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Sep 13, 2014
A new season of manliness, a new season of awesomeness, a new season of crazy onomatopoeias, impossible poses and clichéd phrases which are so awesome that will make you forget that they are really cliché. Here it is, a new season of JoJo´s Bizarre Adventures and it will be this Cat´s pleasure to review it.
Welcome to The Neko´s review of JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken Part 3: Stardust Crusaders.
As we know, JoJo is divided into several parts, each with it´s own character, own plot but with similar style. Stardust Crusaders is the third part of the whole Jojo´s Bizarre Adventures franchise and works as a
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sequel to the first season of Jojo, which included parts 1 and 2, Phantom Blood and Battle Tendency.
The series starts with the revelation of DIO´s comeback to the series, who is after the remaining Joestars heads, and the journey of the new Jojo, Jotaro Kujo, and his companions in order to exterminate DIO once and for all.
This time the series took a more episodic nature and replaced the Hamon by new powers called Stands, a manifestation of psychic powers that takes the form of any given character´s Alter Ego. I can only imagine all the Jojo fans, when this was published in the manga, going "Awww my GAWD, that is soooooooo AWESOME", because even if now it´s not THAT original, when the manga was first published it was a kinda big deal. Now we have things like Persona that do things like that, but Jojo is different in the aspect that here Stands can take ANY form, ranging from an enormous ship to a little insect, each with its own abilities and weaknesses. So this episodic nature that the series took this time is shown in a ‘Stand User of the week’ format. Bad guy appears, Jojo and his friends have to deal with him, they have trouble at first, then they find a way to beat him and then they win in the most awesome way possible...most of the times. While there are some really fun, filled with action and comedy episodes, there are also a lot of episodes that end up being either boring or completely irrelevant, such as The Sun episode. This happens because the author of the manga thought that it would be cool to have the Stands named after Tarot cards, the thing is that then he had to use them all leading to some really unnecessary episodes here and there. The episodic nature of the show can also be bothersome to some people since Part 1 and 2 had a more over arching story. Also, this season is only the first half of Stardust Crusaders with more to come in 2015, so its ending really doesn´t conclude anything, nothing to worry about since its continuation is already announced.
But of course, this is still Jojo so we still have the things that make Jojo what it is, bizarre comedy, lots of action and cool phrases, so if you liked season 1 then you will most likely enjoy this season anyway.
The artwork in Season one wasn´t the best there is because of the short budget, but they still compensated with filters and colour changing to make it look cool enough despite the short budget. This time they have more money and it shows, the animation is more fluid, colours are more vivid and backgrounds are more detailed but they still keep all the things that made the first season´s animation so cool, all the change of colours, all the onomatopoeias, all the style is still here and it looks better than ever. The character designs are still Jojo too, lots of muscles and the cool hairstyles are still here. Jotaro´s design is the one I liked the most, it served its purposed which is to make him look like a badass.
In this part we have a new set of main characters starring the new JoJo, Jotaro Kujo and his friends, Mohammed Avdol, Jean Pierre Polnareff, Kakyoin Noriaki and the old version of Battle Tendency´s Jojo, the fabulous Joseph Joestar, Jotaro´s grandfather. Sadly, Jotaro didn´t live up to my expectations as a protagonist, he was to much of a badass protagonist than anything else, and is a kind of bland character. It seemed as if he was too forced into being a badass and that had it´s consequences. He lacked a lot of the charisma that the previous JoJo, Joseph, had. Still, he isn´t by any means a dislikeable character, but he is far from being one of my favourites.
Speaking of Joseph, he is back as an old version of himself this season, and boy did he make me worry at first. In the first couple of episode he was presented as a mature old man, almost completely different to the original Joseph Joestar, and I was "But...is this really the Joseph that we all know and love?" and it wasn´t until he starred in one episode that this series said "FUCK YES HE IS!" leading to one of the best episodes in the series where we get to hear his old phrases such as "OOOOOOOOH NOOOOOOO" and "Your next line will be...", so yeah, Joseph is still awesome.
