Bubuki Buranki

Bubuki Buranki felt like it was an experimental show to me. It was sort of like the way it was presented animation, story, character designs etc it's like Sanzigen wanted to test out their new original show using new animation software or perhaps they wanted to use the viewers as a test audience to see if the current direction they are going in is okay.. overall it just felt like this show was released as an experiment for something bigger in the future.Moving on from that, the overall story was okay, it wasn't too bad, nor was it anything special. The plot always felt like ... there was something missing or the writers just made things a bit too confusing.

The art, designs and animations rely heavily on CGI. I found this unique and maybe uncommon method pretty interesting, which makes me want to bring up the "Experimental theory" again, however I'm done writing about that... for now. Another thing I'd like to mention is the battles and action scenes. They are wonderful, beautiful, and most importantly for MECHA anime vibrant. Battles between Bubuki users are always exciting to watch! At times I felt like I was watching video game cut-scenes, in fact, I think that is word I want to use to summarize the animation and art used in Bubuki Buranki. The whole show just looks like a video game.


Soundtrack and background music, ughhh, they're alright, of course no specific songs used in this series stood out enough for me to like Em'. The voice actors were okay, I do however believe that Bubuki Buranki isn't going to be a role that the actors would want to brag about though.

Enjoyment overall, I found myself fading in and out, I mean Bubuki Buranki was well rounded to a certain extent and all however I just had a hard time keeping myself engaged in the story and plot. In the end though I think, nah, I strongly believe that Bubuki Buranki could've been a lot better than what was presented in the end. The plot and story could've been improved, character development etc. Overall I had to give this show a 7/10 because while I was disappointed with the story and plot, the amazing action scenes and fights actually made up for the mistakes.. So I don't want to rule Bubuki Buranki as a bad show so I think "fair" is good enough. Bubuki Buranki does have a lot of potential to be even greater, I look forward to watching season 2

Bububu is in my opinion the worst show, I've seen completely in the last season. I forgot the miserabely narrated story immediately after the show ended, sometimes, as the episode ended. The style, and CG was awesome, remembered me often times at Knights of Sidonia (beautiful Anime, go watch it!), but the unbelievably bad choreographed action scenes took so much time, that they pushed and squeezed every piece of dialogue between every fight as fast as they could. For example, after the 12th duel with this Bulletshooting guy, everyone I know recognized, that these fights go nowhere. They are meaningless in every aspect, end without ... consequences and every char is saved with an unbreakable plot-armor.

Because of the massive amount of action, the end of the show is sooo rushed and punished with pure storytelling, combined with the stupidest and most obvious plotholes I have seen in years... Damn, I have to keep spoilers out of this... ok... they could make an whole Anime around the last two episodes, and it still could be cool, filled with action and with dense storytelling, but THEY HAD NO TIME. The last episode was so stupidely hilarious, thanks to earlier mentioned side characteres, that the Drama, they wanted to achieve by implementing red-haired girl's backstory, was blown out the window. It was annoying in every second and I regret to took the time, I needed to realize that. (3/10)

Bubuki Buranki is one of those Anime you can call "Hidden gem".
I think it's really underrated.
Bubuki Buranki focuses on a group of 5 children, while each of them wield a Bubuki, which is a part of a Buranki (A Huge Mech), and only when they come together, they can form the Buranki.
It was an enjoyable one, since there was a good plot, great fights, and not too much talking.
Bubuki Buranki looks in art something similar to 3D (Like 009:Cyborg or Love Live! at some parts) which was beautiful.
The colors were colorful and are pretty bright, and at some scenes it was gray-black and some neon ... colors flashing- which was beautiful as well.
About the music- Catchy Opening, and that's it.

I liked the characters, even though they don't develop too much in the Anime, they could work well together in a team and made the team interesting.
The fights were really good, and the way they fought was interesting, as well their weapons.
Also, The characters who are controlling another Buranki, are developing well in the Anime, making it even more interesting to know who's "good" and who's "bad".

