Digital: A Love Story, henceforth to be referred to as simply Digital, is a Visual Novel type game, but with many rather unique differences. To start, there is only one path for the game. No good or bad ending, just an ending. Secondly, the game takes about one hour to complete. Just a single hour of your time. There are no character drawings or animations that appear, it is all just text. And yet, it provides some very interesting characters that you genuinely begin to care about.

The game basically takes place back when the internet was new, and you are using an interface designed to be like the old Amiga computers. In the process of the story, you connect to Bulletin Board Systems, read messages, dial into other ones with your virtual modem, and begin to piece together the plot, story, and characters.

The game in short and in spoiler form is about an AI you meet online without knowing she is an AI, she seems to be showing some major interest in you, then the BBS you were using goes down, along with a list of dead AIs appearing on another BBS that contains her name, which also is your clue that she is an AI. It turns out there is a virus attacking AIs. You manage to save her, and she then goes and sacrifices herself to destroy the virus so it won’t destroy any other AIs.

You are the typical silent protagonist, but it is taken to the extreme. You can reply to messages, but you never see your reply, nor do you ever encounter the choose an option. You simply choose to reply, and by replying to the right messages, you learn more about the setting, plot, or characters. Funny enough, while it sounds uninteresting, as you cannot see or interact with the other characters in the ways other visual novels allow, it actually adds a layer of mystery as to who these people really are. You receive responses from someone, who beyond a username is a total mystery.

Even plot elements have a feel of actually having achieved something. While another game may have you hack a computer by choosing the choice, Digital has you hack a computer by getting the hacking program, getting long distance codes, getting the address of the place, and actually preforming the hack. You need to reply to most every message to get all the details needed to advance the plot, such as the programs that allow you to hack into another BBS or to recover Emilia.

Instead of just choosing an option, you actually have to remember what other people said, put two and two together and then deduce from there how to proceed. As there is no ‘wrong’ answer that can really be given, you will always have the information required to proceed, it just takes a little bit of reasoning to get it all to work.

To summarize, it is an hour long game that does somehting unique and different, is absolutely free, made by one person, and is actually pretty compelling.

Score: 5/5

Pros: everything about it just works. Every element of the game helps to reinforce the story and characters, while nothing is really allowed to break the immersion. Characters are compelling, and the plot is interesting.

Cons: The only con is that I can’t really find anything to complain about. Even the single ending doesn’t discourage replay value.

You can get Digital from here: http://scoutshonour.com/digital/

Final suggestion: Get the game. It is honestly worth it.

Show: XYZ, it is currently streaming on DEF.

*Disclaimer: I do have the right to reject the majority vote if there is no realistic way for me to review the title in question (for example the sequel to a show that I have no watched, or something that would take too long for me to review like One Piece or Naruto)

The poll will run for one week starting tonight and will end May 19^th at 6:00 PM EST.

Update: So it is a little late for the update but the polls are closed.  Since it was a tie between Blue Drop and Escaflowne I will review both titles.

Eve no Jikan is a show released by a rather small animation studio, hence the two month and above release times between episodes. If yu don’t recall having seen the show on tv, that would be because it was apparently netcast. I can better explain that by saying it was shown for free online instead of broadcast, which gives you an idea how big the budget of the show was.

The main story revolves at first around a boy and what seems to be his robot. To be more accurate, as it has a human form it would be an android. To be pedantic, as it has a female form, it would by a gynoid. It is never really clear if the robot is his directly, or a possession of his family.

Either way, she has been going to an area she was never ordered to go to, so he and his friend go there to find a cafe, where the one rule is there will be no discrimination between humans and androids. To that effect, all androids there shut off their glowing halo rings that advertise that they are not, in fact, human. The name of the cafe? No other than Eve no Jikan (Time of Eve.) Even the items in the cafe, as well as when it shows up in a movement log on a robot all say ‘Are you enjoying the time of eve?’

