Princess Tutu Review (English)

Princess Tutu Review (English)

Princess Tutu Review (English). Princess Tutu is a Fantasy/Comedy anime based on the manga by Mizuo Shinonome and published by Akita Shoten. ADV Manga is the English publisher. The 26 episode anime comes from Hal Film Maker and is currently licensed by ADV Films. Japan originally ran the series from August 2002 to May 2003.

13-year-old ballet student, Duck, is clumsy, but good-hearted and sweet... and has a big secret. The mysterious Drosselmayer morphed a young duck into a girl to give her a mission: help a Prince to get the parts of his heart back. With that in mind, she transforms into the beautiful Princess Tutu, whose magical dances ease pain and purifies the bad feelings. However, the evil Raven and his minions soon seek to foil Duck’s plans. The Prince’s friend, Fakir, who refuses to allow the heart shards to return, for reasons unknown, also opposes the Princess.

The art and animation of Tutu is simple, yet fantastic when it really wants to be. The entire show is presented as if it’s one big ballet using animation, lighting, and music to its fullest extent. One thing to keep in mind about this series is it’s a magical girl anime. Meaning, yes, there will be a long transformation sequence in about every episode. However, unlike a lot of other magical girl shows, Duck’s transformation into Princess Tutu is only about fifteen seconds; when most others take a full minute or more. Another important thing to point out is the show’s music. A lot of popular musical compositions from ballets are played throughout the story. From the Nutcracker to Swan Lake, these pieces work really well and add just a special touch to the entire picture.

Princess Tutu’s story is simple. A duck wants to become a girl so she can try and make the prince smile. A mysterious man gives her the opportunity to do so, and she becomes so much more. The story is also so simple; yet so emotionally investing that it becomes, like Duck, so much more. In the beginning of each episode, there is even a slight narration of a story that will have something to do with the current episode. For example, the passage in the beginning of this review is the narration from the first episode. Other narrations the series gives way to are A Mid Summer Night’s Dream, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella. The story really does reach out and pull your heartstrings, and, for probably a good amount of people, will leave you in tears by the series end. wipes eyes what?

Oh the characters, what to say about them. In a word: growth. These characters grow so much, coming into their own and accepting who they were really suppose to be, and defying Drosselmeyer’s plans of how the story is to go. Two characters that had the most amount of growth were certainly Rue, Duck’s rival, and Fakir. Both start out very similar to each other because of their wish to protect Mytho, and later on they each become more important and even more relevant to the story almost as much as Duck or Mytho. Each of the four main characters can be relatable in some way and the viewers will even be able to see themselves in, at least, one character. For me, it would have to be Rue. I won’t go into too much detail why, but Rue’s desire for love really hits home for me and even makes me cry a little bit.

Tutu’s English dub is outstanding! For a magical girl anime, the cast was taken into careful consideration when the dub was made. Luci Christian (Soul Eater) as Duck was perfect! I seriously had to look online to find out it really was her, and it is certainly one of her best roles to date. Jay Hickman’s (Elfen Lied) Mytho was a little hard to get used to, however, like Mytho, Hickman starts out as unemotional and empty and starts to learn how to feel again once the shards of his heart begin to return. Then you have Chris Patton (Welcome to the NHK) as Fakir. Absolutely splendid! Not only does Patton play our supposed villain really well, but also his panic and pain as to his true purpose in the story become apparent later on. Jessica Boone (Canaan) as Rue was also a lovely choice. Equal parts snobby, cunning, and sweet, Boone displays this very well. One of the more fun roles of this series has got to be Marty Fleck (Project Blue Earth SOS) as Drosselmeyer. Outstanding from start to finish! Other actors include: Christine Auten (SDF Macross) as Edel/Uzura, Cynthia Martinez (Kino’s Journey) as Pike, Sasha Paysinger (Best Student Council) as Lille (really funny girl FYI), and TJP (Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok) as Mr. Cat (Be careful or you might be stuck marrying him). Plus there are two Narrators for the story: Jennie Welch (Mezzo) and Marcy Bannor (Red Garden).

Alright, I’ve stated many times already that Princess Tutu is a magical girl anime. However, there is a different side to this series; a much darker side. For about half of the series, you get the same thing each episode: Duck being clumsy, a heart shard is found, Duck becomes Tutu, and returns the shard to Mytho; Lather, Rinse, Repeat. I don’t want to give anything away, but if you know of the story of Swan Lake, then you already can guess what kind of happens next; and then some. From this point on, the story become really really dark. And some people might begin to ask if this really is a kid’s show. It is, but that’s the appeal of Princess Tutu. It not only tailors to kids, but to some adults as well, including men. I’ve heard from several of my friends, and other critics that “real men watch Princess Tutu”, and I think that’s a real fact. I know of a few guys who have either seen it and loved it or have yet to see it and it is on their list of anime to watch. I’m even willing to bet that a few anime haters will fall in love with the story as well.

