Gintama is one of my favourite anime series of all time. I basically grew up following the show over the years. Admittedly, I didn’t have high hope for the spin-off, Ginpachi-sensei, when it was first announced. After watching it, I was still surprised to find myself even more disappointed than I had initially expected.
(On a side note, I hate the English title. Whoever came up with Mr. Ginpachi’s zany class? I had to look up what zany even means. A comedy stops being funny the moment it advertises itself as being hilarious… Also, as a seiyuu fan, Okita being one of Suzu’s best roles in my opinion, I’ll put the voice acting aspects in perspective as well.)
For me, Ginpachi-sensei is a quick cash-grab for Bandai. Do they have to try hard for it to sell? Apparently no: the franchise is already popular enough on its own. If you are not familiar with the anime merch market, I'll just say that Bandai churns out a new 3Z line-up practically every week. Did the production team actually try hard with the anime? My answer is no. The show falls flat. It ran for a cour, and for me it’s enough. I didn’t simulcast the show when it first came out in October, but saved it until it finished airing, which is around last week. Here’s my review from having freshly watched the show.
Ginpachi-sensei doesn’t work with great source material to begin with. I read the translation of the the novels years back — the 8 original publications, I mean. The 2 new instalments haven’t been translated yet. I don’t remember much of the story, only that I didn’t enjoy them. (And I’m a big fan of these light novel spin-offs. Trust me, if a major franchise gets one of these, I’ll be sure to consume them.) Out of the 8 volumes, I remember only appreciating 1 short story. The rest was absolute meh. The stories were really empty. They were not even funny, which was the whole point of the franchise to begin with. The author focused more on exposition — making sure each of the characters make an appearance, however minor or superficial — which ultimately resulted in lack of concrete plot or even humour. I don’t reproach them much for the former, but the later is in excusable.
Which brings me to my second point — Ginpachi is such a performative hero it's in your face. While each novel volume consists of several short stories, when these get adapted into a 20-minute animation, the production has to conclude the story somehow. Consequently, Ginpachi-sensei’s episodes end with Ginpachi coming in to save the day, delivering a cool speech, and leave without fail. It’s ok in the main show… Gintoki is the MC after all. We’re all here to appreciate how cool the hero is. But he didn’t have to play this role every week in Gintama, which alternated between longer and shorter arcs, and some were even purely for comedy. With Ginpachi-sensei’s weekly instalments, it feels like I’m being force-fed the ‘coolness’ of the MC at the end of each episode, and it’s too heavy-handed.
My last and biggest gripe is that the show really skimped on voice acting. This is the most serious issue for me. A lot of the side characters’ appearance on screen was not voiced. Most of the time Okita, Zura, etc. are there for the action, but they have no lines to say. Is it that necessary for them to say something? I’d say no, it doesn’t add to or deduct from the story whether they get to say anything or not (I can’t even be bothered to check the novels if they really had dialogues). But still, it feels like cutting cost to me. Ok, seiyuus have gotten expensive over the years. Inflation and increase in popularity and whatnot. I’d imagine that the pay for a lot of them has risen exponentially since their Gintama recordings. But still, Gintama largely built its popularity upon its voice actors. I understand that the production doesn’t have to try hard to get original fans to watch Ginpachi-sensei, but skimping on voice acting is a bit much for me. I still remember this one episode in Gintama, in which Hijikata went out and got in trouble over something, and then there was Kondo and Okita staying at home, playing game together. I recall being honestly surprised when Chiba and Suzu made that small cameo just to voice the lines, with Kondo screaming something about the game and Okita musing his inner thoughts about being bored to death. And here we are in Ginpachi, with Zura stretching and inadvertently knocking over that bottle of lotion, Hijikata preparing his bottle of mayonnaise in that school mystery episode, Okita with his bamboo sword hitting the bad guy, Saito Shimaru making a cameo appearance in the classroom in the first episode etc. None of these appearances received a voiced line. And the treatment Takasugi received deserved another post on its own. What I’m saying is, whatever the source material, the production could have made an effort to sneak in a line here and there and get more voice actors to make a cameo appearance, even if it’s just for a line, like they did in Gintama. But no, they didn’t go down that road.
