男子高校生の日常/ Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou / Daily Lives of High School Boys

 Despite the title containing ‘Nichijou’, this series has nothing to do with Nichijou – at least, directly. Nonetheless, it felt wrong of me to start Nichijou, then finish this first. Call it a strange mental block. So after a few episodes, I went back to finish Nichijou and put Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou on the back burner. A new job came along and a few other anime caught my interest, so I only just finished the series – plus the six short sketches that made it onto the blu-rays as extras (along with a segment undoing the strange decision to censor some creepy-crawlies, I’m guessing because while Moetan is okay to show on TV, sensitive dispositions might be offended by centipedes).

Daily Lives of High School Boys has its charm, but it is no Nichijou. The hook is similar – the title suggests ordinary lives, but actually there’s a lot of surreal comedy going on. In Nichijou it is genuinely surreal and outlandish, leading to talking cats, robot girls and many a destroyed shrine, whereas in the boyish equivalent it is largely more realistic. Occasionally some very unlikely props make their appearance, but the scale is certainly not to the same heights. Unfortunately, while in principal it sounds like this is something I would prefer, and certainly the likes of Azumanga Daioh didn’t have to get too out-and-out bizarre (beyond fantasy sequences) to be hilarious, the end result is that High School Boys’ 12 episodes turned out to be rather harder to get through than Nichijou’s 26, because they simply weren’t as funny, or as focused on a small and recognisable group.

The series essentially has three main characters – glasses-wearing Hidenori, who likes to mess with others; bleached-blond Yoshitake, who usually plays the dumb, susceptible role; and sweet-natured Tadakuni, who doesn’t tend to get the others’ jokes and quite often seems to be dressed up as a girl. One of the series’ running gags is that towards the end, despite at first being shown as the protagonist, Tadakuni hardly appears at all. Around these three are a whole variety of others – let’s see, there’s the one in the cap…the one with the face like a thug but a soft heart…the one who’s kinda dumb…the Fuku-kaichou…basically, the problem is that there’s a large ensemble cast who are more or less interchangeable and never really do anything that moves their superficial characterisation on. To compound this, there are also a number of girls, many of them drawn without eyes and characterised as cold-hearted thugs, including three who get a segment ‘High School Girls are Funky’. It’s all too much to cram into 12 episodes if the audience is to be able to care about any of the cast, and the result is that for such a short series, it really is boring – something that Sunrise-meets-Square-Enix really shouldn’t have to worry about.

The most memorable parts are ones that simply observe something amusing or silly about life, like the way girls can hurt a guy’s feelings by moving away from them on public transport as though disgusted, and how this gets reversed – or the clumsy guy who jumps into a river to save a cat only to find it was stuffed. The segment with the daft, clumsy girl who tries to meet boys on the riverbank to get them to speak lines appropriate to a novel, especially when juxtaposed with Hidenori’s cynical but panicked inner monologue, works great. Others are real misses, like most of the antics of the student council or the unlikeable ‘High School Girls are Funky’ counterparts – the latter only amused me once, at the end, when they playfully decide to have a fight to see which of them is the strongest and the quiet one subtly turns out to be the most terrifying.

The fact is that The Daily Lives of High School Boys will almost in its entirety be defined by its one most widely-shared skit, in which Tadakuni is tricked into wearing his sister’s clothes – and kinda likes it. The rest of the season, despite obviously having been made well in advance of airing, felt like a failed attempt to get away from that – like a band that has a hit single but hates it so tries so hard to step out from its shadow that everything goes awry. I’m quite glad that the series didn’t end up being a show about a sweet boy who kept ending up getting humiliated and feminised – it works in side-characters like Makoto in Minami-Ke, but a whole show based on that would not have worked. The trouble is that the show groped around for an alternative and never found it. The result of this was that The Daily Lives of High School Boys ended up every bit as indistinct as High School Girls – but luckily just about escapes the overall sexualisation of its subject.

タイガー＆バニー / Tiger & Bunny

I was a bit cautious about Tiger & Bunny. When everybody tells me this is the next big thing, I tend to get sceptical, especially as there have been a lot of very popular anime in the last few years I’ve not liked one bit.

But Tiger & Bunny was not only superb in concept and execution, but the perfect series for Sunrise to make. It fit their style perfectly, and the hilariously understated ‘Sunrise ending’ was both poking fun at expectations and fulfilling them.

