My Anime Thoughts: Eureka Seven

Don't beg for things.  Do it yourself, or you won't get anything.  

Well, I finished my long run of Miyazaki reviews, so now I'm just back to reviewing whatever I happen to watch.  As such, I decided to go with something that had been catching my eye for a long time, Eureka Seven.  I'm a big fan of upbeat action and mecha shows, and this looked like something that would match those interests.  So, what do you get when you combine surfing, giant robots, and the power of love?  Is it a perfect wave or just a disappointing ripple?

Our story opens and we're introduced to the main character Renton, a teenager bored with both his life and the boring town he lives in who dreams of something more.  Sound familiar?  In this case, the something more is to become a great surf- I mean, lifter and maybe even join Gekkostate, an anti-government group of lifters led by Renton's idol Holland, the world's best amateur lifter.  One day, his boring life is upset by a giant robot called an LFO crashing into his room with a mysterious girl as a pilot.  Sound more familiar?  Turns out the girl's name is Eureka (say it Ay-oo-reck-uh; weird, I know) and that she's actually a member of Gekkostate.  The LFO is known as the Nirvash, and is the first LFO ever created. 

When a battle breaks out above Renton's hometown between the government and Gekkostate, Renton is tasked with delivering a final part to the Nirvash - a device called the Amita Drive, said to awaken the Nirvash's true power.  After attaching the part, Renton unknowingly triggers a phenomenon known as the Seven Swell, a massive energy wave that quickly dispatches the remaining government LFOs.  Afterwards, Renton is invited to join Gekkostate.  He quickly learns that life with Gekkostate is not as dreamlike as he thought it would be and a lot of the crew are pretty rude to him.  One good thing has come of it for Renton though: he gets to be with Eureka, who he's fallen head over heels for.  Indeed, Renton is willing to do anything so long as he can be at Eureka's side, protect her, and get a chance to tell her how he really feels. 

The story of Eureka Seven is a romance story first and everything else second.  The budding romance between Renton and Eureka serves as both the centerpiece of the plot and the driving force of almost every other major event of the story.  Because of all this, it's a good thing that the romance in this story is done well.  The relationship is really a romantic view of young love at first sight and the ups and downs encountered in a romance between 2 people who don't even really know what love is.  The romance presented is very idealistic and tame and as such wouldn't be for everyone, but for me that just made it more heartwarming and endearing.  In addition, the show also provides a notable focus on the relationships of other characters some of which are a bit more conflicted and don't always have a happy ending.  All in all, the romance aspect is very charming and fairy tale-esque and will be sure to warm your heart at some point. 

On the other hand, this is a sci-fi mecha show and there are other things going on while our young duo struggle with love.  The other story of Eureka Seven focuses on government schemes and fighting against them, learning about the people and things that make up this world, and eventually focusing on how to protect it from being destroyed of course.  The show starts off slow, with a lot of one shot episodes near the beginning, some of which are pretty dumb or annoying.  It picks up and begins to focus in a little ways into it and really picks up about a third to halfway in and from there on out it's a pretty enjoyable ride. 

That said, it does get pretty confusing near the end with a lot of concepts being thrown around that aren't always explained in clear, concise way.  Even a friend of mine who loves the show said he didn't fully get everything till the third rewatch.  Even so, there's a lot of simple themes present throughout the show about love, sins and regret, and prejudice and acceptance to name a few, and these can help serve as something to hold onto when everything else gets a bit confusing. 

For characters, where better to start than our main duo?  Renton starts off the series weak as a pretty bland, meek, and mostly boring character and while he does get better, throughout the series he maintains this childish feeling of naivete and innocence that helps the romance but doesn't make him particularly likeable.  Get used to the idea of starting weak and getting better, it's everywhere here.  Eureka, for example, starts off as a pretty typical mysterious, quiet, and serious girl.  However, she struggles through a lot of development as she confronts both her own personal identity and her feelings for Renton and she grows into a strong and likeable character. 

