Announcement: Introducing anime movie reviews

Like I’ve announced before, on the 18th of June, The Keizou Journal will be in operation for one year, yay~(ノ^_^)ノ. Therefore, I’m starting to make some major announcements.

My first major announcement is that I’ll be starting to review anime movies. I made this decision because I’ve watched a few anime movies lately that I thought would be fun to review. However, the number of anime movies I’ll review will be very limited since I don’t watch them often. Also, I’m placing restrictions on what anime movies I can review.

I won’t be reviewing anime movies based on an existing anime series, including adaptations, sequels and prequels. For example, I won’t be reviewing the Naruto or Bleach movies because they’re based on an anime series. Everything else, I can review.

Stay tuned for my first anime movie review, which I’m close to completing.

Review: Attention Please

Summary
Alternative Title: アテンションプリーズ
Genre: Comedy
Episodes: 11
Broadcast: Apr. – Jun. 2006
Starring:

• Ueto Aya as Misaki Yoko
• Nishikido Ryo as Nakahara Shouta
• Aibu Saki as Wakamura Yayoi
• Uehara Misa as Hirota Saori

As a child, Misaki Yoko always hung out with boys and stayed away from girls. When she becomes an adult, she starts a band with four of her male friends. One day, the band decides to break up because one of the members, Tsukasa, gets a job in Tokyo. Misaki has feelings for Tsukasa, but is afraid to tell him. When Misaki goes to the airport to see Tsukasa for the last time, Tsukasa tells Misaki that he wonders what she would look like as a flight attendant. After hearing that, Misaki decides to become a flight attendant.

Review
I wanted to watch Attention Please because Ueto Aya plays the main character and I’ve never seen a drama with Ueto Aya before. After seeing her in Azumi, I had high expectations for a drama with her, but after watching the series, I was disappointed by many things.

In the first three episodes, it was kind of interesting to see what kind of training flight attentions have to go through. However, the series absolutely overdid it with the training. Attention Please become more like a training video for flight attentions than a drama. After episode three, the training just becomes really boring. Every episode just features a class of trainees being trained by an iron-face teacher who is as boring as the training itself. Just to give you an example, the worst training scene was probably the one about how to bow and say “thank you” the proper way. There was about two episodes about this and you can imagine how boring it is watching dozens trainees bowing and saying “thank you”.

The overuse of training was definitely one of the problems with Attention Please, but I thought the most significant problem was the lack of focus on one specific genre. Instead, it attempts to have many genres, but none of them stand out. It tries really hard to be a romance drama, but all of the romance subplots were weak and some were unfinished. It also tries to be a comedy in many scenes, but those scenes just featured some over-the-top passengers and were completely “dry”.


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Pro

• Interesting to see how flight attendants are trained…

Cons

• …but they absolutely overdid it with the training
• Was more of a flight attendant training video than a drama
• Tries to mix a variety of genres but none truly stand out
• Romance subplots were weak and some gone unfinished
• Subplot about Misaki’s roommate = worst subplot EVER
• Ending was terrible, one of the worst I’ve seen

Recommendation
I recommend that everyone stay away from this one, but if you really want to watch this (I’m guessing many female fans will want to watch because of Nishikido Ryo from NEWS), just watch the first episode then watch episodes ten and eleven. You’ll miss some minor stuff here and there, but you’ll get the gist of the story.

Rating: 4/10

Stay Tuned! Believe it or not, they actually made two specials and I plan on reviewing both of them. Hopefully, the specials will finish off some the romance subplots and be more entertaining than the series.

Review: 69

Summary
Alternative Titles: シクスティナイン, Sixty-nine
Genre: Romance
Release Date: Jul. 10, 2004
Starring:

• Tsumabuki Satoshi as Yazaki Kenichi
• Masanobu Ando as Tadashi "Adama" Yamada

Ken, a high school student, hopes to catch a girl’s attention by creating a festival that would include film, theatre and rock music. After talking to the girl he has a crush on, he then develops his project into barricading the school. He gathers a group of students to help him out. However, his plan also catches the attention of the local media and the police.

