Anime Review: Magical Girl Pretty Sammy

Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Heavy Metal Otaku blog!

Today’s review is from the iconic Tenchi franchise. Known all over the world, I think it’s difficult to find someplace/somebody that actually hasn’t heard of Tenchi. The series I’m looking at today, however, is a bit more obscure. A mini-series that is based off of an episode from Universe, this obscure gem has sadly fallen into the shadows, but today I’m bringing it back into the light! So sit back, relax, and read my review for Magical Girl Pretty Sammy.

Story/Setup
If you’ve never watch Tenchi Universe: Episode 11, here’s part of the wikipedia description:

“Washu invents a machine capable of generating alternative realities to the specifics of the user. Curious and competing members of the extraterrestrial group overwhelm the machine and disappear into the new realities.”

And here’s an excerpt from episode 12:

“In Sasami’s world, she becomes a magical girl heroine who interjects herself in the high school love triangle of Ayeka, Tenchi, and Ryoko.”

For something that’s a little more in-depth, here’s yet another excerpt:

“In the series, Sasami Kawai is a cute young Japanese girl who is asked by magical queen-to-be Tsunami of Juraihelm to become "Magical Girl Pretty Sammy", a champion of justice. She is constantly harassed by Pixy Misa, an evil, but friendly magical girl created by a rival candidate for queen of the magical world, Ramia. Sasami is unaware that Pixy Misa is actually her best friend, Misa'o Amano, who herself is unaware of the transformation forced on her via hypnosis by Ramia's brother, Rumiya.”

That’s basically the gist of the story. Unlike other entries, the plot doesn’t have much too it. For that matter, the world that this mini-series takes place in doesn’t have a lot too it either. This just feels like a setting that has elements of Tenchi sprinkled into it. It certainly makes things interesting, but at the same time there’s not much punch to things.

Animation
I’m often puzzled by the animation in this mini-series. It’s not that it’s bad, because it isn’t. It looks very similar to the OVA: there’s a high quality to the animation, that often times you think you’re watching a discarded episode from the original series. What puzzles me is that the quality doesn’t matchup from Universe (More on this in the eventual Tenchi Universe review). The two come across as opposites, but not extreme opposites. Suffice it to say, there’s differences. Notables ones at that!

Voice Acting
If you’ve watched the OVA, Universe, or Tenchi In Tokyo, you’ll recognize the voice cast right away. The original cast sounds exactly the same as within the OVA: their strengths are the same, as well as their weaknesses. We have some new voice actors play characters exclusive to this miniature world, and they perform their roles quite well. On a somewhat related note, the voice acting in general has managed to age remarkably well. Despite not getting re-released by Funimation (Read a little further down for this), there’s still a crisp element to the voices.

Characters
If you’ve watched Tenchi Universe, then you’ll immediately recognize a massive majority of the characters in this mini-series. If you’ve watched episode 12 of Universe, then you’ll recognize the mannerisms of most of the cast. The one notable exception to this is Tsunami: within the OVA she’s a very smart character, but in this mini-series she’s incredibly ditzy. In fact, her ditzyness mirrors Mihoshi from Universe, and the only way she accomplishes something is due to dumb luck, and the success/folly of others. If you didn’t like the Universe version of Mihoshi, then it’s certain that you might not like Tsunami.

A small number of characters exclusive to this mini-series appear. First is Chihiro Kawai: the mother of Tenchi & Sasami. A former idol singer, she’s now a music store owner, a massive karaoke addict, and a bit of an oddball. Ramia acts as the main villain, acting mainly through her reluctant younger brother Rumiya, and her chosen champion on Earth, Pixy Misa. Finally, there is Sasami best friend, Masao. A kind but shy girl, she’s has a sad past due to her parents being split up. This sadness is what allows Rumiya to use his magic to turn her into Misa, a dark & mysterious individual.