As the Anime goes on, more teams join the fray, and makes the viewer choose what team is the "good" and what team is the "bad.

I think that Bubuki Buranki is a unique kind of Mecha anime.
Rating: 8/10 :D

I'll start this review off by saying that I'm no intellectual. Far from it. When I watch my anime I often won't focus too hard on the plot, character development and so on, at least not when it comes to my everyday-casual consumtion of anime. As long as the art, character design, sound/music and the shows overall themes and are cool and executed with class, that alone may be enough for me to rate a show 7-8. (For example, LOTGH wasn't exactly my cup of tea, whereas this show, Bubuki/Buranki was. The storytelling in LOTGH was more intricate and intelligent, but the show as ... a whole still wasn't very entertaining if you ask me.)

Although I must say that in B/B the plot feels both confusing and unfinished even to me. Furthermore, since it's an 12 eps only anime, there are simply too many teams/people cramed in there. It's almost hopeless to present that many a characters and cram them into one 12-ep season.
It's not so much the ideas themselves that are poor, it's just that the storytelling feels rushed and at times even sloppy.

As you may have guessed, the art and character design is what makes this show likeable to me. I can't really understand those who argue that the use of CGI is a problem. If the animation looks cool, it is cool. Which techniques was used shouldn't be an issue.
I think the animation in B/B is just breathtakingly beautiful and awesome and funky, then it's all good. How the sounds came to be shouldn't matter.

My overall score for Bubuki/Buranki: 7.

Take care, all of you. Peace............

Liked: The characters, while being overall simple are still drawn as fun, interesting and stylized enough that I still cared for them and wanted them to succeed in their journey. The story isn't anything really new but it throws enough interesting curve balls that it can still easily grab your attention. Easily the best part of this show is the cgi, since the show is all cg. Compared to most modern anime, the animation and level of detail is truly something impressive to me.
Disliked: The pacing could be a little too slow for an action show at moments.
The anime can ... go back and develop characters that don't truthfully need the development and it can be a bit draining at moments.

Bubuki Buranki was like.....a show with an interesting story about the adults, sidelined for a much less interesting and sloppily told story about the kids.

I guess my biggest issue with the show was that it starts out promising one kind of story, and ends up telling a completely different one by the end. The saving grace of this is that both stories were pretty interesting, but the end result is not especially pretty. I think the story of Migiwa and Reoko was quite captivating, but the way it was told? Chaotic and piecemeal as hell.

There were a lot of scenes that did nothing ... to move the story forward. Mainly fight scenes, which I assume were put in just to look cool. And they did look cool! But a lot of the beginning of the show has very little impact on the endgame.

As far as the mechanics - art and sound - it's fine. I guess if you're one of those people that hates CG animation this isn't for you, but I'm fine with it myself and I thought this series looked pretty good for CG. Like I said, the fights are cool-looking.

When it comes to characters, there's not a lot of development to speak of. Really, Hiiragi and Shizuru are the only ones who change significantly in the show, so no surprises that they along with Reoko wound up being my favorites. Everyone else remains fairly static, although as the adults' backstories are revealed they definitely end up stealing the show.

Overall, a good concept with bad execution.

For the record, a "7" rating to me means "average," which is what this series wound up being.

You know i never thought i was even going to ever do a review but i gotta say is that its been a long time since ive seen such an amazing anime, i was never a fan of cg but now i am. this show was well paced, the characters are really well written even if tropes were used they were handled in such a good way . its been forever since i was really hyped for an anime and ive seen many so many that are popular yet so boring hyped for putrid fanservice and mindlessnes. Bubuki buranki really great, i didnt ... think much about it when i first started it but it turned out better than i first anticipated. what makes it even better a season 2 has been confirmed to fill out the remaining unanswered questions and other stuff.

