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I just watched BALDR FORCE EXE Resolution in English on Hulu.

I like OVA series. There's something that I find very appealing about a small number of episodes that are slightly longer than normal television episodes. They can allow for really tight storytelling and are often just the right length to fill an evening. I might also just have some residual nostalgia since I came into anime just early enough for OVAs to have been an important part of my early fandom.

I did not, however, much care for BALDR FORCE EXE Resolution. Its chief problem, whence all of its many other problems seem to stem, is that it's trying to tell what is probably enough story for a thirteen-episode series in four episodes. The whole thing ends up as an empty mess. None of it feels nearly so momentous as it is probably suppose to be, it takes a feat of imagination to care about the characters and it all feels very choppy.

At a very low, base level, BALDR FORCE EXE Resolution simply did not win my interest. I didn't care about or respect what I was watching. My reaction to the events was on more than a few occasions not an emotional response, but an amateur MST3k imitation. For example...

Some Character Whose Name I Don't Care About: We'll lose access to the wire!
I: Oh shit! Then we'll be reduced to watching Arli$$!

I'm not even sure if that's funny, but it did more for me than this series.

In a way, BALDR FORCE EXE Resolution insisted up front that I play it for laughs. The dramatic height of the opening scene involves a bunch of people going all Scanners because if you die in the game, you die for real... by head explosion. What a strange world where the default response to heads exploding is laughter. I'm not complaining, but it's weird. Of course, the heads in this don't explode very impressively. Whether it was for want of budget, of talent or of directorial sense, when people's heads started exploding, I felt no visceral disgust, revulsion or excitement. Later on the series doesn't even bother to show the heads a-splode; somebody just says, "X's cranium exploded," without nearly as much emotion as that should inspire.

Maybe in the world of BALDR FORCE EXE Resolution, head explosions are so routine that people have just become accustomed to them. Maybe this should have been a black comedy about a world where brains go kablooey all the time and it sucks because of the paperwork and oh god damn it, the janitor's union is on strike, I'll bet you wish that Gingrich had won now! The whole series would have been a lot better and more digestible if it were playing its cliches and problems for laughs. Well, almost the whole series... the prolonged rape scene probably couldn't have been fixed by anything, especially not comedy. It's not a very viscerally effective rape, this isn't a show that does anything viscerally, but it goes on for a while in a weird way. It fails as drama and exploitation while being horrifyingly dull too. That's quite possibly the worst way for such a terrible thing to be portrayed.

What makes it even worse is that it's among the only things that define or expand upon one of the characters, who otherwise just gets three perfunctory character traits and a simplistic, ill-explained motivation. The perpetrator is even worse because he gets only one character trait, being a psychotic asshole, but really no motivation. He's a vicious jerk, just 'cause. Those are examples of the best-defined members of the cast, by the way, besides the lead, who is so purely beige that I don't care to discuss him. Most of the rest are very thinly drawn archetypes. There are just too many characters relative to the series' length. They come and go mechanically, are portrayed artlessly and the viewer is left with nobody to grab hold off. One character blushes at another, but besides being unmotivated by events before it, nothing follows it. It was a complete waste. It feels like a subplot that was cut for time.

'Cut for time' is the defining feature of BALDR FORCE EXE Resolution. Very few things are developed, or explained and none to a satisfying extent. The setting is poorly defined and no real world-building is attempted. There are a lot of little threads that seem like they were supposed to yield fully developed subplots that would give life and detail to the characters, but none of it every really happens. This series has no build-up and no follow through. A very serious and important revelation appears suddenly with no warning or foreshadowing, it's never explained and never elaborated upon. It just happened because is accomplished something that the plot needed to advance. The people who made this clearly had a longer story, but were unwilling to streamline it enough for the time available or unable to do so. This plays out almost like a badly done compilation of a longer series.

