Ah, yes. Tribe Cool Crew. That kid's show about dancing. Good times... Wait, what? "It looked stupidly cheesy and probably terrible so I didn't even give it a try?"
Well, in a way, you may be correct in your judgment, but I wouldn't write it off as such so quickly. Most things have their merits. And in this review of mine here, I'll try to give my own assessment of its clear, definitely existent strengths and its lower points.
In general, the plot is exactly as you'd expect it: it's about a group of people who set out to be good enough dancers to share stage with
...
their idol aka Michael Jackson of Dancing one day; a typical plot for the young audience this is targeting. Said plot moves itself forward with the inclusion of a top secret dancing tournament to pick out the best dancers of a generation supported by MJD himself, which our group of characters ends up participating in. It paces itself on stages/challenges from the tournament that happen periodically, and various shenanigans in between, attributing it the 50 episodes it has: surprisingly, the plot does not suffer from the inclusion of that many episodes as much as you'd think.
This is because these episodes are mainly used for the great, great thing we call characterization. You know, that one thing people should really stop forgetting. Surprisingly enough, the kid's show about dancing accomplishes something a lot of more mature anime neglect to begin with: exploring the character cast from their personalities, to their backgrounds and life styles. If anything, I'm pretty sure this is the first anime I've seen where each character's social and/or economic class is an integral part of their characterization and frequently shown so you can better understand how they, well, live.
Our main characters come from a variety of backgrounds, and it really helps you relate to them when you see their lives playing out. Haneru is a fairly typical kid protagonist, you know, that one boy who's kind of hot-headed and reckless, but also cheerful and ultimately has a good heart despite the immaturity. He's really into dancing and loves hoppin' about, idolizing MJD a whole lot (I do know his name, but I wanna roll with the much more convenient MJD), fueling the story further with said passions. In most kid's shows, that's about all Haneru would ever be, and he'd probably be that static yet loved by everyone throughout the show. However, what happens is that various aspects of his life are explored, making him a better executed version of the archetype: we are made aware of how he's the only son in a fairly low to middle class environment, with more honest, kind, if simple-minded parents; we see his daily routine both at home, at school and where he spends time afterwards; we get to know a bit of his past and of his previous interests, even to the point of how that ended up interfering with his friendships and how he goes about things from it; most of all, the previous point is not only adressed, but used to help not only his character, but the show in general.
And I didn't even go into much detail about Haneru beyond the more generic parts of him. Sure, he still isn't all that super unique (though striving for a unique, 'quirky' personality isn't what you have to do to have a good character), being a spirited kid protagonist and all, but he still is a very valid main character that I could get behind because unlike other spirited kids who would fill the protagonist position, Haneru had a good amount of details ingrained into his character in a way that makes you see how he would be that way, therefore making him better than your typical spirited kid. It's in this addition of depth in unusual amounts throughout that Tribe Cool Crew shines, since it brings out characters that would've been greatly forsaken for being generic or nothing special otherwise. As a result, it becomes a more unique show.
Either way, very early on, Haneru meets a shy yet convicted girl named Kanon, who's just as passionate about dancing as him despite her shyness. In much the same way, we see (we get SHOWN this, not even told! 'Show, don't tell' is very much present in this show when it comes to portraying these character's lives!) that Kanon lives in a pretty middle to high class household and attends a somewhat prestigious all-girls shcool, which isn't at all portrayed as being super terrible or anything like that by the way, making her mannerisms, mentality and life style in general be not much like Haneru's (or basically the opposite). The development of Kanon, who is shy, reserved and lacks self-esteem and self-confidence despite her passions is focused on a whole deal, so it's not even like she gets overshadowed by Haneru or anything like that (a lot of anime tend to do this to their main female characters or vice-versa for some reason); she's rightfully one of the protagonists.
The main character cast doesn't end here, however. The two kids, which were at first their own group, are eventually joined by another group (forming Tribe Cool Crew) just as passionate about dancing and MJD, comprised of three adults: oh yes, the kid's show about dancing has only two kid main characters and three adult ones! And they are just as greatly-handled, as their background and personality are explored throughout the episodes that surround the main tournament plot. The stoic, responsible, convicted Kumonosuke; the more outgoing Mizuki; the elegant, yet odd Yuzuru: they are absolutely great characters, and I'm honestly not expanding upon why they're so great because I've given examples of how well Tribe Cool Crew handles its characterization already and don't want to overwhelm you with 4 paragraphs explaining their background and overall awesomeness.
However, I will definitely go on to tell you that hanging out with the group that is Tribe Cool Crew is a ton of fun: these five characters work incredibly well off of each other, and their team dynamic and relationship they hold is absolutely great. Let it be known that seeing these five happily interact would always put a smile on my face, and so would their antics. If I could, I would've collectively put Tribe Cool Crew in my favorite characters list, but it unfortunately doesn't quite work that way. Another thing worth mentioning is the variety of body types present in the dynamic that is Tribe Cool Crew, especially since this is about dancing: Haneru happens to be fairly short, while Kanon is really tall; Kumonosuke is well-built; Mizuki is fairly agile; and Yuzuru actually happens to not be what anyone would call 'slim' (the sugarcoating is real in this one). And yet, they really make this agglomerate of different body types and different personalites work in this anime: Yuzuru freaking kills it on the dance floor, and you better believe it!
