MINI-REVIEW: Angel Beats!

Quick now before I forget what this show is about.

Angel Beats! is not a new title. It aired last year which should be around the time I first took over this blog. The title kind of went passed me so I never saw the 13-episode series until an acquaintance generously (and quite randomly) lent me a bootleg DVD. And even then, it took about two weeks before I finally decided (for lack of anything better to do) to pop it into my laptop's DVD-ROM and check it out.

Here's the story: Angel Beats! begins with the male lead, Otonashi, waking up with no memories at all of his life. He is greeted by an aggressive, gun-toting girl who wastes no time telling him that he is dead and that he is now in the afterlife. This girl, Yuri, is the de facto leader of an eccentric group of students who have all taken up arms (literally) against God and his servant, Angel. At first, Otonashi resists the idea of his being dead but after he is stabbed in the heart by Angel but wakes up later completely healed with only his torn and bloody clothes as proof that what happened was true, he starts working with Yuri and her SS Brigade, pulling all kinds of rebellious stunts just to show up the system and its strong-arm, Angel.

The premise isn't much, which explains why jute never picked up this title in the season Angel Beats! aired. But if there's anything worth learning about in this world, it's this: ordinary stories can become extraordinary, and more so in anime.

Visually, Angel Beats! is a pretty, pretty show. The character designs are excellent, not my usual cup of tea, but still very visual novel-esque and certainly very attractive. Animation is also great, especially when it comes to the well-executed action sequences and the concert scenes. I don't think I've ever watched "musical" anime so I can't compare but I loved what Angel Beats! did for Dead Girls Monster and isn't Iwasawa just the coolest vocalist ever? I adore her and I am grateful to P.A. Works for giving her an episode, when all the others barely got five minutes.

No doubt, the music is one of the best assets of the show. LiSA performs the OP theme "My Soul, Your Beats" while some other artist performs the ED theme. My favorites have got to be the songs performed by Dead Girls Monster with Iwasawa (singing voice by marina). I will confess: I am currently downloading the soundtracks and other related albums so expect future posts to be filled with them. :)

Angel Beats! is mostly comedy and I sure got genuine laughs out of the slapstick, but some of the jokes became too repetitive to be funny. There is also a little drama involved although I didn't feel too connected with some of the characters to come up with the appropriate response. The romance aspect is very narrow but it's satisfying, despite its rather unresolved ending. People complain about how short the series is but I don't think that's it. Angel Beats!s story is pretty contained in 13 episodes, sloppy writing in a few scenes aside.

My verdict: Good.

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Claymore: Sword Beats Drama

I know it's kind of late, the anime adaptation of Claymore having just ended, but recently I've picked up the manga...for no apparent reason and, after going on marathon, reading Volumes 1-13 (the manga is currently at Vol. 13, chap. 74, plus 4 Extra Scenes), I'm sorry to say but I AM OBSESSED! And I don't even know why.

Clare, Number 47, the weakest of the bunch (but wait until she powers up, she will KILL YOUR BRAIN)

So let's try to analyze.

First case in point, I am not much of a manga reader. See my Anime and Manga lists and observe the disparity in numbers. While I always think that manga is almost always better than anime, it seems that I actually prefer watching anime to reading manga.

The reason may be because I am lazy and I like the more passive medium of the two. Face it, watching anime is easier and more entertaining than reading manga. And it may also have something to do with this unwritten rule that I follow that once I watch an anime, I usually neglect to pick up its manga version, and vice versa.

In the case of Claymore, I heard about the anime coming out way back but never paid any attention to it. But then suddenly I decided to read the manga and after I was finished with all available translated chapters, I started downloading the anime without even thinking about it. Crud.

Phantom Miria, Number 6: when in a group, she can surpass even Number 1. The ass-kicking leader of the fab 4.

Second case in point, despite my insanely huge list of animes watched (90+ is a lot for me, okay? Shut up.), I am quite picky about animes to get obsessed about. The things I look for in anime are the same things I expect from all good stories:

• interesting characters - psychotic characters are FTW, emo brooding heroes PWNS all
• character dynamics - the relationships between characters merely serve as background, it's how they interact that cements my opinion
• good vs. evil theme - I'm sorry. I'm such a whore for world peace
• logical plot - a loose plot is preferable to a tightly-controlled one because the former allows for some speculation and I do so love to make pseudo-intellectual blog posts about possible outcomes and shit like that
• romance of the het variety - sure YAOI is hwt (L and Kira 4-EVARRR) and YURI is intriguing (LOLz at Sachiko and Yumi) but I LOVE MY HET !!!111

Holy--! My SOOPER SEEKRIT CLARE X RAKI HOT ♥ LOVIN' FANTASY is REEL! Yay for random kissin'

So when I discovered the premise of Claymore -- a boy and a warrior woman out to fight demons -- my brain short-circuited. Interesting characters? Well yeah, if you like sword-wielding females. Character dynamics? What dynamic could possibly exist between a boy and full-grown woman aside from pedophilia-esque vibes? Good vs. evil? Monsters vs. monsters, huh? Logical plot? Not a good thing to look for in shounen. Romance of the het variety? Check comment for character dynamics.

