- Last OnlineJan 6, 2012 10:44 AM
- GenderMale
- BirthdayJun 16, 1992
- LocationEllington, Connecticut
- JoinedMay 31, 2009
No friend yet.
RSS Feeds
|
![]()
Jan 6, 2011
While trolling around on Sankaku Complex, a place I'm beginning to despise as time goes on, I was looking at the "Top 10 AT-X Anime of 2010". Whilst being completely unimpressed by the horrible anime choices, I found one I was unfamiliar with, and that was Tamayura.
So, to my curiosity, I looked it up. First impression was, "this looks like crap", "moe-trash", "stupid ova filled with cute girls making stupid faces with cute noises". Then I watched...
The opening scene in *anything* is the most important. Sets the tone, ignites the story, etc. etc. I was expecting the good ol' lazy-girl-wakes-up-late-and-runs-out-the-door opening. To your surprise you're
...
given a monologue about a mundane thing we all look at in our lives, and set in a peaceful tone, that explains photography in a beautiful way. Now I know that it's common knowledge about the beauty of photography, but being a person, I like to hear those kinds of things over and over, worded differently, or said in a different matter from a different perspective.
Looking at the score, it's pretty apparent that I like this OVA.
The characters are right where they should be. Nothing is "hyper-charged" about character traits, they're all pretty average. Which isn't a bad thing, sometimes. But their development all comes from one person, Sawatari Fu. All the girls are in a similar place in their lives that we've all been at.
By watching Fu go through life, develop her interests in photography, you learn something that's kind of beautiful. I also think that there's a good message for anyone that's thinking "What should I do in my life?" or "Where will I be in ten years?", or if those questions are forced upon and are causing stress in one's life. Some might say that I'm looking to deeply into this anime, and it's pretty easy to do with the central idea of the OVA.
The art is what you'd expect. Cute, gentle, and pretty, it has those moe elements. Music is "you know". It's there, it enhances scenes. Voice Actors sound as they should at the correct times.
There is one animation mistake. But it's easily forgiven.
As for story, don't be expected to have your mind blown. The story revolves around photography, and a photo and a drawing ignite a laid-back adventure in the last episodes. A adventure that has meaning, at least, and it means a lot to the characters that we're given. There's also a nice emotional connection to actually care for the story. Well, to the amount of a four episode OVA.
The show feels sort of nostalgic. It makes you want to look back on all the photo albums you might have. Or look around on your "photo albums" on Facebook.
If you're thinking about watching this show, or if you're at a similar point in your life. I'd really recommend this short and relaxing OVA. Good shows don't need to be over elaborate or something that makes your blood pressure rise. Just an emotional connection and some reassurance.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
What did you think of this review?
Nice
 0
Love it
 0
Funny
 0
Confusing
 0
Well-written
 0
Creative
 0Show all
![]()
Sep 21, 2010
You know when you have to find something and how it's the highest priority to do so? Well, Occult Academy for 13 episodes is looking for something, but it isn't the the highest priority. Time Traveler Fumiaki "Bunmei" and Prinicpal Kamashiro Maya are looking for the illusive "Nostradamus' Key" in order to prevent the world from ending in 1999.
Anime no Chikara is a project designed to create "original" anime series. Which, they have no problem in doing. The major fault of these series is that everything building up to the climax has little to nothing to do with the actual story. Taking example of Sora
...
no Woto, in my opinion the best of Anime no Chikara's projects (not because it was K-ON! with guns). But it had this same ordeal, but the earlier episodes always had that looming threat of war just beyond the border. Most people we're too distracted by the cute. But Occult Academy suffers greatly from this problem.
The show isn't terrible, it's enjoyable. But other shows have done the occult idea better and have expanded upon what this show only touches. I know when people usually see my reviews the show is usually terrible. But this show also lacks some common sense in the way the story is played out.
Onto good points. The art of Occult Academy is something I love. It's this nice, crisp, refined style that is truly original. It truly matches every character's traits.
Which lead me into characters. The character traits are just kind of blasted at you the moment they come screen. Maya's character is the only character that truly jumps out at me when I think about Occult Academy, all the other characters are enjoyable, but I was kind of hoping for some more. Some characters are just kind of there for the ride and to fight things. Which is "all right", I suppose.