These great qualities in characterization, believe it or not, are not just verifiable in the main cast: along the way, we meet a variety of different supporting characters, which are mostly other dance groups Tribe Cool Crews gets to know at some point, but they can also be just classmates or acquaintances from someone in the main cast. Though it was already surprising the attention being given to the characterization of the main cast, it was even more amazing that a good chunk of the supporting characters were also focused on at some points and given attention when it comes to their characterization: you get to know how the supporting characters live and their mentality, as well; in most shows of this sort, this would be neglected (because it's technically unnecessary). The fact that Tribe Cool Crew went the extra mile to actually explore a fair part of the supporting characters is something I am definitely thankful for.
Sure, some characters might've been annoying, and others unfortunately got the short end of the characterization stick (we did get to the end of the show without knowing a single thing about a select few characters), but that's like looking a at speck of darkness in an almost completely well-lit room: it's already amazing the show ended up putting so much characterization into it to begin with. Not to say that there weren't certain episodes of Tribe Cool Crew that accomplish nothing but heightened silliness you'd find in kid's shows, which were indeed the weaker episodes: those were more or less filler in every aspect of the word since they didn't even contribute to showcase the friendships of Tribe Cool Crew (and were instead meant to just be silly).
Besides, in general, the story has a fair amount of strange points: for example, you'd think you're in modern Japan by... everything you see around you, but supernatural and sci-fi like elements are also haphazardly added in as if it were no big deal (as much as you make the characters react to it and make me have a laugh out of it, it doesn't mean you can just include it without an explanation!). What, you don't think the dancing pros would be the ones to hold this super high technology? The tournament definitely was treated in that 'it's super secret and super amazing' sort of cheesy, over-the-top way, which I guess you should be expecting from a kid's show, but the fact that this astounding technology is being used for the creation of top-secret dancing facilities that provide sometimes almost impossible challenges was admittedly hard to take. My suspension of belief can only go so far, but it's like the anime always wanted to make you roll with anything it showed. The weird supernatural elements get especially random at the filler episodes, mostly because you just get the feeling the creators were messing around with the show and put that stuff in for shizz and giggles as none of those elements get an actual explanation and ultimately have no purpose beyond making for the center of said episodes. Cheesiness also abounds in other aspects: from auras of light to dancing robots (and not-so-rare 'by the power of dancing' resolutions), Tribe Cool Crew is definitely the thing you shouldn't watch if you can't take oddness in general. It's with these strange parts that Tribe Cool Crew feels really unique, but neither in a positive nor negative manner: it's just odd and silly and ridiculous in these aspects. To say they majorly hurt the story would be an exaggeration since it was never all that riveting to begin with, but it would perplex me even while already far into the anime.
Even so, there are aspects of the plot of Tribe Cool Crew that are surprisingly serious and maybe a little dark, too: the anime likes somewhat tackling themes like the conditions of poverty present in third world countries (and the effort to do something about it), corporal greed, the dangers of being a celebrity caring for certain issues, and so on and so forth. This is honestly the last stuff you'd think of reading about the kid's show about dancing, but I'm not kidding when I tell you the plot actually has deeper layers to it: I would not dare spoil said layers and how all its themes (there are more) are incorporated into this whole ordeal, but I'll at least tell you it wasn't all that bad for a show with such a young target audience. Not only that, but the drama surrounding these deep parts, and the plot twists coming along with it are actually handled fairly well. You end up feeling for the characters involved, even though they weren't even the ones you spent 40-something episodes getting to know. It wasn't at all what I expected out of this show, but I welcome the bold choices with open arms.
... However, alas, a kid's show is a kid's show, so the cheesiness was definitely still there, even when going into more serious stuff like this. The themes I wrote, for example, aren't explored very deeply, and the resolutions for them along with the conflict of the show get dumbed down to the power of dancing (which is expected of the kid's show about dancing, but still...). Not only that, but the show's slightly shorter run time than normal crippled the pacing of the final episodes/climax, making it slightly faster than what you'd like for so much content; the anime definitely needed an episode or two to draw it out a bit better. Even so, I was satisfied with the ending (or maybe you could call it the epilogue but it is still all in the final episode), which took a surprisingly mature route when it came to Tribe Cool Crew as a group and overall friendship. I mean, before that was really cheesy stuff, but darn it, it was enjoyable cheesy stuff and the ending did not disappoint me!
Anyway, I should just go on to adress the part that you're probably wondering about: the dancing. Mind you, I personally have no interest in dancing and don't know much about it, so I wasn't all that invested at first. Then, when I started caring about the characters, I did start being invested in their dancing. I'll start with the positives: the fact that a variety of dancing styles were presented in the show was a good thing, and it never did get its focus away from its theme of dancing; there would practically be a dance sequence every episode. I'd mention the diverse body type thing again, but I won't and will instead just move on to say that the dancing you see is in 3D models in which the people behind the show traced the moves of real dancers and applied them to said models. It looks... awkward. Or, uh, bad. You... get used to it. Since the anime is in 2D, the transition's sort of jarring, especially when you have colorful backgrounds making you feel like you're in a different universe and an overall lack of expressive capability (as in, showing the character's emotions all that well) with the models while dancing.
The 2D animation is also fairly cheap: a lot of corners are cut with this anime about dancing, though the dancing in itself is not that bad. Every crowd or people you see beyond significant characters will assuredly be a still image, always. It's understandable since, well, this is just the kid's show about dancing, but it was also unfortunate since I really wish it had animation as good as its other qualities, especially since dancing involves motion. The art style is fairly unique, but not too otherwordly or anything like that: it's got a strange thing for making the tips of the fingers and the like a darker shade than everywhere else, but eh, art style quirk, I guess.