Perhaps the most perplexing addition to the cast is Ryo-Ohki. While a girl in the various other series, in this incarnation the character is a boy. On top of that, Ryo-Ohki can speak, and acts much in the same way that Luna from Sailor Moon acts (Although Ryo-Ohki in this series has feelings for Sasami). A strange change, but one that I don’t mind much.

Availability & Pricing
This is one of the more rare titles I’ve reviewed so far. Released in 2002 by Geneon/Pioneer, the series was actually part of a two-part deal: there is Pretty Sammy, and there’s the next title I’ll be reviewing. As far as I know, the only place to find this collection is on Amazon, or on the off chance that an FYE has this in it’s used section. New copes start at an astounding 98 dollars, while used copies begin at the more reasonable (But still somewhat expensive) 40 dollars. Although somewhat expensive, I suggest that you go for the used copies, but be careful if the copy you buy is in a questionable condition.

Overall Impression & Rating
Magical Girl Pretty Sammy is one of those strange little titles that has been forgotten in the sands of time. Considering that this came out at the height of Tenchi-mania back in the early 2000s, you think people would still remember it. Hell, you’d expect it to have been picked up by Funimation back in the early 2010's when they were re-releasing all of the other Tenchi series! Despite that, this little mini-series is a lot of fun. It will pass by you rather quick, but in the moments that you’re watching this, you won’t forget it!

Magical Girl Pretty Sammy gets a 8 out of 10

Until next time, when I’ll be reviewing the counterpart to this obscure entry in the Tenchi franchise. See you soon!

Album Review: Korn's Untouchables

Hello everybody, welcome to the Heavy Metal Otaku blog. Today’s review marks the 3rd review posted up so far, but it’s also the first review that’s dealing with this site’s other focus, and that’s metal! So what better way to start these metal reviews than with one of the stranger subgenres in the music style, Nu Metal.

Ah yes, Nu Metal. Mixing the instrumentation of Heavy Metal, along with the stylings & beats of Rap/Hip Hop, this creates an interesting style of metal music, and has spawned numerous bands that take up it’s flag. Some of these bands have fallen by the wayside, some remain in a strange kind of Limbo, while a select few still stand with us today. With that said, lets take a look at Korn’s first offering of the new millennium, Untouchables. Let the review begin!

Background
Untouchables marks an interesting period for Korn. Their previous release, Issues, was a big hit, but there were some problems. There were issues between the band members, drug problems were getting worse, and they were drifting away from the genre that many say they invented (More on this in a bit). They went to Scottsdale, Arizona to write the songs in a more peaceful environment, but went back to L.A. to record the album, where there was still some hostility. Untouchables was released on June 11, 2002, and managed to sell 434,000 copies in its first week, but didn’t manage to surpass The Eminem Show, which was released just a couple days earlier. The band put the blame on internet piracy, due to an unmastered edition getting leaked just 3 months earlier.

Untouchables went Platinum on July 11, 2002. As of January 4, 2013, the album sold over 2,400,000 copies in the US, and over 5 million copies worldwide. Critic gave Untouchables positive reviews, and is often considered to be one of the best albums that Korn has ever put out.

Basic Description
In a word......Bipolar.

Like I was saying earlier, Korn was drifting away from Nu Metal, the genre that many believe they founded. For whatever reason they didn’t want to be associated with Nu Metal, and thus decided to go for a more experimental direction. I don’t mind experimental, as singer & bands that specialize in the subgenre can create some truly unique sounds, and Korn is definitely a part of this. The problem, however, is that they don’t seem to fully embrace this experimental route. There are some songs on Untouchables that sound as if their were taken from their Follow The Leader/Issues period, and are directly transplanted into this album. Other songs, however, sound as if they come from some album in the future. This creates a rather strange listening experience, as the space between an older-sounding song and a newer-sounding song can be quite short.

Best Songs
The best songs of Untouchables are the three singles of the album. These songs seem to have the greatest amount of effort put into them. Instrumentation, Vocals, and the overall production value appears to be concentrated the most in these three.

