Series Review: Rinne no Lagrange 2 (by the power of friendship and flowers)

Instant Summary: An excessively helpful Mary Sue saved the universe with the power of MANLY GAR POWA friendship and flowers.

Pretty visuals and an ambitious setting can often give an impression that a title is worth more than it actually is. That is perhaps the effect Rinne no Lagrange had on me, as I was so impressed with the first season. Of course, with the second half of the story came the increase emphasis on the plot, and then the weakness began to show.

A whole lot of concepts weren't as crystal clear as I hoped it would be, especially with the alternate reality of Rinne, and what the Vox really are. The series made no real effort to do that anyway, after all, the title really is all about friendship and flower power. Please take my Instant Summary literally.

I kept thinking how good it would be if they actually blended Yurikano's story (in the manga) better, or made the friendship between the girls harder to blossom. A story full of twists and climaxes isn't always required in the presence of a fantastic concept, but Rinne no Lagrange simply doesn't have very much to go on at all. I'm not exactly praising the concept either; the yuri and friendship power thing is pretty interesting, but it gets overbearing after a while, when it seems like it's the only thing fueling the finale. I see that the optimistic and cheerful atmosphere is a huge selling point of the anime, but it's weird to think that these girls actually killed shitloads of people, and it's not like they felt particularly bad about it (or even anything at all).

And there's the surprisingly lack of action for a mecha based anime. It turns out that whatever deadly forces the mecha can unleash are totally irrelevant; they served only as in instrument for space flight and channeling the power of friendship into the power of flowers, which is literally capable of anything from planet-wide surround sound to moving galaxies to alternate dimension transition to time reversal. Holy shit! Respect the blooming mother nature, kids.

And with unlimited power comes the opportunity for as many crazy experimental CG they can churn out. I think I talked about that before...

So yeah, this is a cleverly disguised deus ex machina ending. Well I'm not all that disappointed... it's just all for all the things I hope Rinne no Lagrange could be, this is all there is to it.

Plot/Concept: Fair
Story Style: Awesome!
Audio/Visual: Excellent!
Value: 7

Summer 2012 Pre-season Impressions

I stopped writing "season previews" because for all the info you will want for the upcoming seasons, there's only three places you need to go to (except for MAL and such): Random Curiosity (probably the most famous anime blog there is), The Cart Driver (probably the most popular anime blog there is) and Star Crossed Anime Blog (probably the best anime blog there is). There's no point in recreating all that background info when someone else has already done it, and done it better; so from now on, it'll just be Pre-season impressions.

Series Review: Rinne no Lagrange (8/10)

Instant summary: An excessively-helpful Mary Sue finds herself piloting an alien mech and making alien friends who looks just like humans.

What appears to be a generic mech anime with a over-enthusiastic Mary Sue (a reference to a girl that excels at everything) turns out to be way more entertaining than it first suggests. The name Xebec doesn't generate a lot of confidence, and I guess I didn't see what was coming when they put Satou Tatsuo at the helm. I can't say the same for the other anime in the same season he's in charge of, though.

Well, first off, the concept and storyline isn't going to impress anyone. Near-perfect protagonists with a sad past seems to be a standard for half of all anime you find, and of course she stumbles across a mech that she learns to pilot right away. She then took on the responsibility to protect the whole world (or something) but still gets to attend school anyway. Pfft. Is there anything new in this genre anymore?

So what makes this great? The characters. All of them. I think the key here is that while there's definitely a play on the moé traits, it is used with a lot of moderation, something that is really rare nowadays. Take Lan for example, she's both a klutz and a kuudere (google that), but the series doesn't focus too deliberately on the awkward silence, or spend half a minute panning the scene where she moans painfully in a seductive position after tripping over. I guess after a decade of excessive moéfication, less is more, no?

And the main 3 girls had a lot more than their moé traits combined. Madoka and Lan are both voice by 19-year old Ishihara Kaori and Seto Asami respectively. There's nothing I hate more than to hear an old lady trying her best kawaii children's voice, so I really appreciate it when they put a young voice in a young role. Madoka's spirited and gung-ho attitude drives the story well without feeling too loud or boisterous, unlike similar characters in other series. I guess it partly due to her voice that makes her feels a bit tame, but that combined with her humble nature makes our lead character very likable. Muginami, who seemed like your usual moé traits mash-up with her huge tits and childish behavior, turns out to be a lot more interesting when she revealed a darker personality, a meaningful back-story which influences her decisions and bonds with the other girls.

Vilaguilio is also one of the highlights of the cast, because he's just not your usual antagonist. While it's clear that he would go all out to destroy the mechs, you can't help but wonder why he would give the three male pilots a choice to decide in the matter, or why he would not hesitate to disregard his long-time bond with Muginami. There's a lot of questions left to be answered about him in the next season, but that's also what makes him an interesting character.

And... other than the characters, the story style is also something I would like to call "unique". It has the delicacy that prevent scenes from being over-dramatic, and it compensates with witty dialogue and blunt jokes with quick follow-ups, something I didn't know exists in anime. It feels "natural", and completely different from a scripted monologue that everything else now sounds like. It's hard to put into words how exactly "unique" this is, but the dialogue and execution in Rinne no Lagrange just feels special.