Music. Music is sometimes occult stuff and sometimes it's not. When it's not something chanting or something dark or spooky to get you into thinking "occult" you get this nice traditional folk to bring you away from everything occult. I couldn't handle this show if everything was occult. That's an overload.
There's some issues with how the story plays out though. There's that ten episodes of introduction and build-up and it's swiftly all explained in about five seconds? Oh. Kind of a bummer, I was hoping it had a greater purpose then just being an obstacle.
The biggest thing that will bother most is the search for the Key itself. Maya and Bunmei will purposefully hold off looking for it. Let's go over what the characters don't know. They don't know what the Key is. They don't know where the Key will be located. They don't know what will happen with the Key when they find it. They don't know any of this. Yet, they hold it off until a couple of weeks before the world ends. You can't just put that off to solve over things. I don't get it. They could've made this series one long adventure to finding the key. Instead you get this? It's kind of disappointing. The storytelling was alright, but it had so much potential.
Maya's spell book bothers me. In one episode, Bunmei says that she has her father's spell book on her person all the time. If that's the case, why doesn't she ever use it? It's a book full of spells and they use it twice. Her father left her the spell book to protect her from evil and to use against evil. The most she uses against evil is a crossbow and she doesn't use the spell book to figure anything out; or learn about her father. Just some important things that would've been better if used correctly. Maybe Maya was afraid of getting tongue tied in the middle of fighting. That would be embarrassing to the viewers.
Also, disregard for the fact that other humans might be in the same situation as Akari. They never look for anyone else that might've been captured. Just a "grab your friend and run" deal. It's sometimes obvious too, because there are bones and cocoons and stuff. Yeah, it's just something stupid, right?
If you like occult stuff, you should give this a try. It's a neat concept. It's just average.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Sep 7, 2010
Eden of the East has finally ended after a year of a series and two movies.
Personally, I really liked this series. I liked it's style. It's form. The story. And the pacing it used. Each piece of the story got an 8. Plus, a great soundtrack to boot.
The show still has that great music. That refined art style. And a good ending to a thoughtful and intriguing series that answered every question. So it's complete!
You've seen the characters through about every situation "game" could bring them through and you're into what is happening. Nothing in the movie makes you doubt the characters. They all stay
...
true to themselves. You should watch this if you watched everything before.
The rest of the review is to argue the fact that this movie stayed true to the Eden of the East series and that there didn't have to be fast-paced action in order for this series to end well. It's a movie where naive ideals could work not one where missiles need to be shot down everyone five minutes. So there will be plenty of spoilers from this movie.
Which brings up the issue of Takizawa Akira. Everyone thinks Takizawa is a weak character because he forgot everything prior to the beginning of the series. We all see that Takizawa is a youthful idealist that succeeds in this "game" that Mr. Outside casted him in. He finds himself pitted against other Selecao before making his move at the end of the series. Then is brainwashed again at the end of the series.
Let's state the fact that Takizawa losing his memories over and over is not a bad move at all nor a character flaw. It's a way to wrap your head around the situation. Through introducing himself to the situation, again and again, he is able to approach new ideas. Also, to argue that Takizawa magically regains his memories is definitely not true. The first movie was him being introduced to everything again and the second movie is the result of that. You would think that brainwashing doesn't work 100%. I believe the doctor said that in the series as well (i ain't too sure on that so don't be challenging me). It's seen at the end of the movie that the forced brainwashing, as a result of the game, didn't even affect him. In other movies, animes, TV shows, all have shown that you can't erase memories 100% anyhow. Geez, you people really need to step up that argument.
This movie also includes the meeting of Mr. Outside. The meeting we've all been waiting for. People cry and whine about it being underwhelming. But everyone seems to have forgotten the two minutes of the movie prior to meeting Mr. Outside. The guy has been laying low for 30 years. If you expected him to see him somewhere like his mansion, or a giant corporate building, then I'm afraid you've all missed the point of "laying low". The guy drives a "taxi" around and round. This taxi is how he met his twelve players for his "game".
The meeting with Mr. Outside in the last hours of the night in his taxi that he's basically lived in the for the past 30 years fits this whole show perfectly. Everyone seems to forget that the Selecaos are eleven ordinary people that are guided by the master of the game. That meeting was ordinary. Just like how his eleven players met him. See how it fits?
