Rin ~Daughters of Mnemosyne~

Synopsis:

Rin Asogi and her friend Mimi run a private investigation agency in Tokyo performing all sorts off odd jobs. Finding lost pets, locating rare stamps, helping clones recover their lost memory, stopping angels from causing mass murder, it's all routine work for Rin as she posses a unique ability... she's immortal and can't die. Well, she can die but her wounds heal rapidly and she's back on her feet in no time as is the same for her partner Mimi. But when Apos, the guardian of the Yggdrasil which is responsible for both Rin's and Mimi's immortality grows bored and decides to satiate his sadistic sense of amusement by throwing the world into chaos by making the secret of immortality known to everyone. Rin decides to stop Apos even if it means losing her immortality and her life.


Reviewer: Endosanity
Number of episodes watched: 6


Review:

FUNTURDmation iz releasing hentaiz!! ZOMGBBQDESU~!!!!111 That's just a little summary of some of the comments I read about this DVD and let me just say this up front, no... no it's not. But first, let's take a look a the story, two immortal women... actually I should say one woman and a teenager running a private investigation firm and right from episode one this was an interesting premise. But, after a little while you start to notice how Rin seems to get her ass kicked on a regular basis regardless of her badass ninja skills. The only purpose this serves is to display some gore and show off Rin's regeneration capabilities but don't be surprised if you find yourself sighing wondering how she accomplishes anything by constantly getting the shit kicked out of her. To add insult to injury though is that the first few episodes aren't very imaginative or thought provoking for that matter and present little to no mystery giving you a long drawn-out episode where the case could have been solved in half the time with some intelligent story-telling.

After little while you start to see a pattern. Rin takes on a case, gets killed, comes back to life, has sex with her lesbian informants, goes and kicks ass and nearly dies in the process, then... case closed. But, sometimes Mimi has to use her own loli body to get info from the lesbians that seem to know everything about anything for the price of a round of carpet munching. Now don't go all getting excited as it's all done with scenes of soft-core sex, in other words, you don't really see anything amongst all the extreme close-ups but you sure get a lot of moaning going on. It's not until about half way though this mini-series that you start finding out about the source of Rin and Mimi's immortality and what's really happening unseen by the human eye but it turns out to be less than spectacular. When you think about it, this series feels like it threw in a bunch of sex scenes to try an make up for the recycled antagonist that's been used so many times before. An omnipotent being that became bored... feh.

In the end I will give this this anime credit for one thing, the time-line used for it's presentation. Even though Rin and Mimi remain the same age, the world around them keep progressing and changing with each episode. Technology advances, people age, buildings decay, but Rin and Mimi are still the same. Now this... this was very imaginative but unfortunately it's not enough to save the series from becoming an uninteresting mix of divinity and sex. Rin ~Daughters of Mnemosyne~ should have just either focused on action and mystery or just went for all out hentai because as it is you almost feel frustrated that this anime can't really focus on one thing very well making for one very lame conclusion which isn't really worth your time since you won't be getting the action you crave or the sex you desire. Go find something else to watch, you're not missing much here.

And now for Grandpa Endo's bonus material! Yes, I just had to bring this out in the initial review. Even though Rin ~Daughters of Mnemosyne~ is an adult oriented anime I just thought you want to know that the FAILimation DVDs are... (drumroll please)... CENSORED!!! Isn't that awesome? How so you ask? Well, any scene that contains massive gore is shrouded in shadow and you can't see a damn thing and snatch shots, especially of Mimi, have the mysterious ray of sunlight blocking it! FUCK YEAH!! Just think about that if you're wondering if it's totally uncensored. Makes me glad I can put the DVD back in an envelope and return it once I'm done watching it.

