Hiya, still remember me? ;)
No comments yet? Then I'll be the first to post ;)
Ginban Kaleidoscope is on my to-watch-list (which has grown absolutely too big, I'm afraid)... and your review
helped me to get a picture of it :)
So if I'm feeling like watching some light-hearted yet not completely brainless entertainment for a relaxing
evening after a stressful day, I'll give it a try!
Thanks for your efforts... I know that writing reviews takes some time... since my half-finished review is rotting away
on my HD... we'll se when I'll complete it ;)
Ginban Kaleidoscope tv Review
Story & Characters
Let me start off with a little plot synopsis because I didn't see one on the MT page for this anime.
Synopsis:
16-year old Sakurano Tazusa is a Japanese figure ice-skater who considers herself to be worth $10 billion in beauty.
While executing her moves in the Women's Figure Skating Grand Prix, she stumbled and landed badly, hence resulting
in her loss in the competition. At the same time, in the same city, a Canadian youth by the name of Pete Pumps was
performing an air stunt when his plane crashes and he dies. Tazusa starts to hear a strange voices and realises that the
Canadian ghost now resides in her body. After futile attempts to get rid of Pete, Tazusa decides to get accustomed to
his presence and in the meantime, improve on her techniques in order to get selected for the Olympics.
(From www.animenewsnetwork.com)
I heard about this one from one of my friends, so it's probably not the most famous anime in the world. But I decided to give this one a shot, and I'll be honest it starts off weird. Although, understandably so. Not much comedy until the middle-end section of the first episode, so don't be expecting to laughing all too quickly. But when it starts, it comes with an intensity I wouldn't have expected from a Shoujo anime with a sports emphasis. I'll start off by telling you that this anime isn't something someone should watch expecting normal comedy. This anime doesn't understand the meaning of the word "Normal" or any break off derived from it. Then again with a world where someone so vain can be paired with someone with such a distaste of a common red fruit that you know as the Tomato, you can guess where this is headed. Though, by all means if seeing someone argue one half of argument to themselves and throw random insults out and cause an endless string of misunderstandings in a 3 month period, then by all means pick this one up.
Okay, I can't exactly grade this on pure realism of the story. It has the one scene of heaven and the unscientifically proven ghost element in the story. But I will make mention they did hit a few great things that I will list here and hopefully, remember to elaborate on them later. The first is the sheer evil nature of the media (especially the Japanese Media). The second if the nature of the Olympics and the process that is required to qualify (Really did a good job on this one). Third, the power of the Russians on the ice (And I'm not stopping at their physical power, but including their prowess and overall skill.). They also captured the arrogant side of American athletes and how karma tends to come back and bite our American butts!
Next, I believe I should mention the two principle characters a little bit. Tazusa and Pete, whom is sharing
Tazusa's body!
Tazusa is vain to a fault, but understandably so. She's beautiful and talented, too things that I have rarely seen
together in my life. She's cruel to Pete in the beginning, but all this doesn't mean she doesn't have a
heart or can't sympathize with the poor guy, whom was turned away from the gates of heaven for 100 days due to a
technical problem on God's behalf!
Pete is a wise gentleman, who believes he should live up this "second life" that god has given him. But he
also believes he has a duty to help Tazusa in anyway that he can. From cheating to skating program and costume design,
this guy can do it all! He's almost the perfect helper for Tazusa.
Let me just say that I believe that this section can simply be given an 8, for simple reason that it was a good, original story that combined real life and fantasy in an easy to understand and enjoyable package. But it wasn't so good as to deserve a 9 or a 10. (Some of you can argue this with me I'm certain. But the chances are small! The fan base for this one is small, so I doubt that statement really applies to many of you that will read this! Bwa ha ha ha!!!!!)
Rating:
Art
The art was good. I'll leave it at that, it wasn't anything that really stood out in my mind like Otoboku or anything of that caliber, but it wasn't a crumy job like some animes have been. (I'm sure you can all think of at least ONE that was just so bad it made your eyes bleed.)
They used the simplification of certain drawings through the course of the anime to emphasize certain things that they wanted, whether it be the comedy or the cruelty of the Japanese Media, well you'll see when that happens.
I really don't have much to say about this anime in this section, well, it was pretty average in this section and really deserves a 7.
Rating:
Sound
Okay, I have this habit of putting the Themes that are used in the anime here. So for those that want to know, here they
are.
Opening Theme:
"Dual" by YeLLOW Generation
Ending Theme:
"energy" by Marina Inoue
These songs are slow and kind yet kind of pop-ish in their sound. I will admit the opening really grew on me.
They went as far as they could with this anime. Actually using the representatives native languages and having the Olympics broadcast in English. So naturally, one will hear a myriad of languages! I'm fairly well versed in recognizing a number of languages and I could understand the coherent Russian that was used and few of the other languages. But remember, the international language of business is English so naturally, that is assumed the common language of the Olympians to be English, so it will make life easier to understand when they want to be understood. For they will speak in English.
Voice acting wise, the cast is fairly well known. Here's the entire cast for all 12 episodes.
Ayako Kawasumi as Tazusa Sakurano
Hiroyuki Yoshino as Pete Pumps
Chiwa Saito as Yohko Sakurano
Hiroko Suzuki as Yukie Mishiro
Isshin Chiba as Kazuya Nitta
Juurouta Kosugi as Yuuji Takashima
Kazusa Murai as Kyouko Shitou
Mamiko Noto as Lia Garnet Juitiev
Marina Inoue as Mika Honjou
Maya Okamoto as Dominique Miller
Daisuke Matsuoka as Enyama
Eriko Kigawa as Sister
Isshin Chiba as Kazuya Arata
Kunihiro Kawamoto as Ueda
Marina Inoue as Waitress
Masaki Kawanabe as Reporter
Youji Ueda as God
(Such a small cast! And no "Man#1" parts either!)
I really can't say that the OST was very memorable, though. But it was a very supportive element to the story and the mood. But amidst songs like "Zigeunerweisen," which is a classical piece with a very heavy atmosphere, the bright and uplifting Memphis sound of " Black Jazz" really makes one feel great.
So, I will give this section a 9. Mainly for the fact that I was impressed by the realism of the language barriers. And the flow within the languages, that didn't sound like a normal Japanese person speaking them. They tried to be as authentic as possible.
Rating:
Presentation
This anime really gives me a reason to laugh at a mountain of tomatoes. So there are obvious health benefits if you live in an area where you can get tomatoes year round. You'll understand once you see it. There are tomatoes in every episode, usually by the bushel, from episode 2 onward. I hear that in the manga they really went all out in the epilogue with a tomato in EVERY third frame of the Epilogue. So they are major element of the story.
A truly enjoyable series that really makes one think, "Yeah, if I put forth my best effort I can get anywhere." Of course, that really is dependent on your personality and life style. (Okay, enough sounding like a Prescription Drug commercial...And I know you're all dying to get this over with.)
So let me say that the humor was the majority of the presentation and that it really did a good job, maybe not a 9 or a 10, but definitely worth an 8.
Overall, I know I personally gave this a 7.75 on my Watchlist, so let's see how things add up. Drum roll, if you please. There's no need to calculate such an easy average, and let it be known that it were an 8.
Rating:
Final Verdict
8.0000 (good)
Reviewed by Hasaki-Keissi, Aug 19, 2007
Comments
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Ionae Aug 24, 2007
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drastikhate Aug 30, 2007
An extensive review.
Watching it on cable. See how it goes. -
SchRita Aug 24, 2009
Thanks for the review!
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nainoi Sep 13, 2009
I should watch this
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SchRita Oct 31, 2009
Thanks for the review!
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