Anime Review: Mardock Scramble The Third Exhaust

(This is a copy of my MAL review, some comments in it may reflect this.)

I don’t often write reviews because most things I watch have so many reviews already there’s nothing left to be said, but at the time of my writing this there is only one other review for Mardock Scramble: The Third Exhaust, so I thought I’d share my opinion of it.

Spoilers for the review (not the movie): I thought it was absolutely fantastic.

The end, you don’t have to read the rest of my ramblings, watch it and enjoy.

Wait… you actually want to know HOW it’s fantastic. Well ok I guess I can do that.

Mardock Scrambled Eggs doesn’t do too much new in the cyberpunk genre, but that’s okay because what it does do is executed fabulously in all three movies. (Slightly less in the second but we’re not here to talk about that one)

Rune’s inner and outer conflicts come to a head in the final movie, and while the resolution of Rune’s case against Shell might seem too short in terms of crime drama or mystery, it fits the themes of the other movies perfectly. These movies were never really about the case, the case was the driving force behind Rune’s mental trauma and character development, and through the resolution of the case here we see how she’s changed from the first movie.

And again the weight of the action scenes falls on the arguably more main of the two antagonists; Boiled, whose feud with Rune and her shape-shifting AI partner Oeufcoque reaches a satisfying and bombastic conclusion.

The action scenes in these movies are spectacular, but few and far between, this a character focused drama first and an action second, it’s not a movie for people who just want explosions and action all the time, might I suggest Ghost in the Shell: Arise for that.

However, because the action is not happening at all times, it makes the action scenes in this movie stand out due to excellent pacing that never leaves any part of this movie boring and doesn’t make you feel a scene has overstayed it’s welcome.

The voice acting and sound direction is top notch, though as I’m not an expert on these aspects I can’t go into much detail besides two key points.

1. the soundtrack is incredible, it fits every scene so well you barely notice it’s there, it never sticks out but always complements the scene it’s in.

2. Rune’s voice actor is incredible; she gave s such an amazing performance that even without being a native Japanese speaker I could fully understand all the emotion behind each line.

Like the first two movies, Mardock Scramble 3 has some of the best animation I’ve

seen, every shot is near perfection, Easily in my top 10 for best animation, the contrast of colors leads to a drab, dark yet beautiful city.

The characters are all very well crafted and enjoyable to watch, with the standout Oeufcoque stealing the show and reminding me quite a lot of the dynamic between Kino and Hermes in Kino no Tabi.

Rune Balot, the star of the show gets a good share of development and by the end you will feel like she’s actually changed and matured as a person.

The other characters are somewhat of a mixed bag with most at the most filler for the cast, though the resolution of Shell and Boiled’s character arcs were quite good as well.

The ending, while left quite open, also felt very final, the openness really only leading more to the cyberpunk nature of the series where open endings are quite common.

In conclusion, I found the series as a whole to be a very smart, well thought out cyberpunk story, sure it retreads old ground but it has enough unique ideas and style to get past that. I would highly recommend them all to anybody who wants a strong cyberpunk drama in the vain of ghost in the shell.

Shameless self promotion part 2: electric boogaloo.

I figure since I've taken this blog out of hibernation I would advertize my other shit again for anybody who happens to get here.


My youtube channel
Full of let's plays and other random videos, haven't done much recently.

My personal Fanfiction.net account
I occasionally post random silly stories here.

My other Fanfiction.net account
This is a joint account with a friend of mine where we post story collaborations (only one right now, but it's really good)

My Myanimelist.net profile
If I write any more reviews they'll probably end up on here first, so if you liked my other reviews check it out an judge my taste in anime.

My other accounts on things like deviantart are dead, so forget about them until further notice.

Anime Review: Legendary Gambler Tetsuya

(Below is a copy of my review from myanimelist.net)

Legendary Gambler Tetsuya is an anime series that’s hard for me to recommend. Not because it’s bad mind you, it’s very, very, good; the problem lies in what it’s about; this show is about mahjong.

