congratulations to Japan ~ please tell me you're not completely a state living after the Fukuyama's end of history

Just like Hollywood which has run out of ideas and has to film movies based on Bible stories (just kiddin' but there is always some truth in every joke), Japanese anime industry has run our of ideas so much it has to make movies and anime based on long-forgotten or not-forgotten but still old stories. Captain Harlock on your screens in beautiful but empty 3D, a series of RuroKen with young cute actors, what next?

A new Sailor Moon.

I haven't read the original manga, you know. You may think I therefore have no basis to say so. But Sailor Moon means more than anything else to those born in 80s and 90s in Russia. Dozens of episodes changes, directors come and go, the story bends as they like and art does so, but Peach Hips and all the other seiyuus - able to sing, by the way - and heartbreaking music, and sincerity of the narration cannot be replaced by something else after 20 years have passed by.

Their time is gone. 

Hey, Japan. How about creating something equally splendid basing it on a modern concept instead?

there is nothing perfect on the Earth, including Toei

well, there are several songs of One Ok Rock I like very much, but when I see it used as a theme song for some movie I cannot help doubting 'tis worthy of watching
and what do Japanese people say who are acquainted with the original? imagine how they react at Oguri Shun voicing the main character, expensive 3D, ruining of the original concept of Leiji Matsumoto
Toei, what are you doing.......

'Trapeze' ~ absolutely realistic

'kuchuu buranko' or 'Trapeze' is the kind of anime works that immediately divides its viewers into those who cannot stand it and drop, and those who watch it until the end. most of the latter give it 5 out of 5, ten out of ten, and so on. except for me
it did not become my favourite, nor I want to rewatch it in the future. I did not become particularly happy after watching it. however, I consider it absolutely realistic, despite the fact it looks otherwise - and hey, can you imagine this is a work of Toei?

plot and characters

dr. Ichiro Irabu - better to say, two of them... or, no, three

and Mayumi, a nurse in pink

know what a person needs when he comes to a psychiatrist. well, in case of Mayumi there is only one thing - her 'shot'. I mean, vitamin injection. yeah
Dr. himself does not even bother that much. his method includes 1. stating a well-known general truth about how the illness is usually cured, 2. expressing his own will to do something related with the patient, like going to the circus or writing a novel or taking an audition - which always pisses off the patient as Dr. looks like he is not even going to treat the patient, and 3. giving very, very light hints on what to do. well he might look like he is giving a piece of actual advice - you need to give vent to your emotions, or you do not even need to struggle with your illness, but that is an audio illusion - since in the end the illness gradually fades away by itself - or not, but anyway, the patient find his way out by himself
however, whatever the treatment itself may be, Dr., with the help of Mayumi and Fukuicchi providing explanations, made several valuable statements

and was constantly taking the patients' hearts out of them

and changed their lives

Dr. is like this 

and yet

the first question to ask is - would you like to receive treatment from such a doctor? no? well, what you answer is not important. the second question is - do you believe that such people exist in reality? again no?
and still, there is something you can learn from him. look at the first screenshot again ↑
and remember one thing

graphics

recently I have learned a new word - idiosyncratic. I feel like it can be applied here. have you seen a lot of animes with such shapes and colours?

music
is repetitive, remains stuck in your head and may as well make you fed up with it pretty fast. on the other hand, I prefer that the music is memorable rather than not. the mood was created successfully
and you know? for some reason I never even skipped the OPEDs

voicing
if you look at the seiyuus list you will find a bunch of pretty famous and I guess expensive seiyuus many of whom are frequently voicing characters attractive for the female audience. which is absolutely unnecessary here since in 'Trapeze' the characters were absolutely different. on the other hand, Mitsuya Yuji and Pak Romi created a perfect psycho-doctor. a doctor specialising in psychiatry - as well as a doctor who does not make an impression of a sane person

conclusion
nurse Mayumi has a great ability to express everything in brief phrases. she was seeing through the patients' nature. in the end, she expressed the nature of this series, too

but still, tell me if 'tis really far from this real world?

