Soukyuu no Fafner Heaven and Earth: Abridged Edition

Hey guys. Wolvenciel here back from one hell of a road trip and out with a new (sort of) short review. I went to a temporary aquarium far in the boonies (for work reasons) and just to be clear this is one of those big aquariums. Ya know. With weird ass sharks and stingrays and things that makes you shiver just looking at the size of it? Those kinds.

Warning. Never watch this sub. Never. Go find it somewhere else.

I would share pictures but they're not of good quality and... don't expect me to take underwater pictures. I like fishes a lot but I'm afraid of them as well. That, and I don't have a diving license.


Something New

So Heaven and Earth acted as an epilogue to the ending for the Fafner series and it takes place 2 years after the whole "last assault" on the Festum (the alien race in this anime). It showed Tatsumiyajima Island recovering from all the damage and old destroyed fafners being restored and all sort of things.

This is the new point of view the Festums are looking for.

It sort of reveals a new point of view, that of a Festum and how they see the whole situation of the human world but ultimately of course, the anime is about Soshi and Kazuki (the two main characters) being reunited in the end.

Ultimately its about Soshi and Kazuki of course. Sigh.

I could see hints that the movie tried to show the implications of using nuclear weapons on all life but I really would have liked them to emphasize a little bit more on the topic. It just wasn't addressed as clearly as it should have been.

As always the animation was decent enough. Just... I wasn't satisfied with the story.

Unlike The Others

When I finished watching, I was a bit surprised. Like, I asked myself,"Wait. Is this Fafner?". Heaven and Earth had way too many plot armors (this means the characters are protected in conveniently unexplainable ways when they should have died) and to be honest I was a bit annoyed.

Plus the subs made it worse for me to watch this...

It was also a bit chaotic because they added all these new characters and tried to fit ALL of them in the story, give them some sort of aim and tried to make them move the plot forward. Suffice to say, it worked badly for the movie. It could seriously have been better had they just expanded on the original characters from the series. They'd have more room to explain a lot of things happening in the anime.

At least they made a bit of relation to the previous movie, Right of Left.

Keeping It Short

Its... barely short but there you have it. I wouldn't really recommend watching Heaven and Earth as it didn't really further anything from the main series and its hard to draw a relation to the movie itself even if you did watch the anime in the first place. There were too many unnecessary things being stuffed in the movie, making it hard to actually convey the things they wanted to.

Don;t lie Soshi, no one's going to die.

That and literally nobody died in this one. Not even a single Fafner pilot.

If you did watch Fafner though, feel free to holler me down below. I'd like to know what you people think as well.

P/S: Starting today, I'll be posting daily on past popular animes that people would already forget. So look forward to that. And I posted this late because I was playing League. Sorry.

Wolvenciel, signing off.

Pocky day picture gallery

How to become a weaboo. Step 1: Get a Pocky. Congrats, now you're a weaboo.

Joke aside, it's Pocky day!

Pocky; a long, thin, chocolate-covered cookie popular in Japan similar to a biscotti. Thanks to its immense popularity amongst the Japanese and elsewhere, it has been featured in a number of anime. November 11 is Pocky Day, because the shape of resembles the numeral 1.

I have no idea how can people come out with such bizarre idea, but hey, a lot of pocky related anime arts spawned just because of that.

Feels like eating one right now.

Credit to their respective owners/ artists. 

Gingitsune: If Only It was 20 Episodes

Hi guys. It's Wolvenciel here with another slice of life anime review. Yeah for those who can't see the pattern, I alternate between slice of life and mecha anime (with a few random romances here and there) and most of the time I get blocks writing the former.

Oh and at least someone gave me a feedback. Personally, I mean. So I changed up the format a bit.

(Taken from crunchyroll)

Though, writer's blocks or not, here's Gingitsune.


Overview

That's me I guess. Sigh.

Genre: Seinen, Slice of Life, Supernatural
Episodes: 12
Length/Episode: 24:24 minutes
Studio: Diomedea
Date Aired: 2013


Summary

In the first minute watching the anime, I thought Gingitsune was going to have some sort of plot to it even if it was a slice of life anime. Turns out I was wrong. Gingitsune tells of a girl who lost her mother at an early age thus inheriting her mother's Sight (it enables the person to see deities and heralds of gods). This is when she saw and befriended the Saeki Shrine's herald, Gintarou, a silver fox (like the title says).