Each episode from then on concentrates on the main characters and each of the other people who frequent the cafe. Each episode then ends up fleshing out some specific characters, and the overall effect ends up being a greater understanding of the main characters, as well as evolution of the main characters. The one boy who owns Sammy (the robot initially mentioned) opens up a bit more, and starts to emerge a bit. To betetr explain it, we find out from Sammy that he had quit a bunch of the things he loved, but as the episodes progress, he starts to go back to the things he enjoys, as well as make more friends at the cafe.

In the last episode, we find out the relationship between the second main character and his father, as well as with his robot. We also find out a bunch of details about his past that he had buried due to the emotional trauma it had caused him at the time.

I honestly do not want to give out spoilers, but I will say that each episode is genuinely interesting, and really served to further the story and develop the characters.

Even more impressive is that Eve no Jikan tells an interesting and compelling story almost solely through the characters discussions at the cafe. Other locations that appear include the home (main room only) of the main character, the bedroom of his friend, their room at the school they attend, the city and outside of Eve no Jikan cafe (no more than twice, I believe) and the cafe itself. Almost all of the time is spent at the cafe and is spent talking with other patrons, visitors, or the owner.

The one theme that is repeated is that machines are not anywhere near human, and that is shown by their stiff and steryotypical manner when interacted with outside of Eve no Jikan. If you want to ask a question, you state ‘Question’ at which point the robot will acknowledge you, then you may ask a question. This reeks of the old-fashioned idea of what communication with machines would be like, as in the old ‘Computer, beam us down’ commands. If they wanted machines to be like interacting with a computer, asking a question would be a command more like:

10 start program

or perhaps

System; 0==0,{Question$}

The use of the specific method of communication seems only to be a throwback to how older science fiction thought computers would be, and seems like an unnecessary addition to the not human aspect, seeing as the robots have glowing halos. Not only that, but when they appear at the cafe, each is capable of full annunciation, comprehension, and human speech. All of the commands and short sentences of the public interactons just vanish, which means the robots can communicate in a way that is easy for the people using them, which would be ideal in a product that is voice controlled, which is why it makes no sense that they respond to such archaic-sounding commands.

To spoil a bit of the end, what happens is the main antagonist (I don’t want to spoil it all) sends an adroid to investigate Eve no Jikan, but they find out it is an android and send it away (not too many spoilers) and the main antagonist lists Eve no Jikan as a place that is pending further investigation before being closed or allowed to continue business.

And that is all. The story ends there. The Eve no Jikan website apparently hinted at a second season, which would be nice. As it stands, Eve no Jikan introduces the characters, fleshes them out, and introduces a central conflict. The central conflict here can serve to band together the people and robots in the cafe to fight for the cafe against the antagonists. In short, Eve no Jikan is currently only the introduction and rising action of a story.

While it is very good, and very interesting, it still is not a complete story. Just saying ‘The End’ does not end your story, a conclusion ends your story.

Depending on who you ask, introducing the central conflict is either part of the rising action or part of the exposition. Notice where they land on the chart. For those who don’t ant to look, they fall at the part OPPOSITE OF THE ENDING.

Eve no Jikan is amazing. The characters are amazingly well done. The central conflict adds interest. The whole interactions that show the robots as to be similar to humans with similar thoughts and desires is interesting. The whole message of maybe they aren’t so different is compelling.

And as good as I think Eve no Jikan is, it still is only half or less than half of a complete story. Sadly, that is why I will reserve a reccommendation.

Just for the fun of it, while people use creativity to separate people from robots, robots have already started being creative. For instance, one classical composer is a computer. Eve no Jikan must have heard of this, as they show robots to be essentially people (as they could very well be in personality) with the only difference being that we are biological and think with a lump of flesh, while they are metal, and think with silicon and other exotic materials.