p. s.

do you know that the ending theme, 'Shangi-La', more precisely 'Shangri-La (Y. Sunahara 2009 Remodel)' is a cover on BeForU 'Shangri-La'?

my humble opinion on 'Ashita no Nadja' ~ make me unsee it

there are a lot of spoilers - though I highly doubt anything can be spoilt in this anime by telling/showing something about the plot... >___<

there were two proper reasons for me to start watching this anime - Saiga Mitsuki voicing one (oh I am sorry, two) of the main characters (this fact being an impulse to want to watch) and the fact that the story takes place in the time and place I am interested in (this fact being an impulse to download and watch immediately). however, after I started watching, I realised only one of those two remained. guess which one? of course Saiga-sama

plot and story

the first several episodes were of a priceless importance to me. now I know there is one way to determine whether the anime is for children or not - I only need to try watching it without subtitles. the second reason why this anime is supposed to be for children is the simplicity of the plot and ideas conveyed. I am not saying those were hollow or lacked depth, I am only saying that everything looked like a fairytale taking place in reality

this simplicity sometimes got on my nerves greatly. I just couldn't close my eyes to the fact that Nadja would start singing and everybody stopped crying or quarreling immediately

...or that under the impression of Nadja's kindness Rita regained her ability to speak - and more than that, after she could speak, even her personality changed
...or that the characters spoke naturally to all the people in different countries, but didn't know what 'mamma mia' means
...or that Nadja learnt flamenco in a couple of days only after remembering her orphanage (and how did it help her? I didn't get it)
...or to a battle with pirates with cancan as an accompaniment when little children and women win over old sea wolves... o___O
'twas not even a half of the episodes I watched when I already got tired and decided simply to skip episodes or at least moments that didn't impress me
one should be prepared to see things like this

and SD and funny faces

and other features. of course, one of my favourite characters is 'Obaba' Anna. her genki-ness and positive attitude attracted me, but more than that I adore her slyness and ready wit

though there were other enterprising characters like an old man selling 'Jeanne's cement' in the place where Jeanne D'Arc lived...

'tis also praiseworthy that the authors paid attention to the epoch and places some characteristic items like the Art-Nouveau paintings on the wall here. who cares that the paintings were the same in every house they visited?

were there other kinds of episodes at all? yes, there were - sometimes, as if the director and screenplay writer were different, the episodes were not the fairy-tale-happy-end ones, and looked much more realistic. I could probably say I wish there were more episodes like this... if not for the fact that I actually don't approve this way either. the real end of those storylines came only several episodes later, or even before the very end of the anime, so the structure is pretty interesting and unusual, but what frustrates me greatly is the fact that still no moral or conclusion (or just something) could be drawn from those episodes
in the end, one may wonder why I didn't drop it long ago. there was only one thing that made me go on - oh, but have I ever mentioned how I love Saiga-sama? every time her characters appeared I forgot everything and listened to her magnificent voice
romance is an important point here. it exists, yes, but please don't forget that this is a very strange kind of shoujo. to put it mildly, I saw nothing special about this average IEE heroine Nadja
oh but really, is she not just a typical 'canon' heroine? always 'genki', but immediately turns into a crying damsel when it comes to pitying other people, or into a maiden in love who can't even understand which guy she loves...

at first sight, her romance is full of rose petals and sparkling stars - just like a usual shoujo must be

though... did you notice how Keith was whipped in a very fanservice-ish way? did you believe this was a really necessary detail?
and I have to admit that sometimes the direction was unexpectedly good in the episodes where Francis or Keith appeared. I liked a lot the structure of the episode about Granada with nice 'camera angles' and a bit strange but attractive dialogues