In a future metropolis in what is pretty clearly the United States (Sternbild’s money still has the motto ‘In God we trust’), superheroes are celebrated as reality TV stars. A whole industry has grown around the core superstars – the ice-powered Blue Rose, who wants to be a singing idol; big powerhouse lummox Rock Bison; lightning-slinging Dragon Kid with her adorable Mickey Mouse ears; flamboyantly gay businessman Fire Emblem; the unintentionally goofy but very successful Sky High; the silly inexperienced Origami Cyclone, who mostly wants to be in the background of important scenes to please his sponsors – and the stalwart veteran a little past his prime, Wild Tiger, who can greatly boost his strength, speed and agility for five minutes. Into the fray comes Barnaby Brooks, Jr, with no secret identity or sponsorship – but the same powers as Wild Tiger.

He is quickly picked up and given a deal, but their similar powers mean that Wild Tiger and Barnaby are put into a double-team, paving the way for an odd-couple set up that works brilliantly. The first major arc of the story revolves around the two gradually coming to accept and respect one another and to work as a team, while helping the various other heroes with their various problems. Tiger gives Barnaby the nickname ‘Bunny’, as especially in Japanese they sound similar, and soon finds out that his new partner’s purpose in life is to track down the murderers of his parents, who apparently work for a criminal organisation called Ouroboros. Inexplicably, almost nobody seems to have heard of the symbol.

More about this organisation comes to light, but in the wake of a confrontation with the man Barnaby believes killed his parents, it becomes apparent that his memories may have been tampered with. With Wild Tiger facing his own problems – waning powers – the series reaches its final climax…albeit leaving plenty for a follow-up.

This is a classic example of what anime does best – takes a rather daft concept and comedic characters, but develops them to be taken very seriously, so that you care about them by the time they are in real danger. It’s the little touches in the characters that make everything work so well, when they get some depth. It’s when Blue Rose realises she has a crush, and when we see Dragon Kid’s thoughts about her parents. It’s the shocked reaction Sky High gives when he realises people think he’s goofy and when Fire Emblem drops the ridiculous pouting to become serious. It’s the funny scientist man whose voice is so quiet he needs to amplify it to be heard, and the way Kotetsu always gets it wrong with his daughter.

And the look of the thing is great throughout. The mixture of CG and cel animation is obvious, but hangs together better than in any other series I’ve seen use CG so extensively, and allows for some impressive fluidity. I like how the character designs have the usual signifiers for black and white people from anime, yet without them looking too absurd to be major characters. I like the music and the crazy design of the city and, in fact, the whole world of Tiger & Bunny.

Neither what I expected nor something startlingly new for Sunrise, Tiger & Bunny did a superb job with a good, solid idea. There’s plenty to expand on yet – Ouroboros, Lunatic, young Kaede’s developing power – so I both expect and hope for more!

幕末機関説 いろはにほへと / Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto

Bakumatsu is what you might call a historical fantasy, or alternate-universe story. Set during the bakumatsu period, when the Bafuku was falling and the Meiji Restoration was about to begin, it’s so full of historical detail and characters based on real people that if you don’t have some sense of what happened in the last days of the shogunate, you may be a bit lost here - the series often assumes some knowledge of Japanese history. That said, you’ll likely follow the gist even if you’ve never heard of the Shinsengumi or the Ezo Republic, and there are a lot of fantastical elements overlaid.

As the shogunate’s forces slowly fall, a mysterious man with an oddly modern haircut called Akizuki searches Japan for an ancient cursed artefact called the Head of the Conqueror. He soon gets mixed up in a theatrical troupe’s quest for revenge, and then later with Hijikata Toshizou of the Shinsengumi as he struggles against the newly-established government’s forces.

Overall, Bakumatsu has a serious tone, especially for a Sunrise anime. Apart from some token cute kiddies, the characters are grim, there’s blood and death, and there’s an interesting presentation of the Westerner’s presence in Japan not long after the Black Ships. The first half drags a little too much, though, too much mystery and not enough character development. The action of the second part is better, however, and Hijikata is the real star of the piece, though as with Seirei no Moribito, everything is somewhat cheapened by the dafter parts: famous figures getting possessed by a magic evil skull, magic sword techniques, bullets deflected by blades, whole regiments taken out by lone swordsmen and most of all big flying castles that zap the world below with lightning. Also several bad cases of heroes saving the person who happens to be onscreen, even though several we don’t see must be dying elsewhere.