The first of these is Here To Stay. Here To Stay closely matches the music that is found on Follow The Leader & Issues: There’s still plenty of a Nu Metal vibe going on, but there’s sequences where the Experimental side of the band comes through (Mainly in the instrumentation, especially with the guitars). Johnathan Davis brings a voice that’s forceful & potent, but it’s not so loud that it overshadows the instrumentation, or overwhelms the mood.

Here To Stay

The second best song on the album is Thoughtless. It’s apparent that Thoughtless mainly sticks with the experimental route. That’s a very futuristic sound coming from the guitars at certain points, and the vocals are distorted (Also at certain points) to sound like an evil entity’s voice echoing from a tunnel. With that said, the drumming sounds disjointed, and the overall pacing feels rather sludgy. On a more personal note, this song made me feel a little uncomfortable. I felt a lot of hate & bloodlust coming from this tune, and it didn’t help matters that the video furthered this.

Thoughtless

This ties into the last song of this trio, Alone I Break. There is hate & bloodlust in this song also, but it feels like it’s reflected inward, rather than being projected outward. This is especially true, when you consider what Jonathan Davis said about this song in interviews back in 2001/2002:

"I wrote that song in my house, before I put the studio in there. I had the drumming down, and Munky came in and laid some guitars over it, and it became this great song. It's one of my favorite songs that we've done. It's very different from what we're used to doing, and it really hits home. It was one of those moments when I was very depressed...That whole time around Untouchables, everybody in the band was going through all this bad stuff. And I was just feelin' it, so I wrote this song about being alone and breaking down, and not feeling like a man's supposed to feel. You're supposed to be tough and take all these problems. So I'm basically saying, 'Does it make me not a man if I'm upset about stuff?'"

"I wrote it when I was going through a rough time. And it's basically a song about checking out. About things getting so bad that you don't want to be here anymore."

Alone I Break is also the more interesting of this musical trio, and perhaps of Untouchables itself. The song acts as a bridge between the band’s original Nu Metal stylings, and their later Experimental Metal attitude. The instrumentation (For the most part) seems to be coming from their late 90s work, but the sound effects being used, and the overall vibe of the song, comes across as being incredibly experimental. Despite this dual identity, the two sides meld rather well, as neither style overpowers the other. An interesting piece, if you ask me.

Alone I Break

Worst Songs
If the previous three songs were the best, then just about everything else on Untouchables is bad. Well, that’s not exactly true. The rest of the album is something of a mixed bag: there are songs that sound great (Such as Embrace & No One’s There), songs that sound bleh (Make Believe is a big example of this), and then there are songs that are just meh (Pretty much everything else). This is rather tragic, as I thought that the production value across all of music, even the “Bleh” songs, is top notch. That said, you might be flipping through songs, depending on how patient you are for good tunes.

Overall Impression & Rating
I can understand why Untouchables is praised. There’s good production, the songs are great, and it marks a change for Korn. For me, I definitely enjoy it. It’s not necessarily one of their best, due to it’s problems, but it is certainly not an unbearable experience. The best songs are top notch, and even some of the worst songs are more mediocre than bad. If you’re a Korn fan, you’ll certainly want to pick this up if you’ve never listened to it. If you are interested in the band, then this is an intriguing album to start at.

Untouchables gets a 7 to 7.5 out of 10

Well, this is now things are gonna go on the Heavy Metal Otaku blog. I hope you like what I’ve put up so far, and please leave some comments. See you soon!

Anime Review: SiN the Movie

Hey everybody, welcome to the second review of the Heavy Metal Otaku blog!

I think it’s a safe bet to say that there’s plenty of anime out there based off of video games. It’s a fact of life, let’s be honest. Sometimes, a video game-based anime comes along that confounds people. Sometimes the source material is from a more obscure game, or it has come from an equally obscure animation studio, or it comes completely out of left field. Today’s subject matter is definitely from that third point: an anime feature based off of a video game from the United States. Today’s review.....is on SiN the Movie.