While going through and watching all of the 2016 anime I missed throughout the year I found another completely CG anime that aired in Winter along with the more popular Ajin. When I began to watch it I went in expecting nothing and I came out with my mind completely blown. Bubuki Buranki stands as my favorite anime that has come out this year and in this review I’ll explain why I love it so much and why it is unbelievable that almost nobody watched this show when it came out, including me.

Story:
The story in Bubuki Buranki is by no means a masterpiece. But ... the way it’s executed and the amount of craziness that happens makes it one of the most enjoyable stories I’ve seen. The level of enjoyment I got out of this is equal to what I got when watching Kill la Kill, and Kill la Kill is in my Top Ten Favourite Anime. That’s not really surprising though since the studio that did Bubuki Buranki, SANZIGEN is in the same building or near (I’m not really too sure on this one) as the studio that did Kill la Kill, Trigger. The Trigger-ish insanity can definitely be seen in Bubuki Buranki which means that this story is one of the craziest, emotional and enjoyable things in this anime. Once the action starts it never really stops which is one of the best things about this show. It’s something that you will want to marathon either in one sitting or in two (like I did) since it feels like one big movie that you won’t want to stop watching. The story is almost flawless and the only complaint that I have is that they split this show into two 12 episode seasons instead of showing all the episodes at once, which means that this show ends on a cliff-hanger ending which isn’t a problem now since the second season is currently airing.

Characters:
This is where the only problem with this show comes in. My only main problem with Bubuki Buranki is that the main character is a little generic. He doesn’t do a lot of fighting in this show and his weapon is kind of useless in one on one fights, which this show has quite a few of. But there is a reason for that and I don’t want to spoil it here since I highly, highly suggest you watch this anime for yourself. Other than that all of the other four main characters and all of the villains are extremely memorable whether it be because of their colorful and unique designs or because they have really enjoyable personality traits, every character leaves an impact including some that only show up in the final couple of episodes. No character in this show is annoying and all of them (except for the MC) have really cool weapons and powers which makes the action scenes a joy to witness.

Sound:
In the sound department Bubuki Buranki definitely excels and is one of this show’s high points. The soundtrack in this anime is incredible as it has a variety of action themes, comedic pieces and some sad songs which all fit every scene they are played in and make the scene more epic or heart-warming depending on which part they play in. The voice acting is really good as well considering a lot of the voice actors are newcomers. As of now this show doesn’t have a dub and if it does I hope that Aniplex of America picks it up since as much as I do enjoy Sentai Filmworks dubs, I think Bubuki Buranki deserves a little better then passable. Or they could just not dub it which would be fine as well since the sub is really good. Now to one of my favourite parts of this show, the Opening and Ending songs. The opening Beat your Heart by Konomi Suzuki is an amazing song that is one of her best Openings in my opinion and it fits Bubuki Buranki really well. The Ending is really good as well since it’s done by the band MYTH&ROID who do some really good songs as well.

Animation:
The fact that this anime is done completely in CG is what I think turned people off of this show. Which is stupid since this is the best CG I’ve seen in any CG anime. The fact that Ajin is more popular than this and Ajin looks like crap is so weird to me. Even not comparing this to Ajin it looks really good too. The characters are smooth, the action is breathtaking and the expressions on the characters faces are even better than some normal anime. This show’s existence is the reason that I think SANZIGEN is a better animation studio then Polygon Pictures (they did Ajin and Knights of Sidonia). Out of everything the animation in Bubuki Buranki is its highest point and is one of the main reasons that I love this show so much. After seeing the quality of animation in this show it might be hard to watch Ajin or Knights of Sidonia since I would be constantly comparing them to Bubuki Buranki.

Final Thoughts:
Overall, Bubuki Buranki is my choice for best anime of 2016. While I may be the only one that thinks this I urge people to give this show a shot. It has the best CG animation I’ve seen in any show (anime or not) and is a really fun ride that you are missing out on if you judge this show solely on the fact that it is CG. It is criminal that this show is already underrated.

