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This review will be a long one...

Anyone who has seen the trailer or was looking forward to this film should know that this was filler, me included. However, it's still Fullmetal Alchemist (FMA) so while I wasn't looking forward to this as much as other things, I still would've seen it as soon as it was released. I wasn't aware of the runtime (2 hours) until before I saw the film. I generally don't care for films this long but I had some faith simply because it was FMA and it hasn't let me down... until now.

Story: Generally in films based on something, they want to broaden their audience by giving a little background on the characters and why they do what they do. This is perfectly acceptable. If this film was someone's first Fullmetal Alchemist experience, knowing what it's about might help guide them into the story. Unfortunately, for those who do know about FMA, there might've been too much... How many times does Ed need to pull out his pocket watch to prove he's a state alchemist? We get it. The first time he does it should let the audience know that being a state alchemist has some importance in this setting, unless they think their audience is so dumb that they need Ed to do it more than once. Beyond that the exposition for the story is pretty generic and not very interesting. There wasn't any actual hook and it's a story that's been done to death. So I understand giving background for the newer audience but they really should've considered the people that FMA has already roped in. This is boring... I was waiting quite a while for the plot to kick in and it was maybe halfway in that relevant things started to happen, though I still didn't care enough.

Let's talk about the actual story now. Or, you can just look at the themes that FMA has previously explored and watch/read that again. This is a major problem I had with this film. As a FMA fan, this is nothing new. This is nothing we haven't seen before. There are some people being oppressed by the military and they're forced to live in fear under terrible conditions. Not too different from the Ishbalans. The greedy bad guys want the Philosopher's Stone for monies and to make the world into what they feel is a better place, and it's up to our heroes to stop them. Classic filler plot... That basically sums up the story to be honest. The plot itself is pretty straightforward barring a few twists that I'm sure many didn't see coming. The biggest "facepalm moment" I had was the end of the final fight. One of the most random "because the plot required it"/deus ex machina/cliche moments I've seen in a while. More on that later... Watching how they fight and how it ends really bothered me. There were also plenty of "Oh, how convenient" moments throughout the film and unfortunately, they're pretty in your face and I was near insulted at how convenient they were. I'd like to share them with you but... you know, spoilers. Even if you're new to FMA but not new to movie cliches, you shouldn't find this to be a great piece of work. If you didn't care about the story though, I still hope it gets you to check out previous works because those are genuinely good and enjoyable.

Art: Allow me to broaden my audience for a second. Compared to Brotherhood, I personally liked the art for the original series better since they looked more straightforward for lack of a better term. There wasn't anything too strange or different about the way they looked. The faces of the characters looked "sharper" and I was okay with that. I know that both FMA and Brotherhood were made by the same studio and that for Brotherhood, they wanted to mimic the Manga's art style. I can respect that and have no problem with it as they were making faithfulness a priority in both art style and story (Seriously, lots of respect from me here). I suppose I was just used to the first FMA because it came first and I liked it so much. On the other hand, for both series the animation was fantastic. Things looked good as they happened. The characters were actually animated unlike cheap Anime shows that abuse still frames and stock footage.

For this film however, I think the art suffered a bit. Sometimes the faces of characters just looked poor. Most of the time, it was fine but you can tell when the quality goes down while you're watching. There's just this inconsistency in the art that keeps coming up. I would expect more from a movie budget. On the other hand, the animation was just okay. Considering the quick chimeras they fight at some points of the film, the fast movements looked well done and exciting. The train fight was done okay for the most part. What I definitely wasn't a fan of, were the Gurren Lagann shots during fights.

http://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/clubs/3/9348.jpg

If that wasn't a screenshot but you've seen Gurren Lagann, then you know what I'm talking about. Plenty of shows have utilized this animation style. The movement might look okay but the art suffers tremendously and I don't understand why it has to be this way. Really didn't care for this. It felt out of place when used and I didn't want to be reminded of Gurren Lagann when I'm watching FMA...

Sound: I can't comment much on the music. It's been a while since I saw this and while I was watching it, nothing in the soundtrack amazed me and I didn't have an urge to track down the opening or ending song. Just going to give them the benefit of the doubt here since I can't judge this area fairly. The voice acting is fine (Watched the Japanese version) since it's the same cast as FMA Brotherhood and I don't think anyone could find them awful after so many performances. The two filler mains have pretty famous voice actors behind them and I was surprised to later find out who they were. For me, they don't bring in a performance that wowed me but they were fine for the roles they played. Not annoying or horrendous to listen to so I'm good here.

Character: Yuck... Why were any of the FMA cast even in this film? If you took them out of it and rewrite just a tiny bit the plot could honestly still resolve the same way. I'm all for giving attention to filler characters so they aren't just throw-away one-shots we don't care about but there's no reason for this. Ed and Al are like usual the voice of reason in opposing the use of the Philosopher's Stone but really, anybody could've taken this role... Unfortunately, Ed also has to give heroic speech X while fighting the main villain. I'm reminded of all the times that Naruto and Ichigo have to spend time going through a heroic monologue in the middle of a major fight. You're better than that, FMA...

Winry - First off, I have nothing against Winry but she didn't need to be here at all other than because the writers/plot required it. If you're going to use Winry, make her do something other than fix Ed's arm during a fight. That's really all she does. If the writers didn't make Ed's arm break, she had no business being in this film. We don't need Ed's arm to break to indicate that the villain is strong... In FMA and Brotherhood, her character had things to do other than being a mechanic and that's what made her different from the usual useless female that's just in the show. Here, she's written into the film purely as a fanservice.

Roy - I'm pissed. If there's going to be any bias from me, it's here. Mustang is my favorite character in the series with Ed and Hughes. To start, he shows up early on in the film so they establish that he's there. Great, now I have something to look forward to in this boring, cliche of a film. Guess what? He doesn't do a bloody thing. He shows up at the final fight, you see him put on his gloves and I'm like "This is it!". He doesn't even participate... All that happens is that after Ed fights the villain a little, they cut to Mustang with some burned chimera on the floor who at this point aren't even a threat. They didn't even show him taking them out. It all happened offscreen. What. The. Hell. Despite my dislike of why Winry was in the film, her fixing Ed's conveniently broken arm was far more than anything Mustang did in the whole film. When Mustang showed up in Conqueror of Shamballa, that was a big highlight for many. He did plenty to help and that was great. He had a place in the film and did what soldiers with guns couldn't do, blow stuff up. And really, in a filler film where they have freedom with the characters, that's not too much to ask for.

Everyone else - Armstrong makes a cameo just to whisper something in Mustang's ear, useless. Hawkeye has one bad "comedic" gun scene, useless. That's pretty much it for the characters we know and love. Anyone new to FMA would have no idea the importance of these four characters in the original story. As much as I like these characters, if they were going to be treated like this, I would rather they not be in the film at all. It would honestly be for the good of the film since whoever decided to make these choices with the characters obviously didn't care, so why were they in it? I went into the screening not too excited but knowing that these guys were in it raised some expectations which weren't met in the slightest. I'm pretty sure I'm not a minority on this.

