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Apr 6, 2011
Well, this series turned out to be rather surprising. I had somewhat expected a standard shounen series, and to an extent that is the case. However, the rather well developed cast of characters plays a huge role in this series, and the focus on their relationship development serves as a focal point to propel the plot forward. It is possible to argue that it is exclusively the characters that makes this series worth watching, mainly because of how well developed they turn out. In the end though, even with all the mechs and stuff, this series turned out to be a rather compelling romance series.
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Note here though, the romance is more along the lines of "idealistic" love, as opposed to more realistic, drama heavy romance.
Production value wise, Eureka seven stayed consistently good for the most part, with consistently drawn art and animation, as well as some great songs in the soundtrack. Considering how this is Studio Bones we're talking about here, the production values don't really surprise me. The mech battles here were interesting to watch at times as well,
The main draw to this series is definitely it's characters, or more specifically, the growth that each character undergoes as the series progresses. The entire series revolves around the growing dynamic between our main characters Eureka and Renton, and how their romance develops. Along the way, we see some great development for both Renton and Eureka; Renton starts off as a immature, eager yet naive boy, and grows up into a much more competent guy who eventually learns to fight without restraint for his dream and love, Eureka. Eureka, on the other hand, fluctuates tremendously as a character, going from stoic robotic like girl, to wishy-washy distressed girl, to a simple lovestruck maiden trying to survive amidst all the ongoing chaos. Their story is a rather compelling aspect to this series, and seeing it gradually develop in the course of the series is a rather rewarding experience.
At heart, this series is just a huge romance story, with it's primary focus on Eureka and Renton. The development they undergo as a couple is truly something worth watching, and while their development does have it's fair share of oddities here and there, the natural progression of their relationship remained a focal point throughout the entire fifty episode series. The side characters also do get their fair share of romantic developments, from the intriguing Holland and Talho relationship, to the rather odd Anemone and Dominic relationship. Some of the romantic moments were very cheesy and over the top, but that's exactly what makes some of the romance here more appealing.
The plot complemented the main couple for the most part, but it did have it's share of glaring flaws. There are some awesome emotional climaxes in the plot, which reflected the changes in the main couple's relationship rather well, yet at the same time, there are a ton of unanswered questions left behind that keep you scratching your head. This is particularly true towards the end of the series, where all common sense seems to be thrown out the window in favor of a rather over the top, corny yet satisfying finale. While I personally liked the ending a lot, it also had a ton of huge gaping flaws in logic and consistency that I didn't quite take a liking to.
It's not like the plot was terrible though; it had some rather complex story arcs with a much more deeper theme to them than what you would initially think. The world itself is fascinating as well, with a rather well thought out, and more importantly interesting, setting. In the end, though, it's really the awesome character development and romantic developments amongst the cast that really pulls this series together, and while it does have it's occasional hiccups here and there, is well worth a watch.
Animation/Art: 8.5/10
Music: 8.5/10
Characters: 9.0/10
Story/setting: 8.0/10
Overall Enjoyment: 8.5/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Mar 1, 2011
Right off the bat I’d like to note that this show is definitely not for everybody. The Aria series as a whole is extremely slow paced, and while it does a great job at creating an incredibly ambient, calming atmosphere, at the same time I can easily see people get bored of this series. Aria may not have the most compelling story out there, but in its stead it has a very detailed, well thought out setting, as well as a charming bunch of characters. The slow pace to this second season really does a great job with fleshing out setting little by little, and
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the main characters compliment this very well. There are a few issues I did have with the series (the unnecessarily large amount of episodes to Cait Sith would be one of them), and how character development didn’t really kick into high gear until towards the end of the series, but the charm this show exudes kept everything entertaining right until the end.
Production values for the Aria series have proven to be quite decent, and this season of Aria proves to be no different. While the animation itself was standard, the artwork really does this show justice with it’s very well drawn, beautiful scenic depictions of the city of Neo-Venezia. The music for this series is also notable for it’s very calm, melodic tones that keep the atmospheric calming feeling that this series is famous for. Aria’s ambient music is excellent, and does a great job in complementing the very heavily water-themed city. In fact, the large presence of water and waterways is probably one of the big factors that contributes to the calm, relaxing nature of this show.