I personally find the music to just be okay: it fits the show with its more, uh, 'hip' tunes since it's not like it's about ballet or ballroom dancing (it's more about hip hop stuff). I found myself humming along with the opening of the show, which I really like since I get to see most of the characters together in one shot. The music it does have is definitely overused though, which is also another shame: it's a show about dancing and yet the variety of the music to dance to is really low; it's a Mermaid Melody-like situation, especially noticeable at the filler episodes (though Mermaid Melody had it worse since singing was its shtick).
However, the voice acting was pretty nice: I really liked the performances of the voice actors for the main characters, as the voices fit perfectly and the delivery of the lines in general was fitting for everyone in general. If I had to point out a complaint or two, it would be that the voice actresses voicing some of the boys did make me wonder about their gender even though it was seen as obvious by the characters in the anime; they've gotta sound a bit manlier, please! The voice for one of the supporting characters was also fairly annoying, but you can manage.
All in all, I had a great time with Tribe Cool Crew. The first few episodes will get you a bit doubtful, but believe me that out of most of the anime I was watching, Tribe Cool Crew was literally the one I would look forward the most to watching the newest episode, and it would be especially helpful after suffering through episodes of the more terrible anime of certain seasons. I was legitimately tempted to write more than once that Tribe Cool Crew was basically the only thing I was enjoying while it was airing, because that was the sad (because that means not a lot of anime were very good) yet surprisingly neat truth. I go the extra mile to rate it an 8 out of 10 because I do believe that for what it is, it's worth that score; I went far with this anime. If anything, I'm surprised that I've only written a review now, since I've finished it months ago.
Anyway, while cheesy, ridiculous and fairly random, it was also an anime that would make many bold choices, earning a very unique and strong identity for it. Its plot is what you'd expect and what you wouldn't at the same time, and it carries a fairly lighthearted atmosphere in general; it's got its focus right on dancing and doesn't forget its target audience. Even so, it's got some of the best characterization and most unique ways of going about it on a moderately big cast of characters I've seen in anime that I know of, which is a clear strength on its part that I wish other anime would have in spades. It makes sure to give importance to the people involved in the story, and isn't afraid to explore parts that are considered serious, even if it wasn't on the dark level someone like me would have wanted.
It has a serviceable plot, great characters/character relationships, and it was overall a greater ride than I expected from the kid's show about dancing despite the weaker aesthetic aspects, so I can only hope Brave Beats holds up to it (as it's a kid's show with dancing by the same people). I wouldn't recommend this to everyone, since not everyone can quite get through this sort of show with its cheesy parts, but if you're someone who prefers lighthearted or campy things and can enjoy stuff for a younger target audience, you should definitely at least try it out. If anything, you can always watch it ironically if you feel like making fun of its silly parts, but that's about it for people who'd be better off checking out Tribe Cool Crew.
Jan 27, 2016
Tribe Cool Crew
(Anime)
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Recommended
Ah, yes. Tribe Cool Crew. That kid's show about dancing. Good times... Wait, what? "It looked stupidly cheesy and probably terrible so I didn't even give it a try?"
Well, in a way, you may be correct in your judgment, but I wouldn't write it off as such so quickly. Most things have their merits. And in this review of mine here, I'll try to give my own assessment of its clear, definitely existent strengths and its lower points. In general, the plot is exactly as you'd expect it: it's about a group of people who set out to be good enough dancers to share stage with ...
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jul 9, 2014 Mixed Feelings
This is one of the few anime I got to watch with my brother all the way until the end, which is quite the rare feat. It isn't all that surprising, however. If you read the summary or watched the show already, you know its plot and characters show potential, or that it at least is serviceable/enjoyable.
... Serviceable it was indeed, but it's nothing more than that quality-wise. The plot is basically about this chick named Hiyori saving a guy from a car accident but in the process, becoming half-dead (her soul can leave her body and all that jazz). That guy turns out to ... be a minor god named Yato who wants to have his own shrine with many followers one day by doing all sorts of services in exchange for five yen each. Wanting him to turn her back to normal, Hiyori sticks to him because she has to remind the guy that he needs to solve her problem practically every time she sees him. Well, when you get down to it, this conflict stops having any actual importance a few (2 or 3, I think) episodes later, so uh, no wonder Yato basically shrugs it off. Anyway, gods apparently need these spirit things called Regalias to cut down phantoms and basically be their personal servants, which is where the third protagonist Yukine (can also be Yuki or Sekki because these Regalias apparently have three different names for some reason) comes in to become Yato's Regalia. The story follows these three characters, and the conflicts they go through together... or... something like... that... Pfft. Yeah, right. You're at first made to think the focus is gonna be on Hiyori and Yato, and trying to get her back to normal, but that's a ruse. Instead, Hiyori turns into thin air and acts on nothing despite her initial actions making you think she'd be a decent girl protagonist and Yukine's problems become the focus of the show for way too many episodes, especially when you consider the fact that it all could have been solved if Yato and Yukine just bothered talking to each other about said problems. However, how could there be the magnificent/pointless thing called misunderstandings if they just talked to each other like normal people? I mean, Yato's not technically a person anyway, am I right? I wasn't asking for the story to be about taking down phantoms, the recurring monsters that influence people on bad levels that only the people on the Far Shore (aka the afterlife) can see, and figuring out how to get Hiyori back to normal: in hindsight, focusing on creatures with no character or depth whatsoever would make for a dull episodic format, which I wouldn't want. However, I also wasn't asking for it to go in this strange direction, all the way until episode 9 at that! The problem with this, if you put aside the bit of stupidity present, is really just the fact that it takes up the majority of the show, and not that it's focusing on a character, or that character in particular: focusing on him is great and all, but I also wanted focus on other characters throughout the anime, like, I dunno, Hiyori (too much to ask out of the show). Anyway, after that, you're introduced to the final arc (I guess: if you consider the beginning to be one arc, and the Yukine part another, then this would be the last arc in the anime), where there's a fairly dramatic conflict caused by a villain that challenges the friendship formed between the three protagonists. Sounds good, right? Even better, you see that no matter what methods are used, this dramatic conflict doesn't get solved so easily, and instead, the villain has to be confronted in this great climax of a final fight and episode. Hyped, aren't you (if you aren't, just roll with it!)