The Action (2009 Anime Cool Down)
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The Winner: Canaan
Synesthesia never looked so good!
I almost named this category: I must have testosterone because after watching an episode I felt like going out and breaking things. Ultimately, I had to throw it out because it was too sexist.
Believe me I was as surprised as you when this anime jumped to the front for this title. After watching the first episode I remember being extremely impressed by where I thought the series could go. Unfortunately, I feel like it somewhat didn’t fulfill those expectations. However, even though I wasn’t that fond of some of the story elements I have to admit that it had the most beautiful, high tension, and badass fight scenes this year.
It’s not often that I remember an cipro without prescription anime series and don’t remember the story, but the epic introduction with Canaan spinning on a pole taking out bad guys right and left as easily as Quentin Tarantino offs a roomful of people, was something to behold.
Canaan was also unique. Instead of going the typical route with super powers P. A. Works animated the imaginative (and sometimes disgusting) body modification of this world. Seeing feelings as colors, contorting bodies to sickly proportions, two hearts for incredible agility, truly there was some really fun stuff.
Who could forget the last fight scene between Canaan and Alphard on the train. It was just downright epic. There were other positive points to this series: for instance I liked the character Alphard a lot (she was a pretty good bad guy), and the voice acting was great. Overall though I have to say that Canaan just wins at being the best action series of the year. Don’t believe me go watch a few episodes.
I know what you’re thinking though: It should have won best romance:
Congratulation to Canaan for winning Best Action.
The runner up: Darker than Black: Ryuusei no Gemini
Darker than Black had a lot of faults this season and as much as I liked the original I found it hard to place this series in any category. Action was the one place I felt DTB didn’t disappoint. I’ve always appreciated that DTB isn’t afraid of killing off characters (I’ve also not been appreciative of it: It’s a love hate relationship). rimonabant There’s a lot more tension in a life and death struggle when you actually feel someone is going to die. You hardly ever feel someone is going to die in To Aru Majutsu no Index because Touma always manages to bring out everyone alright. Darker than Black draws a hard line. When they knocked off April in the first episode of the second season they basically sent us a warning saying “We can kill off anyone, don’t get too attached”. Honestly, this is an awesome touch of world building. We’re immediately introduced to the danger inherent in being part of this new and despicable world.
The fight scenes mimic the sentiment. They’re normally fast and to the point. Instead of two characters shouting their ideals at each other we’re given quick bouts that end in one character triumphing over the other (normally with the character that didn’t win dead). Bones, despite its faults, also does some pretty animation with contractors who have some pretty unique abilities. The fight scene between Hei and Mina Hazuki was fun to watch. Often fights end so suddenly they leave you a little disjointed. DTB gets this award for being unique in the way it portrays super powered battles.
Congratulations to Darker than Black: Ryuusei no Gemini for being the runner up in Best Action.
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9 Comments
Isn’t it sad, DtB? You get so little love.
I often see DtB judged as an action show. It’s not. Not really. Sure, there is action, but that’s hardly the essence of the show. Incidentally, why do you have a best fantasy category but no best sci-fi category?
As you mentioned, the fight scenes of DtB are sporadic jolts of energy, or a stylised murder. It’s conflict in more ways than one. Contractors are brutal, yet intelligent. Their kills are violently excessive, but also specialised and efficient. Consider Chiaki’s dilemma in season 1, episode 2. She watched her parents murdered by contractors, and yet became fascinated by them. What the contractors do is unquestionably horrific, but also very cool. We are repulsed by the dystopian world, but at the same time drawn in.
(It’s a total coincidence that I happen to pass by whenever you talk about DtB. It’s not like I’m a DtB apologist or anything.)
You are so a DTB apologist :).
I’m kind of including Sci Fi with fantasy. It’s more of a Best Imagined World title. Fantasy to me is a broad term that encompasses all of it even though it has been used more regularly to describe magic and the like. It’s true that DTB is a lot more than an action show, but its moments of action are much better than whole episodes devoted to action like other shows. I like the intelligence involved in the DTB fights. They normally set it up long before they attack. Like November 11 who always had April rain the way.
I couldn’t give it first in the category though because as you say it’s not an action and P.A. works did a brilliant job with the action scenes in Canaan. I couldn’t give DTB the fantasy award because I feel like they did that in the first season and the stuff they added this season I just didn’t like that much. I’m not big on prophecy as a story telling element. If it were the first season of DTB I would have a hard time picking the category it was going to win.
I’m a fence sitter on the second season I’m refusing to commit on whether I liked it or not. I liked some things and disliked others.
I also am a believer in names. DTB had the first season to live up to and I don’t think it pulled it off. I had higher expectations :(.
Thanks for stopping by anyways, but now I’m curious. What other Anime do you watch?
I was sitting on the fence with regards to CANAAN and DtB 2 for this category but in the end, I voted for CANAAN for the sole reason that the action in the former was more “in-your-face” and explosive. It was very Hollywood or dare I say, the studio even took it to the next level in some fight scenes (I’ve yet to see a Hollywood action movie where a character is so awesome, he’s resolute enough to blow his arm off by pumping it with bullets). Almost every fight was well choreographed and I often found myself sitting at the edge of my seat whenever Canaan was engaged in a brawl. Oh, I think I lost the plot somewhere down the line lol. By the time the series was gearing towards the finale, the only thing which mattered was the action. Story? What story?