While the first season served as a brief introduction to the world of Aqua in general, the second season goes into much more depth in exploring this very unique setting. The scenery may be great in this show, but it’s really the subtle details and stories that really make the setting come to life. There are those episodes involving solely the supernatural, which I’ve noticed are either hit or miss for me; there were too many Cait Sith episodes for my liking, but there were also supernatural-focused episodes that I found had their own unique charms. Overall, though, I felt that this season could have cut back a little on all the supernatural-heavy stuff.
However, where this show really left a lasting impression on me was not the supernatural episodes, but rather the ordinary everyday episodes that explore the ever growing and maturing city of Neo-Venezia. It’s really the small, little memories involving our main characters that makes the setting feel alive, and as the show progressed I came to appreciate that much, much more.
What I didn’t quite like about the first season to this show was the extremely slow pacing (which often put me to sleep), which this season did improve upon. That doesn’t mean the pacing for this season was fast by any means. Even so the pacing here really matches well with the characters in general, and helps flesh out our goofy cast of characters. We still have our goofy Akari, the too serious Alice, and the hardworking Aika, along with the quirky little cat President Aria, which I’ve come to like for their own little quirks and charming points.
It isn’t until towards the end of the season that the characters get a more significant amount of development, but everything along the way helped flesh things out little by little. In particular, the dialogue for this series is important, as the dialogue uses some very detailed and imaginative ideas (though also very cliche at times) to give us some deep insight into the history of our setting, the growth of our characters, and the community of Neo-Venezia as a whole.
The major flaw to Aria is how the characters stay relatively the same for the most part, with character development extremely slow (it only begins to pick up towards the end, which leads up to season three). For the most part, though, Aria has some unique points to it that should make it a compelling watch for anybody that likes the “kuuki-kei” ambience atmospheric (often called slice of life) anime. As I mentioned in my review of the first season, Aria is definitely not a show to expect a tremendous amount of action or drama from, but rather a simple, ordinary yet fascinating and charming tale of Neo-Venezia and it’s inhabitants.
Animation/Art: 8.0/10
Music: 8.5/10
Characters: 8.5/10
Story/setting: 9.0/10
Overall Enjoyment: 8.5/10 (rounded up to a 9 on MAL)
Comments, feedback, and most importantly criticisms, are always welcome :)
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Feb 28, 2011
When I first heard of this anime back in 2008, I had never even heard of the To Aru franchise. However, based on the fact that it was being animated by JC Staff (and back then I had just finished watching another JC Staff production, Shakugan no Shana), I figured that giving To Aru Majutsu no Index a shot couldn’t hurt. Based on how the preview videos gave Index a more supernatural-type setting to it, I was actually pretty excited for this show. Objectively speaking, this show has a mix of some great moments and an overall well thought out plot, mixed in with some
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mediocre characters and other minor annoyances.
What makes Index a unique series is it’s setting. To Aru Majutsu no Index’s imaginative ideas where there are science-based espers naturally born with powers, alongside magicians which have inhabited the world for centuries, are executed extremely well. Everything regarding both magic and science, with regards to specific rules, ceremonies, and limitations that reign over each, was thought through with a lot of detail and specificity. All the detail with regards to both magic and science really helps make the setting, filled with superpowers and all, much more believable and realistic. I should note that the “science” in this show is definitely unrealistic, but nothing that a little suspension of disbelief can’t solve.
The author for the original source material, a light novel series by the same name, obviously thought everything through, or at least didn’t try to half-ass it, with regards to both the magicians and espers. I mean, when they start referencing things such as Schrodinger’s cat, or a system governing the rules of magic, it’s quite obvious that the original author at least attempted to do some research and incorporate it in his work, and his hard work all really shows in the actual series. He pretty much made his own fictional world with it’s own rules, similar to how the authors Kinoko Nasu or Yashichiro Takahashi did the same with their respective series.
