One more reason why I love Japan: a talking piece of poop…that is considered lucky because it is good natured and helps people.

Verdict: Awesome

I have three quick reviews for you. Why? Because I’m too lazy to write a single in-depth review of any of these titles. Really, it all stems from my inability to— ah, fuck it, let’s just get on with it.

Baccano

Boring Baccano's boring cast of boring assholes.

ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz

Huh? Wha? Why’d you wake me? What’s going on? Oh that’s right, I was watching Baccano. Something about too many characters, and nothing really happens. Any time you have a story (movie, book, tv series, whatever) about the multiple perspectives of one event (e.g. Rashomon), it inevitably sucks. Yeah that’s right, Kurosawa fanboys, suck it. Now, let me get back to sleep. Oh, and also: Jacuzzi Splot is a fantastic (read: retarded) name.

Verdict: Shitty

Shakugan no Shana

I'm eagerly awaiting the Shana hentai.

Taking one look at the character designs for this show, I figured I would hate it. And yeah, it did start out a little weak. It was basically a combination/rip-off of Full Metal Panic and X. However, there was something about it that seemed kind of cool. There was this dark side to it that was rather unexpected. Basically, the main character, Yuji, (and many others) are just the ghosts of people who have already died. Shana gets pissed off, and unleashes some serious shit on various bad guys. The moment that really did it for me, though, was the multi-episode arc featuring the Incest Twins. A villainous brother and sister that make out constantly, and kill innocent people. Awesome! I wish more anime had the balls to show hot, sweet incest. Overall, this show had a lot more personality than I originally anticipated, and it is worth checking out.

Verdict: Good

Afro Samurai

Afro's fro could be a little bigger, don't you think?

With Samuel L. Jackson providing the voice of not one, but two characters, I thought, “This is sure to be terrible.” And the first episode was. It was this bizarre mix of pseudo-historical Japan, the American old west, 20th century weapons, robots, cell phones, and hip hop. The animation was pretty good, and it was ultra violent, with buckets of blood spraying in every direction. Still, it seemed lackluster. But then, in the second episode, BAM!, we got full frontal tits. Sex scenes are obviously great, and this one suddenly made Afro Samurai a hell of a lot cooler. After that, it was non-stop badassness. Once I forgot that it didn’t take place in any reality that made sense, I started to like it a lot more. Overall, I was really pleased. The film that followed the five-episode OVA was more of the same, although it had a tendency to drag in a couple of places. Still, if you want a solid action show, you can’t go wrong here. Just check your brain at the door.

Verdict: Good

Grrrr, moody atmosphere.

I watched The Dark Knight last summer in the theater just like everyone else in the world did. At the time I thought it was pretty awesome, and a year later I’ve seen it again, this time on DVD. So, how was it on a repeat viewing? Ehh, really, really long. What was the runtime of this movie, anyway? 347 minutes? Well, maybe not that long, but it sure felt like it was longer than the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy, the director’s cut version.

Batman Begins was a fucking incredible movie. As a superhero movie it was flawless. It had great production design, good pacing, good acting, an interesting storyline, and showed a natural and believable progression of Bruce Wayne into Batman. It was a 5-star movie all the way. Looking back at it, I would be hard pressed to find anything to complain about.

The Dark Knight falls prey to the usual sequel problems. Here’s how I imagine the pitch to the movie studio executives went:

Director: We’ve completed the script to the Batman sequel.

Executive: Batman Begins made a lot of money.

Director: Uhh, yeah. So anyway, I had a few ideas about casting.

Executive: How are you going to make this one bigger and better than the first movie?

Director: Uhh, well, we have the Joker.

Executive: I think this one needs to be longer. All sequels should be longer than the first.

Director: What?

Executive: IF THE FIRST ONE WAS GOOD, THEN THE NEW ONE WILL BE EVEN BETTER IF YOU JUST ADD MORE STUFF TO IT! IT ALSO NEEDS TO BE PG-13!

Director: …

Executive: MAKE SURE YOU ADD A SCENE WHERE THE JOKER RAPS!

That must have been how it happened. The first movie was good, so why not just throw more shit in to the sequel? It’s bound to be better, right? If you said yes, then you’d be wrong, and also movie studio executive material.

The Dark Knight is like when you order a 1/2 pound burger, but then the cashier says, “Well, you can have a WHOLE pound burger for 40 cents more!” You can’t pass up a deal like that. Then, half-way through eating the burger, you’re sitting there, looking at it, and thinking, “Why did I do this to myself?”

