Teh Anime Critic

Full Metal Panic

2010-06-25T20:52:00.004-05:00

Full Metal Panic is one of my first anime (and one of my early favorites). Basically, FMP is about Sousuke Sagara, an Arm Slave (giant robot)) pilot in the mercenary group, Mithril, who is assigned to the task of protecting Chidori Kaname. The highlights of FMP are the rather good character development and the nice balance between fight scenes and non-filler interludes. Between the first and second seasons, which mainly focus on Mithril and are very battle heavy, there is a transitional season called Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu, which focuses more on the romantic comedy high school life of Chidori and Sousuke.

My rating: 8/10

Hellsing

2010-06-19T19:48:00.003-05:00

Hellsing is by far one of my favorite (non-comedy) anime next to Death Note. Part of this is the simple fact that the vampires in Hellsing provide a nice contrast to the modern romantic vampire, which is nice, especially when Eclipse (the third film made out of the romantic, glitter ridden Twilight Saga) is about to come out. In a nutshell, Hellsing is about Seras Victoria, a young police officer who is turned into a vampire (sired?) by Alucard, a servant of the Hellsing Organization. Victoria then joins Hellsing in its quest for peace through destruction of evil vampires (and the occasional non-vampire). In Hellsing Ultimate (Hellsing's more grusome OVA), the story starts pretty much the same, but by the second episode or so, the story line has completely changed and there are neo-Nazis trying to take over the world. I personally like both Hellsing and Hellsing Ultimate equally, although Hellsing is a bit easier to watch due to its shorter episodes.

Sorry about my excessive use of MegaVideo, it will be replaced when I can get the videos on a better player.

Hellsing episode one:

Hellsing Ultimate episode one:

Twilight

2010-06-19T19:41:00.002-05:00

In preparation for Eclipse (the movie), I decided to post this video of Crispin Freeman (mainly for the Twilight, but I also love the rest of the video).

K-ON!

2010-06-17T11:19:00.003-05:00

K-ON! (and the second season K-ON!!) is the story of Yui Hirasawa who, despite having no actual musical experience, joins the Light Music Club at her school as a guitarist. Throughout the anime, Yui becomes a more accomplished musician and bonds with her fellow club members.
Despite the rather basic and linear plot of K-ON!, I rather enjoyed it as a short anime between longer ones.

My rating: 7/10

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (左様なら絶望先生)

2010-04-28T21:19:00.004-05:00

Sayo(u)nara Zetsubou Sensei is a comedy about a teacher (Nozomu Itoshiki) who hates all aspects of life. Throughout the series, Nozomu tries various methods to escape from his dreaded life. Each episode revolves around a particular aspect of life, culture, etc. These aspects are usually explored by using an extreme or hyper-literal interpretation or by using random humor (like in Azumanga Daioh). Not much more to say really besides that it's the funniest anime I've ever seen about a suicidal teacher (although suicidal teacher anime are hard to come by).

Search story

2010-04-17T16:18:00.002-05:00

I made one of those google search story things. Yes, I was bored.

Full Metal Alchemist (鋼の錬金術師)

2010-04-16T21:43:00.003-05:00

Full Metal Alchemist is the tale of two brothers (Alphonse and Edward Elric) who try to restore the life of their dead mother using alchemy. However, their attempt goes horribly wrong and the brothers end up losing their bodies (well, only Alphonse loses his body and is sealed in a suit of armor,Edward only loses an arm and a leg, which are replaced by artificial ones). From here their quest turns to finding the philosopher's stone to restore their original bodies (but give up on their mother?). Full Metal Alchemist and Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood both stick to the same basic story, but Brotherhood sticks more closely to the manga. I, personally, like them both so I will post both.

Pants on the Ground

2010-04-08T22:22:00.003-05:00

Everyone who watches "American Idol" (or at least the auditions) knows Larry Platt, the 62 year old who performed his original song "Pants on the Ground" for the judges. The song became an instant hit and now crowds YouTube and many peoples' MP3 players. However, The Green Brothers are trying to take credit for Platt's song, saying that it is a ripoff of their song "Back Pockets on the Floor". I'll let you be the judge.

Here is Larry Platt's "Pants on the Ground"

Here is The Green Brother's "Back Pockets on the Floor"

Finally, here is an interpretation by Jimmy Fallon impersonating Neil Young (for the lulz, not for comparison).

