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Sooo....a first not-so stellar review. Though I liked Appleseed Ex Machina I went into this movie expecting something along those lines. I did get what I was expecting but..uhmm less of it. Vexille wasn't interesting and despite the action and the glittery explosions (and I do like explosions), as well as the cyber-punk dystopian themes, it was dull..dull like's story, characters, music, and etc.

Story: The story itself is good. The idea of Japan isolating itself once again and the disastrous results that came from such isolation was something that got me into seeing the film. The theme of technology erasing humanity as a consequence of our dependence on it is one I have seen before (many..many times), but I never get tired of it. And I did feel the paranoia of the government wash over me as a reminder of why we should ALWAYS question the government and those who make decisions without the people's knowledge thus consent.
So the story itself got a lot going for it. It was just executed in a manner I didn't enjoy...and that mostly came from the characters...the unconvincing romance...the thrown in action sequences...and so on so forth. I liked the themes it presented.

Characters: I disliked Vexille. Normally I love strong female characters. I envy and connect with them. But Vexille was just so...boring. For an brash American, she was downplayed and ignored even though she was the most seen character on screen (and the TITLE character mind you). There was little life to her, and when she showed signs of life, it was forced. Sometimes...she felt as mechanical as the androids she is so wary of. Leon was also near lifeless...and well...showed very little life..at all. Sure both these lvoers can polite and fight well...but once again so can those androids. And the romance? The chemistry? Nothing. I got nothing.
Everyone else is as dull as predictable. Main villain being a evil genius hell bent on being God? Seen it, easily dealt with and pathetic...as well as boring. Silent stoic henchmen? Check.
And those rebels....I...didn't care about them at all...except for Maria. In fact she was the only character I connected with...which sucks, cause she was woodened and morose.
None of them were fun, none of them were good. I kinda wanted all of them to die in some semi-heroic fashion, but I never got what I wanted from this film.

Art: The art went back to that annoying cell-shading I did not care for in Appleseed, but the animation was nice. The architecture was very well done, though unlike Ex Machina, I wasn't wowed. The weaponry, suits, and machines were pretty cool.
The characters however...I saw little emotion, little reaction to even the most tragic of times. Everyone is so...damn...stoic. well more like emotionless and robotic. Especially the main characters, which stinks cause i have to watch them show the SLIGHTEST hint of love and sadness in the only the convenient of times. The animation was nice but again the character designs and the lack of conveyable emotion hurt this score.

Sound: Voices were all right...but meh, no real emotion, not really impressed. Music was standard cyber fare.

Overall: This could've been better..I wanted it to be better...but I was not engaged. read more

Now everyone...this is a NAUGHTY NAUGHTY HARD CORE HENTAI! There, had to say it. It's pretty strong. I enjoyed this hentai. There is no plot other than sex, so no worry on getting spoiled (unless you want sex scenes unspoiled?).

Audio: Of course I watched the Japanese version with subtitles and fell in love with how these women moan! None of this "Oh baby yeah" crap, this is sexy. And since moans are so important, you don't want to trash the audio. And they didn't, everything is heard in nicely even on my laptop (which has a slight below average sound), from the screams of passions to the every day chirping birds on a peaceful blue sky. The music changes considerably, especially at when the sex scenes reaches their most rough and crazy point. The music goes from usual fare...to pounding rocking techno music when the sex scenes are their peak. It added greatly to the mood and passion of the acts committed...however vile they were ^~.

Art: Okay to start off this review...this is a very pretty looking hentai. I mean the main male character is quite the bishounen and the girls are lovely as well. Each character (except for the faceless and not so bishie male characters thrown in for orgy scenes of nastiness) have a unique look and feel. The female characters are all gorgeous (naturally) and since they all are easily distinguishable from each other in every aspect of looks and personality, I was drawn to them. The outlines are thin and blend nicely with the colors and shadings of the characters and thus the art loses some of it's...god I need a better word...'cartoon' feel. Thus artwork is fantastic even if I ahd some problems with how the faces seem almost inhuman when performing fellatio...I mean...just kind of strange, but not at all a problem since it added to the unreal and very dark appeal to the show.

