Otaku In Kenya

Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion (season 1) Review
Genre: action, mecha, sci-fi, drama
Released date: October 5, 2006 – July 28, 2007
Episode: 25
Director: Goro Taniguchi

” The only ones that should kill, are those who are prepared to be killed. – Lelouch Lamperouge

Code Geass sets in the alternate universe in which Japan was conquered by the Britannia Empire and was renamed ‘Area 11’. Lelouch, whose mother was murdered and who is the heir to Britannia Throne, accidentally runs into C.C. the mysterious woman who gives him ‘Geass’, the power to control other people’s minds. With this power, he starts the plan to destroy the empire and rebuild the world in which his beloved sister can live happily.


Another leading character is Suzaku, Lelouch’s childhood friend, who disapproves of Lelouch’s idea and becomes his enemy. The two characters do everything according to their beliefs and the anime never says if any of them are good or evil. They are full of details. Lelouch is a realist, a murderer, the savior or just another greedy person trying to claim the throne. His action results in changes and hope for many and also suffering and loss for the rest including himself and his friends. While Suzaku is an idealist and sometimes pacifist but his action sometimes seems foolish. Code Geass has a very serious political issues and adult situations. I think the theme in the anime is too mature for high school children who form the main characters of Code Geass but after I let myself be carried away by the story, the feeling never bothers me again.

Code Geass keeps creating difficult situation for the characters to solve and endure. The anime introduces large group of characters who are closely connected by either blood or comradeship or friendship and they are divided into two opposite groups by different political idea. It tells the story from the point of view of both opposing factions. This division leads to endless series of tragic stories resulted from political conflicts and the war. The viewers will see friendships torn apart, families destroyed and alliances broken. While watching the series, I experienced various emotions all at once as if I were trapped in a box which was tossed around all the time. For example, I cheered for Lelouch when he won the first battle and felt sorry for his loss and then I hated him for his cruelty and for what he did to many innocent people. I ended up having mixed feeling towards him and, belief it or not, I felt like this toward almost everyone. Code Geass cleverly creates “gray characters”, who are neither good nor bad but they are very real. They all have their reasons for doing what they did. I saw them clashed and I saw them fell and I was devastated. There are many messages hidden in the story but the most prominent one is that war never leads to happy ending.

Aside from political themes, the anime is also a mind blowing military action anime. Drama and romance can also be seen hidden throughout the series. The animation of Code Geass is superb. The action scenes are plenty and masterfully executed. The first season ends in a cliffhanger and I feel like I would die of suffocation if I don’t start watching the second season soon. Conclusion: Code Geass is one of the most powerful anime in recent memory. It is serious, complex, thought-provoking and entertaining. Making an anime which has all these qualities is not an easy job at all.

“Lelouch vi Britannia commands you to watch this show!”

Stein's Gate Review
There are few things in the world I enjoy more than I good time travel story. Time travel offers a unique twist to a standard narrative, in that, events don't always occur linearly. The events the characters experience are jumbled and due to this the plotting of a time travel story come out far more interesting than a standard drama. Steins;Gate takes place in Akihabara where a group of friends modified a microwave to send text messages into the past. Underestimating the consequences Okabe Rintaro, self proclaimed mad scientist, allows people to use the machine to change the past. What he discovers is that even altering the past slightly can completely change the world.

Steins;Gate is really two different shows. The first half is a Moe show with time travel elements and the second half is a time travel show with Moe elements. Strangely both work, for different reasons, and the transition from the lighthearted and fun atmosphere of the first half of the narrative moves smoothly when Steins;Gate suddenly becomes deadly serious. Such a change in tone is difficult to pull off, yet Steins;Gate manages it by having a fantastic first episode which encapsulates most of the elements that the series will represent going forward. The audience gets the insane antics of Okabe, the wonderful Moe of Mayuri, some of the deep time travel elements, technobabble, and murder. This execution is viewed in hindsight, however, as the first episode’s tonal imbalance may turn away overwhelmed viewers.

