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Mar 5, 2023
Kemono no Souja Erin, also known as Erin: The Beast Player, is a 50-episode anime series that aired from 2009 to 2010. It is based on the light novel series of the same name written by Nahoko Uehashi. This anime is an excellent example of character progression, immersive world-building, and excellent usage of audio-visual material.
Firstly, the character progression in Kemono no Souja Erin is one of its strongest points. The protagonist, Erin, starts off as a young girl with a deep love for beasts. She is curious, kind-hearted, and fiercely independent. As the story progresses, she faces various challenges and obstacles, which help her grow
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as a person. Erin learns about the world around her, the people, and the beasts that inhabit it. She is forced to confront the harsh realities of life and learns the importance of sacrifice, responsibility, and leadership. Erin's growth and development as a character is not limited to herself, but also the characters around her, who each have their own stories and struggles to overcome. This emphasis on character progression makes the show a compelling and emotional journey.
Another aspect that makes Kemono no Souja Erin stand out is its immersive world-building. The world of Erin is vast and complex, with a unique history, culture, and ecology. The story is set in a world where humans and beasts coexist, and the latter are often used for various purposes, such as transportation and warfare. The show takes great care in exploring the various aspects of this world, from the different factions and political systems to the various creatures that inhabit it. The world is so well-established that it feels like a living, breathing entity. This makes the viewing experience incredibly engaging and immersive.
Finally, the anime's usage of audio-visual material is another standout feature. The animation is top-notch, with detailed character designs and smooth, fluid animation. The backgrounds are gorgeous and help to bring the world to life. The soundtrack is also exceptional, with a wide range of tracks that capture the various moods and emotions of the show. The voice acting is also noteworthy, with each character having a unique and distinct voice that adds to their personality.
In conclusion, Kemono no Souja Erin is a must-watch for fans of fantasy and character-driven stories. Its strong character progression, immersive world-building, and excellent usage of audio-visual material make it a standout anime that should not be missed. It is a testament to the power of storytelling and the art of anime, and is a series that will stay with viewers long after the credits roll.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jun 26, 2013
"I'm bored, really bored. If I could sell my boredom, I'm confident I could make a living." -- Izayoi Sakamaki
There were some moments in this anime where I thought exactly this. Mondaiji-tachi ga Isekai kara Kuru Sou Desu yo? or the English name for it Problem Children are coming from another world, aren’t they? (addressed to as Mondaiji in this review) is an action anime and is very proud of being one – the anime has action flowing from its ears! Now by excluding things like plot and character development, Mondaiji has done two things which are very noticeable:
1. Limit your audience.
2. Minimize the critique which can
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be thrown at you.
The plot centers on 3 main protagonists, namely:
- Izayoi Sakamaki
- Asuka Kudou
- You Kasukabe
The first of the three: Izayoi Sakamaki is a very arrogant and cocky boy. He will do anything to get his dose of entertainment. The second is Asuka Kudou, the archetype rich girl would fit her very much, and she seems to be able to do things with her own two hands. So I wouldn’t say she is that much of a cliché. Lastly, You Kasukabe, the quiet girl of the trio. If you have seen more than a dozen of anime, she should strike you as similar. Now these three get an envelope and they are magically teleported to a place called Little Garden. They are to entertain themselves with Gift games here and to join a guild. These Gift Games can be about anything and for anything. They can help the guild you join grow, or for personal pleasure.
Basically, they are roaming free in a MMORPG world.
If you paid attention to that last line, it will sound very familiar. Indeed, they have also jumped the bandwagon of incorporating MMORPG features in their anime, the 2 before them are Sword Art Online and Accel World and have done similar things. But everyone has their own perception and ideas; you can do a lot of things with the gaming theme.