? ... Let me tell you why this didn't work: - There's this character cooperating with the villain who has clear ties to Yato's background and seems really important overall, and yet you get to know nothing about her. At all. Even though you can basically attribute the good dramatic part of this arc to her, you don't see anything about her! - The villain himself is mediocre. Serviceable, even, like the whole show. Even though he was somewhat hyped with stuff like the opening and whatnot, he's really as generic as you can get. Needless to say I was disappointed, as you'd expect someone more... important or grand from the villain that shows up at the end. You could replace him with a different guy with an equally generic backstory and nothing would really change; - The fight's not very interesting. It's basically sword fighting, with no noteworthy moves and, well, it's emotional and, uh, um, power-ups, I guess (the pinacle of fine writing). Seriously, the people behind this anime even bothered to put a PANTY SHOT in the midst of the final episode (possibly the most pointless panty shot in the world, by the way, and panty shots are practically pointless to begin with), and it's not like Noragami is littered with fanservice or anything like that! It can make up for not being anything special by the stakes being high (making things more emotional and getting you to care about what's happening), which they were... somewhat. If you care about the characters, that is. Besides, you can't really care about the action when... - The resolution of the conflict and climax is just stupid. As in, devoid of intelligence, yes. I can even give you examples: Yato is very, very early on established to being able to teleport. He teleports a fair amount of times in the show. He tends to scare Hiyori with this from appearing so suddenly! Teleporting is a total thing with Yato. And yet, Yato doesn't teleport at the very end, when it's needed most, to save a really important x that's on the verge of falling (avoiding spoilers as much as possible), basically dooming what he was trying to save in the first place. Why? Because consistency, man: this show has it in spades, I guess. The stupidity doesn't end here, however: I'm just gonna tell you straight up that every method used to try to solve this conflict, which were legitimate attempts, apparently pales in comparison to the CLEARLY much more meaningful solution of "I can smell dudes!". Not even joking (beyond the sarcasm). And that's when the situation's seemingly hopeless in every aspect! Like, are you freaking kidding me?! In general, when it comes to the plot of Noragami, my brother even goes as far as to say that "It's like the show was passed around ten different people" (basically, that it's all over the place) and you can kind of see what he's talking about. It's first about gods and phantoms and Hiyori's problems (somewhat), but then it starts being all about Yukine, and afterwards it shifts its focus 100% to Yato and gods and the final stuff with their friendship. If you think about it, phantoms are basically irrelevant to the final arc, Yukine's stuff is irrelevant to the first arc, and Hiyori herself becomes irrelevant for a good chunk of the show. They just have no connections whatsoever with each other, so it really feels like certain details get suddenly forgotten along the way for no reason whatsoever. Even though I could sort of sense (with shipping goggles) Yato/Hiyori shipping coming with the show, my brother and I legit got misled into thinking Hiyori/Yukine was gonna be a thing midway to the point where my brother got confused when this turned out not to be the case at all. Despite these direction problems, you do end up being behind the developments of Noragami: it's that serviceable. Part of that's because of the equally serviceable cast of characters. Yato is a likable, cheerful guy, and a lot of humor comes from him. He wants to be well-known, and us, the viewers, want to see that happening too. He's also mysterious in the sense that there's a lot of backstory to him that we don't know, and that he's not devoid of a serious side. However, we don't get to know anything truly relevant about Yato's past in this anime beyond the fact that he has many female acquaintances and that he killed stuff or whatever (totally unexpected of a god of war, huh?). Not only that, but his serious side wasn't what you'd call meaningful: it just seemed like it was there for the sake of being there, as in, "Ooooh no, I'm serious, you can't get close to me!". You know, that sort of thing that easily gets brushed off. Yukine's also not that bad of a character. You can't expect him to be rainbows and sunshine when he's a spirit who's died at a young age, after all. It's just that he was the victim of that middle arc, which I can imagine got many people annoyed with him. Sure, he's not that likable when he basically acts all mean towards Yato and whatnot, but it's not like he's insufferable, and he does fit in with the cast alright. Hiyori's another problem entirely. She's shown to be fairly spirited (badum-tss), with an interest in wrestling and overall a personality you can get behind. This goes as far as to have her copy a move from her favorite wrestler to take down a phantom at the very first episode! Sadly, you don't see any of this afterwards. Instead, she just happens to be 'there' for the rest of the show. You can understand why this is the case: she has no ties with the stuff happening; only Yato and Yukine do. Even so, that doesn't excuse the striking flaw of making a pointless protagonist: when you have a protagonist, they have to have some sort of tie with the events of the story, some role, or at least participate in something. However, Hiyori doesn't do anything special until final episodes, though you could argue she actually doesn't do much there either seeing as it's still Yato saving the day and she's basically a damsel in distress. While I also can't call her a wasted potential because she's not amazing or anything of the sort, she was definitely poorly-handled. I'd literally get surprised whenever Hiyori had some semblance of focus in the middle of the show, like, "Oh, wait, she isn't being thin air now?". It was pitiful. The supporting characters are alright, I guess. They weren't explored all that much, like a lot of the actually interesting stuff going on in the show related to Yato. After all... everything is tied to Yato. Might as well call the show 'Yatogami', am I right? Overall, the character cast is nothing special as far as I could tell from watching the show. Like the story, it's likable, enjoyable and serviceable. The same applies to the art and