The show would perhaps have been better if it were as highbrow as it tried to be at the outset, but it was by no means a disaster. It was also certainly pleasing for the eyes, and with some superb period detail. Not bad at all – but disappointing at the end.

(originally written 5.5.08)

焼きたて!! ジャぱん / Yakitate!! Japan

Once in a while, from the thousands of manga titles out there, something so utterly bizarre and original comes along that stands out amongst generic and eccentric series alike. These things usually pique my interest: after all, my favourite anime of all time revolves around a traditional board game. But Yakitate!! Japan is so crazy, so bizarre, and so hilarious that I found it irresistible. There is, in fact, a whole genre of manga based around cookery: Cooking Papa, Cooking Master and others dramatise the lives of chefs. But none strike the same chord as Yakitate!! Japan.

Young Azuma Kazuma’s life changed forever when his sister forced him to try some bread as a child. The son of a rice farmer, he was devoted to Japan’s staple carbohydrate, but bread changed his life – he became a baker, helped by his naturally warm ‘solar’ hands, and set about trying to create a national loaf for his country, which he will call ‘Japan’ (‘pan’, from the Portuguese, is the Japanese word for bread, and of course isn’t the name for the country in Japanese).

It took some time for me to warm up to the anime, especially as a fan of the manga. The art and animation looked cheap and very ugly beside the very professional manga art, the voices didn’t match up to the ones I’d imagined (especially the woman who played Tetsunosuke in Peace Maker Kurogane as Azuma: far too brash, even for his country accent) and the comedy timing never seemed quite right. Until Yotsubato!, I considered Yakipan the funniest manga I’d ever read, and that was part of what made me keep watching: I was waiting for gags I’d found hilarious in the manga to be repeated, mostly still very funny in anime form, and anticipating gimmicks that were tailor-made for the manga (such as when it all becomes colour) to see how they would be adapted. But towards the end of the series, there was more than that to look forward to: the fillers increased, and new gags were added. The anime was braver with parodying current series, One Piece and Naruto both getting nods. The character voices never did feel quite right, but I got used to them, and started to look forward to new episodes.

The comedy of the series revolved around bread being so very delicious that those who have a sensitive palate cannot help but have a strange reaction to the flavour. This starts out with them seeing visions or their bodies involuntarily doing something slightly odd like forming a kanji character, but it grows through causing the tasting judge to relive their past romantic affairs, to sending them to the afterlife, and ends up even changing the course of time itself. It’s daft, insane, and many times totally brilliant.

The final episode was painfully hurried, bringing with it that usual unsatisfying feeling you usually get when an anime ends before the manga is even thinking about wrapping up. Well, at least it’s only a comedy anime about baking bread, so there aren’t many loose ends left untied – and in all fairness, the tournament setup tends to be a dull way to prolong a shounen manga. But despite that, I actually feel lucky to have experienced this strange and delightful story of competitions, comradeship, romance and bread.

(collated from impressions, 11.3.05 and 19.6.06)

スチームボーイ/Steamboy

Outomo Katsuhiro’s Steamboy is the most expensive anime movie ever made. The director, who attained international fame when he adapted his manga Akira into perhaps the most famous animated movie of all time, has shifted gears significantly in the sixteen years between the two films, but they’re spiritually linked in more than one way. The most obvious is the character designs, which owe a lot to his style – Kaneda and Tetsuou are visible in Ray’s features, and his father’s appearance is not unlike Colonel Shikishima’s. But then you consider the dynamics of flight, the grim slapstick of human errors causing problems even in action sequences, and the fact that really, the plot is thin and meandering, but the strong action and powerfully evocative atmosphere of the setting leaves a distinctive mark on anyone who watches it.

It is, however, much lighter. The plot, such as it is, is that young Ray Steam’s grandfather sends him a classic McGuffin – a little metal ball full of super-compressed steam. In the tradition of McGuffins, some bad guys want it, so there are some exciting chase scenes. A snobby rich girl is introduced, promising revelations and life-lessons that never actually come, and then we see the real plot: Ray’s father is developing advanced weapons, some other people (including his own father) disagree with him, and then they all have a scrap. And some very silly things ensue.

It’s not a clever concept, but it’s a fairly clever film, with lots of great visual moments, be they precise animations of combustion engines or nice dynamic pans around some beautiful architecture, or just little details that make you smile. It’s steampunk through and through, with daft flying machines, robotic limbs and a bunch of slapdash references to real historical figures that can be totally anachronistic: the ‘alternate history’ flag can deal with that. It’s not sophisticated or original, but it’s loads of fun and it makes me smile, seeing London presented as an idealised, exotic location.