What I found a rather good move on the author’s part was to really target a selected audience and stick with it. The fact that the main characters have no flaws, the story is not deep whatsoever and that it has a gaming theme. With these facts you can easily pick out the audience the author was trying to reach with his writing: the gamer audience who like short, sweet and action-packed anime (and might not have too large of an attention span). With this move you won’t entertain the watcher who comes across this and tries it on a whim, so I would say this anime has its fair share of dislikes due to the small audience it targets.
On to the plot: Non-existent. Yes, unfortunately this anime doesn’t have much of a plot. It has one, but it is put on a sidetrack. The main characters try to revive a guild that was destroyed by an evil demon lord (which we do not see in the series). Now that is its plot, what do they focus on? Fanservice, fighting things for no good reason and generally lure you towards watching it with pretty visual and before mentioned fights. Now, with a series that lasts 10 episodes (10 x 24 minutes), you wouldn’t be able to focus on both the plot and actually fighting without moving the story slower than a snail’s dead born hatchling. So now you might be wondering, does this show only deliver fights? Yes, and with quantity.
The fights which sometimes are with reason and sometimes not, are phenomenal eye-candy and most likely the only reason you would like this show. Now the so called “gifts” of this show are pretty much psychic powers, the show does a very bad job at explaining what gifts can include and what kind of gifts exist.
Because the show does not clarify this, the fights the show produces are sometimes somewhat hard to follow. The main thing which irked me about this is that the main male protagonist is a mystery. He just seems to have high physical abilities. Keeping a lot of things shrouded on the action which is their main attraction is a very bad move.
Another thing which caught my attention is the fact that they go out of their way to include a lot of stuff (the fact that elves, dwarves etc exist), but they never do anything with this setting. All the characters have a human form and the whole concept is forgotten about, except for the small fairy which appears the last two episodes.
Now on to some positive qualities this show possesses. Not that I enjoy this myself, but the fanservice was done in a way it didn’t become annoying. The girl characters didn’t become tools for the fanservice moments which happened each 3 minutes. Although there was the occasional lewd moment, it was done subtle and I probably could count all the moments on 1 hand. So hats off to them for making it a bearable experience for the female watcher.
The fact that this is only 10 episodes also has its positive effects. Since you spend a measly 240 minutes on this show, it isn’t that big of a time investment. So even if you disliked it, you wouldn’t have wasted that much of your precious, precious time. The fact that it had created such a big world with so many possibilities could mean that they can obtain a return in a year or so, depending on BD sales and other merchandise. If they were to get another season, they would have plenty of potential material.
How it breaks away from other action anime is quite the pleasant surprise as well. Most anime around that genre with the demographic shounen attached to it are about the main protagonists overcoming hardships. The antagonists for each arc are consequently beaten to a pulp without too much effort. This one is quite different, the characters are already on that level, and they have nothing to overcome. So I guess you are in for a surprise when you watch this anime regardless of what you expect or do not expect. Now from what I gather on ratings and personal opinions, a lot of people liked the completely overpowered main character who wipes the floor with each adversary he comes across. Personally, I like my characters to have a taste of defeat, but again, this way it complements the fact that the series is only 10 episodes long.
Now on to the animated part of the series, this includes how the characters are drawn. This is my main point of critique on this section as well. I found the characters models to be very bland. And why in god’s name is Izayoi wearing those headphones - is he listening to music 24/7 or something? Now on to more relevant stuff... The animation was absolutely amazing in this show; you would expect that when it comes to fast moving characters and projectiles the show would make them a tad static. Although there is a hint of it here and there, the actually animated parts are done nicely. So that is a plus which I would like to give it.
And that concludes our animation section, as I do not know enough of studios to compare this work to other stuff they did.
Now the sound, we can separate this into:
- Soundtrack
- Ops/Eds
- Voice actors
The soundtrack was done up to a good standard. They had some fast paced music in there when the characters were fighting and slightly, more relaxed music as they were having a conversation. The opening and ending were pretty good. Now my main taste is definitely not in J-POP, but I kind of liked these ones. As for the voice actors, they did a fair enough job I’d say. The main male who has a very arrogant and cocky attitude was done well by his respective voice actor. I think the rest of the cast has done a quite good job as well.