Another character who gets better as the show moves on is the leader, Holland.  He starts off as a tough, serious, and generally badass leader, but quickly devolves from badass to jerkass.  As he faces the issues he has with past decisions as well as issues with Eureka, his rudeness transforms into a kind determination and he emerges as a fierce protector of both our main duo and his crew as a whole, as well as my hands-down favorite character.  Talho, another main female character, also displays this rising quality, starting off as annoying and rude and later becoming more serious and kind. 

For our villains of note, we have Dewey Novak and Anemone.  Dewey is a sinister and smooth schemer and a great villain, though he unfortunately doesn't have much story presence until near the end.  Anemone is a girl with similarities to Eureka, though manic and crazy to Eureka's calm seriousness.  She also gets some very touching eleventh-hour development.  A couple of other characters I have to mention are Charles and Ray Beams, a pair of married freelancers.  Though they don't appear in many episodes, they steal the show when they do, with Charles' bombastic but noble nature and Ray's loving and nurturing nature.  They also have some very touching and intense scenes as well.  The other side characters range from enjoyable to forgettable, but for the most part not annoying, except for Eureka's adopted kids.  They spend the first part of the series mostly as annoying brats, and then they're cute at times but mostly just annoying kids. 

When it comes to the art and animation, the show excels.  While it's not quite on the level I'm used to after all those Miyazaki movies, the character designs are nice and unique for the most part and everything moves well.  In keeping with the surfing theme, a lot of the characters have a sort of 70's surfer look to them that is very unique in anime and looks nice for the most part.  Also of note are the mech fights, taking place almost exclusively in the air with surfing robots.  Everything flows amazingly during these fights, with the robots moving quickly and smoothly through the air and lots of laser and missile flurries and quick motions.  They're really a treat for the eyes. 

The music in this series is good, mostly mood fitting background pieces.  In addition, like the designs, there's a retro feel present in the music at times.  The openings are upbeat and nice to listen to, but for the most part are sort of typical.  The exception is the last opening, that starts with a beautiful bit of "Amazing Grace" and builds to a fast paced piece that gets you excited for the episode.  The endings are ok but nothing that drew me in and made me pay attention to them.  The dub cast is good for the most part but has a problem here or there.  JYB's performance as Renton fell a bit short to me, mostly adding to the childish feel he had.  On the other hand, Crispin Freeman and Patrick Seitz both blow their performances away and add a great level of intensity and flair to their characters. 

All in all, Eureka Seven is a fun series with a nice romance, a mostly likeable cast, and great animation, though it does get confusing at times.  If you like upbeat mecha shows or romances with a little more punch, you'll probably like the show.  If you're not a fan of these genres or if you like things a bit more gritty or realistic, then the show's probably not worth the 50-episode investment. 

Sorry if I ran on a bit too long, reviewing a long series will do that to you.  As always, I welcome any recommendations for series and any feedback! 

Game Breaks: Hotel Dusk Room 215

As I sit here slowly swirling my ginger ale, I think back on what's led me here.  Couple weeks ago I hit the road with nothing to do and a few bills burning a hole in my wallet.  As I stroll into a shop on the way, I give the shelves the once over.  Nothing stands out as rare or impressive; just another run of the mill place, same old song and dance.  I was all set to write the place off but I decided to take one more look.  There in the corner, out of the way, was a piece that a few little birds have told me can carry its own weight: Hotel Dusk Room 215.  I'd been thinking of giving it the once over, and I figured now's as good a time as any.  I get the attention of the guy behind the counter and a few minutes later I'm walking out of the store and everything looks just a little bit brighter.

Now that that bout of film-noir reminiscing is done, you may have a slight idea of what you're in for.  Hotel Dusk is visual novel game for DS released by the small game company Cing who doesn't have much to their names besides this and other similar adventure style games.  I admittedly don't have a whole lot of VN exposure personally - my experience with the genre is limited to the various incarnations of the Ace Attorney series and the recent hit Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors.  However, the VNs I have played can easily rest among my top favorite DS games of all time.  So when I heard that fans of the Ace Attorney series should check out Hotel Dusk, I was eager to give it a try.