Makes me very eager to see a film version of Mortal Engines, I must say.

(originally written 30.12.07)

舞-乙 / Mai-Otome

Well, since it’s been well over a year now since Mai-Otome: Sifr came to an end, and it looks like the planned follow-up has turned into Sora–o Kakeru Shoujo, the preliminary plot possibly going into the new Mai-HiME manga, so I felt it was finally time to watch the very last episode and lay out my impressions.

Mai-Otome is the follow-up to Sunrise’s highly successful Mai-HiME, which I enjoyed very much. Rather than the usual continuation of plots and new perils for the same characters, however, Sunrise took the unusual decision of total reinvention. The general idea is that hundreds of years have passed, present-day sci-fi transformed into a futuristic and very, very silly vision. Sunrise are all for embracing the silliest concepts they can and then taking them very seriously, filling their plots with melodrama. That’s the case here – a naïve but sprightly young girl called Yumemiya Arika, looking for clues about the life her mother lived, goes to a special school where they train otome (meaning ‘maidens’), young girls who for whatever reason can use old nanotechnology to fly, wield huge weapons and become incredibly resilient. So incredibly strong are these girls that they have becomes the primary way wars are fought, all the leaders of the world employing an otome. Arika not only gets tangled up with her future queen, but manages to enrol in the school and in spite of her natural haplessness, becomes rival and friend of the best student.

The link between this and Mai-HiME? Strange. One character is, it is inferred, the same as in the original series, but the rest just happen to look identical to older counterparts. Some are reimagined cleverly, like Mashiro, while there are surreal turns in other places, one or two characters returning as animals. Essentially, the link is tenuous and if anything, it comes over as a hollow attempt to cash in on a successful series despite offering something completely different. Oh the other hand, Otome was successful enough to spawn not only a second series but a rather confusing and lowbrow OVA prequel as well. The characters are fun, pretty and likeable, the daft premise soon becomes deeply enjoyable, and when things turn serious, it all works well. Arika is a great character, and so are Nina and Mashiro. Mai-HiME was nothing very sophisticated, although it did get surprisingly heavy and emotional, and Mai-Otome was considerably lighter yet, but for something to relax to and enjoy, few action series did it better.

(originally written 6.3.10)

舞-HiME / Mai-HiME

Mai-HiME was a big hit for Sunrise back in 2005, becoming one of the most widely-watched series in the anime community and spawning a sequel series that got increasingly overblown and ridiculous. Typically for the studio, it was big-budget, with gorgeous animation, impressive action scenes and some great music – and a polarising ending.

The story took some time to develop into interesting places, and it takes a little patience to get through early episodes about big silly monsters and little underwear-stealing mutants – but the main story arc is well worth waiting for, and there’s something very skilful about a writing team that can switch gears so dramatically: it deeply impressed me that episode 15 could have me close to tears and then episode 16 could leave me hysterical with laughter. Mai-HiME really shouldn’t be as good as it is, but it works so spectacularly because it takes concepts that are extremely tired or cliché, and does them so well that you realise why these ideas got so overused in the first place. The plot is trite shounen anime fare: a group of girls have the power to manifest weapons and huge guardian spirits (most of them references to mythological figures), and fight monsters. So far, totally uninspiring. But when things become darker and more complex, the story leads to a show that towers far higher than you would expect such shoddy foundations to support. The pacing relies on a tried-and-tested shounen (and Hollywood) technique – have three million different stories going at the same time and no-one will ever get bored – but played expertly, these elements become something rather special. Even frivolous episodes do a good job establishing extremely interesting characters, and I loved the ending for being absolute, unadulterated cheese.

The designs are all very attractive, simple but cute, and the characters’ personalities are all typical anime stock, but never cliché. The best of them, and my favourite thing about about Mai-HiME, was Mikoto-chan. Probably the most adorable female anime character I’ve ever come across, she’s innocent, naïve, childish and very, very cute. An odd, catlike young girl, the fact that she has an enormous sword and can cut a ferry in half just makes her even more strangely fascinating. I was also fond of Akira, the girl-dressed-as-a-boy who looks very much like her male namesake in Hikaru no Go...and has a relationship with Mai-Chan's little brother Takumi – also adorable – very much like that of Hikaru and Akira's, but with that odd Shakespearean twist of cross-dressing. Although these are my favourites, the series is crammed full of great characters, all of whom I liked: Natsuki; Shizuru; Nagi; Mashiro…Yukino, the shy, vulnerable girl who is truly devoted to her chalk-and-cheese best friend, Haruka; along with Mai herself – the way she really does do the best thing in almost every situation, only for that to be turned around into a source of suffering is chilling genius. All these characters really mean something to me – I’ve made connections with every one. That’s something I envy.