The reason I am being hard about the story is that Eve no Jikan comes across as being more about the story than about the show. It forgoes things like opening songs and flashy opening animations in favor of a few lines of text that introduce the background, then the episode starts up right after that. The only real songs are over the end credits, and a short soundtrack that plays almost every time the Even no Jikan cafe sign appears on camera. As the elements in the show push it more heavily towards the story side of story vs entertainment, it should have a full story that matches what it wants us to take away.

anyways, final score: 4/5 good. A great story set off by not being a complete story

Pros: utterly amazing. I wish I had words to describe how good it is.

Cons: It is yet to be a complete story. In fact, just when we begin to have total interest in the conflict is when they choose to say ‘we have done enough for now. Maybe we will make more episodes some other time.’

Eve no Jikan still is making it on my list of favorite series (in fact, it is likely making it on as my second favorite series of all time), but that lack of a real ending and climax and most of the rising action really puts a horsefly in that ointment. Not just a housefly or gnat, but a full-on horsefly.

Sites of information and links:

I found out about the series from this website: http://www.kuroneko-chan.com/echoes/?p=643

The website for Eve no Jikan can be found here: http://timeofeve.com/e/

And that’s almost all for today, except that I do suggest watching it. I can’t yet fully recommend it, as it feels incomplete, but I do suggest watching it. It is available on crunchyroll but requires the free trial or premium to watch, sadly.

Plot: I can spoil as much as I want, because the movie starts with the ending, and the rest is a flashback to explain how the ending came about. In short, the main character and his sister are sent to live with their aunt, due to the fact that their mother died in a firebombing. They cannot stand living with their aunt, so they run away. Unlike every other series and movie where the power of love and friendship would save them, reality intervenes and the rest of the movie is spent watching two children starve to death.

This isn’t just a dose or a shot of reality, it’s drinking the whole bottle and drowning yourself in the brewery of reality. This movie is emotionally like a dominatrix who ‘forgot’ the safeword. It’s several other amusing metaphors and similes that I forgot to write down and thus cannot tell you.

Due to the deaths of the children and the horrible deaths of other people, this movie is frequently used as an anti-war movie. However, it seems that that is happenstance and not an intention of the movie. The movie is apparently based off of a semi-autobiographical book of the same name written by author Akiyuki Nosaka, who is essentially Seita. The comparisons run close-Akiyuki Nosaka even lost a younger sister to malnutrition. The story thus seems to be, and according to some people, is supposed to be an apology by Nosaka to his sister for what he feels is his failure to properly take care of her. That little tidbit serves to make the movie more powerful: the movie is no longer just a sad tale, it IS the failings of not just society, but of individuals as well.

The biggest failure and the reason why Seita could not stand their aunt, and thus had them run away, was not the fault of his aunt, but his pride that he would not swallow and allow himself to survive. Even when they have the chance to return to their aunt, which would have ensured their survival, Seita nixes that due to his pride, dooming them.

If anything, Seita is Howard Roark.Seita is also (probably) John Galt, depending on which book you read. Let me explain: Ayn Rand is a love or hate with no grey area author. Grave of the Fireflies is a love or hate movie with no grey area.

For a comparison that is not so weak, the main characters in all of those are perfect to a fault. Ayn Rand makes characters that will never sacrifice their ideals, and Seita never sacrifices his pride. In both cases, characters will not sacrifice their ideals, even if doing so would spare their life. A vegetarian in the Ayn Rand universe would starve to death locked in a room with only meats, as they would not eat meat, even to save their life. In the same vein, Seita can’t or wont swallow his pride so that he may live. The difference is that Ayn Rand usually has her protagonist succeed at the end, usually with a very long winded speech, while Seita has the realistic ending, and his pride and refusal to sacrifice any of that pride leads to his death, instead of a long speech and glory.

Beyond the Ayn Rand note, I have nothing else of worth to say that has not already been said a thousand times. That fact alone is really saddening, as such a good movie deserves more than I could give it. However, even though I watched it this year, that more than I gave it likely does not include an OVA/animated movie of the year award from me.

