Its time for another Anime review, but rather than taking the broad brush approach as before I am going to go for the grim and gritty details of one of my favorite series, Gunslinger Girl.  Which it just so happens was picked up for a sequel to come out some time next year in Japan, and will hoprfully make its way to the US soon there after.  I am going to break this review into four parts, one for each of the three volumes and a final overall look at the series as a whole.  This means I will be rewatching the series over the next ten days or so and putting up a piece of the review every couple of days.  Well there isn't a whole lot more to say except that the review of volume one will be up by tomorrow evening.  Heh I now will finally have a reason to use spoiler tags again, I haven't needed them for quite a while.  So until then look at the pretty pictures.

Posted by: raging tachikoma at 10:40 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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     In my piece talking about Nerima Daikon Brothers I mentioned that Nabshin was the man behind two other shows, the anime adaptation of Excel Saga, which is just awesome and its related spinoff, Puni Puni Poemy.  Today I am taking an in depth look at this masterwork of over the top humor, gratuitous fan service and wacky writing that seems like it shouldn't work but somehow works wonderfully.

     Following the adventures of Poemi, who when armed with a dead fish wand becomes Poemy the defender of the earth seeks to right wrongs and avenge the deaths of her parents, Nabeshin and Kumi-Kumi.  After the murder of her partents by Nabelien #1 she moves in with the seven Aasu sisters, generating a shot at every concievable anime woman/harem cliche along with the next to youngest Aasu, Poemi's classmate Futaba's continual and disturbing atempts to bed Poemi. (Remember these are ten year old grade schoolers we're talking about.) Poemi, who refers to herself as Kobayashi, and her life's ambition is to be a voice actress.  Kobyashi is of course the name Poemi's voice actress Yumiko Kobayashi.  The ultimate in self referential humor, especially because she refers to her father (Nabeshin) as director.  The humor is low brow, the pacing breakneck and the story largely an after thought, and I absolutely love it.

     It is a show that you will either love or hate with little room in between, the whole show is a spinoff of  a throw away joke in an epsiode of Excel Saga.  Given that the basic concept is as old as the hills this show is probably the best ever send up of the magical girl genre.  As the preview special on one of the Excel Saga DVD's noted "our next project is the magical girl show Puni Puni Poemy! , While the rest of the industry has moved on to robotic maid shows."  Oh yeah there are hentai jokes, flying squid aliens and a lot more wierdness.  Also I must nominate this DVD as vying with colorful for the best cover tagline with "If this anime doesn't offend you somehow, WE HAVEN"T DONE OUR JOB!"

Review Scoring

1. Image and Transfer Quality = 10 (of 10)

2. Art and Continuity Quality = 10 (of 10)

3. Sound Quality = 9 (of 10) (English Dolby 5.1 & 2.0, Japanese 2.0)

4. Story and Writing = 9 (of 10)

5. Sub Quality = 5 (of 5)

6. Dub Quality = 5 (of 5)

7. Pacing = 8 (of 10) ( a little fast at times, but understandable when they lost the money for eps. 3 and 4)

8. Other= 3 (of 5) (for being just Bizarre)

9. Freebies = 8 (of 10) (Poster, Reversible Cover Art, Poemy Patch)

10. DVD Extras = 10 (of 10) (Clean open,Clean close, English cast & crew commentary in 5.1, Behind the Scenes, Art gallery, Production sketches)

11. Fanservice = 10 (of 10) (Possibly some of the funniest and most disturbing ever comitted to film)

12. Price/Value = 4 (of 5) (typically around $30.00 US, but still it is only two episodes)

Total Score = 91

Scale

95-100 Unadulterated brilliance, everyone should check this out.

90-95 Pretty damn good, I think you will like this one too.

80-89 Entertaining but not a standout, catch it on TV or Grab the Thin Pack box set.

70-79 OK, it will do when nothing better is on.

55-69 Bleh, its anime at least.

25-54 At least it makes a good coaster.

0-24  Excuse me, I am going to scrub my eyes now.

Posted by: raging tachikoma at 11:17 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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      Sometimes,(ie when the mood strikes me,) I will post reviews of anime, manga and other stuff on here.  The following criteria are how I try to judge anime, or any DVD for that matter in a fair and consistent manner.

     When writing a review one must offer both subjective and objective assements of whatever it is that you are reviewing.  So I have worked out for myself a system to do just that.  When posting a review I will follow a standard format that gives a grade for various elements of the work, and along with my opinions about the work to allow for both objective and subjective measures. 

Posted by: raging tachikoma at 10:33 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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