[Categories: Anime Reviews]
Spring 2008 first impressions #4: Real Drive and Toshokan Sensou
It’s halfway through the season and people are already starting to look to the next one…and I’m still finishing my First Impressions for spring. Heh. The final two candidates for my ever-growing watch list are Real Drive and Toshokan Sensou.
*Cough*
In other news I’m thinking about changing my blog’s theme to revitalise my enthusiasm…Frozen Twilight 1.0 is beginning to look a bit drab.
Real Drive
Hmm…another Shirow/I.G. collaboration sounds like win, especially when it looks as pretty as this - hell, even the fan service is relatively classy (more or less). Minamo is cute without being unnaturally proportioned (as an aside, all kid sisters are fussy eaters and prone to calling their brothers geeks - speaking from personal experience here ¬_¬), although speaking of unnaturally proportioned there is the token Woman with Needlessly Outrageous Melons to remind us that we’re still in Shirow territory. Dunno why they feel the need to design one of characters that way every time, but there you go.
The Shirow territory does however additionally offer, in addition to cute females, an athletic android (female, obviously), a futuristic worldview and some form of ‘diving’ and headtrippery. Unlike most hard sci-fi Real Drive takes the action away from a different planet or some neon-topped metropolis and throws us into the depths of the ocean. Cue lots of excellent water-related CGI, pretty colours that help me forget I HAVEN’T THE FOGGIEST WHAT’S GOING ON and a mystery vibe that reminds me a lot of Jim Cameron’s The Abyss. Looking good so far.
Chances of continued viewing: HIGH (as long as it starts making sense)
Toshokan Sensou
This particular worldview promises an interesting mixture of an Owellian and Battle Royale-style future of civil unrest and conflict, giving a show that’s half military thriller/comedy (a la Full Metal Panic) and half geek chic a la R.O.D.. Totally excellent in other words. It transpires that Toshokan Sensou has the Production I.G. prettiness too so shows all the slickness that a fast-paced actioner requires; the introductions to the characters as on-screen text, complete with simulated page-turns, are a nice touch.
I’m sure the character-driven stuff will provide plenty to think and write about but I’m loving how the conflict premise is born from something as simultaneously convincing yet utterly preposterous as the control of information that extends as far as censoring and confiscating books. Surely it would be easier for writers and publishers to run new publications past the censors prior to release to store shelves? Or are they banking on the libraries backing them up? Leave your preconceptions at the door guys - quit asking questions and just enjoy. It’s a great premise either way and just eases into my schedule because of its badass bookishness…or is that bookish badass-ness? I never thought badass and bookish would make it into the same sentence in this blog at any rate, and it also allows me to use the word ‘preposterous’ here for the first time. Go me.
Chances of continued viewing: HIGH
Posted on May 27th, 2008 @ 11:44 pm
dropped show A after 1 ep and show B halfway through ep 1 XD neither could hold me attention >_<
Posted on May 28th, 2008 @ 5:12 am
Real Drive I’ve liked a lot thus far, especially thanks to it having the same director as Le Chevalier D’Eon and a good amount of combat to take advantage of that. Souta vs. Iron Schwartz in episode 5 had me pumped, so I’m hoping there will be more awesomeness like that. Plus I have to say that I find Minamo quite adorable, thus her antics keep me entertained.
TS on the other hand I wasn’t too fond of…then again I also went into it expecting a plot that made some sort of sense so that didn’t help.
Posted on May 28th, 2008 @ 7:17 am
I love how you only talk about the style of Real Drive, but not the story at all: The fact that it doesn’t make any sense to me is also the reason why I can’t bring myself to continue watching it. Maybe it just needs a blogger who likes this series enough to care to explain.
Yay for “preposterous”! After one episode, I realized quickly that you simply shouldn’t take the premise for serious and focus on the character dynamics - and everything is fine. I enjoy it immensely.
Posted on May 28th, 2008 @ 11:27 am
I haven’t given either of these series a proper chance yet, but I’m glad you like RD. There was something a bit amiss with the usual ‘dun leik it cus it cunfuses me lol’ response. Some people seem to forget that there’s more to anime than just straight-forward comprehension… i.e. abstract prettiness : D
Posted on May 28th, 2008 @ 5:48 pm
RD is beginning to make sense as it goes along, That doesn’t go without reading some of the general ideas behind it on the interwebs which make it more enjoyable, anyway. Erm.. It has nice OP and ED songs and animation.
