Mitsugi

Episode Reviewed In: Episode 80
Alternate Titles:  None
Original Japanese Release Date: # January 14, 2011
Episode Length/Run-time: # 11 Episode
Summary:
The story takes place on an island resembling a futuristic Ireland (certain scenes are directly taken from Galway city in the west of Ireland), in a world ruled by the “Fractale System” that ensures mankind’s stability and prosperity. One day, Clain meets a fleeing girl called Phryne, who disappears during the night leaving a pendant. When he is able to activate the pendant (which turns into a “doppel” named Nessa), Clain sets out for a journey with the girl-shaped avatar Nessa to look for Phryne and discovers the secret behind the Fractale System.
Review:

Plot Summary:

• This is really a weird anime.  There are these creatures called Doppels that look just like the cousins from Katamari.  Clains’s parents are doppels.  My impression of Doppels is that they’re like Avatars that people can use.  A virtual self.  Think about that movie with Bruce Willis, Surrogates.  They use the Doppels to check up on and visit Clain in his house but they don’t live with him because they don’t want to be “tied down”.  They think that if they live together its a  sign that they don’t trust each other….odd.
• The story takes place on what looks like an island surrounded by high cliffs.  Otherwise, the island is covered by grassland.  This is some kind of a data based world. The fractale is a world made up of trillions of little computers.  This kid is living his normal, weird, life, when he sees a girl on a glider, very reminiscent of Nausicaa being chased by three people on a hot air balloon.  One of them looks exactly like Ed Elric.  No joke.  She takes a look at the main character and allows herself to fall off her glider backwards into the ocean below.
• So the first episode is called “encounter” because he finds the girl lying on the cliff below and revives her.  She’s actually pretty cute. Her name is Phyrne.
• They go back to Clain’s house and that night they fall asleep up in the hillside in some old ruins.  When Clain wakes up, Pyrne is gone but she leaves him a pendant.
• The next day Clain is trying to figure out what the pendant is when a girl named Nessa comes out of his laptop.  Shes very energetic and cute and that day, Clain shows her around town.
• She seems like she has special abilities.  She can touch Doppels, which I guess most people can’t do.  She also seems to cause wild things to happen when she touches things.  For example, she was in a trailer park and touched an RV and all of a sudden the thing took off without a driver and drove right into another RV.
• In the end, Clain suddenly cannot touch her anymore and she goes to the police station to be a “missing person” of sorts since nobody knows who she is.
• After that, the 3 people that were after Clain abduct them and take him to their leader who is also a young boy.
• At the end of the episodes, Nessa returns to him, he can touch her again but they get capture by the three people.
• We learn a few more things in episode 3:
• People in the town that Clain was brought to have to wear special glasses, or some kind of eye wear(googles, etc…), in order to see Nessa because she is a doppel.
• In the world, there was some event in which mankind started relying on these “Fractales” to survive.  People had “fractale terminals” put into their bodies and rely on data and doppels to do everything.
• Clain and Nessa have been taken to a village called Ganitz which do not rely on anything from the new mellinnium. No doppels, data, or terminals.
• The people in the village are members of a rebellion movement called Lost Millennium which is a group fighting against the fractale system.
• Turns out doppel Nessa carries some kind of very special data that can help Lost Millennium in their efforts.

Audio and Visuals:

• The visuals are stunning.  The colors are vibrant and beautiful.  there is a very tasteful use of CG  graphics on things like water.  The animation is smooth and flowing.  Also, the music is quite good.  The intro isn’t that great, but the in show music is fitting to the scenes in which they are played.

Episode Reviewed In: Episode 100
Alternate Titles: Eiken
Original Japanese Release Date: 2003
Episode Length/Run-time: 2 OVAs 30 Minutes each
Summary:

This anime is a much older Manyuu Hikenchou set in a school.  This anime is about a boy, Densuke Mifune, who comes to a school and is immediately recruited to be in a club, whose activities are yet to be known.
Review:
The anime consists of several very important things, involving Densuke; having girls with breasts bigger than their heads falling on him and having them land in a way that his hands on on their breasts, asses; random jokes about sexual activities, girls eating bananas, and of course having liquidy inappropriate liquids dumped on the girls.

During the school year, there is an intramural event where teams compete in different events, such as; bungee jumping, water slides full of liquid yogurt.

What else can I say?  The anime is devoid of any kind of substance whatsoever.  It’s basically porn but it’s too softcore to be useful as hentai, yet at the same time being too raunchy and goofy to actually merit any kind of serious discussion or thought.  Therefore, this anime is stuck in a purgatory of shit.  Nobody should watch this anime becuase I’m sure a scientific study will be released in 10 years that will determine that watching it strips your life of any ambition and your soul of any purity.

Episode Reviewed In: Episode 104
Alternate Titles: None
Original Japanese Release Date: Summer 2011
Episode Length/Run-time: 12 Episodes
Summary:
Kamisama Dolls is the story of Kuga Kyouhei who moves to Tokyo to get away from his old hometown village.  The village has a history of creating and managing these “gods” called Kakashi and those who control these Kakashi are called Seki.  The town has a dark history and is very controlling of it’s villagers.  Think the village, Hinamizawa, from Higurashi.  It’s very similar to that.  Kyouhei leaves the village and abandons his role as a Seki after an unfortunate turn of events that leave many of the villagers dead.  Soon afterwards, a Seki and old friend of Kyouhei, Aki, whom was imprisoned within the village after the event, escapes and goes to Tokyo to find Kyouhei.  Soon after this, Utao leaves the village, and commanding Kyouhei’s old Kakashi, seeks to bring Aki back to the village.  He is apparently very dangerous.

Review:
This anime is directed by Seiji Kishi who was the director of the recent Angel Beats.  The production is done by Brain’s Base.  I’m not quite sure what else to say about the creation about the show.  The animation and art seemed pretty standard for current day anime and the show had good intro and outro themes, but that really isn’t the responsibility of the production team.

Kamisama Dolls isn’t a bad anime.  The action sequences, which always involve battles between two different Kakashi are sometimes pretty interesting and at times the story can be fairly intriguing.  The best part of the entire series are the couple of episodes that occur somewhere in the middle, where they give the back story about the events in the village.  To be honest, most of the present day events aren’t nearly as interesting.  There are a few moe type gags, some shallow love triangle action, a filler episode or two, and all in all the storyline of the present day events really does not amount to much.  It seems to have a difficult time finding direction. In summary, as far as the story goes, the back story gets a thumbs up, and the present action is just so-so.

The main issue that this anime has are the “mecha”, the Kakashi.  I felt that the designs of the Kakashi were not very interesting and unfortunately, they always make a really obnoxious singing noise which just drove me crazy.  Each Kakashi has it’s own unique tune that it sings and each is equally annoying.  They do it…all…the…time…

I sort of give this anime a pass, despite its actual plotline having not much direction because it was clear at the end that there will be a second season, which I assume will continue the story and hopefully get it moving.  I would cautiously recommend this anime to people who like sci-fi series and like some light “mecha” battles.