Ranked #3231

Element Hunters

Element Hunters is a perfect example of why it's important to give every anime a fair chance to be watched thoroughly. Many a review for this anime criticizes this show unfairly for being too kiddy, cliched, or lacking other important qualities of depth, when those statements could not be further from the truth. You must then objectively observe that all the negative reviews for this show are from people who have only committed to watching about two episodes.

Is this a kiddy show? Okay, I will admit it's G rated, so obviously they avoid excessive graphic violence. Characters however actually die in this show (or the death of characters is strongly suggested, either in an element of explaining one's past, or as an emotion grabbing tool).

Cliched? Far from it. The concept of defeating monsters and retrieving elements is not exactly new, but likening this show to Pokemon and using that as a method to justify that this show is horrible is but an amateur mistake. This show is INFINITELY more serious than Pokemon. As the threat of death is very real in this story, and there is very real and very serious conflict on fundamental grounds with the Earth Element Hunters and the Colony who are in disagreement as to what can be done to save the planet and its people from total annihilation. Each important character has a well-developed back story for explaining why there is so much fundamental disagreement in the first place. At times it's made unclear if the Colony Element Hunters are in fact antagonists or protagonists in this story, as in certain moments, they will be aiding the Earth Hunters in their goal, and other moments impeding their progress. This is NOT a generic kiddy show where character roles are cut and dry. There are profound emotions and intentions involved over a serious worldy issue, all complicated by character flaws and lack of information between other characters.

To say that this show lacks depth is like judging a book by its cover. Most if not all of us are probably guilty of that. All shows deserve a fair chance to be watched. Give a thumbs down AFTER you confirm the entire series is bad (I for example stuck through watching the entire season of The Sacred Blacksmith, being able to confirm that the show overall was worse than its first 2 episodes might have hinted). Otherwise you should be ashamed of yourself if you're among the many people I mentioned who watched only 2 episodes and gave a thumbs down for this legitimately amazing show.

The educational premise is more of a secondary factor to an otherwise rather serious show with a strong focus on character and plot development. However my personal impression is that people who take some moderate interest in the subject of Chemistry will find the educational elements (no pun intended) amusing. Lastly, the ending theme to this show is quite possibly one of the most catchy and clever songs I've ever witnessed. Can anyone really deny the pure genius of the mnemonic for the periodic table of elements?

tl;dr, this show is actually fundamentally decent in virtually every category. I recommend watching it. read more

This series has been seriously criticized for no real reason, this is not some action based anime like bleach or Naruto so to compare it to them are quite irational.
If all you are looking for is characters screaming at eachother while they try to chop eachother up this is not your cup of tea.

Story:
Randomly on the earth where the story takes places massives amounts of elements dissapear(only one element at a time and only in a limited area), apparently they are being transported to this alternative dimension which only kids (with a specialy developed lobe area) can detect.
What this means is that kids that can detect this world are chosen to go there and retrieve the elements unless the world will fall to ruin. To get the element they must fight a "monster" that has been infused with this transported element using often times chemistry. Therefore there are very much a "monster of the week" feel to it and the "fights" if you can call it that are rarely interesting in themselves.

However I predict a major plot-twist coming up, this series are about to become interesting and change pace. That however is just my guess but I can say for sure that the story is progressing and getting more and more interesting.
Its hard to tell, still after 12 eps its very up in the air what is really going on.

Art:
The art is quite nice I think, pretty clean and smooth and very colourful. I appreciate the animation and am rarely dissapointed.

Sound:
Its really nothing grand, its decent I dont mind the seiryuu(voice actors) at all but the bgm is a dissapointment. The intro though is actually catchy ^^

Characters:
I like the characters of this series, admittadly it has really taken a while, they were quite... annoying at the start and the first 8 eps or so when they were fleshing out the characters were painful.
However if you get through it you will find yourself growing fond of most of them and even interested in how they will develop and most of all in how their relationships will turn out.

Enjoyment:
The first 5-8 eps or so(dont remember exactly when it got better) were around a 5 in enjoyment, really bland, unintersting and frankly a bore. However at the start of any series all they can really depend on is the action since neither the characters or the plot has been introduced and is yet to catch your attention. This series weakness is just its action, no surprise the start is slow, untill the plot starts to take form.

Lately the relationships and growing characters has kept the series enjoyable for me, much more so than mindless action shows. Lastly just got to add, you people who compare it to naruto and claim the main character is stupid, well Naruto was such a clever character in ep 1 wasn't he :P

Overall:
This show holds potential, hopefully it will changes gears totally and turn into something entirely different, there are hints at such things. This could aslo admittadly end up the pile of junk it presently is but who knows, it definitely is interesting read more