I didn't care about the filler characters overall but I guess I should I talk about the obligatory female guest st- I mean real main character. I'm sure many who watch it find her to be a good character and all but I just don't see it. Sure, she had some moments that one might classify as badass but I question a lot of how they handled this character. Her main goal is that she wants to save her people from the military using the Philosopher's Stone despite Ed and Al's warnings that getting involved with the Stone is a no-no. Prime examples being the bodies of the Elric brothers. This becomes a matter of temptation, a major theme in the FMA universe sprinkled all across the series. Later, she gets the Philosopher's Stone (not really a spoiler, you know the stone's going to come up) after watching the villain keep it in hand to amplify his alchemic abilities. What does she decide to do? Does she decide to not use it, toss it to Ed and learn a lesson about fighting temptation? Does she do that? No, she eats it... which when done previously by other characters in the main series causes them to vomit and stuff. There is no way she would know that eating it is any better than the villain keeping it in hand. Good thing the plot requires her to safely use it to shoot Dragonball Z attacks. Anyway, she participates in a crossfire of alchemic beams with the villain which is reminiscent of the final scene when Gohan was fighting Ce- Wait a minute, that's not how they usually fight in FMA at all. In FMA, fights are generally decided by skill and wits, not clashing alchemic beams... Then she wins thanks to [insert generic kizuna/nakama/main character power] reason. Not because of anything well thought out, just another borrowed cliche. The end of the film results in her using the Stone to save her people and other things with an overall minimal cost compared to what she accomplished. So, what lesson did we learn? Don't listen to warnings and just do whatever? Using this character they have spit on a pretty crucial theme in FMA and that bothers me.

They're pretty in your face with who the bad guys are. One of the military guys looked like the FMA character Yoki, stroking his Yoki-like facial hair. I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one thinking that he was a villain. Could they have been any more obvious...? Oh wait, yes they can. As if we didn't already know the FMA military was corrupt, they just shove it in your face. Beyond Yoki-guy, the military once again is keeping people down, literally. This is a plotline that has been done to death. Where's the effort? The motivations for the valley people to do what they do is understandable as they're living under the military's control but again, this brings nothing new to the table so I could care less. Some of the villagers die during parts of the movie, maybe one or two with names. They have a cremation and such but I felt like the plot was revolved around them to make the audience feel sad and sorry for these near nameless characters. Offscreen deaths of characters who aren't established properly or named for the most part aren't going to make me care any more than when a Jedi Council member died in Star Wars Revenge of the Sith.

Enjoyment: Not much. I was expecting something while sitting through the exposition and boring scenes and I got nothing. One of my friends fell asleep during the film too. I am severely disappointed in this film and I hope that this will be the last one they make unless the original author writes it or the people who pitch it actually care about what they're working with. Conqueror of Shamballa was nothing super fantastic but it was good enough compared to this, I guess. I can at least sit through that one again but I'll probably never watch this film again unless I was going to make a commentary/parody of it. To me, Conqueror was far better than this garbage. Whoever was in charge of this film forgot why people like FMA: the great and unique story, smart and memorable characters, and how they interact. I usually hate fanservice and pandering to the audience but this film REALLY needed some. If there was some effort put into writing a good story like we're used to in FMA, I wouldn't be asking otherwise. In this case however, having Mustang and Armstrong blow stuff up would've been more than welcome. I'm not asking for them to take down the main villain but even a little more than what we got would've been nice. FMA has such a colorful cast of characters and they're side characters in their own film.

I could easily come up with ideas for a FMA film if it had to be filler. Why couldn't we get a look at Xing? As far as I know, we have never seen the place and those characters made a big impact. Make one of the clans corrupt if you need an enemy. No different from the usual making of filler villains. The Xing characters have their share of fans so this could be a draw for people to see the film. How about since they already established things for an epilogue at the end of Brotherhood, let's see it through. It would be interesting to see how our heroes spend their days. Or make the story take place before Hughes died. I would've loved to see more Hughes. Are these the best ideas? No. Will there still be some cliches? Probably, but the point is these premises are interesting and have qualities to draw people in. I'm sure everyone has their share of ideas that would beat this no contest. Filler doesn't have to be bad, especially if you have good characters to carry it. Since this film had to be filler, they had a lot of freedom and they just didn't care, much like Naruto and Bleach fillers. I'm hoping FMA doesn't become one of the many properties that will continue to be exploited for no reason other than just because and monies. If they stopped making FMA after Brotherhood, I'd be okay with that as a fan because it had a good run. Brotherhood should be remembered as a well done story and a very faithful adaptation where the effort was clearly seen, something that doesn't come up often these days in Anime adaptations. This is a blatant blemish on an otherwise good record. Cars 2 for Pixar, if you would.

Was there anything I liked about the film? I would like to think that the film had potential if it was handled better and there are so many easy ways to improve it overall. It just unfortunately falls flat and rolls into a lump of cliches which the film could do without if a little thought was put into it. A couple of the twists I can see many people not expecting which might be fun for them but unfortunately, I could predict a lot of them. If you have a masked guy that only shows up for a movie with a self-contained cast, you're going to guess who he is. Unless, well... this.

19:38 in
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wu5xfzbY2E

There was also this one scene that I almost couldn't handle and nearly turned away. No, this wasn't because of how bad the film was but more that the gore level was too much. It was far more than you'd expect from FMA and since like many other things I've omitted, it's a spoiler so I won't go into detail. However, if after this review you still decide to watch this, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. Watch with care... My one thought on this was, couldn't they have found a different way to do this scene...? FMA isn't exactly for a young audience but this was too much. Seriously guys...

Overall: I cannot believe that this is close to surpassing Conqueror of Shamballa at a point where the dvd hasn't even come out. I am hoping that when this film gets a wide release, everyone will see how bad it is. Mustang bias aside, you can't include these great characters in a film, not do anything with them and expect fans to be silent. I don't use the word often, but these guys must be trolls. Check out this interview with the director.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/convention/2011/otakon/20

He didn't give anything close to a response about Mustang's "involvement". It seemed like an obvious thing to him that fans would be mad about everything that Mustang didn't get to do. He doesn't even TRY to explain himself. All he does is dodge the question by telling us something obvious. When asked about other FMA countries and the manga's ending, he just dodges it by saying that's the original creator's department. What?! Ask the author? No, we're asking YOU. Did you really think that those wouldn't be good ideas for a filler story? If he at least said that the creator wouldn't let them use those, fine but that's not what happened at all so guess who I'm not siding with? According to Anime News Network, the guy who wrote the screenplay has only previously worked on Doraemon. Come on... is that the guy who you'd count on to write an FMA film following the quality of Brotherhood? Let me just say I have nothing against the guy but it does seem to be a questionable choice when the only other Anime he's worked on was Doraemon. At least we learn from the link that FMA's creator Hiromu Arakawa had nothing to do with the story. I would feel even worse if she did and lose a lot of respect for her. Unfortunately, I honestly cannot recommend this film to anyone, not even FMA fans. It was a big letdown but I'm sure dvd sales and box office will be as good as ever so the movie makers won't care. But if you haven't seen/read anything FMA before, check out anything else besides this movie. FMA is something that can easily stand the test of time and is much better than a lot of things being put out these days.