This unique setting is really the foundation for all the scenarios and character development in this show. The intermingling of magic and science really produces some unexpectedly tense and serious situations and character backstories, ranging from the Misaka sister’s existence to the Angel Fall incident, and even the church politics with regards to Index’s 103,000 magical grimoires inside her head. This show really knows how to produce a really intense atmosphere, with the climaxes to a good chunk of the arcs in this show both exhilarating and fun to watch.
That being said, there are a few arcs that I personally thought were weak, and pretty pointless. Mainly, the Deep Blood and Imaginary Numbers arcs I felt were a little on the weak side. The main conflicts felt a little forced, and sometimes I found the characters acting…well… out of character. Besides my minor gripes with the plot though, the story was actually pretty good.
My main issue with this series is definitely the characters to this show. There are some characters that I found absolutely charming, and really really fun to watch, such as Misaka Mikoto and Index. However, that doesn’t really solve the issue where a good portion of the main cast was underdeveloped. Because of the large amount of characters in this series, a bunch of them had little to no screentime for much development. Another big issue here would be our main protagonist, Kamijou Touma. His over the top idealistic actions were, at some points, borderline absurd, and had me shaking my head.
Not to mention, there is a curious little fault to this show as a result of it being a light novel adaptation. Because a light novel is text-based, it’s fine if the novel goes into a lot of dialogue heavy detail about the situations unfolding. Doing the same in an anime adaptation, however, is definitely less plausible. Because JC staff left much of the dialogue in tact, the result was that this show was at many times had too much exposition and detail that defused some of the tension built up in a previous scene.
The first thing that comes to mind is Touma’s extremely long, dialogue heavy scenes, which often times could have been condensed much more. If JC staff focused a bit less on the exposition and more on the actual story, I think this show could have been even better.
This show definitely has some great animation and action scenes, with JC Staff’s experience with animating shows like Zero no Tsukaima and Shakugan no Shana really showing. Rather than the action being composed of random people brawling it out, in this series the battles get quite tactical and really forces our main characters to plan and actually do things more carefully.
Overall, To Aru Majutsu no Index is a well done anime with some great visuals, intense action scenes, a intriguing setting and plot, as well as some charming characters. There is room for improvement, especially with a select few characters of this series and parts of the plot, but those could be ignored pretty easily. For those that would prefer a more light-hearted, slice of life type anime, they should go watch the counterpart to this show To Aru Kagaku no Railgun.
Production Quality: 9.0/10
Characters: 7.5/10
Story/Setting: 8.5/10
Overall Score: 8.3/10 (rounded down to a 8 on MAL)
comments, feedback,and most importantly criticisms, are always welcome. :)
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Feb 28, 2011
This six part OVA series was part of the 10th anniversary celebration for the AT-X channel a few years back. Knowing it aired on AT-X, it should have been pretty obvious that this show would be loaded with fanservice, but oh my, there was a lot more fanservice oriented scenes than I had expected. At the same time, though, the contents to this OVA series are sometimes extremely disturbing. Warning for anybody that watches this series, Mnemosyne is definitely for older audiences only.
Surprisingly, though, the fanservice doesn’t completely detract from the original concept for this particular anime. If anything, it only added to the surprisingly
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unique premises and ideas explored in this series. Mnemosyne explores some very dark, and sometimes even brutal and cruel, ideas about how human society evolves and grows, all from the perspective of an immortal being.
Some of the strongest points to this series is most definitely the representations of norse mythology, and more importantly, how it is incorporated into the actual setting. Represented by the fabled Yggdrasil tree and the immortal beings that result from it, the incorporation of norse mythology to the story gives this show a very unique flair in terms of both direction and concepts. It is especially obvious to see when you contrast the unrealistic idea of immortals with the present day society they are immersed in. Seeing our main characters, as they are immortal, witness decades of evolution of human society and technology, really does help give Mnemosyne a very unique atmosphere. The delicate balance of mixing the supernatural with futuristic technology really helps create a dynamic setting that really makes you ponder about every aspect in this show.
