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SUPER
ANIME REFERENCE REVIEW
I
went to Best Buy today to buy a new scanner, because my old one that I got free
with my computer about 3 or 4 years ago wouldn’t work with Windows XP.
It was time to upgrade to a USB scanner. Anyway, as with every time I go to Best Buy, I head over to
see if they have any new anime, or just the 2nd Hand Maid May DVD.
What I found was Labyrinth of Flames, and I decided to buy it for three
reasons. First, it was made by the
people who made Project A-ko. Second,
I have had remarkable luck with buying anime I’ve never heard of before.
Third, I wanted to watch some new anime. And so, I spent a crapload of money today, yet again.
The basic story is that there’s this guy who wants to be a samurai, and
there’s this girls who wants to marry him, and there’s a bunch of other
people running around, some of whom don’t want the girl to marry the guy
because the girl is a princess and the guy is a dumbass.
Also, this takes place in present day wherever, which was a nice change
of pace from having samurai type stuff during times of samurai type stuff.
The animation was very good, and the artwork was also far better than
average. One thing I really liked
about the animation was that, at certain points, the animators switched to a
very thick lined and somewhat sketchy style of drawing, which I thought looked
damn cool, partially because that’s how I like to draw.
But yeah, the animation and artwork were very well done.
The action was also excellent, with crazy fight scenes and just crazy
scenes flowing smoothly, like a melting stick of butter.
Speaking of craziness, this show has… it. Not since Elf Princess Rane have I seen such insanity, and
this show has about 3 times as much T&A as Hand Maid May.
On the good side, since the insanity and T&A are extremely
deliberate, they are extremely hilarious. I
sat through most of the show, laughing my ass off nearly constantly at the crap
that was going on, and this wasn’t the silly little chuckles I get from
watching something like Rurouni Kenshin or Geobreeders, these were full on,
super durable extra style fucking laughs, on par with those from Haunted
Junction.
Yep, this show has extreme hilarity, great action, samurai, a T-62
(that’s what I get from vehicle ID), senselessness and a wonderful lack of a
Tenchi Muyo storyline that I was originally fearing.
Genre
- action/samurai/quasi-romance/comedy
Animation
- very good animation and artwork, I especially liked the crazy
thick lined sequences, as pictured above
Sub
vs. Dub - I only watched the sub, as shows like this seem to have
bad dubs, but what I did see of the dub seemed to follow the sub closely... I'd
most likely still like the sub more, American voice actors just can't make the
silly noises the Japanese can
the
Good - great comedy, great action, really good animation, extremely
entertaining, non-annoying characters, part of the joke was the gratuitous
T&A, as opposed to the T&A being serious
the
Bad - the dirty old man crossed the line when he grabbed his own
daughter's ass, of course, she corrected this... possibly a few other
things, but they're not big enough for me to remember....
Overall
- my string of quality anime buys off of series and/or movies that I've
never heard of before continues with Labyrinth of Flames, it'll be a great show
to sit at Schuster's house with Josh and Schuster and watch on some night when
we're all back from college and hyped up on dating shows. |
