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• Kaikan Phrase Anime Series

The Review

First Impression

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I've always loved stories about music, and an inspirational rock band story fits into that category quite nicely. Though the story was nothing new and certainly not groundbreaking, the characters are the best of cliché -- determined to shoot for their dreams, able to do it, seemingly able to support themselves without doing anything, and their good looks don't hurt one bit.

The Artwork

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Very shounen (handsome guys, old anime style). I don't think guys would enjoy this as much as girls. Though the style seems a little old and maybe even a little awkwardly drawn, it's not as old as, say, Lupin III or anything. The singers typically wear lots of leather and sshiny material, much like those old-fashioned rockstars did in the past.
Overall, the art is average. Nothing particularly special.

The Music

Though the music was portrayed as "the best in Japan," it's a little naive to agree with this in real life. The music is average at best - oftentimes the lead vocalist gets out of tune with the rest of the music. Also, as a side note that's not completely related to the series - when the credits come up, we see clips of the real lead singer of the music chosen for the series. He looks sooooo corny. But maybe that's just me haha.

Overall Impression

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Kaikan Phrase, which literally translates to "Sweet Phrase," is a slow-moving story with little action but plenty of drama and character development. It focuses on the many trials faced by individual members of a band, and expands them to problems that need to be dealt with by the group as a whole. Whatever actions are taken by any individual member affects everyone in Lucifer.

In some ways, this series can also be called corny, but after watching it for a while, it's also possible to call it one of the better rock-oriented anime stories. There's a lot of male-drama (acting dominant, protective, brawn...male pride) - when Sakuya has trouble tolerating the jeers of unconvinced fans in the beginning of the story, and when Sakuya comes to Aine's rescue when over-enthusiastic die-hard fans corner her in a storeroom. But overall, the feelings are understandable - just not usually expressed to such an extreme in the real world. I guess that could be said for almost all anime films.

Overall, the story does a lot of digging up the dirt and cleaning it up. Happy open-ended finish. If they ever write a sequel, I'd watch it.

Breaking It Down

The Pros Nice drama Great character development Good story

The Cons Long and very little action Sometimes corny and overdone

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