Yukari Tamura and Mamiko Noto At Their Very Best – Voice Acting in Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel

For a while now, I have thought that I don’t get enough into the bones of my appreciation for the various elements of anime. In my reviews, I try to cover every single facet of a show, but even as my word count rises, it’s not like I’m saying THAT much about the elements. Sure, I’ve told you that X and X gave excellent performances, but I haven’t told you what made those performances so great or what moments sold me on them, etc. So I’m going to try breaking things down a little more, starting with a 2-episode OVA I watched today called Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel. (I highly recommend it!) This OVA had a lot of great elements, from directing to music to animation and voice acting, so I’ll be posting about each element separately.

Taishou Yakyuu Musume – The Power of Pure Pedigree Propulsion

Taishou Yakyuu Musume has one of the best starts to a first episode ever. This leads into a charming slice-of-life anime with excellent direction, pretty art and animation, a very soothing soundtrack, and an interesting premise (girl’s baseball in 1920s Japan). The episode is what one might call ‘very good.’ However, it is also what one might call ‘very goddamn boring.’ — HOWEVER, when I did a little research to decide if I should drop the show, I found myself so dumbstruck by the show’s insane pedigree that I honestly just couldn’t bring myself not to continue.

Clannad – Kotomi Arc – Before Yesterday, I Saw A Rabbit, Yesterday, A Deer, And Today, the Interior of Digiboy's Anus

If there’s one thing that can absolutely be said about Ichinose Kotomi, it’s that she has amazing feet. Her feet (as well as her knees) are plastered all over the arc, even in the parts where she is a little kid. Damn, those lolicons at Kyoto Animation know how to get my jeans tight. (protip: I never wear jeans.)

SENGOKU [FREAKING] BASARA 2 – HANDS DOWN, GREATEST ANIME EVER

Oyakata-sama does not ‘ride’ a horse. He ‘rides’ a pair of horses that share a saddle. He ‘rides’ them standing up while holding a massive axe. He mounts his double-horse by slamming his axe into the ground, propelling him 50 feet in the air and he lands on the double-horse while it is moving. He then rides this horse straight up a several-hundred-foot vertical wall. At the top, he is attacked by a ninja who he guards against within a centimetar of being stabbed in the eye. The ninja proceeds to decapitate his horses and enter into mortal combat with him. After he’s punched the ninja through a building, he proceeds to kill the ninja’s master by vaporizing him with sheer manly energy. My friends. This is the greatest anime ever made. And what’s more, it appeals to everyone.

Simoun – Why You Should Watch One of the Best Anime Ever and Why I'm Glad I Watched it Again

The first time I watched Simoun was in early 2007 when I had just gotten back into anime and it was one of my first new shows. I watched it on Crunchyroll, which back then was the shittiest possibly quality of streams imaginable. Like all anime I watched that early in my fandom, I lost memory of it quickly because of factors like me not really hearing voice actors, the shittiness of quality, etc. As such, when I later bought and watched the first DVD I was utterly shocked at how much better it was than I remembered in about every way. I knew that once I collected the DVDs it would quickly become one of my favorites. However, the most surprising thing about this rewatch is that I may not have understood the show at ALL the first time I watched it. Re-reading the posts I did at the time of watching, my opinions are so different that it’s almost like I didn’t watch the same show.

So I’ve decided to divide this post into two sections. The first is one that you can follow if you haven’t seen the show, meaning it’s me trying to convice you to watch it, and the second is me talking about my own theories and other spoilerific content.