Anime: Angel Beats! - Elegant But Rushed

Angel Beats! is brilliant. I'm telling you this in case you looked up a review to see whether you should watch Angel Beats! or no. Unmistakeably, do it. Even if you're not too impressed at first, stick with it for a few episodes. You should also stop reading this review at once, because it'll be full of spoilers that will likely ruin your appreciation for the show. I want to discuss the show in-depth, and I feel like I can't properly do so without spoiling a large part of it. For this reason, I also feel like I can assume that the reader will have knowledge of events in the show, though I'll still be explaining set-up for those who decide to rob themselves of the pleasure of watching the show blind.

That aside, Angel Beats! doesn't really have any twists in it, at least not in a traditional sense. It's a fairly straightforward story, but a large part of what makes it special is how it plays around with your expectations, especially when it comes to its own quality. Angel Beats! is perfectly content to pretend to be worse than it could for a while in order to pleasantly surprise you later on.

Angel Beats! follows Otonashi, a teen who awakens without memories. Soon, he discovers that he's dead and in a fairly bizarre afterlife that takes the form of a school. Most students are referred to as "NPCs": They're soulless representations of students that act out a daily routine in the school. Dead people who join them and engage in this sort of behaviour soon disappear from the afterlife. The characters don't really know where to, or if somewhere at all.

Otonashi joins forces with the SSS, an unfortunately named (really? you didn't realize what removing one S would do?) militaristic group of delinquent students dedicated to avoiding normal school life as long as possible to avoid disappearing. They're opposed by Tenshi, a seemingly normal girl who acts as Student Council President, and attempts to make the SSS participate in normal behaviour. The SSS's prime objective for the first part of the series is to fight Tenshi, who's armed with what seem to be superhuman powers.

It's a fairly unique twist on a familiar setup, but what makes it work is that the rules of the afterworld aren't really explained. For a short while, this annoyed me, and almost put me off the series. However, I soon realized that this was fully intentional, and it paradoxically had the opposite effect: it helped keep me interested. I understood the rules of the world just enough that I wasn't getting lost, but there were enough blanks left that I felt with every episode like I was moving forward in understanding the world. By the two or three episodes that make up the final arc of the story, I felt like I had a complete grasp on the rules that governed everything, which was immensely satisfying, especially after having felt so confused ten episodes ago. This is what I was talking about earlier when I said it plays with your expectations of its quality.

I went through a similar arc with what I felt about the characters. As one would expect, the SSS is made up of a ragtag group of goofballs. I thought that they'd be mostly supporting cast, and only Otonashi, the leader Yuri, and Tenshi would really get any proper development. I was both right and wrong: It's true that most of the cast is only there to serve as comic relief and background characters, but the show does an amazing job of giving them personality despite their small amount of screen time. Every member of the SSS gets a few distinguishing traits, whether comedic or not, and by the end there's a real feeling of unity to the group, and most of them are very endearing.

There's also quite a few more characters that get real development than the three I previously mentioned. Perhaps the biggest surprise and runaway hit for me was Hinata, someone who I was sure was going to be a generic member of the SSS. He starts with just a few goofy lines exchanged with Otonashi, but slowly gets more and more screentime as the show goes on. By the end of the show, I suddenly realized that I'd been witnessing a powerful and moving friendship develop between the two, and it had been done so subtly that I hadn't even noticed. Hinata himself had also evolved into a fully-fledged, well-developed character, complete with a really touching love story on the side. He's by far one of the most important characters in the show. It's a fantastic feeling, being blind-sided by a show this completely.

Hinata being a standout doesn't make the rest of the cast any less fantastic, however. Otonashi also surprised me greatly. I was very impressed with Mirai Nikki because I found the protagonist Yukkiteru to be mildly interesting, something that seems to never happen in anime, but Otonashi manages to surpass even him. Whilst he's not interesting in the most traditional sense of the world, Otonashi manages to feel genuinely human. His backstory isn't the most original thing, but it's got a sense of tragic irony to it, and he's got a rather interesting point of view on the world he lives (or is dead) in, something that no other protagonist seems to have. I don't know if this is a consequence of the way I am or a good point of the writing in Angel Beats!, but I also found Otonashi to be a protagonist whose shoes are particularly easy to fall into. After a bit of him being unrealistically dickish in the first episode, he seemed to think and act much like I would in the situations he was put in. The way his friendship with Hinata developed blindsided me, much like I feel real friendship developing often does to the ones involved.

Yuri, the leader of the SSS, is a character whose potential I can't help but feel was squandered. Rather than go through a slow arc like the rest of the characters, she seems to stay put in her original viewpoint of the world, which is fine: her backstory is tragic enough that this seems believable. It's also good to have a character around to remind us of what we originally though about this world, and there could have been some ideological, ideally non-violent (because that would be far too cliche) conflict between the other main characters and her, where they eventually agree to disagree. Instead, she seems to agree to disagree immediately, and eventually has her viewpoint jarringly shifted to be that of the main group in less than five minutes of character development. Don't get me wrong, it's a powerful scene, but it doesn't do as much for me as either a slower arc of realization or a complete refusal to change could, and it feels like the way her arc pays would be better suited to a character with less screen time. I'm still glad she's around, however, as she manages to be a really admirable character.

Perhaps the only "main" character I full-on disliked was Naoi. He's introduced about halfway through the show as an ally of Tenshi's. When Tenshi falls from power, he takes over and is presented as a greater evil, with the SSS trying to get Tenshi back to power instead of him. There's a fair amount of depth put into making him seem truly despicable. This conflict is resolved when Otonashi gives him an "accept yourself" speech after hearing his tragic backstory. The episode ends, and suddenly Naoi is a member of the SSS, and is acting as the third man in Otonashi and Hinata's little group. It's a jarring change, but even worse is that he doesn't seem to have any particular purpose. His comedic quirks are amongst the least funny in the series, and he doesn't really contribute anything that Otonashi or Hinata couldn't have done. He's not a bad character, just a bland one who seems to have way too much screen time and way too little to do with it, as well as a jarring heel-face turn.

