“kureshii has been scarce lately because kureshii is super-busy with a bunch of stuff, but before kureshii leaves, kureshii will leave a blog post,” says kureshii as he tries to be a good host (I know MISAKA is pretty annoying, but that manner of speech is so infectious >_<)
Today’s post is about one of the biggest, if not the biggest surprise this season: Saucy Barmaid-chan!
If they had banned slow-mo effects in the production of 300, it would have ended in half the time, and been twice as enjoyable.
Whoever came up with that stop-start slow-mo effect and thought it was a good idea should be beheaded.
Oh, and shoot the narrator while you’re beheading that slow-mo guy, please.
As some of you may know Wiedźmin (Eng: the Witcher) is a game, series and sequential novel by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski.
The PC game came out in 2007. While I was playing it it felt like there was much more to the story than explained in the game so I Googled for a bit and found out about the novels and a Polish series called Wiedźmin. I watched the series for a bit but it was a little disappointing, the story didn’t explain much and I was getting really interested in the novels.
Last year I bought the English translation of the first novel: the Last Wish and I liked it a lot. I recently found out the second book has also been translated into English: Blood of Elves, and it’s now lying on my desk ready to be read 🙂
What I like so much about the story is that not everything is what it seems to be at first and quite often good and bad are not so easy to separate.
If you like fantasy with a serious story (like Lord of the Rings, but less epic) I can really recommend the Witcher. I liked it a lot.
Shinigami No Ballad is a 6 episode series consisting of 6 short stories (each story 1 episode long). The main premise of the story is centred around a Shinigami named Momo and the people she deals with. (By the way, A Shinigami is a ‘gatekeeper” to the afterlife’) While there were great moments in the individual stories, I found the series as a whole to be rather lacking. Although all of the story premises we’re great, the last 3 episodes suffered from a bad case of “cheesey storytelling”.
Story 3.8/5
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The first 3 episodes we’re brilliant. The stories we’re all done very well with a great “mystery” aspect to them. Granted, its difficult to pull of an effect story in 20 minutes, but from the first moments, these episodes we’re quite enthralling. (4.5/5) Now, where this series suffers (and gets a much lower score) is in the last 3 episodes. As stated above they suffered from a case of “cheesyness” and seemed rather predictable and bland. If they had maintained the same momentum as they had with the three preceding episodes, the series would have been MUCH better off.
Characters 2.2/5
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Not good. It honestly felt as though it could have been the exact same character playing in each episode. There were no “defining characteristics” that made individuals stand out from episode to episode. Nothing memorable or exciting in the character department.
Sound 3.5/5
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The music and sounds were very fitting and well executed most of the time.
There we a few moments when the style seemed out of place with the atmosphere, but by-and-large, a job well done. The musical style is your typical animé-esque type background music. A helpful bout of strings, piano, and electronic keyboard create a classic animé atmosphere. The sound effects were very standard and casual, but well placed and executed.
Art 4/5
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It would be silly to expect complex animation or art style in an animé as simple as this one. Though the art wasn’t exceptional, it did fit the style of the story perfectly and had a rather unique feel to it. Job well done.
Overall 3.5/5
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In the end, Shinigami No Ballad was a rather decent animé. The first half of the series excelled with excellent plots and storytelling. I just wish they had stuck with it for the last half as well. Although not extraordinary, the animé as a whole was an enjoyable watch and certainly not a waste of time.
Recommended to anyone who wants to see a series that light-heartedly experiments with the idea of death and reflection on ones own life.
Review Time:
Tomoyo After Original Soundtrack
Here we have the original soundtrack to the Tomoyo arc of the infamous Clannad series. With styles ranging from lush orchestration to grungy industrial, this album captivated me and, at times, forced me to press the “skip track” button. But when all is said and done, what we’re left with is a very well produced, emotional filled soundtrack. At 21 tracks in size, it would be a bit much to review each song individually. Basically we’re looking at 3 awesome tracks, 11 good tracks, and 7 “meh” tracks.
The 3 tracks that stood out the most to me were 13, 14, and 15.
13 – Memories
Opens with a thoughtful musicbox/orgel interlude, and slowly morphs into a simple but beautiful melody between clarinet, musicbox, and strings. I loved it because of its simple inherit beauty. It’s sort of like a nostalgic reflection of one childhood. (It’s funny because I typed that before I realized the name of the track was “memories”)
14 – Love Song
Best song of the album in my opinion; A beautiful, emotional, reflective piano piece. I absolutely love that “airy reverb” tonal quality of the piano. Technically-speaking, the piano was split into multiple tracks and sent through different reverbs or “spaces” that, in turn, create a great feeling and atmosphere to accompany the gorgeous melodies.
15 – Harmony with Sorrow
I’m not exactly sure why I loved this one. It’s just a simple, well-done, and captivating piece of music, perfect for accompanying an emotional anime like Clannad. The spacing and atmosphere of the mix is perfect. Everything sounds in its place and well executed. A lush air pad carried along by simple percussion lays the foundation as various instruments weave a fabric of sound around it…
In the end, the Tomoyo After Original Soundtrack is a perfect blend of emotional and captivating music. I was a bit disappointed in a few of the tracks that didn’t fit in with the rest of the album, but once you skip past those (or delete them) the album is simply wonderful! Highly recommended!
(psst, you can find a flac rip of it on Box…)