When the curtain falls, Princess Tutu is a heartfelt story that captivates both children and adults alike. It’s visuals give off the sense of a real ballet and its characters are both entertaining and relatable. This is one of the very few anime I can highly recommend to both guys and girls, and is certainly a top favorite of mine.

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Super Dimension Fortress Macross Review (English)

Alright, so we’ve seen Vic Mignogna in many roles in recent anime. Now it’s time to talk about an anime that probably only children of the 80’s (and with time machines) would be able to remember.

Super Dimension Fortress Macross is an Action/Drama/SciFi anime that originally aired in Japan from October 1982 to June 1983. It comes from three Japanese studios: Studio Nue, Artland, and Tatsunoko Production. A manga adaptation was released in 2009 and is currently ongoing. ADV Films holds the current rights to the 36 episode anime and released an english dub version in 2006. There are many MANY sequels to this series, the most recent being Macross Frontier The Movie: The Wings of Goodbye; released in February 2011.

In 1999, an alien spaceship crashes on South Ataria Island and makes the human race aware of other life in space. Ten years later, the ship is reconstructed and christened as the SDF-1 Macross. However, on the day of its maiden voyage, an alien race called the Zentradi make their appearance on Earth—thus beginning Space War I, a UN Spacy/Zentradi war that would change the history of both races forever.

What to say about the animation...... It’s the 80’s. Macross isn’t the most well animated series by today’s standards, but for the 80’s, the animation fits. However, I mentioned in my D.N.Angel review that there are a few times where animated scenes are repeated. Macross is an even BIGGER offender of this, with multiple scenes being reused several times. In one episode, even the animation from the opening theme is reused, along with the song during a dream sequence about half way through. The end theme for Macross is in probably worse shape, being in no way animated and is just a real person flipping through a photo album. I guess, maybe, the budgets back then weren’t all that great or the technology wasn’t that good. The soundtrack and the dub were redone back in 2006, and you can tell very quickly. If only they redid the sound effects in the same way, there would be a little more consistency with the audio as a whole and you wouldn’t have to rage as much. Another problem that can sometimes be a distraction, is the lack of consistency with color. I swear, in one episode, Minmay was wearing something blue and in only two seconds it switched from purple to blue about five or six times. Again, it’s the 80’s. Animation isn’t exactly going to be top notch right now.

Macross’s story is split into three parts: the journey back to earth, the fight against the Zentrati, and then two years after the fight. The transition into these parts does run rather smoothly and the story as a whole is good. However, some of the reoccurring messages of race and sexism are just thrown into your face constantly.... There’s nothing subtle or underlying about it at all, and it drives me nuts! The biggest sexism offender is Roy Focker, with Hikaru Ichijyo at a close second. I understand, again, it’s the 80’s, but could you at least have SOME amount of subtly, or respect? I mean these are main characters that we’re supposed to identify with, why do they all have to be jerks? Was everyone like this in the 80s? Then there’s the romances that just suddenly pop up out of nowhere, the big one being Roy Focker and Claudia La’Salle. Mid way through the series, it’s just abruptly there and is neither explained nor seen until that mid waypoint. Granted, we get a flashback from Claudia much later on in the series, literally episode 33, as to how they met, but again, it just pops up out of nowhere. Now with Hikaru and Misa Hayase, it’s actually developed throughout the series and by the end, you’re pretty happy where it is.

The characters of Macross are actually fairly well developed. The writers at Macross only looked into who TRULY mattered in the series like Hikaru, Misa, and even some members of the Zentrati have development stashed away in them (hell you could argue the entire race got some development through the series). Sadly, Lynn Minmay doesn’t seem to have much to her, even though, for most of the series, it seems like they’re trying to make her the heroine when she’s actually not. Since the series is 36 episodes long, the storywriters actually had the time to give a lot of characters development. However, a lot of it is thrown at you constantly in every episode. There are only a few things that actually take time to grow and develop, which is a plus, but they are few and far between.