That being said, the immortals themselves largely remain unchanged, which provides a huge contrast to the ever changing setting, where the settings of each episode often being decades apart from each other in terms of timeline. Yet at the same time, our main protagonists are aware of the fleeting and fragile lives of regular people, and treat that with both respect and dignity. The main characters themselves are more subtle at times, and were surprisngly well thought out in terms of personality.
The major issue with this show would include both the unnecessary fanservice (although at times it was essential), and the somewhat convoluted, odd plot.
This show is most certainly fanservice heavy, with a lot of lesbian sex scenes involving our main protagonists Rin and Mimi. As I mentioned earlier, this show is extremely fanservice heavy, with boobs and naked girls making a lot of appearances after the first episode. I will admit that I was completely taken by surprise by the heavy amounts of fanservice, as the first episode was extremely deceiving with it’s notable lack of fanservice. And seriously, at least half of the fanservice scenes in this show could have been cut out with no impact on the main story. On the other hand, though, the fanservice was never blatantly stupid, and in numerous cases, did involve the main plot.
The plot of the line, in a nutshell, goes along the lines of “immortal girls who received the seed of immortality from the Yggdrasil tree is in a decades long struggle with angels and Apos”. The plot does sound odd, but at times it’s very well done. The story during the first one or two episodes really do help flesh out our main cast, but from there on out the story gets progressively more and more complex and convoluted. The story is actually pretty enjoyable to watch, but by the end of the OVA series most people will be like “lol…what just happened…?”
In the end, this series definitely isn’t for everybody. Mnemosyne is pretty much a horror anime with a lot of fanservice elements. This show is similar to other horror titles like Higurashi no Naku koro ni, Elfen lied, and horror-torture movies such as Saw and Hills have Eyes. If you can’t handle brutal scenes, this show is definitely one you should avoid. If you do watch this show, the story is rather decent, and the characters are well portrayed and developed.
Production Quality: 8.0/10
Characters: 8.0/10
Story/Setting: 8.5/10
Overall Score: 8.2/10 (Rounded down to a 8 on MAL)
Comments, feedback, and most importantly criticisms, are always welcome :)
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Feb 28, 2011
After the successful To Aru Majutsu no Index anime series, it was expected that the spinoff based on one of Index’s heroines Misaka Mikoto, would be animated as well. That being said, the Railgun series that runs in parallel with Index’s storyline, with several interactions between the two series facilitated through Index’s main protagonist Kamijou Touma. There are some charming characters and intriguing plots in this series, which keeps things interesting and fun, but there is definitely room for improvement here.
Production quality wise, JC staff does a stellar job of maintaining consistent animation quality, with some notably well animated actions scenes, no doubt from JC
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Staff’s long time experience with more “superpowers” based anime adaptations, such as Shakugan no Shana, Zero no Tsukaima, and the counterpart to this series, To Aru Majutsu no Index.
The main attraction to this show is most certainly the main characters to this series. The main cast, consisting of our main heroine Misaka Mikoto, her roommate Kuroko, “Judgement” member Uiharu, and her class mate Saten, are all charming in their own unique way. Misaka’s tsundere righteous personality may turn some people off, but mostly, she’s a cute and fun character to watch, while Kuroko’s over the top tactics to try and get Misaka to fall in love with her (FYI, Kuroko is a lesbian) is both eyebrow raising yet hilarious. Uiharu and Saten both contribute to the quirkiness of the main cast in their own way, which makes watching the character interactions in this show truly entertaining to watch. Not to mention, the fact that most of the characters in this show have a unique special “power”, such as the ability to teleport or control electricity, makes the entire cast more diverse and intriguing to watch.
There are some good moments of character development as well, surprisingly with Saten and Uiharu. I feel that they both get the most amount of character development in this series, sometimes subtle and other times more blatant. Although Mikoto is my favorite character to this series, objectively speaking Saten get’s the most amount of character development and complexity to her personality.
The story is very arc oriented, with the entire series cut up into three or so arcs, with some filler episodes interspersed in between. Quite honestly, in terms of story, I felt that these arcs felt rather weak in terms of plot, with some very shallow villains (with the exception being the female scientist) that made the major conflicts themselves quite boring, even if the action scenes themselves were pretty good. I will admit that there were some battles with some creative usage of the characters’ powers that made them very interesting to watch.