Last but not least is Tenshi, perhaps the series' flagship character: She certainly has a major part in both the promo art and the intro. The series is arguably even named after her: Tenshi means "angel" in Japanese. As such, it's not at all surprising that she doesn't remain an antagonist for the entire series, which is good, because her run as antagonist is quite underwhelming. Despite the fact that she's shown easily defeating the SSS several times, she's just not menacing. The series tries to pull the whole "Normal looking but destructive schoolgirl" cliche, and it doesn't work very well. You see, when you want to make a character who's not physically imposing menacing, you have to do it through their personality. You can do a huge number of things: you can make them downright crazy, you can make them be malicious, you can make them have stone-cold determination to kill. The series tries to pull off the last with Tenshi, but since she has to be a good character later on she never seems to actually try to hurt anyone, which hugely reduces her threat level in the eyes of the viewer.

She fares a lot better once she's humanized a bit and begins to talk with Otonashi. She's appropriately mysterious, and has a very unique manner of speaking. She never appears to be truly human, which is sort of the point, as that's what fuelled her conflict with the SSS for a long time. However, under her awkwardness and trouble communicating, one can see a caring but lonely girl, and I began to feel truly sorry for her, rooting for Otonashi to err on the side of being kind to her. Once the reason she's been acting to make everyone disappear becomes obvious, it's hard not to feel admiration for her.

Seeing the intro and promo materials, it should also not be surprising to anyone that there's a romance between Otonashi and Tenshi, which I felt was done fairly well. It's miles behind how well Otonashi's friendship with Hinata developed, or even just how touching Hinata's romance with side-character Yui was done, but I can't deny that it hit a nerve. The fact that it being explicitly stated is saved for the very last scene of the anime (not counting the post-credits scene) is also very welcome, since it doesn't feel shoed in to the entire series for no real reason like a lot of other romances do (Looking at you, Sword Art Online and No. 6). I also really liked how obvious it is that Otonashi feels this way for large part of the end of the show, but we don't ever get actual confirmation that so does Tenshi.

Before I move on from characters, I want to put mention a few outstanding members of the side cast. I found Yui to be very endearing, which made the fact that a whole episode is almost randomly centered around her a lot more bearable, and also helped make Hinata's romance with her all that much more touching. The development of the relationship between the two wasn't exactly subtle, but it's nice to see a series representing a blossoming romance with the two parties mock-fighting all the time, which I feel was both fairly realistic and very funny, for once. I found the episode centred around Masami, the original singer in GirlDeMo, to be very touching (if quite confusing), and wish we'd gotten to see more of her. I also really enjoyed the character of TK, who was there pretty much entirely for comic relief, but took such a bizarre approach to it that I couldn't help but smile whenever he randomly spouted nonsensical English lines (I watched the sub) for no reason.

Unfortunately, despite the great character roster, the show isn't brilliant when it comes to the storyline. It's by no means bad, but feels very rushed, not really allowing plot beats to sink in. For instance, at one point Tenshi joins forces with the SSS. She helps them for all of one episode before falling into a comma, and, due to a plan that Otonashi and her concoct as soon as she wakes up, she decides to pretend to have once again become aggressive with the SSS whilst Otonashi acts as her link into the organization. This lasts for about an episode and a half, at which point the SSS is once again friendly with her. It's by far the most extreme example, but is fairly indicative of how the entire story feels. This makes plot beats feel like they don't carry any weight, as the situation keeps changing drastically and you don't get enough time to get used to where the plot is before it continues. If you aren't comfortable where you are, then moving on looses its impact.

I think the reason for this is simple: The series is only 13 episodes long. This is fairly standard for anime, but Angel Beats! has enough going on that I feel it should've gone for the other standard length of 26 episodes. There's just too much to its story for it to be able to be properly told in the timespan that it's given. It's a real shame, too, because even with the excessively fast pace Angel Beats! has a fairly intriguing storyline, with clever twists and turns along the way. Most of the show involves the triumvirate that Otonashi, Yuri and Tenshi make up being in an ideological struggle between themselves, having to decide whether letting go of your pain is a betrayal to yourself or not. It's thematically strong, and does a good job of presenting all sides of the argument as equally valid, though Tenshi's perspective is what the series ultimately settles on. It's just a shame that it didn't have enough time to explore the issue more in-depth.

The events that go on in the plot also suffer a bit from seeming slightly arbitrary. Because Tenshi doesn't remain the antagonist for long (in fact, she leaves the position a bit too fast, I felt, which just backs up my argument), the series has to struggle to find ways of presenting dangers for the characters to deal with. As such, the later part suffers from seemingly random things happening just to make the plot have an antagonist. I see why it was done, but what frustrated me is that some of the more effective episodes where the ones dealing with one character's issues in depth (in particular with both of the successive leads of GirlDeMo), and these seemed to get thrown aside in favour of exaggerated, uninteresting, physical danger that was there as a fairly unnecessary excuse to move the plot along.

That said, all of the plot lines are actually satisfyingly put to rest by the end of the series, and don't often get in way of the juicy character development. The only problems with character development that I felt originated from time constraints were Yuri's problems that I listed above. The series ends extremely well, feeling like everything that happened logically leads to that point. The ending is powerful, and gave me extreme bittersweet feels. I actually shed a few tears during the end credits in the final episode, though that's due more to the fact that it ends on a powerful character moment than a story beat.

The series' weakest point other than its breakneck pacing is its visuals. It's not particularly interesting to look at, and I think the characters look quite unappealing. There's just something wrong with their faces: They feel too wide, and the eyes felt too big even for anime. The action is also particularly uninteresting to look at: Most of the time it's boring wide shots of bullets flying at a target, with only a few melee fights that look only marginally cooler. Fortunately, the soundtrack doesn't suffer in the same way: The opening and ending themes are genuinely great and the in-show tracks are unobtrusive but effective. However, perhaps the best stuff is the songs that in-universe band GirlDeMo performs, which are surprisingly good. The voice acting also finally managed to impress me, with characters seeming to transmit a lot more of their emotion through their voices than in any other anime I've watched so far.

Character and World Building: 10/10
Absolutely phenomenal in both regards. The world building is originally bare-bones, but this just means it's more satisfying to find out more as the show goes on, how the world operates being just another mystery to figure out. Side characters are surprisingly well fleshed out for how many there are, and the main cast is full of interesting personalities. It's also got a real knack for character-based comedy when appropriate.

Story: 6.5/10
What seems like it could be a great story is severely marred be pacing issues. There's a number of interesting plot beats and twists in here, but they happen in too fast succession for one to acclimate, meaning that they loose great part of their impact. It also seems to struggle to find an antagonist in the later half, meaning that the plot becomes a little convoluted at times. Fortunately, it still manages to have a pretty great ending.

