Back to ThePacISBack's Profile ThePacISBack's Profile

I created very rough subtitles for this, using the YouTube auto subtitles featured, which heard the Japanese audio and generated a Japanese transcript, which I then translated into English. Keep this in mind as you read my review, because as of now, this was the only option to watch this as a non Japanese viewer, as no fan subtitles exist.
This is a simple, sweet little story involving the Zorori cast you know and love, as pretty much all of the reoccurring side characters get to make an appearance along with the mains, though none of them are particularly focused on.
What this could be compared to, ... would be that episode of Sonic X where Sonic was helping a girl in a wheelchair get to see the world by giving her a special day. Essentially that is what we have here, although it is about the Zorori cast helping a girl with her singing. If you are coming to this film looking for badass moments of Zorori competing against his "rivals" such as Beat-kun, like what you would (occasionally) see in the old classic Zorori TV anime, you are not gonna get that much of that here, with Zorori and his relationships with his side characters being generally simplified down to "they occasionally bicker but they're all just friends." That may seem like a disappointment because this Zorori film is not gonna give you as much complexity with Zorori's relationships as you would hope for, but personally I don't see that as a problem because clearly this is just meant to be a simple and sweet story about Zorori helping a girl.
Long story short, a good film, not essential viewing, but it is a shame it is not English subtitled. I am tempted to try posting my own English subtitles (though they are rough, like very rough), if no one else is going to subtitle this. I think the reason it happened this way, is because this film is so new, and the Zorori Project (a fan made English subtitles project), had already stopped subtitling by the time this came out, so they didn't pick this one up. Or something, who knows? haha

Oh gosh where to even begin with this thing. It is not bad as far as Super Robot Horror anime go, but this is not Rayearth. It is not even an Isekai like every other version of Rayearth is. This all takes place in the city that the characters grew up in.
So, what is Rayearth OVA? Well let us start with what it is not. This is not a faithful adaption of the Rayearth manga in any regard, this is basically a fanfic-y alternate universe that involves some of the characters. The reason that this was made is because Hirano (he also was the director ... of the Rayearth TV anime which was slightly more faithful until season 2 when it also goes into its own separate place from the manga), basically, this Hirano director guy, he got asked by Clamp to not spoil the manga, they gave him permission to do what he wanted. So basically this Rayearth OVA is more of an Body Horror and Super Robot horror thriller, it takes a lot of influence from an old 1984 anime Fight Iczer One, which is by the same director. Director Hirano has made jokes in interviews literally saying "If you watch Iczer One, you will see that (my original characters from Rayearth) are from Iczer One" (I paraphrased a bit there, cause I feel like it would be spoilers to tell you which original characters that Hirano San invented in his Rayearth anime-verse.
Anyyyyyway. Lol, so yeah, Hirano san he is pretty open with the fact that his Rayearth season 2, and his Rayearth OVA, are just him having fun putting the Rayearth characters in a reboot of his old Fight Iczer One anime. Long story short... Rayearth really needed a manga accurate reboot, so thank goodness we are getting one. Hopefully that remake is good and doesn't use CGi for the mecha... Pls I pray.
Anyway Rayearth OVA, it has great designs and animation (Thanks to the husband and wife duo who founded Studio Gimik, having also worked on this Rayearth OVA). But this is not really Rayearth this is just Hirano san's fanfiction. But honestly bless this man. Did I mention that Hirano literally animated the old 1982 Macross theme song animation? And he animated many of the best parts of Daicon IV, the first animation ever by Studio Gainax. So yeah Hirano san, you are cool dude, you can do whatever you want with Rayearth. though this wasn't great

