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Jun 2, 2016
Say you were a 19 year old like myself and after getting home from work one day someone at your door hands you a piece of paper that informs you that you’re going to inevitably die in the next 24 hours. How would you react? What would you do with your remaining time? Who would you spend it with?
In this series ‘Ikigami’ we follow the main character a deliverer of these death notices and the various receivers. In this Japanese dystopian society a National Prosperity Act has been passed in which one out of one thousand people between the ages of 18-24 will die
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as a result of a vaccination that is mandatory to receive when entering elementary school. You’ll only receive your Ikigami 24 hours before your predetermined death, and any family members you have are made responsible for any crimes you may commit. All of this is so the rest of the country can better understand the value of life. This whole world buildup creates for some very interesting and emotional scenarios, time and time again reading this manga I would find myself close to tears. Sadly I haven’t finished the series because I don’t have the resources currently to purchase multiple volumes but 36 in the plot of the show was still going strong without showing any signs of falling off anytime soon. One of the strongest thing this series has going for it is to build and develop interesting characters in just a few chapters time that you’ll care for and invest yourself in even though a tragic fate is inevitable for them. Chapters are usually on the longer side having up to 55 pages or more sometimes. The art style fits the dystopian but realistic atmosphere that this series portrays, you might find it a little off putting if you’re used to more of a shounen/shoujo art style. All the character designs are usually pretty basic, none of the characters have any crazy designs the designs are much more realistic just like another manga I love Bokurano. I found this series particularly very entertaining as I read through 36 chapters in one day without stopping, the character arcs will never feel like their being stretched out too long and usually last 3-5 chapters with very well-done conclusions to wrap them up. Since I haven’t finished the series though I won’t claim to know anything about the material past chapter 36 but I will update this review when I get my hands on the remaining chapters. I give this series an overall strong 8/10 and recommend it for anyone looking for a mature psychological drama series.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Dec 25, 2015
Once I was like you… I was recommended by one of my buddies to check out Hunter x Hunter and I googled it looked at one picture of this little boy in these short shorts and I just thought to myself “HELL TO THE FUCKING NO…. IF THAT IS THE MAIN CHARACTER I AM NOT WATCHING THIS SHIT”. So when I decided to watch this anime when I was a sophomore in High School 3 years ago it was honestly one of the most difficult decisions in my life at that time. I know truly such hard suburban weaboo life decisions that could alter the
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space time continuum. After starting this show I liked it but as I watched more and more I liked it more and more until eventually I fell in love with it and began to think it was an actual masterpiece.
Story
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The first 25 episodes of the show are NOT a good representation as the show as a whole. This is because with each different arc there is almost like a shift in the shows genre or style. The first arc is definitely the most lighthearted of all the arcs in the show and with each arc it seems to get just darker and darker to the point you’ll think to yourself “Holy shit, how did the show come to this? This is royally fucked”. This is one of the first of many things that separate from your average Shounen Jump series. Although the premise for the story is Gons embarking on this journey to become a hunter and finding out what’s so special about the profession that his father left him for. There are six story arcs, the first of which is hunter exams (which inspired the chunin exams in the original Naruto). The following is one of your classic battle shounen fighting tournament arcs nothing too special about it. Then you’ve got a crime thriller esque art, virtual reality game setting, and even a war. I want to reiterate the point that with almost every arc there feels like a shift in the genre, and the shifts are so drastic in my opinion that for me at some points I even forgot this show was supposed to be a battle shounen .This show is 148 episodes and I consider it to be a slow burn and if by the 60th episode mark if you’ve made it that far and you still aren’t enjoying it, I don’t think you ever will. The pace of the show is generally fast paced till the Chimera arc where is slows down quite a lot, for me this didn’t really take away anything from the show since that is by far my favorite arc of the series but I’ve had discussions with people who’ve thought it dragged on too long. I think there’s only two recap episodes in the span of the 148 episodes and there is no filler, I REPEAT A BATTLE SHOUNEN LONGER THAN 100 EPISODES THAT HAS NO FILLER. YESSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One of my main problems with series like Naruto, Bleach, Fairy Tail and One Piece are the amount of fillers that usually bore me half to death. Also Hunter x Hunter was a big influence on other series, specifically Naruto which drew elements from the Hunter Exams, Phantom Troupe and Kurapika’s eyes and back story directly from the manga. If you don’t believe me look for the dual-interview that Kishimoto and Togashi did a while back where Togashi said that Kishimoto came to him for a lot of advice on Naruto when he started writing it, and in my opinion the best parts of Naruto are the parts where you can tell Togashi was a big influence.