I think most of us care about this show because of nostalgia, myself included. I didn't hate the show, but didn't find it memorable either. There are more passionate and engaging shows being aired this season. I doubt Ginpachi-sensei will create any new fans for the franchise. Do I recommend it? If you’re a fan of Gintama, I say, do your otaku-duty. Watch it once and be done with it. Don't expect it to be an extension of Gintama. Go rewatch the Movie(s) or something if that's what you're looking for. I’ll also forget about it as soon as I post this review.
[Review] You can get away with anything as long as you're pretty: The Ultimate Utapri 2024 Review That Nobody Asked For — 8.5/10
This is my lengthy, anachronic review of the multi-million yen fandom of, yes, you guessed it, Utapri, a.k.a. Uta no Prince-sama.
Let me start by saying that I got into this simply because I was watching all the anime where Suzumura Kenichi had a main role. Yes, I’m a Suzu fan.
Suzu's impression of Masato in one of his Prebanlab broadcasts (feat. Kishou).
About a year back, I came across Utapri and watched the latest movie (Uta no Prince-sama: Maji Love STARISH Tours). I saw what there was to see and left it at that because I felt absolutely no desire to watch him in his Hijirikawa Masato role. The reason I’ve decided to give the fandom another go was because I’ve been watching videos and shorts of him all over Youtube. Of course Utapri and STARISH events came up a lot, and I enjoyed them immensely, even if I had no passion for Utapri as a franchise. So, I decided to pull up Maji Love 1000% again, saw the first few episodes, then Ren and Masato slid so fast into Odagiri my head was spinning, and here I am, writing the Utapri review of my life.
Before I get to the plot, let me go through each of the characters first since I have a lot to say about them. I won’t cover Quartet Night or HEAVENS though, because I don’t know much about the voice actors, and this review is already very long as it is. And I don’t know anything about the game (which has already closed down), since I have never tried it, nor do I speak Japanese.
Let's all appreciate a close look at the heels of Masato's feet in this Moonshine promotional art
Masato
The reason I couldn’t get into Utapri the first time was because of the voice acting Suzu did for Masato. I thought and still maintain that he was setting himself up for failure with the unnaturally deep and low voice he opted for this role. Unlike FukuJun or Sakurai who had really large vocal ranges, Suzu’s was very limited, which means that he couldn’t really go too high or too low without it sounding forced and unnatural. Or at least it sounded forced to me, a close follower of his works. In the same way I couldn’t stand Suzu’s voice in Dog Signal, Masato's stuck me wrong every time he spoke. I think Suzu could have gone with his normal voice here, the one he did for his other ML roles, like in Gridman or Macross Zero. It wouldn’t have made Masato’s character that much ‘softer’, per se, if he was going for the cool and collected impression for Masato.
That said, I asked myself if he could have taken any other of the STARISH roles? Not Ren or Syo or Tokiya for sure. Maybe Otoya or Natsuki? If I have to choose, I’d say Natsuki would be a good second choice. Then again, I don’t think Suzu could have pulled off Satsuki’s persona as perfectly as Kishou did.
In terms of character, Masato is really out of Suzu’s usual casting choices. I get the cold-with-a-tsundere-side type of character he was going for. Tsundere was at the top of Suzu’s typecast after all. And I find that Masato really shared a lot of traits with Iguro Obanai in Demon Slayer, especially the design (which was probably the reason why Suzu got the role for Iguro, imo) — but this comment was irrelevant, since DS came out way after Utapri.
To me, the only saving grace about Suzu’s Masa role was that he really paired well with Suwabe-san in Utapri. And this was mostly thanks to Be-san, in my opinion. I’ve seen Suzu against Be-san in other roles (including STAMEN stages), but none of them really left an impression.
I like Masato as a character, but to be honest, I really hate the voice. Every time he came on screen, I just wish he would stop talking.
The singing was another reason I think Suzu was setting himself up for failure. Ballades, really, Suzu? The way he rolled his tongue when he sang any song never failed to put me off. His Masato songs are not the worst among STARISH, but not the best either. But again, I can’t really judge because I’m quite biased towards Suzu anyways. My expectations were way over off the charts.
Despite the complaints, Masato remained my most favourite character in Utapri.