sound. The art looks pretty good, and some of the designs for the phantoms were somewhat creepy, along with the voices they'd have. The character designs are also good, and the animation's not bad at all. The opening's pretty cool to listen to, but I personally didn't really like the rest of the soundtrack. The techno-ish, japanese style-ish sounds with some dude singing out vowels just did not appeal to me (with this, I'm referring to the more prominent tracks). Even so, I can't say it didn't fit the anime. When it comes to voice acting, Hiroshi Kamiya did a good job as always, Yuki Kaji was chosen for an unfortunate role as always and Hiyori’s voice was somehow growing to annoy my brother. In other words, it was good, I guess. Despite the criticism I throw at it, my brother and I were enjoying Noragami a fair amount: though I knew it'd be worthy of a 5 (which doesn't count as a negative score to me) from the get-go, I didn't have a terrible time watching it. Even my brother, who doesn't watch anime all that much and drops anything if the tiniest thing doesn't appeal to him, wanted to see it through to the end, which is definitely saying something about how enjoyable it is to watch, and not in that 'so bad it's good' way. Instead, Noragami is the kind of show you enjoy in that 'turn your brain off and it's a masterpiece' way, and there's nothing wrong with that. After all, it is really serviceable. ... Seeing something yet? Like me hammering the fact that Noragami's serviceable? Because that's really the point of the review. To point out that Noragami's an alright show. That it's enjoyable, likable, 'meh'. There's nothing really deep you get out of it, and you don't have to either. It doesn't convey anything truly meaningful or absolutely breathtaking, but that's fine: you can pass time with this anime. The story's enjoyable, the characters are likable, the production values are pretty nice, and it's overall a serviceable, 'meh' show. There's nothing in it that makes me feel anything more. But that's not what I can call a flaw. So, well, I suppose I'd recommend this to basically anyone as a way to kill time. It can appeal to a lot of people, after all. I mean, it's even got a second season now... which I'll never watch. Though I've originally written the review before such an announcement was even made, I decided to re-write it since its writing quality wasn't good enough, in my opinion, to get my points across. Let's hope it's actually better now. Either way, I can imagine that Noragami won't fail to deliver the same quality with its second season, so if you really liked this show, you might as well give that a try. Serviceable it was indeed, but serviceable never hurt anyone.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jan 3, 2014
Shingeki no Kyojin
(Anime)
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Mixed Feelings
We all know what’s lying at the very top of Mount Hype right now: Shingeki no Kyojin or in other words, Attack on Titan. Sparing you from the generic “It’s regarded as a masterpiece, but is it? We shall see with this review,” kind of intro, I’ll tell you that no, it’s not a masterpiece but it’s not terrible either.
Story: Right away the story starts strong with a darker and more epic atmosphere, already backed up by its interesting premise. The mood was already set from the beginning but this show didn’t feel like it was good enough. In a way, the mood and atmosphere ... in Attack on Titan is like fog: the staff keep making the fog thicker and thicker until you can no longer see the surroundings. In other words: The mood and atmosphere are so focused on that it gets in the way of the story. Although the story is still there, it likes to show despair over and over when it is no longer necessary to show it. Almost everything has to go wrong with a few exceptions so the story has to continue, people must die and we must always see them die or be told about how terrible it was until you get sick of it and we must always see people almost going insane with all this. It is understandable that all of this happens in this kind of story and I don’t think everything should’ve been more positive, it’s just that I would rather see plot progression than despair. You could try to tell me that this was the show trying to be psychological and that it was not the atmosphere but that would still be badly executed because it accomplishes nothing and we get to see nothing in the minds of the characters. Not only that but this show also loves sidetracking. The first few episodes had a visible goal but somewhere in the later episodes it is sidetracked by an event of the plot that wasn’t as important as the goal presented before, and that important goal was never reached. With that, the more interesting questions about the story were never answered and only raised more questions. The final episodes of the show confused me further. Although they made me realize that this part was more important than it seemed, it failed to tell us more than that and in the end we’re left in the dark about all the more important points of the story. But that’s only about the story, we haven’t even gotten to the characters yet. I liked the concept of the Titans but unfortunately we got to know anything interesting about them because of this show’s thing for sidetracking. One of the only solid things about this anime is its world-building as we got to see how their society differed from ours with its separate walls and districts to the roles of the various factions of this series. The fact that their culture was different from ours was obvious and I liked it. The ending was very open: a second season is definitely expected from this. If that’s not the case then the ending is terrible. Only the part I mentioned above was “solved” (if you consider a final fight as solved) and the first goal we had in sight was barely touched upon. Seriously, if this doesn’t get a second season I will take one point away from the score of the story. Character: The fog does not only affect the story: it especially affects the characters. The characters are so drowned in despair that I end up forgetting about them in the sadistic show that is Attack on Titan. This show loves showing as much despair as possible to the characters, and the only ones that have some sort of depth are only some the characters that matter (the ones that were focused on throughout the show; Jean, a supporting character, had a surprising amount of focus so I'm considering him as an exception that I won't mention here). Those that aren’t even supporting characters usually lack common sense and possibly sanity, being suspicious of everything and anything and having lost the ability to see something convenient and be clever about it. By episode 13 my brother had even forgotten Eren’s name! We (my brother and I) could barely keep track of the names of the supporting characters and the show assumed that we had that good of a memory when surrounded by so much despair. There were so many character deaths that they pretty much became meaningless and by that point we were pretending that we knew the names of the characters and that they actually mattered. It’s hard to root for humanity when it mostly consists of idiots that don’t have the ability of rational thought and are possibly insane. I know I repeated that but I