The great part to this series would have to be how all the main characters interact with what is around them, resulting in some hilarious moments between characters such as Touma and Mikoto, or some laugh inducing moments at the sheer fangirlism of Uiharu.
As for the actual setting, the author of the original source material did a good job with detailing the setting of the story. The integration of quantum physics ideas, although almost certainly not applicable in the ways it is portrayed in this anime, was a nice touch adding some unique concepts and ideas to this series. Not to mention, the law enforcement groups “Judgement” and “Anti-skill” makes the setting more sensible, yet at the same time, adds a whole different aspect to the entire story.
Overall, this show is a fun to watch story with some serious story arcs, with a charming main cast that really gets you into the plot. I definitely feel that some of the filler episodes were unnecessary, but there was a decent amount of character development throughout the show, with a good amount of slice of life moments interspersed in between everything.
Production Quality: 8.5/10
Characters: 8.5/10
Story: 7.0/10
Setting: 8.0/10
Overall Score: 8.0/10
Feedback, comments, and most importantly criticisms, are always welcome :)
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Feb 28, 2011
Well, Fortune Arterial turned out rather decent in comparison to my initial expectations. Just knowing that this show is an adaptation of a standard harem-esque Visual novel immediately smelled like trouble, but surprisingly enough, the story did not degrade into a complete mess. That being said, this anime definitely had a lot of issues, mainly with pacing and a very generic plot. Even the vampire twist in this anime, which was done in a relatively untypical fashion, ended up not making much of a difference.
The one flaw to VN adaptations is that, because there are usually multiple heroines in the original source material, adopting all
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the storylines into a single coherent plot usually proves to be difficult. In that aspect, Fortune Arterial did a relatively good job of merging all the storylines together. The major issue here is that it did not do a good job with pacing each arc, and with only 12 episodes in the series, I’m not too surprised. For example, Haruna’s route felt way too rushed and, thus, the story and character development suffered tremendously.
In fact, I could probably argue that the entire first half of the series, up till around episodes 7-9, were poorly put together with some very cliche plot twists and rushed character development. Even so, as rushed as the development may have been, the characters’ motivation and hard-work ethic is very easy to see, and quite a charming aspect to them in a sense.
What the creators did right with this anime was it’s focus on the main relationship of the show; the story between our main protagonist Hasekura Kohei, and the Vice President Sendou Erika, who happens to be of vampire lineage. Their relationship got the most development in the last few episodes, and it was surprisingly well done, with a solid plot and a great atmosphere throughout most of the arc.
While the ending to the series felt very much lacking (I seriously think the creators half-assed the final episode, and played it too safe), overall Fortune Arterial turned out into a surprisingly decent show watch. This show most certainly has it’s issues, and although it’s production quality was solid, the art and character designs just screams “generic”. There was a lot of potential in this show, especially the main relationship between Kohei and Erika, but that never quite reaches it’s full potential in the end.
Instead we get a somewhat unremarkable slice of life, romance oriented anime. The romance aspect was probably the strongest part to this show, but even that also could have used some work. Nevertheless, I enjoyed watching this show for the most part, not to mention this show has a pretty decent OP theme, sung by Lia of Clannad fame.
Production Quality: 8.0/10
Characters: 7.5/10
Story: 7.0/10
Setting: 7.0/10
Overall Enjoyment: 7.3/10 (rounded down to a 7 on MAL)
Feedback and comments (and criticisms) are always welcome :)
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Feb 28, 2011
Well, when I first heard that Gainax was creating an anime with a lot of american-style animation, and with an absurd title that included the words “Panty and stocking”, I literally had no idea what to expect. However, considering how almost all anime nowadays seems to be playing things safe (moe, fanservice stuff that sells and makes money), Panty and Stocking turned out to be a refreshing experiment to see in action.