OK, I finally want to take the chance to talk about what sets this apart from the rest of battle shounen and battle anime in general. Bullshit power-ups are very rare and you’ll constantly find our main cast being overwhelmed and not being able to typically overcome their enemies when they are overwhelmed. Gon, the main protagonist of the serious is rarely the main focus of the arcs and will often be sidelined to a more supporting role and most people wouldn’t think it works but it definitely works for this series. I’ll reiterate this point later but it gives us a chance to focus on a lot of the supporting characters that are probably this series biggest strength and something that I believe this series does better than any other. If you aren’t a big fan of watching the main characters be the underdog most of the time then you might not like this series, but for what it’s worth I’d still give it a shot. Also the form the actual fights and battle in this series are much different than your typical fights and battle in shounens. Usually the characters will look at the battle from a strategic angel and try to use their abilities and knowledge to defeat their opponents with their smarts unlike the usual shounen trope defeating them by having more power. Also Nen is probably one of the most interesting and diverse powers that I’ve seen used in a shounen; each character who can use Nen develops their own unique Nen abilities and it’s really interesting to see how they orient that into combat or deceiving others.
Art
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Probably one of the things that people find as the biggest turnoff for this series is our main characters look. As you can tell originally I too had an issue with Gon’s design and would call him such words as “Gay” and “Stupid” because of his design to rationalize my not watching the series. I find that most people before watching the show suffer through the same ignorance that I once did but I eventually got past this and it saddens me a bit that people won’t partake in something I consider such a masterpiece now because the main character looks “Gay” and “Stupid”. But for those people who are being very superficial about this masterfully created world should just give it a shot and not take a book by its cover. Other than Gon’s character designs a lot of the characters look pretty original and are refreshing from your typical Battle Shounen character design. In some of the characters designs you can see a nod to the author of the Hunter x Hunter manga previous work another very famous manga/anime series Yu-Yu Hakusho . With this series the art style certainly grows on you and maybe like me once you’re finished with the series you will be in love with the art style just like me. It’s a very simple art style and I can see how some would find this a turnoff.
On the subject of animation, the animation for this series is surprisingly amazing. You can’t usually say that for long running battle shounen series but Hunter x Hunter actually seems to get better animation as series progresses. The action seems look really good and the visuals will never disappoint.
Sound
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Overall I think HxH (2011) has a pretty good soundtrack with some amazing songs but definitely during the start it suffers from a misuse of OST that I think can be a little off-putting sometimes. I thought the voice acting was really excellent, a couple of really minor characters bad obnoxious voices too. But I think if you’ve seen the anime you’d agree they the voices fit very well with almost all of the characters
Characters
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The characters are probably what this series does best. Togashi intentionally made Gon a pretty generic and bland main character so you can focus on all of the amazing side characters he’s created. In my opinion the antagonists aka the villains in this show are some of the best villains ever created in an anime. Meruem? Hisoka? The Phantom Troupe? Need I say more? Sometimes you’ll be sympathizing for the antagonists and rooting for them to win. Togashi’s writing is so genius that one of the antagonists I had been completely appalled and disgusted by him in one episode and in another I was bawling in empathy for him. Also something Hunter x Hunter seems to do differently than any other battle shounen is instill a sense of fear of loss in us for the characters, we know very well that Togashi is brutal and though so far no main characters have died they’ve been very close. Togashi even once stated in an article when asked what would happen in the end to Kurapika and the Phantom Troupe that…… Spoiler alert…… They will all die! Really hope he was just joking around there and if he isn’t :(.
Overall
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I’m definitely a Hunter x Hunter fanboy, haven’t been one for too long but in 2012 I fell in love with the series. I have no problem calling it my favorite series and the biggest complaint for people is the first three episodes or rather the first arc which can be sort of a slow start and a poor representation of the series as a whole. Then there’s the slight misuse of OST at some points. I don’t consider this a negative but also there is the change of pace into a much slower one throughout the Chimera Ant Arc which I believe most fans of the series actually rather enjoyed like myself but I’ve seen some people complain about it. Other than rather small negatives I think what sets it apart from other battle shounen is its use of strategy and skill, ability to actually make most characters including the main cast to feel endangered, superb villains which almost seem to get more development than the main cast, animation quality that actually gets better opposed to worse over the span of a long running series, and a story that with every arc is new and refreshing and could be considered a change of genre. These are so masterfully executed in Hunter x Hunter that I really don’t have a problem calling it a masterpiece. So that’s how I justify giving it a 10/10, while no series is perfect this seems to be the one closest too it in my opinion.
MERRY CHRISTMASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Dec 23, 2015
What is it about this show that makes it a classic? That makes it a must watch? Is it the refreshingly humanistic, genuine and semi-realistic characters? Or maybe its the jazz and blues infused atmosphere that Watanabe so masterfully pieced together? Perhaps it’s that ending that paradoxically leaves us beyond satisfied but with a hole in our heart? What do I know? I’m just a pretentious nerd with way too much time on my hands.