We have arrived at the character section now. There isn’t a lot left for me to say. We will start with the English title; Problem Children are coming from another world, aren’t they? Because problem children are what they are, they constantly try to entertain themselves, at the cost of other characters, whether it is the supporting cast or the antagonists. I talked about archetypes in the beginning of this review, the princess one/tsundere and the silent girl/kuudere one. Although there is hardly romance in this anime, so the tsundere and kuudere are not really necessary, we could view these girls as such. I think the writer has done quite well to break away from the cliché; both are not annoying within their role.
Another thing which I found mediocre on this show was the motivation, especially when they are interacting with each other. “It will be fun.” This seems to be the sole motivation for each character – and to be honest, this is a bit on the weak side.
And let us move to the conclusion. So overall I thought Mondaiji was a weak anime, as it did not have a concrete plot or any apparent character development. Although these words might seem harsh, I did in fact enjoy Mondaiji. The action in it was sublime and I was as excited as any jolly teenager would be seeing this. I give it 5 out of 10!
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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May 1, 2013
Zero no Tsukaima should be an enjoyable action anime based in a majestically magical world, sadly it executes the premise horrendously, clinging to repetitive comedy and a subpar plot. The characters were written poorly; this is evidenced by their shallow nature and monotonous interaction, of which Saito and Louise are the worst offenders.
So, Zero no Tsukaima (after this abbreviated as ZnT) has a premise of a modern Japanese boy who ends up in a fantasy world after being summoned by her master, who happens to be a young, petite girl, with a fiery attitude. And with these two not getting along too well, this should
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set things up for a nice rom-com, right..?
In practise it gives a different result, the slapstick humour is overused and literally milked down to the very last drip. As a show which relies on its comedy, it should be a lot more variable. But because it lacked in this department, it often came over as annoying, this form of comedy has been used well, just not in this show. If you repeat the same guy getting hit by the same girl for doing the same troublemaking, you are not get any more fans from it.
The other part ZnT tries to attract its fans with is action and fighting against the forces of evil, now it did this a bit better. Though the plot itself was far too simple to be properly praised, the way it executed its action and the fact that it could get serious for once, meaning some actual romance ensuing, which came along with some cheesy lines by the protagonist was one of the few things I have enjoyed about the series.
The plot itself, which was put on a side track, is mainly about the two protagonists overcoming the tests they are given at their academy, and how they deal with their "growing" feelings with each other.
The art-style is simple and quite easy to grasp, it suits the rom-com style it has. The animation is good, but nothing special. Not a lot to comment about this particular department.
The sound, which can be split into 3 different categories, Opening and ending themes, voice actors and general SFX. The first category, I think the opening fit the anime quite well, of course, it is all up to you whether you liked it or not, but if you enjoyed the anime a lot, the chance is a higher that you liked the themes and soundtrack it had as well. On the subject of voice actors I would like to stop a bit, since this anime contains what many have dubbed to be "The Tsundere Queen" in it. Now personally, I am not the biggest fan or her voice or roles, it is a little bit too high-pitched and comes over as annoying. Saito's image as a Louise's dog and maybe a slightly foolish teenager is well played by his respective voice actor. Other than that there is not too much to to be said. The SFX is something which is done, there is noting extraordinarily odd. So it is hardly something people can discuss about.
Now I will move on to the characters, which is my biggest disappointment of this whole series, there is not much in this pile of badly written characters I can give praise. So we have our main male protagonist Saito, who like I said earlier, came from the modern world, we know and live in. The first flaw I would like to give is, there is no desire to go back to his home. Does this person have the worst life in the world or something, normally, at that age. One would like to go back to his home. This is, in my opinion, a piece of bad writing on the aspect of backstory and character depth. By not making them have a past, they are very shallow, and this depth-ness is what distinguishes the generic character from the fleshed out one.