The element that really drew me into Steins;Gate was the use of internet culture as a hook, specifically using John Titor as the jumping point for the series. In late November 2000 a man who claimed to be a time traveler appeared on IRC and his claims have been immortalized on the internet. Steins;Gate's hook is when Okabe notices that the first message they send back in time, accidentally, erases John Titor from existence. Going forward Steins;Gate uses pieces of the John Titor story has important plot points including the search for the IBM 5100, Titor’s explanation of how time travel works, and the year John Titor claimed to have been from; 2036. Prior knowledge of John Titor isn't required to enjoy the narrative but you get a little extra out of the show by recognizing the references.

Moe

Early in the show Okabe recruits Kurisu Makise, a prodigy scientist, and together they develop and test the Phone Microwave and it’s unique ability to send messages back in time, called "D-mail." Much of the first half of the show is spent on these experiments and on playing around with the show’s moe cast of characters. Being Akihabara, many of the characters are Otaku with classic Otaku tropes. Daru is a brilliant engineer but comes off as a lonely pervert, Mayuri is an adorable cosplay Otaku who works at a costume cafe, Feyris works with Mayuri and remains in her cat persona even outside of work, and various other characters. They're enjoyable to watch interact and the characters who get a chance to change the world with D-Mail get backstories which crush the heart of the viewer and Okabe in the same fatal stroke. However, I never felt like the majority of the characters received any depth. Most of them simply work as plot devices to drive the narrative forward, provide a reason to alter the course of the world. Even when their backstories were explored I felt more for Okabe than I did for the individual characters because he had to explain that their wishes were harming the course of time, and he felt responsible for them having to undo their changes to the past.

Kurisu Makise

Kurisu Makise is also an interesting character. While she holds many of the stereotypical Tsundere traits she is given enough development to not only to overcome them but to somewhat justify them. Her secret obsession with 2channel gives her an interesting quark and the unintentional rivalry with her father both shows why she seems profoundly sad yet has accomplished so much at a young age. Even her first encounter with Okabe showed her range, at first she took a profound enjoyment out of proving him wrong and yet when he proved that time travel was possible she was humble enough to agree to work for him. I have a respect for characters who command respect and yet can be humble when they’re defeated. Mayuri offers an interesting intersect because while she is a character who exists as a plot device and doesn't have much development you can't help but fall in love with her. She is the sweetest, most gentle creature in the world, which works as a nice foil to the often abrasive and rude Okabe. She's able to bring out a side of Okabe no one else sees which makes their relationship profoundly endearing.

Time travel is the main focus of the plot in Steins;Gate. D-Mails sent into the past don't exactly change the future but shift the "world line" Okabe inhabits. He has the unique ability, conveniently, to remember all the world lines he happened to inhabit. His friends don't notice any change because they've always existed in the world created by the D-Mail. So "Time Travel" for the majority of Steins;Gate is actually "world line travel." Altering a small part of the past allows Okabe to jump between the world lines. Although later in the show more actual time travel takes place I enjoyed the plots created by the D-mails because of the mystery around what effect the message would have on Okabe's world. One simple jump and an element he was relaying on, a driving focus of the plot for the early episodes, would just disappear forcing Okabe to completely rethink his strategy. In total, Steins;Gate uses three methods of Time travel; world line travel, consciousness travel where a person's present mind jumps back into their physical body; and physical time travel where a character travels from the present into the past. Each of the methods are pulled off well with their own benefits and drawbacks expertly explored.

The Hostage Mazui

One aspect of Steins;Gate that I didn't like is that the science changed when it became convenient to the characters. At one point Kurisu declares that her field of study was in the brain when she is first scene giving a presentation on physics and had, up to that point, only mentioned being a physicist. Another bit of rule breaking that irked me was they changed rules when the plot needed a rule to be changed. At first one Time Machine is limited to only travel backwards through time, which creates a depressing departure that the show spends an entire episode fixated on. Later a time machine of the same make has the ability to travel forwards and backwards through time, which gives Okabe an extra chance to change the past. It's sloppy storytelling and bad science fiction.