As a fan of FMA I wanted to give my honest thoughts about the film because I walked out of it disappointed and mad. Again, one of the people I saw this with fell asleep... The plot holes, repetitiveness/reuse of plotlines, boring and cliche story, blatant ignoring of actual FMA characters who were in the film anyway with no explanation, unnecessarily random and over the top gore scene, and lack of FMA-ness killed it for me. It just didn't bring anything new to the table because cliche stories can be done well or presented in a new way but... not here.

Thanks for reading my review. I know this was a long one. I would appreciate feedback if you have any. read more

Story: In terms of the material chosen for the episodes. I thought they picked pretty good chapters to animate. Ones that fans would appreciate watching. No episodes entirely of filler (For the most part) not based on the Manga like the actual series. Just going to give some quick (Except 3 and 6) thoughts on each episode.

Episode 1: This is where Rito turns into a girl, chapter 100. A good place to start. I didn't have a problem with the episode, it was a pretty good adaptation of the chapters.

Episode 2: Mikan feels a bit neglected because Rito spends a lot of time with Lala. I liked the way this episode was handled and thought it was a good pick. Just one of those awwwww kind of episodes. Well, if you ignore the ecchi that is.

Episode 3: This was the downfall of this Ova. This is the Revenge of the Fallen, the Endless Eight. I mean, the filler from the last series was bad but not this bad. So everyone gets to go to Saki's beach house and Rito swaps places with Haruna's dog, Maron. Most of the episode is just ecchi stills. Does Rito change back? What's Maron been doing in Rito's body? Who is Eric Cartman's father? None of these questions are addressed. I know To-Love-Ru is part of the ecchi genre but this is just bad. This episode was a big waste of time and a terrible pick for part of what might be the last adaptation of To-Love-Ru. I should also point out that this was supposed to be the last Ova episode until 3 more were announced so originally this was the final episode. Yuck...

Episode 4: Everyone gets stuck in an Rpg game. A great choice because I thought it was pretty well done and it's a memorable story from the Manga. For whatever reason, I had to laugh at Rito's first use of his watering can. This bit was nothing amazing humor-wise but it was just funny to me at the time. Good episode.

Episode 5: It basically gives you an introduction of Lala's sisters. I didn't like it as much as 2 or 4 but I'm sure many fans wanted to see an episode based on Momo and Nana and they got it.

Episode 6: Okay, if you read my review of the previous series, I said that instead of stretching out one story using filler to fill 20 minutes or just making original filler episodes not based on the Manga, the studio should've went with a Full Metal Panic Fumoffu approach where they do multiple stories/chapters in one episode since some of To-Love-Ru's stories are one chapter long. Here it is, we got 3 different chapters in one episode. None of it felt rushed to me and I thought this format definitely worked. Why didn't they do this for the last series? It certainly would've been much better because no one likes bad filler especially for a series of mostly filler anyway. I believe the studio had more than enough material at the time to not resort to original filler. One-chapter stories use this format and should a story need 20+ minutes, do that. Anyway, I'm going to say it's a good episode. I remember these chapters and they were well adapted.

Art: They went for a lot more ecchi. They revealed a lot more which kind of reminds me of the Love Hina Again episodes and how different they were from the original series in terms of ecchi-ness. I honestly don't care for ecchi but because it's To-Love-Ru, it's got to be there. Beyond that I thought the episodes looked great compared to the last series. Sometimes it would look a bit... not good but I thought they went a level higher on the animation for some of these episodes.

Sound: I liked the opening song, didn't care much for the ending. I believe the background tracks were the same for the last series but don't quote me on that. I didn't keep track of the background music for this series since I didn't like too many of the songs. No problem with the voice actors as usual. Thought they did a great job and I liked Momo and Nana's voices.

Character: Just good enough. Episode 2 brought in a side of Mikan we didn't really see before. It wasn't out of nowhere and I can see why she would feel this way. Go character development. Last part of episode 6 was another one of those aww kind of moments brought on by Lala and it was really the only part of these 6 episodes that focused on her. If they needed a chapter that focused on Lala, this was a good one. Also Celine makes an appearance which was nice to see. Lala's sisters aren't my favorite characters but I certainly don't dislike them and understand why they do what they do so no complaints on their arrival. There weren't many changes to the other characters so I'll leave it at that.

Enjoyment: One point higher than the first series sounds good. Other than 3, I liked the episodes well enough. When compared to the first series, this one was far better in quality. I really liked seeing episode 6 use multiple chapters and if there is a second actual season, I'd like to see more episodes like this and less bad filler. Can't use lack of material as an excuse this time.

Overall: If this was generally speaking, 8 is very generous. This definitely does not rival some of the other series that I rated at 8. I gave it an 8 for what it is. To-Love-Ru is nothing amazing as it is a mostly ecchi Anime and that's not really my thing despite how many I've watched but if they focused on the character interactions more and the relationship-driven chapters I think it would work out as a decent ecchi-comedy barring the Manga ending. That was terrible but most could see it coming. Would I recommend this series? Just to people who go for the ecchi stuff. I wouldn't recommend this to people who like comedy as it isn't that funny. It's also not a general series I'd tell others to watch either sadly but I liked the Manga well enough. If there was an actual second season, I'd watch it.

Thank you for reading my review. Feedback would be greatly appreciated. Hope this helped. read more

So after taking another watch of my favorite series of all time, I decided to re-do my review because the series is fresh in my mind this time and my last review was not that great due to it being my first review.

Story: The main character is a blind boy who hangs out with mostly girls and along the way we find out some of the girls have problems that eventually get solved. It sounds like a typical harem but with H2O, it's not as dry and focused on all the girls going for the main protagonist. It just so happens that there's a big gap in the guy to girl ratio. There are many cliffhangers and plot twists which kept me always guessing and interested. Questions arose right from the start within the first few minutes and I got hooked from there. The story is incredibly well-paced (for the most part) and is rarely boring. Many harem Anime that run for 12 episodes are usually paced in a sloppy way and rushed during the final 2-3 episodes. Episode 4 is supposedly one of those obligatory beach/hot spring episodes where they just decide not to move the plot along. H2O deviated from that a little by adding a cliffhanger right in the final few minutes of the episode so you at least get something and don't feel robbed by sitting through all 20 minutes. Episode 8 was just for fun, nearly plotless but made up for it by being funny. They again decided to toss in something important at the end so like episode 4 you get something out of it. While these two episodes aren't important as a whole, they really surprised me by not leaving these episodes as is and ended them in ways that didn't make the episodes entirely pointless. There's a lot more to the show that I can't mention without spoiling so I'll leave it at that. I didn't play the game so I don't know how faithful an adaptation this is but I enjoyed the story greatly so I'd give it a 10.

Art: In my last review, this was the only part that I gave a loss of points to. Rewatching it, I can be more fair. This time, since I already knew what happened, I could pay more attention to other things. I definitely like the backgrounds and scenery. Whenever they're at a beach setting, everything just looks awesome from the clouds in the sky to the water. Episodes 1 and 12 are some of the better animated episodes in terms of the characters. The way their hair blows in the wind in episode 1 looked great and for the most part the faces of the characters were done very well. An example of when the art suffers might be far away shots of a character's face. It's hard to describe but at times, one side of a character's face is not fully proportional to the other or it just doesn't look very well done. There are also times where you can see the eyes and mouth of a character in a far away shot and they're not very detailed at all. The mouth/eyes look like dots but once they move on to a scene where you see just a character's face, everything looks good again. The eyecatches were amusing to see and change every episode. Overall I'd give the art an 8 though for the scenery I'd really like to give a 9.

