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Apr 4, 2016
Grimgar was a show I had hovering between 4 and 5 at the halfway point of the season. It ended up finishing between 6 and 7, but closer to 6. It was a disappointment overall, but it finished much stronger than it started.
I'll start by saying that the show's biggest issue is its pacing. It does a great job with building up to key moments but then the moments it builds up for are just... lame? I don't know how else to say it. The first half is sluggish and boring. The one big plot twist it has wasn't even a twist, and it
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was extremely forced at that.
The story is nothing new at all. Kids wake up, they don't know why they're in this weird world, they get jobs as "volunteer soldiers", they proceed to kill goblins for money. And then kill more goblins. And then even more. Guess what? Next episode they're killing goblins. The plot-twist in all this is that they're actually having a lot of difficulty killing these goblins. This was refreshing and honestly pretty cool to watch for the first couple fights, but it can become frustrating really quickly. Thankfully, the party finally starts showing some growth after 7 or 8 episodes and the fights become much more entertaining.
I do really like how the world they are in is legitimately dangerous. This is reinforced in a couple of the episodes. It's nice to see that the characters aren't wearing plot armor and that there is actually lives at stake unlike some other RPG-like anime (I'm looking at you Log Horizon). The problem is just that the characters aren't adapting to this world fast enough, and while it's certainly a newer concept, it's still frustrating to watch.
The characters themselves are the show's weakest point. This is disappointing considering that the characters are supposed to be the strong point of the show. Let's start with Yume. She had promise early on. A cute red-haired archer with a quirky personality. Then the group forms and her character falls apart imo. She is always either bitching at Ranta or crying about something. Then, as if realizing her personality has been ruined, the director said "Screw it. Let's make her nothing but fan service." I'm a big proponent of proper fan service, but when a character who starts off promising end up ONLY being used for ass-shots, that is a prime example of bad writing and bad character development.
Ranta is a character that grew on me. His personality is initially cancerous but he gets developed at a fairly solid pace and I was satisfied with his character at the end.
Shihoru has a cardboard personality and gets little to no screen time; nothing to see there.
Moguzo is a cardboard big guy. For you.
Manato has little to no personality as well. He's your typical "Carry the weight of the entire party on my shoulders" type of guy.
Mary is definitely my favorite character. They spend A LOT of time developing her but it is overall worth it. She's easily the most fleshed-out character and it helps make up for how bland the aforementioned characters are.
In regards to Haruhiro, who is essentially the protagonist, I actually really like his character development. He showed noticeable growth with each fight and he started taking charge as group leader after awhile and he fit the role nicely. If only the other characters could catch up.
The sound is difficult to rate. Most all the songs are good but at the same time they play WAY too many insert songs. Catchy OP and ED, and not terrible background music. The part that makes it insufferable is the fact the studio HAS to put a 3-5 minute insert song in (nearly) every episode, with nothing but a slideshow of characters and their environments; a lot of them still-shots no less. The music itself isn't that bad but it is over-used to the point that it works against itself. The music used during fights is the redeeming quality, as it isn't as overused and it adds that level of excitement to each fight.
The art style is overall very nice and clean. It's the best aspect of the show. Animation quality is also smooth, and the character designs are all nice. There are a few derps here and there (like Yume's stockings and Ranta's helmet appearing and disappearing at random in the same scenes- anybody else notice this?) and some pretty bad walking animations (Yume in episode 6 as a fine example). These derps don't really detract from the overall quality, but it is noticeable enough to make me shake my head. The biggest problemwith the animation is the fact that they use so many still shots and use some overall lazy animation at times (final fight in episode 12 for instance). I get that it is to save on the budget, but still. It causes the show to look really good some times at the expense of looking bad at other times.
All in all Grimgar, isn't terrible. It's just not nearly the "breath of fresh air" that I've seen some people here on MAL claim it is. It has some newer concepts on the "trapped in an rpg-world" setting, but they aren't utilized as well as they could be. The story progresses at a snail's pace initially but does pick up in the latter part. The insert songs get old VERY fast, the characters are largely cardboard with the exception of Haruhiro, Mary and Ranta. The art is good as well as being somewhat unique, despite the animation inconsistencies.