I've discussed how well I think the time travel elements of Steins;Gate work, and indeed at its core this is an extremely solid Time Travel narrative. However, the moe elements are going to drive away people who would otherwise find the series enjoyable. The early episodes are light on the Sci-fi and heavy on moe characters doing moe things, the pacing is slow allowing the audience to spend more time with the characters. Each episode reveals one small piece of the plot. When that shift in the middle of the series happens Steins;Gate becomes a serious time travel narrative but getting there is going to prove difficult for someone looking for good science fiction right from the start. It's unfortunate that by playing to the Otaku crowd who love both science fiction and moe, the audience who would most appreciate Steins;Gate won't be able to make it through those first few episodes.


This review might feel a little negative but I can't stress enough how much I enjoyed Steins;Gate. For all it's failings, Okabe and Kurisu remain interesting characters and the way it employs the standard time travel tropes are always fun and entertaining. The dark, serious tone during the second half of the show is contains some incredible character drama despite the cast of mostly shallow characters. Okabe is forced to carry the burden of the narrative, being remembers world line jumps, that the depth of his character, what he goes through, and how he is profoundly changed by the end is truly moving. So while moe elements hold the show back and some of the science fiction elements are weak, the show comes off as a definite watch for science fiction and moe fans alike. No where near a perfect show, but an entertaining and moving piece of animation.

This will be used to do some Damage

This Dolls Get To you

Yakitate!! Japan Review
Disclaimer: This series is completely ridiculous, utterly ludicrous, and deliciously absurd. If you are a serious baker, patissier or have simply undergone a sense-of-humour bypass, then it’s probably best that you turn back now. If not, then leave your hat, coat and common sense at the door and prepare for some freshly baked fun!

Yakitate!! Japan follows young baking genius, Kazuma Azuma, on his quest to create the ideal ‘Ja-pan’ – a pun-a-licious bread that perfectly sums up the Japanese nation – in the same way that the French have the baguette and the Italians have the ciabatta. In order to further his mission, the dim-witted Kazuma begins working at the most revered chain bakery in Tokyo: Pantasia. The series’ sixty-nine (yes, sixty-nine) episodes consist of Kazuma and his new colleagues participating in one increasingly unbelievable tournament after another. Sounds pretty crappy right? Well, it is. Luckily though, the whole show is one massive parody, and Yakitate!! Japan’s inherently stupid nature becomes its greatest asset.

Kazuma Azuma

So much of Yakitate!! Japan‘s humour comes from how seriously the characters take each tournament, as if it were a serious battle to the death – and with katana-wielding samurai, Kai, getting riled up over his croissants, it occasionally seems like a bloodbath could follow. Fortunately, the series knows how completely rubbish its premise is and plays on it to great effect, most noticeably in the various characters’ reactions to the latest delicious loaf, which are, without a doubt, the series’ highlight. From a bizarre loquat-based parody of Lord of the Rings, bulldozers smashing holes in kitchen walls and a crazy clown that has mastered the multi-clone technique, to bread that makes judges strip down to their underwear, turns back time and literally sends you to heaven, Yakitate!! Japan defies expectations and pushes the boundaries of believability with each passing episode.

Like all longer series, Yakitate!! Japan has its flaws. Many plot elements are predictable, especially as Kazuma always seems to have the perfect bread for each occasion. Though part of its charm, the whole series seems like Pokemon with bread and I half expect Kazuma to whip out a small dough ball at any moment and yell: Ja-pan number 53, I choose YOU! Also, while it remains humorous throughout, the novelty does inevitably dissipate. Though the Monaco Cup arc revitalises the plot by continually going one step beyond with its lunacy, the following ‘Yakitate 9’ arc drags somewhat and despite managing to raise a smile, the jokes wear a bit thin. Also, the final episode is exceedingly rushed given its content, particularly when preceding this was an entire twenty-four minutes documenting a single bread reaction.

