Finally, after some time, I manage to get down to updating the blog. Some time has passed since my last post and it is high time I did something about that. I'm not going to go on telling you all about the student life which I've just started, but I'm going to give you some reviews of the latest anime I've seen (in case the context didn't speak for itself, we're talking about more than one anime here). I'll give you the first one now, and the second one hopefully in about a day or two. Also, I'm going to change the rating system a bit, making it more harsh mostly. I'm not going to rerate the old reviews, but you should probably just extract around 2-5 points. So, here goes:
Air
Structure: TV series - 26 episodes + Special - 2 episodes + Movie
Personal Comment: A story full of mystery, magic, friendship, trust, love and the sky.
Favourite Quote: "On the other side of this sky, there is a girl with wings."
Plot (7/10): It's really hard to give points here. It depends how many such anime you've seen. It starts out as your basic "traveller comes to town and helps everybody with their problems", but it rapidly evolves beyond that. Kunisaki Yukito is a travelling entertainer, who uses his magic to animate a little doll. With this act, he travels worldwide in search of a "girl with wings" in legacy of her mother. Upon arriving in a small town, where many strange girls become candidates for Yukito's search, he tries to find out who the true goal of his quest is and fabulous adventures begin.
Characters (9/10): The characters are splendid! It is the thing which gets a strong grip on you and makes you scream for more. You really get attached to the characters and empathise with them on such a level that you truly share their joy and suffering alike. Each one of them is unique and complex, but also consistent. They are all covered thoroughly and their attitude provokes many moments of laughter.
Approach (9/10): If I cut the rating of the plot, I had to give 9/10 for the approach. The atmosphere is great! It is a perfect concentration of comic relief, giving you opportunity to giggle at Misuzu's mishaps and childish nature, laugh at Kono's weird attitude, shudder at Minagi's ultra-formal dialect and amuse at Yukito's irony-filled remarks. However, all of this does not ruin the more serious scenes and the series goes as far as successfully making you cry at times. The three story arcs of the series are impressive, giving birth to the two-episode special (which I haven't seen, by the way, much like I haven't seen the movie either). It's entertaining throughout its full 13 episode length.
Visuals & Music (8/10): The visuals are splendid, especially in the more heart-filling scenes. Also, the music is extremely appropriate. To those who have seen Onegai! Teacher or Onegai! Twins, the musical effect is very similar. Sudden crescendoes and modern instrumentality accompany even the dramatic moments of the series.
Overall (33/40): Overall, it is an anime worth watching. It gives you a warm feeling inside and is also good for first-timers and especially recommended for the romantic types among you. One small note, though this is a personal opinion: the title may not be what it had been intended to be during development. I believe the title Air is only a mistranslation (frequent occurrence). I believe this because the last episode's title is also translated Air, while the Japanese word used is "sora", which would translate into Sky, which I would personally find more appropriate.
"Windows 98 este cel mai prost sistem de operare dintre toate care exista!"... yep, that's what my teacher said. He's a respectable and knowledgable person, so I tend to believe him. He also described in detail how "Unfortunately, Windows stopped being good after version 3.11" and "Windows started becoming more and more unstable, culminating with Windows 98".