Story: 4
Art: 8
Sound: 5
Character: 5
Enjoyment: 5
Overall: 6
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Mar 27, 2016
This review will contain minor spoilers since I can't fully discuss some characters without mentioning certain things about them.
As somebody who played the God Eater game, I was very excited when it got an anime adaption. I had always felt that the story would translate very well to an anime and that the Aragami fights would be really fun to watch animated. So, was this the masterpiece that I hoped for or was it the disaster that I feared? Well, it was somewhere in the middle. There was more good than bad actually, but because of my disappointment with the show compared to my
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expectations, I'll start with the bad.
The biggest issue with God Eater is Lenka. Let's make it clear from the start that I feel Lenka single-handedly knocked a couple of points off of the show's rating. The original game did not have a true protagonist. The protagonist was simply a player-created avatar that served one purpose: give the player someone to play as alongside the rest of the characters. Ufotable's decision to create a true protagonist would not have been quite as bad had they not made Lenka so boring. He's bland. He's an Eren clone. He has no personality. His seiyuu is very uninteresting to listen to. He gets inexplicably stronger as the show goes on as well rises through the ranks for seemingly no reason. He was just a bad decision all around. Ufotable would have been much better served just rolling with a collective group of characters (Lindow, Soma, Kota, Alisa, and Sakuya) all being co-protagonists if Lenka was the best they could do for creating their own protagonist.
Speaking of those other characters, none of them were properly developed in the anime. Lenka steals way too much screen time (and largely boring screen time at that- though I did like his flashback episode quite a bit) from them.
Soma is one of the most complex characters in the game. He's unpleasant up front and doesn't like working with others, but he has a real soft side to him. The reason he doesn't working with others is that they so often die and he's tired of it. On top of that, the guy is part Aragami. The anime touches on his past only a little bit, and doesn't give him nearly the screen time he gets in the game. A lot of this is due to a certain character not being introduced in the anime much to the dismay of fans of the game as she is a very important character. She was essentially responsible for about 70% of Soma's character development, which explains why he feels like such an unfinished product in the anime. It was hinted at during the last couple of minutes though that this character may be introduced in season 2 if there ever is one, so maybe that will happen hopefully.
Alisa is also very complex but her development is rushed way too fast. She has pretty bad PTSD, and they do a good job covering that intially, but how the PTSD affects episodes 9 and onward was not handled correctly at all. She deserved to be fleshed out more but it just didn't happen. It felt like they focused too much on the PTSD itself instead of the consequences of it. Sure, they hammered home the point that she's basically crazy, but nothing too bad really happens because of it. It pretty much got swept under the rug in the last few episodes when it should not have.
Sakuya and Kota are nothing special, and they weren't handled too improperly. I feel they did the best job with Kota out of all the characters. He got a lot of screen time and they did a good job with his character overall. Sakuya could have been more developed (they barely touched on her past with Lindow), but she is a pretty bland character to begin with so no big complaints.
Lindow was actually handled very well, so I won't write a lot about him. He got the most screen time next to Lenka so it was hard to mess him up.
The story for the God Eater game is also very good, with 2 main "halves" to it. The anime only covers about 25% of the game in total- or half of the first half if that redundancy doesn't bother you. I'm not going to bitch about them not adapting the entire story because I understand that wasn't possible in 13 episodes. Still, I would have liked for them to handle what they did adapt better. It seemed like the major plot points were either rushed or dragged out- there was no middle ground really. I was very happy with the way that episode 13 ended though as there were multiple hints at the rest of the game's story. Who knows whether it will eventually be adapted, but it was satisfying to see them acknowledge the later events and lay the groundwork for a possible second season.
For all my bitching about Lenka and how he took so much important screen time away from the rest of the show, it overall was not bad. The story was still solid overall even though they could have done a better job. The flashbacks featuring Johannes and Paylor were a welcome addition that the game did not feature. They were overused, but they served the purpose of providing background for the creation of the Aragami. They didn't do a very good job of explaining exactly what God Eaters are and what their powers are, but they made up for it by giving an excellent backstory for the Aragami apocalypse.