Ren
Everybody knows Suwabe-san at this point in time, because we’re living in the JJK era. Every one out of two people my age has something to say about JJK, which made me really happy for Be-san. But even back in the days, he was already rising in popularity. I’ve seen a lot of Be-san in STAMEN videos, and saw no chemistry whatsoever between him and Suzu. However, his Ren role really brought out everything that was good and pure in his voice acting. I really enjoyed this Ren-Masa relationship. They landslid into Odagiri so fast it left me breathless. (On the other hand, I honestly didn’t see any ship-worthy elements between Tokiya and Otoya or Natsuki and Syo, for that matter. I know the franchise was trying to sell these ships and I LOOKED for it, I swear. But no, there was just not enough in it to ship the rest of the cast.) Be-san’s smooth baritone voice was perfect for Ren. He never failed to deliver with these dominant, playboy types with a bit of insecurity.
That said, he’s probably one of the worst singers in STARISH (sorry, don’t hate me, Ren fans. I admire Be-san, I do.) I’ve watched him sing in multiple different contexts, but he never managed to impress me. I think he sounded too flat when he sang. It was exactly the same as his speaking voice. I really enjoyed Be-san in any seiyuu event, though. He added to the event with his own quirky personality, and I like that about him.
My favourite among backstage photos, cue the mirror.
Otoya
He is probably my least favourite character out of STARISH members. Because Terashima. That’s it. Don’t make me say any more. Also, at live concerts, I think his singing got drowned out by the background music. It’s such a waste of opportunity because he got the most catchy songs out of all of STARISH, being the main character.
Tokiya
Mamo really deserved all the praise and popularity he has gained to date. He’s really a true idol. Tokiya’s living Mamo’s life in the show. He has the look and the charisma. I really enjoyed Mamo’s skits and have watched them over and over again. His performances are those of a true idol’s, and even as a Suzu fan wishing for more screentime for Suzu, I still wholeheartedly agree that Mamo really shines in Utapri. However, I couldn’t help but notice that the Tokiya role really didn’t bring out Mamo’s best. Yes, he did great voice acting and singing, but Tokiya as a character is too solemn and serious (okay, so was Reinhard in Legend of the Galactic Heroes, but that’s neither here nor there) and that was all there was to it. I just think the best role for Mamo would be some character with both a cool and a comical side, like Suou Tamaki in Ouran Host Club, for example. Or some batshit crazy villain like Light or Chrollo, for alternatives. Those are really the roles for Mamo. Plus, he really shone on stage. His live concerts are great. If anyone’s a pro idol, it’s Mamo.
If I said I didn’t see any chemistry between Tokiya and Otoya, I saw less between him and other characters that some fans actually ship him with, like Ren or Masa. He’s the only character I wish would get together with the female lead in this reverse-harem purgatory, though. It just makes sense. Girl had been pining for him for ages, and he even returned her feelings!
Removing my Suzu-fan lenses, I can objectively say that Mamo is probably the best thing to happen to Utapri.
Syo
Just like Be-san, in this day and age everybody also knows Shimono Hiro. But back in Utapri era, I don’t think he was really that well-known, because Dabi and Zenitsu were barely in the process of making. Shimono fit the role for Syo, but I can also name half a dozen other male voice actors who could have done as great a job as him. I do enjoy him at seiyuu events though. He’s a crowd-pleaser. Without him as the butt of the joke, several events would have turned out less fun, that much is certain.
His vocals are ok. Not the worst but not the best either. I really enjoyed the fun he brought to any event, though I wish Suzu could have been less mean to him.
Natsuki
Utapri is where I discover Taniyama Kishou, honestly. I mean, I watched Attack on Titan, but Jean didn’t stand out to me in terms of voice acting. Kishou in concerts IS so precious. He’s a singer (and I didn’t think he would be able to pull off the rock music for Satsuki, but man he really did). Utapri is probably Kishou’s best voice acting role (not that I’ve seen much else). And he really captured both the Natsuki/Satsuki personas equally perfectly. How naturally he switched from cute little puppy to dark sadistic voice was truly impressive. I really have to give it to Kishou, he really did nail this Natsuki role. Which was exactly why I hesitated when I tried to cast Suzu for an alternative Natsuki. I don’t think Suzu would have done a better job than Kishou. It’s just that the cheerful side of Natsuki would have been more up Suzu’s alley, but then again.
Kishou was also such a joy at any given event, be it live concerts, fan events or just variety shows. He’s such a dork and is really loveable. I wonder why he didn’t get any more voice acting roles, though.
