I hate it here; why don’t I just travel to a very distant place and see what happens?” It doesn’t make any sense.

I’ve said this before; the best people from Gonzo were definitely working on Bokura no during the spring-season. The writers failed completely to make me care about the characters and setting, due to poor writing. These guys need to learn that lots of angst and drama don’t necessarily make a great anime; well fleshed-out characters are much more important.

Kino no Tabi - Life Goes On Review - 75/100

Filed under: Other:/Anime Reviews


There aren’t many movies that are based on series, which fit into the continuity and end up contributing to them, but I’ve finally found one: Kino no Tabi - Life goes on. It’s basically a glorified episode, clocking in at a mere thirty minutes, and it tells the story of how Kino matured from an insecure little girl to the Kino we’ve come to love in the series. It’s definitely good to see more of this series, though there are a few problems.

I hate to admit it, but it’s clear that this movie was made in a hurry: it lacks the fine-polish that you usually see in the dialogue, it’s a bit too straightforward at times, and the animation is actually worse than it was in the series; something that doesn’t happen often. If the creators just took more time to fix all these, and increase the depth of the storyline, this could have been an excellent movie. Right now, it’s just an okay episode.

This is probably my shortest review in like, ever; but apart from what I mentioned above, there’s nothing much to be said. Fans of the series should definitely check out the movie, but the only purpose of the movie is to give Kino some valuable background. Still, I’m looking forward to the next Kino no Tabi, which premiered in April and should arrive in a few months to the English-speaking community. The creators must have seen that this movie could have been better, so I’m anticipating to see how they’ve learned from this small gem.