05-11-2012, 12:44 PM | #1 |
Volcano Badge
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 2,878
|
Anyamal Tantei Kiruminzoo
As requested of me, here's the thread.
This is a show about 5 kids who gain the ability to transform into animals, and use their powers to help people with their animal related issues. Almost all of the problems can be solved by understanding the feelings of the animals in question. This eventually evolves into something much more when animalians are introduced, but I won't go into that. For my opinion on the show itself, it's certainly one of the best shows of its genre that I've seen. It has a similar down-to-earth feel to it that Doremi has. The character designs are marvelous, and despite having 50 episodes, you hardly notice any QUALITY episodes, and its budget remains consistent. The characters are all developed very nicely, and are all entertaining. It also has some excellent humor here and there. |
05-11-2012, 01:58 PM | #2 |
時の彼方へ
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Lafayette, Indiana
Posts: 20,578
|
Previous Posts:
- pre-watching, trying to get - initial thoughts - Episode 01 - Episode 02 - Episode 03 Thanks to bbb for making this thread. I appreciate it! I watched Episodes 04 and 05. This show is very simple and is 100% for small children ... but at the same time, it's very charming and very fun to watch even as an adult. I hesitate to say I highly recommend it at this stage, what with me being only five episodes in, but I certainly recommend it already. Ken and Tamao get their first shot at major screen time in Episode 04 and it's great. These guys are the perfect hybrids between main characters and supporting characters. You want to see more of them because they're good fun whenever they show up and the writers keep them in moderation. If we got them all the time, we'd probably tire of them. If we got them as rarely as we get the girls' parents, we'd be frustrated at how rarely they show up. Instead, we're in the perfect middle ground. It's quite nice. And they serve as fun characters for the romantic tangle the show is already crafting. I mean, we already had Ken x Riko and Tamao x Rimu since Episode 01. Then since like Episode 02 we've had Kanon x Ken, creating a love triangle between Ken, Riko, and Kanon. Next, Episode 04 introduces us to some new complexities: Tamao seems to be slightly smitten with Kanon and, what's more, Kanon's mother is pushing for Kanon to seduce Tamao since he's the son of the mayor and, regardless of his Animalian potential, is therefore a potentially powerful political figure for their clan to bring into their fold. Finally, in Episode 05, we see that while Ken may not be interested in Nagisa, he certainly finds her attractive (how could any guy not!? ), triggering some jealousy in Riko. I know the show isn't a romance series but it's certainly titillating for a romance fan like me to see all these different crushes and relationships already forming. (And while Riko x Ken seems to be the obvious canon pairing, as a big fan of Kanon I'm definitely rooting for Ken x Kanon. ) Anyway, Episode 04 was good in that it dealt with what kids encounter in real life sometimes: what happens when all your friends can do something really awesome but you can't? Spoiler: show Episode 05 was what I'd call the show's first filler, even if it did have a nice character development scene with Tamao, Ken, and Kanon at the polluted river. It wasn't bad though. Compared with other series' filler episodes, this was much more fun and tolerable to watch. Spoiler: show
__________________
|
05-11-2012, 05:27 PM | #3 |
時の彼方へ
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Lafayette, Indiana
Posts: 20,578
|
Through Episode 08. Yeah, the show's pretty addictive. And right when I'm ready to take a break (which I am going to do so I don't get burnt out on this), the shit starts to get real!
No pictures this time since it's too much effort and I'm not in the mood for effort right now, but I'll offer brief summaries of each of the episodes so you can remember what they were: Spoiler: show As for thoughts ... Spoiler: show The show has been a pleasant surprise. I'm not sure whether to upgrade it yet from "6 - Fair" to "7 - Good" or not yet. I might do that in a few more episodes, but the most recent plot twist actually has me a little concerned. Stuff like that has the potential to be very very dumb. I'm so hoping they manage to pull it off well. Regardless, I stand by what I said earlier today: would definitely recommend this show to people who are bored and/or looking for something cute and kid friendly to watch.
__________________
Last edited by Talon87; 05-11-2012 at 05:32 PM. |
05-12-2012, 02:14 AM | #4 |
Volcano Badge
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 2,878
|
God damnit! I know the answers to all of your questions and I want to answer so badly! For the most part, most of your questions are indeed answered later on.