Art
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Now I was 2 when this anime finished airing so I can’t really compare it to all the anime that came out in the late 90s (Other than Mobile Suit Fighter
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G Gundam and Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, which imo it looked a lot better than both of those series) because even though I’ve watched quite a bit of anime I’m not too sure when most of them originally aired. The art style like most of Watanabe’s works is always different than the norm, most of the character designs are pretty original in my opinion specifically the main characters and one of the only anime characters who comes to mind that resembles Spike is Mugen, but Samurai Champloo was also directed by Watanabe and follows a very similar style as Cowboy Bebop. Since Cowboy Bebop is following a bounty hunter in space he visits a variety of different planets which usually look distinctly different so you won’t be bored by the background. When I went through the whole series of Cowboy Bebop I never felt the animation was lacking in any of the action scenes and even though yes it’s been about 16 years since Bebop was finished so animation wise you can’t expect it to stand up to most recent projects with their crazy budgets and new technology. Even when I watched Bebop a couple years ago I felt that it looked a bit more dated but in a good way, I feel that the art style being a bit darker and not very flashy portrayed the blues and jazz vibes Watanabe was trying to give off.
Sound
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Alright in my personal opinion Bebop’s got one of the greatest soundtracks to date. I’ve been jamming out to Tank for over 5 years on my phone and it really never gets old. But honestly if you aren’t a fan of blues and jazz you might not like it (I’m not even a big fan of blues and jazz but Bebop is the shit), but throughout the show you’ll probably agree that the majority of the OST is very fitting and maybe even has replay value. BUT WHO GIVES A FUCK ABOUT THE OST WHEN WE CAN TALK ABOUT THE VOICE ACTING. Now I’ve never heard the Japanese version but the English dub was just too fucking good. Not gonna lie either, I mainly attest this to Steven Blum who did the best performance of his career voicing Spike. Blum’s got one cool ass voice and it’s way too fitting for such a cool ass character like Spike. One negative for me though was Ed’s voice I guess, and it just annoyed the shit out of me from time to time that’s all.
Story
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It’s a space western – Hence the name Cowboy Bebop. The Cowboy in the title is interpreted to be Spike since he’s a bounty hunter in space and to hunt these bounties he pretty much always needs to be on the move. Then there’s the Bebop part of the title which is literally the ship that Spike and his fellow bounty hunter Jet travel from planet to planet. It pretty much follows an episodic format with each new episode or each new couple of episodes following one of their bounties and usually I feel episodic series just aren’t my thing. But even still I don’t remember any episodes that felt slow or dragged on and this show does eventually let you know that in this episodic space exploration bounty hunting fun there is an underlying linear plot line to boot. I think one of the aspects of this show that separates’ it from other series is the extremely well done execution of our main characters past. Their pasts are like a puzzle and every once in a while a piece of that puzzle is put into place until in the end when we’ve got that finished puzzle.
Characters
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Hot damn man, can you really be an active user of this website and not heard of Spike Spiegel already. One of my favorite youtube reviews *cough cough* Gigguk *cough cough* put him at the top of his most epically cool character list. In terms of anime I’d say Spike pretty much has got the Rule of cool d own. He’s a very human main character and shit constantly won’t go his way. His two weapons of choice are his hand-to-hand combat style that mirrors the way Bruce Lee used to fight and his sidearm pistol. I’m not going to try to argue that the main cast has a shit tons of depth but they are damn well entertaining and interesting characters and even though you can classify them as clichés well almost everything is a cliché nowadays. So I don’t think the main cast was really lacking anything but I definitely though the main antagonist was, he was as one dimensional as villains get and I was never too interested in him because all he did was make me think “Why are you fucking doing this? This is almost entirely pointless man” because even though we get some backstory on him that doesn’t really leave him with an underlying motivation for being Spike’s primary antagonist. So what I think Cowboy Bebop is lacking is a well thought out main antagonist that can be more than one dimensional.
Overall: 9/10
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Whenever I think of classics in regards to anime I think Cowboy Bebop, honestly it’s the first thing that comes to mind for me. I’ve always recommended this series to any newcomers to anime because I almost feel that after finishing Cowboy Bebop you’ve finished a rite of passage. It’s not without flaws, I definitely agree but I don’t believe that those flaws weighed it down very heavily at all. So in the end I give Cowboy Bebop a 9/10 overall rating and just want to let you know that I find it damn well one of the most entertaining and enjoyable series I’ve ever watched.
There’s only ONE way that I could end this review……
We’ll see you…. Space Cowboy
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jul 18, 2014
No Game No Life
When I saw the first couple minutes of No Game No Life my first reaction was one of annoyance. Sword Art Online and Log Horizon now this?! I was just kind of tired of this reoccurring video game setting in anime. After viewing the first episode I realized that it wasn’t actually about video games, but in general games. Now as soon as I completed the first episode of this series I told my friend Jordan that the first episode was very entertaining. He acknowledged the series existence and told me he had already seen the first episode, he then proceeded to
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recommend me to “Mondaiji-tachi ga Isekai kara Kuru Sou Desu yo?”. Now anyone who claims that this show is better than No Game No Life is in the wrong in my opinion. Not only is the rating difference a huge way to tell the difference between these two shows but this is like preferring Guilty Crown to Code Geass. Now I made a mediocre review of Problem Children so if you want to see my opinions on that series go check it out.