Animation: This is a biggie. This is the deal maker...or breaker. I don't watch hentai anime unless the animation is up to par. If it's not appealing, if it cheapens out form the start, then I'm out. This...this anime is the shit in animation. Every scene is SO FLUID! Even when the characters are not having sex, it all very fluid. There is something for my eyes to watch! And that's a big deal! No choppy scenes here folks, this is perfectly rich and means to me that the sex scenes, though very important, will not suck up all the animation from the rest of the show. Everything is so visual clear that even when they suddenly sped some of the sex scenes in order to show the brutal, lustful passion of the act, you do not miss a detail! It owns that much.

Sex Scenes:...God this is hardcore. I mean...hard core. This hentai OPENS with a tentacle rape scene...IN THE FIRST SECOND. We have bukkake, golden showers, orgies, one on sex, deflowering (complete with...*shudders* blood), bondage, spankings, sex toys, tentacles, worms...yes...WORMS! With a title like DARK Love...I wasn't expecting happy fluffy bunnies and just plain romantic sex. No, I knew was I was getting...and I still got surprised. Now, none of the scenes made me look away, but they did make me cringe a little, but because the characters were just...reveling in the situation, I didn't care. There is an impregnation rampaging all around the series as well and even though there are nonconsensual moments and scenes in the hentai which made me feel bad for some of the females, the sex was hot and it's obvious to me that Green Bunny (producers/creators of Dark love) cared about the sex scenes...which are very very much rampant through out the show.

Story: Which leads me to the weakest point. When watching the anime I couldn't help but get thrown into it. Everything moved a bit to fast to me. Now this is isn't too much of a problem, just slightly disorienting in my opinion, but the plot in the fist episode was very....well...kind of...invisible. And this is a problem cause the hentai tries to give to convoluted of a plot when in reality all of the first episode and most of the second episode is a stream of hardcore sex scenes, one after another after another with...maybe one or two minute break.

Now it's obvious to me that there is a hotel run by Rikka (the resident creepy albino stereotype) and Miyabi (the most sexiest femme in the whole show) in which male characters are served by the female maids (which are there to be defiled by will). The point of the hotel is to make Tetsuya (given the name Master Nowaki) give in to his inner demon...which he does. The power of the hotel of Tetsuya is so great that the woman he comes across just want to serve him and be taken by him. Okay...not bad...pretty generic right? Then why did you decide to add another plot point AT THE LAST TEN MINUTES OF THE LAST EPISODE O.O;.

Thus why the story/plot was pretty weak and kind of annoying with how everything was just shoved in the end.

Overall: I liked this show...I really liked it and took it for what it was; a gorgeously made hardcore sex filled hentai. The art was great and very appealing and the animation blew my socks off. I just wished they left the plot, or lack of there off, alone.

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Having not been a big fan of the first Appleseed Movie (I may have to watch it again to see why I didn't care for it), I was pleasantly surprised by this one. I tend to watch anime and films as entertainment, and as I am easily entertained, unless some film or anime committed some grievous Alian Sin, I tend to like them a lot.

Ex Machina was a good film, not a great film, but a good one and very entertaining.

Story: The story was not particularly strong. I have seen the story and it's subplots plenty of times. I did like how everything seemed to tie into together towards the end, but it was quite simple and no brainer...just like any other action flick bent more on excitement and less than substance. We have the main plot with cyborgs and humans going a bit crazy and acting...well...zombie like. Some subplots, one romantic, the other having to do with some soul-searching on the part of Briareous (love that guy). Then we have action, explosions, more action. And in the end everyone is happy. Hurray! Nothing special.

Art: I really liked the architecture design of Olympus. The city does look like a Utopia, a city of Gods. The Greek references are in effect not only in the characters and country names but also in the architecture. Lovely design. Everything is wonderfully animated and fluid. I was not a fan of the cell-shading in the 2004 film so I am glad that it was done away with in this film. It's my personal taste but I enjoy the more 3D complexion without the cell-shading. The armored cyborg Briareos is very detailed as well as the architecture all around.

Sound: I like cyberpunk. I'm a fan of well done industrial music. I loved the (japanese) voices, they all fit quite well. I enjoyed the feminine yet tough edge to Deunan and the power behind Athena's authoritative voice. Though I like cygerpunk, I don't recall any part of the soundtrack was memorable.