More fun with dubbing

2010-04-08T21:58:00.003-05:00

The following are two versions of the same scene from Azumanga Daioh. The first of these is in the original Japanese (with English subtitles) and the second is in English (with the subtitles from the Japanese version). This can be somewhat disturbing (even if it is one of my favorite Azumanga scenes, that just makes the dub more awful). You have been warned.

First, the original:

Now the dub of the same scene (with the same subtitles):

Japanese word (finally)

2010-03-24T22:05:00.002-05:00

It's food time as it relates to foods ending in -don (どん)!

First word:
Tendon
Hiragana: てんどん
Kanji: 天丼
English: Tempura served over a bowl of rice

Second word:
Gyuudon
Hiragana: ぎゅうどん
Kanji: 牛丼
English: Beef on a bowl of rice

Third word:
Tamagodonburi
Hiragana: たまごどんぶり
Kanji: 玉子丼
English: boiled eggs on rice

Final word:
Don
Hiragana: どん
Kanji: 丼
English: bowl of rice topped with food

Azumanga Daioh

2010-03-24T21:45:00.003-05:00

For this one, I don't really know what to say assuming that "random comedy" is still not a valid genre. However, Azumanga Daioh is rather funny and is great for stress relief or if you need to alternate something with a depressing anime.

Dubbing

2009-12-22T18:51:00.004-06:00

This video is the reason I HATE DUBS! Enjoy!

This crappy dubbing extends to many anime (not just Yu-Gi-Oh) and must be stopped! DOWN WITH 4KIDS! (there are actually some good dubs of which I'll post a list. If you find any, please tell me because I continually hope for a good dub to redeem the dubbing community)

Yay, a Japanese word!!!

2009-11-29T18:33:00.002-06:00

Today's word is Kitsune.

Hiragana: きつね

Kanji: 狐

English: Fox or soba/udon topped with deep-fried tofu

Image from http://www.univie.ac.at/rel_jap/bilder2/kitsune_korin.jpg

New Moon

2009-11-29T15:02:00.007-06:00

Hi everyone!
Recently I watched New Moon (second movie in he Twilight Saga) and I feel the need to talk about it (partially because I need something to talk about seeing as I have not watched very much anime recently *gasp*). So here is my quick, 5 minute review of New Moon.
First, I must admit that New Moon was drastically better than its predecessor, Twilight. Part of this was because of the Volturi (is that how its spelled?) who, in my opinion, added some personality and actual vampishness to these un-vampiric vampires while also giving a good reason to keep Edward, the mentally challenged "vampire", off screen. Another plus of New Moon was the large amount of scenes where Jacob happens to be shirtless. I mean, taking off his shirt seems to be his solution to everything. For example, after stupidly building Bella a pair of motorcycles out of some stuff she finds in a junkyard, the two go riding together and Bella, true to her clumsy nature, promptly busts her head on a rock and Jacob rides up, gets off his motorcycle, says "Bella, your bleeding!", and takes off his shirt. Speaking of shirtless people, Edward also spent large portions of his screen time shirtless. However, he's a little too hairy (wait, why is he hairy? This is supposed to be a vampire! Well, a sparkly vampire who doesn't eat humans.) to be shirtless 70% of the time. The final real plus of New Moon (besides the general hilarity of the script in general) was that Bella almost died multiple times. Now on to the ever present negatives. First, the Volturis' matching "V" necklaces. I mean WTF, what kind of idiot decided that it would be "cool" to give the only vampires who act remotely vampiric (besides James, who died in the first movie) crappy jewelry to make it more glaringly obvious who they were. Next, the script in general pretty much consisted of Edward saying "Bella, I will never leave you" (then Edward leaves), Jacob saying "Bella, I will never leave you" (then leaving Bella to deal with the apparent unbearable stress related to being a shifter) and Bella saying "Edward Edward Edward Edward EEEEDWAAARRRRD". So, pretty much, nothing really changed from the first movie in terms of the main themes (besides Jacobs addition to the main plot). Finally, Jacob cut his hair, making him look like all of the other generic shifters and taking away some of his Jacoby charm.

My Rating: 4/10

Sorry for the sloppy formatting on the video.