Honorary mention : Cecil
Another STAMEN member. Tori-san had his quirks, but he always stuck me as a more subdued individual at any given event. I don’t have a lot to comment on his voice acting roles, since he wasn’t really on my radar, but he sounded kind of forced and unnatural with Cecil the same way Suzu did with Masato. I think Tori-san tried to pitch for the upbeat, cheerful kind of impression for Cecil, but since his natural voice was way deeper, I found Cecil’s voice very artificially nasal. It didn’t bother me as much as Suzu’s Masa voice though, maybe because I had higher expectations for Suzu…
As for singing voice, he didn’t really leave much of an impression on me, so I’d say he was average among STARISH. Tori-san was one of the less noticeable members of the cast at events, so he kind of blended into the background to me. Since I don’t know much about him, I can’t really give an insightful comment on his Cecil’s role, to be honest. My best guess would be that they cast him because he really did a good job with Cecil’s imperfect Japanese. The way he acted like a foreigner struggling to speak the local language was really fun and I truly enjoyed that.
***
Utapri as a story really embodies the saying ‘you’d get away with anything as long as you’re pretty’ …Pretty, or shiny (kira kira), in the case of idols. This was something the show has been preaching non-stop it was really in your face. I find this to be the only truth to the whole shenanigans, though. As idols (and as seiyuus and celebrities in real-life), the only thing that counts is to be shiny… to emit light halos you blind your fans at live concerts… To me, Mamo was shiny alright. Kishou as well, when he sang on stage. This anime had a total disregard for plot. They just did whatever and hope the shiny quality of the idols (seiyuus) work their magic. And it did. But mostly I stayed on because of RenMasa. It was delicious.
I just realized recently that Utapri and Osomatsu-san are just two sides of the same coin : they’re both idol animes. Not in the sense that the characters in Osomatsu were aiming to be idols, but that the franchise was riding on the popularity of these male seiyuus themselves. Until not long before, I had always thought that Osomatsu was a gag anime. Looking back, I realized that Osomatsu had always boasted this about itself. In the first episode, when discussing the direction they would take for this remake, the sextuplets eventually agreed to go with the ‘idol route’, becoming idols themselves in order to gain popularity. Even if this turned out to be just a gag, it was truer than any truth spoken on screen, and it wasn’t hard for me to picture the production company brainstorming and coming up with the exact idea (i.e. to cast these idols as the main six roles). The show had always hinted at this idol culture, parodying the Japanese showbiz all the time. The characters were even color-coded, just like in your average idol anime. The difference was that instead of having real-life idols (seiyuus) portraying idol characters as in Utapri, Osomatsu went for subversion. It showed a flip side of an idol. The show had Japan’s top seiyuus did all these dirty jokes and didn’t hesitate to throw in plenty of nasty gags.
One thing I noticed about Osomatsu was that all of the cast for sextuplets HAD never had a main role in an idol anime (to my knowledge). I think that was one of the requirements. I like how Suzu and Nakamura Yuuichi somehow ended up switching adjuvant roles. Suzu was Iyami in Osomatsu, whereas Nakamura was Ringo-sensei in Utapri. I really enjoyed Suzu in his Iyami role, though, and I wouldn’t have cast him in any of the main six. He was the perfect remake-Iyami, handsdown.
Masa and Ren figures I brought with me to where I'm currently living for emotional support.
One of my short term goals right now is to try to go to one of Utapri events in the near future (the seiyuus are getting old, they won’t keep giving live stages for long, in my opinion). I’ve read about how difficult it was to obtain a ticket, so I’ll have to plan carefully. I still can’t wrap my mind around the fact that the franchise was still very very popular (especially among millennials) following the recent STARISH STAR TREASURE -Moonshine- concert. I know I’m late getting into this, but Utapri is such a strong franchise with such a large fanbase. I believe they still have at least a couple of years of juice in them to go on.
I just finished OPLA (skipping the parts I didn't care about, though). I'll make it short (spoilers ahead):
Things I like:
- Some writing choices. I liked that they weren't afraid to tweak the narratives a little to accommodate the storyline. Kudos for Zoro getting his wounds taken care of by Zeff, Luffy's & Sanji's parents bonding etc.