Before I dive into the meat of this review, I'll discuss the gameplay.  For those of you who couldn't tell from the name, visual novel games usually don't have much in the way of gameplay.  The gameplay in a visual novel is usually limited to puzzles and similar point and click style segments.  Also mixed in is a bit of "choose-your-own-adventure" flavor dialogue choices where the decisions you make can lead to either game overs or alternate endings.

That said, I feel the puzzles in Hotel Dusk were really weak.  A lot of them felt pretty gimmicky, like they were putting you through the motions of something that could've been shown in a scene.  Yes, I already figured out to combine this item with the other, do I really need to do this little simple segment as well?  And by the 10th time I had to open a door manually it was getting pretty old.  On the other hand, the conversation choices and searching segments were pretty well done and some of them were even a bit tough to figure out.  I'll admit I got my fair share of game overs in this game.  In fact, I was used to gliding through conversations like these pretty easily and got surprised by my first game over.  It's nothing stellar, but it does its job well enough. 

Now for what really matters in a game like this: the story and characters.  Hotel Dusk is a serious and gritty story of Kyle Hyde, a down on his luck ex-cop turned salesman looking for his lost partner.  His boss also makes him do little jobs of finding things, and one of these jobs sends him to the titular hotel.  He gets a room called Wish that's supposed to grant the wishes of whoever stays there.  As he settles in we're introduced one by one to a large cast of characters.  The most notable of these are Louie, a pickpocket Kyle knows from the old days now working at the hotel; Rosa, a sassy middle-aged maid who does most of the work at the hotel; Dunning Smith, the grouchy and rough proprietor of the hotel; and Mila, a mysterious young woman who can't speak and seems to be connected to a lot of what's going on.  As Kyle starts to explore the hotel, he quickly learns that all the guests have pretty big skeletons in their closets and these secrets are tied to all kinds of shady business, possibly even leading Kyle to the partner he's been looking for for so long.

Hotel Dusk's story is pretty standard for a mystery like this, but at the same time it's fairly well written.  Its got its fair share of plot twists and you'll probably be hooked till the end to see how everything is connected.  Some of the reveals are pretty easy to spot coming, but there are some legitimately surprising moments as well.  That said, I do feel that this is probably the weakest VN I've ever played.  This maybe because I had high expectations given my love of the other DS VNs I've played, but the game didn't seem to have the same punch or spark to it.  It was lacking charm when compared to Ace Attorney, and it didn't compare to the suspense or intrigue of 999.  The mystery was pretty good, but the rest of the story didn't quite feel strong enough to carry it.  Maybe I was spoiled by greatness though, and I will say that Hotel Dusk does still have a solid story that stands up pretty well.

When it comes to characters, however, Hotel Dusk left me with quite a bit to be desired.  Because of the more serious and heavy tone the game takes, a lot of the characters come off feeling rude, annoying, or just boring.  Kyle himself has his nicer moments but for the most part is a bit too cold and rough for my tastes.  I did like Louie, he was a pretty upbeat guy who brought some levity to the game.  Most of the rest didn't win any awards with me though - they had there moments here and there not enough to really make me care about them.  A decent amount of them got some eleventh-hour likeability as you learn about their backstories, but it generally didn't make up for the rest of the game.  Kevin in particular can go take a flying leap; God I hated him for most of the game.

When it comes to graphics, the character portraits in Hotel Dusk had this unique black and white handdrawn style to them that I really liked.  It really fit the somewhat noir-esque mystery story and added a lot of style to the game.  There's not much else to say for the graphics, though, with 3d backgrounds that just mediocre.  Still, in a game like this the character portraits are more important than the backgrounds so it comes out all right.  I really liked the music in this game; there's a lot of period-fitting jazz and bluesy tunes that would pep me up or make me get serious and focused.  It really added to the game and helped bring the hotel to life.  On a final and minor note, the ides of holding the DS sideways like a book bugged me a bit.  It didn't feel like a book, it felt like a sideways DS.  It really just felt unnecessary and annoying.