Sound: The ost is amazing. The background music really gets the job done when a scene calls for it. Many memorable tracks play throughout the show and they work really well. I mainly got into the show because I liked the opening song. The ending song also grew on me as I watched the episodes. In episode 8 which I mentioned as a "just for fun" episode, they had a song that plays in the middle of the episode which was of course just out of nowhere but sounded pretty good. There are also two insert songs played in the final episode. One of them is appropriately called "Footprints in the Sand" sung by Monet which they used to end the show. Both songs are worth a good listen and "Footprints in the Sand" was taken from the visual novel which was a cool thing to do for fans of the game. I don't really have a problem with the cast. I was surprised to hear Koshimizu Ami voice a male character but that shows her talent because I really couldn't tell it was her at all based on her other roles. Everyone else sounded fine but there were instances where Yui and Hamaji sounded pretty annoying. I would definitely give sound a 10.

Character: There really isn't much to hate about these characters. It's hard to dislike Hayami and you really feel for her because of how she's treated despite the stupidness of those who treat her this way... Hirose is an all around good guy like most male mains from harem shows. He'd try to solve problems while maintaining peace between all the characters. I know Hinata may annoy some people with the choices she makes but overall she's not a bad character. I really dislike Yui for how annoying she is but at least she develops in the end to a slightly respectable character. So onto the villains. H2O did a brilliant job here because they're people you want to hate. I mean what they do doesn't really make sense and the logic behind it is pretty stupid but these guys serve their purpose by being real jerks, especially Hinata's grandfather which you can't help but hate. You want to hop into the screen and punch him in the gut. These people are messed up. I liked the mains though so I'll give characters a 9.

Enjoyment: I can't not give a 10 here. Like I said, I watched the series because I liked the opening and I know that's pretty bad criteria for starting a series but I was so surprised right from the start of the show that I kept watching. At the time, I hadn't seen anything like H2O and the final scene was something I won't forget. I still watch it sometimes to brighten up my day. Even when I re-watched the whole series prior to this re-review, I didn't feel bored and while I knew what would happen, it didn't take away from my enjoyment.

Overall: I've seen plenty of visual novel adaptations and they have a reputation of being done poorly. I base that not from playing the games and being disappointed at unfaithful adaptations but from just watching the Anime. Most of them just don't work. This one is an exception to me because it was simply awesome. To be fair, I'm not going to ignore the plot holes in the show, though I'm sad that they exist. Why can't Hayami just leave this town if she can survive in a forest? So, was Hirose blind or what? Generally I tend to point these out and hate on them because they kill movies for me. I can look past them in this series though. Maybe it's because I didn't catch everything the first time or the dramatic moments and plot twists just overshadow these flaws. This show is terribly underrated. I can understand that maybe not everyone enjoyed it as much as I did but it definitely doesn't deserve being ranked in the 900s... I guess it had something to do with its competition when it first aired. I know the majority tossed this show to the side when they could watch Clan(bad) and True Tears. For new viewers, I promise it gets better after episode 5. It just seems typical and cliche around the beginning but things have to build up. If you could sit through Fuuko, this is no problem.

Thank you for reading my review. Feedback would be greatly appreciated. Hope this helped. read more

Time to review one of my favorite Anime geared towards kids. Every episode I've seen has been from the dub version since there aren't any known subs and I thought the dub was well done.

Just so you know, in certain areas, only aired 26 episodes despite that all 52 episodes were eventually dubbed. From episodes 1-39, they cut 13 so some of you might have missed some episodes. This was confusing when I revisited the series but most of the episodes they cut were "filler" episodes which isn't so bad. I skipped a lot of these episodes to get to the plot and the ending which is why I haven't finished the series at the time I am writing this though I'll definitely get to finishing it.

Story: To me, it seems like a parody of Pokemon and to some extent mecha Anime. The story's basically Pokemon with robots. Many of the episodes consist of the mains having their Medabots fighting other random Medabots over a misunderstanding or some dispute. Pretty basic for a Pokemon-like series. There are a few good plots here and there that were very entertaining as the show moved past the "get to know our characters" stage. The best episodes (At least to me) are when the Rubberrobo Gang gets serious and Rokusho appearances. However even the "filler" type episodes have merit in that the character interactions provide lots of laughs and while not much happens, they're still worth watching. This is a kids dub so older viewers will notice corny jokes and dialogue but it's to be expected. I will admit that the dub sometimes doesn't make everything 100% clear to the viewer and they made a mistake with how Metabee got his name later but whatever. There's another part where one character obtains *Spoiler* when the character shouldn't be able to. They never go back to explain why. The character just has it for the sake of plot. After watching the ending, I have so many unanswered questions that can only be answered through playing the Game Boy games this show is based on. One thing that bothers me about adaptations is that if something's weird or doesn't make sense people will say "You didn't read the book/comic." or "You didn't play the game." I shouldn't need to do either of those things to understand a show. Why can't the show tell me? I guess Medabots is still good enough that the flaws won't kill the score but one character's past is so interesting that he should have his own spin-off so they can explain everything instead of me having to track down ancient games.

Art: This is where I have a serious problem with this show. I thought it was really old when I first saw it but on this site, it says Medabots aired in 1999. For its time, the animation would be considered "bad". There are a few episodes that looked pretty good but some scenes looked pretty horrible. The art is incredibly inconsistent and you'll notice it between episodes. There is also a major abuse of reused scenes/stock footage. It's really annoying and it's one of the biggest things that bother me about the animation of Anime besides vertical black lines under a character's eyes. I'm not completely sure if this is making fun of mecha Anime which more often than not likes to abuse stock footage but it just gets really annoying to see the same thing over the course of around 40 episodes parody or not. I suppose it's a staple of long running kids Anime though...

Sound: I checked out an episode in Japanese and the dub used a different soundtrack so I'll use the dub's music for this review, although there isn't much to say. The music isn't really bad or annoying, but I can't say I really like any of the tracks either. A couple of them stand out like Rokusho's theme and this Eye of the Tiger thing. Those stand out a bit for me. The American theme song is actually okay. Lyrics are small in amount and not exactly the best but it gets you pumped. I do have to make a note about the Japanese opening which is awesome. It's just such a badass song sung by Metabee's voice actor: Takeuchi Junko who I'm sure most of you would recognize as Naruto. It's really worth a listen as it's a kind of song that gets your blood pumping and the opening sequence fits the song pretty well.

The dub voice actors are pretty good. No one is incredibly annoying and most of the voices fit well. The characters and voice actors section on this site is severely lacking for this show which is unfortunate. I'd really like to know who played Rokusho, Seaslug and the Phantom Renegade because their voices really stuck out and being good actors, they were very entertaining to listen to.