Story - 8
The setting of No Game No Life is slightly original; Problem Children did do it first. But series have done this concept before that as well. Also I’m not so sure the Writer of NGNL’s light novel copied the author of Problem Children’s light novel. So two reclusive hikikomori siblings who are extremely intelligent put that intelligence to use in games, which they happen to be very good at. These two siblings are brought to another world where everything is decided by games. You want my money? Well then play me in a game. You want my property? Well then play me in a game. This world they are brought to there are pledges in which the inhabitants of Disboard must follow. The first three pledges are, all murder, war, and robbery is forbidden in this world, all conflict in this world will be resolved through games, and in games each player will bet something that they agree is of equal value (I paraphrased this so there might be some mistakes). This concept alone had me interested, because its world where literally everything is decided by games. The problem with the whole plot is that its highly predictable, the main characters never lose and since they literally never lose some of the games just aren’t so exciting. I’ve come to realize this show isn’t about the main characters winning because we already know they will win, but instead about how are MCS achieve that win, and how they outsmart their opponents.
Art - 6
I guess Madhouse decided to copy the vibrant color scheme of Shaft because the art feels like a shaft Anime other than the animation itself. I’ve never been a fan of the abstract color scheme style of creating an anime because it usually gives me headaches. The character designs for all characters are ok none of them really stood out for me. I’m not sure whether to put this under Art or Story but this fucking anime has way too much fan service for an intellectual show. If you’re trying to make something with well thought out action sequences like No Game No Life every other scene doesn’t need to be a goddamn panty shot and I don’t need to see the characters bathing.
Sound – 7
Kirito from SAO is the main characters voice actor if you haven’t already noticed. He does well as Shiro from NGNL and none of the characters suffer from a miscast in the voicing department. The OST is really forgettable; I don’t even remember the opening song. The SFX used during action sequences sound cool for the most part.
Character – 6
Ugh, how the **** is blank so perfect? They are goddamn hikkimori shut-ins but in reality they are extremely charismatic and intellectual individuals rivaling that of Einstein. Sora is Gary Stu and Shiro is a Mary Stu. Also Shiro is completely unlikable as an MC, she has literally no fucking emotions, and she is a robot for fucks sake, she’s a goddamn robot who wins games and screams Oni-chan every five seconds. Stephaine only really serves the point of explaining things they don’t know about the world Disboard, like the history. There aren’t any characters other then the main ones really, and which ever character he beats WHICH ARE ONLY FUCKING GIRLS SO FAR join his harem.
Enjoyment – 8
It’s all about the action scenes with this show, pretty much everything else will bore you. The fan service did annoy me quite a bit so it sapped away my enjoyment from the show, specifically because people were behind me the whole time while I watched this and they were like “Are you watching Hentai?”. I definitely would mind a season two if the show has more well thought out action scenes like the first but if you take that away from the show really nothing is left.
Overall – 7
I really can’t give it a rating any higher, it’s good. But worth rank 21 on MAL, definitely not. I feel that the top 100 should be reserved for the best of the best, something which is an utter masterpiece or at least something that people agree is good. This isn’t a masterpiece no matter how you view it, even if your enjoyment level of this series was a 10, you must admit it was lacking in other departments that drag it down.
TL;DR
I liked this series. Would I give it higher than a 7? No. It’s 12 episodes and not enough really happens to make me absolutely fall in love with this series. If there is a season two will I watch and possibly reconsider? I will not reconsider my rating for the first season, but season two could be a 10. Should you watch this series? Yes, it’s very enjoyable at times. Should you watch this series in a family friendly environment? No it’s super ecchi and shows way too much fan service. What is the best part of this series? The well thought out, and well written action scenes. Why do some people gives this a 3? These people are both ignorant and stubborn, and have probably seen a rather generic boring anime like Problem Children.
Sayōnara, my fellow anime viewers.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jul 6, 2014
I’m not a fan of most sports, nor do I partake in anything of that nature. I’m like the main character from Hyouka, I prefer to conserve energy rather than spend it unnecessarily. So for someone like me to like a sports show it has to be special in some way. If I was to add one specific series to the title of Kuroko no Basket to emphasize how different it is from actual basketball I would call it Dragonball Z no Basket.
Story
It’s what you come to expect of a sports anime, there is no overlying plot other than winning. The protagonists want to win
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and the antagonists are an obstacle obstructing this goal. It’s not something so original like the characters playing basketball and whichever team loses, forfeits their lives. So the only real thing that drags Kuroko no Basket down from being a topnotch anime is the overlying plot just because of how generic it is. They explain all basketball terms in a way that it sounds a bit ridiculous at times, it feels like I’m watching someone explain a magical power in some action/adventure anime but it’s a sport.
Sound
All four the openings for both seasons are great, I listened to them every time. The first ending was very memorable for me as I can recall it right now and I watched the series four months ago, the other endings were somewhat good but I usually skipped them to start the next episode because I’m a binge watcher. All voices fit the characters well and no one has a voice that makes me cringe, so that’s a plus.