Mai-HiME was the very first anime I decided to write down my impressions of back in February 2005, which eventually became this review series, and this version is collated from impressions from then and from August of that year. A favourite.

陰陽大戦記 / Onmyou Taisenki / Great Yin-Yang War Chronicles

Onmyou Taisenki is in the same sphere of existence as Otogi-Zushi Akatsukin: not quite down there in the lowest-brow bracket of Pokémon, Beyblade et al, but really not elevated from them by much.

The story is straightforward: a young boy finds a mysterious Digidrive-esque piece of equipment and finds that it allows him to summon a cute Bengal tiger-type catboy. Of course, not long after this revelation comes the inevitable appearance of another with a similar ‘drive’ and anthro companion, and they must do battle. After a few fights, power-ups and life lessons, the boy starts to learn that his own past is in some way tied up with a history that will threaten the entire world.

So yes, a generic plot. Blatant toy tie-ins in the drives. Borderline furry designs. But Onmyou Taisenki works, and while it didn’t have much substance, it had enough to sustain its 52 episodes in enjoyable style, and while far from life-changing it was well worth a watch.

I picked it up simply because a sample of the manga appeared in one of the Jump spin-offs I picked up in Japan and quite liked the designs, especially for (furry jokes aside) Kogenta, the aforementioned catboy. Otherwise, I probably never would have heard of it, since it’s one of those kids’ anime that gets subbed by groups that for some reason don’t seem to publicise their releases in the usual places.

The presentation is very Sunrise, all prettiness and cute round faces and smooth but economical animation. While it sounds formulaic, though, the anime is actually very idiosyncratic, mixing conventional moé with sheer bizarreness: when the ‘shikigami’ anthros appear, they have a kabuki-themed entrance where screens open to reveal them and they list their name and affiliated ‘house’ with the obligatory ‘kenzan!’, and while these are initially straightforward, they soon veer into sheer bizarreness, like the lion-man whose intro is a pastiche of noir detective stories. The comedy is genuinely funny, from the cute kitty that seems to turn demonic when only one person is looking to the typical childhood-friend-with-huge-and-adorable-unrequited-crush angle, and the series juggles lightness and its winsome stabs at the epic and emotional deftly, with strong performances from its well-established group of seiyuu. And as ever in these shows, what matters most is the character relationships, the frosty rivalries softening into affection, the betrayers looking for redemption and of course one young boy’s growing bond with his tiger-spirit friend.

Nothing special and certainly not the show to present to cynics to illustrate why anime should be taken seriously, but for a light and charming diversion, quite a pleasure.

(Originally written 19.10.08)

結界師/Barrier Master/Kekkaishi

I’ve said much of this before, but I am honestly surprised how little impact Kekkaishi seems to have made, at least on the Western anime crowd. In Japan, it has every sign of a big success. Yellow Tanabe’s manga netted her some high-profile awards, and is still continuing strong. The anime began with great fanfare in Japan and ran in the ‘golden time’ slot of 7pm, and even had Happy Meal tie-in offers with McDonalds. Its ratings there are sensational, behind only institutions like Sazae-San and One Piece, consistently getting into the top 10 most highly-rated anime shows in Japan and outdoing the likes of Naruto and Bleach by several million weekly viewers – and those are two of the most successful anime in history. It has been translated into English and is being aired. Yet Kekkaishi seems almost unknown in the English-speaking fandom. The problem, I suppose, is that it didn’t strike a chord with the three main demographics over here – the brainless action fans who only ever come to the party very late, the snobs who want sexy little girls getting naked transformation sequences and the yaoi fangirls who need their homoeroticism immediately apparent, not slow-boiling and with a quirky sense of prettiness.

Yet there is much to love about Kekkaishi. Its characters are subtle and likeable. As with Fullmetal Alchemist, one can tell the writer is a woman, which puts a different slant on home life, responsibility and the need for violence than you might get in typical shounen. It is not beautifully animated, but it is good-looking and fluid, Sunrise as usual adept without being stunning.