Why so long... I mean serious, why so serious?

There’s really no justification for this movie being so fucking long. There is tons of down-time, and the pacing is really bad. The action beats are broken up by huge spanses of nothingness. The parts between action sequences are typically reserved for plot advancement and character development. Not so here. Instead, they just have a bunch of scenes that showcase how batshit insane the Joker is, and how nauseatingly self-righteous Harvey Dent is. Bruce Wayne, THE MAIN CHARACTER, takes a backseat to everyone else. It’s almost as if the title character, Batman, makes a cameo appearance.

The acting was really good. Heath Ledger was awesome as the Joker, and really deserved all the praise he got. Gary Oldman did a good job as Commissioner Gordon, Michael Caine rocked, Aaron Eckhart was convincing, and the girl who is not as good looking as Katie Holmes was all right, too. The only person I can’t comment on was Christian Bale as Batman, because he really had the smallest part in the whole movie.

I also felt that the character of Two Face was squandered. With so much running time dedicated to Harvey Dent’s downfall and transformation, it seemed only natural that he was being set up as the villain in the next film. Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen. He dies almost as soon as he becomes evil. All that build-up was wasted, which makes those long, boring gaps in the film completely pointless.

The Bat Sonar Vision-thingy was also idiotic. It was cool enough the first time it was utilized, but after that it was just annoying. Every time I read a review on the internet about this movie, fanboys orgasmed in their pants about how amazing the Batpod was. Batpod? What the fuck? Since when are motorcycles called pods? I went to the Harley Davidson website, and I could not find any pods for sale. I was really disappointed. Batcycle would have been a more logical name, but it probably wasn’t gay enough to satisfy the Hollywood executives.

The action scenes themselves were well directed, but perhaps a bit too short. Or maybe they were an appropriate length, and just seemed ridiculously short compared to how fucking long this movie is. The music was rather bland, and I found myself constantly thinking that the score for the original Tim Burton Batman film was way more fun. The tone may not have been right, but it would have woken me up a bit. And that was really the core problem. The movie was so fucking long that I found myself getting really antsy, and hoping it would end. In fact the movie tricked me into thinking it was already over, but in reality it had another 30 fucking minutes left. Jesus Christ, why?! It was just too much. Too bloated.

Overall, I do think this was a good movie, but great movies are the ones where you aren’t aware of the running time. If it was truly enveloping, I wouldn’t have constantly been wondering how much time was left. Batman Begins was a better movie.

Verdict: Good (Awesome if 30 hours shorter)

“It’s just, it’s just awesome.”

“…it’s just hard.”

But calling Fox clever? Come on, Sexman, you know they are a bunch of retards.

I checked out the new Star Trek movie this weekend, being brave enough to even go on opening night. When I say brave enough, I mean I had to take two extra Xanax’s just to be able to spend that much time so close to other people. I don’t do well in public places.

I had fully intended to wear my Ferengi costume, but my fellow Trekkers said that since Ferengis were never in the original series I wouldn’t be canon. They were right. Sadly, I went with the tride and true, but overused, Klingon costume. While waiting in line we got in an argument about which Starship Enterprise was the best. Clearly, the NCC-1701-A was the best, but those other, retarded Trekkers were trying to convince me that NCC-1701-E was better. Just because it has new phaser banks and torpedo launchers, plus it can be piloted by a joystick doesn’t mean it’s good. Come on, it can’t even do a saucer separation like the NCC-1701-D! How could anyone think that is cool?

Once I got up to the ticket counter, I realized I had forgotten to put my wallet into my costume, so my “friend” had to buy my ticket. My “friend” is the same individual that thinks The Menagerie counts as one episode, even though the Wikipedia entry clearly states that Parts I and II have different air dates. It’s like he just put his head in the sand and ignored the experts. Anyway, my “friend” did buy my ticket, but he wasn’t able to get the student discount for me since I didn’t have my Student ID. He had to pay full price, and expects me to pay him back for it. He and I both know that I am a student, so I don’t see why I should have to give him $9.50, when the student rate is $7.00. Idiot.

When we got into the theater a bunch of people laughed at us for wearing our costumes. They probably wouldn’t have laughed if I had rememberd to bring my Klingon bat’leth. I look like a badass with that. I have practiced a lot at home with it, and I’m pretty good at swinging it around, free-form style. When you watch the video of me with it you can see that I’m intimidating. I should upload that to Youtube some day.

Notice a distinct lack of Nimoy and Shatner.