All in all, Hotel Dusk is a solid DS visual novel that while not the best in its field certainly isn't a failure.  If you're interested in these kinds of games its definitely worth looking into, and if you like serious cop mysteries I'd recommend picking it up.  It's going pretty cheap nowadays and for a low price it's definitely worth the money.  That's all for me, see you next time! 

My Anime Thoughts - Miyazaki Madness: Howl's Moving Castle

"How many aliases do you have?"  "As many as it takes to keep my freedom."

So here we are, at the final movie of the Miyazaki Madness series, Howl's Moving Castle.  (If you want to see my review of Ponyo, look here: http://tinyurl.com/tslponyo)  Following on the tails of what was probably Miyazaki's most critically successful work Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle fell a little flat when compared with that.  While still getting very positive reviews and reception, it got some more mixed reviews as well and is looked at by a lot of people as one of his weaker films.  However, the reception was still mostly positive and the movie was on several "Best of 2005" lists.  It was also a financial success grossing $231.7M, making it one of the most successful Japanese films ever.  So, is Howl's too weak to stand up to the other films, or does it still have that spark of greatness?

The story begins when Sophie, our protagonist, meets the titular wizard Howl on her way to see her sister.  He escorts her there to protect her from rowdy soldiers and blobs in top hats and then proceeds to draw them away.  Later that night at her family's hat shop, she encounters The Witch of the Wastes who, jealous of her encounter with Howl, puts a curse on her and turns her into an elderly woman.  She sets out to find the witch in order to break the curse but on the way she finds Howl's moving castle (or junkheap) to stay the night in and stays there as a cleaning lady.  The castle is also inhabited by Markl, Howl's young apprentice, and Calcifer, a fire demon serving as the heat and power source for the whole castle who has a deep connection to Howl.

As the film progresses we slowly learn about a war going on between 2 nations which seems to be mostly caused by a missing prince.  Given how invaluable magic powers always are to warring armies, all the witches and wizards are being drafted into service by the 2 countries.  Howl, however, wants nothing to do with this; he despises the war and only wants to maintain his freedom.  For the rest of the film, we have a focus on Sophie trying to break her curse while at the same time trying to connect with and protect Howl from both enemies and from himself.  There's also a focus on Howl learning to stop running away and to stand up for himself and those he cares for, as well as putting his selfish ways behind him.

I'm gonna come out and say it: Howl's Moving Castle is in my top 3 Miyazaki films along with Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke.  That said, this is more because of the movie matching up more to my tastes than a lot of his other films and I definitely can't say I feel it's his best.  It definitely has some flaws and I can clearly see why people see it as weaker.

When I think about the plot of HMC, I really see it as a mix of Miyazaki's styles.  It has the adventurous style of films like Mononoke and Nausicaa, while also having the quaint life aspects of films like Kiki and Totoro.  While this means it can have the strengths of both sides, it also means it can have the weaknesses as well.  On the strengths side, HMC has one of the most clearly defined external conflicts of the Miyazaki films and like Mononoke also manages to mix in some good internal conflict as well.  It also has some of Miyazaki's most well done action in my opinion, particularly several great chase scenes. 

Looking at flaws however, some parts of this movie are just really slow, particularly around the beginning and early middle, leaving the end feeling a bit too hectic at times.  In addition, this movie doesn't do the best job explaining things.  Sophie changes frequently between young and old or a mixture without much reason - I assume it has to do with love or self confidence or something, but it's never explicitly stated.  There's another bit near the end I won't get into for spoilers, but it felt sort of hand-waved.  All in all it's clearly no masterpiece but I do feel the plot stands pretty solidly. 

