Anime review: "Nurarihyon no Mago"

I don't know why or when I put "Nurarihyon no Mago" in my wishlist, but I have watched it last week because I felt like watching some simple shounen action anime. It turned out that I should have picked something else.

"Nurarihyon no Mago" is a typical shounen anime. Nura Rikuo is a high-school boy, proper and a do-gooder. But he is also grandson of leader of strong Nura demon clan, legendary Nurarihyon. He lives with his grandfather, mother and numerous demons from the Nura clan. Despite his inheritance, he refuses to follow his demon side and wants to live as a human, together with his friends from school, who are unaware of anything. But things are getting complicated in demon world and Rikuo's thirteenth birthday, mark of demon's majority, is coming close...

As I said, "Nurarihyon no Mago" follows typical shounen tropes. A kid who doesn't want to accept his other side, being pushed into it by circumstances and care for his friends. Also, there is a stream of gradually stronger enemies, culminating in fight against leader of another demon clan (based on tanukis).

But in realization, this anime doesn't suffice. First few episodes are very bad, too generic and childish. This is also true for the main character, who is bland. There is a predictable pattern - Rikuo is attacked, defended by his demon friends/servants until they prove to be too weak and then his alter ego appears who wins everything with no effort, paralely spattering cool sayings.

There is no concern for consistency: e.g. when a building explodes, what happens with destroyed parts? Another: one room is breaking apart, while people in the next one don't realize a thing. There are only confused explanations about relationship between demons and humans. Prior history and Rikuo's origins are totally neglected, even though missing of his father just begs for explanation. The ending is pretty dull, especially the last fight. Also, what was the point with the sword??

I don't even want to go into characters. They are tropes, with no background, no dimension and no character. They also scream and shout a lot.

I had big doubts after first three episodes whether to continue watching it. There are few good episodes in the middle, but even they are nothing to be proud of. I finished it more to confirm my opinion that this is a bad anime.

Design of characters and background is also bad, so the anime doesn't have anything commend itself on visual or audio side. That CGI train was especially irritating. There are 24 episodes.

All in all, "Nurarihyon no Mago" is one of the worst anime I have watched in a long time, and I wouldn't even recommend it to most avid shounen action fans. If you want to watch a really good shounen anime with demons, watch "Kekkaishi"!

Anime review: "Mardock Scramble"

I don't remember when I first noticed "Mardock Scramble", but I had it in my AniDB wishlist a long time. The last movie of three came out more than a year ago now, but I had to wait till few weeks ago for subs to appear. And now, I have finally satisfied my curiosity.

"Mardock Scramble" has a very appealing premise: a cyberpunk action thriller. Although I don't really like cyberpunk in literature, I always have a soft spot such anime. And this one looked pretty ambitious, so I thought this one was worth of wait.

The main character of "Mardock Scramble" is Rune Balot, a teen girl forced to a life of prostitution. But her current customer, Shell, turns out to be really insane, burning her in his car. But Rune is saved in last second and "revived" in artificial and upgraded body by Doctor Easter and his partner upgraded Oeufcoque, members of special law-unit "Scramble 09". She has to choose whether to die or to live and testify against Shell. But to stop her from testifying against him, Shell hires Boiled, Oeufcoque's former partner, another experiment with artificial body and unique abilities...

At first, I was thrilled with this anime. It started very intense, with interesting futuristic setting that is mostly implied and not explained, gritty and dark. The animation looked old and new at the same time, CGI heavy. First part ended in a cliff-hanger so I eagerly proceeded with second and third one... To be left pretty disappointing in the end. Not by the ending itself, but by the whole anime, which doesn't live up to the hype.

As I said, "Mardock Scramble" has an interesting, cyberpunk setting. Flying and automatic cars, human enchantments, artificial sentient beings - on one side. On the other hand: drugs, prostitution, government unable or unwilling to stop the crime... But anime fails to develop and use it properly. All we get are vague implications of unclear technology and society. There are anime (or books) that manage to pass only hinting at the setting, but this is not one of them. Well, to be fair, setting is not really that bad objectively, but I expected much more from it.

As for the plot, this was my biggest disappointment. In the essence, I understood there is a story about Rune trying to testify against Shell, and he trying to stop her using Boiled. But everything except that I am not very clear with. This is again connected to undefined setting: why was Shell allowed to attack the only witness against himself, why was there an antagonism between Rune's protectors and Shell's protectors... I was not able to follow half of their talks, and I don't believe it was because of bad translations. And that part in the casino (which is not short) - it's pointless and confusing (even if you know how to play poker, roulette and black-jack).

I also had problems with the overall style of the anime. It was a dark cyberpunk, so one can expect it to be brutal, violent, gritty, with lots of nudity and sex. And as you can see from my choice of literature and anime, I don't have any problem with it - on the contrary. But most of it here was unnecessary and unexplainable, just for fan service. I don't mind it when something is gritty, or dark, or real setting; but what's the explanation of a girl showing up for fight-to-death dressed only in duck-tape.