Even though we got there half an hour early, most of the seats were already taken. We could either sit in the very front or very back. We went for the back, because I didn’t want to get another muscle spasm by having to look up at the screen for two hours. When we finally sat down, my “friend” and some random guy started talking about which was better, Star Trek or Star Wars. I can’t believe he would participate in such a moronic debate. This random guy was saying that Star Wars was better because of the Force, Darth Vader, Light Sabers, and Death Star. Really? Was this dweeb serious? I don’t think I need to explain to you why all of that stuff is wrong. It’s obvious why Star Trek is superior, so I won’t waste your time going into the reasons (if you are intelligent, you probably know why anyway). George Lucas is a dipshit. Gene Roddenberry was a visionary.

So after waiting for what seemed like a lifetime in Vulcan years, the movie finally started. We were forced to sit through cel phone ads, shitty trailers, and that godawful Papa Roach National Guard music video/recruiting commercial. I felt like the only way I could have gotten through it all was with some Romulan Ale, but my mom didn’t have any blue Kool-Aid in the fridge for me to put some vodka in, so I had to go sober. Eventually all the nonsense ended and the film began.

They changed a lot of stuff that is supposed to be canon. Clearly J.J. Abrams doesn’t understand the meaning of canon. You can’t just go changing it! My “friend” was telling me that he didn’t violate canon because the entire movie took place in an alternate reality. But he doesn’t even know that Chekov wasn’t introduced until episode 36 (production number 30 – the first episode of the second season), so you can’t believe what he says, anyway.

Bring it on, Death Star!

The special effects were nice, although the Enterprise looked too futuristic. They really should have used something similar to the sets from the original series if they wanted to be serious about continuity. The music was kind of a let down because they didn’t use the original themes, or even the film themes except during the closing credits. The acting was good, but the new cast didn’t have the same amount of charisma as the original cast. Leonard Nimoy was amazing in it. Live long and prosper, Leonard! I do wish they would have found some way to put William Shatner in it, because Star Trek would be nothing without him. I’ve probably given away my position on the epic Kirk vs. Picard debate, but that’s ok. I can see why some people like Picard, but Kirk was the first, and best captain. Sisko takes a distant third, Archer fourth, and… I’m not even going to mention Janeway.

Well, when everything was over I went back home and fired up my DVD player to relive the glory days of the original series. I have both the original DVD release and the CGI remastered release. I usually watch the original just because I like my Star Trek unspoiled, but I have the remastered for completion’s sake. While watching I started making a checklist of all the things the new movie got wrong or contradicted. I should post that sometime soon. Maybe I’ll make a video blog about it, and when I do I’ll finally get to wear my Ferengi costume. Oh, and I’ll show off my sweet bat’leth moves, too.

Verdict: Good

Snake is the man.

I fully intended to write this review right after I finished playing Metal Gear Solid 3, but for some reason (i.e. laziness) I never got around to it. So, months later, and with most of the game receding from my memory, I’m finally writing my review.

Metal Gear Solid 3 is by far the best game in the franchise. Everything about it is pure awesome. Ok, well not everything. Sure, there were a few moments that annoyed me or pissed me off, but the product as a whole is so goddamn good, that it more than makes up for little problems. As you may already know, I hate pretty much everything, so the fact that I loved this game is noteworthy.

Watch out, asshole.

While the original Metal Gear certainly emphasized stealth, the first two entries in the Metal Gear Solid series were more pseudo-stealth than anything else. What I mean is that you got to sneak around for a couple of screens, but were then forced into an unavoidable boss battle, which left so much destruction that there’s no way the other bad guys wouldn’t be able to track you down. Anyway, my point is that Metal Gear Solid 3 actually allows you to finally use the much touted stealth aspect for lengthy periods of time. You can take multiple paths, creep through a variety of environments, and use camouflage.

Camouflage was probably the best new feature of the game. Based on the terrain, you could change your uniform to blend in, and even featured a visibility meter. This was clearly taken from the Splinter Cell series, but I feel it was a great improvement over those games’ light/dark meter. Other cool things they added was the necessity to hunt and kill/capture food to sustain stamina (which can subsequently spoil and give you a stomach ache), being able to use first aid on your body, a badass improvement in the fighting system called “close quarters combat,” and the ability to throw snakes at enemies to freak them out long enough for you to take them down. Now how fucking cool is that?!

Snake kicking ass with CQC.