Ah, the characters - I love the characters of this movie.  Well, starting with Sophie though, I feel she's good but not amazing.  She feels a lot like Miyazaki's other heroines; I think they're starting to run together in my mind a bit.  She starts out very quiet and meek but grows and gains a lot of confidence and spunk.  It's sort of the old idea of "through loving you I learned to love myself" kind of thing.  The real show-stealer is Howl though.  His generally flamboyant and upbeat nature is very charming and endearing, though it makes his depressed states that much more annoying.  He's also the one going through most of the character development in the story, addressing his movement from cowardly and selfish to kind and protective and the risks he takes in protecting those important to him.  Another character I absolutely love is Calcifer.  He serves a mostly comedic purpose like Jiji in Kiki - a role he fills well - but at the same time he manages to help drive home a lot of the seriousness of the movie as well.  The rest of the supporting cast is pretty good though pretty typical as well, especially in comparison to other Miyazaki movies.

Well, it's the last time I'll have to say this for a while - It's a Miyazaki movie so of course it looks gorgeous.  The art is incredibly detailed and beautiful, and the animation is well done, smooth and fluid.  Some of Miyzaki's typical outrageous looking character designs are here, particularly the Witch of the Wastes, but they all look very nice.  I also really love the various designs of Howl's monstrous forms.  His lovely scenery is here in full force, from mountainous lakes to fog-covered wastelands to a massive field of flowers - it's a top rate visual feast.  On a final note, I also absolutely love the design of the "castle."  It looks like a walking steampunk scrapheap mixed with a frog or lizard or something with a lot of attention to detail and the movement of all the parts. 

Now normally, music is a bit of an Achilles Heel to me when it comes to reviewing something, especially something without an OP/ED; I'm not the type who pays a lot of attention to the music most of the time.  I will say, however, that I love the main theme of this movie.  It's upbeat and has a very festive, magic feel to it.  It sounds lovely and it fits in very well with all the wondrous things going on in the movie.  A lot of the songs were good as well and always helped fit the mood.   In keeping with tradition Disney is up again for the dub and bringing in the big names for a great dub.  For Sophie, both Emily Mortimer and Jean Simmons do a good job presenting meek youth and aged with spunk respectively.  Christian Bale's quieter tones serve great for the voice of Howl, lending to cheery and serious scenes alike.  The big hit to me, however, was Billy Crystal as Calcifer.  The voice was just perfect for him - he shined was wisecracking and complaining, but he was also exceptional when the fire got small and weak and his voice did as well. 

So yeah, to me Howl's Moving Castle is a great fantasy anime film with a solid plot, amazing characters, and gorgeous art and music.  I can definitely see its flaws and why it's seen as somewhat weaker, but it's definitely worth a watch.  Like most of Miyazaki's movies, it's also one of the best movies to show non-anime fans as well. 

Well, that wraps up Miyazaki Madness!  I really enjoyed it and I hope someone else out there did as well.  Back to just reviewing whatever I happen to watch next, though I'd happily give any recommendations consideration.  See you next time, and I hope everyone had a happy Mother's Day! 

Game Breaks: Yugioh Tag Force 5

So yeah, this is my attempt to start up reviews of video games since I'm really more of a gamer than an anime fan anyway.  I'd been thinking about doing this for a while but I didn't really just wanna get on here and gush about Portal 2 and now I think I found a game that I'll be able to discuss critically.  A couple things here to note that'll probably be different from later reviews.  1)  I didn't completely finish this game - I got an ending to a story and a credit roll, but not much else.  2)  Like my anime reviews, expect a generally optimistic look, but not here.  I didn't really care for this game too much. 

I want to lead off by saying I really like Yu-Gi-Oh.  I love the anime for the most part - GX got tiresome and Zexal looks pretty gawdawful, but the original and 5D's are pretty good.  I played the game for years; I met a lot of my recent friends through the local tournaments, was pretty good if I do say so myself, and would probably still be playing if interest hadn't died out.  And if you hadn't guessed from the fact I even considered this game, I generally like the video games.  There have been a couple disastrous flops, like Destiny Board Traveler and Wheelie Breakers, but I've liked most of them that I've played.  I've generally stuck with the DS World Championship series and hadn't tried Tag Force until now, so I wanted to see which is the better series. 

