MÄR

Okay so I have been a fan of this anime since a long time and since I think that the anime is underrated i am doing this review so Enjoy :)

10/10 STORY: Okay so I guess the plot isn't that original. You know the whole "going into another world to fight evil and save the world" but it isn't your typical story too since it does have some detailes that just make you go "wow i didn't see that coming for sure"

10/10 ART: I usually really like it when in an Anime the art is clean and in really huigh quality while the ... more old animations aren't exactly my cup of tea. With that said ,the art of MAR isn't anything new It's basicly your typical anime art but it still has that effect on the viewer , it just gets you really into the story

9/10 SOUND: I liked the openings and Endings as well as the voice actors that were chosen , the music through out some of the battles or some of the sad/happy scence is really fiting too.

10/10 CHARACTERS: Okay now this is where MAR really shines in my point of view. And now if you've watched the anime you're gonna say "what these are your typical shounen characters and they were way to predictable' However i really liked them and to prove that i am going into detail with some of the main characters that i like Warning contains some spoilers :

(he is not my favorite but he is the main hero so i have to give a little info about him too)
Ginta:
Okay so Ginta is the main character.The hero of the story. He is your averrage kid that goes to a school in the normal world like everybody else/ Really, nothing interesting right ? WRONG. Although he may seem stupid and clumsy he is actually has quite the outstanding personality.Sure, he's cheerfull and happy and he's the good guy that defeats the evil guys, but he is also a dreamer. He dreams about this other magical kingdom that is usually beautifull and peacefull. but now Great evil is threatning it.He has had that dreem for over 102 times [ like the amount of episodes] and even though everybody says that it doesn't mean anything he still believes that he is some sort of chosen one and he wants to go to that world. Well my firend ,a wish come true . it is !And so he goes of to the world Of MAR Heaven and that's when his journey begins.


Dorothy:
She is the first person that Ginta meets in MAR Heaven. She's a witch and a really powerfull one. In their world, people fight with things called ARM. There are Guardian Arm, Nature Arm, Weapon Arm and so on... These are basicly guardians , weapons and element controling magic items that are usually in the form of a bracelet a necklace, rings, chains, and such. These things are ,as you can guess, soleless and most of them can't talk. But The One That Ginta finds is actually a living, talking moving arm with an atitude.Dprothy's goal is to get as many arms as she can because she has to defeat her sister Dianna that has betrayed their country and the law there is that if a sertain person is considered a traitor a member of his own family has to defeat and kill him.She is usually cheerfull and happy and she has has developed a crush on Ginta but she also has a really dark side. That of a strong and mighty witch. She doesn't hesitate to kill her oponents in batle but she promised Ginta that she son't kill anymore people in their fights.

Nanashi:
"Nanashi" means Nameless as ina person without a name. Ironic isn't it ? He is the leader of Luberia , a guid of thiefs. He is very skilled in using arm and his physical streingth is huge too. He also loves women and in a fight with a lady he always pretends to be injured or hurt ,when he wins, so that the girl can still keep some of her pride . Although this often makes him look like an idiot, he is actually really serios sometimes. His goal is to find one of the bad guys,named Petta, and kill him for killing a huge number of his comrads ,years ago. Petta ,however, is one of the strongest arm users in the land but that doesn't stop Nanashi from seaking him out and chalanging him to a fight.

So as you can see even though the main characters are a group of strong arm users that are all fighting against the same enemy,each of them has their own different goal and that is one fo the many things that is unique about them !

10/10 ENJOYMENT:
I don't know about what other people thought after watching MAR but i really enjoied it sure it had some of it's minuses but it was a really good anime worth the time .So i recomend this if you're a person who enjoies great fights [ the fighting is actually done in matches on 1 on 1 fighting.]