On the other hand we got Avdol and Kakyoin as supporting characters who had some moments to shine here and there but there is nothing that stands out that much, they are nice characters, but I wouldn´t say they are amazing. Polnareff on the other hand was the source of most of the usual bizarre comedy and with his joyful personality (most of the time) he ended up being one of the more likeable characters of Stardust Crusaders, at least until now.
Sadly even if DIO came back we still don´t get to see much of him and his fabulousness on screen, he does have a couple of scenes, but for now he doesn´t do much, since he is to cool to go out and kill all the Joestars by himself. We have secondary villains every episode, but the only ones that stand out are Hol Horse and Enyaba, with other less important villains such as The Empress, which are more funny that any other thing.
The soundtrack in this part is composed Yugo Kanno who, as redundant as it may sound, isn´t Taku "God" Iwasaki, the composer of Battle Tendency. As such the only track that really stood out was the Main Theme, Stardust Crusaders, with the rest of the soundtrack being kinda forgettable. In the other hand the voice acting is still great for the most part, every seiyuu did a grat job with it´s character, the only complain I have is with Jotaro, voiced by Daisuke Ono, since his voiced lacked some emotion, even in moments where Jotaro gets hit, it´s not really his fault but is still weird see Jotaro getting damaged and still not showing any sign of emotion, not even in his voice.
This season features only one Opening and one Ending, the opening being "Stand Proud" by Jin Hashimoto, a song that, as always, captures almost perfectly the essence of the Part, is a hit-or-miss song, but for me it was a really cool theme. The ending is of course an 80's song, "Walk like an Egyptian" by the Bangles, is a nice song, but I still prefer the opening one.
As always Jojo´s Bizarre Adventures is still a really enjoyable instalment of the franchise, with some boring episodes here and there, sure, but enjoyable indeed. If you liked season one then there´s probably no reason why you shouldn´t watch this one, because even if it´s not as good as the first one in my honest opinion, at least not yet, it still has most of the things that made Season one so great.
Disappointed? Maybe a little since I was hearing so much things about this being the best part of Jojo´s Bizarre Adventures, and I still prefer Battle Tendency over this one, but this still provided me with lots of fun every week, more than what can be said about other series this season, and it is still Jojo, with its poses, its phrases, its over the top action and its bizarre comedy it will surely be enough to satisfy anyone who is looking for some MANLINESS this year. Now the second half is coming out on Winter of 2015 and I am not planning to miss it.
This has been The Neko and I wish you have a nice day/night.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jul 1, 2014
"This is a thousand monkeys working at a thousand typewriters. Soon, they'll have finished the greatest novel known to man." A quote from The Simpsons has never been so accurate, except that the monkeys didn´t end up writing a novel, they ended up writing the script for an anime adaptation. Oh, you don´t believe me do you?
Well, that´s what reviews are for, to convince people that the series you are reviewing is either good or bad.
So with no further ado, this is The Neko and I welcome you to my review of the show, Black Bullet.
The premise of the show is quite simple, is the
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usual "humanity´s last stand" kind of plot, but I´don´t really care for originality as long as the story is well done. Is it well done? Well, look at the number on the side of this review, does it seem like I think it´s well done? If the answer is yes then you need to check your eyesight, ´cause if you can´t see the number then I´m really worried about you.
