Archive for the 'Anime' Category

Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood’s Greatest Improvement

Sunday, August 22nd, 2010

Warning: this post is 100% spoilers. If you haven’t seen both FMA series, pay very close attention to the next two lines before deciding whether to read any further. Full Metal Alchemist (plus Movie): +++ Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood: +++ FMA:B has too much to cover, so instead of reviewing the whole series, I’ll just [...]

The Gay Ninja Show: Still Gay

Thursday, August 12th, 2010

You know that gay show about emo ninjas I stopped watching approximately two years ago? Well I recently decided to give Nabari no Ou another chance. Every so often I fumble a show, that is to say, I drop it unintentionally. Such was the fate of Nabari no Ou upon its licensing. I cared so [...]

Double Overtime: Finishing Eyeshield 21 and Slam Dunk

Saturday, August 7th, 2010

Slam Dunk Originally aired: 1993-96 Began watching: 2004 Ran out of subs: 2004 Number of Episodes: 101 Episodes missed: 89-101 (training for the national tournament) Thoughts: Too many crappy jokes. At times it’s worse than Lucky Star, no exaggeration. Picking up the series during a filler stretch was painful. The game is portrayed fairly realistically. [...]

Five Minor Gripes with Seikon no Qwaser

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

1. The final boss is the Qwaser of Gold The philosophers among you might appreciate the symbolism of gold being the ultimate evil and iron overcoming it. Productive people realize that gold is one of the most industrially useless elements on the periodic table. The Qwaser of Oxygen suffocated people. The Qwaser of Sodium caused [...]

Japan’s Metronome Crisis

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010

The Ichigo 100% ending sequence might seem ok if you don’t have any rhythm. Otherwise it’s painfully off-beat. The strawberries are off, the marching is off, and the marching doesn’t even sync up with the strawberries. Did they think we wouldn’t notice? Did they think we wouldn’t care? I don’t know anything about hand-drawn graphics, [...]

False Start and Forward Progress

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

Behavioral and psychological studies have repeatedly shown that people value first impressions and final impressions a lot more than anything in between. Not me. I’m a middle man. Some of favorite shows have beginnings or endings that flat-out suck, but none of my favorite shows are anything short of brilliant in the middle. To account [...]

More anime I haven’t seen and can’t meaningfully critique

Friday, May 28th, 2010

With my eyes currently out of commission, I’ve had to ignore a lot of anime I’d otherwise carefully and diligently research before ignoring. Spice and Wolf II: She still has a tail – get over it. Basquash: Stupid title Revolutionary Girl Utena Movie: Why bother watching anything that’s open to interpretation? Evangelion Movies: All I’ve heard [...]

Mouryou no Hako was better when I could see

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

I started watching Mouryou no Hako back in 2008. The show was great. My eyes were great. Unfortunately, neither was meant to last. Subbing for the show quickly slowed to a halt. At the time I couldn’t believe that fansubbers were running from a lesbian murder mystery. Now I can’t blame them. I wouldn’t be [...]

The Useless Character Hall of Shame: Mizuki Asami (Cross Game)

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

You’d think a guy who spent his whole life training in the mountains couldn’t possibly be useless. Indeed, he appeared to be quite the badass when we first saw him. Score Too bad he’s totally irrelevant for the rest of the show. He sucks up to Aoba. Aoba is oblivious. Rinse and repeat. Nothing ever [...]

Real Men have Sideburns

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

90% of all betesticled anime characters look like girls. Many have six-pack abs yet act like complete pussies. Only one part of the body never lies: sideburns. In this dark age of androgyny and pedophilia, sideburns are the only reliable indicator of manliness. Thick, thin, long, short, neat, sloppy, straight, tapered—as long as you have [...]

Taishou Yakyuu Musume is what it is: Delightful

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

These days, picking anime with teenage female casts is like walking through a minefield. For every show that’s good on its merits, another show is called good because “it is what it is.” When nobody differentiates between the good and the bad, how am I supposed to avoid the crap? Whatever happened to standards? There’s [...]

Denpa teki na Kanojo does not fuck around

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

Remember how Kure-nai couldn’t stop fucking around? Shockingly, in the greatest redemption story mankind has ever witnessed, the author of Kure-nai bounced back and wrote Denpa teki na Kanojo. This time he didn’t fuck around one bit. Just look at the cover. There’s rain…a girl with an umbrella…doesn’t look like anything special…and then— OH SHIT, [...]

Violence Against Women Kicks Ass

Friday, February 19th, 2010

I recently saw some cranky hag on TV whining about how TV violence against women has increased 120%. It was only a short commercial, so I wasn’t entirely sure what her point was. Was the original level ok? Should they have spread it out more? Maybe she was angry that the 120% increase wasn’t enough, [...]

Candy Boy vs. Golden Boy: An Objective Analysis

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

32 people love action. 33 people have taste. 42 perverts beat them out. Let’s get it on. Candy Boy VS. Golden Boy Round 1: Number of Episodes Golden Boy: 6 Candy Boy: 7 Advantage: Candy Boy Round 2: Lesbian to Non-Lesbian Ratio Golden Boy: 0 Candy Boy: Infinity Advantage: Candy Boy Round 3: Non-pedophilia Golden [...]