The animation is also extremely fluid and makes the fights more entertaining. Overall, the fights were disappointing simply because they weren't quite as action-packed as expected. Maybe it's just my personal bias as someone who played the game but the Aragami just went down way too easily most of the time. But even though the fights were underwhelming, they were nicely animated at least. The art is also not bad, although I feel it is unnecessary. Ufotable did the prologue OVA for the game as well as all cinematic cutscenes in the game, and they looked just fine. There was no reason to use such a unique and somewhat lazy art style when they had animated the title before with a much cleaner-looking art style. The character designs suffered the most from this. It looks good overall (especially the environments which look great) but it had its problems. Also, I didn't think the CGI Aragami looked too great either but they weren't terrible. People who are not fans of CGI will likely be put off by the Aragami though.
Great soundtrack overall. It was very nice to hear songs from the game like "Of God and Man" during flashbacks and "No Way Back" during the final episode. It's a shame that "Over the Clouds" couldn't be used as that is the iconic song of the game, but the rest of the soundtrack was good enough to make up for it. The voice-acting cast is also stellar with the exception of Lenka. Lindow especially stood above the rest with Soma a close second despite his lack of screen time.
Even though I was disappointed overall with the anime adaption, it was still an enjoyable watch. Though a lot of the game is still left not adapted and the characters were underdeveloped compared to in the game, it was still a solid 7. It would have been an 8 without Lenka, but he simply stole too much screen time from the rest of the characters as well as the overall plot. I'll say it again; the game had no "true" protagonist outside of a player-created avatar. Ufotable messed up trying to create a protagonist for the anime series. Other than that it was solid and I'm honestly just happy that it did indeed get an anime adaptation.
Story: 6
Art: 7
Sound: 9
Character: 5. The roster is actually pretty good but too many of the characters were left underdeveloped and thus hurt the score.
Enjoyment: 8. I still enjoyed it despite the fact it did not live up to my expectations. Fun to watch for anyone who is an action or post-apocalyptic fan.
Overall: 7.
If a second season ever occurs, I feel it will be much better. I doubt it will happen though after they had so much trouble with the first season.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Mar 20, 2016
Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi (Sunday Without God)- This anime was a mixture of good and bad. It was a pleasant surprise but at the same time was a lot of wasted potential. It definitely would have been better with 24 episodes, but it was still a solid 7 despite its problems.
Let's start with the good. The best aspects of this show are the art and the music. The artwork is gorgeous and has everything you could want in an animated work: vibrant colors, detailed scenery, fluid animation, realistic character designs, and a variety of environments.
The music is just as good as
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the art in terms of how much of an impact it has on the show. The ambient music is perfect and adds a surreal feel to almost every scene. It really makes this already unique world feel even more unique. Both the OP and ED are also very good, with the ED being one of my favorites.
The world that is built in this series is by far one of the most interesting worlds I've seen in awhile. It's a mixture of post-apocalyptic with both modern and medieval architecture, both living and dead, and different races - human and gravekeeper, along with the power that wish fulfillment can bring in a world essentially devoid of rules. The way everything flows cohesively together in this world abandoned by God is really nice to see and it's one of the most unique creations I can think of.
The downside of this show is that it wasn't able to fully capitalize on the world it had to work with. Things felt rushed, the world wasn't explored to the capacity many people would have liked to see, and the story itself suffered from poor writing and poor characters.
The story has 4 important arcs: Valley of Death, City of the Dead, Goran Academy, and Class 3-4, in the order they take place in. The first 2 arcs were very good. They did a good job introducing the viewer to this fascinating world and explaining how it operates now that God is no longer around to oversee its happenings. The City of the Dead arc is especially good at offering more insight into the world in both lore and environment. The Goran Academy arc is by far the lowest point in the series. Thankfully it's only 2 episodes long, but those 2 episodes were painfully uninteresting compared to the rest of the series. It's really immersion breaking- that's the best way to describe it.
Speaking of the Goran Academy arc, the characters in the show are another weak point. Too many characters are introduced and flung to the side shortly thereafter, and the mainstay characters suffer because of it due to their screen time being interfered with. The Goran Academy arc is the worst of this dilemma, with a plethora of characters being thrown aside as soon as the arc ended without there being any attempt to develop them at all. The worst part is that the writing tries to force drama that isn't there because, well.. Nobody cares about these characters.