Admittingly, this show definitely is not for everybody; there is plenty of blatant sex, ghosts based on fecal matter or semen, panties and stockings raining down from the sky. Yea, this show is very
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daring with it’s content, has a ton of fanservice, and is quite innuendo heavy. Even so, I’m more surprised with the fact that Gainax actually went ahead and made a show like this (which, at times, was actually almost stopped from being aired), and it turning out rather good.
This anime was definitely a huge experiment, breaking plenty of stereotypes and implementing some pretty absurd (yet new) ideas. It’s clearly visible that there is a lot of influence from American cartoons, prevalent in both the art style and the story format in each episode. There really wasn’t much of an overarching plot for this show (well, except for the last few episodes), but each episode served to parody a ton of different pop culture references. We got a Transformers parody, an Invader Zim homage, and a lot more random parodies and references. Not to mention, the soundtrack for this series was pretty darn good, with quite a few great pieces throughout the show.
I’ll admit that a good amount of the parody episodes were just for some cheap laughs, but there were a few rare gems amidst everything, such as Stocking’s romance episode as well as the final arc involving Panty and Brief. That being said, the main characters (Panty and Stocking) were a little one-dimensional and one sided, with not much variety in their actions and mannerisms.
Even so, they were a rather charming duo to watch, especially during the episodes in which their characters really do shine. The main problem here was that there was very little changes in the actual characters, which meant that the only pillar of support for the story was the sheer level of energy, as well as odd plot twists, that kept the show going.
Some of the animation in this show was excellent, with a great visual direction during certain key scenes. The battle scenes were especially something to look forward to, with some amazing over the top battles throughout the series. All in all, this show has created it’s own little niche in a sense, though it did also lack direction with it’s one-dimensional characters. This show definitely could have used some improvements (such as a more coherent overall plot, perhaps), but in the end Panty and Stocking turned out to be a surprisingly solid show, and most important of all, it was rather charming and fun to watch.
Production Quality: 9.0/10
Characters: 8.0/10
Story: 7.5/10
Setting: 7.5/10
Overall Enjoyment: 8.0/10
Feedback and comments (as well as criticisms) are always welcome :)
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Feb 28, 2011
After ranting like crazy about the first episode when I first saw it, I never thought I would go back to finish the rest of it. But after hearing that it was nominated by Japanese fans as the best anime of 2010 (although Japanese fans do admittingly have some odd tastes in anime…) and hearing some good comments about it from the few people I knew that were watching the show, I figured going back and finishing the show couldn’t hurt. And I can say that, after watching this series, while it is the most underrated from the Fall season of 2010, it is by
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no means the best of the year. For a comedy, it was actually done rather well, and while it gets heavy in fanservice sometimes, this show turned out surprisingly better than I had expected.
That being said, the key thing you need to realize when approaching this anime is that it’s pretty much just a huge parody about everything it touches upon. It parodies the detective-phantom thief dynamic (which Detective Conan is famous for), along with a ton of random jokes and video game parodies. I’ll admit that I didn’t get all the jokes, but the ones that I did understand were hilarious, or at least brought a smile to my face. If you start watching this show expecting anything other than slapstick comedy, be warned, you won’t find this show particularly enjoyable.
One thing I did notice about some of the jokes, though, is that while some of the jokes were loaded with moe and cute laughter, the implications of the joke were actually quite a bit more serious. For example, when I saw that the main cast was OVERJOYED to be thrown into jail so that they could get a free meal, while the moment was funny I also thought “man, did they seriously just become happy by being thrown in jail?”. This happens quite a few times, such as when the starving, desperate protagonists decided to grill mushrooms that they harvested from the underside of their old, decrepit desk, so on so forth. I guess you could say that I was surprised by how there a few more serious implications to certain scenes than you would think for a moe comedy show. I don’t think this was done on purpose, but it’s still an interesting little thing to note.
The main cast was a total mess, though I do think it was done that way on purpose. The story follows a group of four girls that have aspirations of becoming great detectives, but when they lose their superpowers (termed “toys” in this show), they become utterly useless. Like, seriously, they were probably the most incompetent, simple-minded, spoiled main cast I’ve seen in a long time.
