[Anime Reviews]

Allison to Lillia and the Fiona arc: where I do literary criticism and make fun of plot holes

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Allison to Lillia, Over-analysis, Rants]

I’m so strongly in two minds about Allison & Lillia: on one hand it’s old-school style feelgood entertainment that had me glued to the screen from start to finish; on the other hand the direction and screenplay writing are so amateurish that it was enough to make me cringe in embarrassment and sketch out how even I could do the job better. Be warned that this post is looooong and involves a foray into the theory and structure of narratives to make my point…sorry if it’s tl;dr because I know the likes of IKnight and Sat-kun are much better educated in that literary criticism stuff than I am. I just have to rant about how bad writing is spoiling a great series.

Should have seen it coming?

I actually started to make a short list of plot holes and inconsistencies on my mini-blog, the full version of which I’ll set out after the ‘read moar’ tag. The thing is, although this show sucks noodles on some levels it’s frustratingly good on others. I’m not on about merely the artwork or music - neither can be faulted - because the conceptually this is a really extraordinary show. It’s just that I can’t believe the original novel’s author, Keiichi Sigsawa, would make such glaring mistakes in an otherwise great story.

[19 Comments]

[Anime Reviews]

Allison to Lillia: the treasure hunting arc

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Allison to Lillia]

The structure of this series has taken me by surprise a little since our two young heroes wind up ending a war within an hour and a half of screen time - not bad going by anyone’s standards. I guess this means that we’ll be treated to a number of short arcs like this shown consecutively - those of you who have read the light novels might be able to shed some light on this but I don’t think we’ll be seeing a bigger picture in a over-arcing storyline sense. On the flipside any developments could be purely character-driven but whichever way I look at it, the narrative seems to be more episodic than I expected it to be; I’m hoping this won’t harm the strength of the storytelling.

The op theme is still my favourite of the current season’s (although Kaiba comes close…more on that later) and the BGM is in keeping with the old-fashioned adventure vibe. I really ought to start capitalising Adventure when used in the context of A & L though, since it is firmly set on maintaining that traditional approach to entertainment that the likes of Miyazaki were doing over a decade ago; I guess it could also be thought of as a modern take on the World Masterpiece Theatre vein.

[7 Comments]

[First Impressions and Retrospectives]

Spring 2008 first impressions #1: Allison to Lillia, Itazura na Kiss, Kurenai

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Allison to Lillia, Itazura na Kiss, Kurenai]

Emerging caveman-like from Backlog Hell and mindful that one episode is never enough to get a decent grasp of what the shows will be like, my belated spring 2008 first impressions post is intentionally belated. Recently I’ve tried to see the previous season’s shows through to their respective ends and giving the new ‘uns two episodes before making my mind up on them; chances are I won’t be able to follow all of them but there’s no harm in trying. Hopefully I’ll get a better idea than guessing on the first ep alone, this way.

In other words my final thoughts on Clannad, Kaiji and (when the last ep is released) Ghost Hound will be forthcoming this week. I don’t know about you but following so much stuff simultaneously begins to get a bit confusing - there’s a lot coming up this season that promises good things so I don’t know how many more of these First Impressions posts there will be. At any rate, first up are Allison to Lillia, Ituzura na Kiss and Kurenai.

[7 Comments]