So when I started up the story mode and got a bit of a scene about an upcoming tag duel tournament while mentioning the in-show WRGP tournament.  Ok, skipping the older 5D's story, but that's ok - we can't keep covering that over and over.  After a bit of chit-chat, the real game starts... and that's it.  I'm just dropped in a world with no real direction other than "go get people to partner up with you."  And this is my first and perhaps biggest complaint with this game - there's no focus.  This mode is misnamed.  It's not a story mode, it's a sandbox mode.  But you see, good sandbox games like perhaps Infamous have a general plot that arches over everything in addition to the freedom and side missions.  Sure there's the WTGP or whatever, but that wasn't even brought up again until I filled up some random NPC's first heart.  Other than that, it's all just aimless character interaction.

I quickly worked out (without much help from the game) that the general goal is to fill up people's hearts so that they'll partner up to tag duel with you and see short little events.  There's 2 ways to do this: dueling (of course) or a mixture of annoying and boring "conversation" mini-games and giving them gifts.  Here's where you pick your poison - you either get slow (and boring by extension), or just plain boring.  Dueling them fills up a bit of their heart (assuming they're not in a bad mood...) but it's really small and you'd have to duel the same person over and over to fill a heart.  On the other hand, once you can manage a decent flow of money, you can buy lost of gifts and spam conversations while giving gifts to both increase happiness and refill conversation chances per day.  But then, I'm just spending all my time doing boring minigames and not dueling!

I heard you could go faster if you build a Reversal quiz deck for fast dueling, but this leads into another problem, a fatal one for a Yugioh game - getting new cards is A PAIN IN THE ASS.  To be clear, money is not terribly hard to get in this game.  After dueling for a long time I managed to throw together a half-decent Gladiator Beast deck according to advice and dueling a certain opponent was able to rake in DP.  However, the cards are split into tons of packs and the odds of getting the cards you need seem very slim.  The major problem here is the password system.  In the WC games, the passwords cost money but they make getting the cards you need simple.  In TF however, passwords let you rent cards, and while its free you can only have so many at a time depending on level I assume.  I'm level 21 and I can only rent 3! 

I have a couple other problems to mention before I move on.  First off, as the name and previous paragraphs imply, there's a large emphasis on tag dueling.  This is my least favorite part of any Yugioh game, because the AI is usually dumb and you spend half the duel not doing anything.  There's enough single dueling options that I can forgive it though.  Loading times are a pain as well since the game loads all the time.  An install helps a reasonable amount, but it's disabled whenever the system goes into sleep mode (this may be a system problem but I've never encountered it before).  It's also lacking any fun side things like duel puzzles or theme duels found in other games.  It has challenges similar to theme duels but they're easy to forget about in a tab of a ranking screen in a submenu. 

I will say some good things about this game in fairness.  Deck editing is much easier in this game, particularly due to a text search option that makes it a lot easier to search for certain support cards.  In addition, the selection is great and I particularly like the inclusion of anime only cards since it gives you the option to play with these great cards that could never be released in the real game.  The animations for certain monsters are actually impressive and fun to watch at first, and they can be turned off or skipped if you get bored of them. 

The faults far outweigh the good though, and this is the first game in years I've considered trading back in (the last was Shadow the Hedgehog, so yeah, it's been a long time...).  For my money, the WC series will always be the better choice and I look forward to the upcoming release.  However, if you really like Tag Duels and want nothing but lots and lots of dueling from your Yugioh game, or if you only have a PSP and feel a dueling itch, it may be worth your time. 

That's my first game review!  I'm currently playing Hotel Dusk, so maybe I'll get a review of that out later, or maybe I'll dip into my towering backlog.  I hope someone likes this and I'd appreciate any feedback!