Art
Main Antagonists and Protagonists have very distinct character designs in the way that their hair color seems to be modeled after the power rangers. Everyone else for the most part has the hair color you would picture an average Japanese high school student to have, and then you’ve got the pink and green hair? Character designs are nice to look at and the animation is done very well, though the second season does bring out some of the greatest animation I’ve ever seen.
Characters
The protagonist who the show is named (Kuroko) after is quite unique for a sports anime, because he actually sucks at sports. It’s nice to see someone go outside the box for once and make a protagonist who doesn’t excel at the particular focus of the show. The other protagonist Kagami is your typical hotshot sports player, nothing special he does develop throughout the show into more of a team player but we all see that coming. But this show gives the majority of their side characters plenty of screen time and the antagonists do get a decent amount of development and don’t stay one dimensional sports super stars.
Enjoyment
This show is freaking hilarious, I never thought a sports anime could manage to be this funny. The jokes are so well done I wonder if the script writer is a comedian. The basketball games which are the majority of the anime, are very entertaining and since they are the majority of the anime I wasn’t ever bored. You don’t need to know anything about basketball because this anime will explain all the concepts to make it sound animey.
Overall
It’s good, not the best but in my opinion a very solid series. I’m not a fan of sports anime so I just can’t rate this very high, but that’s just me and my non-sporty self.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jun 29, 2014
"The year we started junior high, we considered ourselves all grown up. We thought we could do anything. We laughed, we cried, we got angry... We thought we knew all there was to life. But in reality, we were just kids, sheltered by our parents and by society. We'd never experienced true sadness, joy, or anger. We found that out when the 15 of us got together... And when... We met IT."
Bokurano is as much your typical mecha anime as Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica is your typical magic girl anime. It’s dark and pretty depressing, but none the less extremely interesting.
Story – 9
The one major
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question asked throughout this series is directed towards the 15 children, basically asking them what they would do in the face of a certain and imminent death. The basic setting is that 15 children during summer camp find a cave by the sea (I know summer camp it sounds awful already). Inside this cave they find a strange man who asks them the simple question “do you want to play a game?”, now having seen the saw movies I would immediately flee at this point but instead these children take on the challenge. Then they find out that this game requires them to control a 500 meter robot and fight other robots, the shocking twist to this is that it isn’t actually a game (wasn’t actually shocking though). The actually shocking twist is that since it isn’t a game if they lose, earth will be destroyed and the human race will be annihilated. During these battles there are lots of casualties and these children are left to reflect on the havoc their wreaking while their lives literally fall apart. Every one of the fifteen kids is given an immense back story which is a major plot point because some episodes are solely focused on giving each character their own exposition. Most mecha anime are similar to the multitude of Gundam series in the way that the storyline is more happy go lucky and bright and this takes that common idea in the majority of mecha series and rips it apart saying “fuck you and fuck your dreams”. Not only is this extremely refreshing getting something I like to call original, but the plot is built upon with a variety of twists which grabbed my attention more and more bringing my interesting factor to exponential heights.
Sound – 8
The OP for Bokurano “Uninstall” constantly chants for the viewer to uninstall and this reminds me of my days playing video games like League of Legends where other players constantly told me to uninstall the client because I was “trash” so this OP gave me a laugh the first couple of times I heard it. Eventually you’ll probably understand the symbolism between the very fitting Bokurano OP. The voice acting is well done on the Japanese Dub and I have nothing to complain about it. Also the very fitting sad violin music was great.
Art – 6
Ugh, the art and animation really fucking sucks. The art is so bad that it practically makes some parts boring and hard. This is the time when Code Geass was coming out, so I can’t make any excuses for the art, other than when I usually rate an anime it doesn’t tend to affect the overall rating I give it very much. Character designs are actually pretty refreshing because all the main characters look pretty normal and don’t have any unusual purple colored hair, you would feel like they could be side characters in another anime. After watching the anime I decided to check out the manga which has absolutely fantastic art in comparison.
Characters – 8
Some characters are really good and some are bad, you’ve got 15 characters who are the main character and for the most part get an equal amount of screen time, all have very interesting diverse backgrounds and diverse personalities, which brings up the interesting factor a whole new notch as you watch patiently how each character separately deals with the situation they’ve put in. You can’t really go into depth when talking about these characters because spoilers would ruin this show, because it’s much more story based than action based.
Enjoyment – 8
Fight scenes are meh, I’m sure the anime didn’t do them justice but the major factor that brings those down is simply the animation which I felt was choppy at best. I was looking forward to the fight scenes but I was so entertained by all the backgrounds of the characters that I was able to watch Bokurano in two days, and I was in the Florida Keys, this managed to keep me inside connected to the hotel WiFi until I finished the show.
Overall – 8.4
It definitely isn’t perfect, but it is underrated. There isn’t too much gore so if you can handle the extremely depressing psychological part of this anime I recommend it for anyone above the age of
twelve.
Brb, while I read the whole manga for Bokurano to relive in the excitement.