DtB 2 had a lot of amazing action scenes too but they were on a more restrained level. Stylish but restrained. I was especially rather disappointed with the finale. Perhaps I was expecting too much when Hazuki announced she would kill Hei and due to that, I ended up anticipating an epic fight between them but alas, that fight was too short for my liking no matter how cool it was. They were the two best fighters in Season 2 capable of pulling off amazing moves and it’s a shame their duels were limited to perhaps a minute or so during each encounter. I was also bummed they didn’t show Hazuki’s clash with Shizume. Hazuki was clearly on a vendetta to avenge Youko’s horrid death but we didn’t get to see the extent of her efforts nor the closure to it. It just didn’t feel satisfactory nor complete in an emotional sense. If only time wasn’t so restricted and we managed to see all that, I would have voted DtB 2 for Best Action of 2009, even if the series wasn’t aiming to be an action series in the first place.
I think Keiri’s post reaffirms my point that DtB is not an action show. If you watch it like an action show, expecting an action show, somewhere along the way you’re going to be disappointed. Hazuki v Hei was actually pretty long for a DtB fight scene. Hazuki v Shizume (or lack thereof) actually reminded me of November 11 taking down Decade. I think the emphasis on the results, not the process (no matter the grudge or betrayal) is quite symbollic of contractors.
Comparing the second season to the first is also, in my opinion, also ruins the experience. The second season strays so far from its predecessor that expecting more of the same would ultimately leave the viewer dissatisfied. The format, characters and even many of the thematic elements are markedly different in the second season. On a pure merits review I might also be inclined to say that season 1 was the superior show, but even then that should not diminish from the value of the second season. Trying to reproduce the first season would be, I think, a doomed exercise considering that much of the mystique has already been spent. I applaud Bones for trying to provide something different for the second season instead of a mere extension, as many sequals might do.
I don’t actually watch a lot of anime these days, so I probably can’t contribute much to your wrap-up other than speak up for the few series I did watch. Series like DtB do manage to drag me out of the woodworks though. On a related note, if Clannad doesn’t win something I’ll basically have nothing left to talk about.
@Passerby
I think you’re confusing me with someone who claims that DTB is an action series. This cool down is not meant to label series in one category or another, it’s meant to reward series for particular elements they did well. In this case I believe DTB did a good job with their actions scenes short as they may be. In other words I don’t watch DTB for the action but I appreciate the action it delivers.
As for comparing the two seasons I think you misinterpreted what I meant. I like the first season of DTB so much I had high expectations for the second. That doesn’t mean I wanted them to recreate the first season it means I was expecting them to blow me away with whatever they did. I don’t feel like they did that. There were good episodes, but there weren’t any great ones (in my opinion). You don’t have to tell the same story in order to be an excellent story teller, in some ways it actually cripples you. I felt they told a really awesome story in the first season and was looking forward to whatever they had to say in the second. I agree that Bones trying something different is a positive step. I just don’t think they pulled off what they were trying to accomplish as well as they could have. They got distracted somewhere along the line ;). You might think having high expectations are ridiculous, but I couldn’t help it with this series.
As for Clannad I’m pretty sure I penned it down for something somewhere :).
@Keiri
We seem to be in agreement. PA Works just had great action scenes and awesome characters to boot. Honestly I stopped caring about why they were fighting too. Canaan and Alphard just hated each other and it really showed in their fight scenes. All of the characters were so full of emotion they didn’t even have to preach much. They just got down to it.
Some of the stuff in Canaan I didn’t like. The girl with the voice that killed brains and her ex CIA counter part was really overdone for my taste. I felt like PA works was just playing for emotion at that point and they didn’t have much of a role in the series besides that (Even though they had a lot of development). The girl with the voice was just always trying to make us feel sorry for her (or maybe that’s just my interpretation). Still the pacing and animation of the fights was really good.
DTB had too much to conclude to do a proper finale. I wanted to see Hazuki and Shizume’s fight too :(. Oh well, the final image of him with a sword through his eye was pretty cool. I guess I’ll just have to be satisfied with that.
I admit that the second season had failings of its own. Perhaps I am just biased towards it. The thing is, the second season gets so much hate when it is still, objectively, a very good show, to the extent that I feel the need to defend it at every turn. Every time some philistine on the internet clamours on about “it sucked wtf is this” a bit of my soul dies.
I can understand that. I get a bit tired of everyone only pointing out the bad stuff. The second season had some good points and bad points, but I don’t want to be its defender either. It either stands on its own or it doesn’t.
Philistines on the internet don’t necessarily know what they’re talking about obviously if they say “it sucked wtf is this” they probably need to be force fed the message and the morals of stories to understand it and shouldn’t be watching DTB in the first place.
Wrt CANAAN, yes, I too felt Hakko’s story was a bit overdone. It was sad in some parts, especially when she brooded over that one boy she killed without knowing the cause back then. However, the only time I really felt the impact of her situation was when she accidentally serenaded Santana mistaking him for Liang Qi. But it wasn’t a case of “OMG That’s so sad!”, it was more of a “OMG She got TROLLED!!”. And that naughty lab session she had towards the end just killed much of the sympathy I used to have for her, cruel as it may sound. If there’s any character I genuinely sympathize with, it’s Yun Yun.
Yeah I felt sorry for Yun Yun too. Maybe it’s just because she is such an honest and earnest character you can’t help feeling bad for the way she’s always kicked back to the ground. Plus she never complains about her situation, she just tries to make it better or accepts the inevitable. She was probably my second favorite character behind Alphard for that series.
They could have done more with Hakko, oh well PA works is a young studio. I hope they just keep getting better.