I do agree with others you may have seen, that are critiquing this film for falling back on old Precure tropes, that is correct of them to say, and fair. However, there are still great elements here, as the reviewers also will tell you. In short, I completely understand why people would have a mixed response, but for me, the great elements outweigh the bad. As a start, the good. Since there is substantial good here, when this is a kickass film about Idol Precure getting stranded on a mysterious time locked island, full of animal and plant people residents, and plenty of supernatural events ... and zombie jellyfish!
Uta, the Cure Idol herself, is written Wanderful here, as are the rest of the Idol Precure, in particular I loved how the mysterious displaced in time element of the island was utilized in order to really make the main Idol Precure members feel split up and broken apart, and then see them create bonds that we didn't get much of in the main series (such as having Uta and Meroron seperated from the rest of the group, was genius!) I love the way that the girls slowly discover the mystery and the darkness of the plot, while having to fight off these zombie jellyfish (the jellyfish were also really cool as upon being slain, they turned into tiny little creatures, which resembles the Zakenna of early Futari Wa Precure from 2004. Always love to see the baddies turn into tiny creatures and run away. It is also very retro-gamey feeling if that makes any sense lol. The songs are also amazing! Lots of new original songs by Idol Precure, and because this is a crossover we also get Idol Precure covering some Precure's songs from previous seasons. Zero complaints with the visuals either, well directed all the way through, they don't even have to use CGI monsters like Otona Precure did. Nope, 2d animated fights, 2d hand drawn baddies.
The main plot and Uta's befriending of new movie exclusive characters was all compelling, adding weight to the fight scenes, as we felt fear for the new movie exclusive characters, felt pity for them as Uta wanted to resolve things with the movie exclusive characters
The credits sequence, while largely just raising my attention to the fact that the crossover element barely led to any interaction between the different crossing over groups, did have one benefit: This credits sequence, without a doubt, still effectively provided fan service (and I mean fan service in regards to what this show means by it, pleasing the fans), because the credits sequence showed really cute interactions between all of the crossing over characters (both the main Precure groups and even the mascots/fairies.. Which actually includes many of the group members since many of them are fairies lollll). My absolute favorite part is that they even found a way to integrate the side characters of Wonderful Precure and You And Idol, that being Tanaka (a fairy and manager who is generally there for support) and Mey Mey (an utterly... fascinating queer coded fairy who dressed up in dresses several times during Wonderful Precure, and acted very friendly around guys of the same gender as him). These scenes were utterly adorable to me since I do love these side characters and it is nice that the filmmakers remembered them. This does not make up for the criticism that I totally agree with though, that nearly everything outside of this credits sequence is basically just You And Idol Precure, so aside from this credit sequence and the fight scenes, the crossover element does feel a bit eye brow raising. A very solid film that I also understand the critiques for.

This is literally an anime made to fill time while the real life Akiba 48 concert crew get the stage ready. There is barely anything here, just basic Kindergarten Backgrounds drawn in 2d, with 2d images shaking back and forth, on top. The animation is made up of still images which shake and occasionally change to a different expression, comparable to an in engine video game cuteness on Sega Saturn or PS1. The character designs and art style is actually nice in some areas, with each of the students based on different underworld monster. There is a kobold / bat like monster who sadly doesn't ... even have an entry on this page despite being a major reoccurring character, but that kobold / bat was the coolest character by far.
The characters are... actually fine, they're just various stereotypical characters you would expect from any comedy about being a teacher at a kindergarten. If you have seen Hanamaru Kindergarten or Gakuen Babysitters you have seen all of these personality types but way more fleshed out and thus more interesting. At least a few of them had funny or sweet scenes. There is a character who seems to resemble a kobold or is somewhat bat-esque (resembling the old and nostalgic style of interpreting imps and kobolds as being kinda fluffy and bat esque), and basically this character had a decent amount of good scenes, they were dealing with an unrequited crush (they had a crush on a girl who is based on demons that trick guys into doing things for them, basically, so this bat character had no chance of the crush working out.) And also the bat character has a running gimmick of setting the teacher on fire out of boredom or because the teacher is very polite and that makes them act out. It was a little bit funny.