The boss battles were forced, just like in the other games, but unlike the other games in the series, the battles were all an appropriate difficulty level, were separated with plenty of time in between, and were varied enough that each one was a lot of fun. The final battle against The Boss might just be the greatest fight in the history of video games.

The music was great, the graphics were good, the controls perfect, and the story was epic. (The periodic James Bond references were a nice touch, as well.) It takes place in the Cold War, before the events of any of the other Metal Gear games. What I loved was how it showed the U.S. government basically fucking everyone over, and showing us how Snake eventually goes rogue, as Big Boss, and decides to take them down (oops, spoilers!). Also, since this game takes place in the past, they forced you to use 1964 technology, so no sci-fi radar bullshit, which basically made everything more challenging.

U.S. game cover art.

There were a couple of things that annoyed me in this game. The biggest problem is near the end of the game you try to escape with Eva, and she is so goddamn hungry so won’t travel unless you constantly feed her. Give me a break. It was a lot easier to just tranquilize her, and carry her through the level. The other things that I found annoying were the typical extremely long story sequences, which could easily have been shortened, and when you are spotted by enemies, the alert status lasts waaaaay too fucking long.

Three gripes is pretty good coming from me. Those factors alone are definitely not a deal breaker. This is without a doubt one of the most memorable video games I have ever played. It was lots of fun, and has an extremely high replay value. Metal Gear Solid 3 is definitely the best game in the franchise, and probably the best game to ever grace the Playstation 2. If you haven’t ever played a Metal Gear game, go ahead and pick this one up. You won’t be disappointed.

Verdict: Awesome

Beggin' Strips: Dogs Don't Know it's Not Bacon. "It's Bacon!!!"

I don’t have much to say about Okami, and mostly that is because it is so goddamn average. Nothing about it makes it stand out from the heaping pile of mediocre titles the video game industry craps out on a monthly basis. Now I know what you’re going to say, “BUT BRIK, HTIS GAME IS TOTALLY AWESOME AND YOU DONT KNOW WHAT YOUR TALKIN ABOUT TEH BEST PART ARE THE ANIME GRAPHICS LOL.” Before you go ahead and post that just think about this: you are an idiot.

Okami has virtually no redeeming qualities. The graphics are all cel-shaded, which was a cool gimmic back in 2003, but is kind of outdated at this point. The music is bland, uninspiring, pseudo-historical Japanese fare. The story has also been done to death, offering nothing new whatsoever. “BUT BRIK YOU PLAY AS A WOLF GOD WAHT OTHER GAMES DO YOU NOW ABOUT THAT HAVE HTAT LOL?” It doesn’t matter, just replace the wolf with a short guy wearing green tights, and you have another Zelda clone.

That’s the thing about Okami, it strives to be a unique, fun experience like Zelda, but fails miserably. In the Zelda games, Link has a main quest, but there are plenty of side quests and diversions to occupy your time along the way. Okami offers similar things, but all the side quests/mini-games are far too annoying to be any fun. The fishing is annoying, making dead trees come back to life is annoying, and feeding animals is annoying. In a Zelda game, these scenarios would be innovative. In Okami, you just do the same shit over and over again. How many fucking trees do you have to circle anyway? It’s just something they threw in to increase the length of the game, not to make it any more fun.

The other thing that really fucks this game is the horrible control mechanism. I can’t count the number of times where I tried to use the celestial brush, only to see the Wii-mote have a seizure. The brush jerks around on screen, and I sit there, unable to control it, hurling obscenities at the game. While it seemed like a cool idea on paper, it really is just a huge fucking mess. Did no one bother to play this game before releasing it? Jesus, it’s like Creed from The Office was in charge of the quality control on this piece of shit.

Other random things that pissed me off: unskippable cut scenes, getting to play for 5 minutes and then having to read walls of text for the next 10, and helping out mindless idiots (e.g. in the fishing sequence)  so they can think they accomplished some menial task on their own. Why do I give a fuck if the person thinks they caught a fish on their own. I AM PLAYING AS A FUCKING GOD, I SHOULD GET ALL THE GODDAMN CREDIT. MORE IMPORTANTLY, WHY CAN’T I SMITE ALL THESE LITTLE FUCKERS?

On the positive side, the fighting was pretty original and a lot of fun, that is, when the Wii-mote didn’t spaz out. Good fighting aside, it doesn’t make up for all the other bullshit. So, if any of you fat, smelly otaku out there can explain to me why this game is anything but average (especially the guy who raved about it at the store), I’m listening.