 

No, not that solitary game you have preinstalled on your pc, the real mahjong, an ancient Chinese game for four players, which resembles modern rummy or gin. The Japanese variant, often known as Riichi Mahjong; takes this game to a whole new level of complexity, establishing a large list of hand combinations and situations you MUST make at least one of in order to win at all. All of a sudden this is a massively deep, intricate game, like poker on steroids.

Why am I saying any of this, it’s very simple really, this anime won’t make any sense if you can’t play Mahjong on at least a low level, you need to know the rules, the tile names, the hands, ect in order to follow this show. Because you see, this anime is written for someone who already understands the game, as such it never gets bogged down trying to explain the rules it assumes you already know.

If you know the rules or are willing to take time to learn them, you’ll be greatly rewarded, now if you’ve made it this far, onto the actual review!

At the point of my writing this, I have seen three shows dedicated to mahjong, This, Akagi, and Saki. This show is by far the best of the three. This is a somewhat contraversal statement I feel, since Akagi is quite well received on this site, but allow me to explain why this is the best show about mahjong I’ve seen.

It’s because this show cheats.

Everything this anime does is about cheating; some of the most well thought out, genius cheating I’ve ever seen. Akagi sometimes focuses on cheating at the game as well, but more often then not the game is resolved due to Akagi’s “monstrous luck”

In Akagi, and even moreso in Saki, I feel a disconnect from the game and the characters, these shows are about the characters and their insane luck that almost always makes games go their way, things that are statistically impossible are the more here, and for no good reason.

Tetsuya makes his own luck. You not only see why he gets the hands he does, you see how he forces the games to go his way, from skilled dice throws that always get your desired number to boldly switching tiles from your hand with those on the table.

Where Akagi’s narrator would simple tell us that he’s doing something crazy, it never feels justified, he’s just lucky, this leads to a problem many anime have, the protagonist can’t lose. Not so in this fine example here, Tetsuya loses and he loses hard, making his victories all the more gratifying when he finally wins.

This is not a show for anybody; the art is dated for one, and features none of modern Anime’s “moe” sensibilities, if you’re looking for that, try Saki. Characters are never off model and every character has a distinct design, since it focuses on characters sitting and playing a game most of the time there’s minimal motion, but what is there is well executed.

The sound is nothing to write home about, the OST is unmemorable, but the character voices all fit well. As I can’t speak Japanese I can’t pass judgment on the acting level but it seemed to par with shows of the time.

But where this show shines is its story and characters, every character we meet is either likeable or satisfyingly detestable, Tetsuya himself is a great character, who unlike Akagi actually grows and changes as it goes on.

The story is fairly straight forward and mostly involves escalating battles in gambling between our main characters and an assortment of colorful “villains”, with each game essentially being standalone. That’s not to say there are no twists, there are a decent many turns in this story that all lead up to an emotional, satisfying conclusion despite being an incomplete adaptation of a manga that as of now has no translation I can find anywhere, which is somewhat disappointing as I hear this anime only covered a small amount of it.

If you haven’t the faintest idea what mahjong is, you probably won’t like this show, but if you love mahjong or even just understand it on a beginner level, this is a hell of a hidden gem.

Long time no see.

Jesus, Last post was in 2011? No wonder I have no followers.
So hello fake readers who don't exit! I am back and will maybe post more things in the future, enjoy that re posted review of a light novel.

Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! Novel review repost.

What follows is a review of the Light Novel Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! I posted on Myanimelist.net, and I'm posting it here because my only other review on that site magically vanished one day never to be seen again, this is proof I wrote a review of this novel.


Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! is an... Interesting case of the source materiel of an anime being weaker then the adaptation, that's not to say it's a bad light novel, I just found the Anime to be one of last years best, and the novel was... alright.
As a note, I have only read one of the two volumes and it was a fan translation, so some of my issues may have been fixed in the second volume or caused by the translation.

Onto the review then.