The problem, I suppose, is that it took too long to get into a meaty plot. Too many episodes at the beginning are given to establishing characters, telling little side-stories and emphasising comedy with a dead pastry chef (which was totally ripped off by Bleach, leading to viewers of both shows feeling they were watching a rehashed story). But Bleach took much longer to get going, and was far from gripping for a long time. Yoshimori is odd in that he is described as not being particularly attractive, and having a big dream totally at odds with his fights and his powers, and I suppose people who don’t take the time to see him for the likeable, quirky boy he is could find him unappealing. And yes, the series, like Fairy Tail or HunterxHunter, does suffer from not having a goal at the end of the series, no return to original bodies or confrontation with Sasuke drawing you on, only a mysterious mother and a shady group of powerful figures, and even those barely make it into the anime.

I want to rationalise why Kekkaishi was not a success, but the fact was that it was, it was a huge success in Japan. It just didn’t manage to cross over to a world where, perhaps, gratification must be more instant, or more challenging work must be obviously challenging. I just wish that it was an ongoing series; 52 episodes only just reached the parts where it gets good.

(originally written 16.3.2010)

Cowboy Bebop

When I first saw Cowboy Bebop, which was when I joined the anime club in my first year at uni – before the interest blossomed into an obsession – I thought it was quite a good series, but not brilliant. The anime club was essentially a springboard for me: I found some series I really enjoyed, got hold of all the episodes, and then began finding out what people who liked my favourites recommended. But I never felt much desire to go back and watch any more Bebop. I’d seen about 8 episodes, and the episodic narrative, with its simplistic characters, never hooked me. What I DID take an interest in was the music, an exuberant jazz score (with some very eclectic variations thrown in) by Yoko Kanno that I still listen to frequently today. The series, though, just hadn't gripped me.

I’m glad to know that even ignorant of 99% of the anime world, my taste was as it is today.

After hearing endlessly how wonderful it was, and watching Samurai Champloo (same director; same structure (none); similar characters; same audience), I thought I’d finally take the plunge and watch the whole series.

I can’t say it’s a shining example of anime’s focus on substance over style. I can see why it appeals to the Buffy and Hollywood crowd, but that’s not what I’m looking for, and that’s why Bebop leaves me cold.

I’ve heard quite often that the characters in Bebop are brilliant. But they’re far from it. A couple of flashback episodes and a pretty face does not a good character make. Spike is a tribute to Lupin III, a classic anime character – a nonchalant, laid-back and slightly goofy antihero, charming and everyman-ish, yet much duller than his predecessor. While not a bad protagonist, he failed to do anything that made him likeable, even when it came to slow motion-laden, artsy episodes that revealed his skimpy backstory. Jet is a clichéd old mentor character, grizzled, grounded and thoroughly functional. Faye was slightly better, a self-centred, greedy woman without a past, but she was left underdeveloped. And then there was Ed, adorable little girl and computer genius, whose sheer exuberant randomness I thought I would find charming, but she was left so totally one-note, so excessively ridiculous that she was actually really annoying. And she got one line in the whole series that was serious, and that was the last one. Character-wise, I can’t say I found anything to grip me.

And then there was the plot. Okay, the idea is that it freewheels like improvised jazz, changing genres here, quoting there. In a limited amount, this is very amusing – the first episode is a tribute to Desperado, there are western and sci-fi references all over the place, most of the episode titles are taken from great blues, jazz or rock songs. Best of all, one non-speaking bad guy is quite obviously ‘played’ by Woody Allen. But after a while, it just seems to be done for the sake of it, to the expense of, y’know, the actual series itself. As though a saxophone solo started quoting Beethoven and then went on to ignore the original song to carry on with the 5th symphony. For example, one entire episode is devoted to Spike hunting down a super-assassin whose appearance seems to be a tribute to either The Joker and The Penguin or that guy from Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta. There’s no character development in the episode, no real threat, no statement, just a few fights. And then there’s the episode that parodies Alien but falls far short of even Red Dwarf. The movie, too, is full of beautiful animation, but mediocre in story terms, featuring a whole series of McGuffins and then an evil plot that really isn’t a threat at all – but of course, Spike has to go and have a big climactic fight anyway.

When we finally get episodes that focus on the characters, like 'Ballad of Fallen Angels' or 'Speak Like a Child', there are some great moments, and we see what this series could have been. But so concerned were the writers with being clever and being funny that they missed out on making something that was actually engaging.

(orginally written 21.12.2005)