Tactics

Title:Tactics
Overall:Rent
Keywords: , , , ,
Notables: Animation - Studio DEEN
R1 License - Manga Entertainment
Even as a child, Kantarou had a special sense that permitted him to talk to and befriend the various spirits that lived in the forest. From these spirit friends, he first heard about a terrible ogre-eating tengu who had been sealed away. Kantarou promises himself that he will find the ogre-eater and become his friend. As a young adult, Kantarou makes a living as a writer specializing in folklore stories and as a Shinto priest with a gift for exorcism. And while dealing with a case of a spirit possession in a little village, he comes across a small shrine with an ancient sealing stone that just might be what he has been searching for.

25 episodes
Produced by Studio DEEN

1min English Language Trailer - ANN Video
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Unevaluated Ggultra2764 [series:907#1552]
(Watched two episodes)

A bit too formulaic for me to get hooked on. Tactics appears to be going for an episodic occult mystery premise with the occasional comedy coming off Kantarou's interactions with his spiritual companions. However, there's nothing I can find that really sticks out with the series that I've seen done before and the seemingly serious moments from Kantarou's exorcism jobs come across as a bit hammy for me, especially while he is chanting incantations. Yet another Netflix rental I'm dropping without review.

Last updated Sunday, October 16 2011. Created Sunday, October 16 2011.
Rent 8 7 8 7 8 8 Dreamer [series:907#2279]
The synopsis is what drew me to this series.... and the fact that I ran out of anime to watch, so I picked this one up hoping it would be a good one. I'm glad I did.

Art, Animation & Character Designs
Artwork wasn't too bad. it had a fair amount of details and the colors were fairly rich. Lighting effects are a strong point. Especially noted in episode one, during the forest scene. The way the lights streamed through the trees and backgrounds, Breathtaking. Character designs weren't bad either. However, it reminded me of a style commonly used in Yaoi flavored anime.... not that I'm a fan of those at all. At least this series wasn't one. Speaking of characters, I fell in love with the kawaii Youko, the fox "monster". Suzu was pretty darn cute too.

Music
The OP was a decent rock piece with female vocals. A nice welcome pace of change from the normal high-pitched pop pieces you often hear in anime. Not bad. The rest of the soundtrack had some nice piano pieces here and there and a few, what sounded like some cheesy 80's jazz pieces... something you might hear in some low-budget porn flicks. Other times, we had some silly clown-like pieces during humorous moments. The ED was another rock piece, a bit lighter but still decent nevertheless.

Series and Episode Story
This series takes place during the edo-era. It's an interesting mix of two worlds (as was the case in real life), with the emergence of western thought and dress in the midst of traditional japanese. This series has some fun characters, good story telling and a bit of welcomed humor. It was almost a well-rounded series.

For the most part, the series is episodic. Almost each episode focuses on an exorcism or two, while we see the slow development of Haruka (ogre-eater) and his relationship with Kantarou. It's during the last third of the episodes that we start seeing a developing plot. And it turns out to be a pretty okay one at that. During the last several episodes, it gets pretty serious and some unexpected revelations are revealed, as well a bittersweet outcome. With that said, the ending was well done and will leave you nice, warm and fuzzy inside.

Overall, this was an entertaining series and well rounded. It was worth watching through all 25 episodes.

Last updated Tuesday, December 07 2010. Created Tuesday, December 07 2010.
Unevaluated Jan-Chan [series:907#967]
This is a very fun light hearted series which mixes humor and mystery in the late 1900s, during the (edo era) time when Japan was transitioning from their traditional way of life into accepting certain dress styles and values from the west. Kantarou is a bit of soft-hearted push-over, someone who still dresses in the old tradional style of shinto priest garment. Kantarou is troubled by being hounded by his female spirit fox roommate to earn more money to keep them fed or by his cute editor to finish of his latest story, before a latest looming deadline. And with his ogre-eater companion, Hiraku, who is now living with them and has charmed a young seven-year-old neighborhood girl into bringing him her older brother's hand-me-down western style clothes. When dressed in a dark western suit and stylistic sun-shades, the tall, dark and moody Hiraku is an absolute drop-dead lady-killer (not that the tengu has any interest in chasing girls,) but it only seems to draw attention to Kantarous short comings.

But together, Kantarou and Hiraku are developing a reputation as being first-rate spirit-sleuths, as they are engaged by various clients and situations to research those (very eastern and Japanese mythos based) strange occurrences and events that seem to beyond the abilities of the tradional local police.

(If you like the series Moon Phase, then you should enjoy this series as it has a similar story line flavor.)

Last updated Wednesday, July 06 2005. Created Wednesday, December 29 2004.

Other Sites
NameURL
Series Web Site http://www.tv-tokyo.co.jp/anime/tactics/
Manga Entertainment R1-English Web Site http://www.manga.com/
More info on Manga Entertainment http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manga_Entertainment

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