The main cast is honestly not that bad- Hambart and Alice in particular are very interesting characters with strong personalities. Ai is a bit of a hit-and-miss. She's a likeable character overall and is less annoying than your typical young female lead, but she still suffers from some of the same tropes that you would expect (being overly naive, being overly stubborn, and showing an alarming lack of awareness in some situations).
Overall, Sunday Without God is worth a watch. Despite the Goran Academy arc in the middle and an overall weak cast of characters, the rest of the arcs (which are all very good) and the few good characters are not overshadowed. The superb sound and visuals do a lot for strengthening the show as well.
Sunday Without God is not a bad show by any means, it's just not as good as it could have been. I still really enjoyed it, and I'm sure any fan of the Mystery genre or anybody looking for a unique world (which is rare to find these days) will enjoy it as well.
Story: 6/10 (Great and very interesting world but average writing overall)
Art: 10
Sound: 10
Character 5: (Some good characters but just way too many irrelevant ones)
Enjoyment: 7
Overall: 7
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jan 8, 2016
Man, what took me so long to get around to watching this? I had heard mixed things about Psycho-Pass so I was never sure how high up on the priority bracket I wanted to place it. Some claimed it was a philosophical masterpiece and some claimed that the "Urobutcher", as some refer to him as, struck again. Personally, I'm a big fan of Gen Urobuchi from what works of his I've seen thus far. Fate/Zero is one of, if not my number one, favorite anime and I also really enjoyed the Madoka series + the Rebellion movie. So I finally got around to watching this
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while fully expecting another solid experience and I was not disappointed. I may have even been a little surprised by how good Psycho-Pass was.
The details of the setting can be pretty much summed up in the synopsis so I won't bore you with that. The system in place in this setting is referred to as the "Sibyl System" which is something the synopsis doesn't cover so I'll just clear that up to prevent future confusion in this review. The setting is really well laid-out and it's easy to see from the first couple episodes how this futuristic society operates through the process of the Sibyl System. It's also easy to see that there is fundamental flaws in how it operates (such as the lack of any type of measurement for crime beyond what the Sibyl System is able to quantify and recognize) and the viewer can make inferences to try and predict how these flaws in the system will cause future conflict for the characters.
I won't delve into story specifics because of spoilers so I'll just discuss the story in vague terms of what it does well. Part of the satisfaction of Psycho-Pass is the early recognition from a viewer's standpoint that something will definitely go wrong at some point, but you have no idea what it will be or when it will be so you are just as shocked by it as the characters in the show are. The show has multiple "cases" that take place and watching the detectives, in particular Kogami, solve them is a very engaging experience. It does a good job giving the viewer hints and clues as to what might happen next which keeps the viewer actively involved in trying to solve the problem alongside the characters. The pacing for the story is also very well-done. There was never a moment where I felt like something was rushed nor were there any moments where I felt something was unnecessarily dragged out.
The characters were really the strong point of the show in my opinion. Akane, Kogami, and Makishima are the only ones listed as "main" characters on here, but the roster as a whole is very well developed and you could make an argument that both Ginoza and Masaoka are main characters as well. The sheer cunning of both Kogami and Makishima makes for an interesting viewing experience because they're both always one step ahead of all the other characters as well as a half-step ahead of each other. Masaoka is the likeable old guy archetype that helps bring the young people along. Ginoza is a bit of a weird one for me because of how he acted sometimes. He would do things that I liked and things I disliked at an almost perfect 50/50 ratio, but I can't deny that his development was satisfying to see come to fruition. One of the best aspects of the show was Kogami's exceptional detective work that never failed to impress me. It always kept me engaged when he would be on-screen trying to solve a case. However, the development of Akane in particular is what really impressed me so I'll talk about her in particular as well as her role as a co-protagonist alongside Kogami.