This reaction notice the parody

Watch Yakitate!! Japan. It's a pretty old series now, but it's still great and fun. I mean, I still have yearnings to re-watch some episodes every now and then. It's also educational, but done in such an entertaining way (a big plus!).

Green bread Amazing

Which part of this is bread watch to find out!

It's because of this series that I have a greater appreciation for bread and a strong fascination for melon bread.

Ben~to Review



BEN-TO looks like one of those animes you would compare to the rest of the season then decide not to watch it but if you do that then your really missing out of some of the best laughs and entertainment for a long time.

Sato and the Wizard

Story:
Sato Yo is just a normal teenager who likes video games,he wakes up on the floor of the grocery store not remembering what had led him there,then he finds out though a girl who was in the store that he was beaten up because of the war games where students fight to get half price BEN-TO,interested Sato Yu joins in and try's to become a "Wolf"(top fighter).

What I like about the story is that it is very funny and overdone in a good way like the first season of Baka to test and Sato Yo isn't one of those characters who is a loser that would take the whole season just to win just one fight,and the actual fights are really cool,there a mass of people punching and kicking each and getting severe injuries over BEN-TO ! XD and I like how these is a whole system of ranks and special names for the top fighters.(Great 9)


Art:
The art isn't "OMG look at the animacion" but ain't bad either,all the characters faces and eyes are in the right places,you can't complain about it becuase it's better then average with all these lazy animators nowadays,it looks good in high quality on the TV.(Great 9)

Ice Witch

Sound:
The opening is cool while the ending song is a nice slow one and the backgorund music when there fighting is a up beat song that is just the right one for the mood of the anime.(Great 9)

Character:
The reason I picked up this anime was because one of the main girl characters Sen Yarizui(aka the Ice witch) caught my eye and that rarely happerns with me,she's cute and unique looking and I also liked the look of Yuu Kaneshiro(the wizard),so far there isn't a character I don't like.(Outstanding 10)


Enjoyment:
I don't even understand why I enjoy this anime so much but I can't help smiling and getting exicted rooting for the characters! Very very funny and I don't get bored at all which is something to say for me.(Outstanding 10)


Overall:
Very enjoyable :D (9 Great)

Add this to you MAL list now and don't miss out on the laughter and enjoyment of this anime! BEN-TO ! BEN-TO ! I won''t forget you !

Un-Go Review
Un-Go is probably one of the many sleeper hit series to come out of the extremely jam packed Fall 2011 season. With an amazing story, unique characters and stellar production values, however, its definitely one to take note of! Un-Go is actually based on the noted Japanese intellectual and novelist Ango Sakaguchi’s novel Meiji Kaika Ango Torimono-chō. In a time where story is often thrown off into the back burner in favor of more flashy animation or fan service, Un-Go focuses on masterful storytelling, truly complex plots and a strange mix of Japanese culture, fantasy and sci-fi to create one of the most unique detective anime to come out from the anime industry.

 UN-GO features Shinjirou Yuuki , a man nicknamed the failed Detective, and his partner Inga. While Shinjirou is a normal human, Inga is actually some supernatural vampire that can change genders, and force anyone to answer a single question. Shinjirou often finds himself solving crimes that relate to a certain chairman of a software company, Rinrouku Kaishou. Kaishou serves as the antoganist to the series, and one, who while always losing to Shinjirou’s detective skills, is able to cover himself with his immense wealth and resources. He’s as unique a villain, as Shinjirou is a hero.

Adding to the already impressive hero-villain dynamic is a very interesting and diverse cast of supporting characters that really add to the show. While the plot of the series is definitely’s its biggest strength, the characters definitely serve to elevate the show to near greatness.
The  productions values for the show are also excellent. The first, and most striking thing about the show is its different kind of art style. It’s a unique blend of the semi-realistic style of the recent Lupin the Third animation projects and the extremely elongated Clamp style. That too is a very loose description of a refreshingly different but still familiar art style.