One thing I'd like to tack onto the abuse of stock footage and reused scenes thing is that the dub seems to reuse certain soundbytes. I mainly notice this when Metabee uses a *Spoiler* attack or wins a fight with a "Dude, I rock." line. It wouldn't be so bad if they re-recorded the voice actor saying the quotes but at times, it sounds really unnatural especially to someone who has seen many episodes. This pretty much only happens with Metabee since he has the most catchphrases. Even in normal conversation you'll hear a familiar "What!?" or "Oh, now I'm really angry!" because it probably is the same one you heard some episodes ago. This is the first time I've heard of "stock dialogue".

Character: I liked a lot of the characters. I'm sure most people would like Metabee, Rokusho, Henry and his personas. They're all pretty badass and whenever they show up you just know something cool's going to happen. Who could forget Mr. Referee and his out of nowhere appearances? Of course there are annoying characters too but at times they do contribute to the comedy of the show so it's not that bad. There isn't that much character development unfortunately besides the usual "got better at Robattling" because they needed to. An 8 here because they make "filler" enjoyable which is quite a task.

Enjoyment: I didn't really enjoy the final 13 episodes of the series that much because most of the tournament fights only last 3 minutes which means they spent a little less than 20 minutes doing other things. If you get that far, you'll see what I mean. The fights aren't that amazing despite what the plot is at that time and these last episodes seemed sloppily written. This is supposed to close the show too so I was pretty disappointed. There are also inconsistencies like Metabee's messed up in some way but can fight fine a few minutes later. I can't forget to mention the large bunch of reused scenes. Finally, there is a severe lack of Rokusho after 39 which is a disappointment. You really want him to participate and they totally could've used him at the time too. Despite that, this has to be one of the best dubs I've seen among kids Anime. The show makes me laugh without trying too hard and while they aren't skyscrapers tall, the Medabots are very cool so this deserves a 9.

Overall: I certainly think it deserves a spot higher than the 2400s but it did beat out most of the Pokemon stuff which is nice to see. There isn't really a type of Anime viewer I would recommend this to. I played a disc of this when I was hanging out with my friends. They couldn't stop watching and they laughed throughout the episodes. This is a very fun series to watch and the dub deserves lots of credit. They made very little cuts for a kids dub, didn't eradicate all traces of Japanese words and the plot seems somewhat consistent with the original. Also most of the names of the characters are kept from the Japanese version along with the pronunciations which is very cool. Best part might be calling the series "Medabots" instead of sticking with "Medarots". They're robots that make use of "medals" which makes them "medal robots" and both names make sense but seriously "Medabots" sounds so much better. Even though the averages don't add up to it, I'm calling it an 8 but I'd like to give it a 9.

Thank you for reading my review. Feedback would be greatly appreciated. Hope this helped. read more

I'm not quite sure what I expected from this series when I decided to watch it. I knew it wouldn't be amazing but I was curious.

Story: There is a plot. It's not very developed and rarely talked about but it's there. The main character named Hiro dies in the first episode by pushing Hime out of danger and getting crushed by pipes. He is then resurrected via Hime granting him half-immortality. He has to constantly refuel his life by taking in this flame that Hime makes. So he basically works for her as a servant since without the flame he'll die in a certain amount of time. Hime is the daughter of the king of monsters and the king has x amount of children who are all fighting for the throne except Hime because she doesn't care. The problem is that the number of siblings is never revealed and you only see maybe 3 of them besides Hime. The creator could've at least told us how many there were. The manga is far from finished so there could be more seasons. Unfortunately, it doesn't really go anywhere. Each episode basically revolves around a hired assassin trying to take Hime's life, then she defeats them somehow. Only a few episodes seem plot-related involving the other siblings showing up or some other recurring villain.

Art: I'd like to give it a higher score because at times it looks really well-done. However, if you pay more attention, the animation isn't that great. They have some way of cheating to make it look decent. Can't describe it but you'd notice if you checked this show out. Also, there's fighting but you don't see much motion. Like you'll see a character swing a sword but the next frame shows the sword already hitting the opponent. That's kind of a sloppy way to do fight scenes.

Sound: I really like the songs for the opening and ending of the show. I'm not a fan of Ali Project but I thought the ending song they did here was pretty good. As for the background track, it's nothing really special. I can't remember any songs that stood out or sounded really good. The voices weren't terrible to listen to. Reiri's voice took some getting used to. At first I didn't think the voice fit her character. It was a good voice but it took me a few episodes to like it alongside her character. Kawasumi Ayako does a fine job with the poker face-type character of Hime. She voiced Saber after all so it works.

Character: Sigh...

Hiro - One of, if not the worst main characters I have seen from an anime that I watched more than a few episodes of. He's supposed to be one of these carbon copy male characters who have good qualities and is supposed to be an all around nice guy roped into a dumb situation. Okay, that's fine since we've all gotten used to it but I'm tired of him being useless in this series. He doesn't do anything comedic and for a show with fighting, he isn't much of a help there either. He'll either pick up a random household object and swing it around or take hits for Hime. I'm tired of talking about him, moving on...

Hime - She's kind of an interesting character, probably the best one in this show. She acts indifferent towards everything but she's also sympathetic and kind though you could never tell from her face. What I don't like is her confidence while fighting. Every time she fights, she acts like she has everything under control but it's annoying because she doesn't seem any more powerful than Hiro. Despite being the daughter of the king of monsters she displays no powers other than being able to give others half-immortality. She does seem to be pretty good with a sword I guess. You usually see her run around with some random weapon like a mace, a chainsaw, a baseball bat. It's a wonder how she's lived through this war for the throne but the plot requires her to survive so there you go.

Riza - I really didn't care much for this character. She was there for fanservice and kind of protecting Hiro and Hime. She doesn't even seem all that good at fighting. Overall she was boring to watch unless she was interacting with Reiri.

Reiri - Um... I liked her voice? I wish she would've done more in the series other than run away. She rarely fights despite being a powerful character (According to the manga anyway) and when she uses wooden stakes as kunai, the animators used that lame technique where you see her throw it and the next frame shows the enemy with the stake already in him. Yeah, the show could've used her more. I liked her more than Riza.

The rest - Hiro has a big-breasted sister that also works for Hime who is pretty stupid and clueless about everything. Hime likes the tea and food she makes though... Then there's Flandre the android who belongs to Hime. All she does is say "Huga" and use super strength to fight. The "Huga" wasn't that irritating until more androids showed up and they all said it. Forget the other characters, I don't really care. Although I will mention the hospital director for being super annoying. Worst character in the show and I hate when he appears. He has this obnoxious voice and he's so creepy. Ugh... The opponent in episode 8 I really wish I could erase from my mind as well.

Enjoyment - To be honest, I didn't watch all the episodes in order. After sitting through maybe 8 of them I looked up summaries and watched the interesting ones first or whichever ones seemed plot-related. Then I went back to check out the ones I didn't care as much about. Episode 7 was terrible and 8 was beyond creepy. Really disliked seeing those.

The anime is very different from the manga. A lot of blood is cut out and the stories were altered for content. I can understand why on some of the things. Like Hiro's foot getting cut clean off, Reiri's leg torn off and something I don't want to talk about since it's a spoiler in the manga.