The thing about Black Bullet´s plot is that it tries to be "dark" and "serious" but also tries several times to have comedy and fanservice with lolis, because someone thought that having a lot of lolis in a "dark" and "serious" show was a great idea, and it has been proven before that trying to mix these two opposites just like that, doesn´t work, I cannot take something seriously like that. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. This series also has, like I said before a little problem with the script, and by little I mean a BIG problem with the script. You see, when you actually listen to the kind of things the characters say, sometimes you might think "Boy, that line was really stupid", because sometimes the things they say doesn´t have any logic on then, like there´s is no way that the kind of things these characters say, would be said by an actual and sane person. For example, all you need for a villain in this series to spit up all his plans, is just a simple question from our main protagonist, Rentaro. I can´t really put the stupidity in the script into words, it´s something that you have to experiment to understand, but for doing that, you have to watch the show, which I do not recommend. But this is not all, oh no no no no no. The other thing that this series has is plot holes, yep, as if it weren´t enough with the shitty script. For example in the first episode we see everyone in some kind of refugee camp being attack by the Gastrea, the monsters that are attacking Tokio this time, the scene afterwards everyone is safe and happy behind the Varanium walls, the Gastrea´s elemental weakness, but we don´t know how did that happened, how did they pass from "total destruction" to discovering that Varanium is super effective against Gastreas and having the time to build the Varanium structures?. And this is just ONE plot hole, because you can pretty much take a random episode and find them by dozens. The show also likes to make use of Deus ex-Machinas, I counted four in total, if someone has counted more, let me know and you will win an imaginary hug. How cool is that? It also has a terrible pacing, too rushed at the begging, too slow by the end. So this series pretty much makes every mistake it can do. You could say that I should turn my brain of and enjoy the series, but is my belief that if a show wants me to take it seriously, and believe me this series is desperate to prove that I should, I should have my brain in the on-mode. Also from episode 8 and forward the show losses any sense of action, and has also this thing for increasing it´s problems from episode to episode.
The artwork was pretty much above average for me. I really like the colour palette that they used in this show, it makes it look nice, but the animation itself has some drops here and there, where the framerate really goes down, it is pretty noticeable. But the worst part, is that later on the series they start to use CGI to animate the Gastreas, and it looks so bad, It´s like I could get eye cancer just from looking at them, it´s awful. Some character designs are kinda good, except for Rentaro who is just a normal guy with a suit, Kisara who is the chick that uses a school uniform 24/7, and some of the lolis because in this show lolis have to belong to some kid of archetype and they dress as such, for example the Samurai Stereotype Loli will dress with, you guessed it, samurai clothes. About the designs that I like, they belong to either a secondary character that we don´t see too often anyway, or to Kagetane Hiruko the "main" villain, who actually seems creepy but elegant, just like a villain should look. The backgrounds are nothing out of this world but they are ok, nothing really AMAZING, but ok.
The soundtrack though, that´s the best part of the series, which is actually kinda sad if you think about it. It mostly uses the techno music that anime likes to use so much this days, but it´s pretty kickass when there´s a Gastrea on the scene, but when there´s is not any Gastrea or any threat of any kind to our protagonists and the series flips to it´s more light-hearted side it becomes pretty forgettable, but when is good, IS GOOOD. On the voice acting side of the things, voices ranged from character to character, for example, Rentaro´s voice is done by Yuki Kaji the same guy who did the voice for Eren Jaeger fron Attack on Ti... damn it I really wanted to finish the review without mentioning Attack on Titan, there goes my record. Anyway his voice acting is pretty solid, too bad that he doesn´t have any actual good lines to say. The voice from the main villain Hiruko Kagetane is also masterfully done by Rikiya Koyama who also did the voices for Takamura from Hajime no Ippo and Emiya from Fate/Zero, need I say more?
On the other hand we also have a secondary character, Shouma, whose voice actor, Shinichiro Miki, didn´t do the best of the job for this character in particular.
This show has only one OP and ED, the only noteworthy being the opening. It´s a fripSide theme, so if you are a fan of their style of music you will probably like this one, and no, I will not talk about the "similar to AoT" chorus at the beginning of the song. The thing about the OP though, is that someone had the bright idea to change the animation of the OP for a more spoilerific version, and not only it doesn´t look as good as the original, it spoils LOTS of stuff, not that is really important since this is a kinda predictable show anyway.
As I said the soundtrack was actually the best part of the series, so that kind of gives you an idea of what I think of the characters, doesn´t it?
I will focus mainly in the main four, Rentaro, Kisara, Enju and the "main" villain Kagetane.