Review
After finding out about this movie, I watched a trailer of it and read some comments on various sites. I definitely thought this movie was going to be a hilarious ride, but it wasn’t as funny as I first hyped. In my opinion, 69 turned out to be the most random J-movie I’ve seen. First and foremost, the story is just off the charts. Some high school student wants to barricade his school to impress a girl. This movie was so random that I didn’t even know what was going on for most scenes. I didn’t know if I was too bored to enjoy or what, but this movie does have a lot of randomness to it. There are many scenes where you just don’t know what the main characters are trying to do. Its clear that they’re trying to barricade the school and start a festival, but for there are parts that seem they aren’t connected to the main story.

Also, another downside to the movie that I would like to mention is that one of the scenes is REALLY disgusting. The most disgusting scene in any J-movie, ever. If you decide to watch 69, make sure you’re not eating something or else you’ll barf it out.

On the flip side, there were some scenes that were absolutely hilarious. However, that’s the only good thing I can say about the movie.


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Pro

• Some scenes were absolutely hilarious

Cons

• Story is completely random
• Didn’t understand what was going on for most of the movie
• One of the scenes is really disgusting (don’t eat anything while watching this movie! (-_-‘)

Recommendation
The funny scenes definitely don’t offset my dislikes of 69. I would stay away from it at all costs.

Rating: 5/10

Review: Stand Up!!

Summary
Genre: Love, comedy
Episodes: 11
Broadcast: Jul. - Sept. 2003
Starring:

• Ninomiya Kazunari as Asai Shouhei
• Yamashita Tomohisa as Iwasaki Kengo
• Oguri Shun as Enami Kouji
• Narimiya Hiroki as Udagawa Hayato
• Suzuki Anne as Oowada Chie

Four friends are teased by their schoolmates as the only virgins in the entire school. When summer break begins, they go on a mission to end their virginity. During the break, one of their childhood friends named Chie, comes back to her four best friends after 11 years apart. However, Chie isn’t the beautiful girl they once knew 11 years ago. Despite seeing Chie again, the four buddies continue their mission. Shouhei gets a crush on his English teacher and tries to win her love. Kengo tries to convince his stubborn girlfriend to have sex with him. Soccer team captain, Kouji and the panties-loving Hayato, also continue their journey to get laid.

Review
When I first found out about Stand Up!!, I realized that many people were saying that it’s like the American Pie of Japanese dramas. I agree that Stand Up!! and American Pie has some similarities, but after watching the entire series, Stand Up!! turns out to be very different. I have to emit that before watching the entire series, I really did think Stand Up!! was going to be very similar to American Pie. In other words, I thought that it would just be about a group of guys trying to get laid. After watching the series, I noticed it had some story elements about friendship and romance that provide plenty of drama to the series. The stuff about getting laid and other mature stuff provides tons of humour. In the end, Stand Up!! is a great mix of friendship, romance and humour.

The two most important things about Stand Up!! that made it an enjoyable drama was the humour and the characters. There’s always at least one funny scene in each episode and of course, there wouldn’t any humour without the huge line-up of funny and unique characters. The drama even portrays the whole community that is home to the main characters, including parents and fellow classmates. I especially like how there’s a couple of entertaining minor characters that make an appearance in every episode.

Another plus-side is the cast that plays the major characters. You can’t get a better all-star male cast than the one in Stand Up!!. Ninomiya Kazunari and Yamashita Tomohisa are from extremely popular boy bands Arashi and NEWS, respectively. Oguri Shun, Narimiya Hiroki, and Suzuki Anne are popular actors who you may remember from some popular dramas and movies. All of these actors do a exceptional job portraying their characters. I wasn’t overly disappointed with any of the acting by the major characters.


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?Perplexing?
Stand Up!! does deal with mature subjects, but there’s absolutely no full nudity from episodes 1 to 10. However, to my surprise, there was a flash of frontal nudity in the last episode. It came without warning and it was very awkward and definitely didn’t fit with in the series.

Pros

• A lot more than just about getting laid
• Good mix of humour, romance, drama
• One of the funniest dramas I’ve seen
• Good line-up of characters
• Well-known cast
• Minor characters that make appearances every episode
• Wacky music fits well with some of the scenes

Cons

• Story was a bit weak in the first two episodes

Recommendation
Stand Up!! has something for everyone, because of its mix of genres. I definitely recommend it to all drama fans, but since it does deal with mature subjects, I only recommend it to people over 16.

Rating: 9.5/10