The second character who is ripe for some founded criticism is the main female protagonist, who is awfully loud & obnoxious. I would go as far to say that her character has been written in a way, that it effectively negates any progression this character could go through. When some kind of advance happens in the terms of romance between Saito and Louise (the main female protagonist), it is immediately undone by some kind of slapstick moment.
The rest of the cast is not worth a lot either, they have a low amount of motivation and hardly any depth as to why they should fight the protagonists, aside from the whole evil organization stuff.
The conclusion, is it worth watching? No. There is a lot of stuff which did this setup and plot better than this series, the positive point is that the second season is done a bit better, I might say that is worth watching.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Nov 2, 2012
New Prince of Tennis. A sequel which should not have been born.
Don't get me wrong. I absolutely loved the series and am still reading the manga. But I am not here to rate and talk about the whole series. I am here to talk about this particular season, I am going to review the 13 episodes I watched.
The story starts off where the last one ended. Seigaku became national champion and almost all of its regular members have left. But where are we now? Now we suddenly are at a U-17 training camp for tennis. And this U-17 camp is for the representatives of Japan.
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I was really disappointed by this set-up. It would have been interesting to see Tezuka, Fuji and the rest fade to the background while Arai and others become regulars and face a hard time trying to defend their title. Instead we get this. A clusterfuck of characters where each of them get 5 minutes of actually playing tennis and not creating a single good match. I am here to watch a lengthy exciting tennis match, damn it!
Like I said, the characters getting about 5 minutes of screen time each is disappointing. Another thing which was quite Prince of Tennis like was a training camp. Oh wait, again? Yes, again. And to be honest it isn't even exciting, there is not some kind of big challenge ahead. And the only thing we see them doing is run around saying "I can't accept this training" and then "I finally understand the meaning of this."
What I am saying with this is; a good build up is wasted without a (proper) story. In the case of New Prince of Tennis it might be different, this time around they only got 13 episodes to air and for such a slow paced anime which likes to take its time to create amazing matches. It has been far too little.
Art. There is not a lot to say about it. It is as good as it was in its prequel. Which may sound disappointing, but certainly is not. The faces of the characters seem alive and lots variances in their faces.
Animation is also superb like it was. The actual tennis has lots of moving around and nothing sloppy for me to criticise.
Sound is a part of the review which never is heavy for my final score. Because frankly there is not too much to talk about, the opening was not to my tastes. It doesn't fit a usually action packed anime like Prince of Tennis. The voice actors didn't change from the previous series as far as I noticed.
The one problem Prince of Tennis always had is: Characters. It had way too many of them. And it also unnecessarily revives supporting characters over and over again too give the already big bunch of main characters even less screen time. Not saying any of them really sucks, but they are unneeded. I think if it cut back on the characters used for this 13 episode anime. There would have been a lot more actual action and tennis matches.
Though I will say this. Even though it always had way too much characters. All of them were entertaining too watch when put them up against each other and the "evil" team was actually seemingly a bit malicious.
Overall I didn't enjoy this. The plot wasn't what I would have liked it to be. And the characters were in to many numbers and little of them contributed to the plot.
Strong points:
- The variety of characters were not similar and all of them had their own little thing.
- The goal for the protagonist was set high and was not overcome with "resolve".
- The comedy was quite good.
Weak points:
- You need not look further than the characters page, it has way too many and created for little plot.
- Cut-off matches. Only small portions of a tennis match were shown and far too less happened.
- The opening song did not fit for its theme: Tennis.
So if you loved the prequel for its characters and was not a too big fan of the action, you will probably dislike this one.
Life lesson learnt: Quality over quantity.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Aug 22, 2012
Mirai Nikki or Future Diary is a psychological survival type anime with the focus on two characters, namely; Amano Yukiteru and Gasai Yuno, these two try to survive in a game they are dragged in, though that is not all, the winner of this game will be the next God of Time and Space.