Inuyasha

2009-08-29T20:29:00.006-05:00

OK, before I begin, I would like to say two things. First, you may want to watch the dubbed version of this for reasons that will become apparent if you try the sub. Second, do not watch InuYasha if you are prone to heart failure, badpunitis, wormholes, or are annoyed by Old English/Japanese.Thank You.

Genre: Adventure, supernatural, fantasy

Summary (belongs to rawranime.com this time): The story begins in Feudal Japan, when InuYasha, a half-demon (han'yō), steals the Jewel of Four Souls from a village. The Jewel of Four Souls is an item that can increase one's powers enormously and can also turn InuYasha full demon. InuYasha does not get far before Kikyo, the young miko of the village, shoots him with a sacred arrow that indefinitely seals him onto Goshinboku, a sacred tree in the nearby forest. After being mortally wounded, Kikyo tells her younger sister, Kaede, to burn the jewel with her body to prevent it from falling into the hands of evil. In modern Tokyo, a junior high school girl named Kagome Higurashi is on her way to school. She stops in the well house of her family's Shinto shrine to retrieve her cat, Buyo, when a centipede demon emerges from the well and pulls her into the Sengoku period of Japan.

The Good and The Bad: InuYasha was over all a pretty decent anime. The good news is that it actually supports the plot and sticks to it without too many side trips (ZOMG IT HAS A PLOT). Unfortunately, the characters are so freakishly annoying in both languages that they make me want to shoot something and if I hear the old lady say "ye" again, I'm giving up (I was only able to make it to episode 97 out of 167 and skipped the movie completely).

My Rating: 5.6/10

xxxHolic

2009-08-07T20:43:00.009-05:00

Quick note before I begin on this one. No, xxxHolic is not porn or porn related. I say this because every time I recommend this anime, people always ask if it's porn and I'm sick of it. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Genre: Supernatural, Comedy

Summary: Kimihiro Watanuki, a teenager cursed with the ability to see evil spirits (and also tends to attract them), one day meets a mysterious woman named Yuuko. She claims to have the means to end his torment (specifically, she grants wishes), but she never works for free, and she wouldn't help him until he works for her enough to pay for her services. Therefore, he starts to work in her shop and discovers that in it, nothing is quite what it seems.

The Good and the Bad: This anime doesn't have very many flaws in my opinion. However, I must find something. Therefore, I would like to point out that I don't like indestructible characters (most characters in this anime are). This, as some people might point out, may be an unfair judgment seeing as
a) It's a comedy, so nobody who anyone has a connection to dies and
b) It is rather hard for an anime to carry on with its main characters dead.
Now then, for the good parts (in top 3 list form, these are my favorite things about the anime in no particular order).
1) I love the attention to detail, especially in Yuuko's shop (I like Yuuko's shop in general)
2) It's funny (and doesn't keep recycling the same jokes)
3) When a (named) character appears, they usually stay and have some sort of back story which is not revealed in a flashback (I hate flashbacks).

My rating: 8.5/10

Word of the Week

2009-08-07T20:22:00.004-05:00

Sorry I haven't been writing for awhile (I was working on something else), but here is the new word of the week, vampire.
Romaji: kyuuketsuki
Kanji: 吸血鬼
Hiragana:きゅうけつき

I have also decided to include some more words, which happen to share hiragana spellings.
Romaji: Kami
Kanji: ネ申
Hiragana: かみ
English: god

Romaji: Kami
Kanji: 紙
Hiragana: かみ
English: paper

Romaji: Kami
Kanji:加味
Hiragana: かみ
English: seasoning

Romaji: Kami
Kanji:上
Hiragana: かみ
English: 1: upper reaches (of a river); upper stream;
2: top; upper part; upper half (of the body);
3: long ago;
4: beginning; first;
5: (Honorific or respectful language) person of high rank (e.g. the emperor);
6: government; imperial court;
7: imperial capital (i.e. Kyoto); capital region (i.e. Kansai); region (or direction of) the imperial palace;
8: head (of a table);
9: (Honorific or respectful language) wife; mistress (of a restaurant

Romaji: Kami
Kanji: 髪
Hiragana: かみ
English: hair

A little random thing

2009-07-29T23:27:00.002-05:00

I got bored, didn't feel like writing, and felt that I owed my readers some form of compensation, so I began to think "Why not make a little video as an excuse for what I have been doing this past week".
So here it is.