This show definitely had potential to be a harem-ish comedy. To be honest, I would've liked it if they took some notes from... Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo. That's right, Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo. In that manga, they're always throwing each other in front of attacks then blood gushes out of Jelly Jiggler of all things. Ridiculous but instead of the stupid deaths Hiro goes through, I'd rather have someone pitch Hiro in front of attacks in that style several times, then follow up with him falling on the ground with spiral eyes. He's immortal so they could've done so much stupid stuff with him that might've gotten laughs out of the viewers.

Final thoughts, I didn't hate Princess Resurrection. It was pretty tolerable. With anime that are new to me that turn out underwhelming, I can safely say that I have seen worse. Is this show for you? Well, the ending isn't great. They slapped a terrible non-canon scene at the end which was a pain to watch because it was just stupid. You'll surely be disappointed at the ending. The characters are a hit or miss. Some people find them bland and boring, some find them acceptable and okay. Anyway, if you get the premise of the "plot" go look up episode summaries and watch the cool ones. That's what I recommend. Watch the rest if you're bored.

Thank you for reading my review. Feedback would be greatly appreciated. Hope this helped. read more

"Destroying the undestroyable... You truly deserve to be called "Slayers"."-Xellos

Story: Now, I felt this was levels above Revolution. 7 might be a bit too generous but I really enjoyed all of it except for the fish people episode. For the most part I have the same complaints as usual with a Slayers series but episodes 10-13 showed that they could do a semi-good job with Slayers if they felt like it in terms of giving a viewer some satisfaction because overall Slayers isn't exactly the best show around. What they did with Zelgadis in episode 10 was a great watch for me. It was written very well and I could really feel for him. It was a great episode and really made me excited from that point on. Anyway...

We have the basic "dead end" episodes where they're looking for something but end up doing something stupid. The plot picks up episode 5-6 so it's not that bad in terms of the number of "filler" episodes. Now for the criticism, kind of spoilers ahead I guess. It seems that Revolution and Evolution-R are basically a rehashed version of the original Slayers but they tossed in the jars. A lot of things didn't make sense and they tried to tie it all together at the end which turned out sloppy and rushed. It would've been better to cut the filler but then that wouldn't be Slayers. The pacing would've been better if this series took up some of Revolution's episodes because like I said, it's mainly the end of these 13 episodes where you really care about what's happening so if they stretched out some of the plot points or important character events, you wouldn't get that rushed feeling in the final episodes.

Art: For whatever reason, 10. It's not top quality animation but better than the older series of Slayers of course. It was consistent and bright. I also have to give some credit for the eyecatches of episode 13. The first one showed all of the protagonists from every season of Slayers. The second had all of the antagonists from every season. I thought that was a cool little thing to throw in for fans who have watched all the Slayers episodes.

Sound: I'm a bit conflicted as to whether or not I liked the opening and ending of Evolution-R. They're pretty okay songs though. I didn't give them a very good listening but I didn't hate them.

Probably one of the best things about this season was during the final episode. They played the opening of Slayers Next during a fight scene. No Slayers/Megumi Hayashibara fan or most people for that matter can say they did not like Give a Reason. Nostalgia ran through my head.

There was also a new song played at the end kind of like what they did with Try except it's not in English and Megumi Hayashibara sings it. A nice song to close the series with. Too bad it wasn't in the opening/ending single... Where can I get this?

Voice acting, obviously no problems here. Ost, nothing special.

Character:

Ozel - I didn't really mind this character. During Revolution, I didn't really care about her. I was too focused on hating other minor characters. Some of her bits are amusing in Evolution-R and it's a shame about what happens to her in the end. Wouldn't have minded her sticking around since unlike a lot of Slayers characters, her development was pretty well done. To see that play out more would've been nice.

Nama - Name sound familiar to those who watched Slayers movies? At first glance, she's a pretty unique character, different from what I'm used to seeing in Slayers anyway. She goes away pretty early meaning -1 minor character to annoy me. While I said she was unique I'm sure if she stayed she'd get to me. I'll never know though... Perhaps she would've made the series better.

Zuuma - Well, here's a bit of a problem. They don't really explain properly why he's after Lina. I'm sure many hardcore Slayers fans figured it out but I wish they would've straight out explained it. If you didn't watch the original Slayers you may guess right away why he's got a problem but you may not. Then you'd just consider him a maniac but he had a somewhat good reason I guess as far as a villain's reasoning goes anyway. My thoughts on him, there were way better mid-series villains in Slayers. Hated how this fool kept running away. Although I guess that happens a lot with Slayers villains, what Zuuma added to the series seemed unnecessary.

Enjoyment: The end battle seemed rushed and predictable but everyone took part in it and it was quite an explosive ending. Glad I watched it. So highlight episodes this time around are 10-13 as mentioned before. Got to take a look at Zelgadis's past which I definitely liked. Playing Give a Reason was awesome. Not bringing Duclis back (Even in the ending song/cameo part of the series) was a big plus. 8 should be a fair score. Wasn't perfect but it had its moments.

Overall: Now this and Revolution together didn't have as much of an impact on me like the other seasons. I felt that people new to Slayers starting with Revolution or this half-season would not catch all the charm and quirks of the characters we saw from 10 years ago. I mean, c'mon, Xellos didn't say "It's a secret." nearly enough in Revolution and Evolution-R... I'm not saying it's a horrible show. Evolution-R was pretty fun to watch despite the flaws. As a followup to Revolution which I thought was a wreck, how could I be disappointed? I'm definitely hoping they do more seasons that surpass this one. Let's just hope it doesn't take another 10 years, they have material to pull from so that's not an issue.

Thank you for reading my review. Feedback would be greatly appreciated. Hope this helped. read more

Now THAT is what I'm talking about. I feel the need to give some feedback on the major improvement of this series compared to the first season.

Story: A compelling beginning compared to the first season. The beginning of this season focuses on 3-4 side characters of Clannad. Each getting a couple episodes to themselves. The mini arcs were short, longest being 4 episodes and they were pretty well done. I'm glad that they didn't repeat the Fuuko fiasco. I'll break down the arcs like I did last time. I'm not including the Girl from Another World and the Junkion though. That dragged out subplot doesn't conclude until the very end. It's also a spoiler, kinda.

Sunohara - Probably the poorest side character arc in my opinion. They gave Sunohara some screen time focusing on him and Mei, his sister. Unfortunately, I felt like I got stupider watching this part of the series. He was written so poorly. I know he's not the smartest guy in the show but c'mon... I have to summarize to show you how bad it is, trust me it really doesn't deserve to have spoiler tags but I'll do it anyway.

When did spoiler tags no longer work? *Spoiler alert*

[spoiler]In these episodes, Tomoya and Nagisa hook Sunohara up with Sanae to give Mei the impression that he's doing fine for himself because she's worried about him. Showing her that he's dating would show that he's not a complete loser. Then sometime later Mei thinks that her brother has changed over time and became an unkind person when he does nothing while some little kids were getting bullied.