Rentaro is pretty much your typical shounen protagonist, which wouldn´t be that much of a problem is this show wasn´t a SEINEN. What is a cliché battle shonen protagonist doing in a Seinen? Fuck if I know. But he is pretty much a walking cliché, he yells the name of every attack he throws, and he has some longass names in his sleeves, he practices some kind of martial art, he is the "good" guy, he can do no wrong, that´s Rentaro, and the only sense of development that this series has for him, is having him suddenly become a Gary Stu from episode 4, and that will be all the development for the rest of the series, you won´t find anymore of that here, plus Rentaro can be pretty stupid, and as such he is annoying and unlikeable.
Kisara is mainly the romantic subplot, because this show needed that too, and is not exactly the best romantic subplot . Kisara is a Tsundere, and the only development she gets is, hear this, becoming a yandere in the last episode ¡Yay!
Apart from that, and because of the fact that this show has a Gary Stu, they don´t really focus on her, and she doesn´t have that much screentime either, plus she is useless most of the time, so she is only there for the romantic subplot, great.
Enju is the "main" loli of the series and she pretty much embodies the archetype of the pervert loli, and is also the other romantic subplot, but this time for the lolicons. The thing that bothers me most about Enju is that even when her friends die RIGHT in front of her, no matter how many people discriminate her for being a "Cursed Children", no matter what problems may faze her, she just cries some minutes and then by the next episode she is the same exact pervert loli that she has always been. Really doesn´t she have some kind of trauma from all of that? ¡She is a freaking 10 year old! She should have some kind of trauma, or at least be depressed for days after that.
And then we have Kagetane, the "main" villain. If you were sharp enough you probably notice how I always write the word "main" between quotes, this is because in the case of Enju, the show just focus on her at the beginning, and then focus more on Rentaro since he is the Stu, but in the case of Kagetane I call him "main" villain because he is actually absent for most of the series, he has great presence at the beginning, then he disappears in episode 4, and reappears in episode 11, except that when he reappears he is not the villain anymore, he becomes another supporting character, and the show, again, chooses to focus more on Rentaro, which is sad because Kagetane was the only decent character, the only one with the decent dialogues, and he was a pretty decent villain, but that couldn´t last, not in this series. Something decent here? You might as well go look for a hentai that doesn´t show any boobs, it would be easier than finding something decent whether it´s in the story or the characters. In the meantime when Kagetane is not around they replace him with what I like to call "Discount Villains", which are by the way the worst characters in this series, which is actually quite a feat.
The secondary characters in this series serve only one real purpose, TO DIE. If a secondary character doesn´t die then he is around doing nothing, and they don´t have any screen time, and as such I can´t really get to like them. Many of the secondary characters are lolis actually, and this show often kills them just for shock value, because in terms of personality each and every one of them fits into one specific archetype, whether it is the Samurai Loli, the Nekomimi Loli, the Shy loli, the Imouto Loli, you name it.
So this shows follows something called the Theory of Moe Loli Replacement® (I am not the owner of this theory, all the rights belong to it´s respectful owner), in regards of the secondary loli characters. The Theory states that every time a loli dies in the series, she gets replaced by another one even more Moe in the next episode. This shows that this series only kills characters for shock value and as such, every character death, as everything in this series, is poorly executed.
Reading all this things must have made you think that I didn´t enjoy this show at all, doesn´t it?
As a matter of fact I did enjoy this show, but not for the reasons that it´s creators intended. The thing is that is show is in the category of "so bad that it is actually good", is just fun to see all the poor death executions, all the shitty dialogue, all the cliché characters, pointing them out and then laugh, A LOT. But as a show that tries to entertain for it´s story and characters it fails, horribly.
Final Judgement:
Black Bullet is a show that failed at everything it tried, becoming rather funny at how someone actually thought about making all of this. It´s story tries to be "dark" and "serious", but is just dumb and full of plot holes, Deus Ex-Machinas, comedy and even loli fanservice, ´cause why the fuck not? So it cannot be taken seriously, it´s characters have no real development and, except for Kagetane, they were all either unlikeable or the show didn´t have any focus on them, and Kagetane, the only decent character, is absent for most of the series.
Anything that this series has that is actually decent, in regards of story and characters, just gets screwed sooner or later, a show that is only recommended for those looking for a show that´s in the "so bad that it´s good" level.