What really shines through, are the character designs and backgrounds. The world comes to life, with some truly amazing and unique locales that the anime takes place in, that seem reminiscent of modern Tokyo, but at the same time, feel like they are set a bit farther in the future. The character designs, are simply put, amazing. Shinjjirou himself definitely supports the cool, modern take on what a detective would be in this day and age, Kaishou definitely seems like a “nice on the outside, but evil on the inside” software company CEO. Every character’s design really brings a lot to the table, and really adds  personality to some already endearing characters.

Finally, there’s the sound work, which is also hard to find faults with. The series features a really edgy trance soundtrack, which fits perfectly into the semi-futuristic fantasy world. The voice acting is definitely one of the high points of the anime industry, with exemplary work from all the sieyuus. All in all, production wise, its hard to find much fault with Un-Go, so props to Studio Bones for another job well done!
What then? is the fault with Un-Go…. It actually lies in the episode length, and the fact that its another one of those series that doesn’t resolve the entire story. As a production, and adaption, UNGO is amazing, given its length, which is only 11 episodes.  At the same time, one of the series biggest themes, the clash between Shinjirou and Kaishou, is never really fully explored in the series. There are teases and hints in the series, with the last arc even being a major cop out, but it never really comes to fruitation. There is progress, indeed, but the major crux of the series is never resolved. If anything, it feels that there needs to be a second season, of another 12 or 13 episodes which adds another set of cases and brings out the big battle between Shinjirou and Kaishou to a close.
What is sad, is that the series really doesn’t feel unsatisfying. It doesn’t, the last arc in particular, progresses the story farther enough and provides enough of an ending that you don’t feel the burn that is generally felt by series that end without completing the story. At the same time, there is some room left for the story to continue, either in a potential sequel or in the manga itself. Either way, the story feels unresolved, and though it’s not horribly done, the ending  leaves the main issue hanging.

At the end, the story, which is the major reason for this series entertainment value, doesn’t feel complete, and prevents this series from truly achieving greatness. Un-Go is a series with many strengths, with excellent production values, writing and pacing, but its also a series that’s doomed to be forgotten unless a second season comes in and truly wraps up the story. Must watch for Mystery Lovers

Jigoku Shoujo(Hell Girl) One Of My fave anime

This anime series is the beginning of an epic story about damnation.
This series can be divided into three acts, like a play, but when the third act closes, the story has just begun. Until the end of the third act, you don't know anything at all about the heroine, even though you've seen her in every episode.

The first act is a long series of terribly similar stories. The moral of every one of these stories is identical, and that moral is: Revenge is not worth its horrible, inherent price.

Many viewers have voiced dissatisfaction after the watching the first two or three episodes. They have complained that there is little characterization of the recurring characters, that the stories are all the same horror story of revenge, and that the artwork, while striking, gets re-used too often. Do not heed them. This series just uses the first act to break down the viewer's resistance.

One-third of the way into the series, the second act begins the real story. The real story centers on the heroine who has been carrying out supernatural justice in exactly the same way for the entire first act. Her name is Enma Ai, and she is beautiful and she is terrible and while her outward manner is calm, there is a horrible disquiet lurking in her large red eyes.

Enma Ai is the Hell Girl, a supernatural spirit or goddess who can be contacted only by those whose hearts are burning with hatred. At the stroke of midnight, those who seek revenge can find her website and enter the names of those who have wronged them.


Those who seek revenge are always the same. They are always suffering terribly, and they are always making the wrong choice. It is not exactly an easy thing to sit through ten or sixteen episodes of horrible revenge stories -- many of those who seek Enma Ai have suffered rape, abandonment, torture, betrayal -- but if you want to see the brilliance of hellfire, this series expects you to look at the faces of suffering -- which are, incidentally, mostly very well-drawn and well-animated.