Presentation: 3.5/5
The visuals aren't awful by any means, but they're definitely not as appealing as the other shows I've watched, characters and battle scenes being the biggest offenders. If this show had a mediocre audio side, then this score would be considerably lower, but it's fortunately got a great soundtrack, as well as a pretty damn good voice cast.

Enjoyment: 12/15
I won't lie, it's a true shame that this show didn't score higher in this category. The rushed pace led to a number of disappointments that made me not have as much fun as I felt I should. The show felt like it was constantly beginning to go in an interesting direction that I wanted to see more of, before getting bored and moving on to the next thing, much to my chagrin. I want to see more of the SSS being suspicious of Tenshi as a new ally but trying to get along with her. I want to see more of how Otonashi's alternative to what the SSS should stand for makes people re-consider their lives. The list goes on, but more than anything, I want to see more of Tenshi and Otonashi secretly working together to fulfil people's wishes.

Overall: (10+6.5+3.5+12)/40
               32/40
               8/10
Angel Beats! deserves to be so much more than it is. It's got a fantastic story that had to rush past its most interesting moments to comply with time constraints, which makes me so very, very upset. Despite its time constraints, it manages to do an absolutely stunning job with its characters and world, which I find immensely impressive. This is a show that would have scored perfectly in every category but presentation if not for one issue: It's too short. In other words, my biggest problem with this show is that I wish there was more of it, and I can't think of a better problem for a show to have.

Anime Sakura Trick - Palette Cleanser

I've realized the solution to my dilemma: by being a lot simpler, Sakura Trick allows me to carry out analysis much more in-depth than something more complicated, and score it accordingly to its failures within its ambitions. So, without delay, and before I get cold feet again, let's go.

Sakura Trick follows Haruka, a school girl who's entering high school with her long-time friend Yuu. Very shortly after, the two develop a romantic relationship, and engage in various comedic shenanigans around the school with their friends.

There's not a real overarching plot to Sakura Trick - it's more of just a series of events, with each episode divided into two little stories. These will typically be connected just enough to keep the momentum going, which I found helped keep me interested in what would otherwise be quite banale little episodes. 

The only real overall momentum is carried by character development, which is surprisingly well-done. Unlike a few other yuri shows where the main romance seems to be there just to be titillating, the romance between Haruka and Yuu feels quite genuine thanks to the few character quirks we get. Haruka is comically jealous and touchy, and has a fare share of perverted moments, whilst Yuu is a lot more coy when it comes to romantic stuff, as well as fairly grouchy. However, it's obvious the two feel for each other a lot more than just as kissing-buddies, despite the late part of the anime establishing they don't consciously realize. Their relationship is full of going out of the way to please or help the other in a very subtle way: Haruka puts a lot of effort into helping Yuu study, whereas Yuu, despite her protests, makes sure that Haruka gets to see her just as much as she wants.

There's a small supporting cast, formed of two other "pairs". There's the rich and easy-going Kotone, who's determined to make the most of her days at school, and is in love with the archetypal shy girl Shizuku. They have an episode dedicated to them early on which works fairly well, but are mostly cast aside to the sidelines after this. My main issue with the two is that Kotone is immensely bland, even amongst such a broad-strokes cast. There's just not enough characterisation for her to be likeable, and the little character motivation that she gets doesn't ever seem to be resolved. The other pair, Kaede and Kuzu aren't in a romantic relationship. Kaede's a quiet girl who loves to play pranks and annoy the people around her, but is surprisingly perceptive, whereas Kuzu is the loud, comically short-tempered one who remains oblivious to the romantic goings on around her. They're both mostly relegated to comic relief, but became my favourite characters simply because of how charming their little quirks are.

The closest the series comes to an overarching plot is with Mitsuki, the head of the Student Council and Yuu's sister, who develops a crush on Haruka shortly after meeting her. This comes across quite awkwardly, and feels forced. Still, Mitsuki is likeable enough in her own right (coming into multiple awkward situations around Haruka, and seeming to very genuinely care about her sister) that it's forgiveable. The conclusion to this storyline is a charming yet somewhat bitter-sweet comment on the childishness of the relationship between Yuu and Haruka, though it's implied that it might blossom into something more real.

The show is visually much like its story and characters - simple. It's done in a nice pastel-colour style, yet with sharply defined character outlines. Everything else is stylized into simple shapes, backgrounds often disappearing when in close-up shots to be replaced with dotted backgrounds. The show also has a penchant for using symbols - often flowers - to comically represent its characters mid-conversation, or when spacial awareness is especially important. For instance, in a scene where Haruka comes up to Yuu, the scene may very briefly cut to a cherry blossom - Haruka's symbol - coming closer to a dandelion - Yuu's symbol.

The thing I least like about the show is the camera's love to focus on character's breasts bouncing and/or their thighs for no seeming reason. It just serves to make me uncomfortable - these are girls just entering high school, after all - and feels like the shameless pandering that the relationship between the main duo so miraculously manages to avoid. It also does this a few times during the opening and ending, which is no less awkward.

The music is there. The opening theme is sort of catchy, but I find the end theme quite dull. I honestly can't remember any music during the actual show - I'm not even sure if it doesn't exist or is just not memorable. What I do enjoy is the sound effect design, which helps the show both be quite a lot funnier and gain a fair amount of personality.

Character and World Building: 7/10

There's really not much here to critique. The world is as bare-bones as it gets, but is still a nice place to be. The characters are also simplistic, but the broad-strokes character development we do get is fairly effective.

Story: 4/10

It's just not there, and what is there is fairly clumsily implemented. Whilst I think Mitsuki's contribution to the show is overall positive, the way her subplot is unceremoniously shoved in for no apparent reason is certainly not.

Presentation: 4/5

It's simple and it's effective. Unfortunately, there's a few quirks that I really despise (mostly involving focusing on breasts), and the music is overwhelmingly forgettable. That said, when it looks good it looks absolutely gorgeous.

Enjoyment: 10/15

It's not an intensely enjoyable show, but that's almost part of its charm. It allows you to simply relax and wind down, without being overwhelmed by that much emotion.