Alright, a little bit of background on this one. Developed by Ritual Entertainment in the late 90s, SiN was a first-person-shooter who’s graphics were based on a modified version of the Quake II engine. It was actually rather revolutionary for the time: it had story, depth, character, multiple paths to complete certain missions, and some fantastic FPS action (In singleplayer as well as multiplayer). Sadly, the game was facing some serious competition from an iconic title in the form of Half-Life. Ritual’s publisher, Activision (Who were far less dickish then than they are now), were afraid that SiN would be eclipsed by Valve’s first game. In their haste, Activision had Ritual get the game out a month before it’s original release date. Sadly, this resulted in the game having a bevy of bugs, varied grades, low sales, and in the end became eclipsed by Half-Life. Today, SiN still has a surprisingly large cult following, and in 2006 there was an attempt to revive the game through the now failed SiN Episodes franchise.

In any case, it’s an interesting story, but that’s not what you are here for. With that said, let the review begin!

Story/Setup
Taken from the DVD case:

“In the 21st century city of Freeport, the only thing holding the once prosperous city from succumbing to rampant crime and corruption is an elite strike force known as the Hardcorps. Under the leadership of dedicated Colonel John Blade, the Hardcorps faces a never ending uphill battle to clean up the streets and return Freeport to its former glory. When a series of mysterious kidnappings lead Colonel Blade directly into the black heart of the crumbling city, the discovery of wicked biochemist Elexis Sinclaire's terrifying plot to bring about the evolution of mankind sparks a earthshaking battle that could threaten to bring the entire metropolis crumbling to the ground.”

That’s really all there is to the story. Unlike the one within the game, the version presented here is a heavily streamlined edition. It feels like a lot of things were cut, altered, or some combination of the two. Even characters aren’t immune to this, with the background of some characters being shortened, or some characters getting taken out all together (Blade’s sidekick & best friend, JC, only has a few moments before he gets brutally killed in the beginning). It’s such a shame, considering the surprising amount of depth that the game’s story has.

Animation
The animation within SiN is something of a double-edged sword. The movie uses a mix of traditional 2d animation, along with some 3d CGI. This combo is rather strange: the 2d animation looks & feels rather dated. It looks like it came out of the early/mid-nineties, and thus comes across as very weak. On the other hand, the 2d animation looks fantastic. Despite coming out in 2000 (When computer-based animation was beginning to take hold), it looks & feels crisp, and there’s a rather clean feeling to the movement of the characters. There’s a small hiccup here & there, but they are only noticeable to the trained eye. 

Voice Acting
The voice acting in SiN is some of the weakest I’ve ever heard. Most of them don’t sound like they want to belong there, and that they were doing this movie just to get a paycheck. There’s really no one standout among the voice actors: they all just sound rather boring. The only characters that seem to have at least a little bit of effort put into their voices are the main hero & villain, but even then it’s really in spurts. I don’t know if it was just me, but I could have sworn that Vic Mignogna voiced one of the characters. I didn’t know who it was, but I’m certain that I heard his voice.

Characters
If the voice acting was weak, then the characters are flat. Even if they had good voice actors backing them up, the people they’re voicing are incredibly 1-dimensional. There is really nothing to the personality of the characters: they are all set to one personality/mood, and it rarely if ever changes. The main character, John Blade, is especially bland despite what little they give us. Only one character seems to have at least something in the movie, and that would the movie’s main villain, Elexis Sinclaire. Although she’s somewhat of a standard cackling villain, you can understand some of her motivations, some of her actions, and other personality quirks. Apart from that, there’s absolutely nothing to each & every single one of the individuals in this movie.

