Coyote Ragtime — Welcome to the NHK — Pumpkin Scissors — Air Gear — Negima Spring and Summer Specials — anime box set reviews
And….we’re back. The past month and a half has seen little in the way of updates, but not without good reason. I’ve finished my degree in Software Engineering (with honors and a Mathematics minor), Kris and I both started new jobs (Kris at Cisco, me at On-Site.com), and we took some well deserved time off for Christmas. During that time the review queue has piled up something fierce. I won’t bother to relate all the titles to you here, but suffice it to say in the next few weeks, you’ll see the site churning along as normal, and a good number of titles reviewed, from anime to dvds to theatrical releases. Without further ado, I’ll set about making a dent in one of my larger piles, with reviews for Funimation’s recent box-set releases of Coyote Ragtime, Welcome to the NHK, Pumpkin Scissors, and Air Gear, as well as the Negima Spring and Summer specials. Enjoy.
Coyote Ragtime . This show comes across as the realization of some fanboy’s secret mashup dream. Gun-toting cyborg gothic-lolitas, wise-cracking space pirates (called Coyotes), prison breaks, bank heists, hot chicks, burly guys, and lots and lots of laser blasts factor into a loosely plotted space adventure, centering around a long hidden pirate treasure. You see, before his death at the hands of the aforementioned Lolitas, the Pirate King stowed an incredibly large sum of cash, stolen from the central intergalactic bank, somewhere towards the end of the universe. The secret of its location lay hidden in a locket, entrusted to his young daughter. It’s here where the series starts, with lolitas, coyotes, and intergalactic police jockeying to first find the girl, and then the treasure.
In terms of visual style, Coyote Ragtime is very stylish. The animation is fluid and the character designs prove distinctive, attractive, and keenly realized. The action too is strikingly drawn, providing a flurry of explosions, gun-blasts, chases and fist fights from start to finish. But on that same note, the action never lets up enough for you to really care one way or another about the characters involved. In fact, after watching over half of the series I realized I couldn’t recall any of the characters’ names, nor did I feel one way or the other regarding their possibility of obtaining the treasure. As such, Coyote Ragtime was an exceedingly passive entertainment, easy on the eyes, and easy to forget.
The Funimation box set is pretty affordable, and far preferable to purchasing the old ADV discs individually, due to both price and shelf space requirements (two slimline cases only). If you decide to pick this one up, this set is definitely the way to go.
Welcome to the NHK
I’ve only watched a few episodes of NHK so far, but I totally love this show. It’s got great music, great story, oddball comedy, and a whole lot of heart. The story concerns Tatsuhiro Sato, a twenty-something hikikomori (aka: shut-in) who, after 4 years of self-confinement in his apartment, having dropped out of school and successfully avoided work, comes to the conclusion that his situation can be attributed to nothing less than a vast conspiracy on the part of the NHK (the Japan Broadcasting Association). You see, due to their constant broadcasting of addictive and influential programming, (ie: anime, and its tendency to turn healthy young males into antisocial, geeky otaku), he believes the NHK to be carrying out a secret mission focused on coverting Japan’s citizens into Hikikomori. And, having come to this realization, he sets about getting to the bottom of the mystery, albeit in a way through which the NHK will never be aware of how much he knows. His journey will see him venturing out beyond the walls of his apartment, interacting with fresh faces and old acquaintances, and coming to terms with his own isolation, and quite possibly, the true nature of the NHK.
Welcome to the NHK is based on a series of manga, which in turn were based on a popular novel of the same name. As such, there’s a bit more meat here than the series cover art might let on. The series is alternately hilarious, melancholic, perverse, and heartfelt. In a single episode you can find yourself laughing one minute, being shocked and/or titillated the next, saddened, elated, and ultimately moved by the metamorphosis of Tatsuhiro’s persona, as he slowly opens himself back up to human connections. The show is attractively rendered, and the quality of the production shines through from start to finish. It’s a whole lot of fun, and well worth the investment in time. Even if your anime budget isn’t what it once was, you won’t regret picking up this series.
Funimation’s Welcome to the NHK box sets break the series into two parts, each going for roughly $30 – $40, depending on where you can find them. Again, a great deal compared to picking up the titles individually.
Pumpkin Scissors
I’m not a fan of military anime, and was a bit wary of this one, despite the intriguing name and supernatural overtones. Thankfully my apprehension was unfounded, as Pumpkin Scissors turned out to be one of the more entertaining anime shows I’ve seen in recent months.
Pumpkin Scissors documents the missions of the Royal Empire’s War Relief group, code named, you guessed it, Pumpkin Scissors. Tasked with helping those in need of food and shelter following a years long world war (think a fantasy-tech WWII), the Pumpkin Scissors patrol the land, ridding remote hamlets of dastardly bandits, restoring crippled infrastructure, and basically spreading good cheer. Now, that alone is not going to get many of you in the door to watch the show. How about when I tell you one of the members is a big ogre of a man who keeps his soul in a lantern on his belt, is prone to bezerker rages which render him impervious to bullets, infused with super strength, and able to take out a tank with his bare hands? Or that the team’s plucky, young, stringently moral leader gets the team into more hairy situations than you could imagine? And that those situations more often than not involve such terrible baddies that even a tank-obliterating bezerker rager sometimes proves insufficient arsenal? Maybe I have your attention now.
Pumpkin Scissors is a sort of older teen-targeted anime, balancing intense action with a fair amount of lighthearted fun and tongue in cheek humor. In similar fashion, characters tend to be more cuddly than imposing, though the baddies and spiritual transformations tend to have a harder edge to them. Like NHK above, I haven’t had time to finish the series, but its depiction of heroism, duty, and selfless altruism was a nice change from the bleaker action titles I tend to watch. If you like your anime with action, heroics, and a dash of the supernatural, Pumpkin Scissors is definitely worth a look.
As with NHK, above, Pumpkin Scissors is broken into two, wallet-and-shelf-friendly DVD sets. If you’re going to pick up the series, these are definitely the way to go.
Negima Spring and Summer Specials
What a dirty show. I had no idea Negima was as ecchi as this. The Negima Spring and Summer Specials have almost nothing in the way of story, simply consisting of two 20 minute episodes of Negima fan-service in vacation-type settings (ie: hotsprings). I don’t know much about the original Negima show, other than the fact it concerns a 13 year old master magician who becomes a teacher at an all-girl magic academy, and subsequently becomes the oblivious object of their affection…well, I guess that does sound a bit ecchi there. Still, I maintain that I thought it was supposed to be a girl’s show. Anyways, not much to see here unless you are already a fan of Negima, or simply want to see some animated bouncing flesh.
Air Gear
Another anime fighting show, only with futuristic roller-bladers and well-rounded females instead of teenage martial artists. The average Air Gear episode is like so many other fighting shows, with 20 minute verbal altercations before a single “punch” is thrown. I don’t care for fighting anime, and as such, can’t really get excited about this show — that, and I’ll never look at rollerblading the same way after that Human Giant sketch (embedded below). Pick it up only if you’re looking for an MA rated show in the vein of Bleach and Naruto.
That said, I have passed the set off to a guy who does happen to enjoy such types of anime. We’ll see if he’s able to provide a second opinion in the coming weeks.
(box art pictures to be posted shortly)
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