Conclusion
There is barely anything here to critique but also barely anything to praise. This is a purely comedy anime, with animation that is not notable and barely any notable traits except one character I found to be decent. The teacher is also fine, he is not unlikable, he works as the polite, passive and easily manipulated adult character that allows all the childish antics to happen. Having only one character I really like and only one other character I felt "ok" on, is not very high praise. Watch this if you just wanna see some cool designs that remind me of Studio SHAFT (with zero of the quality of animation of Studio SHAFT)

I absolutely had to leave a review when I saw basically no one talking about this show apart from a single site giving basic coverage when this was re-released by Nozomi Entertainment in 2014. I want to spoil nothing if possible, while also explaining what works so, so well about this, the way that the show feels holistic, being kid friendly while also having the depth and nuance of great family cartoons (like Owl House, Adventure Time etc). The best way I can think of to sell you on this show, is to say that this is the type of anime you can watch with ... your mom, or your legal guardian, and it will make them proud of you... <3
Space Pirate Mito is a Triangle Staff production, the studio known for Serial Experiments Lain, Kino's Journey, and (to a smaller degree) Magic User's Club, the classic OVA by Junichi Sato and Ikuko Itoh. Triangle Staff were simply one of THE best and most experimental studios of their time, making short films and TV shows that really felt cinematic, with clear creative freedom given to their animators and episode directors. Space Pirate Mito is no exception, the show is absolutely gorgeous and full of great serious and comedic action scenes in equal measure.
The best way to describe this show is a found family of whacky people from space, realizing how the bonds of family can be the most badass thing in the universe and stop space dictators. In other words, image Tenchi Muyo, and the beautiful and whacky found family of space aliens, except without any harem elements (I am not against harem, I am just saying that this show has zero of that). Mito is such a wholesome mom character, the vibes of familial love and faith in your children is so warm and encompassing in this work. All of the found family who make up Mito's crew are wholesome, a special standout goes to Shin, a shapeshifter who really completes out this main cast (though honestly I love everyone in the cast, they all are wholesome.
There is a scene in the dub where Shin comes in at the perfect last moment to protect the family and Mito (voiced wonderfully by Lisa Ortiz in the dub), goes "You're the best, Shin", and I was thinking in my head, yes, they are the best, Shin really is awesome (also, if you enjoy non binary shapeshifter type rep with a character who can be a cool alien creature one minute, and a gorgeous lady the next, you will definitely enjoy Shin's character. In fact there is even more gender exploration stuff in the later half of this show and in season 2, because Mito's species have a unique perspective on gender. That is all I will say without spoiling this show or the second season). The English dub performance for them is also a standout. Shin had two voice actors because unfortunately the first English dub voice actor for the character passed away mid production. There is only a listing on MyAnimeList for the second voice for Shin, Rosie Reyes, but the original voice the one who passed away, Stephanie B Goldman, is not listed on here for some reason but I don't know how to use MAL and fix that.
Oh by the way another fun fact, but this is the first ever example of a dub directed by the English voice of Goku, Sean Schemmel. I just find it funny that a whacky found family space show was directed by Goku's dub voice (and Lucario!~)
This review is without a doubt a total mess, but this show is so personal to me, I don't know how to even describe it. A show like this is so wholesome with its themes, so broadly appealing and like I said just, holistic. Even the visuals feel like a timeless cartoon, the faces gave me vibes of Batman The Animated Series, and also it reminded me of Teenage Robot, even though Space Pirate Mito came out before that.(especially in terms of having a wide variety of aliens, some of them being based on non human creatures).