really want to emphasize this: Humanity was too stupid for me to care about whether they survive or not. Before I make a ten page essay on how I thought the characterization in this show was not good, I’ll talk about our main characters or just the characters that matter overall, starting with Eren. Eren seems to be the angrier version of a shounen protagonist, having his focus on his revenge and anger towards Titans but also his desire to protect his friends. Because of this, he was never that interesting and all of the things happening to him just hinted at how special he is but we never get to know why because of the abrupt ending. As most people might agree with, the most interesting character is definitely Mikasa but I ended up liking Armin more instead. He might seem useless in the beginning but he seems to be one of the few people in this world that has intelligence and common sense while there were many situations that could’ve gone worse (because I can’t say they went good since that’s almost impossible in Attack on Titan) if it weren’t for him being there and giving the characters a plan to follow. All in all, he had the most development in the show which is an outstanding feat considering Mikasa and the fact that there is barely any development at all. When I said that Eren was special, I didn’t mean that he was the most special because Mikasa is introduced as being stronger than Eren right at the beginning of the show. She’s calm and stoic and she’s usually the one that keeps Eren in line. It’s pretty bad that in the later episodes, whenever I expected her to do something she would be absent or wasn’t able to since she was one of the better characters. The last character I want to talk about, although you might not think he’s important, is Levi who I kindly renamed Dick. …What? It’s a name! Isn't “Captain Dick” easier to say than “Captain Levi”? Anyway, his personality is pretty similar to his name and he’s also a clean freak and blunt. I didn’t hate him, and I still don’t understand his popularity but that’s something else. It seemed like he would barely matter at first but in the later episodes he was practically Eren’s pep talker, like the ones that say the crucial words to the generic shounen protagonists and it gets on their heads, that kind of thing. I have to admit there wasn't as much development from him but there was foreshadowing so I thought of that as a miraculous plus. The important and supporting characters are passable in terms of making the plot move forward but that’s not all a character should have. The cast was large but not really that varied in personality with only a few exceptions, most just fading away into the fog and only seen when they die but by that point, I already forgot about their existence. I do have to admit that the mystery behind who the antagonist was in reality was really well done until the final episodes when they literally gave it away. At least they gave it (the antagonist since I don’t want to give it away) depth but it was only in the final episodes where it was pretty much revealed although it’s depth nonetheless so it’s a miracle in my perspective. Art and Animation: I really like the show’s art style with actual noses (YES!) and fitting with the overall atmosphere of absolute irrefutable despair and the titan’s designs were really good. Although I do have to ask, why do they all have to have rape faces? I was told that they were meant to be scary but I only laughed my ass off as I saw them over and over, is this considered bad character design? The Titans always look so ridiculous too… I don’t really have a favorite character design so I guess I’ll say it was good and shut up about it. The animation was pretty good… Pfft, who am I kidding, just look at them talking while they spiderman over trees! The rest was pretty solid though. The Sound: The soundtrack fits really well with the show’s overall epic and serious atmosphere, excluding the despair of course, but I have to admit that I barely noticed it except for that one soundtrack that has the loud female vocals but I don’t find it to be as good as the others. Despite my words, it is a very good soundtrack. The openings and endings of this anime are so good that I cannot pick my favorite out of all of them. They are that good. They are dramatic and epic and they all fit with the show perfectly, it’s absolutely impossible to choose. In terms of voice acting, I was quite surprised when I found out that Mikasa’s voice actress Ishikawa Yui (In the eastern naming order) didn’t have many roles. She did that role so well that I just thought she was a mainstream voice actress but I guess not. She definitely needs more roles. Enjoyment: This is definitely an enjoyable show… Or that’s what I would say but I didn’t enjoy it that much. If I weren’t with my brother watching this and making fun of the fact that we barely knew any character from the show and giving stupid nicknames for them I would’ve dropped it after a while. It might be that action is just not for me but there isn’t that much action so I can’t really give that as an excuse. It was definitely the despair. The oh so predictable and oh so annoying despair. The lingering fog of god-awfulness, if that’s even a word. You know when you can always predict that the shounen protagonists will win and everything will be alright? Reverse that and you have the mist. Nothing will be alright but it will end up being solved because the plot has to move on. It was so predictable in that aspect that every time something would happen I would have to go like, “Of course, it’s Attack on Titan after all…” with an apathetic face. Overall: Attack on Titan has been considered to be one of the best anime ever but it’s average at best, though it certainly deserves its hype more than the previous hyped show (I’m looking at you SAO…). Its story can hardly stand out due to the awful amount of unnecessary despair getting in the way and it sidetracks into something that wasn’t even fully solved to begin with, though it was very good at luring you in with its premise and strong start. The characters drown in despair, lacking depth and development with the exception of the most important characters and don’t even get me started on Humanity as a whole. The music and visuals were very good but they couldn’t really carry the show anywhere because of the fog that is despair. My enjoyment was low but I can definitely understand why many would enjoy it. I can definitely expect a second season though and when it happens, I hope everything is solved there. I can recommend this to fans of more serious shounen and action and I guess those that don’t think about details as much as me.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Dec 15, 2013
Diabolik Lovers
(Anime)
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Not Recommended
To say anyone was expecting a masterpiece out of Diabolik Lovers would be a big fat lie, and not just because it happens to be a reverse harem (which, granted, is a fair enough reason to lower your expectations). The premise itself gives no room for one to think this will be remotely good: some girl named Yui Komori gets moved into this mansion full of vampires and they're all lusting after her (blood). Of course, something can always surprise you, but this is not at all the case with Diabolik Lovers.