Story: 6/10

Now I just can't talk about the story without comparing it to the Anime so I'm sorry if you wanted a standalone review with no bias, it's just impossible.
The story is amazingly different to the anime, which is both good and bad. A reader who's seen the anime first will at least get some scenes that didn't happen in the show but at the same time it lacks a lot of the good parts of the show.
The main issues I have here are pacing related as I feel the rest falls under the Character section, so I'll explain them there.

The story has a bad sense of pacing about it, things that should be long multi-chapter arcs In my opinion felt rushed, and by the end of it there's no real payoff or resolution unlike the anime; it just sort of stops.

Another thing is that it doesn't dig into Rika's background at all nor show any of her delusions (some of the best scenes in the anime)
The story served to be more of a way to get to the next scene of character interaction, which isn't so much an issue on it's own but when I talk about that it will become an issue.

So in the end, the story was painfully average, it had good ideas but it never really took them as far as they could go.

Art: 7/10

There's really not a whole lot to say about the artwork, it was about as good as the art in other Light Novels I've read, nothing special.
One disappointing thing for me was the lack of Rika's Chuunibyou warped viewpoint, which would have added something to the artwork that most LN's don't have.

Character: 3/10

As I said earlier, A story that serves only to move between characters interacting isn't in itself bad if it's a character driven piece which Chuunibyou most certainly is.
Unfortunately, this is where Chuunibyou falls apart at the seams for me.

Right off the bat we have an issue, Yuuta's personality is so ill defined it's impossible to say if he's acting out of character or not. He is most certainly not the same Yuuta form the show though.
He goes though almost no character development during the novel, not like anyone else did either but I digress.

Where in the Anime he started out with a crush on Nibutani and later develops feelings for Rika(Not a spoiler it was so clear that would happen) he now starts out with the crush on Rika taking all depth out of their relationship.

As for Rika, well this LN is a perfect example why supporting cast is very important.
The lack of Rika's friend in the anime, Dekomori, and the lack of her older sister Touka complety ruins her character's depth and makes her just a sort of quirky girl.
The interplay between Rika and her sister or Dekomori is so vital to getting to know her in the anime the fact they aren't in the novel at all is frankly shocking to me.

As for Isshiki and Nibutani, essentially the only supporting characters in the novel, well they're just pale imitations of their anime counterparts.

I've seen reviews of the anime call Kumin a useless character thrown in for more "Moe" and I tended to agree until I read the novel, sure she didn't really add anything on her own but she added to Isshiki's personality and made him less boring.

So in short, the characters are the weakest part and they really drag it down a whole lot, lack of the great side character sin the anime make the novel feel empty and shallow.


Enjoyment: 6/10

Did I enjoy reading it? Yes, but was it very good? eh.
if you haven't seen the anime I'd say it would be better to watch that, but viewers of the anime might get a little enjoyment out of it if you don't compare it to what could have been.

Overall: 5/10

I want to stress that I rate with the full scale of 1 to 10, this isn't IGN's 5 equals worthless trash scale. 5 is an average score for me, it isn't bad, it's just not very good.

I have to quote myself about the story here, as a whole Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! was nothing but painfully average, it had good ideas and as I've said a ton already, the anime really delivers on them, watch that instead.

My other things

If by some slim chance you've found this(I don't see how you would have)
I'd like to let you know that I do other things, suck as Let's Plays on youtube, sometimes rarely post bad MSPaint things on deviantart, and sometimes even more rarely post bad writings on fictionpress.
these are all linked below.



 http://www.youtube.com/user/RahkshiMaster
http://rahkshi-lord.deviantart.com/
http://www.fictionpress.com/u/708274/Rahkshi_lord

Why does modern anime suck so bad? Part 2 of 1

This is a one episode right to dvd release called "Baby Princess 3D Paradise 0 [Love]" (WTF?)
about... Oh god i can't bring myself to type it.

"A high school senior named Yotaro thought he was an only child — until he met his real mother and discovered that she has 19 daughters, from 0 to 18 years old. He ends up living with his "true family.""

Yeah...

 The end.