WOW #4

2009-07-20T00:52:00.003-05:00

Today's word is... itachi
Hiragana: いたち
Kanji: 鼬
English: Weasel
Image from http://fc08.deviantart.com/fs29/f/2008/066/f/7/Itachi_Looses_it__Being_Weasel_by_TomasLacerda.jpg

Hayate No Gotoku

2009-07-18T19:42:00.004-05:00

Genre: Romantic Comedy

Summary: Ayasaki Hayate is an unlucky teenager who worked since childhood to make ends meet due to his parents' irresponsible behavior. One day he finds out that his parents ran away from home, abandoning him with a massive gambling debt on his shoulders. While running away from the debt collectors (the "generous people"), he ends up meeting Nagi Sanzenin, a young girl who is the sole heir of the wealthy Sanzenin estate, and due to a misunderstanding, Nagi ends up falling in love with Hayate. After he rescues Nagi from some kidnappers, she hires Hayate as her new butler.

The Good and The Bad: Hayate No Gotoku is a generally good anime with some decent characters, plot twists, and story development. Unlike a lot of anime (sounding a bit like a broken record here), it doesn't just die and remains funny (living up to the genre). There are a few bad things though. The first of these is that after the first 20 or so episodes, it begins to get more and more predictable. The second and last, is that after appearing, a character stands a 50% chance of never appearing again (this does NOT include characters who appear at the end of an episode or the main characters).

My Rating: 7/10

Posting

2009-07-18T19:38:00.002-05:00

Sorry everyone that I have not posted in way too long. For the past few weeks, I have been entertaining guests of my father and sisters and have not had much time to blog, but now I'm back and ready to make up for lost time.

WOW #3

2009-07-09T03:23:00.005-05:00

Today's word is *gasp* AKATSUKI

Hiragana: あかつき

Kanji: 暁

English: Dawn, Daybreak

and because of Miles' request Neko

Hiragana: ねこ

Kanji: 猫

English: cat

Naruto Shippuden

2009-07-09T02:58:00.002-05:00

I've posted the first 2 episodes because it was a special. Enjoy! Remember, this is season 2

Naruto

2009-07-09T02:37:00.002-05:00

Well, it's been awhile since I've actually done an anime reveiw, so today I will talk about Naruto and Naruto Shippuden.

Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Ninja (sort of...)

Summary: Naruto closely follows the life of a boy who is feared and detested by the villagers of the hidden leaf village of Konoha. The distrust of the boy has little to do with the boy himself, but it’s what’s inside him that causes anxiety. Long before Naruto came to be, a Kyuubi (demon fox) with great fury and power waged war taking many lives. The battle ensued for a long time until a man known as the Fourth Hokage, Yondaime, the strongest ninja in Konoha, fiercely fought the Kyuubi. The fight was soon won by Yondaime as he sealed the evil demon in a human body. Thus the boy, Naruto, was born. As Naruto grows he decides to become the strongest ninja in Konoha in an effort to show everyone that he is not as they perceive him to be, but is a human being worthy of love and admiration. But the road to becoming Hokage, the title for the strongest ninja in Konoha, is a long and arduous one. It is a path filled with betrayal, pain, and loss; but with hard work, Naruto may achieve the status of Hokage no matter what it takes.

The Good and The Bad: Naruto has its appeal in that it is addictave, easy to watch, and has some decent characters. However, with a slow, filler-ridden plot, the best description was in the summary, long and arduous. Well, in all, I'm rooting for the Akatsuki (ironic naming which will be explained in the next WOW) and hoping Naruto learns that there is more to life than orange jumpsuits and fishcakes.

My Rating: 6/10

Pein

2009-07-02T21:48:00.003-05:00

I saw this on You Tube and thought it was funny, so here is Pein's first anime appearance (without the hologram or what ever it is)
ENJOY!

word of the week #2

2009-06-30T22:50:00.002-05:00

Because I havn't posted in a while, I decided to do a WOW (word of week not world of warcraft) special. So its time for some family words.