Just what Inu Yasha Needs: Another Profound Test of Character

Friday, February 5th, 2010

Naraku is too damn brave. He needs to wuss out of more fights and try manipulating third parties from afar, thereby subjecting Inu Yasha’s gang to a profound test of character: will they kill the innocent or be killed themselves? Too many power-ups are the well-deserved fruits of arduous training. Once in a while, it [...]

I Double-Endorse Queen’s Blade

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

All it took for Queen’s Blade to win my endorsement was a single episode. Twenty-three episodes later, I’m doubling down. I wouldn’t watch Queen’s Blade if it had a shitty story. Forget for a moment the stereotype that hentai/ecchi/fanservice anime have flimsy plots. A plot that’s “not bad for an ecchi anime” still wouldn’t cut [...]

Seitokai no Reference Dropping

Wednesday, January 13th, 2010

Seitokai no Ichizon chronicles the hijinks of a five-girl student council. Each girl represents a different fetish: one is a loli, one is a sadist, one is a tomboy, one is a pussy, and one is a male. Every day in the student council room, these five girls continuously screw around and drop references until [...]

Cromartie High School is not Slice-of-Life (Unfortunately)

Sunday, January 10th, 2010

Cromartie High School? Slice-of-life? Holy shit, that would kick ass! I would do anything to live in a world where it’s plausible, let alone ordinary, to go to school with a sentient robot, a sushi-making gorilla, and Freddie Mercury. Unfortunately, Cromartie High School is the least realistic anime I have ever seen. That’s not to [...]

Any “Top Anime” List without Detroit Metal City can go to Hell

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

A lot of bloggers have recently posted their Top N Anime of the Decade lists. I’ve never cared to write these kinds of trendy posts (though I’m more than happy to criticize them). Even if I did get in on the posts, the vast majority of my readers wouldn’t care that it was part of [...]

Shin Mazinger Shougeki! Z-Hen: A Second Opinion

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

I highly recommend that your first opinion be Snark’s, but if you want to be a bitch, you could read pretty much any other Shin Mazinger Z review on the internet, as they’re basically all the same. Whichever review you choose, make sure you read it exactly once—no more, no less. Now you’ll get an [...]

Hail to thee, Kamp Umineko no Naku Koro ni

Friday, December 25th, 2009

After waking up from a dream about destroying Springfield Elementary School Kyoto Animation, Bart Baka-Raptor joins Lisa [your name here] warpshadow, halfadeckshort, and Alejo at the breakfast table, where they excitedly discuss spending the summer at Kamp Krusty Umineko no Naku Koro ni, a summer camp run by Krusty the Clown Studio DEEN. A week [...]

Yuri is a lot like Mecha

Saturday, December 12th, 2009

(From Maddox’s Comic) Last season I was watching this lesbian show called Aoi Hana. It started off pretty slow, but approximately halfway into the series, one of the girls got dumped. Perfect. All the slow-moving drama would pay off tenfold if that goody two-shoes lesbian kid were to transform into a rancorous and psychotic distortion [...]

Worst Golgo 13 Episode Ever

Saturday, November 21st, 2009

In episode 24, a female sniper is assigned the task of killing Golgo 13. It’s impossible to beat Golgo 13 in a fair fight, and women in general fight dirty, so she plots to mess up Golgo 13′s eyesight by exposing him to the sandy Sirocco/Ghibli winds of Morocco. Little did she know that Golgo [...]

Actually, Lucky Star is a Comedy

Saturday, November 7th, 2009

This is a slice-of-life picture. If you don’t get it, you’re looking it at wrong. Ever notice how Lucky Star is a comedy? Ever been told that if you’re not watching it as a slice-of-life anime, you’re watching it wrong? Ever wished that Baka-Raptor would write a post on how that’s the stupidest shit in [...]

Ranking the Women of Canaan

Thursday, October 29th, 2009

Ranking can be a tedious process. I’m way too lazy to work my way through O(n log n) algorithms. Luckily, the intro sequence saved me the trouble: #1: Alphard But Baka-Raptor, you’re not supposed to start with #1! Going in reverse order builds suspense! No it doesn’t. Leaving the shittiest character for the end builds [...]

Best Student Council? More like Pretty Good Student Council

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

Wow, another school-life comedy about a bunch of girls. The main character is a clueless transfer student. She’s also an orphan supported by a mysterious wealthy benefactor. Her only friend a back-talking puppet with a mind of its own (but not the kind that solves murder mysteries). And the student council she joins comprises a [...]

Summer 2009 Punchlines

Sunday, October 11th, 2009

Get it? Punch-lines?! I’d like to write reviews about all the shows I watch, but as a sophisticated hyperbolic discounter, I realize that’s not going to happen. To insure against the possibility of never voicing my opinion on a show, I created a one-liners page, which recently fell into disuse when I created a My [...]

