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AKA: N/A
Genre: School life / sports / ecchi romance
Length: Television series, 26 episodes, 23 minutes each
Distributor: Currently licensed by FUNimation.
Content Rating: PG (fanservice, mild language, boredom)
Related Series: N/A
Also Recommended: Azumanga Daioh
Notes: Based on the manga by Seo Kouji.
Rating:

Suzuka

Synopsis

The 15-year old Akizuki Yamato has gone to Tokyo alone to go to high school, looking to turn over a new leaf. He lays eyes on a beautiful girl in school who happens to be next door. Cue all the love cliches and Girls BRAVO-esque romance.


Review

Suzuka is an example of an absolute loss of good pastels. By this, I mean that those good colors that could shine up a nice anime in the future got thrown away in this bonfire of unnecessity.

This anime has what can be called the mother of all plotholes. The only apparent things you can get from the show is that the main character loves the best athlete in the school and that they fall in love. Plot advancement? What in the world does that mean? Not one sign of careful planning pops up in this thing as the plot ends up like pyrite: you hit it with a hammer and it separates into pieces going out every other way. If you can piece together anything in this, pat yourself on the back because you did better than me.

Artwork? This anime is like an explosion of wrong. They seem to oversize things that never really needed it (i.e. the sailor fuku collars, as they call them) and didn't understand much else in the way of artwork. Except for the scenes with...fanservice. Just for that, and as a thank you gift for watching, you get your eyes speared out by the ending video, which took the Windows type "256-Color" format WAAAAYYY too seriously. It's like you're staring into a lavalamp or one of those spinning, multi-color disco wheels. A better video could have been drawn (like the opening) that didn't scream at your eyes, but we aren't THAT lucky. If you want to see the ending video, get a pair of sunglasses because you will need them.

The music isn't all that bad and may be the only thing I really like about this anime. The composers put enough material into their work and allowed the singers to take over, creating masterpieces. The sad part was that it had to be THIS anime to get the soundtrack. If you turn down the TV's brightness control so the screen is completely black, you'll love the show. I wish I were kidding.

We also "lucked out" when we got the characters, who are mostly adapted from other characters. The main male lead, Yamato, laughs and acts like Final Fantasy X's Tidus (not a good sign except for those who really liked him). Whenever he isn't taking the form of Tidus, he's the spending man who spends for his girlfriend. Shizuka (the main female lead, as far as the show clued into it) is ALMOST like Kirie from Girls BRAVO, what with the arguments and the yelling and talking down to Yamato, but unlike Kirie, snaps out of it just after you lose all caring for this series.
Everyone else is not as cliche and some even act so cool that THEY should be the lead characters. The voices are nothing really out-of-the-ordinary, but sound rather dull and as if the actors were tired to a certain degree.

Animation quality must have been thought of a bit here, considering that I wasn't really disappointed by it, but it still couldn't make up for the rest of the sewage this anime throws your way. The movement is smooth and clear while the environment reacts nicely.

The really bad part of this anime is that it must have been made with one intention...putting all objects in the Phallic Ultraverse in here. Umbrellas look suspicious. Objects supposed to be innocent stir up controversy. Everything doesn't fit right.

If anime is judged by the amount of cheese and nothing else, then BONJOUR! WELCOME TO FRANCE!

This anime proves to me that some people have nothing better to do at all in the studios except for make MST3K fodder similar to this. Some will like this, but nowhere in that subset will I exist.Jake L Godek

Recommended Audience: The amount of fanservice increases over the show's timeline, with later episodes causing bulging eyes from the sheer quantity of it. Definitely for those older than 13.



Version(s) Viewed: digital source
Review Status: Partial (2/26)
Suzuka © 2005 Studio Comet / Kodansha / Marvelous
 
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