- Last OnlineMar 9, 10:17 AM
- GenderMale
- BirthdayJan 18, 1994
- LocationFlorida via Maryland
- JoinedJul 7, 2014
Also Available at
RSS Feeds
|
![]()
Mar 16, 2015
I decided to give this series a shot because a few voice actors whose work I enjoy were involved. For the record; I haven't read the manga, or seen the original sub, nor am I a fan of ecchi. That said, I couldn't imagine recommending this series to anyone who is.
The story of Holy Knight is standard fare. An emotionally distant and duty-driven girl is compelled to sleep with an awkward, nervous boy, himself given a task he's not yet aware of. Said boy is best friends with a jealous, possessive girl, who is overflowing with one-sided affection for the boy. All of the (of
...
age) girls have massive tits. If you're expecting any twists, you might find one, but it's revealed so late in the game that it can only be hinted at. The whole OVA is about as eventful as a standard series pilot.
The writing – especially in the first episode – is riddled with poorly woven expository dialogue and lines that are just plain bad. "Oh not again, I can't believe my alarm didn't go off again!", followed by "geez Shin, you're late again!" "If you keep ignoring me - I mean, your studies, then one day I'll become a famous novelist and forget all about you, Shin, so there!" "You are one of the best students in my ancient folklore class, Chizuru." One character's incessant usage of acronyms is one of the most annoying habits I've seen dealt to an anime character, as a matter of fact it might top the list. At every moment, you are aware that these are characters, and that you are watching a show. The writers have seen to this.
Whenever I hear a diehard anime purist decry dubs as universally insulting to the hearing, I tune them out. I can't recall hearing a Funimation or Viz dub that wasn't at least solid, if not stellar. I hadn't heard a dub that seemed to justify such vitriol in my life, until I watched Holy Knight. Collins' performance as Lilith is the sole professional-quality lead work on display. Anthony Sardinha, Corinne Sudberg, and to a lesser extent, Michele Knotz, do well in the bit roles they're given, but their contributions are minimal. Talbott, Zekas, Pollack, and Nugent are especially inept. The ratio of wildly forced, un-inspired utterances to believably delivered lines is probably in the ballpark of 8:1, if I'm being generous. I was cringing for about an hour straight. I legitimately can't remember a dub that was this consistently horrid.
The score of Holy Knight does it's job in much the same manner as the art. It never felt the least bit out of place, but just minutes after finishing the series I couldn't remember a single note. Honestly, that's fine with me, but if you appreciate epic scores you won't find one here. The sound design is spotty, sometimes satisfactory, sometimes distractingly bad. At one point a burning torch is dropped, producing a sound like that of a tin can being dropped on a tile floor. It's a flaw, but in the grand scheme of things, it's far from the most glaring.
I went into this series without expectations, honestly hoping for the best. Needless to say, that's not what I found. Holy Knight is a kind of bad I'm not used to. It's an uncomfortable bad, not just because of the contrived dialogue, or the shallow characters, or the gratuitous and disgusting loli panty shots (oh yeah, that's a thing), it's that all of these sins have coalesced into a single insult to the medium. I see no more fitting rating than a 1/10.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
What did you think of this review?
Nice
 0
Love it
 0
Funny
 0
Confusing
 0
Well-written
 0
Creative
 0Show all
![]()
Aug 19, 2014
Monster is touted as a masterpiece of the psychological thriller genre, boasting some of the greatest characters you'll find in an anime, and a story that is close to unrivaled in the medium. I think of Death Note as quite possibly the most genius story ever executed in television, film, or text, and no show is mentioned in the same breath as Ohba's masterwork more than Monster. While I wasn't going into this series expecting something quite of that caliber, I was expecting a great deal of suspense, top-notch dialogue, and, what I expect from every series I take the time to watch, a fulfilling
...
ending. While there certainly were strong points in the show, enough to justify watching the entire run, I was let down largely on the first two counts, and entirely on the third.