Watch anime and keep it chill my friends.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jun 26, 2014
"Tell me, what do you think is the ultimate fear? I really thought I’d already reached the darkest of the dark, but then, ahead of me, I beheld a darkness even greater still.” – Johan Liebert
Monster is extremely different than most modern anime, in that there is basically no fan service and no high schoolers. Hell, Monster doesn’t even take place in Japan; the majority of it takes place during the 1990s in Germany. So when I watched Monster I was looking for something different no slice of life or action, I wanted a real psychological thriller and damn did I get what I came
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for and it even lasted 74 episodes with absolutely no filler episodes just exposition and plot.
Story – 10
Monster follows our Protagonist Kenzo Tenma who is a brilliant Japanese neurosurgeon working his way up Eisler Memorial Hospital in Dusseldorf, but he makes a judgment call and decides to save a young boy over the life of the city’s mayor. Was this really the choice? Most people would agree that saving a young boy over an older man is probably the morally correct choice, but Dr. Tenma is left debating that decision over the rest of the series as he realizes that he didn’t save a boy but instead he saved a monster. Dr. Tenma then decides to hunt down this monster for himself and solve this problem, because it becomes clear the police can’t seem to handle this monster for multiple reasons. My first thought after plot line of this series was, how the hell does it last 74 episodes? Now I might be wrong on this point as I watched the series a couple of years ago but I do believe there is absolutely no filler and every episode is canon. Monster is one of those series that uses their time really wisely, you’ll probably always be interested in whatever is going on, trying to solve the multiple mysteries of this show while enjoying the seemingly casual dialogue between two characters. Though our Protagonist is Dr. Tenma the show does switch off to other characters quite a bit, probably 32 episodes switch the point of view of the story and follow a different character. There isn’t any way for me to really describe how great the Story for this anime is without giving any spoiler’s but a lot of fucking people die and their deaths are usually pretty brutal. The pace of the show is slow because it lasts 74 episodes but man does it captivate you bit by bit and leave you wanting more, the ending is also extremely climatic.
Art – 9
Something that people usually aren’t comfortable with while watching monster is the art style, not the animation but the art style. Unlike some mangaka Naoki Urasawa (the person who wrote and drew the manga for Monster) has a really distinct art style; nothing is kawaii or moe. Though I’ve only read two of his works (20th Century Boys and Monster) they both have a very realistic art style which I feel is to attempt to make the viewer realize that this series is something that you should take rather seriously. Anyways the animation is decent for its time, nothing really flashy happens in this series so none of the animation is very flashy.
Sound – 10
Monster OP and ED are unique to say the least, I can’t say if I really enjoyed them, but I do feel that the fit the eerie and mysterious tone of the series really well. The OST is on point, and this show almost never has the problem of misused BGM. The voice acting is on point in the Japanese Dub, I can’t say too much for the English Dub because I never heard it though I am a fan of Liam O’Brien.
Characters – 10
Every main character in this series is extremely interesting the least of which is the protagonist and the most of which is the antagonist. Johan Liebert tops the charts of evil villains in Anime/Manga. I really don’t know who is eviler, Johan or Griffith from Berserk. Johan Liebert is a god of manipulation this man is a fucking genius, but he is seriously fucked in the head. Ok, sorry had a bit of a fan boy moment but seriously he Is my favorite antagonist from any anime series and I do believe him to be the most evil and quite possibly the greatest antagonist any anime series has ever seen. Most people who have already seen Monster will hopefully agree with me on this point. The characters really just make the show the masterpiece that it is, though some characters are one dimensional and rather pointless most seem to have unimaginable depth and make me question how Naoki Urasawa came up with all these brilliant characters. From the extremely likeable Wolfgang to seemingly bitchy Eva, I find this cast of characters extraordinary and very realistic though they still entertain me.
Enjoyment – 9
I admit, every once in a while I wasn’t entertained. This anime certainly isn’t action packed like SAO and SNK, and it isn’t comedic like Gintama and GTO. It’s a thriller and sometimes I just wasn’t too thrilled. But that’s literally impossible for a 74 episode series to keep me thrilled for every second specifically one that has an extreme amount of exposition. The mystery element of this show always did keep me guessing, but I wasn’t smart enough to figure it out without the show explaining it to me. The main enjoyment for me came out of the great storyline and characters. I feel to enjoy this show you do need some level of maturity, though I don’t know how much that means coming from a 17 year old kid.
Overall – 10
Though there are some things that aren’t done absolutely perfectly I feel that they are damn well near perfect, and for whatever Monster messes up on one aspect and makes up for on another aspect. If you aren’t a fan of psychological thriller’s in genre this just won’t be for you. If you watch anime for the Japanese culture this won’t be for you either because it takes place in Europe. This is some really dark shit you’re getting into my friend, if you only watch light hearted stuff like Slice of Life or your typical shounen series then I recommend at least branching out and trying something new like Monster because it’s a hell of a series. But don’t forget my friends “Evil sometimes wears a pleasant face”.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jun 22, 2014
"I'm going to do this cool" - Barbappa, Barbapapa
Barbapapa is an absolutely masterpiece, it defines 1970's Japan. It's about the pink blob man who can shapeshift to try to fit into society. He uses this ability to shapeshift to attempt to fit into a society were he is deemed an outcast.