And from what I can make of the plot that they failed to adequately reduce. It's nothing special and it's not done well. It's a pretty standard cyberpunk story with the sole possibly distinctive element being that the preposterous realization of 'cyberspace' is that everybody has a mecha called a, "simulacrum," that participate in dull robot battles. It hurts the series unfairly that it elects to call its souped-up futuristic version of the internet, "the wire," which just makes me think, "Man, I could be watching Serial Experiments Lain right now." It's pretty lame stuff.

So the lesson is, don't watch BALDR FORCE EXE Resolution. Watch Serial Experiments Lain and maybe Armitage III too.

I also watched the first two episodes of B Gata H Kei - Yamada's First Time last Saturday night. I kind of liked it. It was fairly funny, Yamada was an appealing character and it was even surprisingly sincere, which counts a lot to me. It's not spectacularly animated, but for something like this, that's not a bid deal. Something about it feels a bit 'off'. I'm not sure what, but it just doesn't quite feel proper. I kept wondering, "who is this for?" Not in the ironic way that I did with Strike Witches, but because I was genuinely uncertain if this is a series that wanted to explore sexually frankly or if it was meant to titillate the chronically self-unaware socially marginal. I didn't feel the revulsion that seemed to permeate the Spring 2010 preview guide, perhaps because I watched the English dub not the original Japanese, but I felt like it was something that I would enjoy more of, but be at best ambivalent about the fact that I had enjoyed it. I can unreservedly state that I found the English dub to be very well done. I really enjoyed Brittney Karbowski's portrayal of Yamada and I was both surprised and pleased by Cherami Leigh as Takeshita. (I'd only heard her before in 'chirpier' parts before, so this went against my expectations) Perhaps if more episodes are made available gratis for streaming, the set is put on a very tempting sale, or I get another bottle of bonded rye, I might overcome my equivocation and see the rest.

For about two weeks I was avoiding the final two episodes of AnoHanna. Part of me is happy to finally get off that roller coaster of emotion, but I will miss the super peace busters. Though I thought it tried too hard at times, and I knew that I was being manipulated I still got caught up in the whole thing. I enjoyed the entire experience, but I doubt I will ever watch it again. It's not like me to get so emotionally wrapped up, but I salute all those who will rewatch this one for years to come.

Now...anyone have some extra tissues?

Botan24 wrote:

I'm also giving Scrapped Princess a go, but its not clicking with me. I'm not finding the characters interesting or engaging at all. And if I cannot empathize with the characters, then the anime is usually a no go for me, (an exception being Casshern Sins). I'm up to episode four now, and I've only got two more eps before I reach my cutoff point.

It has been awhile since I have seen Scrapped Princess. Pretty decent overall in my recollection. I will say that the series has without a doubt the most pointless death of a somewhat main character. Still aways to go for you, but if you make it, you will be shocked. And when you relate the death to the story, and its impact going forward... You will no doubt be puzzled. Death for no reason, plot or otherwise.

Gewürtztraminer wrote:

Botan24 wrote:

I'm also giving Scrapped Princess a go, but its not clicking with me. I'm not finding the characters interesting or engaging at all. And if I cannot empathize with the characters, then the anime is usually a no go for me, (an exception being Casshern Sins). I'm up to episode four now, and I've only got two more eps before I reach my cutoff point.

It has been awhile since I have seen Scrapped Princess. Pretty decent overall in my recollection. I will say that the series has without a doubt the most pointless death of a somewhat main character. Still aways to go for you, but if you make it, you will be shocked. And when you relate the death to the story, and its impact going forward... You will no doubt be puzzled. Death for no reason, plot or otherwise.

I actually really liked SP, although I got into it along the way, the beginnings were not great. Btw Gewürtztraminer, by pointless death do you mean spoiler[Fulle]? I could not think of anyone else that died in an outstanding way, but at any rate, I did not think it was pointless at all. Sad or tragic, if anything. Unless you mean a different character... it has been years since I saw the series, so I cant remember the detail all that well.

I need someone to explain to me why Voogie's Angel seems to be universally disliked. I'm not gonna argue with you or tear you a new one, but this is one of those rare moments where I watch a show, love it, but then scratch my head by all the bad ratings it has. Usually I get when I like a show more than others (Slayers, Shuffle, etc), but in this case I'm not getting it. Alright story, good characters, nice artwork, very good dub, and animation ranging from pretty good to godly in the last episode usually equal at least an average rating.

