Tuesday, February 1, 2005

Review of YamiBou
This is another one of those "spawned from H games" series. It was originally a H game released by ROOT in 2002. The TV series differs quite a bit from the game though, and while the ecchiness definitely is there, it's handled nicely and does not become annoying or overwhelming. Do not expect any H or yuri-action worth mentioning in this series.

There are things that the viewer should know when watching this series, as they basically throw you into a story without giving any background information. Luckily some people decided to write up a small page which explained the foundation of YamiBou. They have borrowed some elements from religion to create this foundation. This is a quick and basic explaination:

In the beginning Adam and Lilith created various worlds and then Eve helped populating these worlds with humans. Then Gods came and started to wage battles against each other. Fearing that all worlds would be destroyed Adam created "The Great Library" where each book would represent a single world. A being called "Yami" was born to protect and manage whis library.

The story itself is okay. During the first episode we are thrown into a completely different world with trains, spies, russian military and similar things. Lilith, as well as her little yellow, fatty bird is also present here but nothing is explained and things might appear quite jumbled. Lilith meets Hazumi and decides to help her out and each episode basically features a new world where they look for Hatsumi, who isn't quite what she first appeared to be.

At times the plot becomes confusing and not much happens -- it stalls. I didn't find that particulary problematic myself, as I thought these side stories were quite interesting nonetheless.

Based on H graphics, nothing less than very good was expected. The character designs are very well done, as are the sceneries. The colors were well balanced, not too dark as with old "tech" animes and not too sugary as in dating-sim games.

The character design is, however, that of a Dating-sim game. We've got the big eyes, small noses, small mouths and pufffy hair styles. It's not a style which I usually like but I actually found myself coming to like some of the designs.

Okay music. It's mostly synthesizer based, but the sound quality is quite good on the various FX used. The background music fit the scenes well and sounded a bit old style European at times, those of you who have watched Noir will know what I talk about. The opening tune is great though, good Jpop with a nice beat.

The show is only released in Japanese so I watched the sub. The voice actors all did a good job on their parts. I found myself liking the VA of Hazumi since the voice is a bit darker, not the squeeky squeeeky type, it fit her character well; hard on the outside but softer within.

There are not the traditional mix of personalities in this show as in many other game-derives. We dont have: the tomboy, the shy girl, the sloppy girl, the athletic..etc you get the point. The characters are by not unique...or perhaps some of them are in a way. It's not every day where you come by people who have the ability to travel through worlds via books after all. The main characters grow during the show and there are some episodes which bring us back in time to other events which happened earlier when the main characters were young. This helps to give the viewer an insight into the different personas. There is more to say, but doing so would spoil the show.

Some things are not explained in the show though, like why Hazumi always has one of her calves loosely bandaged or why she's one helluva sword fighter. There are some small bits here and there that I guess are explained in the game but were left out in the anime.

Some people have voiced their utter hate for this series, while other people say that it gets way too confusing after a couple of episodes, while others like it. YamiBou is an okay mix of Fantasy, Magic, Sci-fi, and Drama with Ecchiness here and there. I didn't think it was very confusing myself, although the story line dose lose itself here and there. However, it picks up eventually and various occurances throughout the series are tied together during this journey through worlds.

Rewatchability is a possibillity. The animation was good and some episodes are quite crammed with happenings. It's not a series for everyone and it seems to be one of those "either you hate it or you like it and watch it" series.


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