Overall, Okami is nothing more than a weak Zelda rip-off. Clones usually range from bad to mediocre, and since this game is more frustrating than fun, it doesn’t come anywhere close to being good. Okami is the poor man’s Zelda.

A better god-game would be a Zeus simulator. You shove thunderbolts up the asses of the people that piss you off, and you have sex with tons of hot chicks with no risk of getting an STD. Nintendo, give me a call, I’m full of more great ideas just like that one.

Verdict: Average

Generic 15 year old bikers from the future.

Everything about Freedom screams mediocrity. It rips off countless, better sci-fi stories to create a hodgepodge, nigh-unenjoyable series. If you take a quick look at the fan-ratings for this series on Anime New Network you’ll see that the majority of people reviewed it as Excellent or Very Good, with a few Masterpieces thrown in there, as well. Since otaku rarely watch or read anything outside of anime and manga, then they are unlikely to notice that everything here is recycled. Freedom offers absolutely nothing new. While that might be okay if the execution was good, well, it isn’t. It’s trite and boring, and generally a waste of time.

Freedom is a seven part original animation advertisement for Nissin Cup Noodles. Originally I had high hopes for this short series, because I thought it was written/directed by anime legend Katsuhiro Otomo, the genius behind Akira, Memories, Metropolis, Steamboy, and Mushishi. Unfortunately, it turns out he only contributed the character and mecha designs. So, while this looks like something that he would do, it is actually rather generic unlike his previous, good works.

The story centers around a group of woefully generic teenage characters. They come from the bottom of the anime stereotype barrel. Each one is already a battle-hardened underground street racing god by the age of 15. They are all orphans and live alone, without parents or adult supervision of any kind. Wow, I’ve never seen that in an anime before, what an original concept!

Yawn.

They live in a cliche, futuristic Utopian society on the moon. Everything is hunky-dory, and everyone is happy. They believe that Earth is uninhabitable after a series of natural disasters. Because of this, these Mooninites are grateful for their perfect, mundane, stupid Moon lives. The government, however, is aware that Earth is actually fine, and they are hiding this information from the Mooninites. Why? Well, that isn’t really explained. Okay, actually it is explained, but only in the sense that they are an evil totalitarian power, so of course they must be up to no good. Why they would give a shit if people left the moon to live on Earth is beyond me. Earth is really shitty and desolate, and the moon is a lot better. The Mooninites would be stupid to leave. Obviously, none of this is addressed in the show, because it would have 1.) required brain power to think of that, and 2.) there would be no conflict for the series. Anyway, the basic idea is that the government is evil and the Utopia they control actually isn’t so great after all. Wow, I’ve never seen that in an anime before, what an original concept!

Eventually, one of the 15 year old hot-heads manages to escape to Earth. He lives there for a couple of years, in what is basically a sexless paradise. It’s an oxymoron, I know. However, he decides he should return to the moon to rescue his friend. In order to do that he has to act rashly, put countless innocent people in danger, destroy the perceptions of reality of the blissfully unaware Mooninites, and generally act like a buffoon. Wow, I’ve never seen that in an anime before, what an original concept!

Get ready to see lots of this in Freedom.

Because this show was sponsored by Nissin Cup Noodles, that product shows up everywhere, whoring out the series. Now, I’m not one to get upset when my favorite celebrity/artist sells out. In fact, I am waiting patiently for the day I can sell out. Selling out rules. But the selling out here is ridiculous. All the characters eat Cup Noodles, without exception. Are there no other food sources in the future? Does Nissin own a monopoly on all foods? The most ridiculous part is that people on the moon eat Cup Noodles, and so do the people on Earth. This implies that Nissin is alive and well, operating on both planetary bodies. Clearly, this defies all logic, and is also completely retarded. Then again, it’s anime, and should be held to a lower standard.

Perhaps the most annoying thing about Freedom is the animation. It does not use traditional pencil and paper animation, and it does not use full-on CGI either. It uses some kind of goddamn hybrid that makes it look like a Flash cartoon. You know, like the kind you used to see back in the day when Newgrounds was relevant (circa year 2000). While the “animation” looks really clean, it is incredibly distracting. I could never get past it. I was always focused on how artificial, shiny, and smooth everything looked. It’s just wrong. They should have either put up the cash to afford traditional animation, or grown a pair of cajones and gone full CGI; none of this middling crap.

Overall, this series brings nothing new to the table. It doesn’t have a unique story, it doesn’t have interesting characters, and it doesn’t even have real animation. It’s just a huge mediocre piece of shit that should be avoided. The only positive thing I can say about Freedom is that it is only seven episodes long, and not 26.