This isn't spoiling anything big, don't worry. Spoiler: show Also, I'll expand on my opening post when I get the time. I did that this morning when I only had a few minutes before I had to go to work. |
05-12-2012, 03:37 PM | #6 |
時の彼方へ
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Lafayette, Indiana
Posts: 20,578
|
Watched Episodes 09 thru 12. It's much easier discussing a series when you watch only one episode than when you watch many. ^^; Becomes a chore to discuss all these. But I don't want to shaft discussing them, especially since they were good episodes, so I'll suck it up and here goes!
Episode 09: Spoiler: show Episode 10: Spoiler: show Episode 11: Spoiler: show Episode 12: Spoiler: show All in all, the show is addictive and the only reason I didn't keep watching more was because I was getting bored watching the same show over and over. bbb, did you know that the creator of this series is the same guy who created Macross and Escaflowne? That kinda surprised me. I would never have guessed.
__________________
|
05-15-2012, 12:47 PM | #7 |
時の彼方へ
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Lafayette, Indiana
Posts: 20,578
|
Thru Episode 16. The series continues to be cute but the episodes also continue to be nothing too too too special. It's a lot of typical intro-filler stuff that has maybe 2-3 minutes' worth of plot advancement or major character development. For instance, Episode 16 was the one with ...
Spoiler: show But other than that, it wasn't anything worth writing home about. And I feel like that pretty accurately describes quite a few of these episodes. Riko in full cat form is always cute to see. I'm kind of eager to see her push the 99-minute limit to see how catlike she becomes. Same goes for Nagisa. I want to like Rimu, but she definitely feels like the third wheel of this troupe. I'm hoping the human side of her gets some more character development because the animal side certainly isn't. Ken's development seems like it's more or less fleshed out for the time being so he's not quite as interesting to watch anymore as he used to be. Tamao, on the other hand, still has ongoing character development and so is slightly more interesting now than his energetic friend. Kanon and Nagisa are still my favorite two characters. My interest in the show is sort of tapering off after the initial fever, but given that I watched one episode two nights ago, one episode last night, and then two so far today, it's not like I've abandoned it by any means. It's a fun little show and I'm hopeful that things will get a bit more interesting in the near future once we get past all of this ho-hum intro filler phase stuff that shows like this one almost invariably seem to have.
__________________
|
05-16-2012, 07:45 PM | #8 |
時の彼方へ
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Lafayette, Indiana
Posts: 20,578
|
Thru Episode 26. Ten episodes is simply way too many to discuss all of them, so in the first spoiler box I'll just briefly sum up what they were and then in the second spoiler box I'll share a few select pictures and random thoughts about the show up through this point. Spoiler: show Spoiler: show Loved Episode 22 and looking forward to where the series goes from here.
__________________
|
05-16-2012, 10:13 PM | #9 |
Volcano Badge
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 2,878
|
The raccoon's episodes are fantastic. I liked how they made a point to emphasize that he was a raccoon instead of a tanuki and explaining the difference. He has another pretty good episode later on down the road. Though I think that's near the end. His relationship with the Mikogamis is really heartwarming and cute.
For most of the problems you had with the 25,26, most of them are addressed/dealt with. I forget the specific details, but yeah. For Tamao, his transformation scene is awesome. Ken's is pretty great too, but I love Tamao's. Umm....this is a spoiler if Tamao's form isn't any different in the OP yet. I forget when it changes. Otherwise, you've seen it already. About the animal form upgrades Spoiler: show |
05-19-2012, 10:21 PM | #10 |
時の彼方へ
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Lafayette, Indiana
Posts: 20,578
|
Through Episode 37. I'm burnt out on doing exhaustive image uploads so this one's going to have no images. (Sorry, guys. You were good episodes, too.) But as before, I'll write up a list of the episodes' contents in the first spoiler box and then offer some thoughts about the episodes in the second one.
Spoiler: show Spoiler: show And there you go. Figured I should post the status update, in the mood to upload pictures or not, before I got any farther.
__________________
|
05-20-2012, 06:25 PM | #11 |
時の彼方へ
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Lafayette, Indiana
Posts: 20,578
|
Through Episode 39. Figured I'd go ahead and share some of those pictures I'd mentioned last night as well as a few I took today. Enjoy!