Overall: (7+4+4+10)/40

                25/40

                (6.25/10)

Sakura Trick isn't something that you watch and feel great about, nor is it something that leaves a great impact on you afterwards. It's simply a bite-sized piece of joy, to be consumed, smiled with, and left behind. It achieves this job phenomenally, and I feel it's to be highly commended for it. Whilst I won't be pushing anyone to watch Sakura Trick above anything else, right now, hurry, hurry, I will heartily give it a recommendation as a palette cleanser - something pleasant and good-natured to watch in a couple nights between more serious shows to get over the impact of the last one. It can also be a good way to relax during a stressful period - see exams.

There's not much to Sakura Trick, and Sakura Trick isn't particularly great - but that's paradoxically precisely what makes it so enjoyable.

Sakura Trick and Aiming Low

I've watched most of Sakura Trick. Yes, it is shoujo-ai. Yes, that influenced me watching it. No, I probably wouldn't have watched this particular show if it was guys. Yes, I would watch a different type of show if it was Yaoi. No, I also wouldn't have watched Sakura Trick as it is without it coming highly recommended.  Can I discuss what I want to discuss, or do I have to answer even more trite questions I know will pop up? Thanks.

I haven't watched all of Sakura Trick yet (two episodes left), but I'm already terrified of reviewing it. Not because of the above slew of things questioning my moral integrity, but because I simple don't know how to treat it. You see, Sakura Trick aims quite low, but hits its target perfectly. It's stuff like this that made me originally make this a videogame-only blog. A videogame being too simple is a criticism in and of itself, even if it pulls what it does perfectly: I find Samurai Gunn to be utterly boring because it has too few mechanics, even if said mechanics are pretty much flawless.

However, it's not the same case with TV, anime included. Something like Sakura Trick is very, very simple. There's barely any character development, and what's there is just there to facilitate the show being as relaxing as it is. And it really is. After destroying my brain with the ruthlessly dark Mirai Nikki, watching Sakura Trick is a welcome break, a palette cleanser before I move on to another "real" show. It's inoffensive, pleasant, and entertaining, and it's good at being those things.

Yet, if I follow my category system, Sakura Trick would score pretty low. After all, character building is limited to a few familiar stereotypes and the story is pretty much non-existent. I could only reasonably give it somewhere around a 5 in both categories, not to mention the points I'd have to take away for the couple flaws that do exist, which would plummet Sakura Trick's overall score quite low. This is partially why I created the enjoyment rating, but I still feel bad penalizing a show for having no character evolution when it never pretends to.

This is why I feel my anime review system isn't really up to scratch, but I struggle to find one that's better. I could give a single score at the end, giving a series what I think it deserves, but this seems like putting way too much power on my subjective opinion of the series. Besides, I much prefer the idea of categories, simply because it's a lot more interesting to think about and I am writing these for fun, after all. But then we run into the problem I'm struggling with: A series can be technically sub-par, but still achieve what it intends just fine. Should I then rank series on what I believe they intend to achieve? This doesn't seem fair at all, because at that point I'd be ranking Sakura Trick very close to the almost perfect 10 that I gave Mirai Nikki, which is by no means a fair comparison: Sakura Trick is nowhere near the level of Mirai Nikki. It honestly seems like an unachievable goal: I want a numerical system (because that's fun), that's category based, doesn't punish unambitious works for their unambitiousness, yet leaves a visible gap between well-pulled off unambitious pieces and the greats.

Sakura Trick is by no means a seven or an eight. It's not ambitious enough, and just simply doesn't do enough. However, it's also definitely not a five or a six: That would be underselling just how well its light-heartedness comes across, not to say anything of the joy that permeates everything that happens in the show. It's a show that doesn't aim to be anything groundbreaking, and executes its intentions perfectly, and this leaves me absolutely perplexed.

I don't know if I will write a review of Sakura Trick, since I definitely fear it. In case I don't, and even if I do, here is my recommendation: Sakura Trick is a good palette cleanser, a quick little show to watch between two more significant or impactful things that will make you smile and then allow you to move on to never really think about it again.

Animu Reviews: Mirai Nikki - Fucked Up

Mirai Nikki might be the best anime I've ever watched. I didn't enjoy it, and I'm pretty sure I wasn't meant to.

Mirai Nikki, also known as Future Diary, follows Yukkiteru, a middle-school loner who keeps a diary on his phone noting everything that happens around him. His only friend is a God he thinks is a product of his imagination, Deus, the God of Time and Space. One day, Yukkiteru awakens to discover that his diary has entries for the future, which he soon discovers to be accurate. Soon after, he's informed he is the First of twelve owners of similar diaries, each with the ability to predict different facets of the future: for instance, Yukkiteru's Diary predicts things happening around him, whereas later on we meet a character whose Diary predicts ways they can escape from danger. These have been awarded by Deus in order to play a survival game: the twelve must compete to kill each other, and the last one standing will take Deus's throne and powers. Moreover, an easy way of killing another owner is destroying their Diary, as their Diary not merely predicts the future, but actually holds the owner's future within it.

On the future, it seems like a fairly standard "survival game, but with a twist" premise, and I'd say that's a fair assessment. However, before one dismisses Mirai Nikki as just this, there are a few things to consider: First off, despite seeming simple, the Diary idea is genius. It allows a number of interesting twists as to certain character's knowledge of any situation, which are usually executed next to perfectly. This leads to really fascinating mind games happening whenever two Diary owners are in opposition, ensuring that conflict always has a psychological element to it. It's also a good way of characterizing the Diary owners: Most of them kept a Diary prior to the game starting, meaning that what their Diary predicts is a direct indicator of who they are as a person. To keep track of any given confrontation, you must understand what each Diary does, what each Diary owner thinks the other Diary currently says based on their incomplete knowledge of the situation and how actions by the Diary owners may change the contents of both party's diaries. Thanks to all these layers of mind games, conflict tends to be extremely intense, even when it just involves two people talking.

All this withstanding, the best part of Mirai Nikki are the characters, or, more precisely, the two main characters. Yukkiteru is pretty much an everyman, and not particularly interesting by himself. However, he is thrust into a number of extraordinary situations. This isn't particularly innovative, but the absolute, stone-cold realism with which he reacts to these situations is surprisingly fresh. Yukkiteru doesn't rise above the situation to become a hero. He doesn't pull off acts of great courage out of nowhere. Yukkiteru spends most of the running length of the show terrified and doing his best to hide from conflict. Even though it's never made explicit in the show, I fully believe that, by the end, he's gone mad with the stress of the whole thing.

