Catalyst Castle

This is another anime micro review. Read here for an explanation.

The newest extreme sports gear is Air Treks – two-wheeled, motorized, inline roller skates. The main character in this story is a 13 year-old boy who thinks he’s a street tough until he gets beat up by a gang of teens who use Air Treks in their street fighting. Afterwards, the boy decides to get some Air Treks himself and becomes immersed in the world of Air Trek-using street gangs and their battle/racing sub-culture. This is another variation on the typical boy-is-introduce-to-some-new-competitive-activity-and-turns-out-to-be-a-prodigy-but-must-prove-he’s-the-best plotline that is popular in many shonen anime. The Air-Treks are actually a pretty cool idea, but story-wise this anime doesn’t seem to really offer anything new. There was this one creepy girl who made these creepy dolls and recited this creepy rhyme while she sewed them. I’ll post a clip of that because I loved it.

Content Advisory: PG13 language. I was surprised that there was some very brief partial nudity. I wish I had known that ahead of time. Not recommended.

The world is full of Mushi – strange life forms that defy definition. In the anime they are described as the purest form of life – creatures that can’t be categorized as plant, animal, or any other off-shoot of life. They seem a bit like spirits, but they aren’t actually called spirits in the anime. They are invisible to most people, but when they can be seen they take a variety of forms. Some look like strange bugs and some look like humans. If fact, apparently, on rare occasions, humans can become Mushi. This anime follows the travels of a mysterious man who is studying Mushi. He has somehow learned to master Mushi and harness their powers. In each of the two episodes I saw, he comes to the aid of an individual who is suffering some problem due to the activity of a Mushi. The stories are a bit on the “strange” side. They’re even a tad creepy at times, but not what I would call horror. You never get the impression that the Mushi are inherently evil or malicious. Also, just to clarify, this anime has a very personal/investigative feel to it. Even though the main character sometimes uses Mushi he’s mastered in order to solve problems, this isn’t a “gotta’ catch ‘em all” kind of show. Overall, I found it interesting. The main character seems very kind, but he’s a bit mysterious, and it is hinted that he’s made some considerable sacrifices in his quest to master these Mushi. I’d like to watch more episodes so that I can learn more about the main character and the Mushi.

Content Advisory: There are some scenes with the Mushi that are a little bit creepy. If strange and mysterious creatures/scenarios scare you easily you might want to skip this one.

This is a gag anime. Meaning: this anime has absolutely zero plot or character development. It is strictly a series of jokes and visual gags. It starts out with, what I thought was, a pretty funny gag. The main character comes skipping out of her high school and skips blindly into the street, in front of a speeding truck. Brakes squeal, but she ends up getting hit. The crowd that gathers around are saying stuff like “Oh my! She’s really dead!”, “That totally ruins the plot!”, and “What were the writers thinking!?” I found that kind of funny. Of course, they arbitrarily resurrect the character and the story continues. In fact, her getting killed doing stupid stuff becomes a running gag in the first episode. I only watched the first episode because this anime became very stupid very fast. Perhaps I just can’t appreciate this brand of humor. It was all I could do to sit through the first episode.

Content Advisory: Some PG13 language. The main character gets killed multiple times, but I wouldn’t really call this anime “violent”. It’s really just absurd slapstick comedy.

This is another anime micro review. Read here for an explanation. 

This anime takes place in the not-too-distant future and focuses on an elite police squad that uses the latest technology to deal with crimes committed using the latest technology. Ghost in the Shell was a movie first, and if I understand things correctly, this series is a prequel to the movie. The show seems very episodic in the first two episodes. Each episode had the team dealing with a different crime, which did not seem to be connected in any way. Both situations were interesting. The first was more of a mystery, while the second was more straightforward but had more action. One of the cool things about this anime is the technology portrayed in it. Several of the main characters are cyborgs, and it seems like in this world it isn’t unusual for your average person to have at least one or two cybernetic enhancements. Of course, there are also anti-cyborg activists, but that was only alluded to in these episodes. The animation was pretty good, and the plots were interesting. In the first two episodes the characters weren’t developed very much, but they might get more attention as the show progresses. Overall, I’d say this show is more mentally engaging than emotionally engaging.

Content Advisory: Some PG13 language. The first episode had one scene with some brief gore when the main character shoots off a guy’s foot as he’s trying to escape. It also had a scene where the police blow off the heads of three androids. It wasn’t exactly “gory”, but the heads (which looked rather human on the surface) do explode with some sort of black fluid spraying up from the necks. Again, not exactly “gory”, since they were machines, but still kind of disturbing looking. Interestingly, the second episode had nothing like either of those scenes, so I don’t know how I would rate the series as a whole, content-wise.

This anime was pretty awesome. It is a bit hard to describe. Or, at least, it is hard to describe why it is so awesome. The story is about two guys, Simon and Kamina. Simon is about 12 or 13, and lacking in self-confidence. Kamina is older - maybe late teens - and is very boisterous and self-assured. They both grew up in this isolated underground village. Simon works with some other villagers to dig tunnels and expand the village. Kamina is a delinquent who dreams of traveling to the surface, a place he saw as a very young child. Their lives change when Simon discovers a robot while digging. Shortly thereafter, a big robot comes crashing through the roof of the underground village. A girl from the surface, named Yoko, is trying to fight it with only a giant laser rifle, and things aren’t going well. Kamina urges Simon to take up the fight, piloting the robot he found earlier while digging, and he quickly defeats the attacking robot. Together, they go to the surface where they discover that some evil people called the beastmen have been keeping humans oppressed for centuries. Kamina decides to take the fight to the beastmen using the robot Simon dug up, and another one that Kamina commandeers from the bad guys.

This anime seems like a simple enough action series at first glance, but there are some very personal dramatic moments in it. The characters are very likeable. Simon seems a little pathetic, but it’s obvious that he has untapped potential. Kamina is a hot head, but he’s got courage in spades. Yoko’s character isn’t really explored much in the first two episodes, but she seems OK. The action in this show is waaaaay over the top, which is so very fun in a juvenile male kind of way. And there are just so many great lines – most of them coming from Kamina. ^_^

Content Advisory: Some language. I think there may have been a little bit of blood in some of the action scenes, but it wasn’t much. Most of the action is robot vs. robot. There was a certain amount of so-called “fan service” (Yoko wears a pretty skimpy outfit) but I didn’t find it as annoying as in most anime that has it. Perhaps because the rest of the anime is so cool, it doesn’t feel like a desperate attempt to draw in viewers.