10/10 OVERALL:
I think every one of us should just make a stop sometimes and just watch something that is a little cliche but still good to see.So everyone should stop for a moment , take a breather from the ecchi,horror,blood-filled series , and give MAR a try and remember that .. in this world full of evil ,misery and hurt there is still hope as long as you believe in it yourself.:)

It reminds me of Yu-Gi-Oh! and Shaman King - shows I watched when I was about 13 and really enjoyed, back then I didn't even know what anime is and I'm no sure I was even aware of the shows' origin, but I still enjoyed them.

I picked MAR for the sole reason to relive that excitement and since it had 102 episodes I expected to have tons of fun with it, alas, the reality was different.

The show started well, the premise of the main character being transported to a fantasy world he has longed for was interesting. The first few episodes, where he still figures ... out what goes on and characters are being introduced were the more interesting ones for me.

After that, the majority of the show is about a tournament, but that's where I started skipping just to get through and say I've finished it.

The story on paper sounds fun, but in reality it's really mediocre and poorly executed, very predictable and uninteresting.
The art style is OK, I can't say ti was bad, but it wasn't anything remarkable either, many characters shared similar features, like color palettes and such.
I think the show, like other long running ones suffers from recycled sounds to the point where it becomes noticeable, not a deal breaker, but just one more negative to the list.
The characters were extremely poor developed and suffered from "Anime Humor Syndrome" - a grave disease where one would fall in the same absurd situation over and over and react the exact same way without ever noticing it, the worst part of this disease is that it spreads in the air and it's very infectious, by the end of the episode, every other character would have contracted it.
After passing the 41st episode, I found it really hard to enjoy it and decided to fastforward just so I can say I've finished it and not dropped it, I really wanted to see the end without losing track of events.

Overall I both regret wasting my time with it and I'm also glad I know what is it about so I won't have to bother with it again. On a positive note, I think that if I was 13 again I might've enjoyed it A LOT more.

MAR is a series that embodies a lot of the worst qualities of shounen anime and brings nothing new to the table. Almost immediately, the story steers itself into a ditch with an interminable Tournament Arc that lasts well over half the run of the series. While there are a handful of decent moments in the 70 or so "X vs Y" episodes that follow, most of it is an agonizing waiting game, slogging through one utterly predictable fight after the next, with no sign of plot progression for dozens of episodes at a time. When the end of the Tournament Arc blessedly arrives though, ... the story fully goes off the rails into an extended denouement that is totally confused, full of questionable narrative choices and other decisions that make it apparent that they had no real plan for where to take this story beyond the Tournament Arc. The ending is heavily telegraphed and feels unsatisfying when it arrives, both because of the middling story content and the sense that it probably should have wrapped up about 20 episodes earlier than it did.

The writing is juvenile and character motivations are thin and riddled with cliches (oh, you want to become stronger so you can protect everyone's smiles? I've never heard that line before). Action scenes are often boring due to the lackluster animation - likely a necessary sacrifice to produce weekly TV for 2 years straight, but that's hardly an excuse when it cuts into the core appeal of an action anime. More unforgivably, the CGI used to animate the summoned Guardians is absolutely hideous and badly composited to boot. These are supposed to be the most powerful weapons a person can wield, but they have all the visual majesty of a guy summoning some stray PS2 assets. The character designs are also uninspired and feel like a conscious attempt to mimic Dragon Ball. See if you can count how many boys with similarly spiky hair are in this series.

So what was actually good about this show? Well there isn't much, to be frank. Dorothy is a pretty fun side character, though her obsession with the main character can be overbearing. The relationship between Dorothy and Diana (left vague to stay spoiler free) is one of the few compelling plot threads on offer here. Every once in a while, you'll get an interesting battle when 2 people have special abilities that combine in a unique way, though the obviousness of the outcome of every fight dampens any thrill you might get from that.

Overall, I can't say my time was well spent watching this thing to its conclusion. I recommend simply skipping it, but if you are at all curious and inclined to give it a chance, watch until the first fight of the War Game and you'll know by then if this series is going to do anything for you.