- How bold the production was with Zoro's sexuality ("You're asking the wrong guy." *Grabs own sword out of some naked blond guy's hands composedly* etc.) I think the intention might have been to depict Zoro as asexual, but it just ended up making him openly gay. End of story.
Things I find questionable:
- The casting, but not the cast. The first thing I need to emphasize is that all of the casts delivered their performance beautifully. There's nothing wrong with their acting skills. But the casting choices just didn't suit the characters at all in my opinion. And it's not a problem of chemistry either. Usually, when I have my reservations about the casting, it'd be like, oh, this guy works as Character A, but it was honestly a terrible decision to put him together with this guy as Character B. With OPLA, the chemistry between the crew were great, and I really enjoyed the bickering between Zoro and Sanji, BUT there's just that one thing that made them not Luffy, not Nami, not Zoro and not Sanji. (Not so much Usopp though).
- The production. I've already made my points about sneakers. Luffy cajoling around IN Converses!? What on earth. Flashback!Sanji walking around the kitchen (and subsequently on that rock) in crisp white sneakers!? What WAS that. And I think they totally butchered that Sanji Flashback scene. I'm not an advocate of eating disorders or putting child actors through food restrictions etc, BUT after 75 days of being stranded on a rock with barely anything to eat/drink, young Sanji still looked as fresh and healthy as he was on day one. His lips were not even chapped in the close up shots. I felt like they could have made more efforts on this.
- Adaptation... but to what extent? Does adaptation mean following the original to the T? Even when some elements were not even crucial to the storytelling (and hell, OPLA will go on for what, another 2 seasons max? some easter eggs might not even mean anything)? So some of the props were entirely unnecessary and so badly executed it made the whole show cheap and ridiculous, like that dog hat Garp was wearing AND the mouse ears on Nezumi. Especially the latter. It might have worked in the manga and anime, but we could have totally dispensed with those.
Recently in Japan, there has just been a production of One Piece On Ice (figure skating adaptation of Alabasta arc -- highly recommend to check it out on Youtube). It was a totally different form of storytelling, but the casting was perfect. In my humble opinion, the actors there fit their roles WAY more than than this cast did in OPLA. I'm not saying OPLA was bad, though. I enjoyed some bits of the show. It just doesn't really stick overall.
- the best episode was 2.1 because it sets the stage/expectations for the story and no bad writings could interfere yet.
- it continued to deliver up until 2.4 where Kaz defeated Pekka (another good scene), marking the end of the crows’ independent plotline.
- the scene where Kaz walked in to the Slat and beat down the (disappointingly small number of) dregs was truly a let down. It should have been Kaz’s grandest fight — not just a bar brawl. Even if Kaz’s fight scene with Pekka made up for it in terms of quality…it was in no way and should not have been a replacement for Kaz vs. Dregs fight.
- the second half of the show beginning from 2.5 just ran away with the plot… Shu Han mission and eating butterflies? What was that honestly.
- even if i had been expecting Kaz’s conversation with Inej in the chapel, the actors still delivered it magnificently.
- what’s really missing is the scene where Matthias faces up to Kaz and calling him demjin. We are definitely cheated out of this with the show ending where it did.
- all in all the crows are great, but s2 is a bit underwhelming compared to s1 because of the story they got. After they parted with Alina’s group the storyline just split itself in two, and the effort to glue them back together cost both parties the story they deserved.
Quick thoughts on the final chapter of Food Wars Sanji :
They really did go back to older materials. They actually presented the earliest timeline for the FW Sanji universe.
Which I find decent. Kudos for the mention of Sanji’s little stint of sword training at the beginning.
What really defied my expectations was that they managed to incorporate older Sanji in the story. This chapter has both Youngest and Oldest Sanji in the FW universe, and I like how it closed the loop for the story.
On the same note, I normally only find this look of Older Sanji in fanworks (mostly Japanese fanarts), so I was bewildered to see it in FW… It nicely brought and blended fandom and (pseudo-) canon together.
Again, FW creator’s strong point is that they didn’t shrink from taking liberty with Sanji and challenging the main story… They still managed to add new angles and bring fresh light to Sanji’s character with this story.
Don’t really care about the ram plot, but I like how clothes flew off of both normative female fan service OFCs and Patty and Carne on the same two pager… great job to the creator on keeping it diverse especially in the Japanese cultural context. That’s some clear indication on Sanji’s sexuality. He makes food that charms both men and women equally.