Later, to see his reaction, Tomoya pretends to have ditched Nagisa and says he's going out with Mei. Sunohara instantly believes him. You have got to be kidding me. What's even lamer is when Tomoya asks why Sunohara did nothing when he saw them together and he responded "I thought she'd be okay if it was you." Um... ew. Dude, she's like 12. Instead of going "No problem, good luck to you two." you should go to the cops...[/spoiler]

I have much hate for the above episodes (Not as much as Fuuko I suppose). However, some scenes in those episodes were okay.

Misae - When I saw the episode preview for this I thought "Ew, nobody cares about you. Why do you get episodes?" Then I watched them and was amazed at how great her two episodes were. It was so surprising how they took a character that did almost nothing in the series and wrote a back story for her that turned out to be amazing. The episodes are basically a flashback of her past and it was quite a shock. I really enjoyed what they did with this character and have no complaints. Sorry Yukine... but this was the highlight of the series so far.

Yukine - This was the character of the last season I wanted to see more of. It was definitely an interesting couple of episodes. We see Tomoya fighting gang members which I honestly can't believe they didn't show more of considering his past (Too bad he was fighting someone he couldn't beat though). We go into her involvement with that gang member that came out from under the table in season 1 as well. The ending was somewhat satisfying and sad but predictable.

The rest up to 16 - So... We find out about Yusuke's past in a flashback episode. Tomoya decides to go independent after finishing school and works with Yusuke. A few more important things happen here that are spoilers so I'll leave them out. At this point, I have a feeling that the series should've ended at 13. I didn't go through the visual novel but as far as Anime go 13 would have been a perfect ending. All the characters from Season 1 came back for a small cameo, a life decision has been made, that sounds pretty good to me but apparently there's more. It was mostly Tomoya dealing with work so this part was pretty boring.

17 to 20 - Beautiful. Now this little section here ties up so many loose ends with proper pacing and outstandingly exceeded my expectations of the series. I think if you just started with these episodes to the end, you'd be satisfied. Clearly the best part of the series. Unfortunately, I felt like I should've stopped at 20 had I known how the series would end...

The rest - Well, we get what Kyoto Animation's visual novel Anime usually offers us. Problem is I highly disliked the final episode. The conclusion was predictable. What Girl from the Illusionary World and the robot turned out to be seemed silly and just splashed in. It felt so thrown together at the last minute and most of the scenes just had music playing in the background so they hardly had to write anything. The end part of the final episode really makes me angry for reasons you should ignore the spoiler tag and just read.

*Spoiler alert* (I guess...)

[spoiler]So the last 7 minutes of the episode was just Fuuko walking with her sister while Fuuko babbles and says stupid crap. This was the ending to what episode 17 and on built up? I cannot believe anyone would believe that this was an acceptable end to the series. More reasons for me to dislike Fuuko. Not to mention we don't get to see the minor characters meet with Tomoya again. We just get a montage showing where each of them are. So many unanswered questions. Another bad part is no Tomoya's father. What's he been doing? Certainly he deserves a cameo. Ugh...[/spoiler]

So... seriously disappointing. You'd be better off writing your own ending and constantly convincing to yourself that was what happened. It'd certainly be better than what actually happened.

We also have two followup episodes, one going back to the past and one that seems to be a recap episode. The episode about the past was pretty enjoyable. Not that I care about her character but Kyou got some more screen time which was great because she was one of the neglected characters in the series.

Art: I felt that the animation team has made great improvements from Season 1. Everything looks a lot better. Good job guys!

Sound: A MUCH better opening song. It actually sounds like a song. I only liked the end of the tv size with the piano in the background though. That is some great music. The ending was pretty cheerful, I don't care much for it but it's the somewhat upbeat song I was wanting for the season 1. For many people though, the more emotional end scenes of the episodes were ruined by having this song played after. Bgm was nothing great.

Character: What can I say about the characters?

Sunohara - Idiot.

Mei - She's fine by me. I like how she cares for her brother despite how stupid he is.

Misae - At first, I didn't really care for this character because she was just there. She had no impact on the series at all. Even now, she's not an important character but her episodes are so well-written that you can't help but take her off the ignore list.

Yukine - You're in my top 3 for this series. I can't really say why I like her but she just stands out to me compared to the other characters. I like that the characters can go to her for advice. Her involvement with the gang and caring attitude is nice to see.

Girl from the Illusionary World and robot - Bleh. Nobody cares about you guys. For 50 episodes we've been wondering what the point of you two was. Sadly, it was confusing for some and a letdown as we had to watch you two for so long without a clue as to your involvement in the series. They just gave it a supernatural feel which didn't come into play until the final episode.

Enjoyment - Before they went back to Tomoya and Nagisa, the series was great. I was not bored with it at all. The episodes between Yukine and 16 were a bit dry for me. I did not really hate them but considering the opening still shows all those characters, you'd think they would still be around. Akio and Sanae are still fun to watch as always. Like I said 17 to 20 was pure gold. They renewed my faith in this series and made me eagerly anticipate new episodes. If you're watching this series and get tired of watching junk, head over to 17. Trust me, you'll figure out what has happened and you will not have missed much.

Overall - It's pretty enjoyable. I believe After Story has far surpassed season 1. A good amount of the episodes are worth watching and some are like a manila envelope attached to a beige wall. Art's good. Sound's okay. Some characters really grow on you. I enjoyed it to a great extent. Give it a try. If anything, skip Clannad and start here. Believe me, you won't be missing much...

Thank you for reading my review. Feedback would be greatly appreciated. Hope this helped. read more

I had high expectations for this series, someone told me to watch it and I eventually got to it.

Story: I'll break it down into the different arcs in order.

Fuuko - I hated this. I wanted to drop the series because it dragged on way too long. 9 episodes? C'mon, that's almost half the series if you don't count the supplementary episode(s). Fuuko was cute and all but the same thing happened every episode, it got so bad... Had I known this from the beginning I'd have skipped the middle of this arc and skipped to the conclusion. A problem I and many others had with this arc was that other characters were rushed or weren't developed enough due to the length of this awful section of the series.

Kotomi - This is where the series got a lot better, exactly what I was expecting. This part of the series had many memorable moments and was written pretty well. Each episode had a cliffhanger making me want more. I was relieved to see this follow the Fuuko arc and thought the conclusion was fine.

Tomoyo - She didn't really get anything. In terms of her character, you kind of wanted more of her and she was pretty interesting but nope. For what she got, it wasn't bad. There was a nice cliffhanger within her two or so episodes. The conclusion was a bit lacking but things seemed to have worked out for her.

Nagisa - This was done well too. I had no complaints, I could watch through each episode with no problems and each episode was enjoyable. The drama really picks up here and it was a very satisfying arc.

Art: It didn't get a 10 because it didn't seem like Kyoto Animation worked as hard on this series as they did with the others. It still looked pretty nice compared to other shows so it gets a 9.

Sound: Sigh... the opening was really really bad. The ending here wasn't a bad song it's just not something I'd add to a song list. I just did not care for them. Considering this series is more of a comedy (And I use the term very lightly) than a drama, I felt one upbeat song would've been more proper. None of the bgm was very good, none of it stood out. As for voice acting, no problems with the actors. Didn't really hate any of them and the voices fit well. Although Fuuko got annoying quick.

