AndTheRoo

With a staggering amount of hype and fanbase circulating Kyoto Animation's next project, stress must have been huge for them. Especially when the voice actress for Suzumiya Haruhi is taking a role for Lucky Star. So it has come down to a simple question; Lucky Star - good or bad? Without a shadow of a doubt, Lucky Star is one of the anime that stood out in 2007. Heck, it's the Azumanga Daioh for 2007. What we have here, is a story focusing a group of 4 high-school students and their daily lives. Meeeh, sounds boring isn't it? Well, it's not.

Story - Just like i've said earlier, there isn't any, to be honest. The plot lean heavily towards japan otaku culture as there are many reference/parody with Kyoto Animation's earlier productions. It could also be viewed negatively since some with limited amount of understanding towards otaku culture wouldn't find it funny, to say the least.

Character - The series' main highlight, is the prime otaku Konata Izumi, which is also voiced by Aya Hirano who did Suzumiya Haruhi. With a considerable amount of nonsensical knowledge about anime, doujinshi and video games. It has certainly made up quite the irony for her to have an athletic body. Along with her satirical jokes towards her friends, the character has generated quite some commotion among anime fans.

Moe is definitely sky-high with the presence of Miyuki Takara, a polite, friendly glasses-wearing girl with almost complete knowledge just about anything. That's about it on her good side. I find the majority of scenes consisting her to be absurdly boring, since she's always explaining tedious facts to the dumbfounded aka Konata.

The other 2 characters consists of Kagami Hiiragi and Tsukasa Hiiragi; a fraternal twin. The elder one which is Kagami is your stereotype tsundere, while the younger Tsukasa is often described as an airhead who always can't keep up with the conversation and frequently hinted in the series as a naive person.

Music - I believe everyone's first impression towards the opening theme is Suzumiya Haruhi's ending theme. A catchy j-pop with some eurodance elements combined with a dance scene with the main characters. Both themes has been parodied more than a thousand times by media or fans. The BGM is fairly decent, one that stood-out for me is the one being played at Episode 22. I don't wanna give away too much for those who is still behind this series.

Animation - Can't give too many compliments for this area, as the animation is as simple as it gets. The main characters are drawn quite nicely and with detail, but the backgrounds are mainly consists of black/blue figures. Though i might say that this fits the anime perfectly.

Overall - It is definitely a great comeback by Kyoto Animation after their big hit. Although it has some really tedious, dragged out conversations; Lucky Star has its moments, and some which is undeniably funny. This is one anime that doesn't rely on exaggerated sword fights and epic mecha/robot battles for a big audience. However, if you're interested in the latter, look elsewhere.

A solid 7/10.

At first glance, i thought sola was going to be another typical magic-fantasy/drama series. Well, that's not true! I was lucky enough to get a hold of one of the earliest DVD copy of sola here; I wasn't expecting much from Sola, as i am not impressed with the introduction plot. However, i am glad that i was wrong. Sola started off as though it is going to be an anime that exceeds a hundred episode - it was slow. There wasn't many characters in the series, but somehow, the director took his time introducing each one of them, and slowly showing us more character developments. Many people gave up on sola because it was going nowhere at that point, but as soon as sola entered the second half (13 episodes btw), it changed drastically, my perception differed!

Personally, i was surprised that this anime didn't get as much attention it deserves. I looked around and nobody knew or cared for this anime! Sure, there was some point that it became really clichéd. But somehow, it managed to bring out the emotions in sora, which i feel, was a strong part of the series. Also, the background music which accompany sola throughout the whole series, was amazing. I don't often see anime soundtracks being put into real work, aside from a few exceptions.

Well, all in all, you shouldn't let sola pass you by. This is one of the fewer animes which doesn't rely on giant mechas, epic sword fights or any sort of clichéd plot to be good. A solid 7/10 from me!

"The movie is named 5 Centimeters Per Second for the speed at which cherry blossom petals fall, petals being a metaphorical representation of humans, reminiscent of the slowness of life and how people often start together but slowly drift into their separate ways."

Beautiful. Absolutely an instant masterpiece by Makoto Shinkai. I enjoyed Voices of A Distant Star and The Place Promised in Our Early Days, But I never thought that he could pull off another great film.

Plot-wise, it has similarities with his previous works(Voices of A Distant Star), but it manages to create a different atmosphere here. Watching all 3 short stories consecutively, I'll have to say the final chapter was the best among 3. The pinnacle, however, is the first one. Second chapter is a little slow-paced, but it matches the movie theme nicely.

Can't have much complain towards the music. As usual, Tenmon proves he's got the talent with emotional piano pieces. The theme song is nice as well.

Animation & visual effects is stunning. Makoto Shinkai definitely gets a solid certificate to be one of the best visual directors out there at the moment.

Overall, a 9/10 for me. It's almost flawless, but nothing can be perfect, right? ;)