Saw episodes 2-4 of Jubei-chan. It made me rage so much. All of the characters are utter morons, the comedy isn't funny, the plot was practically the same for each episode, and the action scenes were infinitesimally short. How can everyone speak so much and say so little?

Jinryu (don't care if I spelled it wrong) keeps proclaiming that she's not Jubei and doesn't want to be, but every episode some ridiculous, yet still boring, enemy samurai attacks her and she's forced to put on the eye-patch to become Jubei and defeat them. Basic pattern recognition should make her realize she ought to hold onto the thing to save her the 5 minutes it takes her unwanted flunky to go find it.

There's some moron with two monkey-faced underlings who's in live with Jinryu, but he doesn't add anything except jokes that aren't funny and a shirt with constantly changing text on it.

Then there's another guy in love with Jinryu from a clan that wants to defeat Jubei, but he's not officially part of the clan or something, and he has a twin brother who is, and he's conflicted because Jinryu has boobs, and he likes her boobs, and he's only slightly less of an idiot than the guy with the monkey friends.

Also, I'm pretty sure the animation budget was crap even by the standards of the time (1999, I think).

@Dorcas_Aurelia
Everything you say about Jubei-chan may be correct. But you still have to admit it's pretty good. Those repeated unbelievable elements are really running gags, maybe. Plus the show delivers good humour, character development and Shirahatamaru Otome. Very Happy

I'm excitedly starting to watch my brand new DVDs of Sugar Sugar Rune!

Gewürtztraminer wrote:

Botan24 wrote:

I'm also giving Scrapped Princess a go, but its not clicking with me. I'm not finding the characters interesting or engaging at all. And if I cannot empathize with the characters, then the anime is usually a no go for me, (an exception being Casshern Sins). I'm up to episode four now, and I've only got two more eps before I reach my cutoff point.

It has been awhile since I have seen Scrapped Princess. Pretty decent overall in my recollection. I will say that the series has without a doubt the most pointless death of a somewhat main character. Still aways to go for you, but if you make it, you will be shocked. And when you relate the death to the story, and its impact going forward... You will no doubt be puzzled. Death for no reason, plot or otherwise.

See, that just makes me immediately wary. Characters deaths can go two ways for me. One example is from spoiler[Gurren Lagann when Kamina dies]. I bawled my eyes out and couldn't watch anymore of the series. Then there's my other reaction. After spoiler[Maes Hughes death] in FMA, I cried, felt sad, but kept going. It really has nothing to do with whether the death is pointless or not. I have to give a damn about the character, but, I'm not connecting with any of the characters in Scrapped Princess. On the other hand, now I'm kinda curious to keep watching just to see if, by that point when the character dies, I'll even have a reaction. Wink

I liked Scrapped Princess, but not for it's plot or any such thing. If you don't connect with the characters immediately, I can't imagine you'll find much to like if you keep watching.

Botan24 wrote:

Gewürtztraminer wrote:

Botan24 wrote:

I'm also giving Scrapped Princess a go, but its not clicking with me. I'm not finding the characters interesting or engaging at all. And if I cannot empathize with the characters, then the anime is usually a no go for me, (an exception being Casshern Sins). I'm up to episode four now, and I've only got two more eps before I reach my cutoff point.

It has been awhile since I have seen Scrapped Princess. Pretty decent overall in my recollection. I will say that the series has without a doubt the most pointless death of a somewhat main character. Still aways to go for you, but if you make it, you will be shocked. And when you relate the death to the story, and its impact going forward... You will no doubt be puzzled. Death for no reason, plot or otherwise.