With psychological anime it is to the viewers most of the times a hit or miss, as seen in the reviews of others, a low scoring review will be down-voted by its hardcore fans, and a high scoring review will be down-voted by its non-fans. But that is all small talk, this
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anime's main selling point is the atmosphere it gives in each tense situation, and you look at the story from the eyes and thoughts of the protagonist. Can I trust her? Will he be betray me? Those are the thoughts of our protagonist, so for an psychological anime, it has done that part really well, not much anime can keep such a feeling while not letting it get boring.
Obviously no anime is perfect and Mirai Nikki is no exception, to keep telling an interesting tale while not being a bit confusing is hard, and Mirai Nikki was not able to make every viewer understand, you can say that it tried to be too clever, towards the end things get rather tangled up with each other, and the result leaves with a confusing lead up toward the end of the anime.
Action-wise, it has done good, but not much more, seeing overprotective middle school girls or yandere to the experts swinging around a katana or firing a gun stays one of the more awkward things to see. The death of characters is done well, not too sudden, but not that you can see it coming fairly soon. Surprising, but subtle is how you can sum it up.
Art-wise it is not too amazing, the character designs are not amazing, especially if you look at something which is supposed to be a god, this could have been portrayed better. In terms of animation it has done quite well, no skippy animating, and they probably did their best with the budget they got.
Mirai Nikki's theme was creepy and very tense and it has done well with it opening themes, these maintain the theme of the anime and didn't bring you out of the mood, you can see that seiyuu wise they might have put less money in this department, every voice actor is less known, not that this matters, what matters is how well they match their character. This is done surprisingly well, Yuno's VA has the voice of an over-obsessed girl, while Yukiteru's VA also has the voice of a lonely, slightly pathetic middle school guy.
Characters, in numbers it has the perfect amount for a season lengthy anime, it has two main characters which creates for lots of development, and this could be called this anime's second flaw, its development. Once somebody decides to do something they should not revert back. Yukiteru has made decisions only to not follow them up, this could be part of that he is supposed to have a somewhat pathetic personality, but if you decide to do it, then revert, and later decide to do it again, it wastes time and interest of its viewers.
On the other hand, Gasai Yuno, the over-obsessed girl/yandere of the series has been done to perfection, she has been the main talking point of this anime, and maybe even its selling point, the creation of yandere is simple, you add creepy with moe, but this time the basics has been done so well, although she is a main character, she does not have a lot of development. And that is not needed neither, she was already done with developing in the beginning of the series, which has reasons explained in the anime itself.
In a survival anime there are lots of deaths needed, these get shoved to the supporting characters and sometimes to the main characters as well, the line-up of supporting characters is variable and of interesting personalities.
Overall I thought Mirai Nikki was a good anime, it had a classic survival plot with some strong characters.
Strong points:
- Good concept and interesting story.
- Sound-wise it was very strong as well.
- It had some amazing characters, female MC and supporting characters were exceptionally good.
Weak points:
- A lot of time and viewer's interest wasted on the protagonist and his "development".
- Not so outstanding art, could have had better character designs.
- It sometimes was too confusing, could be explained better.
So if you like survival with some good characters set around middle school aged kids and don't mind blood and gore, then Mirai Nikki is the anime for you.
Life lesson learnt: Don't live in the future, live in the now.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Aug 11, 2012
Ecchi and harem, they go hand in hand in the anime industry and are two of the most popular genres within the otaku culture, but this is widely known, so the question is: Does this anime have anything else to offer other than fan-service?
It's answer is: No, while it does have a plot and has some action mixed into it, this kind of a story could be from a kid's dream for all I know.
So after stating that this has no story where does this enjoyment come from, the fan-service obviously, while plot wise it is bad, the way it introduces characters and creates
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for the situations it has, it does relatively good. The "plot" revolves around a guy named Amakawa Yuuto, who is your ordinary high school student, nothing more than that, he has his caretaker (a tsundere) wake him up and tend to him for most of the time. Until one day he wakes up with a cat in his face (a catgirl, childhood friend) and they start out their adventures from that point.