Female leads are very hit-or-miss in anime (not to sound sexist) because they're rarely properly developed. They either default to the "damsel in distress" role, lack the fortitude in decision-making required of a true protagonist , or they're simply poorly written and thus their personalities become annoying. Lucy from Fairy Tail is a great example of all of these but, anyway, moving on. Akane's development was very impressive in part because of how visible it was. Every time she had to make a decision it was always clearly evident how she had grown since her last decision. She's the kind of character that learned from her mistakes and thinks carefully before moving forward. A lot of people I talk to cite a particular scene from episode 11 as one of the reasons they dislike Akane, but I disagree. Her character was extremely well developed due in large part because of what took place in that episode. For better or worse, she went from a timid and naive girl who was lacking confidence at the beginning of the show to being a confident woman who took her role as a protagonist and fulfilled it extremely well by the end of the show. Her development reminded me a lot of Yona from Akatsuki no Yona. Fans of the show will definitely see the similarities in development.
The art in the show is very good. All the characters are designed very well and realistically and the city environment looks gorgeous. The animation is very fluid and the fights are very well choreographed. My only complaint would be that some of the characters, specifically the characters who aren't important to the show long-term, almost look like they have bug-eyes. I'm unsure if this was intentional of if it was just a goof in the character design of the less-important characters. Either way it did bug me (no pun intended), but at the same time it didn't have any huge negative effect on the show since those characters are not on screen much.
The sound is one part of Psycho-Pass I was disappointed in. The first OP is incredible and both EDs are good but the background music used is just really forgettable. There is one track in particular that was used during action scenes and "oh shit!" scenes as I call them that always caught my ear but the rest of the background music was honestly very average. It did a good job in some scenes of setting up an atmosphere but overall it could have been better.
I really did enjoy Psycho-Pass. Trying to figure out the problems to the cases alongside Akane and Kogami, trying to guess what Makishima might do next, learning more about the Sibyl System and this futuristic society and trying to find the flaws in it- the whole show did a great job of keeping my interest engaged. I loved the roster of characters and in particular was very pleased with Akane's development. The art was nice and the animation was fluid and the sound, although average, was solid enough to not leave a negative impression. I would recommend Psycho-Pass to anyone and encourage people to give it a shot even though "the Urobutcher" has a very mixed reputation here on MAL. I loved both Fate/Zero and Madoka Magicka and this was another show I really enjoyed.
Story: 9/10
Art: 9/10
Sound: 7:10
Characters: 10/10
Enjoyment: 9/10
Overall: 9/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Dec 20, 2015
Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry was a show that started off promising but took a really drastic downhill slide about halfway through and never stopped sliding. I'm writing this review due in large part to both my disappointment with the show as well as my surprise that it is rated as well as it is here on MAL in comparison to what I scored it (7.66 at the time of this review).
As mentioned, it starts off rather promising. The first couple episodes do a good job of establishing the protagonist Ikki as a likeable underdog who is a much better fighter than what his test scores
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show he is. I got a real Tatsuya vibe from Mahouka in the early parts of the show. Stella is quickly established as the main girl and his love interest (more on that further down) and is a cliche yet still likeable tsundere. As the show goes on, Ikki's underdog status just gets milked for way more than its worth and Stella becomes more and more annoying. The side characters are much more likeable than the two main characters, with Shizuku (Ikki's imouto) and Alice (Shizuku's roomate) essentially stealing the show most of the time. The story begins to fall apart also. The Sword Eater arc in the middle of the show was when it really began to go downhill. It was just a boring arc with a disappointing final fight. It really felt like filler honestly. Lastly, the last arc... just... was terrible. I won't give any spoilers as to why, but let's just say that the EXTREMELY forced drama and the asspulls are strong in the last few episodes.
The show makes it pretty clear early on that it is a very action-oriented anime that is structured to where enjoyment heavily relies on the fights and the build-up to the fights. The problem is that most of the fights are not that good. The fight between Shizuku and Toudou is honestly a great 9/10 fight and really the highlight of the show, but most all of the other fights were really disappointing- the final fight in episode 12 especially. Another complaint I had with the show in regards to the fights is that way too many of the fights happen off-screen. Granted, since most all the fights are disappointing anyway it may be a moot point but it still made everything feel super rushed reagardless. The plot revolves around the Seven Stars Battle Festival which is essentially a giant tournament. Of all the fights that take place, Ikki's fights are pretty much the only ones you see happen. One of Shizuku's fights and one of Stella's fights are the only other ones shown. Alice gets no fights and his abilities are still completely unkown.
