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Re-Kan! (anime review)

re-kanTitle: Re-Kan!: Complete Series on Blu-ray

Director: Masashi Kudo

Written By: Takahashi Aoshima

Music By: Hiroyuki Kōzu

Studio: Pierrot

U. S. Distributor: Sentai Filmworks, Section 23

U. S. Release Date:

Format: Blu-ray / 13 Episodes / 325 Minutes

Genre: Comedy, Supernatural

Age Rating: TV 14

Overall Personal Rating: B+

Synopsis: 

Narumi Inoue has a problem with the new girl in school. It’s not that Hibiki Amami is impolite or a bully… it’s just that she sees, speaks with, and befriends ghosts!

Now, it’s at the point that when Amami’s around, Inoue sometimes sees them too, spelling disaster for a girl who’s terrified of anything supernatural. However, Amami’s genuine kindness makes it hard for Inoue to ignore her, especially when her friends Kyoko, Kana, and Makoto, as well as the other students, have accepted Amami’s habit of talking to thin air and walking around invisible obstacles.

With gentle coaxing (and the knowledge that her departed grandmother is watching over her), Inoue finds herself immersed in Amami’s strange, otherworldly adventures. Fulfilling the last wishes of the dead might not be a normal after-school activity, but at least they’ll always know why the ghost crossed to the other side in RE-KAN!

Commentary:

Right off the bat Re-Kan! caught me by surprise. This almost silly series made me feel a little softer and kinder. It seemed to want us to disrespect it because of the overtly yuri leanings, but in the end I still felt warm inside. The tone was everything and I never felt unwanted or left out. The fact that Amami’s ability to see spirits was accepted by her friends and class mates managed to come across more naturally than I would have expected. This connection made the entire series much easier to watch.

Overall Grade: B+

I typically do not enjoy yuri inspired anime or even the hint of love between girls. I guess it is because I am a guy and very jealous about girls not liking guys the same way I like girls, but on a personal level can understand how connections happen between people no matter what sex they are.

None-the-less, I found the simple easy going and mildly funny Re-Kan! to be an anime for everyone. I think that the only shortcoming is the simplicity of the story line. The character development and basic plot are strong enough to carry the full series, but I think that if there were a little more depth to the series / story I think it could have overcome the teenage love interest between the girls and made the series more about the friendships and bonds they all really made in their first year of school together.

Re-Kan! is a anime to watch if you want a simple high school story with kind humor and even kinder characters that are very likable. Check it out I think you will come away with the same warm pleasant feeling that I did.

 

Tokyo Ghoul season 1 (anime review)

Tokyo-Ghoul season oneTitle: Tokyo Ghoul season 1

Director: Yutaka Yamada

Creator: Sui Ishida

Studio: Pierrot

U. S. Distributor: Funimation Entertainment

U. S. Release Date: Sept. 22nd, 2015

Format: Blu-ray & DVD / 12 Episodes / 300 Minutes

Genre: Supernatural, Thriller, Dark Fantasy

Age Rating: TV 17+ (violence)

Overall Personal Rating: B

Synopsis:

In modern day Tokyo, society lives in fear of Ghouls: mysterious creatures who look exactly like humans, yet hunger insatiably for their flesh. None of this matters to Ken Kaneki, a bookish and ordinary young man, until a dark and violent encounter turns him into the first ever Ghoul-human half breed. Trapped between two worlds, Ken must survive the violent conflicts of warring Ghoul factions, while attempting to learn more about Ghoul society, his new found powers, and the fine line between man and monster.

Commentary:

Tokyo Ghoul has already taken on a hype that hasn’t been seen since Deadman Wonderland first made its way to our shores. I use Deadman Wonderland as the prime example because the story feels a lot like it. It just has enough story line changes that very few people will see the similarity. There is also the over used young whinny male lead that we have seen over and over since Evangelion first aired. Ken is a nice young man given a terrible gift to remain alive and now must whine about not wanting to kill for the next 11 episodes and honestly I for one am getting very tired of this charter being forced upon us over and over again.

Tokyo Ghoul is much better than Deadman Wonderland and no where as confusing as Evangelion, but that doesn’t help it get over the punk factor. I get where they are coming from by making the humans nothing more than cattle to the ghouls. That concept is nothing new or different. The main draw to the series is most likely the graphic amount to blood that splatters the world they live in. The only reason they create the moral conundrum is to give the series a point.

Overall Grade:

My great hope for Tokyo Ghoul is that it makes it past the overwhelming anime history that it has decided to emulate. I am looking forward to the second season because the end of the first season gave me a peek at something that could in fact take the series to the next level. I just hope Ken looses that Kenji whinny persona because it makes me want to turn off the blu-ray player and never watch it again.

The production values are that standard fare from studio Pierrot and the writing manages to give us enough solid footing to keep the viewer moving to the next episode. The one thing that is for sure is that the U. S. audience is clearly a sucker for a bloody series that just might go absolutely nowhere. Maybe there will be a surprised or maybe just maybe it will fall apart and prove to be another series that never made it Japan and was sold to the U. S. Viewer as something really special.