But a story with only fan-service in it has no chance of getting an anime, so they added action/magic theme to it, which is fine in terms of content, we get to see a variety of magic they creator thought of when he added powers to his characters, the action itself is actually a bit good, they have some good fights which aren't only for the sake of fan-service.
Lastly in the story, I would like to address the episodes and their content, while it has a bad plot and no real character background, it doesn't have the cliché episodes and has some episodes with original stuff happening in them.
Art-wise it is good, like surprisingly good, the boob physics are used without holding back and the characters look colourful and vivid.
Sound-wise, it is decent, nothing amazing or outstanding which piqued my interest, seiyuu wise, most of them you can probably recognise and if not, you will later as they play lots of roles in different anime.
Now to add up on that tsundere and catgirl, childhood friend stereotype, we can add: a loli kuudere, clumsy maid and childhood friend 2. By summing all these up you can come to the conclusion that every cliché harem character is present, although I do say that, some of them have their own variations from their archetype, but honestly, most of them are textbook cliché characters.
Overall I though Omamori Himari was quite a weak anime, but there is worse out there, a lot worse, it made up for its no-plot with decently good fights and the fan-service was not half bad.
Strong points:
- Fan service has some nice variety to it.
- The episodes have some decent content in them.
- The fights in the anime are good, cliché and overused, but entertaining.
Weak points:
- Textbook characters. Including the weak protagonist.
- Weak plot, which doesn't get any expansion on in the anime.
- Nothing special about its sound part.
So if you are looking for a classic harem ecchi with some decent fights and episodes (in terms of content) and don't mind the weak characters, then Omamori Himari is the anime for you.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jul 22, 2012
Overdrive, when you read the synopsis you might not feel very attracted to this anime, like lots of people aren't attracted to watching the sport cycling, a lot of people find it boring and uninteresting to watch, but that all depends on the person. When I heard there was an anime of it I was excited, but also a bit wary. Can this be interesting? Because the show would have to appeal to more than cyclist fans to be a bit successful.
And the answer is: Yes!, with a big explanation mark, for a slow sport as cycling, they made it very interesting while still
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keeping a lot of realism, it surprised me, no super powers, the sport itself, comedy and drama made this in one hell of an anime.
The story closely follows our protagonist Shinozaki Mikoto, an unpopular and non-athletic student, who gets bullied by some guys from his school, this all ends when his love interest Fukazawa Yuki walks in the classroom and asks whether he wants to join the cycling club, he initially refuses, but later joins anyway. As a cycling fan myself, I was intrigued by the realism shown, it perfectly explained what kind of cyclist there are and in what part every character excels, while most cyclist don't especially are good in downhill, it didn't matter to me, those are the small details.
The story could be divided in two parts, the introduction and Mikoto finding himself in the cycling world and the second part, a single race, while most people would be surprised that there is only one contest, it is not all that weird, races usually take between the 4 and 6 hours depending on the course. The first part has lots of comedy and drama attached to it while Mikoto learns cycling and regrets not being strong enough. While the second part is pure action as far as cycling goes, which entertained me a lot, the characters within the race, all the sprints and the helping each other to finish and possible victory.
Lastly as a point of critique, this anime was set up to nicely for something long running, it had a good introduction, a slow build up towards the first race and the race was very nice itself, but just one race might be a bit low, not to cut the episodes for a race, but one was low and with that I want to say the dividing of episodes could have been better.
As far as sound goes, this part is very strong, a catchy opening song, the soundtrack within the anime isn't overpowering and is perfect on the moments where it gets serious. Voice actors are all fairly well known, including the recently very active Kaji Yuki.
Art is decent, the characters designs are nothing special and are good as they are. The animation is well done, although they could have done some more shots from scenery and not just looking at faces, but at the cyclists as a group, how they are cycling, could have been better.