The sound in the show is not terrible. Pretty good action music for some of the fights, but overall it's really forgettable. However the OP and ED are, to put it bluntly, just plain bad.
The show has many bad aspects, and the art is definitely one of its worst ones (no pun intended). The characters themselves look nice usually but the environments look really bad. Worst of all is the colors. The colors just look dirty- that's the only way I know to describe it. The entire show just has a really dirty gray tint to it, and none of the colors shine the way that one would expect them to in an anime. There is also a very unique choice (and not in a good way) of coloring done with the animation during the important fight scenes, such as the Sword Eater fight and the final fight. All the colors on-screen are scrapped and the show is animated in pure black and gray with only the characters' eyes still retaining their color. It's definitely a unique strategy to emphasizing the fight scenes but it's utterly pointless and really doesn't look good at all. It made me shake my head and wonder who the hell thought of it more than anything.
I'm going to assume that people are rating the show as well as they are on here because of the romance between Stella and Ikki. Unlike most romances that occur in anime there is actual progress made in the romance throughout the story. It has a fairly consistent progression in-plot of the romance progressing and I guess people are a sucker for that considering that its a rarity for an anime to actually progress a romance in-plot like that. That being said, I still found the romance cheesy. It developed way too fast and I felt like its role in the story was really forced and overblown. But again, it did develop which is a rarity, so I'll assume most people rating this show are overlooking all its other flaws because they're a sucker for that or something.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Sep 28, 2015
Arslan Senki is the kind of show that I didn't really appreciate fully until I had finished the last episode. It was a good show and I enjoyed every episode I watched, but I rarely found myself hyped to watch the next episode. It wasn't until the end that I sat back and realized how enjoyable the entire show as a whole was even though it was really slow-paced.
The story is your typical "fight for your right to the throne" angle with the righteous versus the not-so-righteous. The story doesn't do much early on as it mostly spends the first half introducing all the
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characters in Arslan's party and developing them. The story really begins to pick up about halfway through though because once the characters and the two sides of the fight for the throne are well established, the large-scale battles begin. The story itself gets better each episode, as plot points such as questions about Arslan's legitimacy to the throne (he is a green-eared 14 year old after all) and the danger of other parties getting involved in what should be a two-sided war between Lusitania and Pars are introduced to add some flavor to what is usually a rather bland story setting.
One of the strongest characteristics of the show is how it handles all the battles. Early on, the main characters are very often outnumbered or in a bad position and it takes careful planning and cunning strategy to win their battles. Once the large battles begin in the second half, that same strategic approach to each battle still holds true. There's no rage-mode power-ups, no "protagonist arrives at the last second to save the day" moments, or things like that. Each side's strategists lay out a realistic battle plan and execute it, and the strategy that is better executed wins. The downside to the fights is that it never really felt like Arslan and his party were ever in any true danger of losing- even when they were vastly outnumbered.
The characters are good overall, but some of them are hit-or-miss. Arslan is hard not to like. He's extremely good-natured and cares for his subordinates, and his wish to reclaim the throne is based more off of what he hopes to accomplish for the people than it is about whether or not he deserves the throne in the first place. Daryun, his right-hand man, is possibly the strongest character on the show and his fights never fail to impress. Narsus is the brilliant strategist who has a love for painting despite the fact he is terrible at it. Elam is Narsus' apprentice and the group's trap and recon specialist. Farangis is a beautiful archer woman who follows Arslan despite not being a Parsian. Gieve is a comical musician who loves women. Alfreed is the daughter of a bandit-chieftain and loves Narsus while having a healthy rivalry with Elam.
All of these characters are likeable but only Narsus, Gieve, and Arslan really feel developed. Farangis is honestly little more than fan service, and Elam and Alfreed don't do much besides fight for Narsus' attention. Daryun is just hopelessly powerful and outside of teasing Narsus for being a bad painter, offers little beyond his fighting ability.
The art on the show is average across the board. There's never a moment where it really looks bad, but there's also never a moment where it looks especially good. It is consistent at the very least. The characters are well-done and the animation of the large army-on-army fights is done very well. The landscapes are often times below average quality. The animation for the one-on-one sword fights is also very good. It's mostly just the lack of detail they put into the environments that is really in the bad area- most everything else is either average or good.