For some reason, I prefer the drawing style from the first few chapters. This younger Sanji is not too bad though. The one I least prefer is Wano Sanji.
My take on [Sanji vs. Queen] fight vs. [Zoro vs. King] fight
So we’re at the release of the spoilers for ch.1036, where both Sanji and Zoro’s fights have concluded. I guess I can soundly express my opinions now that the fights are over:
First, let’s give it a thought on who’s stronger between King and Queen. Honestly, it’s all the same to me. Queen might be more prone to stupidity, which made him a bit easier to defeat than King (re: the accidental/comic relief launching of his moves). But I don’t get the feeling that King is that much more extraordinary either, even with his extinct race plotline and power-boosted Devil Fruit ability. So I’ll just say that they’re pretty much on the same level, with King being at Lv.99-ish and Queen at Lv. 97-ish, something like that. To me, they’re not solidly invincible like Kaidou or Big Mom. Or even some of Big Mom’s top generals.
How did Zoro and Sanji manage to defeat their opponents? Again, and very on brand for One Piece, they managed to overwhelm their opponents by inputting more power. Zoro put an inordinate amount of Haki into his cursed sword, which allowed him to cut King. Sanji used his combined new strenghts to come up with a new attack and knocked Queen out. It’s on track for “overwhelming your opponents with more POWER!!!” for either of their fights, which is the only conclusion One Piece could ever arrive at. It’s repetitve, it’s old. It’s the only story One Piece ever knows to tell.
What character developments did we see along the way? Zoro’s drive for powering up is his promise to Luffy (which has been there since the second arc of the story, 20-ish years ago).
Sanji, however, underwent a moment of existential crisis and managed to make his own decision by stepping on his transformation device. For me personally, that accounted for something. The conflict was there in Sanji’s writing, while it was absent in Zoro’s.
At the end, we even saw that he was protecting the little mouse for the Geisha. Plus the fact that Queen’s moves were the combination of his brothers’ attacks. These were a cute little nod towards his background. In a way, in Wano, Sanji has managed to remain the kindhearted kid who took care of mice and was still capable of defeating Ichiji, Niji and Yonji singlehandedly. That’s a lot of content to unpack, and it’s golden.
Conclusion: Zoro was unfortunately given the shallowest of plotlines in these fights. There’s no digging into his past, no thought given to his character development, no conflict to his character. It’s true that the story has shone some light on his background in East Blue, but it was still largely insubstantial in terms of chracter writing. One Piece’s one and only morale (or for after timeskip stories, at least) is always to defeat your opponent and overcome any obstacle with greater force. Which is fine, I can live with that (I stick around, don’t I?), but at least Oda could have made an effort to try and sandwich in some character writing for Zoro, like he did with Sanji.
I’m taking the wait-and-see stance for this, however. The Wano’s arc is still not over, and the Shimotsuki story has yet to be fully revealed. There’s still room for more writing for Zoro. But I’d say that Oda has missed his chance to incorporate it in one of the most important fights of the whole story (what with Wano supposedly being Zoro’s arc and all). Like I’ve mentioned before, I fee kinda bad for Zoro’s fans out there. Oda could have fleshed out Zoro’s character already. There’s no time like the present, as we’re running out of pages for Wano!!!
[Review] Captain Earth : A Waste of Time and Potential — 2/10
This 2014 release is your worst than average Mecha anime. It is produced by Bones, who has left a legacy in Eureka Seven, among more successful titles. This anime is a total waste of time, resources and potential. I only watched it because I'm a seiyuu fan going through their filmography.
I'm a big fan of Eureka Seven, a previous success by Bones. I've watched it several times and considered the show one of the best anime of all times. Captain Earth is anything but. It has elements that is a nod to this previous success, but utterly fails to deliver a meaningful story. I smashed the skip button on my keyboard so much I'm surprised it didn't break... Writing a lengthy review of this show seems an unforgivable waste of time, so I'll keep it short.
It scored 2 points from me because Suzumura Kenichi and Sakamoto Maaya were in it as the main villain pair, and they were already married at that time. I've watched other shows where they starred together as love interests (Gundam Seed Destiny, Kara no Kyoukai, FFVII, FGO (does this last one even count?)), but this one stands out thanks to the fact that during the show, Amara and Moko are already an item! In other shows they were just trying to figure out their feelings, only to end up together at the end of the show or offscreen. It's such a treat. Did I mention that I'm a Suzu fan? I only watched this show because I am.