See, that just makes me immediately wary. Characters deaths can go two ways for me. One example is from spoiler[Gurren Lagann when Kamina dies]. I bawled my eyes out and couldn't watch anymore of the series. Then there's my other reaction. After spoiler[Maes Hughes death] in FMA, I cried, felt sad, but kept going. It really has nothing to do with whether the death is pointless or not. I have to give a damn about the character, but, I'm not connecting with any of the characters in Scrapped Princess. On the other hand, now I'm kinda curious to keep watching just to see if, by that point when the character dies, I'll even have a reaction. Wink

It has been some time. spoiler[Fulle's death gains the protagonist maybe 20 minutes. I remember raging. That death bought 20 minutes?] Seriously?
I was so pissed.

ailblentyn wrote:

@Dorcas_Aurelia
Everything you say about Jubei-chan may be correct. But you still have to admit it's pretty good.

No? At first, it had elements of so bad it's good, but it pretty quickly progressed to so bad it's bad.

Quote:

Those repeated unbelievable elements are really running gags, maybe. Plus the show delivers good humour, character development and Shirahatamaru Otome. Very Happy

I did not like the humor, the episodes I saw had no character development, and I didn't see Otome do anything other than have a weird looking face and watch people from a distance.

Botan 24,

The death that Gewurtztraminer is talking about was NOT of a main character. It was a character that was inroduced over halfway through the series and was around for 3 or 4 episodes, IIRC. I agree that his death didn't accomplish much in one sense, but I wouldn't call it completely useless.

I have to say: I liked the characters of Scrapped Princess (most of them, anyway) a lot more than the overall plot. And I found the ending to be... underwhelming. Still, I think it's worth watching at least once. It has some pretty cool scenes in it, and I really like the ending music.

I'm a big psychological thriller/horror anime fan, and since I'm now waiting weekly for Another and Mirai Nikki, I had heard of an anime called Shiki, and watched all 22 episodes in one shot. Absolutely loved it! Thought it was going to be like Higurashi at first due to the setting but I was completely wrong! Such an underrated and well done anime.

Listen girls, I am your father: (first two episodes)

I don't see this show getting stronger over time. There's just something "off" about it, and I can't quite say why. I suppose when a 3 year old is the best of the group, it's time to hang it up.

That, and those damn mosquito bites are irritating to watch. What's up with bugs in Japan biting only kneecaps and elbows? Gross.

Erin: Beast Master (first 10 episodes)
It was there, so I fired it up. So far, it's been a typical retelling of Bambi, this time using people instead of dinner.

It's painfully slow, and there's a reason there's 50ish episodes in its catalog. It's going to take this long for the series to introduce its name sake, as the only thing this girl is a master of is doing what's she's told not to do.

Now I just sit and wait for the inevitable "Your mom was framed" plot change.

I'll give this one just a few more episodes. If it remains mediocre, there are other titles to give me the same and do it with far fewer episodes.

Finally up to the 600's of Detective Conan. Just finished a TV original where Conan went through the whole sleep dart routine and explained everything only to give the detectives the evidence that was completely self evident. the question was "How was the person poisoned?" and all that had to be said was "Oh, I found it, it obviously belongs to this person." It's the TV originals that always make me hit a wall- self evident evidence, Mouri is almost always an especially abusive "funny alcoholic." And still with the bits about the master being killed by his apprentice because the master was claiming the work as his own... they really should have a PSA in Beika City about that.
"Hi, I'm famous Detective Mourri Kogoro, Did you know that apprentices killing their larcenous and plagiarizing senseis is the second leading cause of death in Beika City (first being jealous lovers killing each other for tragically mistaken slights)? Are you an apprentice to a sensei who steals your work? I'd like to to inform you of the liberal lawsuit options available to you, any lawyer would like to take such a cakewalk of a case for you and humilate him or her in a way worse than death, so please don't kill them- it's freaking obvious you did it... THE MORE YOU KNOW.....

Another recent case featured what may be the real biggest mystery... why do people keep calling over a famous detective over to witness their crimes as an alibi... or in the Case of "The Dream the Kappa Saw"...why did they call him at all?

Don't get me wrong though, I still enjoy the show... I just get tired of the repeating motifs sometimes. I mean, the murderer in the Kappa case was obvious, but the trick that was used was pretty dang cool.

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