It's exactly as you're supposed to expect it, if not worse. As a reverse ... harem, there is no actual sense of romance between the vampires and the protagonist, because these vampire men are all complete monsters who don't even see her as anything other than some sort of blood bank, blow-up doll or something in between. Of course, since they're vampires, it makes sense that they would look down on our human protagonist, but that isn't the problem here. The problem is that despite the fact that they're all complete monsters, who physically and emotionally abuse this poor girl we call the protagonist (AKA No-tits, Bitch-chan, and other wonderful nicknames our token bishies give her), we, the audience, are effectively supposed to be gushing over how handsome and sexy these "love interests" are. We are supposed to fawn over these vampires sucking the protagonist's blood, or at how they violently handle her, or at their stupid nicknames; we're supposed to find that hot. Some do. In essence, the purpose of Diabolik Lovers is fanservice for a female target audience by way of having sadistic men forcing themselves on the protagonist, who more or less serves as the self-insert, stand-in person for us. The blood-sucking is its gimmick, which we are supposed to find a nice bonus because uh, sucking noises are sexy? (Don't ask me, I don't see it) However, just because this is basically fanservice, and that there are people who do in fact enjoy what it has to offer, it doesn't mean that what I mentioned above is moot and not an issue. It doesn't, at all, mean that the anime doesn't suck. Before anything, I'll mention that the source material of this is an otome game, which is basically a galge for girls (seeing as you go after your favorite bishie and it's a visual novel): due to its popularity (yes, its POPULARITY; I get as baffled by that as you probably are right now), it got an anime. I'm familiar with said source material and know that it also sucks, and it was made with the gimmick of blood-sucking (and this one dummy mic thingy that I completely forgot the name of and don't care to remember because that feature's damn creepy) in mind. What this means is that no, this is not a satire of anything, and it has no deeper meaning than it lets on: you are indeed supposed to gush over these characters. If you do, that's fine, but it doesn't make it stop being an issue. With that in mind, the fact that the monstrosity of these love interests (this word will be loosely used) is something you're supposed to fawn over is a problem because there is no conceivable way that you can infer romance or sexiness from the actions of these vampire guys, and yet the show itself tries to make you feel that way, which is largely inconsistent to common sense. The situation you're seeing is a disturbing, frightening one: you're seeing a girl, a high school girl, being kept in a mansion by a group of vampires and constantly abused by them, whether by unwillingly getting her blood sucked on, or flat out being subjected to forceful or manipulative behavior. This is actually scary stuff that you could portray or see portrayed as a psychological horror without a single problem, but you're expected to at least feel the slightest of emotional attachment to these love interests. At the very least, you aren't supposed to see things that way because these vampire guys are hot vampire guys, even though it shouldn't make a difference. The realism card must be played here because this simply isn't a good set-up: it isn't good to make the people that are supposed to service you into terrible people because, in the end, you'll be more focused on how terrible these people are than thinking about how sexy they are instead. Would you want fanservice from characters you hate? Would you want your blood sucked by someone you find disgusting (in personality)? I wouldn't. Even then, this isn't the only problem with Diabolik Lovers. No, this is just getting at the core of why it's terrible; why it's unenjoyable and fails from the get-go as a decent anime. Now, you know the set-up: Bitch-chan goes into the mansion; gets abused by terrible, terrible vampires. That's just great, but what's the plot? As in, what's the story afterwards? Does it go anywhere? ... Well, it goes somewhere, but its actual plot is greatly toned down and basically unimportant. What's at the forefront is the blood-sucking, and the plot only really moves forward by the final episodes. It just doesn't matter, because the show itself makes it not matter. Even when you get the tiniest pieces of information, you get a bishie thrown at you for your enjoyment ("enjoyment") and the focus is largely there. It gets to shallower levels than its source material by making you get to know even less of its plot than the little it did have. It goes without saying that as a story, it's not stellar; it's basically abysmal. As a reverse harem, it isn't particularly fulfilling, in my opinion, by the problem I've raised above: there is no actual romance to it, even though you're kind of supposed to feel attracted to them, and consequentially, there's no reason for me to like or even remotely care about the guys around this protagonist. You may call a bishie saving the protagonist from drowning "romantic" but I call it "the bastard not wanting to lose his blood bank" instead, because in context to how horrible these guys are to the protagonist, there is no reason for me to romantically think of these vampires. Context is key here, and rightfully so. Most episodes are focused on one of the many vampire guys, but since it's just one episode and the main love interest is completely and utterly obvious, this feels pointless. You really just get a feel for them, they get a feel for Bitch-chan's blood, and then they're gone. It's as shallow as it sounds, and you will in no way find yourself fascinated, liking or empathising with these guys. Sometimes, you get loosely shown some of their backstory, but it's short, tells you nothing about the almost non-existent story, doesn't make the vampires have that much depth (because it's too vague or unexplored for you to really get what's up with them) and does not in any way make these guys redeemable; thus, no purpose is served with them. Besides, as I said, since the main love interest is amazingly obvious, there's no value in the other guys being shown as though they have a chance. No guys "fall in love" with the protagonist: they either don't care about her at all, or get possessive over her because reasons. It's realistic (kiiinda; not really; more like understandable), but it defeats its purpose right away because of this. After all, this is a reverse harem, where you're supposed to like the characters presented