Anime Roundtable

Time and time again, Kyoto Animation has gained the hearts of the people and has quickly become a company that seems to turn whatever they animate into an instant cultural frenzy. For K-ON! this is no different. Based on a 4koma manga by Kakifly, K-ON! went from practically unknown to massive super hit in only a matter of days. However, putting aside its massive popularity, how does K-ON the anime fare? Read on and find out. Before I start the review there are some important questions you should ask yourself: 1. Do you hate animes with extreme amounts of moe? 2. Do you hate slice of life animes? 3. Are you looking for an anime with a memorable story? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, you might as well turn around and ignore K-ON!, and save yourself (and the fans of the anime) some rage. (Or don't bc this is honestly a masterpiece) Story: + Even though the synopsis talks about girls trying to keep their light music club alive, allow me to say this now...K-ON'S MAIN FOCUS IS NOT ABOUT THE MUSIC. However, this anime is a laid back slice of life anime about the lives of the girls in the club. + Despite being ridden with cliche scenarios and episode themes, K-ON manages to achieve a certain level of entertainment which keeps the viewers coming back to it. Art: + The character designs are absolutely adorable + The animation style is easy to digest and simple on the eyes. + DO YALL SEE MY GIRL YUI???? Sound: + Even though music is not the main focus of the anime, the song gives you quite a bit of nice insert songs which are all very catchy and enjoyable. + The Opening and Ending songs are both IMO extremely good. + For such a relatively new voice cast, K-ON!'s voice acting is superbly done and is sure to put these seiyuu's on the fast line to popularity. Character: (don't mind my score...I just love moe and im a fanboy ;_;) + Despite being cliched, the characters are just absolutely adorable and loveable. + moe, moe, moe, and more moe....thats what these characters are 90% of the time. (and I dont complain) + The interactions between the characters provides some very enjoyable comedy and very light and fluffy times. (lol bad joke) + Even the supporting cast is extremely likeable and yes....very moe. Enjoyment: I cannot lie, K-ON! is a religion, one that most commit to heart. A religion that connects to ones soul. This anime changed my life. I can honestly say that i would not be the same person if it was not for this anime. Watching this show is one of the most influential moments of my life and each of these moments is very special and dear to my heart. Overall K-ON! is an anime which is to break any record or set every standard. The anime is an epic tale, it is a comedy gold mine, this anime is fun...If you want an anime with cuteness to the extreme and just plain fun to watch, by all means watch K-ON! I am sure it will amaze you.

Kon is an anime about girls that are in a band, that's more or less it. This artistic and creative void has captivated young men and women around the world (but mostly in the imperialist American lead west). My grandmother watched K-ON once, and then she caught the alzheimer's. Anime is not an anime that is meant to break any records, which is evident in the way that the artists lazily threw crayons on construction paper in order to create the backgrounds, and then copied and pasted still images from daily Garfield comic strips to do their "character design". Jim Davis would be ashamed to see the classic characters of Jim Arbuckle and Nermal completely and utterly stolen and degraded in this fashion. Truly in Japan they do not respect copyright law and they certainly do not have the moral capacity to realize that releasing the toxic sludge monster that is Kay On into the world was, possibly, not a very good idea. Like mustard gas on the Verdun, this anime creeps it's way into the hearts and minds of disaffected young people and somehow, in an act of brainwashing that would impress apartheid era South Africa, convinces the viewers that what they're watching is anything but incomprehensible bile. Do not watch this anime. 8/10

Midway in "Con Air,'' the Nicolas Cage character observes: "Somehow they managed to get every creep and freak in the universe on this one plane.'' That's the same thought I was having. The plane--a hijacked flight of dangerous convicts--has so many criminal superstars on it, it's like a weirdo version of those comic books where the superheroes hold a summit. Let's take an inventory. There's the ringleader, Cyrus the Virus (John Malkovich), who cheerfully reports that his last evaluation found him insane; Diamond Dog (Ving Rhames), a black militant who's pretending to be Cyrus' lieutenant until he sees an opening to make his own move, and Johnny 23 (Danny Trejo), so-called because of his 23 convictions for rape ("It woulda been Johnny 600 if they knew the whole story''). Plus there are about 10 more creeps--including Garland Greene (Steve Buscemi), a serial killer with 37 victims, who arrives on board encased in custom-made restraints patterned after Hannibal Lecter's traveling suit in "The Silence of The Lambs" (When Cyrus the Virus sees Greene strapped in a cocoon of leather and steel, he protests, "This is no way to treat a national treasure!'' He adds, "Love your work.'') All of these monsters are on board the same flight, a lumbering C-123K troop transport that is taking them to a maximum security prison. Also on board is a good guy: Cameron Poe (Nicolas Cage), an Army Ranger unfairly locked up for eight years for protecting his family from drunken goons. This is his flight home for parole. Sitting next to him is a friend from prison (Mykelti Williamson), a diabetic who must have an insulin shot or die. Among the guards who survive the initial takeover of the plane is Bishop (Rachel Ticontin), who immediately inspires the rapist to change his name to Johnny 24. That's just the partial roll call of creeps and freaks in the air. On the ground, we meet a good-guy U.S. marshal (John Cusack), and a mad dog DEA agent (Colm Meany) whose solution to the problem is to blow the commandeered plane out of the air. This is a big cast, but easy to keep straight, because everyone is typecast and never does anything out of character. The movie is a solo production by Jerry-Bruckheimer, who with his late partner Don Simpson masterminded a series of high-tech special-effects extravaganzas ("Beverly Hills Cop," "Top Gun," "Days of Thunder," "Crimson Tide," "The Rock"). "Con Air" is in the same vein, but with less of the dogged seriousness of many action pictures and more of the self-kidding humor of "The Rock.'' This is a movie that knows it is absurd, and does little to deny it. Malkovich has the charisma to hold the plot together, with another of his dry, intellectual villains. Cage makes the wrong choice, I think, by playing Cameron Poe as a slow-witted Elvis type who is very, very earnest and approaches every task with tunnel vision; it would have been more fun if he'd been less of a hayseed. Cusack is limited in many of his scenes to screaming into a phone, which he does with great conviction. Buscemi is a gifted character actor who wisely avoids imitating Anthony Hopkins' Lecter, and plays his serial killer as a soft-spoken, reasonable guy. The movie skirts dangerously close to bad taste in a scene where he has tea with a little girl who, we fear, will become his next victim; humor saves the scene, as the toddler leads him in a sing-along of the last song you'd think he knew. The movie is essentially a series of quick setups, brisk dialogue and elaborate action sequences. You may have seen most of the high points in the TV commercials: the car being dragged behind the plane, the crash-landing in Las Vegas, and the obligatory shot of humans somehow outrunning fireballs. Still, assembled by first-time director Simon West, a British music video whiz, it moves smoothly and with visual style and verbal wit. It even continues a recent tradition in Cage's career (after "Honeymoon in Vegas'' and "Leaving Las Vegas'') of finding new ways to crash-land on the Strip. In a film filled with strange people and bizarre events, here is the strangest and most bizarre: The closing credits, played over "Sweet Home Alabama,'' include a montage of all the major characters--smiling. Yes, smiling. Cyrus the Virus and Johnny 23 and all the rest, looking like nice guys in a fast food ad. Apparently the strategy is to leave the audience on an upbeat note. That would require a very short attention span on the part of the audience, but this may be just the movie to assemble that audience.