Spoiler: show Yeah, that scene in Episode 37 was priceless. Racc-chan really does steal the show.
__________________
|
05-21-2012, 01:09 PM | #12 |
時の彼方へ
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Lafayette, Indiana
Posts: 20,578
|
Through 43. Events that I had honestly hoped would have happened twenty or so episodes ago are finally taking place. It's good to see the back story of the two families take front and center stage as we press on towards the finale.
Spoiler: show
__________________
|
05-22-2012, 12:13 PM | #13 |
時の彼方へ
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Lafayette, Indiana
Posts: 20,578
|
Twelve days later, Anyamaru Tantei Kiruminzuu is finished. I enjoyed the series up through the very end. Unfortunately, the final four episodes felt ridiculously rushed compared with the previous forty-six (or forty-four once you take out the two recap episodes) and I wasn't a very big fan of how they ended up resolving the plot surrounding the main bad guy, the coffin, or Kanon's father. In fact, there was a shitton of vague stuff in the finale and fans are left to fill in a lot of the blanks on their own. This blow was softened for me by knowing in advance that none of the romantic relationships hinted at throughout the series would get solid closure by the end of the series but it's still frustrating. ^^; Spoiler-thoughts and pictures below: Spoiler: show Could say more but I think this is already quite a lot for anyone to read. In the next post, I'll offer my series review.
__________________
Last edited by Talon87; 05-22-2012 at 12:41 PM. |
05-22-2012, 12:38 PM | #14 |
時の彼方へ
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Lafayette, Indiana
Posts: 20,578
|
Plot: 6/10. It was fine. For the first 90% of the series, the episodes were fairly episodic but with strands of an overarching plot arc in the background. For the final 10%, this plot arc becomes the main focus. The plot itself was unfortunately noticeably rushed at the end with a lot of hurried developments and only-half-answered questions. Characters: 8/10. The main characters are unique enough and interesting enough to keep you engaged. Different ones have different sorts of hurdles they face over the course of the series, allowing anyone to find his or her own favorite character to cheer for. For the most part, the characters are very real. In most series, the heroes would be way dumber than these kids or way smarter. The Kamihama Kirumins are instead somewhere pleasantly in between. Kanon is one of the cleverest and most capable characters in the series but finds herself saddled with some of the biggest morons, creating a nice balancing act between the two sides. The character designs are pleasant to look at and unique enough that even if you're bad with names you're not going to confuse any two characters for one another. Animation: 7/10. It's good. Most series in this genre don't exactly have the world's most stellar animation and Anyamal Tantei Kiruminzoo is no exception. But even if it's somewhat simple in how it's been animated, it's still very pretty to watch. Eyes are done especially well with an interesting trademark of sparkles and starry patterns in each of the girls' eyes. The way they animated the "animal physics" was very good and should not be overlooked. It's clear that the animators did their homework and must have gone to the zoo, watched video footage of animals in motion, etc. Cats move like cats, rabbits like rabbits, mice like mice, etc. Music: 6/10. It's fine. Nothing to write home about aside from the OP and two EDs, all three of which I find to be surprisingly addictive songs. Maybe if I'm feeling more generous I might consider bumping this score up to a 7 out of 10 precisely because of the enjoyment I got out of the OP and ED every episode. We're talking clapping along to the beat of that second ending, folks. Replay Value: ???. Hard to say. I can tell you I wouldn't want to watch it again any time too soon but that's true of almost any anime I watch. I can also tell you that if I forgot all about this story and decided to revisit it that I would consider that a revisit worth making. Because the show ended up being a little on the slow side and didn't answer quite a few of its own questions, I'd say the replay value might be medium-low ... but because many of the episodes as stand-alone episodes were really fun to watch, I might say the replay value's a solid medium instead. OVERALL: 6/10 or 7/10. Can't really decide. I feel like it's a 6/10 objectively ... and yet there's no denying that I blew through 50 episodes in just 12 days and can honestly say that I calmly yet thoroughly enjoyed it. For now on ANN, I think I'm going to put a 6/10, but I could easily see myself changing my mind and making it a 7/10.
__________________
|
Lower Navigation | ||||||
|
Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests) | |
Thread Tools | |
|
|