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[Categories: Anime Reviews]

Spring 2008 first impressions #3: Kaiba, Kamen no Maid Guy, Kanokon

Posted by Martin  [Tags: First Impressions and Retrospectives, Kaiba]

The fact that the next three in line, Kaiba, Kamen no Maid Guy and Kanokon, all begin with the same letter is pure coincidence by the way - I’m not trying to be clever or anything here. It’s the ‘Experimental Edition’ of my Spring 2008 first impressions: the first is itself experimental while the other two were another attempt on my part to try something a bit different in another sense. The results were mixed.

You don’t know if fifty minutes of your life will be wasted on something until you waste those minutes on it. That’s the price for being open-minded I guess

Kaiba

The black sheep of the season in many ways, I became interested in Kaiba after Bateszi’s preview post pointed out that it’s from the same director as Kemonozume; the innovative, too-cool-for-school tale of romance and flesh-eating monsters. Given that Kaiba is (possibly) a love story too, I was interested in how this would sit alongside the sci-fi setting in which memories can be traded and civilisation is stratified between the haves and the have-nots. Although this is hardly a novel idea, it’s the execution that matters - the childlike, Tezuka-esque art style and synthesised soundtrack certainly set it apart and give it a dreamlike, if sometimes hard to follow, atmosphere.

A damn good question, all things considered

For whatever reason I was surprised to see Owen also waxing lyrical on it, which means that two of my most respected fellow bloggers, who ironically never agree on anything under normal conditions, are united in stating it’s worth watching. Given its distinctive style and approach to storytelling alone I’d be inclined to agree with them too; that said, I’ll have to see another couple of episodes to see if its striking visuals and bravery to ‘do different’ can be backed up by the emphasis on storyline, symbolism and over-arcing themes. Not something I could watch marathon-style for its overwhelming oddness, but if nothing else it’s the most intriguing offering of this season’s crop so far.

Chances of continued viewing: HIGH

Kamen no Maid Guy

As dumb comedy goes, KnMG takes some beating - imagine the typical meido and helpless teenage employer setup, except one of them is the typical cute archetype while the other is her gar equivalent. Yep, this has not only a busty heroine and a cute maid but an uber-gar maid too. I actually found this quite funny.

The Huerrgh! factor, also known as the Essence of Gar, can be obtained through a complex distillation process of bodily fluids obtained from Maid Guys and Duke Togo. Regrettably, neither Maid Guys nor Duke Togo have been known to break into a sweat under normal circumstances so this hypothesis remains unproven.

Taking the typical premise and turning it on its head (or swapping its gender completely) is a neat idea - imagine Mahoromatic’s evil twin with none of the substance and more lulz. Unfortunately, I can see where this series is headed from ep 3 onwards, which basically would amount to more of the same. I laughed a lot but decided to stop my viewing at this point before the novelty wore off; it was an amusing change of pace but not one I’m inclined to stick with.

Chances of continued viewing: LOW

Kanokon

Here’s the thing about fan service shows: complaining that they lack anything apart from something to get the fanboys fapping is akin to sucking on a lemon and complaining that it tastes sour. Yes, it tastes sour but lemons always do. Leave the goddamned lemon alone if it bothers you that much.

The next lemon in line is Kanokon, which makes a valiant attempt at pushing the envelope for its genre in terms of “How much can we get away with before the network pulls the plug?” Having sat through (and actually enjoyed) the like of Mahoromatic, I was still quite surprised at the levels of innuendo since they put some OAV efforts to shame - I found myself grudgingly respecting it for that actually.

Sure, Chizuru looks cute (or would do if she was drawn with more attractively realistic and less exaggerated proportions) and her ‘relationship’ with the hapless hero is actually quite sweet at times (to quote Marlowe in The Big Sleep “She tried to sit in my lap when I was standing up”); apart from the fact that the protagonist looks twelve, there’s nothing offensive about a show being so mindless - contrary to popular belief, I tolerate fanservice rather than disapprove of it outright. Besides, there are some genuinely lulzworthy moments, such as the priceless scene below.

If the writers included more incidents like this instead of trying too hard with increasingly outrageous and generic situations, I’d actually give it a second thought. Sadly, for a show that sells itself on eye candy the visuals aren’t anything special, which really doesn’t help. There are after all plenty of other cheeky fan service shows out there that offer everything Kanokon does (admittedly less extreme) but have more genuine laughs and a story too; there are only twenty-four hours in the day and I can’t spare any of them for this one.

Chances of continued viewing: LOW

[Filed under Anime Reviews]  [Tags: First Impressions and Retrospectives, Kaiba]

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