Also, about the plot being slow. It's slow because of the remaining Selecaos and the big decisions that everyone has made. In the beginning, you had some working together. Then pitted against each other and people lost the game. When there are not a lot of players, things seem to slow down because the players wait for the others to make a move. Those that made the big moves usually got the biggest reward. Those biggest moves also could've made you lose the game if you didn't pull it off.
The ending for this movie was good, not the best, but good, and fitting. It wasn't rushed or incomplete. It's what our youthful protagonist wanted to create when he told Mr. Outside. A society where everyone would rather earn money than spend it. To push them, he give every caller 1 yen. "Oh, now I see his plan!" you say. There was no move Takizawa could make to shift all of society in one train of thought. Instead, he put his faith into all the "unknown heroes" behind the country. Mononobe could've made that move, but it would've cost everyone's personal freedoms. Takizawa put all of his faith into the people. Which is why Mr. Outside decided to call the game and declare the winner because someone used their money in the way that they saw best for society.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
Sep 6, 2010
Unfortunately, you have to watch the series to completely understand everything in the specials. If you hate yourself that much to go through True Tears to get to this. You might need to get your head checked.
These specials are better than the whole series.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Sep 6, 2010
The first line of the show is your very typical drama-like statement, "The you inside me is always crying". Little did you know is that the Shinichiro was talking about the viewer and how much you wanted to cry after watching this show. You're not crying because your sad, and definitely not because you're happy, but because your body is so full with rage that tears have to be removed to make room for more rage.
Spoilers galore in here.
Let's go over the plot, oh goody, I wonder what kind of plot they have in store. Nakagami Shinichiro lives with his mother, his father, and his
...
adopted sister. Of course, Shinichiro and his adopted sister, Yuasa Hiromi, are very distant under the same roof. Then he meets another girl, Isurugi Noe, and then you meet his childhood friend, Ai-chan which are thrown in for an unnecessary love-triangle.
By the first two episodes, it's very obvious that Shinichiro and Hiromi like each other, but of course, they're forbidden to love each other due to complications in their family situation. Shinichiro doesn't want to admit it. Hiromi thinks that Shinichiro is her brother. Don't worry, I'll get to that in a moment. Just let me take my time. So, Shin-dope meets newcomer Noe-chan who thinks that male lead is the one that can get her tears back. The first broken plot device. Then Hiromi likes to complicate things even farther by saying to Shin-dope that she doesn't like him, it's conveniently Noe's brother.
Shin-dope and Noe become such good friends that Noe's brother somehow tracks Shin-man down to his address and asks him to go out with Noe. Shin-man, being the brilliant idealist that he is, thinks it would be best to make a contract with her shady brother. "You go out with Hiromi, I'll go out with Noe!". Second broken plot device. I mean, what was the purpose of this deal? What would this deal accomplish? Noe's brother gets what he wanted for a price. Hiromi gets burdened for making things complicated and conveniently made room for broken plot devices. So then Nii-chan and Hiromi go out. Then it takes Shin-man forever to make his move on his side of the contract. A contract that was never written and never specified. So Hiromi and other guy awkwardly make fake romance so Shin-man will make his move. For some reason, the awkward-fake couple can't break up because that'll break the contract. Supposedly. The viewer is somehow supposed to know that.
The idea of the contract is somewhat baffling to me as I cannot figure out the terms of the contract or why the contract was made in the first place. These two guys go out of their way to make a contract on other's personal lives and then make it so that they're connected like a mirror. "If I do this, you do it too!". This doesn't work in anyway and only further prevents Shin-man and Hiromi to be more awkward with each other. Great, I missed the best part of this anime... because the first four episodes with them two had so much magic that I just couldn't handle it.
Because Hiromi has no depth as a character, the writers thought that the only way people would like Hiromi would be to create sympathy from the viewer. Which is the third broken plot device. Shinichiro's mother hates Hiromi because she's not her daughter. When she first moves in, years before the show starts, she claims that [Hiromi's mother] cheated on [Hiromi's father] with [Shinichiro's father] to create her. That would make Shinichiro and Hiromi siblings. The fourth broken plot device. Now they feel even more awkward around each other. There is so much magic between the two, I feel like this is a Disney movie!