Score: 4/5 very good

Pros: It is a simply amazing story, heartwrenching, saddening, and all that other good stuff

Cons: Only good for one watch-it is the greatest movie you will never want to see again. Essentially an Ayn Rand story with realism thrown in. The use of the ending to start the movie means that any surprise is lost, and probably some emotional power, as you already know how it will end.

Thoughts: Barefoot Gen is supposedly the only movie that is greater than Grave of the Fireflies, and supposedly also the hardest movie to sit through, and even more emotionally powerful. I highly suggest watching Grave of the Fireflies, but keep the much more cheerful My Neighbor Totoro nearby so you can ease the depression.

The plot is so basic as to be non-existent. Actually, I would like to say that is true, but the plot simply is not there. There isn’t even a Lucky Star or K-on! type of plot where there are jokes and such, bu they at least age as the story progresses. K-on was mostly 4 panel format (better known as 4-koma) and the characters went through the years of high school. Imouto Wa Shishunki has none of that. I could settle for no changes and progressions in the characters so that they remain 2 dimensional, but they don’t even age. Nothing at all changes about them.

Given that the plot isn’t there, along with the parents of all these high school kids, One would expect then that the adults in the story would be reasonable, responsible people. Luckily for me, that doesn’t happen. the adults are more perverted than the students, to the extent of making jokes at the students that I am sure would be harassment at the very least. They do lampshade this with a single strip where the straight man girl asks if she should sue, and the teacher says they’d prefer not.

There are no jokes beyond innuendo. However, they do mix it up occasionally with bad innuendo or jokes that just fall flat. Sometimes, they even go for the beating a dead horse joke. Yes, Okazu as a sidedish or as a ‘sidedish’ may have been funny the first time. It was less funny the second time, and it becomes exponentially less funny each time.

Perhaps if the series had anything other than jokes for those who are 15 or who never mentally grew out of being 15, then it may actually be funny. I will admit innuendo can be really funny, but it is a very hard joke to pull off. Having the jokes be nothing but innuendo makes them terribly repetitive and predictable. Innuendo at just the right moment can get a snicker out of most anyone with a sense of humor, but it is a form of humor that is so easily overused. And Imouto Wa Shishunki doesn’t just overuse it to the point of boredom, it overuses it to the point where you would be happy to never hear another innuendo joke, no matter how well done, ever again. To top it off, most of the jokes simply are not funny.

Score: 0/5 pretty bad

I’m not going to give it a pro and con debate. It isn’t offensive bad, it is a comedy. It has one task to do: be funny. And it isn’t funny. It totally failed on the one thing it is supposed to do. It isn’t as good as a swing and a miss: it swings the bat before the ball is even thrown and knocks itself out with a blow to the head.

Review

Did you enjoy the bits of drama that were given in the first half of this series? If you did and wanted more drama then your prayers have been answered with the second half of this series. The drama dial has been turned up in this half of the series and in turn as a result this is where this show shines its brightest. These last six episodes are the strongest the series has to offer and with all that goes on in these episodes it is not hard to see why they are the strongest.

These six episodes which can be split into three separate arcs do several things, one is starts to take the show away from the light heart moments along with the otaku targeting aspects and gives the show a more realistic touch. Second and possibly the most important aspect is that we get some good old fashion character development for most of the main cast members.

The strongest episodes are easily seven and eight, along with eleven and twelve. These four episodes are hit with the drama hammer the hardest compared to episode nine and ten which while still have their share of drama serve more as a character focused episodes. These two episodes while they are not bad at all do not quite have the punch as the episodes before and the episodes after it.

When the character develop through out these six episodes they go from more than just their initial traits and to an extent become more realistic. The girls while they are still children start to worry more about their living arrangements and worry about each other. Yuuta starts to develop more into a father figure for the girls instead of still just a guardian for the girls. Of course Yuuta is still far from the perfect parent and it shows but that also brings him to a more realistic level instead of just a perfect parent.