Character: I was kinda annoyed with how Briareos would always be there to save Deunan, considering how powerful and strong Deunan is, but overall my enjoyment of the character grew. I loved the strength of the female characters, from the brash (yet sometimes annoyingly vulnerable) Deunan, to the sensible and playful Hitomi, to the imposing Athena, who does remind me very much of her namesake (big plus). The male characters didn't seem to be given as much love, but Briareos and Tereus had some depth, Briareos a bit more than his bioroid clone. I adored the slight love triangle between Deunan, Tereus, and Briareos, and the love between Deunan and Briareos felt real and deep when everything else...well...wasn't.

Despite the flaws, this was an action flick..and I love action flicks. I loved the characters, even when they annoyed me at times (I'm looking at you Deunan), and I enjoyed this quite a bit more than the 2004 version. Well done. I'll be seeing Vuxeville next.

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Revolutionary Girl Utena is a strange and beautiful show. It's a wonder that I have not seen it when it first came out, a wonder that I barely gave it another glance that time when I first heard of it. However maybe it was a blessing: I understand it now more so than I would when I was younger. And with so much symbolism and such complicated characters with an equally complicated mythos and purpose.

Story: The fairy tale is torn apart. The idea of the princess being the helpless damsel, the witch being a cruel, jealous being, and the prince being charming and courageous is destroyed piece by piece within Utena. Even the unusual fairytale of the Princess so impressed by a Prince that naturally she wants to become a Prince as well is dismantled. As a shoujo anime, it is the characters that drives the story. The story is all about revealing the flaws of each character and showing us why Utena is special from the other duelists, why her sense of nobility and her high goal outshines the skills of the other duelists. The story also reveals the oppressive nature a fairy tale has on a woman, on a girl, as well as the hypocrisy and cyclic nature of a fairy tale whose focus is on a prince always saving a princess. I wish I can go deeper, but that would reveal a bit too much.

Characters: In the story section I focused on how the characters in Utena drive the story and that is true. At first we are introduce to each character as archetypes: Utena, the noble warrior, wanting to save a princess and become a prince; Anthy, the damsel in distress, the princess who gives her obedience to the one who wins her. Utena, despite her courage and nobility, is naive and self righteous; she doesn't see herself as the wrong and despite her good intentions, she never truly see who Anthy is, what Anthy truly wants. Utena is not even really perfect...
Anthy...I can take all of the characters of Evangelion and not one is as complicated, as messed up, and as twisted as Anthy is. Nothing about her is what it seems. Introduce as the damsel in distress and a doormat, nothing can be farther from the truth. I love Anthy and I know not every one will. It'll take more than one showing until you scratch the surface.
Even the duelists, who show themselves as classic archetypes first are complicated and flawed. Juri and Miki, my favorite duelists, are each caught in a web of their past. Touga, the playboy, is more insecure than he would let on. And Saonji, the misongynist ass hole...is not really that much of an ass hole.
Then our prince...well. You'll see.
Overall fantastic characters, best part of the show.

Art: The art is gorgeous. The campus of Ohtori looks as if it's modeled after Versailles. The architecture is symbolic and breathtaking, just like in a fairy tale. The dueling area is otherworldly, and generally the backgrounds used are breath taking.
The character designs are very attractive. I'm not crazy for the female sailor uniform design, but the dueling outfits I really like. I love Utena's and Anthy's clothes as well.
Along with the character designs, I love how certain characters who don't stand out as our main character (with the duelists and Utena having hair with all the colors of the rainbow and Anthy and Akio being the ONLY characters with dark skin and of Indian descent) have their plan appearances affect their personalities. And ohh boy...are the men GORGEOUS! Not a flaw!
So the art of the show is top notch...why did I give it an 8? I'm big on fluid animation and they are a lot of repeated footage and cells used as well as still images. I don't mind it, with the budget Utena had, I'm still reasonably impressed.

Sound: I love the Japanese voice actors..I...ugh they fit so well. I love seiyuus over all in almost all anime. The soundtrack is really well done. My one big gripe is that I got tired of hearing "Absolute Apocalypse" over and over and over again in every episode. Even in it's different versions it was very repetitive. I mean, it's catchy...but it suffers from the MTV syndrome of being played WAY TOO OFTEN. Overall, not much to say, just beautiful.

Enjoyment & Overall: Just..go and watch it and pay attention. You can try and read all the character analysis you want, but even with that and watching/rewatching the show, you'll find something new. Wonderful :D. read more