Shuffle! vol. 4 — School Rumble – Extra Class — Batman: Gotham Knight — One Piece Season 1 — anime — dvd reviews
I’ve been meaning to get these out of the way for quite a while now, but just haven’t had the chance (see upcoming Summer update article). Since the capsule format was so popular last time, and since my review stack has grown so large, here are brief reviews of Shuffle vol. 4, School Rumble – Extra Class, Batman: Gotham Knight, and One Piece Season 1 Voyage 1. On with the show.
Shuffle! vol. 4. If there was one thing that bugged me about Shuffle, it was the character of Primula. The fourteen year-old Demon girl was nothing short of uninteresting, and Rin’s constant fawning over her nothing short of creepy. So, in the previous disc, when Primula got sick and had to go to the Demon world, I was pretty darn happy. Without her annoying presence the sukebe underage-girl plot-line would have to die out, and Rin could focus his attentions somewhere more deserving (ie: his teacher). However, this was not to be. Rather than abandoning Primula to the wayside, Shuffle Vol. 4 sees the Shuffle crew trying to bring her back, wasting not one, but three episodes on exclusive Primula plotline. Aarg. The kids get very depressed, go to the Demon World, proclaim their intentions, and bring the stupid girl back to the human world. The final episode moves on to more interesting territory, with Lisianthus becoming a bit jealous of the other girls, and succumbing to the whims of a darker conscience. If anything, I’m hoping this promises vol. 5 will do something toward rectifying the wrong of the vast majority of volume 4. This one was pretty painful.
School Rumble – Extra Class. A surprisingly fun disc, School Rumble – Extra Class sees two episodes of deleted content from the first season of School Rumble. I’m not sure exactly where all the content fits in within the context of that season, but suffice it to say, the stuff found here proves a whole lot more fun than School Rumble vol. 6. Highlights include the arrival of an additional delinquent (who natrually happens to idolize Harima), a trip to the hot springs, more crazed athletic competitions, and a whole episode of prehistoric school rumbling, complete with a caveman Harima, mammoths, and more (10,000 B.C. has nothing on this one). My one complaint is there’s not enough of Tenma’s sister, Yakumo. Oh well. Extras on the disc include interviews with the Japanese voice actresses who play Tenma and Yakumo, the usual textless songs, and trailers for other Funimation releases. School Rumble – Extra Class is a surprisingly cool disc. If you’re a fan of School Rumble, it’s definitely worth picking up. If anything, this has me very interested in season 2.
Batman: Gotham Knight . Amazing stylish, yet wholly unsatisfying. These six shorts from the animation houses behind the Animatrix see wildly varying treatments of the Batman, from playful explorations of his urban legend status to more concrete depictions of hard hitting vigilantism. Similarly, these episodes see Batman fighting a number of classic villains (ie: Killer Croc, Deadshot) as well as completely new Japanese creations. The visuals are nothing short of stunning, the majority of the anime revisions impressively cool, but the stories driving those visuals are at their very best completely forgettable. Case in point: After watching the Gotham Knight DVD one evening, I woke up the next morning and had to think pretty hard whether I’d finished the disc, and what exactly happened in all of the stories. No doubt people will be curious about this effort, but I must say, if you have to see it, rent it.
One Piece Season 1. One Piece’s kid-targeted action made this title pretty hard for me to watch. I couldn’t get through more than a couple episodes (way too much shrieking), but I will say Funimation’s team has done a pretty good job on this. My only previous experience with One Piece happens to be the Funimation released One Piece Movie, which for me was suffocating in its reliance on crazed action over concrete story. However, due to the slower pace of the show, and the fact that these are the introductory episodes, what I did see proved far more palatable. In fact, if I was twelve years old, I’d probably have a blast with this show. So, while not for me, I’ll give this one a conditional recommendation. If you like One Piece, or have younger siblings who are fans of One Piece, this would make quite the nice purchase/present.
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