read or die – the tv | happy lesson

read or die – the tv was horrible.  horrible because the first half was so brilliant, and the second was hideous.  all characters were developing greatly, and stories were truly heart-warming and enjoyable to watch – however once the story arc was introduced, characters stopped developing, and foundations that were laid in the first half were totally destroyed.  seeing anita become emotional is a triumph of the first half, but in the second she just screams too much.  everyone’s crying is unnecessary and pointless, and the story wasn’t interesting.  too rooted in ideals of good and evil.  so many cliches were present in the second half that were not present in the first.  from the first half it really appeared as if it was going to examine the characters as people, their emotional lives and their relationships together – but this is read or die, so i suppose a story arc was innevitable.  wendy kun totally changes compared to the ova, suddenly becoming a crazed rampant idealist.  her subtle portrayal in the ova was much better i felt, and it could have easily continued on in the series.
read or die – the tv should have been much like many of the other animes in which there is no good and evil – the yoshitoshi abes, even onegai sensei and happy lesson.  i would have loved to see twenty-six episodes of all the characters, the carpenter, even the gentleman, wendy kun, yomiko, and a fully aware nancy coming together and realising relationships with eachother.  instead all you get is action and explosions – and there really is enough of this in anime.  nancy was certainly a sore point for me – she was just another miscellaneous inserted character as she never recovers from her coma to face her past.  hence nothing is truly resolved between her and junior – who i might add was another almost useless character.  he had so much potential, there was so much going for him – his relationship with anita, then of-course michelle’s maternal responses to him – which brings me to michelle’s responses to nancy, which leads on to nancy’s relationship with yomiko – there was so much there that could have been explored instead of yet another standard smack-on between goodies and badies.  the point of read or die should not be about using powers to defeat evil – it should be learning about life and love through those powers – because like all representative things in life, those powers represent our actions.  oh sorry, it doesn’t go as deep as that – they’re just uber powers for the sake of animating cool paper things.

happy lesson on the other hand was wonderful.  characters are well developed, and each gets plenty of space for expression.  instant favourites are kisaragi and kanna, and while mutski-chan gets her turn early in the first series, she is well developed in happy lesson advance which i will review next entry.  there is not a single annoying character in this anime – even mina isn’t the normal quiet and shy school-girl – she’s young, but in her way quite assertive.  the title also becomes quite meaningful by the time the series concludes.  i found happy lesson to be absolutely balanced.  it’s funny, entertaining, clever, and very heart-warming.  i would say this rates among the best animes that on the surface appear quite harmless and shallow, but in essence are very deep.  happy lesson and happy lesson advance actually confront quite a few issues not normally portrayed in anything let alone anime, and it’s excecution and presentation is artful.  haibane renmei and my other serious animes aside, this has been one of the most enjoyable series i have watched.