Yukkiteru is more than a fitting protagonist, but the show is stolen by the secondary protagonist, Yuno. Yuno's a yandere, (the "infatuated to the point of being creepy" archetype, for those who don't know anime terms) taken pretty much over the edge. She is utterly, completely in love with Yukkiteru (whom she calls "Yukki" over and over), despite the two having only briefly conversed up to this point. She kept a "Yukkiteru Diary", which, having turned into a Future Diary, informs her of Yukkiteru's whereabouts and status every ten minutes. Furthermore, she is completely and utterly insane. I'm no psychologist, but there's definitely some sort of disorder there. It's not treated lightly, either, and despite being on Yukkiteru's side, Yuno is one of the most absolutely terrifying characters I've ever seen, killing efficiently and without remorse, but being able to effortlessly put on a caring and friendly face even when she's considering murdering the person she's conversing with. There's also a real instability to her: She often feels like she's on the edge of breaking into a murderous rage.

The recurring side cast is also really well done. Yukkiteru's parents are brilliantly characterized, his mother in particular, and his school friends manage to be endearing, but a few of the other participants in the game are real favourites of mine. I won't give anything away, but I really loved the Fourth and the Ninth.

In my mind, the series is divided into four clear sections. First is the "monster of the week" section, which is a very effective introduction to the show. It's pretty much what it sounds like, with Yukki and Yuno fighting a different one of the Twelve each episode or couple of episodes. It works really, really well: There's genuine tension, and since we've only just met Yuno her remorselessness is more shocking than later in the series. The other members of the Twelve are also really interesting characters in their own right, almost all of them being extremely fucked up individuals, setting up truly sadistic situations for the duo. Yukkiteru really does seem like the only sane one around for a long time, which is in effective contrast with the end of the series, when he starts acting less and less sane.

However, after a while the series starts to meander a bit. Nothing really happens except for Yuno's past being very vaguely explored. Whilst the situations continue to be compelling and utterly fucked up, character's reactions to them stop being nearly as realistic: At one point a few characters set a mortal trap for Yukkiteru and Yuno for, let's be frank, selfish reasons. Yuno almost kills one of them in revenge. Then they go back to being friendly as though nothing happened. Whilst Yuno is an extremely effective supporting character, this part of the series almost tries to cast her as the main character, which doesn't work out well.

Fortunately, soon enough things get back to fighting other Diary owners, and this part of the series is even better than the first. The owners are characterized even better, and Yukkiteru starts going through some very significant and tough character development. Yuno continues to be a lot of the reason to watch the show, but Yukkiteru finally becomes a major contributor to this as well. This is lucky, because, through brilliant manipulation by the writers, we're brought into a similar state of mind to Yuno, where all the violence and death stops feeling so meaningful, which means she can no longer carry the show as she did at the start.

Explaining what goes on in the fourth section is spoilerific, but allow me to say the following: It contains a lot of rather cliche background for Yuno, attempting to make her sympathetic, which I very much did not appreciate. There's a lot of stuff that happens that I think goes over the top, trying to bring the stakes too high up by affecting the world around the characters when we were already plenty invested in the characters themselves. However, nearly every plot thread is satisfyingly wrapped up. There's a few issues, such as the fact that the way Yukkiteru feels about Yuno changes way too fast, as well as there being another love story that comes right the fuck out of nowhere. The ending to the series itself is one I will recognize as well-made, but unsatisfying to me personally. It's rather open, which is not something I usually mind, but something about this particular one ticks me off.

I found out that there's an OVA called Future Diary Redial which fills in some of the details of the ending. I watched it, but can't say I was a particular fan of it. Whilst we get to see what happens after the events of the series, it's not in a satisfying way. There's a few plot threads in it that don't make a lot of sense, either, but the major problem I have with it is the tone. Whilst Mirai Nikki is dark and gritty, this feels a lot more relaxed and cheerful. I've often used the following observation as praise, but for Mirai Nikki it's negative: It feels like you're just hanging out with the characters. The story is also given a happier end, which feels to me like it invalidates the bittersweet end of the main series. Redial isn't part of the main series, however, and, as such, I'm not going to take Redial into account in scoring (which Future Diary should be thankful for). However, I will say this: If you get around to watching Mirai Nikki, and love it as much as I did, as well as agree with me on the ending being inconclusive, give Redial a watch. It's not brilliant, but it's there. If you liked the ending, skip Redial unless you desperately want to see more of the characters.

Character and World Building: 10/10
It's not an interesting world: It's the real world, and it's portrayed well. The characters are absolutely phenomenal. Yuno carries the show in a big way, but Yukkiteru is interesting in his own right, and the roster of side characters is also full of fascinating, disturbing individuals. Fights aren't as much physical affairs as exploration of the interaction between two characters on a psychological level, and work fantastically as a result.

Story: 7/10
When it works, it really works. Unfortunately, the story insists on taking several unnecessary detours that really slow down the action. It also feels somewhat disjointed early on, though it's easy to overlook it considering how good the character interactions are.

Presentation: 5/5
The show looks great, very sharp and crisp. Character design is outstanding (Aside from one ridiculous-looking outfit early on that's made fun of later in the show), which feels appropriate seeing how well-developed they are. However, what really struck me is the absolutely phenomenal soundtrack, the theme to the first half of the series in particular being mind-blowingly great.

Emotional Impact: 15/15
I've decided to, for this one review, substitute enjoyment with this category because Mirai Nikki is simply not fun. It's not meant to be fun. It's a tense, unpleasant anime, where you'll spend a large portion of your time terrified that Yuno might snap, worrying about Yukkiteru's sanity or scared about some other horrible occurrence. That's what it wants to do, and that's what it does, very, very well. Better than any other anime I've watched.


Overall: (10+7+5+15)/40
               37/40
              9.25/10

Future Diary is great. It investigates a bunch of characters fantastically, and manages to keep it real the whole way through. Despite the fact that a lot of them are truly despicable, you'll come to care about these people, and you'll be alongside Yukkiteru, feeling his mind slowly break down as a torrent of crazy shit happens to him that no normal person could withstand. It's not fun, but it's captivating and enthralling, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Mirai Nikki to anyone who isn't averse to a dark story.

