Anime Review Roundup

The less said about Lord El-Melloi II’s Case Files {Rail Zeppelin} Grace Note as a title the better; other than I had to assign it to a function key to make it through the review. The show is worth talking about though, as it’s a direct tie-in to the wonderful Fate Zero, following up on the fan favourite character of Waver Velvet, some ten years after the events of the Holy Grail War. He’s now a magical detective/full time teacher, investing arcane mysteries at the behest of the family whose name he has inherited. It looks the part, and the overarching story is really quite interesting. It does have one fundamental flaw though. Click on the review to see what that is.

As a self respecting anime fan, I really should have seen Speed Racer a lot sooner than this. The Wachowskis took on that classic anime show that served as a gateway drug for so many anime fans in the US, back in the day. Coming off the back of Matrix Revolutions, I had shied away from Wachowski movies ever since, but Speed Racer finally wore me down with its insistence. The end result wasn’t quite worth it, with a movie that seems faithful to the original anime series, especially in terms of its wafer thin story and characters, and reliance on visuals. You might say that is a good thing, but it turns out that you can be too faithful.

Durarara!! I don’t think I’ve watched any other recent show as frequently as this one. Dating from 2010, I’ve probably watched this on average once every 18 months. Given that in the last ten years, I watch most shows at a rate of once every five years, that’s saying something. Coming from the creator of Baccano!, Durarara!! has a similar narrative style to it, although set in present day Ikebukuro as opposed to the US during prohibition. You have fractured narratives, multiple character viewpoints, several plot and character arcs, and the collision of the supernatural world and the real in modern day Tokyo. It all centres on three high school students, three distinct individuals, all with unexpected secrets. And there’s a headless motorcycle courier.