and also tricks like this

however, what I felt after those episodes was not an absolute bliss. something inside told me that there is a contradiction... my intuition and my experience, probably, but first of all - my imperturbable sense of balance. if 'Ashita no Nadja' were an average shoujo for young schoolgirls, that would be ok, but this feeling lasted only up to ep. 8 - after that, each new episode was completely different from the previous. this one is a comedy about searching for a treasure, and suddenly this one reveals all the sins of the aristocrats of those days... this one is a romantic fairy-tale and that one suddenly ruins it all. dear people from Toei, I considered your studio one of the best in creating classical shoujo, and non-shoujo, too, but could you please determine whether you do a normal shoujo or not?
what became the last straw is the fact that in the manga there was no Keith and therefore Francis was the Black Rose. the manga story seems to be much more like a shoujo is supposed to be. though this means being plain, I would rather see that kind of story, because this would at least make some sense. yes, it would, and the idea about two brothers does not

music

from the beginning I was quite skeptical about the music. the OP theme is performed by Honda Minako-san, one of my favourite singers ever, but the song itself is boring and sounds like an average 'genki' one. the ED theme performed by Nadja's seiyuu - Koshimizu-san - was the same, but even cuter. I dislike songs like this, so I was disappointed. and I was even more disappointed when I heard Koshimizu-san singing a capella - her voice turned out to be even worse that it seemed from the beginning. on the other hand, I've heard seiyuus with much worse voices chosen to sing an a capella insert songs, so I have to admit Koshimizu-san is not the worst seiyuu-singer ever
however, the background music and insert songs redeem for this fact completely. I especially adore the episode about travelling musician Raphael, or the constantly repeated waltz - on balls, in the orgel, etc., but other themes were also beautiful. well, in the end I never bothered to download the OST. listening to music from the anime I dislike is a rare thing for me

seiyuus
did I mention that I started watching because of Saiga-sama??? I can repeat many times how much I love her voice but now I am not happy that she did her job in 'Nadja'. her voicing Jing is forever my favourite
other seiyuus were ok, though the most memorable got only minor roles, like a young woman Simone whose necklace was stolen by Kurobara in the end - voiced by Araki Kae-san, which surprised me, or Carmen, or a young boy in Italy who wanted to give the brooch to his granny, etc. perhaps I can praise Orikasa-san as well, her singing voice was nice, though I cannot say she impressed me a lot with her speaking

graphics

well there were two types of pictures - static backgrounds looking pretty good and detailed

 and sometimes tasty 'close-ups'

sometimes I adored the level of details and accuracy

but sometimes you know... the unnecessary 3D was unbearably odd and rough

and the characters were very, very simply drawn, with minimum lines and colours and shadows

conclusion
logic that I will never be able to perceive. in the end, can't we simply acknowledge that Nadja is a girl who can't understand her own feelings, but while gathering a huge harem (I counted 10 guys, can you count more?) - never bothered to understand their feelings fully? moreover, am I, the spectator, supposed to admire this heroine?

and the guys... to mention only the two main ones - Keith was probably able to see dozens of other girls to choose among. Francis had Marianne by his side who always admired him and knew him very well. I only cannot understand... why did they both - and many other people - fall for, or at least were enchanted with, such a good-for-nothing girl....?
there were a lot of good points - some I mentioned, some I probably forgot already, but the absolute epic fail in creating the main heroine simply made them all 'null and void'

p. s. Saiga-sama... why did you agree to take part in this anime... I wish you never did...  make me unsee it all
p. p. s. and Engrish is killing me again...

surprise-surprise

since just when did Toei start creating ecchi??? methought it to be the most children-friendly and quite chaste >____<
me is speaking of 'Air Gear' which is obviously not among the 'world's masterpieces' series, eh?
well, we can also give up Madhouse for lost. Highschool of the dead was like a shot directly in me head...
well, everyone has to make money. me shall forgive them. otherwise they won't create any masterpieces in the future...
and studio Radix asa separate case, but close to the topic above
the only watchable thing is 'haibane remmei', which is a single success among the others 'brainchildren' of the studio, which are sweet-sweet-shoujo-idk-what...