There is still some fanservice present here with a small amount in episode nine and ten but none of this takes away from the shots that are present in.

The OP and ED are the same from the first half so no change here, but I will say that music is quite effective with helping the tone of the series especially in the last couple episodes. If there is one thing that I do have to say is a problem is that hearing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in English does not sound so great, especially begin sung by a three year old? I mean if a three year old talks like a three year old how would they be able to sing that song that is not in their native tounge.

These last six episodes of Listen to Me Girls, I am Your Father! is much heavier in the drama department and it works without being heavy handed. The cast becomes more developed and in turns becomes a tad more realistic as well.

Score 4/5

Pros: More drama then before, character development, the music
Cons: The fanservice aspects may upset those who do not like underage fanservice, the English

Show’s overall score: 4/5

Listen to Me Girls, I am your Father is currently streaming on CrunchyRoll

The show is also streaming on TAN

The Tales franchise has never really had amazing or original stories, tending to stick to the same tropes and cliches, and Tales of Graces f is no exception. This game follows Asbel Lhant, heir to lord of the independent territory of Lhant, as he and an amnesiac girl he found in a meadow go on a quest that tests the bonds of friendship and all that good stuff and save the world when it inevitably ends up in peril. I won’t spoil the identity of the villain, but I will say he has the familiar motivation of, “People are bad and all of humanity should die for it,” and he’s defeated by the powers of love and friendship and kindness and whatnot. You may remember this same type of villain from Tales of Symphonia, Tales of the Abyss, Tales of Vesperia, and more things that I could possibly name.

Accompanying the lacklustre story is a boatload of groan-worthy dialogue about friendship and etc. You can only listen to people talk about how important friendship is so many times, which Tales of Graces f surpasses by the halfway point. This is made worse by the poor characterization that surrounds these friendships. The game tries to build the friendship between Asbel and Richard by setting the early part of the game during their childhood. But it doesn’t build this friendship very well. The two hang out as kids twice, and while Asbel does save Richard’s life, it’s hard to believe they’d still be such close friends when they don’t see each other for seven years.

What Graces lacks in story and writing it makes up for in gameplay. The game uses the standard Linear Motion Battle System of the franchise, where characters move around a battlefield on a striaght line to attack enemies. But like all the previous games, Graces puts its own spin on the system and uses the Style Shift LMBS, giving every character two different styles of fighting. Sort of. It says you can switch styles, but it really just means characters have two different kinds of attacks, Assault-Artes and Burst-Artes. Assault-Artes replace ordinary attacks from previous games, and Burst-Artes are just like Artes from any previous game. For most of the characters Burst-Artes are just spells, making them no different than any spell caster from previous games.

While B-Artes function like the Artes in any previous Tales game (a list of artes which can be assigned to the circle button + a direction), A-Artes work a little differently than the old standard attacks. A-Artes are divided into 4 levels, and each level has different attacks that are used by holding a certain direction while attacking. A 1st level A-Arte can lead into any 2nd level A-Arte, and so on. This allows you to mix and match any combination of the different levels to do a variety of combos. A-Artes can also loop around, so when you do a 4th level A-Arte, you can do another 1st level and so on, continuing until you run out of Chain Capacity.

Chain Capacity is what this game uses instead of the standard TP of previous games, originally appearing in the Tales of Destiny PS2 remake that never reached North American shores. All characters have a CC range based on their equipped weapon, which determines how much CC they start the fight with and how high it can get from doing damage to enemies. Since CC is used for both A-Artes and B-Artes, it replenishes on its own when you stop attacking or perform certain actions such as timing your dodges well, instead of being replenished with an item. This makes combos a little easier, since as long as you have CC you can attack non-stop, and makes long drawn out fights less of a hassle since you don’t have to worry about healers constantly running out of TP.