This has been The Neko and I hope you have a pleasant day.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Jun 29, 2014
When I started watching this show I couldn´t help noticing how much similarities between this series and, the hugely popular, Elfen Lied existed. Both were a story about girls that were trapped in an investigation facility, that ended up escaping and then they find a really nice guy who ended up helping them, because, you know, he is THAT nice.
I really wasn´t much of a fan of Elfen Lied but I gave this show an opportunity anyway, and for the first couple of episodes it wasn´t that much of a disappointment. Of course, while I was watching the first episodes, which I thought were pretty
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decent, I forgot that both Elfen Lied and this series are by the same author, Lynn Okamoto, and it seems that he doesn´t have the ability to learn from her mistakes.
The show began pretty well in my opinion presenting us with a serious and dark story, and even if it is unoriginal, it is of my belief that an unoriginal story done the right way, can be a really enjoyable show to watch. We get presented to our main characters Murakami and Kuroha, and we also get presented to Kana afterwards in the second episode. I thought the mystery was nicely done and it kept me going back to this show week after week.
I thought Murakami was, at first, a really decent protagonist, he was pretty smart and could formulate some desperate but effective plans to get out of the dangerous situations he got into, but as series went on he ended up being only that REALLY nice guy, who is willing to sacrifice his life for saving others, and then end up being saved by some Deus ex-Machina, because, you know, he is the protagonist. But I will get back to the Deus ex- Machina later.
Kuroha was pretty much the typical childhood friend main love interest, she wasn´t really annoying but she wasn´t the greatest of the characters either, she didn´t have much personality either, apart from being the "I think I´m in love with the protagonist" character.
Kana was also a so-so character, her personality is pretty much like the typical tsundere, again not really annoying but not great either.
Then another character, Kazumi, got presented and there is when the show took downward spiral, because around episode four, when they were just in the end of a really serious scene, the scene afterwards, suddenly, out of nowhere, we got fanservice and comedy, and that really took a hit on the show. The sudden changes between serious and light-hearted with comedy and fanservice avoided me from having the ability to take this show seriously. How can I get invested in a dark and serious story if they are trying to get me horny at the same time?
The main problem here is Kazumi, which is probably the second worst character of the series, she is a pervert that is constantly firting with the main protagonist, Murakami, and is the cause of most of the fanservice scenes that can screw an episode on it´s entirety.
This got repeated almost every episode which really made me want to drop this show sometimes.
Then in the final episodes that´s where the REAL nosedive kicks in, as we get presented to other girls, I will focus only in the most important, as the others don´t really have that much screentime, and aren´t really interesting. This is where Kotori gets presented. Kotori is the most annoying character of the series following the "Big tits shy girl" archetype, and all she really does in the series is saving Murakami from lethal situation, because she has the most useful power, and the other thing she does is stutter, A LOT, it´s really annoying.
After that the show starts to use Deus ex-Machinas a lot of the time with the objective of saving Murakami, pretty much defying physics, logic and human anatomy in the process, it seems as if someone thought I´m stupid and I wouldn´t notice this things.
In the art department nothing much really stands out. The character designs are normal and the color palette is pretty generic. Is constant and it doesnt´t really take any nosedive, I will give them that, but this is studio ARMS we´re talking about, they have never been in the peak of digital animation, and with this show, they failed to prove that the can do something actually decent. Apart from that the artwork is just above average.
The soundtrack, apart from the first OP is pretty forgettable, with nothing much really standing out. I can´t really judge the voice acting since I don´t speak japanese, but if there´s one voice that really annoys me, is Kotori´s, her loud voice and constant stuttering almost drive me insane.
The first OP however is quite a piece, is an instrumental techno theme mixed with vocal choirs, and it was that glimmer of hope that made me thought that this show would redeem itself eventually, until it was replace by a death metal song by Fear, and loathing in Las Vegas, which not only didn´t fit the show, it was badly synchronised with the OP´s animation. Who had the brilliant idea to change the opening!? I will make sure he suffers when I kill him.