Story - 10
Barbapapa and Barbamama make love and create beautiful children who has lost their way (don't lose your way) and forgotten the ability of shapeshifting so they can't fit societal needs and they try to fix through a long journey in Post Industrial America, you've got action, romance, ecchi and even some traps (because
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he can transform into anything he wants).
Art - 10
This beautiful art style rivals SnK, SAO, and Fate/Zero with a vibrant color scheme and awesome action sequences the art will leave you craving more.
Sound - 9.5
Now where the anime starts to fall off is the sound, randomly in the episodes you'll hear explained screeching noises which can cause your eardrums to rupture. I think if you combined all the screeching noises of the whole anime backwards you'll hear a secret message, which is a social commentary on why the A-Bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Character - 10
The protagonist Barbapapa survived WW2 and was actually in Hiroshima when the bomb dropped, he survived the explosion and mutated gaining these shapeshifting powers, he was part of the Japanese X-Men division but left to teach his family how to control their powers.
Enjoyment - 10
I cried four times, once when I started it, and three times when it ended. An emotional roller-coaster the whole way through.
"Science is what makes man powerful!"- Barbamama, Barbapapa
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jun 18, 2014
"They say it isnt over till the fat lady sings" - Krillin
"Well I think she just humed a few tunes" - Vegeta
Dragon Ball Z is the definition of an overrated shounen anime, with something like Naruto close behind. 80% of people who like this series because of this wonderful thing called nostalgia which can sometimes be a bitch for people like me because people will instantly give my review a not helpful because I’m doing a disservice to their childhood memories of sitting in their living room watching Dragon Ball Z!
Also, I'm not saying I hate Dragon Ball Z, their video games were really enjoyable
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and a memorable part of my childhood, I'm just saying don't blindly act like it's the best thing ever created because it really isn't.
Read the review or don't rate my review, those are you two choices, so be an honest person.
Story – 5
One problem with Dragon Ball Z’s story is that every single arc is the same as the last one other than the previous enemies are replaced with slightly altered clones of the last arc. I want to bring to your attention that literally every primary Villain in the Dragon Ball Z, such as Vegeta, Frieza, Cell and Buu all have one or more transformations and all of these transformations come with a large power up that is usually bullshit and serves just to make the runtime of this already boring show longer. Also almost every Villain has the same goal, to enslave the world or destroy it, I know they’ve got really diverse goals.
Another problem with Dragon Ball Z’s story is that the episodes are just too long and most of the time hardly anything important happens. I’ve literally seen some episodes where Goku/Gohan punches someone and then talks or thinks the rest of the episode, and this wouldn’t be so bad is that talking or thinking was somewhat productive to this battle but they aren’t its usually just boring bullshit like “I punched that guy, and now I’ll punch him again next episode”.
So why do most people believe the story to be somewhat enjoyable? Because you watched this show when you were 4-10, anything you watched at that age with explosions would have seemed like the best thing ever. When you’re a child you just don’t really have the ability to tell a good show from a bad show, when I was a kid I could swear that Power Rangers was the best show ever created and not only was the acting superb but the storyline as well.
Art – 8
People who have seen Shingeki no Kyojin might question me giving this an 8 for art, but for things like Art and Sound you must always take into consideration when this anime was created. Now for the late 80s and early to mid 90s the animation was really top notch, other than things like well funded animated movies back then not much could surpass the art and animation in Dragon Ball Z, the character designs were rather refreshing and kind of set a trend for shounen characters that came after this show.
Sound – 9
Now something Dragon Ball Z does really well is the sound, not only is the music good but the voice acting is really on point excluding Goku’s voice in the Japanese version because that is just a little unsettling. Have you heard really old English Dubbed like Mobile Suit Gundam, the voice acting is awful. This is actually something depressing about current anime because English Dubbed usually suck now.
Characters – 7
Oh, I’m sorry did I burst the bubble you were hiding inside? Oh I have noticed that Goku is on your favorite character list, but guess what? I don’t really care and yes, I’m saying you do have bad taste in characters!
Now first the major plot point in Dragon Ball Z that just ruins the characters in that death isn’t even a problem. Now I’m exaggerating when I don’t call it a problem but a lot of characters don’t stay dead. In all of the Dragon Ball series, not just Z the character Krillin and this is a minor spoiler dies four times and he still comes back to life. Characters can come back to life because when you collect the Dragon Ball Z you can just revive characters, and though there are some restrictions to how many times it seems like they do it all the time. Also Heaven happens to have a battle arena, go figure.
Some characters in Dragon Ball Z do have somewhat interesting personalities specifically the side characters such as Yamacha, Mr. Satan, and Mr. Popo.
“Vegeta what does the scanner say about his power level? ‘It’s over 9000 (crushes scanner)’ What 9000?!” – Nappa and Vegeta
What the fuck is a power level and is 9000 really an enormous amount? No, power levels are unimportant and incomparable because at any time the main character or enemy will just use that super secret power up he only uses in a sticky situation to become infinitely more powerful.
