5 years ago, Xebec scraps plans for a Nadesico and Stellvia sequel.

And today, they made Rio's Rainbow Gate.



And the reviews? Not so good:

http://www.japanator.com/kagato-teg-blogs-...s=1&y=community

http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2011/01/05/r...me-this-season/

EDIt: Here's my review of Rio RainbowGate.

one of my favourite films was Croupier starring Clive Owen. in this, he plays a casino dealer, aka a croupier. The film was shot beautifully like a modern Noir film, and it had such a beautiful style and artwork, along with an interesting look at the gambling culture.

Another favourite of mine was the James Bond film, Casino Royale. With Daniel Craig as Bond along with a heavy emphasis on Texas Hold Em' poker , it is an instant favourite of mine for not only being my favourite Bond movie, but also my favourite Gambling movie next to Croupier. I'm also a huge fan of the book, being a dark and powerfully sexy intro to the world of Bond.

Both Croupier and Casino Royale talks about the culture, the innergrounds and undergrounds of the gambling industry. The acting of both films are great, the visuals are nice, the environment feels good and both work well as a gambling film.

Rio RainbowGate tries to bring that awesome sexiness of gambling ala Croupier into anime by giving it some fanservice and a YuGiOh! spin into it.

It didn't work.

Based on a pachinko series, Rio RainbowGate was adapted by XEBEC who used to do animes like Love Hina and Nadesico. 5 years ago, Xebec scrapped all sequel plans for Nadesico to make way for animes like MM! (which i liked) and Rio RainbowGate.

And when an anime makes me say "The scrapped Nadesico for this??!", you know where this is going.

The story is about this girl who goes with her grandfather (who was in episode 7 of Excel Saga) to a city that is a mix of Dubai, Las Vegas, San Francisco, and hell. Seriously, who wants to visit that place? Anyways, her grandfather is going to gamble at this casino which apparently has a hot dealer named "Rio". She's also called the "Goddess of victory" who can grant you over 9000 luck if you touched her boo...i mean hands.

And while the little girl is walking around the city, she sees various gamblers trying to approach Rio. She's interested at all the commotion and gets closer to Rio. Rio suddenly befriends the little girl (huh?) and they start hanging out, much with the grandfather's approval.

One night, both Rio and the little girl were being threatened by this rich douchebag and his guards. He apparently wants the little girl, and Rio protects her by doing NAVY Seal moves and Chuck Norris roundhouse kicks on the rich guy's guards. The next day, he challenges Rio to a poker match. if she wins, she wins. If she loses, he'll get the girl and she'll be topless while filmed by the casino owner's film crew.

During the poker match, Rio goes all YuGiOh! with nudity basically while the rich douchebag enters the set of K-On's No thank You with giant cards added to set. After that, it was revealed that the rich guy lost and Rio won with her YuGiOh powers. The end, with some fanservice panty shots.

Now, is it a bad anime? No. Is it a good anime? Not really. The visuals are great, but the anime doesn't deserve it. The voice acting is decent, but the foreign accents turn me off. And the music is aweful. I expect some really sexy noir music like in Croupier or atleast some House Music-esque tracks , but we get some pop-crap and music from gag comedies that feels misplaced in this anime.

The pacing also feels rushed, and i don't know if i should continue watching this or not. Rio is pretty hot, but the fanservice is unnecessary. It makes her look like a whore rather than a classy and serious croupier. When i think of someone like Rio, i think of Miho Azuki from Bakuman, not a reject from a hentai.

Overall, Rio RainbowGate is a mediocre anime. It's not bad, but it's not good as a card anime, or as a gambling show. The only way for me to actually enjoy this show is if they have Satomi Arai as the narrator. If her narration caused me to rewatch the entire series of Ookami-san 3 times, then the same could apply to this. If you want to watch something about gambling, watch Casino Royale or Croupier. But it does have expectations to develop as a really good anime, and if they develop the show alot in later episodes, then i might enjoy it.

This post has been edited by TwoThirdsMajority: Jan 8 2011, 07:29 PM

this series is another series that is hngggngggh

Rio's hot and I can hear tits, but other than that, it's shit.

my review is up. Check my OP.

Rio

perhaps one of the most bring series i even seen..

no more on my watch list liao.

IIRC it was an internal problem that stopped Sato from continuing Nadesico and Stellvia.

For me Xebec is not a choosy studio. For example they are the one that did Toraburu, which is how they do make most of their money, and they also do animes like Occult Gakuen and Azure no Fafner, where they spend these monies on. So it's kinda unfair to blame them on Stelvia and Nadesico's problem

Well, if they didn't abandoned Nadesico and started making wise decisions, then they would not be making this mediocre piece of shit.

This post has been edited by TwoThirdsMajority: Jan 8 2011, 09:13 PM

Ah, but you missed my point. Shits like this is how they can keep afloat. Ecchi sells no matter what. Thus why we also have gems like Occult Gakuen

i read is between editor and management dunoo true or not