As for that Toshokan Sensou, I see it so often on AnimeSuki and I do the same thing straight after reading it every time.. I copy the name and paste it onto Wikipedia to get the page and It ends up with Library Wars, and I’m all “;o”. I had to do it again just now, It loosk quite interesting to say the least, I think it might be a title I will have to check out on DVD.
Posted on May 28th, 2008 @ 6:24 pm
@Digitalboy: I think TS is a show that you can judge from the first couple of eps but I’m giving RD a second chance because Shirow’s stuff usually takes a bit of getting into.
@Absolutely Steve: Ah, the same director as Chevalier? I quite like the mature approach to that one so maybe this one will be worth sticking with after all. I need to see Chevalier to the end though…
@Sasa: I was sticking to my ‘preview on the first two episodes’ rule so I’m guessing explanations will come later. TBH I’m working on the basis of GitS and Ghost Hound, which I’m assuming means that the Meta-Real or whatever it’s called is some sort of online or parallel world. Maybe. Library Wars on the other hand is pure fun - very Full Metal Panic-esque!
@Hige: I’ve enjoyed stuff from the same staff before, which is why my hopes for RD are so high - I’m expecting the explanations to come later. Nothing with I.G. or Shirow involved has disappointed me yet, basically.
@Jayme: the op and end themes don’t sit too well with the show as a whole for me, but on their own I quite like them. I was unsure whether to opt for TS’s English title of Library Wars (which is nicely sharp and to the point) but wasn’t sure if the aggregators like AnimeNano would recognise it! I’m expecting a DVD of that one though, purely because it’s so lively and entertaining.
Posted on May 28th, 2008 @ 6:59 pm
I’ve only watched up to episode three of Real Drive, and it’s starting to make sense (and get a bit better beyond simply being ‘Oooh, pretty’ material to boot) - I’ve been reliably informed that episode four is where you finally get a handle on the major aspects of the show though. A little slow to reveal such important information for my liking, but I’ll persevere for now.
Posted on May 28th, 2008 @ 9:11 pm
Haven’t seen D’Eon to the end? Blasphemy! That’s definitely a show you’ll want to watch the rest of the way when you can since the ending is superb.
Posted on May 29th, 2008 @ 9:33 am
if taking Toshokan Sensou seriously will hamper your enjoyment, then you really shouldn’t. But if in doing so, you’ll have better appreciation for the show, then why not ^^ I kind of fall in between enjoying it just for the character-driven stuff, and loving it for the allegorical truths it presents.
If only someone would translate the Toshokan Sensou novels (I soo can’t do it, as I lack both time and l33t skillz)… you’ll most likely love it more for its even serious bookish badassness. I’m learning quite a lot as I read it, as it presents truths about censorship, the right way of exercising freedom of expression (or the right way of ‘fighting’ against those who are opposed to such freedom), etc. ^^
Toshokan Sensou provides FMP-level enjoyment indeed, and the great thing here is that Iku is not as extremely tsundere as Chidori, and Doujou is a tsundere! XD
Posted on May 30th, 2008 @ 12:31 am
@Hanners: the prettiness of RD is good for now but witholding information is another Shirow-ism! I’m looking forward to seeing what the big deal is about #4 though.
@Absolutely Steve: Point taken. It’s an unusual show with a mature feel to it…plus there are zombies in it. Win!
@usagijen: like Real Drive and its fan service, the ’serious’ side of TS is there if you’re interested in it, but doesn’t intrude on the other aspects of the story if you’re not. I’m sure the writers could have included more of that in the anime but they probably took the episode count into consideration and chose to keep it lighter in tone. So far I think that was a wise choice. And yeah, Doujou is a bit of a tsundere too…always entertaining when portrayed well! ^_^
Posted on May 30th, 2008 @ 5:45 am
Whoops, late to this party.
Being a librarian myself I was stoked up for Library Wars, and I get a kick out of the characters talking so passionately about freedom to read. It’s like library school all over again! The trouble I’m having with the series is not the Preposterous Premise, but that the rest of the action is so mundane. Eager new recruit joins a group, makes mistakes, grows up, and there’s the romance bit brewing, blah blah blah. Based on the PP I was expecting more satire, perhaps.
As for Real Drive I was thinking “Hey, the girl has chubby legs for an anime girl, and look at her friend! Cool. And there’s a naked old man. And look at the light show! I’m keeping an eye on both shows for different reasons.