Rin ~Daughters of Mnemosyne~ (opening)

Recommendation: |Low|

Media type: DVD
From: FAILimation
Languages: English;Japanese
Subtitles: English

His and Her Circumstances

Synopsis:

Yukino Miyazawa, a freshman in high school is the envy off all her classmates for her good grades and immaculate appearance. At home though she is a completely different person, a stubborn, rambunctious, and... slob of a girl. But, she maintains her 'miss perfect' facade at school simply to win the praise of everyone. However, the new boy in her class Soichiro Arima begins to steal Miyazawa's limelight with even higher test scores and a warm and welcoming personna that everyone likes. Miyazawa considers him to be an academic enemy but Arima is completely oblivious to her one sided competition and pays no mind. Arima has different thoughts towards Miyazawa and instead confesses his love for her which she immediately turns down yet somehow slightly regrets her choice. Thinking that she is no back at being number one in her class with nothing to worry about her armor is quickly destroyed when Arima pays Miyazawa a visit at home to loan her a CD but is greeted at the door by a very plain looking but loud-mouthed girl in a pair of worn-out sweats and glasses. Now that her flawless exterior that she has maintained for years has been destroyed with a single glance, Miyazawa agonizes at what Arima will do. But the next day Arima doesn't mention it nor has told anyone about what he saw... just what are Arima's intentions?


Reviewer: Endosanity
Number of episodes watched: 26


Review:

Well, this anime sure did "jump the shark" in the first couple of episodes. You get a confession and everything not leaving a whole lot for the story to go on after that and, let's not be stupid here, of course she accepts his feelings after a couple of episodes. So what does this anime do? Turn to comedy, this anime decides to make the audience laugh instead of using much of a story and to my surprise I found myself laughing at this rather than looking for a plot. You get perfectly timed slap-stick comedy mixed with a wafer-thin plot that Miyazawa might actually like Arima after all. But this isn't really the main focus of the story but more of how Miyazawa tears down her own walls of falsehood and even with this she still retains her friends and even gains a few in the process.

But now let's take a look at Arima. He is not without his own dark past though, so in the process of indirectly helping Miyazawa in accepting her true identity she also aids him in coping with a rather unpleasant childhood that he hides behind with a smile. This is all done through listening and understanding his untold pain and suffering not realizing she is the only person that has been capable of subsiding his personal demons just by being with him. Now by this time the series is about half over and there doesn't seem like much to go on and you're right. From here on this anime just seems to rely on slapstick comedy, flashbacks, and annoying recap episodes. It's as if the anime didn't know what to do and was rushed to present at least something of an episode but all you got was a shallow plot rehash with little to no new content.

As this goes on I found myself getting bored or skipping by all the "remember when" sequences but luckily the shows hilarity only made me want to watch even more. I found myself laughing at the stupidest shit but that's probably not saying much because I'm easily amused. Another thing that I would like to point out is the randomized artistic style. From black and white slide shows, chibi-styled presentations, fade-in and out panaled stills, His and Her Circumstances doesn't stick with one particular type of animation giving it somewhat of it's own style of individuality. But, even all this can't save this anime from the horribly inexpicable and abrupt ending. Right when somewhat of a story comes back into the picture with Arima starting to look like an over-obsessive psychopath the show stops... it just fucking STOPS!! What the hell is that all about? Did they want me to read the manga to continue it? Fucking hell? Do they think I have time for that shit? I guess I'll never know what happens because I can't rent manga and I sure as hell can't afford to be blindly buying it so screw it, on to the next show...

In the end I must say that it is a good series. It's very amusing and had a unique presentation and even the supporting characters other than Arima and Miyazawa held their own screen presence but their overall affect on what little story there is, is very minuscule. It's just so unfortunate that the ending failed so hard that you're left with the big nothing and you'll never really know what happens. It's sort of hard to recommend it because nothing is ever resolved but I still liked His and Her Circumstances regardless of it's multitude of short-comings.

His and Her Circumstances (opening)

Recommendation: |Average|

Media type: DVD
From: Right Stuf International
Spoken languages: English;Japanese
Subtitles: English

*Note - HOLY GREAT WALL OF TEXT! Hope I didn't bore you too much with this one but there is one thing I'd like to point out. I'm a subtitle viewer and when it comes to corporate subs one fact has always remained... they look like shit, read like shit, and will always continue to be shit. But Right Stuf is the only corporate subber that actually puts care into their subtitle track and His and Her Circumstances is a prime example. Everything was translated, every sign, on screen text, and background conversation. Not only that but Right Stuf also color coordinated the subs to match the on-screen kanji all the way down to the same text style. To me, this was an amazing feat to pull off from a DVD player and it shows that with some effort that these anime licensees really can give you a decent subtitle track. Then again, maybe this is the reason for Right Stuf's excruciatingly slow release schedule.

It's just too bad that Right Stuf's effort was wasted on an anime that feels like an unfinished product.