Enjoyment – 5
Another problem with Dragon Ball Z is that that is that the extremely slow pace can make it a very hard watch, it’s such a long show and really in the grand scheme of things not much happens other than characters standing around talking or characters having a battle that takes longer than the seven years war. I dare to you try and rewatch this anime series without skipping anything and tell me your opinion hasn’t changed about it because you’ll realize all the flaws this series has and how a lot of It just isn’t that enjoyable.
Overall – 6.8
There are two anime series that many American non-anime watchers have come to like one being Dragon Ball Z and the other one being Avatar: The Last Airbender and that isn’t really an anime because it was made by Americans in America. Why do these non-anime watchers like Dragon Ball Z and not other series? One because they’re very stubborn and refuse to watch something foreign or something that has subtitles because reading is too hard for them and the second reason is because Dragon Ball Z was aired when a lot of people from age 14-21 were children or preteens and it was entertaining for a time when shows like “Ed, Edd n Eddy” were all the rage and our Saturday nights were usually spent in front of the T.V instead of the computer or cell phone. If you haven’t seen Dragon Ball Z then you probably will never like it because the nostalgia factor is the real reason so many people like it.
It’s not bad but I don’t really recommend it, there are so many other series out there that are much more enjoyable and I recommend series like Hunter x Hunter (2011), Shingeki no Kyojin, The Flower We Saw That Day, Clannad, Fairy Tail and Angel Beats.
Also I wish I could produce a massive beam of energy from my hands while screaming Kamehameha, but that's just not realistic.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Apr 26, 2014
"We evolve beyond the person that we were a minute before. Little by little we advance with each turn. That's how a drill works!" - Simon
"Listen Simon... Don't forget. Believe in yourself. Not in the you who believes in me. Not the me who believes in you. Believe in the you who believes in yourself." - Kamina
Tengen Toppa Gurren Laggan is a show which defies everyone's expectations in the best way possible. At first glance you think it's going to be a cheesy mech anime with an average plot. But in reality Gurren Laggan creates it's own genre and I would have to call this
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stufective (term coined by GRArkada) which is the combination of stupid and effective.
Story: 9
Gurren Laggan is one of the only shows that really doesn't give a fuck about what you think. They let you know that in the show when they pose and a giant explosion goes on in the background. The plot itself is interesting enough, human's are hiding underground from this half-human animal hybrids which are exterminating them in Giant mechs, this seems like it actually be a pretty serious series but you realize a couple episodes in that it really doesn't expect you to take it too seriously, the show wants you to just sit-back and enjoy the ride. Gurren Laggan does a lot of things you won't expect because they are either too ridiculous or too awesome; Gurren Laggan makes even the ridiculousness good, it's like Gurren Laggan is an unknown phenomenon of goodness.
Art: 10
For Tengen Toppa Gurren Laggan's time the art is actually ahead of it's time and the animation is great to look at, though disappointingly it's only in 480p on CrunchyRoll but that doesn't make this series any less deserving of your undivided attention. All the character's have a very unique design, after all these people also created Kill la Kill. Sometimes the animation switches medium all together to make scenes more entertaining and badass then if they were simply just animated.
Sound: 10
This is one series where you can watch either the sub or dub because each are absolutely amazing, I must applaud the voice actors of this series because you can really feel the emotion in the characters coming to life. Another highpoint of this show is the amazing soundtrack, Row Row Fight the Power will never fail to get your blood boiling as it sets the pace for the entire "Do the impossible, see the invisible. Row Row, fight the power!" If I do have to give a personal preference for me on this anime I would say the subbed version because I tend to just like the Japanese language in anime overall.
Characters: 11/10
Definitely the strongest point this series has to offer is it's characters. Gurren Laggan has three lead characters all of which are perfect imperfections in their own ways. Kamina is the leader of Team Dai-Gurren and to put it lightly he is a badass and will motivate even the viewer with the cheesiest lines that he some how pulls off; I don't believe I'm exaggerating how awesome he is as a character probably because he made it onto my top ten favorite characters list, I'm a fanboy for Kamina. Than you've got Simon the younger brother of Kamina who by the end of the series you see how much he's matured as a character, you can't really categorize his personality because he isn't a static character he is changing throughout the show being molded by the events and the people around him. Last and definitely least is Yoko, she has huge boobs and a very large sniper rifle. She is the eye candy of the series and is usually wearing a bikini top. There is a very large list of side characters who are pretty interesting like Viral the beastman and Kittan who is also a badass but annoying at times.
Enjoyment: 10
You'll definitely enjoy this series and if you don't then you must not enjoy life very much. Even the least interesting parts of this series are enjoyable, I've never seen a series so stupid do everything so right. The fight scenes do get a little repetitive, but they still got me hyped up for some reason.
I don't always watch stupid anime, but when I do it's Tengen Toppa Gurren Laggan.
"Your drill is the drill that will pierce the Heavens!" - Kamina
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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