Animu Reviews: Dog Days - The Best Kind of Dumb

Hello! First off, I want to mention a few minor changes to the review format before I get started with said review proper. As I'd previously mentioned, I felt the "Enjoyment" rating didn't have enough weight, which result in certain animes (mostly Sword Art Online) getting an overall rating lower than I felt they deserved. As such, I've now made "Enjoyment" a rating out of 15, to give it that extra ooomph in the weighted average. I also found that I rarely had anything to say for the "Audio" rating, so I've decided to fuse that with the "Visuals" into a 5 point "Presentation" rating. In any given review you can expect the old "Visuals" to account for about 3-4 points out of that and "Audio" for the rest. Now that I've got this shit out of the way, on with the thing you actually care about.

I'll be honest, I came into this latest anime, Dog Days, with fairly low expectations. It'd been described to me as "the most generic anime ever", and I'd watched an episode of Chip Cheezum and General Ironicus's Anime Theatre (which is hilarious, by the way) where they mocked what seemed like a really sloppy anime episode that turned out to be from Dog Days. Still, I was curious where this thing would go, and decided to give it a try. It turned out to be the most relaxing and endearingly silly anime I've seen with the exception of the three series of Aria (The Animation, The Natural and The Origination)

Dog Days follows Shinku, a Japanese boy who is really into athletics, and is able to perform tricks that I'm pretty sure are impossible in real life. One day, before going on vacation, he falls into a portal to the world of Flonyard (or as the subtitles spelled it in later seasons, Flognarde), where the Republic of Biscotti, lead by Princess Milhiore (Yes, a republic with a princess. Anime.) is at war with the Empire of Gallette. Also, the Biscottians are all dog people and the Galletians are all cat people. Turns out, Millhiore (Millhi to her friends) has summoned him as a hero for Biscotti. Shortly before his first battle it turns out that Flonyard is a utopia, where wars are actually basically giant games: people fight as usual in Earth war (with some magic thrown in), but don't die due to mystical energy bollocks that no one cares about.

This is the main gimmick of the series, and one that carries it through its strongest episodes. Battles are pretty much meaningless, with the only thing at stake being the pride of certain characters. Even then, Flonyard is such a utopia that everybody's friends with each other, even people on different sides of wars, and no one comes out of war with hurt feelings. Be it in battle or outside, the only thing people seem to feel for each other is the deepest affection, even if it's sometimes covered up by being the classic "Gentle heart with a snarky exterior" stereotype.

The main draw of the series is in this. Most of the time there's really no conflict whatsoever, and everyone's just having a bunch of fun. Battles are colorful and entertaining to watch, playing out much like games of Dynasty Warriors (Thousands of mooks that do nothing are constantly being defeated by powerful named characters), but nothing's on the line most of the time. They're usually accompanied by two friendly commentators explaining what happened in typical anime style, and as the series goes on, involve more and more silly maneouvers. Outside of battle the characters are fairly endearing if extremely basic, and once again spend time just goofing around and having fun. Considering most of these people are royalty and people very high up in the chain of command, they seem to have a surprising amount of time to play frisbee, have people pet them, and just generally goof around a whole bunch.

There is a plotline to each season, but it might as well not be there. Just revealing the plot to season one is practically a spoiler, but let it be said that most of the season is just war game shenanigans with nothing seemingly at stake. This is perhaps the only actual time the plot works in the series, being fairly distressing and actually having some tension for about two minutes at one point. Season two is my favourite by far: Nothing happens in it. There's a bunch of wars and then people hang out, and it's just fun and relaxing and dumb. Season three tries to cram way too much plot in there, and doesn't feature a single of the wars that made the first two seasons so entertaining. It's a brave attempt to shake things up, but it really doesn't work: The tone is too serious and it ends up falling flat because of all the dumb stuff that came before. I just want the characters to shut up and beat each other up in a war that's been declared literally for fun some more so I can see the pretty colors. Or at least go play frisbee.

Our cast is pretty much a series of anime archetypes. You've got Shinku, the hero boy, and his rival Prince Gaul, you've got Princess Milhiore the kind and gentle one, you've got Leonmitchelli the strong and confident warrior woman, you've got the goofy trio of the Genoise, the cute and clumsy but smart Rico and the aggressive but deep inside kind captain of the guard Eclair, as well as a whole host of others. It's a show with a lot of characters, and this is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, it provides a lot of different fighters that can throw pretty colors at each other in different ways whilst shouting different stupid attack names, but it also means we become less emotionally invested in each individual character. Not that it really matters anyway, since no one is set to win or loose anything throughout most of the show.

One thing that did make me deeply uncomfortable however is this: It might not be obvious because of the goofy names, but every important character but Shinku and Gaul is female. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but the problem is that sometime in the first season the writers seemed to decide the way that female characters loose battles is by having their clothes completely destroyed. This means there are lots and lots of situations where there's just barely hidden anime boobs (something always gets between the nipples and the camera) hanging around, which is in stark contrast with how innocent everything else is. Almost more unsettling to me was that pretty much every female character who wasn't either related to Shinku or in a previous relationship ends up falling in love with him, and discuss it amongst themselves at several times. I understand the concept of a harem anime, and it's always made me uncomfortable, but this seems like such blatant wish fulfilment that it made me feel skeevy watching at times. Luckily, most of the time characters are too busy shooting magic lasers at each other to talk about it.

The thing that I'll always remember looking back at the show is just how endearingly silly it is. The battles are dumb anime fare, but the whole affair is seeping with silliness, in every detail. Each coutnry has two magic swords that metamorphose into whatever weapon is most useful for the wielder. For one person this is a broom and deck of cards. A bunch of characters get these super powerful ancient stones that make them about four years older when activated. One of the characters at one point summons a sword larger than a mountain and uses it to cut her opponent's clothes off. People like to be petted because they're animals. Nations declare war on each other literally just for fun. Everyone is named after a biscuit or cake. And so on.

Character and World Building: 8.5/10
Flonyard is a fantastically charming place, despite lacking all realism. I love the way it's presented, and there's actually some interesting backstory about how it became this utopian wonderland, having originally been what seems to be a pretty grim place. Everything's friendly in Flonyard, and a place being beautiful and having great people is pretty much a default. The characters are really basic, but there's a huge roster of them and they're all fairly endearing. The ones that get more screentime are really pleasant, and I appreciate the time spent hanging out with them

Story: 4.5/10
It would've been better off without the story. I really enjoyed the first season, but the last few episodes, where it tries to put some story elements in, were the weakest by far. The second season, a collection of just stuff happening was by far the best, and the third just made me want the people to stop talking. That's honestly what pushes it below the neutral 5 mark: The story actively got in the way of me enjoying the series in the last season.