So, ultimately, I expected much from "Mardock Scramble", but I was left disappointed by it. Not really bad, but if you want to see a really great cyber/SF anime, go watch one of the "Gost in the Shell" anime.

Book reivew: "Century of the Soldier" by Paul Kearney

Well, it is almost three weeks ago that I have read this omnibus, "Century of the Soldier", which comprises last three books from "Monarchies of God" series by Paul Kearney, but I've been too busy to make a post about it. Good think I took some notes, because I would be lost what to write.

I have read the first omnibus, "Hawkwood and the Kings" almost a year ago and had a good experience with it, which I described in the post. Again, in "Century of the Soldier", it is hard to make a short description because these are actually three books, and the last one happening almost 20 years after the middle one. But I will make a presumption that you have read the first two books. In essence, there are two main lines. In the east we have Corfe, as one main character, with bunch of other characters, fighting against the Merduks who are once again massively invading Torunna. In the West, we follow events in Henbrion, King Abeleyn's fight to reconquer his throne, helped by wizard Golophin, and return of captain Hawkwood from the far West. And the last book combines these two plots in one, where our heroes fight against the might of the Second Empire, a militaristic theocracy empowered by magic (Dweomer) and werewolves (among other things).

There are several things that differentiate this series from other. There is much sex, especially at the beginning of the first book in this omnibus. Even though I remember some of it from first omnibus, it definitely wasn't so bold. But I was much more surprised by brutal and graphical description of was violence, especially Merduk's rape and plunder through Torunna. Battle scenes are also pretty graphical. Kearney sometimes use trick Erikson often uses: talking through perspective of unimportant character that is later not even mentioned again.

I also liked how Kearney doesn't follow the tropes. We have an uncommon romance between younger man who is one of main characters, and (much) older woman. When I think about it, all love and marital relationships in these books are, well, not very healthy. There is also much of nice ambiguous morale - Golophin and others have to choose the side; Corfe and his love to his "daughter"...

Another specialty of this series is its magic system, Dweomer, but also its coexistence with gunpowder and cannons. Nothing much new compared to first two books, but this is a solid part for Kearney. This is not a classical fantasy - it is a historical fantasy but with a nice touch of magic, maybe akin to Guy Gavriel Kay's books.

What is not a solid part of Kearney is his narration, which is very sterile. In these three books I failed to make any connections to characters, so even when they make unexpected decisions (like Bardolin) or even die (and Kearney is not afraid of killing main characters, which will become more evident later), I just don't care. There was no real spark to interest me in fate of people.

I like Corfe's part in first books (there's no Hawkwood in first book), and things got pretty heated up in second book (which I like better). But pace is too fast in occasions and changes come to abrupt, which results in sudden and not-so-solid resolutions. I would have appreciated it more if the pace was consistent throughout the books.

There are very non-cheerful book - even when they are winning, our characters are not happy. Also, there is virtually no humor (except if you count Murad) and bantering between soldiers is bad (which I really take it as serious flaw).

All in all, "Monarchies of God" have some good points: interesting setting and unique magic system, realistic and gritty tone, complexity. "Century of the Soldier" has all this virtues, but I will remember it more by its flaws: not making any connection to characters and strange pace. Even though the overall impression of the series is more good than bad, I don't believe I will buy anything more by Paul Kearney - there is much more solid things out there.

Book of review: "God of Clocks" by Alan Campbell

This weekend I finished "God of Clocks" by Allan Campbell, the last book in his "Deepgate Codex" trilogy. I really liked his first book, "Scar Night" and found it very gritty and full of epic action. The second one, "Iron Angel" took the series to an unexpected expansion, making it very different from the first one, but I liked it very much also. So I had some expectation from this last one.

In last book, things weren't going were well for our main heroes (although this is maybe a wrong word). Even though they managed to save Dill from Hell's King Menoa, Menoa had used them to deliver twelve unstoppable arconites to the world of living. To thwart him, they devise a desperate plan: former Spine assassin Rachel Heal, thaumaturgist Mina Green, god places in glass body Hasp will lead arconite Dill to the God of Time Sabor, where they will attack the Heaven in hope that this will anger Ayen, mother of all creation, enough that she will destroy all arconites. At the same time, the god Cospinol and his servant John Archer, with former Mesmerist Alice Harper serving as they guide, will try to make a distraction and attack Menoa's stronghold in Hell...

At first, I had some trouble adapting to "God of Clocks" because I forgot a lot what happened at the end of its prequel, "Iron Angel". But I overcome this fast, especially because this book feel almost like a continuation of the last part of "Iron Angel": the Pandermia, the Mesmerists, Hell, arconites, war between gods... Of course, it is hard to add new elements in last book of series, but after a tremendous change between "Scar Night" and its sequel, I expected some surprise.

There are two big flaws in this book in my opinion. First is the constant action. From the page one till the end, you don't get any rest. It's action, action, action. I know that this sound strange, because action equals interesting. But you don't get any time to absorb what is happening and you are just constantly jumping from one scene to another, without really getting an attachment to plot and characters. It all leaves you tired from reading.