The production values is also a surprise, seeing that it's Xebec. While to some extent the Vox's abilities seems like a good excuse for them to spam various CG effects, you gotta admit that it all looks pretty neat. The action scenes ain't bad either, and outside the battles the graphics still look pretty solid. I enjoyed both the ED and OP too.

The first season leaves us at a cliffhanger and I really want the rest of the story to have a value on the current score... but for now, I'm really happy with what I've seen. I sincerely look forward to the next season.

Plot/Concept: Fair
Story Style: Fantastic!
Audio/Visual: Great!
Value: 8

January Summary/First Impressions Part 3 (Mouretsu Pirates, Rinne no Lagrange, Papa no Iukoto wo Kikinasai!, Senki Zesshou Symphogear, Nisemonogatari)

Mouretsu Pirates

3 Episodes

I'm not sure about this one. We're supposed to see our cute main lead commandeer the pirate ship Bentenmaru, but we have yet to even see the said ship. Hell, we haven't seen most of the crew yet, unless "most of the crew" are all the supporting characters that has already appeared. Hell, we don't even know what "pirating" actually means in this universe. Hell, we haven't even seen the main character taking any initiation towards anything. I guess what I'm trying to say here is that Mouretsu Pirates is getting off a really slow start.

Unless this space opera is all about the exploration of this space pirates concept, I'll have to wait for the first real conflict to arrive before I make further judgements. Not that I've not been entertained so far; the animation is good, the characters are cute, but there's nothing as of yet that I would consider really interesting or funny. Let's see what they've got after they're done with the opening act.

Outlook: Neutral

Rinne no Lagrange

3 episodes

I'm surprised that Xebec, of all studios, could produce one of my favourite titles this season. And decent animaion, on top of that. Perhaps it's the help from Production I.G that made things works out so well.

I might be a little bias, but most of fun comes from the main three characters, especially protagonist Madoka herself. I've always had a soft spot for energetic, genki girls, and I feel that Madoka's energy is what brings the anime to life. Her VA, Ishihara Kaori, is a newbie seiyuu, but she already fits her role as Madoka exceedingly well. Lan (Laffinty, Fin E Ld Si), our other star, has the charm alike Yuki Nagato. The moments where she breaks her icy exterior and shows her very human emotions, despite not being one, makes her very likable. We haven't seen much of Muginami, but she's voiced by Kayano Ai, so there.

For the plot itself, it's yet another "teen becomes a mech pilot in a twist of fate" setup, but at least it's not an angsty male lead. I'm no fan of mecha anime nor I have any idea where this will lead to, but I'm fairly sure the lead characters would be quite enough to make this worthwhile.

Outlook: Positive

Papa no Iukoto wo Kikinasai!

3 Episodes

If you're thinking what I'm thinking, you're afraid that this would venture into the forbidden territory. Some might say, hey, technically they're not blood related right? Well... That's not the issue.

When I first checked out the manga before the start of the season, Papakiki was nothing like the harem the anime suggests. I'll say it's a bit closer to Usagi drop; a older guy taking care of much younger relatives, how they go from strangers to kins (and possible something more?), a lot of emphasis on family values, duties as a guardian, growth of the kids and cohabiting problems. There's a lot of love, but not the romance kind (yet). I think I'd prefer it that way. It's much more unique in the industry, and it'll stop people from thinking that it's yet another harem anime, only one that features an age gap.

Unfortunately, the anime seems to have different ideas. The first two episodes leaves an impression that the various girls simply appears in the protagonist's life out of nowhere, a scenario much like a stereotypical harem show. The fact that the anime highlighted the various attributes, like school beauty and tsundere, places the female characters into bishoujo archetypes and made things worse.

While I have little doubt about the Yuuta x Sora pairing in the end, I think selling the title with that kind of image is a pretty bad decision, judging by the number of people who dropped it already. I haven't read much into the manga yet, but I do hope that they dive deep into the family theme for now. Besides, they couldn't conclude a romance angle if they tried; the manga isn't even complete yet, and I doubt that they want the anime go ahead and stray from the mangaka's direction.

Outlook: Neutral

Senki Zesshou Symphogear

3 episodes

Senki Zesshou Symphogear is a poor man's MSLN. But other than the two big name seiyuus that voices the main characters of the series, Nana Mizuki and Aoi Yuuki, there is little I could give praise for.

Symphogear is like a combination of Macross and the Mahou Shoujo genre. But unlike Macross which based its success on the blend of kick-ass action scenes and awesome songs, Symphogear had the characters does the job of both. It didn't seem like it, but it turn out to be a pretty awful concept. It looks really silly to see the characters singing while getting hit and tossed around at the same time. It's like talking non-stop to a guy who's constantly punching for face. It just isn't going to work.

There's also a sharp dip in the production quality after the first episode. The action scene still does its job fine, and there some pretty cool CG and backgrounds, but some of the simplest scenes looks hilariously bad.

I still get chills whenever Nana Mizuki's character enters the battle with an awesome song, until I saw her singing and attempting to perform complicated maneuvers at the same time. It looks incredibly tiring and even I, the audience, feels breathless for her. Aoi Yuuki's singing hasn't been very impressive so far. Her "rage mode" seems to have potential for interesting developments in the future, but that itself isn't going to keep me watching this.

Outlook: Bad.

Nisemonogatari