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Jun 1, 2016
Monster is an anime that actually manages to be appealing for older audience or people who what to make a break from all those cheerful anime (or anime that is supposed to be serious and dramatic but still has pantyshots, characters with big boobs). Many anime or manga fail in doing a story that keeps it's serious tone without throwing weak comedy or fan service. Sometimes it's just a show that is supposed to be psychological or dark but ends up as shounen action adventure series. This anime doesn't have that problem and consistently keeps its atmosphere throughout the entire series.
Story: (8/10)
The story
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rally catches your attention from the very first episodes setting that huge mystery behind Johan Liebert and series of murders that happen around main character, Kenzo Tenma. Plot focuses on main character's journey to discover the truth we as a viewers follow him trying to put all the pieces of this puzzles together. Other than that it's just your typical thriller movie constantly keeping you in tension and gives you the feeling that danger awaits on every corner. The setting is really realistic both in characters and environment. Anime contains 74 episodes and i have to admit that it's perfect amount to show everything important. It doesn't rush through anything neither it slows down on showing nothing relevant. I have only 2 complaints about the story. First would be that some of the episodes in first half seemed a bit unnecessary as it's just about Tenma going from town to town helping some random people and contributing very little to the overall story. Second is open ending. After few episodes in and knowing that anime adapts the whole manga you would expect it to have actual ending. Well, it does come to an end but final scenes live you with some questions and make you tell yourself the rest. I'm not fan of such endings and I feel it was unnecessary to leave viewers with such conclusion.
Characters: (9/10)
They did very good job in presenting all the main cast. Their motives are clear, we know exactly why they do it and what makes them who they are. Maybe I'm just overexerting but i saw lots of anime marked as psychological that had really weak character development and characters acting against their will just for the sake of plot. They don't try to sell you any cliche cast, instead there's a cast of realistic characters who just seem natural.
They made a really good job in creating a villain. He has little screen time what adds up to his mysterious persona. He mainly sits outside of stage pulling the strings and is always few steps ahead of main protagonist.
Other interesting character is inspector Lunge who adds another perspective to the plot. He's a person who knows very little about events happening he still manages to get closer and closer to solving the case.
Art: (8/10)
Art is important aspect of this anime. It really give you feeling like you're watching movie rather than anime making it more realistic what makes it a really good thriller.
Sound: (7/10)
It's nothing special, all soundtracks were so forgettable. It fits to the story but they haven't done anything above that, most of the soundtracks sound familiar to something you heard already hundreds of times.
Summary:
I would highly recommend this anime for those who what a serious story, or you are just tired of anime with school setting.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Nov 20, 2015
After in my opinion disappointing Sword Art Online about people trapped in MMORPG that has little to do with actual game, here comes an anime that makes those who played RPG games fall in love with this show. In this review I will sum up both seasons since season 2 changed my mind about some aspects.
Plot:
The world where the action takes place is similar to game, but since players get there after new update, world they were supposed to know well look a bit different. Story is logical and tries to explain every aspect of the world leaving only few minor plot holes. First episodes
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may go really slow as we get descriptions of combat mechanics, skill effects, classes and races. With lots of terms (raid, hp, tank, dps, kiting and so on) making this show addressed more for those, who are familiar with MMORPGs but still explain it for other viewers. This anime will remind you the great feelings you got from playing MMO. Story is based on light novels and the best comparison would be to To Aru Majutsu No Index. Lots of characters and minor events covering major part of the show making it look like it's doesn't have the end bu tin fact slowly set up scene for bigger and exciting plot twists and battles. Also as the plot wasn't meant for anime, seasons don't end at certain point. Interesting thing is that dying doesn't make you die for real (like in SAO) but you will respawn. That doesn't mean it doesn't have consequences or makes show less entertaining. Also it makes it more realistic when people die during the raid (healers won't survive AoE attack just because they're main characters). NPCs are also different from those from actual game and without spoiling too much I have to say that this anime made a really interesting point and it feels like author seriously wanted "if games were real" scenario.
Main characters at the start of the series have already level 90 (maximum but now they can reach level 100) so instead of watching how they fight with rats and skeletons to level up they will go for high level dungeons and fight raid bosses. Raids and wars are really spectacular and keeping in tension. The important thing is that most of the events are world scale that can make impact on thousand of players and NPCs.
Downside of this anime is that sometimes plot literally freezes for couple of episodes. Some parties and festival barely impact the plot and put an impact on doing funny situations making you consider whether to drop this anime or not. But then out of nowhere appears a threat that keeps you glued to the screen for couple of next episodes.
Characters:
If you thought that main character has to be super strong and swing his sword from left to right and beat everyone on his own then this anime will prove you're wrong. Shiroe is enchanter (support class that mainly buffs allies). Instead of powrful warrior this anime gives us strategist who stands on back lines and commands the whole group.
Akatsuki and Naotsugu looked like main characters in first episode, but they get little screen time and almost no character development (except few episodes in season 2). Akatsuki is short and loves main character and that's basically all information we get about her which is really disappointing. There are a lot of characters and even though we don't see then too often, all of them have impact on the plot and can be enjoyable to watch.
Charatcers worth mentioning are group of kids that made bad first impression on me and i thought their adventures will be just boring part of the plot. But in fact they were one of the best part. You will see how they go from unexperienced kids to well organized team that manages to actually do something. For example Tohya seems to be just for screaming and slicing minions, but throughout the series he proves to be more than this (especially in season 2). They have really great character development except for Serara who for me was annoying and boring from beginning to end.