to you. They're also supposed to like the protagonist, which is why it's a reverse harem; they're all after the protagonist. However, these guys are after the protagonist so they can drink her blood or because they're downright creepy and insane, meaning that Diabolik Lovers equally fails at the romantic aspect of a reverse harem, and intentionally, too. By wanting to intentionally have these dudes be far from romantic, but also portraying them in a way that's supposed to make you fawn for them is the anime's attempt at having the cake and eating it too. Needless to say it does not go well. Of course, to me, this anime fails at its fanservice and supposed sexiness because I'm not into dominant, sadistic bastards and much less into them sucking blood left and right. There is no appeal in having unlikable bishies doing supposedly sexy things since it's not like you'll enjoy some guy you consider terrible doing them. By the end, the main character just sort of decides to be into the main love interest because she had to end up with someone and you don't feel fulfilled in the slightest. You feel even less fulfilled as you get subjected to the vampire guys randomly talking in a non-scene specifically made for self-insertion before it ends for good. It's overall a shitty experience, as you'd expect. The origin of all the problems in Diabolik Lovers is its characters, especially seeing as reverse harems (and harems in general) are largely dependent on the appeal of their love interests. As I've hammered into your head many, many times by now, I find these guys purely unlikable. They aren't particularly interesting characters: the vampires are all brothers, some from different mothers. There's Ayato, your token dominant sadistic arrogant prick whose existence I personally wanted to erase; Kanato, your token cray-cray shota prick who'll either annoy you or creep you out; Laito (freaking Laito of all names), your token flirty douche and annoying creeper whose existence I also wanted to rapidly erase (you're the Bitch-chan, you bitch!); Reiji, your token calm and strict prick whose purpose seemed more about telling the guys off for not abusing the protagonist in a room than to actually be sexy; Shu, your token lazy and unmotivated prick; and Subaru, your token aggressive (literally) prick who somehow happens to be the most decent of the guys... while still being a prick because of his violent personality. They sound simply charming, don't they? And then there's the protagonist, the most unfortunate chick that's graced reverse harems. You don't need to know her name: just copy Ayato's "Chichinashi" (No-tits) or Laito's "Bitch-chan" and you're fine. After all, she's devoid of personality: you literally know nothing about her other than the fact that she had a dad and said (adoptive) dad made her move into the vampires' place. What you see of a personality in her is how much she's in constant unease and insecurity and yet doesn't act bitter towards the bastards abusing her at all, instead showing worry for them in certain occasions, which is baffling to say the least (or just downright stupid). She tries to escape or resist the vampires, but she never thinks intelligently about it and quickly fails, and even when given a clear opportunity to escape by being able to deal real damage to these OP vampires (they can teleport, are overall strong and resillient and don't have most known vampire weaknesses), Bitch-chan flat out doesn't take it for stupid, clearly forced reasons (since anyone in their right minds would GTFO, no questions asked). She gets bitten and abused so much that you can't help but feel sorry for her and cheer for her when she attempts to escape, even though you know it isn't gonna happen; this shouldn't be a thing with reverse harems. In the end, Bitch-chan is further ruined as a character you could at least sympathise with for her horrible situation alone by acting like she can ever conceivably care about any guy in particular and choosing the main love interest because the writing demands it, and just being a dumb, Stockholm-ridden protagonist in general. The side characters that appear in this show are about two, and they're as important as the plot: this means they don't matter at all except for the final episodes, where the plot moves forward because the anime's gotta end on something. With that in mind, there is no need to write about these people. Instead, it's just better to conclude that the characterization in Diabolik Lovers is greatly lacking in all aspects, and is overall as abysmal as the story it has. The art, however, is admittedly appealing. The animation is not amazing or astounding, but you can see the physical appeal in these bishies somewhat (if they weren't all crazy jerks). Bitch-chan looks really sparkly (just her eyes, really) and cute, and I have to admit she's my favorite character design despite having just stated that the bishies looked good. The eyes might be a bit strange, depending on the viewer, since they have all sorts of colors. Speaking of eyes, Subaru's eye being seen through his bangs was pretty annoying to see. The soundtrack is good enough for the anime, if not a bit too good for it, and the tracks fit it nicely. However, I can't say it was particularly great and it didn't stand out for me while I was watching (if anything, I actually think the game's original soundtrack was far better, but that one was just too good for the series in general, though it begrudgingly fits it well). The all-star male cast succeeds at portraying these terrible characters, as expected, but I mostly found myself wishing they weren't using their talent in something as terrible as this. Meanwhile, I especially wished Bitch-chan's voice actress hadn't started her anime voicing career with Diabolik Lovers since she did a good job and had a really nice voice to listen to. Overall, Diabolik Lovers was an unenjoyable experience I found myself not even able to mostly laugh at (with a few exceptions) due to its awful set-up, premise and execution of these elements, its greatly lacking story and equally lacking characterization that made the anime thoroughly unappealing to me. There was no likable character in the midst of this anime, and nothing in particular one can cling to except the character art and perhaps somehow finding the abusive shtick of the characters and their blood-sucking sexy, which I most certainly couldn't. Unless blood-sucking is totally your thing no matter who it's from, there is no way I can recommend this garbage to anyone. And now that I've re-written this review, surely that can be better conveyed to everyone.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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