Brevity is Power: Why Another Cour Won’t Make It Better

Journalism teaches you one thing fast; you’ve been saying too much. Stop. Cut the crap. Doesn’t that make for a more exciting read?

Yet, the standard style for an anime review online is overburdened with length. Paragraphs are used to explain what should be put in a sentence; the same thoughts are repeated in different words, or different buzzwords. This blog too used to pride itself on its ‘long sentences’, but that About page needs an update. Anime reviewing needs an update. Doing something for longer, unless you keep up a flow of new ideas, material and engaging stylistic features, naturally makes your prose less powerful.

The same goes for the shows you’re reviewing.

Charlotte – 13 (Super-Sized Final Loss of Hope)

I was thinking of leaving this review empty to sum up how I felt as the story came to a close.

Charlotte – 12

Yuu’s hospitalization gives all the important members of our cast some final moments to catch up with him. It could probably have been meaningful if any of it mattered.

Charlotte – 11

I was right when I said this show had effectively finished its major plotlines before this episode. This week we had a whole new baddie, a whole new struggle, and whole new load of ways to approach this series’ strengths and weaknesses.

Charlotte – 10

How do you solve a problem like Ayumi? In half an episode, apparently.

Charlotte – 09

Did I say Yuu bounced back before? This week he bounced back in time, and I’m sure a lot of people’s interest in this show has bounced back too.

Charlotte – 08

Yuu, after bouncing back, comes to terms with some important truths, all courtesy of a blind woman who, in typically ironic fashion, sees more of life than he does.

Charlotte – 07

Did I say this show outright collapsed before? This week it went one step further, the best animated example of ‘that escalated quickly’ yet.

Charlotte – 06

Did I say the structure of this show was disintegrating? Well, now it’s outright collapsed.

Charlotte – 05

A hunt for a power user becomes an extended camping trip, which in turn becomes a great way for Charlotte to get back on track with making its cast engaging.

Charlotte – 04

It’s a baseball episode – what else is there to say?

Charlotte – 03

Another day, another pubescent power – or how about two? As the Student Council track down Yusarin, an idol occasionally inhabited with the spirit of her less-than-cheerful dead sister who also happens to be able to set things on fire, they end up not only protecting her future, but that of a friend as well.

Charlotte – 02

Good grief, Maeda sure can pack a lot into twenty minutes. With Takajou causing mass destruction in the cafeteria, Tomori leading the hunt for a pervy power-user and a delve into the class president’s tragic past, there was something for everyone in this week’s episode (even if you’re just watching it to play Jun Maeda bingo).

Charlotte – 01

Yuu thinks his elitist, sociopathic view of life will help him get all the grades – and the girl – thanks to his ability to possess people for five seconds at a time, but it isn’t long before he’s called out for cheating his way to the top by a pair of similarly super-powered students. Now he has to bid farewell to the world he’s mistreated and accept his new life as one of the many other gifted students at Hoshinoumi Academy.

Why Angel Beats! Rocks (Even If It’s Too Short)

With the new Angel Beats! special episode released yesterday (I could drool all over it in a review, but I’d run out of saliva) and the VN having likely already come out by the time you’re reading this, I think it’s time I talked about my favourite anime that I’ve ever seen, in both sub and dub, on a laptop screen and on a TV. It may not be the ‘best’ anime – if you can somehow find a way to give something such a title – but I’ve always been one of those people who have done more than just love it. Yet, many people criticise it for one main ‘flaw’, which is usually phrased one way or another in any discussion on the show I encounter: it’s too short.

Has anyone considered that Angel Beats’ brevity may in fact be one of its most important features?