Word # 1
Father
Kanji:父(さん)
Romaji: chichi OR otousan

Word # 2
Mother
Kanji:母(さん)
Romaji: haha OR okasan

Word # 3
Big Brother
Kanji: お兄さん OR 兄
Romaji: oniisan OR ani

Word # 4
Big Sister
Kanji: お姉さん OR 姐
Romaji: oneesan or ane

Word #5
Little Sister
Kanji: 妹 or 妹さん
Romaji: imouto or imoutosan

Word #6
Little Brother
Kanji: 弟 or 弟さん
Romaji: otouto or otoutosan

Word #7
Grandmother
Kanji: 祖母 or お祖母さん
Romaji: uba or obaasan

Word #8
Grandfather
Kanji: 祖父 or お祖父さん
Romaji: oji or ojiisan

Word #9
Aunt
Kanji: 叔母さん or 叔母
Romaji: obasan or oba

Word #10
Uncle
Kanji: 叔父さん or 叔父
Romaji: ojisan or oji

Well, that's all for today, but I will probably add more later.
Enjoy,
Catruler

Hiragana

2009-06-25T16:29:00.006-05:00

Hello everyone! Seeing as am not quite sure when I will be able to add the Hiragana spelling for the Japanese words of the week, I have decided to post a chart of Hiragana and their Romanizations. Just match the romanization of a word to the Hiragana shown to get the Hiragana spelling.
Have fun!
Chart from http://www.tokyowithkids.com/fyi/hiragana_chart.html

Death Note Episode 1

2009-06-24T14:52:00.009-05:00

Well, here's episode 1 of this week's anime. Enjoy!

Part 2

Part 3

Death Note

2009-06-24T14:21:00.006-05:00

Yay, today is my first actual anime post. Well, seeing as it is probably one of my favorite animes I
have seen up to this point, I shall talk about Death Note.

Genre: Mystery, Psychological Thriller, Supernatural

Summary: Yagami Light is an ace student with great prospects, who's bored out of his mind. One day he finds the "Death Note": a notebook from the realm of the Shinigami (Death Gods), with the power to kill people in any way he desires while only requiring a name and a face. With the Death Note in hand, Light decides to create his perfect world inwhich he is god, without crime or criminals. However, when criminals start dropping dead one by one, the authorities send the legendary detective L to track down the killer, and a battle of wits, deception, and logic ensues...

The Good and The Bad: Death Note is a terrific anime with a plot that doesn't go for awhile before whithering and eventually going to whereever animes go to die. Not only is the plot great, but the characters are also amazing, both well drawn and having distinct personalities. The final good thing (without giving anything away) is that there are not any filler episodes. As far as I can tell, there are only two things that could potentially be considered bad things about Death Note and they directly relate to each other. They are the high level of darkness throughout the anime and manga as well as the lack of humor to provide some comic releif. I think that Death Note qualifies as one of the best animes of all time.

My Rating: 10/10

comments revised

2009-06-23T22:15:00.002-05:00

Well, comments are up and working due to some tweaking in format =) so everyone can be happy now (except the people who hate comments above all other things)

comments

2009-06-23T17:24:00.000-05:00

currently, the comments are not working properly. I will inform you when the problem is fixed.
thank you

Japanese Word #1

2009-06-23T15:26:00.000-05:00

Today's Japanese word is...fire
Kanji: 火
Romanized: Hi
Pronounced: Hee

NOTE: In the future, I will also have the Hiragana spelling of the word.

About the Blog

2009-06-23T14:35:00.002-05:00

Hello, my name is Catruler (Tybalt reference from Romeo and Juliet, Tybalt was sometimes called the "king of cats"). On my blog "Teh Anime Critic", I will discuss, review, recommend, and generally write about anime, manga, books, and the odd game.

I will also have a weekly Japanese word and will sometimes add a short story (or blurb or whatever) of my own. In the reveiws of anime, I will also try to recommend a good place for the anime fan to find and watch the anime I'm blogging about. Also, if my readers have seen a good (or funny) anime, feel free to speak up seeing as I'm always open to suggestions.

I will probably only blog once or twice a week because I will also have other things to do, unlike some people I could name. *cough* looks at sister *cough*.

Well, sit back, relax, and enjoy the culture.

Disclaimer: If I happen not to like an anime, game, manga, book, whatever, just read on thinking "Catruler doesn't know what he's talking about" and continue reading my blog for laughs. Maybe I can regain your respect later.