I always hear this kind of line in god-themed/related animes

THAT, is however just the backstory. After that it's about how Saeki lives her daily life as she encounters various kinds of problems (both from heralds and humans of course) and solves them with/without Gintarou's help.

Cute father though, haha.

Character Layout

The anime mostly focuses on Saeki who, in the beginning in my opinion is annoying. Yeah. She still is I guess. I... don't really like whiny pushy girls*. It makes me take pity with Gintarou just because she is. Have you ever watched Doraemon? She's somewhat like Nobita in the beginning, though she slows down as the anime goes.

Sure sometimes she can be cute, but still. Sigh.

Then there's Gintarou who's always lazy and laid-back but always has things on his mind. I really think that he has potential to grow in the anime, like sort of gain an importance to the story but it was kind of reversed. As the anime goes, he kind of falls off and just become a bystander instead. Sure he is a herald and all they do IS stand by the side but still. Ya know. The god damn title is "Gingitsune" for goodness sake.

Even their heralds think the gods are an irresponsible lot

The other characters in this anime are mostly there to add more taste to the slice of life I guess. They don't really go into much details with the side characters probably because the anime is 12 episodes. I'm not complaining. It's just... Yeah I'm complaining.

This girl THOUGH. Adds spice to my megane life.

*By girls I meant anime girls of course. I mean... How can I even meet real life one. (Laughs internally)

I mean LOOK AT THAT. Oh god help me.

Rough Plot Structure

I did say it had no definite plot didn't I? Well, the anime starts off with Saeki making friends here and there (again, both humans and heralds) then goes on to be the mellow, slow-paced slice of life anime that it is. No really. There was not much happening in the anime itself I guess.

I really thought there would be progress with this boy, but NOPE.

Weight of the Anime

If only the anime would expand more on the emotional conflicts of the characters, it could at least be of medium weight, in my opinion. But it doesn't. Most of the time people just smile away in this anime, it's pretty optimistic if you ask me. It's like saying, "Hey, relax. There's a solution to everything, so relax and take it easy".

Saeki's dad... Is like the most functioning side character in the anime... ahahaha.

I really have no qualms with that kind of outlook and to be honest I liked it just because it does that. The characters don't dwell too much into their problems more than they should and the side characters are also there to provide funny antics along the way.

It's nice.


Art/Animation
Before anything, let me remind you that I am not a graphics whore. I don't really mind much of animation quality and I tend to only compare an anime between each of their own episodes instead of with other anime by other studios and all that. My outlook is that as long as its consistent with what it's doing, its fine.

One of the deity friends Saeki made

So Gingitsune doesn't really have much extreme movements in them so I don't really know what to say there. There aren't any awkward slip ups anywhere and overall I think it's how slice of life anime are, I guess? Fluffy and warm. Yeah. That's how I could describe the quality of the anime.

Like this scene right here. It seems so nostalgic to me.

But yes, in all actuality, the anime has decent art. I personally liked the scenes where the characters reminisce about their past as it really made them look nostalgic and you kind of get the atmosphere that it was in the past.

See. Even the driver is having a hard time not falling for spectacles-chan there.

I do love it when an anime sport a few good looking spectacles-wearing characters and this anime does it good. Wait should I even mention this here in this subtitle? Oh well.


The Ending

Well... It ends like most slice of life anime I guess. One of those neutral, no conclusion kind of endings. There wasn't a set plot to the anime itself so I guess I can't complain. But yeah. Nothing to take note of.

Scary girls are scary...

In A Nutshell

Gingitsune is a pretty textbook slice of life anime with a hint of supernatural I guess. It didn't regard the supernatural part much but its there. If you're looking for a break in between watching stressful dark stuff, you can try this one.

Looks a bit mature. But still. Soothes me so much.

As for why I decided to watch this, its because I am going to review another Fafner movie. SIGH.
Rate, give me some feedback and share this with people who you think feeds on the slice of life genres. I'm sure they'll love it.

Wolvenciel, forever waiting for feedback, (besides the blog master's) signing off.