Spoiled in the sense that the main characters had become almost completely incompetent after they lost their powers, which just shows how over reliant they were on those powers. However, these negative traits were often used to comedic effect, which I thought was an interesting way to go about things. Some of the characters, although extremely lacking in any sort of proper character development, turned out rather charming to watch and got laughs out of me.
The main story got rather repetitive quite a bit, but the main strength with the story was probably how it was executed. The story certainly tried to put some unconventional twists into whatever was happening, and while it wasn’t always successful, it was still quite good at keeping the viewer engaged in the happenings of the show. The pure ridiculousness of the events in the show, along with how this show never tries to really take itself seriously (as opposed to some often forced drama in other comedies), works out surprisingly better than I had thought it would.
What was a bigger issue in this series was probably the production quality, which was very weak in the first episode, and mediocre throughout the rest of the series. Tantei Opera certainly will not be winning any sort of best animation awards, but JC staff still managed to pull through in the end.
Overall, Tantei Opera was surprisingly better than expected, and did exactly what the creators meant to do; create a slapstick comedy with some absurd situations and characters, and nothing really beyond that. While I certainly don’t think this was the best comedy by any means, it certainly had a more unique execution with a bunch of it’s jokes. I can see why people say this is the most underrated show from Fall 2010 outside of Japan. While this show certainly isn’t for everybody, and the fanservice may turn some people off from this show, Tantei Opera has it’s own merits and strengths that make it a rather entertaining show in it’s own right.
Production Quality: 7.5/10
Characters: 8.0/10
Story: 7.5/10
Setting: 7.0/10
Overall Enjoyment: 7.5/10 (Rounded up to a 8 on MAL)
Feedback and comments (as well as criticisms) are always welcome :)
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Feb 28, 2011
While Shiki started off very slow, this series has turned out surprisingly good, with some great characters, a very suspenseful story, and a great soundtrack to boot. That being said, Shiki’s main strengths are definitely it’s huge cast of characters, and it’s story.
The basic premise to this show is rather simple; the setting is a small, isolated little village that’s called Sotoba village, and vampires stealthily try to take over. What this show does a great job at is building up the tension between the main characters, such as Ozaki and Natsuno, and the vampiric faction of “mansion on the hill”. This inherent conflict is
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central to the entirety of the show, all the way until the bitter end. The characters in this show are really developed well, especially Ozaki and Natsuno. Their eventual realization of what’s going on around them, and the fundamental changes to both their behaviors and thought processes, is definitely interesting to watch, more so as you see the horror-inducing events that unfold.
Characters such as Tatsumi and Ookawa play crucial roles in the show, while others such as Muroi and Sunako just add to the mystery in this show. I don’t know quite how to describe it, but the sheer amount of characters in this show are all integrated extremely well into the main plot, making a very believable and gripping tale that keeps you captivated for the entire second half of the series.
The thing with this show is that you need a bit of patience to finish it, mainly because there are huge chunks of the series that are extremely slow paced. The slow pacing allows for some excellent buildup, but at the same time I do wish that they could have condensed certain parts a bit more. It’s really the second half of the show where everything starts to pick up significantly, and becomes so much more mesmerizing.
The animation and art direction is a little odd, but the music for this series makes up for it mostly. The music has a gripping, haunting sound that fits the atmosphere to this series almost perfectly, and really gives the show the edgy, horrifying feeling that you’re looking for in certain scenes. And oh boy, can some of these scenes be gruesome and nauseating. But that’s exactly the type of events that keeps moving the plot forward, along with all the moral and social implications of all the events that unfold.
There are some rather complex, or perhaps the better word would be deep, themes found in this show that really makes you question exactly who is the villain and who is the victim at times. While I can’t say that this is the most horrifying thing I’ve seen in anime, it’s definitely one of the better horror themed anime I’ve seen in a while. It makes you both think about what’s going on, and truly appreciate the complexity and depth to much of the situation and plot. Overall, Shiki is an excellent series that is well worth your time.