Presentation: 4/5
It's really, really pretty. The characters look great, as do the backgrounds. The battles are really fun to watch, with plenty of unique fighting styles and visual flare. Whilst voice-acting is top notch I wasn't fond of the music, which was unfortunate because one of the main characters is a singer and we're forced to listen to her really shitty J-pop on more than one occasion, which halts everything else.

Enjoyment: 14.5/15
Immensely enjoyable. It's relaxing, it's endearing, it's entertaining.

Overall: (8.5+4.5+4+14.5)/40 =
                31.5/40
                (Roughly 7.8/10)

Dog Days is dumb. It's real dumb. And that's the biggest compliment I can give it. Its stupidity is what makes it endearing and entertaining. It's what it gives it character, and brings a smile to my face when I'm watching it. I firmly believe Dog Days knows just how tremendously silly it is, and doesn't care. It's lighthearted, enjoyable fun. There's no odds or issues or conflict, and that's fine, because we're having fun and that's all that matters. 

The How And Why Of Story-Based Gaming

Warning: Major spoilers for TellTale's Walking Dead Season 1 and The Wolf Among Us in this piece.

As would be evident to anyone who's read this blog for a decent amount of time, I'm a huge fan of story-based games. I don't even mean the RPG brand of story-based here, where the story is just one of the two main draws of the game, the other being a solid mechanical base, but something a lot less gamey: think Ace Attorney, Katawa Shoujo (Even if I don't think of it as a game per say) or the latest TellTale adventure games.

I was talking to a "layman" (someone who doesn't really play any games beyond the latest Call of Duty and FIFA) about that last specific example, namely the first season of their Walking Dead games.  As you know, I'm a big fan of that particular game, seeing as to this day I still consider it my second favourite game of all time. After a fairly in-depth description, including how despite the huge amount of choices in these games there's actually practically no branching, they came up with a point that really stumped me for a while:

"Why not just make it a movie then?"

They have a point. After playing a TellTale game twice, you'll know there's no real changes that you can instigate in the story, and you'd be rather foolish to expect this to have massively changed in future games. Why would you write four dialogue choices that make no difference when you could write just one? Furthermore, wouldn't just having to write the one mean that the time spent writing three redundant exchanges could instead be spent on making the one exchange more compelling? At a first glance, it definitely seems so. Yet even after playing Walking Dead Season 1 twice, I found the choices in Wolf Among Us massively compelling, despite knowing full well that I was likely not changing anything past the next few minutes.

One explanation for this is simply getting caught up in the moment. Despite me having my share of complaints with it, I can't deny that Wolf Among Us is an enthralling story, even without the choices. Perhaps I just got so into it that I forgot to think about how unimportant my choices really were? This would basically be the same as successfully maintaining that illusion of choice. It's certainly a possibility, and not one that I can easily refute, but I like to believe that I'm enough of a sourpuss that I wouldn't fall into this. So, let's ignore it for the sake of argument.

The second explanation, this being both the one I find more likely and more interesting, is simply context. There's a moment in Walking Dead that's used as an example of "how badly" TellTale games handle this that I believe to be exactly the opposite: Lily, a member of your motley crew of survivors, kills another member of the crew. You get to make a decision: you can leave Lily on the roadside to get killed by the approaching horde, or take her with you on your caravan. Doing the second results in her soon stealing the caravan and driving off, at a moment in the story where the party wasn't going to use it anymore anyway due to it being practically out of gas. The result for both is ultimately the same: Lily's out of the story, likely dead, and the party is stuck at a train depot without any real means of transportation.

The most obvious point to make is "Well, you killed Lily in one outcome, and in the other she betrayed you and went off into her death through lack of knowledge of the situation". That's true, but it's a very small piece of the relationship of your relationship with Lily.

You see, you originally meet Lily with her father Larry, and absolutely massive man, and both of them are really confrontational. You soon come into Larry's bad books, and at one point he leaves you to die, being saved by Kenny, another survivor who's at odds with the two. Later on, when Kenny and Lily are butting heads over how to lead the survivor colony, you can support either of the two, resulting in you gaining or loosing approval from both parties. The entire time, Larry's still being confrontational, which you can choose to ignore as an old man's ramblings, further gaining Lily's approval. Eventually, you're trapped in an enclosed space with Lily, Kenny, your child protege Clementine, and an apparently dead Larry. It's clear that if Larry raises up as a zombie, you're all dead. Kenny encourages you to destroy Larry's head to prevent him from rising up, whereas Lily begs you to try and revive him. Depending on your previous choices, you can further gain her gratitude by trying (and failing) to protect him, shock her by betraying her trust, earn her hatred by killing her father in what she sees as revenge, or further instigate the feud between the two of you by killing him in what she acknowledges you thought was self-defence. The way her killing of the member of your party happens also depends on a choice you made much earlier, where it's either an intentional killing  of your implied love interest in the heat of the moment born of unjustified paranoia, or an unfortunate but lethal accident.

None of the choices you've made along the way matter. Ultimately, you end up being leader of the colony despite not vying for the place, Larry ends up getting his head smashed in whilst unconscious in front of Lily, Lily kills whichever of the two people you saved much earlier on and ends up dying for it. However, the story you've navigated through ends up being radically different. On my first playthrough, I butted heads with Lily and Larry until, by mistake, I smashed Larry's head in when he was alive. Lily saw this as me taking revenge, and held a grudge against me, making my life difficult at every turn. Eventually, she shot someone dear to me, and I left her to die on the roadside.

On my second playthrough, whilst I disagreed with Lily's leadership, I saw her doing her best and tried to stay as friendly as possible with Larry, even trying to forgive his leaving me to die. I eventually unsuccessfully tried to prevent Kenny from smashing his head in before attempts at recuperation, which led to Lily and me being friendly. Through a complete accident, she shot a close friend of mine. I did my best to keep her alive, but she betrayed my trust by stealing our only means of transport, simultaneously accidentally dooming herself to the very fate I'd convinced the group not to leave her to a few hours prior.