Clare, with whole body "awakened" (Ad for Swiss Army Knife, retarded)

Third case in point, I like my psychological, slice of life, emo-astic shojous (e.g. NANA) better than my action-packed, gore-fest shounens (e.g. Bleach and Gantz). I only really liked Bleach because of Ukitake's pretty hair and Yoruichi's badassness, but after the Soul Society Arc, my ♥ for the story went kaput. And Gantz was just novel. Flying decapitated bodies, DUDES! And right in between TEH SEX. It just...opened my eyes to what sort of things anime and manga can contain (You still think it's all just silly stuff? Go WATCH GANTZ NOW!!! Or better yet, go read BERSERK! I hear it's even more bloody).

Now Claymore is obviously shounen. That means it's "for boys," meaning it's action-packed with lots of ridiculously proportioned 12-year olds running around in miniskirts. Not really my thing. Or at least, that was the impression I got. The fantasy medieval setting was not even a factor.

Rippling Ophelia, Number 4. She is a complete lunatic. That's why she's so awesome.

Fourth case in point, the ART and CHARACTER DESIGNS better not be sub-par. I'm not even looking for excellence. Ai Yazawa's skinny character design took some getting used to but eventually I grew to like it. Claymore's art is...not worth mentioning. When I saw the first page of the first chapter of the manga, I seriously doubted the sanity of those people who touted the "excellent art" of the series. Virtually no background and the characters (especially the males) all look the same. You can't even distinguish the monsters (youma) from the humans. Basically, everyone was just grotesque. Or so I thought. But once the other Claymores were introduced, it dawned on me:

OMG. It's Elrond! (Flash Sword Ilena/Irene, former Number 2)

I must say, although the Claymore art is not initially appealing, it tends to grow on you. And once the action starts, you won't even care about how good the characters look because the mangaka has some pretty mad skillz in drawing action scenes.

So for all the foregoing reasons, why then did I pick up Claymore and now have to endure the unimaginable agony of waiting for the next scanlated chapter to come out?

It's simple. Because despite all my scholarly posturing about the superiority of my tastes, I am really just a sucker for anime and manga. Dude, I sat through the entire first season of DNA2! I mean, OMG, it was really bad but for some reason I could not un-glue my eyes from the TV screen.

So that's me.

Mommy!

But you know, Claymore really does have a fascinating storyline (at one point, it employs non-linear storytelling. My favorite arc is the Teresa arc and virtually every chapter with Miria on it).

It is more than just monsters slaying monsters (because the warriors called "Claymores," are actually half-human, half-monster hybrids so it kind of deals with racial discrimination) or going on adventures for the sake of adventure. There is actually a reason why Clare, the main heroine, is roaming the countryside. Granted the reason is not unique in any way -- for revenge and to look for her shouta...I mean, Raki, the err boy and possibly romantic interest -- it's more like an acceptable norm in shounen series.

The story actually branches off. From a relatively simple and quite retarded story of a loner warrior girl wielding a SOOPER DOOPER HUMONGOUS SWORD OF DOOM meet boy outcast of society, hook up and live one happy adventure after another killing monsters and stuff, to the deep and sinister world of the organization responsible for the "claymores."

I was also pleasantly surprised to find that the cast of semi-lunatic characters is also well-developed. Like I can't make up my mind whom I like best -- the inspiring swash-buckling leader Phantom Miria or the psychotic bitch Ophelia. Well, Ophelia gets dead so Miria wins by default. But then there's Teresa of the Faint Smile whose name is just coolness itself and Isley who is BISHOUNEN HAWTNESS OMG FAINT! I'm sorry but I can't like Clare. I don't usually like the main characters in shounen series.

In short, Claymore appeals to my latent love for dark mystery and mayhem and attraction to impractical clothes. Dude, I adored the costumes of 300 even though more than half of these so-called warriors are running around naked but for a cape and a loincloth. Like, what's the fastest way to get killed?

Claymore is just the same: the warriors only wear shoulder blades and metallic skirt-things that a monster's nail can cut through.

Le sigh. So much for utilitarianism. I am more for aesthetics, really.

Clare, having facial hemorrhoid. This violates Galatea's sense of aesthetics.

And so ends this blog post for the day. I am going back to my corner now and do some mental yoga. More meaningful entry to come later this evening.

More Info:

Official Anime Site
Official Manga Site
Wikipedia Article
Claymore @ Amazon
Claymore @ Yes Asia

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