Enma Ai herself is depicted with an august elegance. Her bearing is much more dignified than her childishly young body. She can take on any appearance, but in her unguarded moments she affects the dress of medieval Japan. The hell she serves is a medieval Japanese hell -- it is the torture-dungeon of cruel Shinto gods with little regard for Buddhist salvation. It is nastily personal hell, and whenever Enma Ai drags another soul into it, the viewer is struck by the fact that her outward politeness cannot entirely conceal her personal, childish malice. This is not a hell of just punishment: this is a hell of personal revenge which sometimes effects justice by accident.


Enma Ai's loyalties are feudal -- she serves and she is served. Her servants are three: a young man, a seductive woman, and an old man. When Enma Ai so wills it, these servant-spirits can transform themselves into straw dolls resembling the cursing-dolls which were traditionally nailed to the trees of Shinto shrines with special nails. She gives one doll, bound by a red thread, to each persecuted person who asks for revenge. If that person unties the red thread, the soul of the persecutor will instantly be dragged down into hell; but the person who sought revenge will be dragged down to hell at death, and will never be allowed to know paradise.

This series depicts a hell that is profoundly unjust, and the viewer may well come to hate Enma Ai for serving such an unjust hell. In the second act, a much more sympathetic set of recurring characters come into play. A journalist and his young daughter begin to investigate Enma Ai. They provide a much-needed moral center to this otherwise nihilistic series. The journalist is mature enough to understand the suffering of life and the inevitability of death. His pursuit inconveniences Enma Ai and her three servants, thus leading inevitably to the third act.

In the third act, Enma Ai can no longer pretend to be a perfectly calm and dispassionate servant of hell. She is forced to reconsider why she obey the terrible mission of vengeance. And in the end, when the viewer has seen what drives Enma Ai to destroy unceasingly, the story has just begun.

Students of Japanese culture will have their hands full with this series. Enma is the Japanese transliteration of Yama, the Sanskrit name of the Lord of Hell. Ai can be translated as "harmony" or "love." Enma Ai is depicted as participating in traditional rural customs and mythological traditions with equal frequency, so the significance when she is shown as piling up flat stones on a riverbank is profoundly Japanese. (Japanese children in hell piled up stones on a riverbank, and were horribly cheated -- but the secret of that symbolism has not fully been explained, even in the second series.)

From a technical standpoint, this series has a number of shortcomings. The first act, lasting for perhaps eight episodes, is too repetitive for most audiences. The series as a whole is morbidly depressing, and yet it tells a complete story, so the viewer is obliged to watch the second season to see the real story. The series sets a high standard with the visually stunning first episode, only to repeat the same images over and over again for the next few episodes.

A few problems exist in the first season but not in the second, e.g.: The opening theme is too vulgarly popular for such a serious series. The three servant-spirits are not given opportunities to characterize themselves. A few episodes seem to have been animated by interns and are far below the standard of quality set by the other episodes. All of these problems seem to have been polished away in the second season, which is titled: "Jigoku Shoujo Futokomori."

A few problems seem to be systemic: the exact nature of hell is not explained for the entire first season. The series leads viewers to believe that hell ought to be other than it is shown to be. Major questions are introduced and blatantly left as mysteries, forcing the viewer to watch the later seasons in the hope that everything will be explained. It may be that these problems will never be resolved, but no story is perfect.

This is not a series that will be enjoyed by everyone. If you are babysitting six-year-old children with a tendency to have nightmares, show them Sugar Sugar Rune and pack them off to bed before you watch this show. If you are watching with impatient young boys who want to punch everyone, show them Kousetsu Hyaku Monogatari, which is a more masculine interpretation of similar mythological images. But if you watch TV with girls and women who often feel that they cannot resort to violence, by all means watch this show. It masters the most difficult part of horror fiction -- it combines the beautiful with the ugly, it draws the viewer in while repulsing the viewer at the same time. In the end, even if you had wanted to look away, you find that you cannot, and your attention is brought to the message of the story.