The sound on the show is one of the strong points. Both of the OPs were among the best of their respective seasons, and the endings were solid but not great. None of the battle music or anything was really memorable, but it all fit really well into the setting. Most of the music just flowed nicely alongside the clashing of swords and stomping of hooves; it did a good job of just simply doing its job.
Overall, I really did enjoy Arslan Senki. The first half was slow, but the second half had a good number of pivotal moments and was set up well by the slow-going first half. The story is surprisingly engaging considering how predictable it is. The show does a good job of making sure what is on-screen is entertaining even though you know what is going to happen next. The characters were overall likeable despite half of the main party not really getting any development, but the roster overall was actually pretty strong. The animation and art were consistent and the fights looked nice, but the environment quality was really lacking. The sound was very good despite not being memorable. I'd definitely recommend this anime to anybody, especially if that person likes medieval-style settings or battles that are based more on strategy than power.
Story: 8/10
Art: 7/10
Sound: 9/10
Character: 8/10
Enjoyment: 9/10
Overall: 8:10
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jul 1, 2015
I haven't written a review here on MAL before, but his show exceeded my expectations so much that I decided I needed to write a review for those (like me for the longest time) who may be hesitant to watch this.
First of all, it is NOT required that you like basketball to enjoy this series- that's a major point I want to get out there quickly, and is also a big reason I'm writing this review. I'm not a basketball fan myself, but the show does a great job of pulling the viewer in and making what is happening on-screen extremely entertaining regardless of
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whether you like basketball or not. So again, give this show a shot even if you're not a big basketball fan. I delayed trying it out for a long time because of this and once I finally watched it I couldn't believe what I had been missing out on. The comedy, characters, soundtrack, and art and animation are all top-notch and will entertain you even if you don't particularly care for the basketball part of the story. Now, on to the specifics.
The characters are what make this show so great. All the characters who get significant screen time are sufficiently fleshed out. For such a large cast of characters (That is: Everybody from the "main" team that the story focuses on, and roughly a little less than a dozen characters from other teams), I was surprised at how each of them were so well developed and how they each had something unique about them. The characters are all so well developed and unique that it really didn't matter who was on-screen at the time, because it was guaranteed to be entertaining regardless. The show does a great job of giving all these quality characters a good amount of screen time each. This is not the kind of show where the MC hogs 80% of the screen time, and that really helps to develop each character and make the interactions between the different characters so great. Some of the best interactions between characters actually don't involve the MC at all, and yet, some of the best interactions DO involve the MC. There is a very good mixture of comedy, drama, and action, and each of the characters has something to contribute to that.
The soundtrack is the next thing that I would point out as being a major strong point of the show. All the songs are very catchy and they each do a great job of adding hype to a clutch moment or to add melancholy to a sad one. During the games, there is almost never a moment where there isn't background music. Some people may find this annoying, but I loved that about the show because it really added a sense of excitement to each of the games even when the teams are just going over strategies on the bench or a character is monologuing on the court.
The art and animation are also very high-quality. The art isn't anything flashy but it looks good and the animation during some of the high-paced scenes on the court is very well done. I especially like the detail that went into characterizing certain characters through their facial expressions or their body movement. It did a lot for adding to that "unqiueness" I mentioned that they each have. Even the smallest details went into the animation to ensure that no two characters' bodies move the same on the court, which is a very cool detail when you consider that this is the case in real sports as well.
The story is actually really good for a sports anime. The "Generation of Miracles" are a very solid group of antagonists for the main characters to have to try and overcome. Each characters' motivations and goals are reasonable and it's interesting to see how they try to achieve those goals. While it is a good story for a sports anime though, it is still a pretty typical story for a shounen.
Overall, a really good series that can be enjoyed by anybody regardless of if they're a sports fan or not. Really good art/animation, great soundtrack, GREAT cast of characters, but suffers from the fact that the story is typical shounen.
Recap:
Story: 7
Art: 9
Sound: 10 (amazing soundtrack)
Characters: 10 (definitely the best part of the show)
Enjoyment: 10
Overall: 9
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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