No spoilers apart from vaguely mentioning things like character derailment / who the main characters are. -- Behold, the poorly planned, shockingly mean end of a fantastic mecha series. An OVA that feels entirely pointless compared to the two OVA before it, and makes you feel like you somehow traveled back in time and to an alternate universe where every character is worse. Dancougar was a fantastic mecha anime for its time, the animation of the original TV show was definitely more limited in comparisson to something like Zeta Gundam, but it didn't matter that it was a slideshow a lot of the time because ... the characters were real, they had soul! This epilogue is a complete mess of character degradation and trying to retread ideas from previous entries. Prior to this anime being made, there was several other OVA epilogues to Dancougar, including Dancougar: Requiem for Victims (a much better OVA than this), and the utterly fantastic God Bless Dancougar, which felt like a movie at times, and had a true feeling of finality, conclusion and passing the torch to new generations.
So, for some reason after making those fantastic OVAs, they decided to make this, Dancougar: The Blazing Epilogue. This OVA is such a complete and utter character derailment, after the OVAs that came before it. In the previous installments, we saw the heroes Shinobu, Sara, Masato and Ryo, come together to save the earth with mecha (not any groundbreaking premise, but the likability of the characters and the twists made it great!) Yet for some reason in this OVA, Masato isn't allowed to come along. Yep, they just took him out.
On top of this, the main focus of this OVA is trying to develop Shapiro (the villain character) more, but they achieved this by literally backpedalling and implying he still has romantic feelings for someone who he didn't have any feelings for during the end of the TV show, which this is supposed to take place after...
The bizarre writing with Shapiro, the insulting of Masato, and just the utter writing messiness of this OVA is... really something. Like this was a show (and two OVAs) that was about this team of 4, is now about a team of 3, because the writers of this hated Masato... Don't believe me? It gets worse. The writers for this OVA go out of their way to add as many insulting character traits to Masato as possible that he never had before, making him into a cheater and emotional abuser. The utter confusion of this, when he was previously one of the most hopeful characters in the original show (he was basically like the little brother of the team, and many fans have predicted that he was originally intended to be a younger character, until the writers realized it wouldn't make sense for him to be in the military if they made his age too young. Which, the fact that they made him an a young adult, did make it admittedly a little awkward that his love interest was younger than him... But listen, it was the 80s and Masato was a gentleman and did everything right in terms of the relationship, waiting till they were both adults to pursue it further.) Anyway, I better stop before I ramble too hard.
The animation is fine but a bit too satured in greens and gross looking colors for my liking (God Bless Dancougar was an OVA too, but it looked better and had better shading).
I would say Dancougar fans may enjoy some of the fights, but I really am disappointed with this. God Bless was the better ending.

Oban Star Racers is a series that succeeds on its quality of world-building, willingness to break away from one singular genre, and family friendly appeal. Any of you who remember watching Jetix, or any of the Disney-backed anime blocks back in the day might remember watching Oban dubbed, on American TV. The reason for this is multitudinous, as Oban was designed as a cross-country collaboration (you'll notice that our homie, show runner Savin Eiffel, is decidedly non Japanese, and neither is his studio Sav the World Productions, who handled the show's CGI spaceship sequences), and from the outset, Oban was designed to air in multiple ... non-japanese countries, targeting the audience of American anime fans on Jetix with a story that would feel familiar to the anime they watched, but with touches of American cartoons as well. Oban breaks from typical conventions of the sci fi genre, with a tone that feels inherently somewhat Shojo esque (anyone who sees the story of our protagonist Molly, might be reminded of classic shojo such as Candy Candy, which I have no doubt that Savin grew up with, and took inspiration from, when crafting this anime, because Candy Candy was famous in his home country of France).
This is a show with multiple genres: Star Wars Pod Racing sports story, space opera epic with world ending stakes, and intimate family drama about loss. But... This space opera and sports narrative isn't going to be for everyone, and Oban's biggest contention, also comes from this multi genre appeal. Much like other niche genre-bending cult classics, such as Brigadoon: Marin to Melan, there is bound to be something of tonal whiplash here. Seeing things like Molly breaking down over her father not being a part of her life for 10 years, can't help but feel a little pedestrian in comparison to the Life or death spaceship racing narrative that we saw minutes prior. Viewers may find themselves confused as to why a teenager with so much emotional baggage is somehow in the driver's seat of the most important spaceship race in the history of the galaxy, determining the earth's future.
Molly has 2 love interests (love triangle). one of her love interests is seemingly a professional mechanic with years long career, but he is actually only 2 years older than Molly, and is 17. Molly's other love interest (and my personal favorite), is an alien prince with that classic anime elf design that reminded me of the elves in series like Zelda, and Lodoss War. The series unique species and world building of aliens is another one of its massive strong points, as one of Molly's rivals in the spaceship racing / sports narrative, is a really awesome anthro cat with a TV head (basically, this show predicted Protogens, the famous furry fan-species that would be created years after this show ended).
Simply put, Oban is just good. It is a genius blend of genres, an inspiring and heartwarming family friendly anime, and has very little in terms of contentious elements that would bother any viewers. I wholeheartedly recommend this show to anyone. The dub is even good, especially the voices of the Mains (though the Japanese opening theme is better than the American theme song which has the same name as a Justin Beiber song. I mean it's no contest, the Japanese OP was composed by the same lady as Cowboy Bebop, with the same singer as Amagi Brilliant Park. GOATED.