Character: A few characters made a good impression on me. Most of the rest were probably not explored enough so I didn't really have much to say about them.

I liked the way Tomoya pulled pranks on Fuuko, it made her arc less stupid. More than that though he seemed to develop well as the story progressed. He started to mature a bit and interacting with the others made him change for the better. Still lacking a bit as the lead character but there is a second season...

Kotomi wasn't a bad character. It's just that when Kotomi's arc was over, she was just there. It's true that I wouldn't know what to do with her character either but she played no part in the rest of the series. She was given an offer to study abroad and I thought she should've left right there since she took the offer later anyway.

Tomoyo just did not get that much. What I mean is that her episodes were good but I just felt something was lacking. It struck me as odd when her character makes a shift of personality just out of nowhere. When she was introduced in the Fuuko arc she was reused for the same thing over and over giving birth to a commonly used gif. Her general character at the beginning was not too talkative to others. Then again, it's Sunohara who approaches her most of the time. Then later, she acts more social and friendly towards Tomoya out of the blue. I liked her change but it was so out of place that I have mixed feelings. She is a character I have respect for and I'm glad she got that Ova.

I didn't care for Kyou and Ryou because of how they were handled in the series. There wasn't really anything for me to pick up from these characters. They should've gotten their own arc but they were just splashed into certain episodes so they didn't get much development, I blame Fuuko.

I definitely liked Nagisa's parents. They were a joy to watch and were very funny. Wanted to see more of Yukine but I guess she was just there for the characters to talk to. Perhaps she and other side characters will be addressed in the second season. The rest of the characters I didn't mention I don't hate but they weren't great or they just did not stand out to me.

Enjoyment: I almost gave it a 6, but rethought it. Like I said the Fuuko arc was dragged out garbage but the rest of the series saved it. Another problem was how hard they tried to make the series funny. Like I said Tomoya's pranks are pretty funny and so are Nagisa's parents but many times you can tell when they want you to think something's funny when it clearly isn't. That bothered me a bit. Not to mention, they repeat certain jokes which get less funny and just lame to watch. I liked the morals of this series which is having a family in your friends. Seems to me this series is a little overhyped probably because of the success of Kanon which I thought was amazing (After the dragged out arc of that series) As for re-watch value, I would not watch the entire series again, just certain scenes.

Overall: It was good. Can't say it would become a personal favorite but I'd kind of recommend it to others. There are other series I'd recommend first but I'd get around to telling people about this. I would definitely warn them about the Fuuko arc because it's really just a pointless, dragged out, waste of time.

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Ugh, lots of mixed feelings about this one.

Story: Nothing really happens until after half the series. At least for me, nothing really hooked me in until then. It's very slow-paced. The beginning felt boring. It was mostly the characters hanging out and going to school with mini foreshadowings. The plot twists are either predictable or make you go "No way!". It's pretty much hit or miss. Surprising as they can be, they can be hard to sit through. I did not really like the end because I felt it could have been spread out a bit more instead of tying up the loose ends in a rushed way within the last episode.

Art: Pretty good, clean and consistent. Probably the best thing of this series and a huge reason people wanted to watch this.

Sound: A couple of the bgm songs were okay, felt like getting the ost after finishing the series. Opening and ending songs were definitely keepers. They were pretty rocking songs. As for the voice actors they were fine. There was a pretty good lineup of recognizable ones. I only have a problem with Aoi's voice... it is so high and annoying. Seriously, every time she's on screen, I brace myself. I don't have anything against the voice actor but... ah, you'll know what I mean if you decide to watch this.

Character: Here's a main problem with this series. I can't really say if they were brilliantly written or just kind of lame.

Sana - He's not really the main that goes around trying to fix everything, he'd like to but the other characters keep to themselves most of the time. I don't have much of a problem with him except on two occasions. Especially at the end, it made me respect him less because his problem is shown to us in a rushed way. A bit much to handle all at once. We know he has a problem but we don't know what it is until the last episode... My other problem with him is the way he reacts to certain things. One is regarding Asami but it's a spoiler so we'll leave it at that.

Nanaka - I could understand what's up with her in episode 1 but she has a lot of mood swings and it gets a little annoying as she doesn't really get her facts straight first so she's either angry at times or very content. Plus, they don't really establish what's up with her until much later in the series.

Aoi - Annoying, go away.

Asami - I thought you were cool...

Shuri and Shuusuke - I really wish they weren't brother and sister, they were written pretty well and it was nice seeing how they take care of each other. Their story was pretty gripping.

Hinako - I liked her more than some of the other characters but she just wasn't important enough. I know she's younger and all but she really had no influence on the plot. She just took up two episodes and made them all about her.

Enjoyment: I don't know what kept me watching, maybe because of the little hints that something would eventually happen or the high expectations I had so I stuck with it. It started to pick up after halfway but the end was so rushed. Can't say I hated it or it was as bad as other things I've seen. This could've been pretty good, it just wasn't carried out properly. I also wish there was more romance between the two main characters. You know something'll happen for these two but no hand holding and no kiss...

Overall: It is slow but if you can sit through the first 8 episodes you'll do fine or ask someone who did watch it and skip the Hinako episodes to save you time as you won't be missing anything. The drama is kind of worth it but to be honest, this Anime is definitely not for everyone.

Thank you for reading my review. Feedback would be greatly appreciated. Hope this helped. read more

Very rarely does an Anime come along and make me laugh this much. Seto no Hanayome does a great job at it and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Story: It sounds cliche the whole "guy forced into marriage" thing. Normally this would bother me because I get sick of these types of premises but the show makes up for it with great jokes and fun characters. The episodes themselves follow the day-by-day plot. Where each episode either introduces a new character or they just deal with stuff. No real plot here. Unfortunately, the end was a bit rushed and disappointing. There was no buildup to it and it was mainly one of those "We need to end the series on a serious note" kind of things. It didn't work for me.

Art: I think the earlier episodes looked pretty bad. One side of a character's face would not be proportional to the other side but when a joke happens, the animation's great. The chibis are fine. The animators definitely put some effort on the scenes that needed funny visually though. A lot of the repeat visual jokes work because of how these scenes look. Unfortunately, the overall animation quality isn't very good.

Sound: The background tracks were pretty good. I wish there was an ost. The opening and endings are great songs as well as the insert songs. As for the voice acting, the cast did a spectacular job. Momoi Haruko who does Sun has so many voice shifts (regular, chibi, tough guy, singing, etc.), so it was interesting to listen to and see the talent. The other characters are voiced well too. A lot of the cast are voices you'd recognize and they do a great job.

Character: A few of them annoyed me but overall the characters are fun and enjoyable to watch. Due to the plotless-ness of most of these episodes, the character interactions make the show a joy to watch.

Enjoyment: Some episodes weren't so great but the series was a good watch. I laughed so hard. I even re-watch certain scenes to brighten my day.

Overall: This series is gold. I would recommend this to any fan of comedy. Although I suppose most Anime fans would enjoy it. There are two Ovas in addition to this series which were also pretty fun to watch. I'm hoping for a second season since this definitely deserves it.

Thank you for reading my review. Feedback would be greatly appreciated. Hope this helped. read more