Another change this game makes to the standard Tales formula is the removal of an overworld map to travel between towns and dungeons. Instead, the game has fields, long stretches of road that connect areas and are filled with monsters and the occasional NPC. This change has its positives and negatives. One major positive is the near complete removal of pointless filler dungeons. Since there’s no world map, there’s no need to put some random monster filled forest between two towns to pad out the game. Any time you do end up in a random cave or dungeon, there’s a plot excuse for being there. Unfortunately, the lack of a world map means getting between towns involves repeatedly traversing these completely straight roads or paying a transport to take you from town to town. The world also feels smaller in general, since different towns need to reachable by foot, and there’s next to no exploration to be done.

Tales of Graces f also finds a new way to use the character titles that have been present in the series since Tales of Eternia. In previous games the titles offered stat bonuses, either upon being equipped or when the character levelled up. This time around the titles still offer stat bonuses when equipped, but their main function is teaching new skills to characters. Every title has five ranks and can be levelled up with Skill Points that are earned in every fight. Every rank of a title teaches a new skill, which can be simple stat boosts, new artes, resistance to status ailments, and a number of other things. Essentially they function as another levelling system, and the more important one since titles are the only way to learn new artes.

The main addition to Tales of Graces f compared to the Wii version of the game (which wasn’t released here) is the extra story mode, called Lineages and Legacies. It takes place six months after the end of the main story and follows the characters after they have returned to their normal duties and are dealing with the aftermath of the crisis, when suddenly another threat arises and they set off again to deal with it. Unfortunately, the story in Lineages and Legacies really isn’t any better than the main game. The villain wants to destroy mankind because they’re bad, and the heroes hug her into submission. This is made up for by the skits, short optional conversations between characters, which are focused more on humour than they are during the main game, and really are the best part of Lineages and Legacies.

Aside from Lineages and Legacies, there’s not very much extra content in the game. There are side-quests, but many of them are incredibly short and offer no substantial rewards. These tend to tie in to the Inn Requests, which require you to bring certain items to the Inn in each city for rewards. The most substantial side-quest in the game is the bonus dungeon, known as the Zhonecage. The Zhonecage is a 10 floor randomly generated dungeon that is only available in the post-game. It’s an entirely silly event involving an old butler’s collection of dirty pictures and the heroes getting high on eleth (in-game term, I’m not explaining it).

There’s not really much to say about the game graphically or musically. It’s a port of a Wii game, so it obviously doesn’t have the kind of graphics you’d expect from a PS3 game. The game also uses mo-cap for some of the cutscenes, featuring those weird exaggerated movements from anything mo-capped in Japan, which makes it a little difficult to take some scenes seriously. This game has Motoi Sakuraba’s most forgettable soundtrack. I seriously don’t remember what the normal battle music sounds like, and I’ve heard that at least 2500 times. The series could really benefit from a change in composer at this point.

While Tales of Graces f isn’t the best or most creative game of the series, its new spin on the standard Tales battle system still makes it a fun game to play. The story may be cliche and un-original, but it still has a few entertaining or funny moments. While it would have been nice to have a larger amount of extra things to do post-game, the few things that are there can be quite long, taking the total playtime of the game beyond 70 hours. It’s not a great game, but the fun and fast-paced battle system makes it worth at least checking out.

Score: 3/5

Pros: Fun battle system, some funny moments in the extra content, decent playtime

Cons: Unoriginal story, cliche villain, not much variety in extra content

Purchase Tales of Graces f at Amazon

Right, that is out of the way, time to review as best I can Nana to Kaoru. First, this will be really hard to review. I originally intended to try to find someone experienced with this who i could e-mail for information about the situations and character relationships in this manga, but that Id ea got tossed out as rather impractical. As such, all my knowledge will come from wikipedia.

The plot of the story revolves around two childhood friends. As is the law, one is male, the other female, and they enter into a relationship throughout the books. Except their relationship is a BDSM relationship started by her trying on a leather outfit thing (I don’t know the specific name of it) and then getting interested in BDSM. Later on, another girl joins in, and the guy is now the dominant with two female submissives.