I deducted 1 point for the studio's inability to produce a good show, despite the available resources. Bones had everything — the experience, a luxurious cast of voice actors, plenty uses of fan service etc. So I don't understand why their execution (mainly storytelling) was so poor. It's honestly shit. (Unrelated, but I was so surprised that Uchiyama Kouki sounded exactly like Kamiya Hiroshi in this show. At first I thought Kamiya was voicing two roles, but no. It's so out of left field because I was used to Uchiyama's low, husky villain voice. Didn't realize he sounded so similar to Kamiya when he speaks relatively normally!)
Captain Earth's biggest offense, though, lies in the fact that the producers are chickens!!! Cowards!!! They made Moko kiss other girls (to activate her special power), but didn't allow Amara to kiss any of the guys!!! What the heck. I know the main target audience is male, but Bones should just own up! The Baku recruitment episodes were such a let down. I sat through them waiting for Amara to step up and smooch him to awaken his memories. But nope, not gonna happen. The show wasted two episodes making the characters run around for nothing, only to make Moko kiss him in the end. This would have saved us a whole episode if Amara had just kissed him in that ring. TOTAL DISAPPOINTMENT. Deducted 7 points.
That's it for the review. There's nothing in it in this show for the casual audience. Even me, who watched solely for the voice acting aspects of it found it quite a waste of time in general...
[Review] Quick thoughts on AoT The Last Attack — 7/10
Spoilers if you haven't read the manga...
So, in simple worlds, this movie basically gets a Code Geass ending with a bonus reel from FMA The Conqueror of Shamballa...
For some background: I was really hooked on the first and second season of AoT back in my college days, around 2014-15. It was all a rage. Though ever since, I hadn't really been following AoT anime. I read enough of the manga to have an idea of how it ended... although the plot really escapes me (who Eldians are, who is fighting who and why etc.) This film just hit the cinemas where I currently live (France), so I guess I'll just write a quick review here.
I'll have to say, the execution for this movie was of great quality. Really minimal use of 3D renditions and only where truly necessary. ...That said, this doesn't mean I condone MAPPA's exploitation or the animation industry's tendency to overwork animators, though... The music was great. The voice acting was also great, as expected. Was really happy that both Kisho and Shimono characters remained until the last chapter. (I was contemplating whether Suzuken could have been in AoT. But after some serious thoughts, I came to a conclusion that there was just no Suzuken roles in AoT. Simple as that.) Was a bit conflicted with Inoue Marina in the Armin role though... She really delivered, don't get me wrong. The wailing and brawling she did at the end were really on point. But they could have cast a male seiyuu for grown-up Armin, maybe? I wonder who would have gotten the role. If Shimono's not already voicing Conny, I'd say Shimono, hands down.
As for the story, I can only say that this movie followed the manga pretty closely, right up until the end, before they added a bit of continuation of their own. Ok fine, Eren's headed for a Lelouch ending with his penchant for martyrdom and God complex and all (minus all the sass and dramas that came with the latter. Lelouch's my #1 dramatic baby. I adore him.) But I couldn't really say if Eren's choice was justified or not, since I didn't really follow the story very closely.
The bonus reels though. I truly enjoyed the comical effects it created, especially the bit with Levi cleaning the glass panels in the cinema hall. But, as opposed to FMA the Conquerer of Shamballa, this one felt a bit off, I guess. FMA CoS was a 2-hour ride of AU timeline courtesy of the animation company, and not at all the manga canon. AoT the Last Attack, on the other hand, followed the manga pretty closely up until the end, as far as I know. The last bit where the AoT world slowly transforms into a pseudo-modern world recognizable as our own felt truly like a filler. The modern reincarnation of the main trio getting out of the cinema after watching this exact film felt like a copy-and-paste from FMA CoS bonus reel, to be honest. It was enjoyable, alright. But was it original? Hardly.
Thus ends my quick review. I think if you're an AoT fan, you'll love this film. If you're not, it's still a nice film to watch (but you'll need some background knowledge, of course). I had expected it to be sadder though, but I guess tearjerker was not the genre they were aiming for.