With You Our Love Will Make it Through is a story following Mari Asaka, a high school girl who is surprised to meet her new classmate, a furry wolf boy, Tsunagu, as he sits right next to her in class, as well as helping her arrive on time. The reason furries are in their school is because of a new initiative to try to let them go to human schools. And thus, for this reason, Tsunagu is being invited to their school (although perhaps not entirely welcome, as we see many classmates who are discriminatory, to the furry kind).
With You, Our Love Will Make it ... Through is underrated. I'd like to welcome you to consider where I come from, and I will use specific examples to defend my point. So: A large portion of people have rejected this show's existence, considering it a bad horrible furry story. A much more acclaimed modern furry focused manga, has instead been acclaimed and compared to this work, a manga by the name of Dog Ningen. Before I continue and compare this to Dog Ningen I should clarify that I think it would be way too graphic for many people in the audience of With You Our Love Will Make it Through, given the fact that Dog Ningen contains content similar to Gantz and Devilman, which I believe was the inspiration for Dog Ningen (Afterall, it is a urban shonen battle series, and basically all of those owe their inspiration to Devilman, one of the OGs.) The thing is about Dog Ningen, is that it is a story that begins with the protagonist (a furry anthro dog) being born via a certain act being done between two different species. At the start of the series, the protagonist's main goal is actually to do this certain... act towards a human, while he is a furry himself. So, Dog Ningen is a story where the first page presents the viewer with a specific act happening, and also the protagonist's main motivation is to do this act, with a human, despite himself being a dog furry. Considering the fact that in With You Our Love Will Make it Through, has Mari the human and Tsunagu the teenaged wolfboy who are high schoolers who simply do things that high schoolers do, I think anyone reading my review would agree with my conclusion that With You Our Love is far, far more tame.
The protagonists of With You Our Love Will Make it Through are not doing anything as graphic and detailed as the things in Dog Ningen, and yet, Dog Ningen has been met with acclaim whereas this series has been highly divisive and compared to Dog Ningen negatively. Why is that? Well, I believe I have an answer. This series is easy to make fun of, as it is targeted towards women as it is made by a female author and by a female run anime studio, and in the west, anime has been stereotyped as male driven and shonen oriented.
With You Our Love Will Make it Through, was going to be controversial regardless of content. It is a shojo oriented, unashamed girly work made by women, for women, about Mari, who is clearly a great protagonist who has ever felt these kind of non-human man type of crushes in their life before. But despite her being a great protagonist who is relatable to the audience (not to mention Mari is also incredibly forward and romantically daring, which is refreshing for the romance genre), this work was going to be controversial regardless of that. A shojo furry romance ends up being a controversial, debated work, to the point that I have heard several of my friends have been afraid when they want to talk positively about With You Our Love. Yet, if a series like Dog Ningen has cool action and isn't shojo, then it can do the exact same things, and in fact be even more extreme. I would also like to mention the fact that interspecies romance was the main focus of Beastars as well. In fact Beastars author is currently making a series which had a human and dog anthro, with the two of them discussing a relationship (though not going through with it). But, this was not controversial to the extent that With You Our Love Will Make it Through was controversial, even though nothing in With You Our Love is as extreme or graphic as either of the two previous series.
If you think that is unfair towards With You Our Love as a generally well made manga/anime by a female team, then good, you and I agree.