Sound:
Database, database, just living in the database....
One of the best opening I ever heard and it's easy to understand why they kept it for 50 episodes. Other than that there are soundtracks that sound like they took it from actual RPG game. That's where it's worth to compare to Sword Art Online. Yes, it had good soundtrack, but it could be implemented in any other anime. In Log Horizon soundtrack is unique and fits to this fantasy world.
Art:
Similar to music. There's no point in doing animations with the newest style if you can make it the way it synergies with plot and music.
Also Minor spoiler about one of the best experience from this anime:
I liked how they showed status windows of all players after they all died in raid. When you played MMO you probably had that moment when either you died and just watched how other struggle or remained the only one alive and looked at all those bars saying 0hp knowing that it's over and you have to start the fight all over again.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Oct 1, 2015
Guilty Crown is an anime that despite pretty weak plot with plot convenient situations and poor explanations can be really fun to watch thanks to really nice animations and soundtracks made by Sawano Hirayuki (I try not to sound like a fanboy but in my opinion his soundtarcks are a good reason to give anime +1 to overall rate).
Plot:
So as I mentioned, anime has a lot of plot convenient situations and even if you can stand some of them at the beginning (most of them are just like in typical anime), you will soon or later get tired of this (unless you liked Sword Art
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Online or Owari No Seraph). Basically a lot of people close to main character turn out to be somehow connected to main events making you realize that random main character wasn't really that random. Also when it comes to revealing the truth at the end of first half of the series and in the last episode, you may actually wonder if author of the manga made it up in the last second or he just used the easiest possible solution expecting readers and viewers not to care about it at all. The whole rebel thing, infection, and "power of the kings" were good and at first glance it looks like really enjoyable show (I really enjoyed watching it) that is destroyed by previously mentioned mistakes.
First half of the series look like half-fillers showing operations of "undertakers" that don't even develop the plot and don't have significant aftermath later on. Thankfully first half of the series gives some boost of action and wake you up after those fillers. But then again it slows down just to make rushed up ending.
What made me stay positive about plot were some really emotional dramatic moments that I consider worth watching and second last fight.
Characters:
I liked Shu from the first episode, he is from those characters that usually doubt in their strength and don't have good social skills. His character development was really good, he has couple of major changes in his personalities, also he shows really well the problem with responsibility for having super power (shown as good as in code geass) + he had one nice badass moment.
Inori on the other hand can compete to become the worst character ever. first scene shows here escaping from guarded facility with precious item avoiding explosions and gunfires. That makes viewer expectations for later events. Unfortunately she turns out to be fan service without personality. She just stays close to main character and puts trust in him more than he does. She is always willing to act as his weapon. They don't explain why, and we actually don't know anything about her at all.
Gai is that cool looking mysterious leader of the group. I liked him just because he was person Shu compares himself to and it was enjoyable to show how they argue. Usually though he is just invincible guy who somehow knows everything and that is pretty annoying.
Ayase is a particular character among other side characters. She's on the wheelchair (how many anime with such characters have you seen?). One of the better characters, there are two really great scenes with her in the second half of the show. Also in my pervert mode I would add that she looks hotter than Inori.
So in the end this anime has a lot of things that will make you hate it, but on the other hand it can be enjoyable and worth giving a try if you like drama and super power genre combination.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Sep 20, 2015
Elfen Lied seem to be a good anime for a lot of people. Huge amount of gore and nudity in episode 1 attracts some viewers, some drop it after first few minutes.
Plot: (7/10)
Anime was created before manga was finished so 13 episodes cover only half of the story without making actual ending. Some scenes from last episode suggest like they were supposed to make second season but it never actually happened.
Coming back to actual plot. It's purpose is to show the problems of people who are different from others (the fact that they're bullied at school and no one wants to be their friend). So
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there are things called diclonius, who use invisible hands called vectors as weapons. All we know from anime is that there's facility where they experiment on them. Lucy, manages to escape from there but eventually looses her memory. So when Kouta finds her on the beach she is just innocent girl who repeats only one word and acts like a child allowing to show some fan service as she runs out of bathroom naked or main character tries to take out her wet clothes.
So after first episode where Lucy kills bunch of people they keep switching from "supposed to be funny" scenes and ecchi moments to scenes where real Lucy awakens and kills another bunch of soldiers that want to take her back.
Everything goes slowly and show kept me bored for most of the times. Every episode slowly reveals back stories of Kouta and Lucy just to put it all together in couple of last episodes. Most of the time is wasted for some everyday situations and talking about nothing and barely reveals anything that viewer would like to know. But if you find this anime interesting after watching 2 episodes, i would recommend switching to manga where you will see some plot twists and really nice and emotional ending.
Characters: (5/10)
The only characters that can be interesting are Diclonius, Nana and Lucy. Even in moments where for a couple of minutes they just describe their feelings. Lucy is fun to watch but unfortunately most of the time she is in her "child form" when she can be really annoying. Kouta is difficult to like, story starts with him taking stranger girl from beach and later he takes off her clothes. Her relation with Mayu seemed a bit awkward for me. Those two basically took a child from beach and started act like wife and husband and this part set me negatively to those characters.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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