Availability & Pricing
Despite being out of print for a long time, this movie is surprisingly available. Although finding it in stores can be a challenge, online it can be relatively easy. On Amazon, the pricing is rather flexible, ranging from $5.99 to $10.29. Best Buy is the most expensive yet still agreeable price of $12.99. FYE is by far the cheapest of the options, with the low price of just $3.99 dollars. Used pricing seems to be available only on Amazon, with costs starting at just 2 dollars. This is the most flexible of the anime titles I’ve reviewed so far on in terms of cost, and thus there’s the most buy-able options.

Overall Impression & Rating
SiN the Movie is trash. For people who have played the game, it is an absolute slap to the face. Watered down to the 5th degree, the movie barely holds a candle to what the game was/is capable of. If you haven’t played the game, you’ll probably find that SiN the Movie is an average to above average film. There might be something you’ll find somewhat entertaining, enough to the point where you might actually enjoy it.

For people who’ve never played the game, this movie will probably get a 5 to 6 out of 10. Those who have, a 3 to 4.

Well ladies & gentlemen, I’ve reviewed a good anime & a bad anime, so now it time for some heavy metal. All I have to say about the next review.....is that it’s gonna be pretty untouchable. See you soon!

Anime Review: Love Hina

Hello ladies & gentlemen, welcome to the first ever review of the Heavy Metal Otaku blog! By the time 2000 came around, the anime craze had begun in earnest. Titles were flooding in left & right, and it was impressive to see what was coming in. Some of these initial shows have become classics treasured to this very day, while other series are considered to be plagues of the anime world. Today’s title manages to straddle both sides, and has it’s fair share of lovers & haters. That show, of course, is Love Hina.

Ah yes, Love Hina. Depending on who you ask, Love Hina is a classic harem series, filled with humor, fan service, wonderful characters, and a lighthearted story. On the other hand, Love Hina is a blight upon Japanese animation, with the humor being too slapsticky, the fan service overdone & not needed, the characters are more woeful than wonderful, and the story is just pathetic. For me, it’s a little bit of both. With that said, lets take a look at Love Hina, and see if it deserves the love & hate it gets. Begin the review!

Story/Setup
Keitaro Urashima, has traveled to Tokyo to fulfill a dream. You see, when he was younger he made a promise to a girl. The promise was that when they got older, they would both go to Tokyo University, fall in love, and get married. Fast forward to the present, and we have Keitaro arrive at the Hinata Apartments, which was once a hotel. After some slapstick mishaps, it is discovered that only girls live at the complex. To stay at the apartments, he becomes the general manager, and all sorts of slapsticky situations occur, along with moments of drama & other serious situations.

The are some differences between this version of the story, and what was shown within the manga. The first thing is the mood: the anime is much more lighthearted than the manga. There are definitely moments where the humor is dialed back and things are taken more seriously, but the series relies a little more on comedy & fanservice, enough to the point where it will be irritating for some. Secondly, the story structure for the Love Hina show is more chaotic. It’s constructed a little more haphazardly, and doesn’t quite present itself in a structured manner. With that said, if you’ve read the manga you can easily identify moments in the show. The really important parts have been left relatively untouched, and what aspects have been changed can only really be seen by anybody who’s well versed in the comic.  

Animation
The animation is what I consider to be typical Ken Akamatsu. Nice, bright, colorful, not so artsy that it looks like a work of art, but not so basic as to be lacking in detail. All of the characters have their own look, and they all have their own feel. Some characters can look a little similar at times, but this pertains to just their faces. Overall I’m actually impressed with how the animation has managed to hold up, especially since Love Hina came out back in April of 2000. Funimation must not have done much touch up work on the animation, but if there was anything done, then I couldn’t tell.