The role of Shinichiro's mother is baffling too. She goes so much out her way to make Hiromi feel unwanted. By episode-whatever, we learn that the might be sibling's thing is a lie. The mother even went so out of her way to back-up that lie that she cut out [Hiromi's mother's] face out of pictures. But then she turns around and begins to treat Hiromi like one of her own after she gets into a bike accident and tarnishes her new family's name. So when Hiromi didn't do anything wrong, she was hated, but when she runs away and gets into an accident and suspended from school she's then rewarded with love. Huh? I mean, what was the mother's motive in the first place? What did Hiromi's mother do to her that she had to make up such an absurd story? This is when the show becomes damaged beyond repair.
Another character that baffles me is Ai-chan, the childhood friend that is dating Shin-dope's best friend. Her character doesn't baffle me, it's the reason why she's in this show that baffles me. She's basically there to add extra drama to the fake drama. She likes Shin-dope (and who doesn't at this point?) and kisses him while she's dating his best friend, who is a much better guy than Shin-guy. But thankfully she dumps the other guy and decides to move on from Shin-dude anyway. Crisis averted.
Now that we know that Shin-dude and Hiromi aren't siblings. You can finally sleep at night and call the right name of the girl you're sleeping with. Oh. Wait. There's two broken plot devices in the way. The contract and a sweet girl named Noe. Noe and Shin-moron are now going out and Shin-idiot actually draws a picture book about it. A picture book about the chicken that could fly. But then the chicken couldn't fly because his adopted sister is now just his adopted sister. So now he thinks he has a shot with Hiromi. Which now Shin-shin and Hiromi are never awkward because of this. In fact, I was never sure why these two liked each other anyway besides the fact that they're both attractive. They never talked under the same roof, and they don't even know each other. Hell, Hiromi even says it in some episode, "I never got to know you after all this time". So that implies they never got to know each other. Meanwhile, Shinichiro and Noe have a pretty good thing going. But Shinichiro now thinks that "Now is the time to take flight" and let's his hormones run wild and chases after Hiromi as she is moving away to an apartment to live on her own. When they meet up, the dumbest line in the show is said. "I'll do everything proper from now on". As if anything Shin-moron had done before was proper (if you need a hint, nothing so far has been proper and will continue not to be proper). What Shin-chan means by that, I don't even know. And while these two are hugging in the middle of the street. That contract is still in effect because neither of them have broken-up with Noe's brother or Noe.
Hell, Noe and her brother seem more in love with each other than any other relationship in the series. Maybe that should be the plot. The forbidden love between those two. Then the less interesting Hiromi and Shin-idiot could get in the way. It could be called "True Incest". Instead of this fast one they pulled on me.
Anyway, Hiromi now lives alone and we get to see her do splits. The most enticing part of the show. Now that the two lovebirds are separated, their love becomes deeper and more intense. Even though their in the same class and they don't know each other.
So now it's time for the festival dance and time to tell Noe that he and Hiromi are now in love. Oh goody, let's see how our brilliant idealist goes about doing this. He dances and then Hiromi tells Noe, and I quote, to "leave them alone". As far as I'm concerned, Noe was placed into the situation because of Hiromi being a bitch all the time. She never liked Noe in the first place because she was friends with Shin-moron. Then she's the cause of Shin-moron making the contract that automatically pulls her into the situation. So now, Noe is intentionally placed in the middle of these two idiots, and their insecurities, as an obstacle and they treat her like she's done something wrong. This causes her to test flying, in result, breaking her leg from jumping off a tree. Shin-moron then gets angry at Noe and tosses the picture book in the ocean, a page at a time to make it look artsy. I skipped over the last episodes, so I don't even know if Noe got her tears back. Probably not. Why did Hiromi think it was okay to just take Shin-moron's responsibility and just do it all herself? Who wrote this ****?
The art was okay. The 3D was clunky looking while students were walking out. The 3D Shinichiro didn't even look like the animated one. Animation was okay. I don't remember listening to any music, because the voices in my head were fighting due to this show. The ED and OP were okay though.
To add, the most interesting characters we ain't seen enough of. Miyokichi, Shin-moron's best friend, and Noe. This show goes downhill fast after episode seven, and I would never recommend this trash to anyone. This show lied to me like my ex-girlfriends did. Leaving me doubtful and upset. At the end, I found myself lost and confused and I lost faith in love, friendship, everything. I had to make sure I didn't lose my soul due to this show. Then I looked at the reviews of this show and I also found myself baffled about how people give this show anything more than a five.