I admit that plot is interesting and really unpredictable, but here is the second, more important flaw: the ending. This book looks like Campbell wrote half of it and then decided that he doesn't feel like writing it any more. But since he was obligate to finish it, he wrote up the plot-line that gives ending, rearanged chapter and left everything else at cliffhanger. Sure, book had an ending, even a satisfactory one, but there is just too much question left unanswered. Too much...

Campbell's characters in last two books were superb. Here they retain most of their quality, the old ones. Several new characters are good, although not exceptional. But again, the abrupt ending leaves both heir history and future unresolved and unfinished. The bright point was reappearance of Carnival as a character, but even though she got some pages, they can be compressed to few words: anger, violence, unbending. This would be all right I she got some resolution at the end, but that nonsensical two pages just don't cut it.

All in all, "God of Clocks" was a big disappointment for me. It had a big potential, with really unique setting, great characters and very gritty and dark atmosphere. But sudden ending ruined the experience for me. Not sure if I would recommend this book even the fans of the series.

Movie reviews: "Taken 2" and "The Dark Knight Rises"

Two more movie I watched in last week, but I haven't had time to review them.

"Taken 2" I watched last weekend in cinema with my girlfriend. For some reason, girls like this film. My girlfriend loved the first part and insisted on watching the second one; her female friends at work all liked it; and the projection was full of women (I was the only guy in my seat-row) - which is strange because similar action movies usually don't attract many women.

Anyway, "Taken 2" is an average action thriller, differentiated from the first part only in details of setting and plot. Bryan Mills (played again by Liam Neeson), a retired CIA agent, finally succeeds in getting on good terms with his ex-wife, and invites her and their daughter Kim to visit him in Turkey after he finishes his part-time job as bodyguard. They accept and start what they expect to be a nice vacation. But they don't know that after Bryan's rampaging in Paris (topic of the first part), Albanian mafia-boss decided to revenge people he killed. Albanians succeed in taking Bryan and his ex-wife, but they miss Kim, who's only option is to free her father...

There is not much to say about this movie - a peaceful re-introduction of Mills' family, preparation for the plot, and then action, action, action. I've never had a notion of Liam Neeson as action-movies star, but he actually fits it. In my opinion, he's a bit too good in these two movies - which is one of the reasons I don't like these movies. There is some humor, mostly based on Bryan not being used to normal family interactions.

The worst part of the movie was the car chase toward the end - I usually don't like them, but I hate them when they are performed by a teen without her license... Also, I understand when foreigners speak English in public, but why they use it between themselves in private (especially after they have been shown speaking in their own language).

But all in all, "Taken 2" is not a bad movie, except if you totally hate action movies. Not something that I would really recommend, but neither a movie to avoid at all costs.

For "The Dark Knight Rises" I had some great expectations, after watching "The Dark Knight" two weeks ago.

Eight years after events in the previous movie, both Batman and Bruce Wayne have retired from public. Gotham is celebrating Harvey Dent as a hero, and police (given larger authorities after Dent's death) managed to clean the city of criminals. But they don't know what is preparing for them: a corrupted businessman Daggett has hired a strange masked mercenary Bane and they plan to take over Gotham using Wayne Industries' own resources. All this will force Batman once again to come out of hiding, even though he is not welcome in his city anymore...

"The Dark Knight Rises" has some great ideas: retired Batman broken and without hope; superior mercenary Bane with his army of fanatical followers; Gotham under siege that makes Joker's look like a child game; mysterious origins of Bane... But the movie fails in developing these concepts as they deserve.

This is not a short movie (two and a half hours), but it feels very, very rushed. I don't understand why haven't they added another hour or split it in two episodes. For example, there is a 6-month long siege of a whole city, but they only show first and last few days. They should have used it more to show the desperation of citizens, except being only a plot tool to show Batman as ultimate action hero. And Bane - they failed to use him miserably. We don't know almost anything about him (and I don't count those two info-dumps): how does he attract his followers and why are they ready to die for him so willingly? They made him look very impressive; such big guy giving all those philosophical (almost prophetic) speeches (Tom Hardy's voice was brilliant), but they should revealed more details. Neither did the other elements feel right: Batman's/Wayne's relationships with Selina, Blake and Miranda all felt forced and fake.

Another objection I have is that all felt too neat. There is even a definition for such plots where everything is placed in such place that it guarantees hero's victory (Batman Gambit), but they pushed it over the board. Especially with the Pit, and that doctor...

Action felt very subdued in the movie, and I can't really pinpoint any scene as very impressive. Batman's gadget also didn't get much attention - although I liked that trick with rotating wheels on Batcycle.

Unfortunately, I have to conclude that "The Dark Knight Rises" was a big disappointment in my eyes, after such great previous movie. I don't feel sorry for watching it, but I do feel sorry for the wasted potential.