Voice Acting
Much like the animation, the voice acting of Love Hina has aged well, although not quite as well. There are two characters that sounded “Bleh” then, and they still kinda sound “Bleh” now. Yeah, I’m talking about Kitsune & Su. I’m sure that the haters out there point this out as one of their biggest gripes, and truth be told I can’t blame them. Su is the biggest culprit in this regard: she has this strange, loud child voice, with a hint of nasal tones. The other problem is that she’s always loud, regardless of the situation. Even when she has her speaking voice turned down, it’s still somehow loud. Kitsune is a little more forgivable: because she comes from Hokkaido, her voice sorta has a country drawl to it. The English dub turns Kitsune into a girl from the south, probably from Texas. Luckily, Kitsune knows how to adjust her speaking voice, so that makes it even more forgivable. Apart from these two, the voice acting for the rest of the cast is still good.

Characters
Love Hina has one of the most recognizable harem casts ever produced for anime. The negative thing I’ll say is that the anime version of the characters aren’t quite as in depth: They don’t have as much background as their manga counterparts. True, some of the characters in the comic didn’t have much personality as the anime, but at least those in the manga had something to them. With that said, you will immediately recognize the cast, just by encountering them for the first time. You’ll immediately recognize all of the girls, the boys/men, and some of the.....stranger characters. Again, they aren’t as charismatic, but they still have the same intensity & energy.

Availability & Pricing
Love Hina can be found relatively easily in stores. Although the older Bandai releases are tougher to locate (And can pricing is higher as well), Funimation re-released the series as recently as 2011, and thus can still be easily found if you know where to look. There are plenty of copies available on Amazon, with brand-new edition starting at an easy 23 dollars. The Best Buy website has copies of the series available as well, although it has the higher cost of 35 dollars. The most expensive option is FYE, where they have new DVD sets ready to purchase for 43 dollars. Used copies of the show on Amazon & FYE will vary in terms of pricing & quality, so if you’re looking for a cheaper copy of Love Hina, then buying used is a good alternative. Just be sure the physical quality is in peak condition, or at the very least viewable.

Overall Impression & Rating
I can understand why people aren’t fans of Love Hina. Some of the voices aren’t pleasant to listen to, the story doesn’t quite hold up, and the characters might not get people to like them. Truthfully, I can partially agree. However, I can put those things aside, and the experience I get from it is a pure case of goofy anime fluff. It might not be a perfect show, but sometimes the best shows are those with a flaw or two.

Love Hina gets an 8 out of 10.

Well ladies & gentlemen, this was an example of a good anime, but I won’t be reviewing just the great stuff. I’ll be reviewing some of the horrible titles too, and man does the next one I have suck! See you soon!

Welcome To The New Site!

Hello there!

Well, this is it. This is the new blog that I will be posting on. It's kind of strange, in all honesty. I worked on Simple Anime Reviews & Facts for over 3 years, and I loved every bit of it! The good times, the slow times, and the bad times. Every minute was absolutely fun, but like all things in life you must move on at some point. After seeing that I had spread myself thin, I felt that it was time to move on. Time to start fresh, and so forth!

This new blog, Heavy Metal Otaku, is this new change. Dedicated to two of the strongest forces of media & pop culture, I'll be bringing you the best (The best I can, anyways) in Anime & Heavy Metal reviews. My schedule will be much more flexible than it was over on the older blog: I'll watch a show, write down notes, type up the review, and put it up here. The music will be pretty much the same: listen to it, put down notes, type, etc. While I'm definitely sticking to this plan, I might break the rules every now & then: maybe I'll celebrate a game, anime, or album's birthday. Maybe I'll just review a single song or a single anime episode. I don't know! Sometimes surprises are meant to happen!

So that's this blog in a nutshell: a sanctuary for otakus & metal heads. If you're depressed, sad, or need to go to a place where you'll feel safe from the horrors of the world, then please come here. I hope that my reviews can bring any of you some kind of comfort. In a world that's going to hell in a handbasket, then it's better to go down surrounded by a few friends & family, whether immediate or of the make-your-own variety.

I'll see you all within a few days, when my first review will be on one of the most polarizing anime series of all time. Until then, be Otaku & stay Metal!