Time to go Train in the Mountains

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

I was recently thinking about how much I suck at drawing, image editing, web design, and other forms of useful art, when I realized there’s a simple way to turn that all around: training in the mountains. Mountain training is a surefire way to get better at anything: martial arts, kendo, ninjutsu, homosexuality, mountain climbing, [...]

Gantz: Manliest Anime Manga Ever?

Saturday, September 26th, 2009

As you can infer from this kickass manga shot, I’m not trying to bullshit you about manliness like all those feminine hygiene commercials. If you buy anything that’s marketed as  “_______ for men,” you’re a tool. It’s just like X-treme marketing. Putting the same shit in a different container doesn’t make it suck less. I [...]

I beat up Haruhi

Saturday, September 5th, 2009

I was in the middle of beating Crystalis blindfolded when all of a sudden I was mysteriously teleported away from my computer. I took off my blindfold to see Haruhi prancing around, exclaiming she was thrilled to meet a dinosaur. I lazily autographed her face and began to make my way out. Upset that I [...]

You Have Got To Be Kidding Me

Sunday, August 30th, 2009

No. Not again. I refuse to accept this. Why must all the tough guys in anime get stalked by little girls to show they have a caring side? Who’s next, Golgo 13? If I were in charge of writing the new FMA series, Scar’s encounter with May Chang would go something like this: To think [...]

Endless Eight? More like Endless Pedophilia

Sunday, August 9th, 2009

Endless Eight was a waste of time, money, human resources, natural resources (e.g., oil, gas, animal pelt), bandwidth, and chakra. Good thing I didn’t watch Endless Eight—I watched Finite Five (skipped eps 5-7). It was only five-eighths as pedophilic. You just read the most flattering review of Endless Eight on the internet. Come on guys, [...]

Three Strikes for One Piece

Saturday, August 1st, 2009

At least the English intro is bad enough to be good I want to like everything I watch. You might not get that impression from all the bashing I do on this site, but really, I give every show a fair chance. In fact, I probably try a lot harder than you (otherwise I wouldn’t [...]

Harem Analysis: The Simultaneity Requirement

Sunday, July 19th, 2009

A few posts ago when I claimed that Asu no Yoichi is the best harem anime ever, various commenters contended that the following were better: Clannad Kanon Suzuka Ranma 1/2 High School of the Dead I cannot agree, not because these shows are (all) bad, but because they’re not harems (with the possible exception of [...]

Shonan Junai Gumi: Finally, A Story I Can Relate To

Sunday, July 5th, 2009

Eikichi Onizuka and Ryuji Danma are the deadly duo, Oni-Baku (Demon Explosion), with the sole mission of losing their virginities. As they turn away from the gang life to accomplish this, old enemies resurface to haunt them, and new ones appear to take their fame. Before taking the women, Oni-Baku must first show their adversaries [...]

Asu no Yoichi: Best Harem Anime Ever

Sunday, June 28th, 2009

Glo the Legend recently described Asu no Yoichi as having “no god damn fucking cons.” Should you trust him? I can’t think of a reason not to, seeing as how he wrote a 100% truthful post about my trip to England. Calling Asu no Yoichi the BEST HAREM ANIME EVER may seem heretical—until you actually [...]

Hey, look at me, I’m Mr. Perfect

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

Hey, look at me, I’m Mr. Perfect. I never lose sight of what’s truly important in life and always believe in the goodness of the human heart, no matter how unfounded or irrational it may seem to the objective bystander. I’m so comfortable with who I am that my ludicrously flamboyant wardrobe doesn’t make me [...]

I Watch K-ON So You Don’t Have To

Sunday, June 7th, 2009

Just how boring is K-ON? Let’s put it this way: I paused episode 10 to rewatch an episode of Akikan. Akikan: Crappy animation, original jokes K-ON: Uncrappy animation, unoriginal jokes Winner: Akikan The jokes in K-ON are so stale that I’m forced to make up my own jokes to survive each episode. See 1:39-1:45 I’m [...]

A Biased Review of Crystalis: Part I

Sunday, May 24th, 2009

Crystalis was the best RPG for the NES. Zelda sucked. Final Fantasy sucked. Then came Crystalis—a game so brilliant, so captivating, so devoid of pedophilia that it would surely take the gaming world by storm. Unfortunately, it came out so late in the life of the NES (1990) that it got lost amongst shitty games [...]

The 2009 Baka-Raptor Awards

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

Best Episodic Blog Baka-Raptor Best Editorial Blog Baka-Raptor Best Team Blog Baka-Raptor Best Manga Blog Baka-Raptor Most Influential Blog Baka-Raptor Rookie of the Year Baka-Raptor Funniest Blog Baka-Raptor Best Satire Blog Baka-Raptor Best Seiyuu-Oriented Blog Baka-Raptor Most Thought-Provoking Blog Baka-Raptor Best Blog-Related Comic Baka-Raptor Best Figurine Blog Baka-Raptor Best Art/Doujin/Visual Novel Blog Baka-Raptor Best News [...]