I'll start with the characters. As you would expect of a show that runs for 74 episodes, the number of faces you'll become familiar with is significant. That said, no long-running show I can think of develops seemingly inconsequential characters like Monster. My favorite supporting characters include Rosso, Braun, Reichwein, Martin, Gillen, Müller, and the best character the show has to offer, Wolfgang Grimmer. My favorite characters tend to be the main protagonist or antagonist, Lelouch from Code Geass, Light from Death Note, Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist, but here I think Grimmer shined brighter than Dr. Tenma and Johan. I wish I could say that had everything to do with his appeal, but it was also a symptom of my disappointment with both of the primary characters.
I felt bad for Dr. Tenma, and wanted him to regain his freedom, but almost more on an intellectual level than an emotional one. This is a problem I had throughout the show. I got where characters were coming from, but the emotional attachment wasn't there. Most every character familiar with Johan described him as a 'monster', as 'pure evil', and there were even some expecting that he'd be the next Adolf Hitler. Psychopaths realized what he was at first glance. He had an uncanny ability to bend anyone to his will. His power and greatness were unquestioned. This was the case from the start, but I can't say I ever truly bought into it. Again, on an intellectual level, I can look at his resume and realize he's a threat to humanity that must be erased, but I never really felt it. And, given that the show revolves entirely around his life, my overall enjoyment of the show was handicapped by my relative apathy regarding it's title character. While he did have some of the most impressive lines, I found myself hating Lunge, the Baby, Roberto, and Eva more than 'the devil himself'.
Another inexpiable fault is the inability of certain characters with supposedly strong resolve to accomplish what they claim is their greatest goal. If you have a problem with individuals pointing guns at people whom they claim to want dead, letting at least 30 seconds go by, and ultimately not doing anything, then there are a few scenes you'll almost certainly take umbrage with. There is a point about midway into the show where the only logical ending would effectively end the show. Perhaps for that reason, that conclusion is dodged artlessly and everyone re-enters their respective roles.
It's a big story to have to tell, but around 40 episodes in I found myself dreading the time I'd have to spend to get to 74. And while that time is used to develop some characters rather nicely, the story moves at a pace that is gradual to a fault. For a supposed thriller, I only found a handful of moments that brought me anywhere near the edge of my seat, and they were too mild, scarce, and late into the show's run to tip the scale much in either direction. Real intrigue was drowned in minutia and storytelling that read more like a book report than a gripping tale. The oft attributed horror component was non-existent, as far as I could tell. I can't remembering feeling legitimate fear once during the show.
There were also some hypothesis and claims offered up, and dealt with in ways that left me wanting legitimate answers. Without spoiling anything, the question of split personalities, Nina's significant one-on-one with Gillen, and Johan's true plan and it's relation to Sievernich were all glossed over or dealt with poorly.
Regarding the art, Monster's animation quality is serviceable, when you take it's age into account. That said, the character designs always bugged me a bit. The way Naoki Urasawa draws faces, specifically noses and eyes, differs greatly from my preferred style. I don't believe any element of the art inhibited my enjoyment of the show in a significant way, but nonetheless I did find it to be burdensome.
The acting is fine (I watched the dub, for the record). I do feel that there were a few lines here and there that were underperformed, but I think Silverstein (Johan), Strassman (Nina), Seitz (Reichwein), and Platt (Eva) particularly did a fine job. The SFX were of a similar quality, a few questionable foley decisions, but generally solid. The music did it's job, as one would expect, not exceptionally impressive or poor.
Ultimately, I found myself wanting to see how everything ended up, but not needing to see the next episode like I would with Death Note, or Black Lagoon, for example. Within the last ten episodes the concept of urgency is introduced, far too late to make much of a difference. Some fantastic characters meet fitting conclusions, there's a level of redemption, and finality peeks it's head around the corner, but the way the ending is handled is tantamount to a cop-out. When a show is so wrapped up in finding answers, it's finale should provide more than Monster's did, especially considering the severity of what's left up in the air. Conceivably, the show could've gone on for another 70 episodes, or been wrapped up neatly. Ambiguity like that in a long-running mystery series seems to defeat the point entirely.
For the first 20 episodes or so my overall grade hovered around a 6.3, which dipped to a 5.5 a little over halfway in, then, with the ending, to a 4. I'm glad I watched Monster, if only because doing so eliminated all of the curiosity I had regarding it's purported quality. While Naoki Urasawa's opus had it's well-crafted moments, it's ambition outweighed it's intelligence, an unforgivable sin for a psychological thriller.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
|