ADV Films didn’t take the series lightly when considering the dub in 2006. The voice acting for the dub has it’s good actors and it’s bad, but is, overall, a really good dub. Monica Rial (Soul Eater) as Misa Hayase, John Swasey (D.N.Angel) as Captain Global, and John Gremillion (One Piece) as Britai Kridanik are among the better choices. Another I rather enjoyed was Brett Weaver’s (Neon Genesis Evangelion) Roy Focker. You can really tell how much of a cocky and sexist war hero this guy really is through his performance. Now here’s where I do a little bit of complaining, because the voice actress for Lynn Minmay is the same person who did the Japanese version back in 1982. Don’t get me wrong, Mari Iijima doesn’t do a completely terrible job in the dub; she’s done the role before so she knows what is expected of the character. It’s just why do they deem it necessary to have Minmay speak with some sort of hard to understand accent? Maybe they wanted her to stand out more as a character, but it just failed. A better voice actor should have been in order for the role, but Iijima wanted to step in instead. Can we find someone who can actually speak english please? Besides, Minmay is Chinese, if she’s speaking with an accent why aren’t the other ACTUALLY Japanese characters like Hayase, and Hikaru speaking with an accent as well?! Some other voice actors include Christine Auten, Jason Douglas, Chris Patton, Hilary Haag, Luci Christian, Christopher Ayres, Leraldo Anzaldua, Illich Guardiola, and Greg Ayres.

Now for our man of the month: Vic Mignogna. His role as Hikaru Ichijyo is, actually, what I expected the character to be. Again, there’s the whole “I’m hearing Edward Elric again” problem, but after a while you’re not watching Ed but Hikaru. Plus, I took a small peak at the Japanese version, and Vic Mignogna plays Hikaru as a younger, more naive pilot; making for a much better character overall. However, even Vic falls prey to the constant sexism that’s given off in the series and then makes me want to punch him in the face. His character does make a “women in the kitchen” statement, so that ought to tell you enough. Overall, for a grade, I’m gonna give Vic Mignogna an A- for his role as Hikaru Ichijyo.

Through it all, Super Dimension Fortress Macross is an old 80’s classic with numerous flaws technically and story wise, but does make up for it with a carefully selected cast and fairly well developed characters. It may be true that Macross was created in the wake of the Gundam franchise three year before, but it can be viewed as it’s ugly, sexy voiced cousin. It’s a decent classic anime, but it hasn’t quite aged well by today’s standards. If you’re interested in mecha or scifi anime, take a peek, but don’t be extremely thrilled with what you see.



That's it for Vic Mignogna month! And with one month to go, the year is almost out and soon it will be the dreaded 2012. For now, let me know which is you favorite Vic Mignogna role ever in the comments below. And take part in the poll posted at the top of the page! The next, and last, anime review of 2011 will be Princess Tutu. Until then, see you next time!

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Umineko no Naku Koro ni Review (Japanese)

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And now that that epicness is done, we can begin! And, since Halloween is right around the corner, I figured I would review a very disturbing anime that will make you squirm. I mentioned the villain of this anime back in August, now you get to see why this anime is just as good as it’s main villain.

Umineko no Naku Koro ni, or When the Seagulls Cry, is a Drama/Mystery anime based on the video games from 07th Expansion as well as the manga by Ryukishi07/07th Expension. The 26 episode anime comes from Studio Deen, originally running from July to December 2009. It has yet to be licensed in America.

Umineko no Naku Koro ni takes place in the year 1986, during the time frame of October 4 and October 5 on a secluded island named Rokkenjima. The head of a wealthy family named Kinzo Ushiromiya, who lives on and owns Rokkenjima, is near death, and eight of his family members arrive on the island to discuss how Kinzo's assets will be divided once he is dead. Also on the island are three family members who live there, five of Kinzo's servants, and his personal physician. After the eight family members arrive, a typhoon traps them on the island and shortly after people start to get mysteriously murdered. The main culprit is Beatrice, the Golden Witch; reputed to be the source of the family’s wealth. However, Battler Ushiromiya doesn't believe in magic or witches and decides to face off against Beatrice in order to prove how a human is capable of murder, not magic. With the clock ticking, and a riddle to solve that will endow all the family’s gold to one who solves it, who will remain alive to claim it? And just who is the real culprit, human or witch?

The art style and animation of Umineko is rather simple. It has it’s moments of sure brilliance when it comes to the magic of Beatrice and others around her. It’s also a rather colorful anime, not bright and in your face, yet it’s not pastel and faded looking. The series also adds in symbols that can become rather significant at different points in the show. From the family crest to the bloody symbols on the doors of where people have been killed, Umineko doesn’t waste it’s time and remains on where it should be. Even the music is suspenseful and dark, which, even though it’s a standard of mystery stories, works wonderfully. Combining this with the Phantom of the Opera-ish opening and ending theme music, it shows how dark and mysterious this anime is suppose to be.