Score: 9

Rating: Great

[Spoiler-Free Review]

What I liked about the series:

(+) Above average animation quality. Colours were bright and vibrant.
(+) Mech fights were decent. They were spaced out because a good chunk of the anime involved duels between Bubuki (weapon) users instead of the larger-scale Buranki (mech) brawls.
(+) There are trains.

What I disliked:

... (-) The story took a backseat for most of the early episodes, with only vague references to this and that. Basic plot details were only revealed on the 11th or 12th hour. Up till them, the anime seemed like a hollow setting for the sake of the fights.
(-) The main squad was rather boring. Like the average shounen title, they spent half the time bickering amongst each other instead of doing what they're supposed to do, and the other half surviving battles either with plot armour or because their enemies for some reason refused to finish them off. With the huge plot detail dump near the end, the Reoko squad seemed way cooler in comparison. The anime would have been more interesting from their perspective instead.

TLDR good for the big fights with little else.

I watched both seasons of Bubuki Buranki. Here are my thoughts:

My expectations going into this were rock bottom but surprisingly I enjoyed watching it. For those who don't know, this is a mecha-themed action show that is animated entirely in CGI. I watched the Blu-rays, which might've been a bit more polished than what was presented to a seasonal viewer.

The plot is kind of a mess and it was sometimes confusing. There were some pacing issues; seemingly trivial things got more screentime than plot-critical events. There were also some questionable decisions, like introducing a bunch of new characters in a short period of time during ... the latter half of season one. That was probably especially bothersome for those watching the anime as it aired, as opposed to watching both seasons continuously. Another noteworthy thing is that the conflicts/fights rarely have any consequences for the party who loses, which kind of removes any feeling of suspense. The story is somewhat ridiculous at times, and I did not take it seriously. However, the show is sometimes fun to watch and the episodes usually passed quickly. Basically, "just shut your brain off, bro." Admittedly, a lot of loose ends in the plot get tied up during season two. Even beyond the overarching plot, there are a lot of character arcs that the show is constantly juggling. It gets messy at times, especially considering that most episodes spend a significant amount of time on action scenes as well.

The characters were okay, although a few were bland or annoying (looking at you, Kogane). There was adequate character development for the four main supporting characters, but a glaring lack of development for the bland MC. For context, the four supporting characters form the limbs of a mech and the MC is the torso ('heart'). I liked a lot of the antagonist/villain characters actually. There was tons of variety among the antagonist characters and a lot of them were entertaining when on screen. Unfortunately, this is in stark contrast to the zero-personality MC. Overall though, I liked the variety of personalities that were featured in this anime.

Voice acting was decent and there was a lot of variety among the cast. There were a handful of characters (mainly antagonists) who had notably unique voice work. The OST was okay and I liked the OP and ED songs. Felt myself singing along to the first OP. One stand-out aspect was the great sound effects (mainly related to mech function and movement).

Action scenes were pretty fun to watch. Both the human-on-human conflict and the mech fights. I think my favourite aspect of the series was the action scenes. They felt fresh and creative, and the CGI allowed a lot of things I wouldn't expect from conventional anime. In addition to motion, the action scenes were very colourful. Aside from the mechs themselves, there were neat weapons and equipment.

Unfortunately, CGI is a double-edged sword in that it really inhibits characters' facial expressions, which impairs dialogue-heavy scenes and dramatic moments. One thought I had was that the lack of facial expressions could be compensated for with more-emotional voice acting, but this wasn't discernably employed, in fact many characters are kind of deadpan. It would be interesting though if the use of CGI in anime influenced decision making related to voice acting.

This anime has an experimental feel to it. It is surprisingly creative, especially for an action-focused mech show. It is unique from a technical perspective, as well as in terms of the characters and story. With better writing and direction, it could have been a great show. Even so, I don't regret watching it.


Overall rating: 6/10
It was flawed but it had a lot of fun moments and was easy to watch.

For those who like action and mecha shows, you might consider sampling this anime. It has problems but it also has some redeeming qualities. It seems underappreciated.