While Overdrive has a small cast, which isn't very detailed in MAL's character database, they keep the character entertaining and lots of development has the room for it to occur. The character include a normal, energetic and somewhat comical protagonist, a violent bossy bad-ass leader, a helpful kind and caring one, the rival of the protagonist who is silent and to himself, but slightly perverted. And the main girl who the protagonist is in love with, a girl who would be typical for this age, done very realistic. And the guy who seems unbeatable, who the main team have to overcome to win the race.
Overall Overdrive was a very enjoyable anime, caused by its interesting characters and strong development of the protagonist, which left everybody with a smile when he accomplished something great.
Strong points:
- Realistic cycling made very enjoyable.
- Strong characters which develop in a entertaining way.
- A fitting soundtrack which matched the theme of the current situation.
Weak points:
- A story which might have had a too long introduction, 6 eps of introducing, 7 eps of the training and rival encountering, 12 eps of actual action and racing and 1 closing episode.
- Lazy animation, which could have been more entertaining if it would have focused on the whole body of a cyclist.
A small trivia, on the date of this review the Tour de France ended, which isn't completely coincidental, I started this anime because the Tour got a bit boring for me when my country's riders all retired. Although I didn't plan it, I thought it was a nice date for it.
So if you are a sports fan or an anime fan who likes the sports genre, this is a must watch.
Life lesson learnt: It is never too late to start doing something you want.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jun 29, 2012
Medaka Box is an anime about Medaka Kurokami, a flawless girl and her childhood friend Hitoyoshi Zenkichi, who works hard to follow her, the story follows the two and more in the joining of high school while these two make up the Student Council, but one twist the president Medaka promised to solve everyone problems by the use of the Medaka Box.
Note: This review contains light spoilers.
Disclaimer: This is my own opinion. They are not facts.
Perfection, this subject hasn't been touched a lot in the anime franchise, this anime: Medaka Box is not a real battle shounen and the action is very one sided, but
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it is neither a fail of a shounen, rather it could be called an anime which mocks these kind of anime. In a lot of shounen the good guy/girl overcomes hardships and in a life or death battle the bad guy gets transformed to the good side by seeing the light or something. Medaka doesn't have this life or death situation or the problems, well because the main character is perfect and flawless and a big physiological factor plays with this:
Can we stand someone who is completely better than anyone in everything? No, obviously we can't. We are humans who have pride, so we dislike the people who do everything right while being modest about it. This is called pride in a positive way and arrogance in a negative way.
The story itself consists of Medaka and Zenkichi solving problems around school, the latter episodes revolves around a fight between the Student Council and the Disciplinary Committee. I think this anime stopped at the point where it becomes somewhat more of a shounen and where the other characters actually get to do something.
Art-wise it does differ a lot from recently aired anime, instead of going for a more realistic look it has a pretty shounen like look. The animation isn't anything special, nothing too be amazed over. Maybe even a bit skippy if you ask me.
The opening song "Happy Crazy Box" fits the anime well and the ending theme is a character song by Medaka's seiyuu. Which is good, again this anything really good, it is decent and that is it all.
Since I already talked a lot about the character Medaka, you might notice that I think this is the anime's strongest point and I do think that. A character doesn't always need to be likeable to be a well done. Medaka's personality and actions might be disliked by a lot of people, but they probably made it so you would not like her and that is the point. On the other Zenkichi is a real typical shounen like protagonist, hard-working self-sacrificing and surprisingly a bit of a tsundere. Akune is more of a supporting character than a main, but still contributes to the story, Kikaijima, one of the many "reformed" enemies is a shy girl who only has money on her mind.
Overall I though this was a very unique anime, which opened some people's eyes about the term "perfect".
Best thing in this anime:
- The various range of characters and their personalities and the view it gave me on "perfect".
Worst thing in this anime:
- The art, animation and sound part were very lacking. The series might also have been a bit too episodic, but with only 12 episodes this probably could not have been helped.
Life lesson learnt: People rather have a hard-working failure, than a talented, flawless person.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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