I was still leader of the colony. Larry still died at our hands because he was unconscious. A friend still ended up dead. Lily still wound up MIA, with practically zero chances of survival. But don't tell me those aren't two completely different stories. The first is fraught with anger, resentment, and mistrust, whereas the second is a tale of what appears to be an unlikely friendship blossoming ending with a foolish and painful betrayal. It's not what happens in the story, but the choices you made and how that affected how you and the people around you understood the events that made this sub-plot of Walking Dead enthralling.

However, this isn't the only thing that choice does. It's not just a choice to write out branching paths and storylines, but also a tool to put the weight of them on your shoulders, be it the case that it's your fault or not. At several points in The Wolf Among Us, you encounter a ring of prostitutes who physically cannot disclose certain information. Eventually, you discover that this is due to a ribbon tied around their neck that contains a charm, tied to one of them. For all the girls, removing the ribbon results in the head being severed. You end up talking with the "key", the girl whose ribbon the enchantments on all the other girls is tied to. There's practically no history between you two, you've met once or twice before, fairly briefly. However, you get the option to force her to untie the ribbon: This will sever her head, but release the enchantment from the rest of the girls. This is the option I chose. However, at a later point it becomes important that the enchantment has been released. Unless this game changes more than I give it credit for, I can only assume that the other option is she elects to untie it herself, committing suicide for the good of her coworkers.

This alone is a huge emotional change. I felt really conflicted about forcing her ribbon undone, but I justified it in my head by arguing that this enchantment had already cost several lives, and was likely to cost more if it wasn't undone. Furthermore, she'd willingly and knowingly tricked her friends into having the charm placed on them, which made her liable to suffer the fate she'd put others to in order to spare them from it. At several later points in the game, whenever the consequences of the charm being broken became important, I felt pangs of guilt about it, and changed my behaviour accordingly. If she'd chosen to take her own life in my version of the game, I'm not sure it would've made my heart any lighter, but it certainly would've alleviated most of the guilt, as well as made me less resentful of her in the long run. Even though the outcome would have been the same, my emotional reaction to it would have been completely different because the guilt wouldn't have lay on me.

That's an emotion that I think games can bring out to its fullest extent, better than any other story-telling medium, and that's why I think story-based gaming works well with stories as dark Walking Dead or Wolf Among Us. Context, in both the long and short run, can make a story feel radically different, even if the overall structure of it is the same. Whilst TellTale has repeatedly fallen flat on its promises of hugely diverging stories depending on player choice, I believe the company has mastered the art of contextualizing the same story event through choices that don't change anything.

Persona 4: Arena And The Untapped Potential Of Fighting Games

I've been recently playing a hell of a lot of Persona 4: Arena, having gained access to a PS3. I'll review the game in full when I finish all of the story stuff, which I'm about 65% through, according to the game itself, but there's an interesting point that I feel it brings up.

A lot of people (myself included) thought that the continuation of Persona 4's story being a fighting game seemed mighty odd. Indeed, the fighting game genre is a one that's not very well regarded when it comes to story. I struggle to think of a fighting game that's had a story more in-depth than "Big fight tournament happen. Strong men, women, gods, mutants and other beat crap out of each other for reason", present company excluded.

This is understandable. There just isn't much place for story in a fighting game: matches are generally really quick (the maximum they can possibly last is just under three-hundred seconds on default settings), which means story will either be very minimalistic or take over completely. Even in Arena, the story mode is more a visual novel with occasional fights than a fighting game. As such, it's understandable that you'd shy away from putting money into story when you already have the delicate task of crafting a fighting game, arguably the game genre that requires the most finely-tuned mechanics.

But let's examine what a fighting game entails: Two characters with a series of moves and abilities, fighting in single combat. There's no doubt that there's a high degree of skill involved, but mechanically every match is an exploration of how the two systems that these characters represent interact and interlock. Traditionally, the character is secondary to the system, and is visually a representation of the system itself: We've got a character who moves around and jumps a lot, and specializes in fast, long strikes before moving away, so let's make it the "nimble Chinese fighter woman" stereotype and call it Chun-Li, because that kind of fits. You then build a stage around the character, and give them a tune that fits with the stereotype you've molded them into.

This is perfectly fine, and is the more practical way of designing a fighter. I'm sure if you work this way you'll end up with a deeper and more rewarding fighting game. But there's an alternative, and I'm sure you already know where I'm going but I'm going to spell it out anyway: You can explore characters by abstracting them into systems rather than viceversa. This works great if these characters come from another game, say, where there's already pre-established moves from them to have.

If you didn't see this coming you must be blind, but this is exactly what Persona 4: Arena does in a really interesting way. Every character feels like they were built to play the way that character would play, over systemic interaction with other characters in mind. Yu is very straight-forward and versatile, Yosuke is fast but somewhat unreliable, Teddie very much feels like you're kind of doing random shit and it happens to be working... Every character's representation within the game feels like an abstraction of their personality in a very direct sense. A fight between two characters can go drastically different between the players, but one gets an impression that, in a way, it's still very much an interaction between characters rather than systems. Play the game and tell me you don't pale in front of Akihiko's bulldog-like persistence, or that Naoto's unrelentingly logical playstyle doesn't overwhelm you. A match between Teddie and Kanji will result in either Teddie outspeeding Kanji and exhausting his resources, or Kanji's anger blowing Teddie completely out of the water, two scenarios very familiar to anyone who's journeyed through Persona 4.

In a way, fighting games are the most in-depth exploration of character that videogames can offer. Literature and film have long explored characters in the traditional sense. Much like in other areas, videogames offer a completely new way of thinking about character interaction, and I believe that fighting games are an absolutely phenomenal way of doing so. As ridiculous as it sounds, the time spent fooling around in fights in Persona 4: Arena gave me a very different but just as valid understanding of the characters I'd grown to love so much during Persona 4. As such, I do something that I didn't think I would when I was sneering at the idea of Arena and picking it up almost out of pity: I throw my vote in for more fighting-game spin-offs for mostly character-driven stories. I understand that it's never going to become common practice, and that few companies get the resources or freedom that ATLUS had in order to make Arena, but I believe the fighting game as an exploration of pre-established characters has much potential.

(Of course, creating complex, in the literary sense, characters and putting a story mode in your brand-new IP of a fighting game is also an option, though one that seems even more unlikely and quite difficult to pull off).