Umineko’s story is carried out really well. Not only are you watching Battler Ushiromiya fighting against the witch Beatrice, you’re even sucked in and continuously are trying to solve the “closed door murders” that are set up for you. Add on several side plots involving many of the family members, including; George and Shannon’s relationship, Eva and her other self, Rosa’s abuse toward Maria, Maria’s own magical powers, and the mysterious girl Gretel who assists Battler in the 4th game. The story keeps it’s main focus but intelligently adds these story lines as each new game begins, keeping the story from getting old and making it more interesting as the series goes on. However, the series comes to an abrupt end at, what seems to be, more of a cliff hanger moment. Where the anime ends, the video games pick up and continue; and, unless you’ve played them, you won’t know what happens next.

Only certain characters have any type of development during the series, many of them I mentioned, previously, as part of the side plots. You only see major character development from Shannon, Eva, Maria, Battler, Kanon, and Beatrice herself. However, for some of the characters, it’s more of a revelation then development, like in the cases of Maria and Shannon. For Kanon, he has a small piece of development that carries on through the rest of the series and for each game. For Eva, her development comes ONLY in the third game, for the rest of the time (Games 1, 2, and 4) she remains the same. As for Battler and Beatrice, since they are the two main players in the game, they go through a lot of ups and downs throughout. However, I have a small problem with how some development is introduced; and it mostly comes from the 4th game. All of a sudden you are thrown in a TON of information regarding Maria and Ange (Battler’s younger sister), and it takes you away from the last game for a few episodes; after which, you are suddenly tossed back in and it becomes a bit rushed.

Sadly, there’s no English Dub for Umineko, so I could only watch the Japanese. I’m not saying that the Japanese was bad, it was AMAZINGLY good; it just would have been interesting to see what America could come up with for this series. Daisuke Ono’s performance as Battler was perfect! His confidence and intellect was delivered wonderfully, like a real fighter should be. Sayaka Ohara’s Beatrice was fantastic as well. Ohara gave her the cruel, confident, and strong willed personality; at the same time, there was a sympathetic and tender nature used as well when needed. As for the rest of the cast, maybe a slight better choice here or there, but overall really well done. The only other voice actress I’m going to mention is Yui Horie as Maria. I only have two words for this little girl: HOLY F***!!!! She is so sweet and innocent yet sooooo creepy it’s scary!!...... And makes me giggle.

As I mentioned before, Umineko is based on the video game series from 07th Expansion; and I also mentioned that there’s more to the story after the anime ends. The series only covers the first four video games: Legend of the Golden Witch, Turn of the Golden Witch, Banquet of the Golden Witch, and Alliance of the Golden Witch. These four games are actually played out in the anime, but there are four MORE video games that come after and were released after the anime: End of the Golden Witch, Dawn of the Golden Witch, Requiem of the Golden Witch, and Twilight of the Golden Witch. Each game brings about new scenarios and a few new characters for each, and it kind of makes me understand why the anime stopped where it did. However, you don’t just stop at a place like that in an anime and not finish it. The only explanation I can probably think of for this, is that the anime was created to advertise their games. That or they haven’t finished it yet cause of the release of the last four games; Twilight of the Golden Witch, having been released in December 2010. Keep your fingers crossed for another anime season?

At the end of the day, Umineko no Naku Koro ni, When the Seagulls Cry, is a very intense mystery with several versions of the incident linked together through a battle over the existence of magic. It has plenty of interesting and fun characters, and plenty of magic to go around. Umineko has been one of my favorite anime since I first saw it, and it still is today. My only request for Studio Deen..... PLEASE MAKE ANOTHER SEASON!!!!

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Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo Review (Japanese)

Ready for a classic story..... IN SPACE?!?!?!?! Well.... Not quite entirely in space..... But it is in space a little bit.

Gankutsuou is a 24 episode Drama/Science Fiction anime loosely based on Alexandre Dumas classic novel Le Comte de Monte-Cristo. Studio Gonzo gave us the anime while Geneon originally held the rights and was released in 2006. Then in 2008, after Geneon went under, FUNimation announced they had required the license for the series and it was rereleased in 2009. It originally ran from October 2004 to March 2005, and a manga version published by Kodansha and licensed by Del Rey was released that May and is currently ongoing.