Verdict: Bad

Welcome to the boobs.

It seems like every time I check out any anime produced in the last five years, all I encounter is a bunch of unwatchable moe shit. In fact, I had pretty much given up on anime altogether. The last new show that I finished and enjoyed was Gurren Lagann. Everything else was so godawfully bad, I would rather blow my brains out than finish it. Fortunately, I stumbled upon an interesting series titled Welcome to the NHK, and it rejuvenated my interest in anime.

My initial reaction was that this had something to do with the Japanese TV corporation, NHK. However, that isn’t the case. NHK stands for the Nihon Hikikomori Kyoukai, or in non-weaboo-English, Japanese Recluse Association. The show features the exploits of Sato, a 20-something recluse who is so afraid of the myriad conspiracies plaguing the world, he refuses to leave the safety and comfort of his cramped apartment.

Obviously, there are no conspiracies, but he is certain they exist. Everything is a conspiracy. The noisy neighbor who plays anime theme songs, the people that laugh at him if he ventures out, and pretty much everything else, is a conspiracy. In that case, why not just stay in and avoid them? Sounds good to me. I wish more otaku would follow Sato’s lead and never go out in public. Actually, I would like them to take it a step further and not get on the internet either. The world would be a better place if fat, sweaty, pedophilic otaku would not contact the outside world in any way, shape, or form.

The show progresses as Sato meets a cute young girl, Misaki, that he immediately develops a crush on. She thinks he is a shut-in, so in an effort to show her that he’s not, he tells a lie, which leads to another lie, which provides the fuel for the main story. He eventually meets up with an old high school friend, and together they form a company to develop a dating-sim computer game. While they work on the game, Sato also deals with his fear of conspiracies, and struggles to form and maintain a relationship with Misaki.

Cute girls that like you are a conspiracy!

My description sounds kind of mundane, and really that’s all there is to the plot. The episodes, however, are laden with rich comedy, drama, and human interactions. We are given a fascinating glimpse into the life of otaku. All at once we laugh at them for their ineptitude in social situations, we relate to them in their attempts to collect merchandise related to their favorite shows, and we feel pity for them as they struggle with daily life, and make progress, only to slide back again.

Welcome to the NHK is a great character study, and an excellent example of how to balance comedy and drama. Too many shows these days are “slice of life,” which is otaku shorthand for “no plot.” Welcome to the NHK shows that you can still get a slice of someone’s life contained within an overarching plot. To do anything less is just lazy storytelling, and people that enjoy those types of shows are lazy, too. You know who you are, you fuckers.

The story of this series progresses at a moderate pace, and the best part is that it reaches a natural conclusion. Nothing is forced, and we are left at the end knowing that their lives continue on. We just got to see them for a short part of it. There is growth, but not enough to make it unrealistic. We are talking about otaku, after all.

The most amazing thing about Welcome to the NHK’s quality, is that it was created by Gonzo Animation, a.k.a. The Worst Animation Studio on Planet Earth. Gonzo has a certain knack for taking great ideas, and making them terrible. It seems like every series they make starts out good and turns to wretched shit by the end. Their specialty, though, is supplanting plot for shitty CGI. This series, however, featured none of the usual Gonzo touches. There was very little CGI. The animation quality did jump around a bit, but for the most part it was good enough. There weren’t a lot of action scenes, so things usually looked fine. The idea was cool, and they didn’t break away from it. And somehow, the plot managed to reach a satisfying conclusion. I fully expected Gonzo to fuck up the last episode and ruin the entire series as a whole, but they didn’t. They came through, and made a quality series. In fact, I would say this is the best series Gonzo has ever produced.

Truer words have never been spoken.

I watched this series on DVD, and listened to both the English dub and original Japanese language. Honestly, I enjoyed the dub more. The acting in both was quite good, but there was something more endearing about the English version. Perhaps it was just more compelling to experience the characters’ emotions in my native, spoken language, rather than through subtitles. Well, either one you pick, you can’t really go wrong.

Overall, Welcome to the NHK is a great anime. It is highly recommended. Lazy assholes who like plotless “slice of life” series will hate it, and pedophilic otaku who like moe shit will be bored by it. However, for all of you other anime fans out there (I can’t be the only one), this is a series that should be watched.

Why isn’t this series more popular? It’s a conspiracy!

Verdict: Good

Verdict: Awesome