Animation Quality: 7.5/10
Music/Soundtrack: 8.5/10
Characters: 9.0/10
Story: 8.5/10
Setting: 8.0/10
Overall Score: 8.3/10 (Rounded down to a 8 on MAL)
Comments and feedback are always appreciated :)
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Feb 28, 2011
Well, when I first heard that this anime was about “garbage collectors in space”, I was a little hesitant to start watching Planetes. I mean, seriously, how good can an anime about space garbage collectors be? Well, Planetes did turn out to be a rather pleasant surprise, and while Planetes isn’t quite a masterpiece, it does get very close. Planetes does an excellent job with creating a realistic, and more importantly lovable and charming, cast of characters with an at times very compelling plot. The character development is great, and at times, is extremely intense yet incredibly realistic; Sunrise did an excellent job with characterizing
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the main cast into people that are both memorable and easy to sympathize with. There are a select few annoyances I had with this show, but if you exclude my personal bias, Planetes certainly turned out to be a rather entertaining, yet at times very serious and thought provoking, anime.
One of the things that bugged me slightly was how the first half of the series is episodic; each episode constitutes a little mini arc, with a bunch of comedic moments mixed in with a few typical corny events occurring here and there. That being said, what I did love about these episodic episodes is that while watching them, you really did get a good feeling for the main characters for this show. You really do get a feel as to how the characters grow closer together, with the dangers of space debris collection, mixed in with other stuff such as romance and a bit of drama all developing the characters bit by bit. There were some characters that did annoy me a little at first, such as Tanabe in the beginning with her naive yet very stubborn attitude, but even “annoying” characters are developed extremely well, and really helps you appreciate just how great the main cast is. I’d say that this is one of the few series where every single episode gives us some level character development, sometimes subtle and other times just outright great. There are some genuinely terrible characters too, though; terrible in the sense that they’re completely selfish, unlikable characters, but that’s what makes this show all the more realistic.
The strength to having the first half of this show as all episodic in structure is giving us all a feel for the actual characters, so when the second half hits with it’s much more serious (and thought provoking) plot, it really leaves a big impact.
The second half easily is what makes this show an excellent series; there are some incredibly intense moments throughout the second half of this show, often leaving off on cliffhangers that leave you dying to see the next episode. I am sooo glad I didn’t watching this show while it was airing, because the week long waits in between episodes would have killed me; the cliffhangers were truly intense, leaving off the story at those moments where you just want to see more. The story to the second half is very philosophical and thought provoking at times without being too corny as well, with a lot of talk on the necessity of space development, and also brings us a ton of awesome character development for our main characters.
In fact, I’d have to say that the entire cast of characters were developed well, and considering the relatively large cast, I’d have to say Sunrise did an amazing job here. Even the characters that you’d think of as “side” characters get quite a bit of screentime to them, giving them an incredibly realistic characterization. Their interactions are rather dynamic, changing as they actually develop, which creates some very genuine (and sometimes heartbreaking) moments here and there. Not to mention, this show does a great job blurring the line between what is “good” and what is “evil”, with our characters often confronting each other for their own “good” reasons, even if it means they end up almost killing each other.
Planetes proves that it can define characters that go beyond simple good or evil. Instead, it shows us characters with multidimensional, very complex characters, kind of similar to how Miyazaki portrays his antagonists; as being a mix of both good and bad.
Animation and art for this show is pretty solid, though I feel that the soundtrack was lacking a little. Even so, the world that people see while in space was depicted very realistically, and it becomes rather easy to imagine yourself there in space as well. The artwork and animation was crisp, and really did a great job complementing the outer space setting.
The strength to Planetes is almost without a doubt it’s very smart, compelling yet very realistic way of developing its cast of characters, all amidst a very thought provoking and well thought out setting. Planetes might not be perfect, but it delivers where it all counts, creating a genuinely enjoyable show to watch.
Animation/Art: 8.5/10
Music: 7.5/10
Characters: 9.5/10
Story/setting: 9.0/10
Overall Enjoyment: 8.6/10 (Rounded up to a 9 on MAL)
I hope you guys enjoyed it :) Feedback and comments are always appreciated.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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