Things just don't add up. This show has a plot that is more convenient then the laptop in my bathroom.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Sep 30, 2009
The story follows third year high school student Araragi Koyomi; a past vampire. Over his spring break he was attacked by a vampire thus turning into one. With the help Meme Oshino, an expert in the field of oddities: Who helps Araragi become a human again with payment. The series has a set of chapters, with a heroine in each chapter being induced by an oddity. This show is full of word play, which is the author's strength in his writing of the light novels.
The art in the series is nothing less than spectacular. The lighting, the animation, the colors is just all so beautiful.
...
The scenes that would be plain have some sort of interesting aspect and life to it. This is done by Studio Shaft (one of my favorite studios) so it's very familiar to those that have seen Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei or Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase. Which are fantastic as well. And yes, Shaft does make use of production slides and storyboards for dialogue or just for some effect on the situation. CAUTION: Some of the storyboards/production slides go by really fast. You're going to have pause to read them.
The sound is great. I'll mention OPs and EDs. The OPs are great, different ones for chapters and they fit well based on the heroine of the chapter. The ED is by supercell (they did the theme for Cencoroll as well) is fantastic, the animation in the ED is personally a favorite of mine. Now, to the real sound that counts, the BGM. It's great, fits every scene well and adds emotion to them as well. Very well done.
The cast of characters is all over the place. Araragi is overly kind and tries to help anyone he can. Amongst the heroines there are the basic characters that stick out. There is Hitagi Senjougahara who describes herself as a tsundere. She speaks in a very threatening way to anyone. Suruga Kanbaru, a self-proclaimed lesbian, masochist, and fujoshi. Many other characters appear with other personalities which gives a delectable assortment of characters.
Overall, this anime is definitely one to check out; one of my favorites from this season. With the overtone of spirits, mythological creatures, ghosts, and gods there is room for romance in this anime as well. Chapters are relatively short (limited to three/two episodes for one chapter) but capture a lot of the story through this dialogue heavy anime. An anime to a remember with the great depth of the characters and how the chapters help the characters develop.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Sep 30, 2009
When first viewing The Third, I believe I was going into the anime with the wrong attitude. I was thinking that this anime was going to mediocre and bland. I was wrong; what we have here is a anime with great development of characters and a story that ties together throughout the series.
The synopsis is given at the top of the page for this anime but I'll give a version for you.
Earth; years after a war that nearly destroyed all of the humans is now a barren desert. In this desert, Honoka can be found reciting poems by her favorite Poet, "Dana Myfree." Honoka is
...
the "jack-of-all-trades" known throughout the land as "Sword Dancer." She does jobs for people of cities. Whether it's moving stock around town or taking out Stigma Ants in the desert. During one of those jobs, she finds a man in the desert named Iks. After being saved by Honoka, he wishes to accompany her on all of her travels to begin an observation of the The Third controlled Earth.
The series is accompanied by a narrator. Which to me, was a welcomed idea. The narration helped explain parts of the story and the emotions of the characters. With the emotions, the narrator goes even deeper into the minds of the characters making you feel "one" with the character. This made for some great character development in the story, I felt as if I knew what the characters would do in any situation.
The art of the series is great, but nothing that really jumped out at me. Great animation for fights and any other kind of scene. Some episodes we're disappointing due to a change of animation and art. It was done by another group as far as I know and it's extremely noticeable. Despite the lack of art and animation in about two or three episodes, the rest is superb. The lighting and colors during some scenes really set a mood in some of the story making it some great eye candy.
The OP is pretty tasteless. I usually enjoy watching the OPs of all animes because it's there to set a tone. The OP does a good job setting the tone but was just seemed long and boring. The EDs I did enjoy, I'll throw that in. The BGM was nothing memorable or remarkable; it helps to set a mood for the scenes and does a good job fitting any situation. The OP is played as BGM during some episodes, which is welcomed then.
The characters in this show almost make everything. The narration helps you get more in depth with each character. Honoka is a fierce yet humble swordsman but is a spriteful young girl around characters she's comfortable with. Not to mention that Honoka is probably one of the most powerful swordsman I have seen in a while. With Honoka there are plenty of other well-developed characters in the story.
In conclusion, this anime seems bumpy at first with four different story arcs in the range of 24 episodes. But if you feel down, you have to keep watching until the end where everything is tied up and leaves a brilliant smile on your face.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
|