The story takes place in the far future of the 51st Century, during the year 5053. While visiting Luna for the festival, Viscount Albert de Morcerf and Baron Franz d'Épinay make the acquaintance of the Count of Monte Cristo, a self-made nobleman. When they part, the Count promises to visit Albert in Paris. After he arrives, he introduces himself to the most powerful families in France (the Morcerfs, the Danglars, and the Villeforts). The general plot of Gankutsuou, while broadly the same as the novel on which it is based, changes many aspects of the source material. In the novel, the narrative arc follows the Count chronologically; in the anime, the story begins with Albert and Franz meeting the Count on Luna (which occurs, in Rome, many hundreds of pages into the book), and the Count's back story is pieced together throughout the series. The anime's plot includes supernatural elements, talking about space travel, computer systems and robots, different fates for some characters, the disposal of several side-plots, and an altogether different ending.

The look of the series is certainly a unique one. It layers Photoshop textures into digital animation with backgrounds often rendered in 3D. A similar anime that uses the Photoshop texture technique is Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. It takes a good amount of time to get used to this style, especially in the first episode because of all the bright colors that are used, but after a short while, you can’t help but marvel at the design! The animation doesn’t seem to have any major problems in it either, so Gankutsuou was created with great care in the hopes it would be well received visually, and, for me, it was. The music for the series, often uses some classical pieces of music, including: Tchaikovsky’s Manfred Symphony, the Donizetti opera Lucia di Lammermoor, and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Conerto No. 2.

Not only is this series amazing visually, the story is great as well. It took two episodes and then I was really hooked. Granted, there were a few parts where the story kind of died down a bit and would become boring. However, the main plot and the execution of it is simply to die for! A lot of the events in the anime are taken from the original story, but still with many changes to make it capable of having a SciFi/Fantasy genre. Plus, the story follows Albert and his relationship with the Count of Monte Cristo and the torment he goes through as the Count is taking his revenge on the three powerful families of France. What also is different from the novel, is the being Gankutsuou himself. He is the driving force behind the Count’s revenge plot throughout the series; a demonic presence that dwells within The Count of Monte Cristo. I don’t want to give much away about the relationship between the two, but there is a way you can tell which is the Count with or without Gankutsuou. The Count in the Japanese version speaks Japanese, while Gankutsuou speaks French. Though the series is 24 episodes long, the main plot finishes at episodes 23. The final episode takes place 5 years after the events of the series. Why am I mentioning this? Because I thought the episode count was wrong and that it was 23 episodes. I just want to make sure readers know, there are 24 episodes.

There are a lot of characters in the series, and you would think that development would be hard to come by; however, that’s not the case here. A lot of the major characters have development when it’s needed. Even the major adult characters Morcerf, Danglers, and Villefort have a good amount of development; the males anyway. The only adult female with development is Albert’s mother Mercedes. With the males, it mostly entails them becoming crazy or angered from being ruined by The Count. With Mercedes, it’s her mysterious connection to The Count. Honestly it’s more fun to watch The Count and the other male adults throughout the story, rather then the children. That’s probably why parts of the story were boring, cause I wasn’t watching The Count or the male adults becoming destroyed. As for Albert, he is such a whiney little idiot and it kind of drives me nuts. He won’t listen to what anyone else says and is set on what he sees right in front of him. The only person he will listen to is The Count because he has a strange admiration for him, that can sometimes become borderline obsession once in a while. While I won’t judge anyone on their personal lives, I will profane this one: Gay.

I’m not going to go in depth with the Japanese and English dubs because I have only seen clips of the dub. But, based on those clips, I will say that the Japanese is superior based on the dubbing of Albert and The Count. Although Johny Yong Bosch (Bleach) and Jamieson Price (Code Geass) were decent choices for dubbing, Jun Fukuyama and Joji Nakata make it sound a lot better. Plus, I have heard the same voice from Johny Bosch in Bleach and Code Geass and..... *sigh* I keep thinking of Ichigo in all three anime. So, again, watch the Japanese version. It has better voice actors; even for whiney little Albert.

As an end result, Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo takes a classic story and gives it a modern twist, making it a visual wonder and a fun story to get hooked on. Admittedly, the visuals can be a little hard on the eyes sometimes, but if you power through it then you won’t be disappointed. I can personally say that Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo is one of my favorite anime of all time, securing a spot at my top 10, despite whiney Albert. I highly HIGHLY recommend this anime for your viewing pleasure, and hope you will be just as amazed and hooked as I was.



Now that the summer is over and we begin to start fall, wether you're going back to school or not, here are the reviews for the rest of the year (In case, you missed my review list post):

September:
Vampire Knight (E/J)
DeathNote (E/J)

October:
Nabari no Ou (E)
Umineko no Naku Koro ni (J)

November: (VIC MIGNOGNA MONTH)
D.N.Angel (E)
Super Dimension Fortress Macross (E)

December:
Princess Tutu (E)
Non-Alcoholic Anime Drinking Games

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