Like I stated, this is somehting I know nothing about. So I will try to review this as best as I can.

The series revolves around the BDSM play, and what little plot there is is merely filler between or extensions of the BDSM play, such as when the first girl has to go out shopping while in bondage.

The plot just isn’t really there, but there is a lot of BDSM play, and when the second girl finds out, they get her to try by showing her that it isn’t like how it is commonly portrayed in the media.

Honestly, I have nothing to really say beyond that. I can’t really talk about the BDSM which is the overwhelming majority of the story because this website is child-friendly, and also because it is somehting I know nothing about. All I can say is that everything they do has an actual name for whatever it is, and a thanks to wikipedia for giving me that knowledge.

Score: I won’t give it one. Let me explain: I don’t think it is bad. I think it will appeal only to people who like BDSM, and everyone else will simply have no interest in it. Is it good? Bad? I don’t know. I just know it is for one specific group of people that the rest of us are outsiders to, and it will make little or no sense for us.

Buy this if you like BDSM, don’t buy it if you don’t.

Caveat: I will try to find someone to talk to about this, but it is on the bottom of my priority list. If I can find someone, then I may revisit this manga at a later date.

But Moretsu Uchuu Kaizoku (Being a show originating in Japan, I will be using the Japanese name to refer to the show) isn’t just good because of the fact that it has some of the great veterans of sci-fi series, but because it also shows a great amount of promise. At this point, the show seems as if it could ascend into greatness.

Moretsu Uchuu Kaizoku is made by the studio that was behind Macross Frontier. Not only that, but Moretsu Uchuu Kaizoku is also directed by sci-fi veteran Tetsuo Sato, who is also responsible for Stellvia of the Universe and Martian Successor Nadesico.

Given that heritage, it would be hard for the show to be truley bad. A flop might have been possible, but with the heritage and abilities of the director, success was almost guaranteed.

The main character is cheerful enough, which is a great alternative to other sci-fi shows currently running, such as Guilty Crown.

Obviously, this series is about pirates in space. The backstory is that a planet was colonized, and then they fought a war against the Galactic Empire/Government. They (the planet) did not have enough resources, so they used Letters of Marque to have legal pirates fight on their side. Long story short, the planet gained their independence, and has a peace with the big Galactic Empire Government thing.

As it happens, legal government (the planet) approved pirate ships and pirates are still around, still working as, well, pirates. As it so happens, the main character inherits a pirate ship, as her father who was the captain died and her mother had retired from being a pirate.

As a result of her age, she now has to juggle high school and being captain of a pirate ship. Funny enough, while any other series might make that concept into something of endless suffering for the audience, Moretsu Uchuu Kaizoku manages to avoid that. The main character manages to attend school and school activities and yet also captains the pirate ship without lots (or any) angst.

Early in the story, she was somewhat partnered with another girl who makes the occasional appearance. This girl is quiet and seemingly emotionless, but the dynamic between the two just works. The veteran/rookie dynamic is pretty much at play, as well as the emotionless/happy-go-lucky is also working concurrently, making interactions between the two genuinely interesting.

On top of that, the main character is rather smart and quick to grasp concepts, so the veteran/rookie dynamic gets thrown for a loop sometimes when the rookie figures out and succeeds at something the veteran didn’t think of or didn’t think would work.

At this moment, the characters are about half high school archetypes, and half space pirate archetypes. Again, while most may have made that a concept I would have winced at the mere though of, Moretsu Uchuu Kaizoku makes the idea not only work, but work well to add some dimension to what would have otherwise been either a high schooler struggling to be a pirate, or a pirate struggling to fit in a high school.

Even better, Moretsu Uchuu Kaizoku shows a lot of promise: not every character is fully fleshed out, or even partially fleshed out, but each is interesting enough now that the viewer genuinely cares about what happens, and wishes to see more. Depending on how these characters get fleshed out, Moretsu Uchuu Kaizoku has the potential to be a VERY long running series.

Moretsu Uchuu Kaizoku is, simply enough, a space story set in the far future with lots of technology that is secondary to the story. Moretsu Uchuu Kaizoku has a bit of an epic character to it. The universe is big (how big is yet to be learned), there may end up being lots of sprawling civilizations, and there is an Empire.

In super short, Moretsu Uchuu Kaizoku is a space opera. Space Opera-one of the more interesting sci-fi subgenres. Technology is prevalent, but the story is more important. There are lots of grand adventures, anger, intrigue, excitement. Spaceships full of space veterans explore the known limits of space, while pirates prey on the unguarded, and a possible enemy empire may threaten the peace of the existing Galactic empire.

What other anime space operas exist? Well, thanks to TvTropes, I can give you a list.

Review:

The phrase “Don’t judge a book by its cover” would be best used to describe the first six episodes of Listen to Me Girls, I am your Father! The picture used in this review would probably give you the impression that this show was full of lolis (okay so two of the girls are lolis), fanservice hijinks, and some good old otaku pandering. In a shocking sense this is not completely true here with episodes 1 thru 6.

What we get here in the first six episodes is focusing on the plot instead of just going head first with otaku jokes and fun sight gags. The big focus on these episodes is going from the world the girls and the Yῡta live in normally to this brand new world that they suddenly forced into. This is where the series has its biggest strength. While the show could have easily taken the route is focus solely on the hardcore fanbase the show decides to bit a both here and it works would well here. The show features aspects that will please those who enjoy hardcore otaku elements (lolis, moe) in their shows and those that want more focus on plot and less on otaku subjects.

While having a strong story is important for any show, having a likeable (for the most part) cast of characters is also essential and this show does not disappoint there. What makes this ensemble of characters work is for the most part the cast is likeable and believable as well. Yῡta while only 19 has to accept and come to grips with having to raise three children on his own with a very limited budget. The girls have to accept their new living situations also while worrying about themselves. Supplementing the main cast comes with a cast of characters who falls between likeable and unlikeable. Most of the Yῡta’s college friends understand what he has been thrust into and do their best to help him out. Sato and of the girl’s one uncle are the only unlikeable cast members here but neither of these two are given enough screen time to bring down the show as a whole.

Feel, the company who is doing the animation for this show (they have also done animation for Mayo Chiki!,and Kiss X Sis along with some other titles) does an okay job but the art and animation leave a lot of be desired. The character designs are generic and there is a good bit of moe here (not a bad thing at all) used for the females. There is a lot of CG used especially with trains when they move and some characters in the background when they are walking. The CG is jarring by the fact it looks so dated by today’s standards. There is a bit of fanservice here in these first six episodes and in turn of what you may expect it is pretty light as a whole mostly of bathing scenes (which I do not count as fanservice), and few scenes of very brief panty shots. None of the fanservice takes away from any of the scenes that they occur in.

I like the OP it is a bit touching, but that is all I remember of it. The music left no impression with me so I will not talk about it. There are some notable VA’s who lend this voice to their series. Wataru Hatano gives Yῡta his voice but sounds generic as a male lead. Eri Kitamura (who you may remember from the classic series Kodomo no Jikan as the main character Rin) gives Miu who voice and so far is part of the few standout voices for the series. The other being Hiromi Igarashi who does a great job with giving Hina her voice and does a good job with sounding like a real three year old.

The first six episodes of Listen to Me Girls, I am your Father! is not bad as it sounds. Sure the animation is generic along with the character designs and dated CG being used, but the plot and the likeable cast make up for where the other areas of the show lag.

Score: 3/5

Pros: Likeable cast, the plot
Cons: Generic in just about every which way from animation, to voice acting, and music.

Listen to Me Girls, I am your father is streaming on Crunchyroll

Also streaming The Anime Network