My enjoyment on the show was ruined by the aforementioned light-hearted comedy and fanservice that doomed this show, and if you add the aforementioned Deus ex-Machina, and what is easily one of the worst ending that I have ever seen, you will have me trying to destroy my head with a shotgun.
Final Judgement:
Gokukoku no Brynhildr started with a pretty decent note, and then it entered a downward spiral, teaching me a valuable lesson: "Never watch an ARMS anime adaptation of a Lynn Okamoto´s manga ever again.". Really, does Okamoto even learn from his mistakes? Or he has his head so full of "Elfen Lied is a masterpiece" that he just had to write the same thing with the same problems again, adding an alien twist to it?
It´s characters range from the forgettable to the utterly annoying, it´s story cannot be taken seriously due to the amount of stupid comedy and fanservice that it has, added to a shitty ending and Deus ex-Machinas. The art and sound departments are only above average.
A show that ended up being a complete disappointment and is not recommended for those looking something good this season.
This has been The Neko and I hope that you found this review helpful and that you have a pleasant day, night, or whatever.
This adorable kitty is leaving the scene.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Apr 23, 2014
Mushishi is the most simplistic yet beautiful series that I had the pleasure to experience until now and is one of the examples that shows the incredible variety that anime has.
Well then, ladies and gentlemen I welcome you to my Mushishi review. I hope you enjoy it.
Now, the story of Mushishi follows our protagonist, Ginko, as he travels around the world working as a Mushi-shi. So, instead of having an over-arching story, this show chooses to have a more episodic nature. This way of telling the story has its own pluses and minuses. For one hand, as every episode has a different story
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the show never drags on, you can watch the show in any given order and you don´t need to pay attention to every little detail fearing that it might be really important to the overall plot, but in the other hand, it has some consequences in the characters, but I will cover that matter later on the review.
So, as I said, every episode has its own story, usually involving Ginko trying to deal with a Mushi, the beings that the mushi-shis study, which in each episode create some kind of conflict. As such every episode has an interesting story, every one of them being fascinating from the beginning
to the end, and is very interesting to watch what the mushi from each episode can do. The only problem with the story is that if you are looking for something "exciting" or "cheerful" then you´ll have to watch something else, as the nature of this show is, most of the time, rather depressing and it doesn´t really have "cheerful moments". But if you can look past that, sit back, relax and go with the flow of the series, you will most likely be pleased with the story of every episode, because none of them is by any means predictable, so you never know if by the end of the episode you will have a happy ending or a sad one, which keeps you interested in every episode.
The artwork in this show can be described in one word: beautiful.
The animation for this show is, not only fluid and consistent, it is a pleasure for the eyes, the colours used in this series, especially when a Mushi is on the scene, makes it one of the most astonishing animation out there, and when you think that this anime is from 2005, I can only applaud Yuuki Nobuteru for his superb work in this series. The backgrounds in this series are also very well done having precious landscapes to look. The weak part of this animation, however, is in the character design, because, there are a lot of characters in this series that look alike, specially kids, and while it is understandable that given the episodic nature of the show, they have to introduce new characters every episode and some character designs will end up repeating themselves, it is still a little annoying to watch a character that looks almost exactly like that character from the past episode, however this is only a minor problem. The other problem is that when a character is at a certain distance his face disappears, which can be strange to look at. But, overall, solid and beautiful animation and great backgrounds.
This show´s music composer is Toshio Masuda, and he did an excellent job composing the soundtrack for the series, the soundtrack matches the nature of the series completely, is soothing, calm, relaxing and I love it. And speaking about relaxing the opening for this series, "The Sore Feet Song" by Ally Kerr fits the show as much as the soundtrack, is nothing really special, and is not something "unskippable" but it´s nice to listen to it in some episodes. The endings for this series are actually part of the soundtrack so they are really nothing very special. The voice acting is pretty solid and, while I have no complains about it, it´s nothing from another world and the only voice that really stands out is Ginko´s.
The characters in this series, as I said before, suffer from its episodic nature, because the characters in this series usually appear in one episode and they are gone the next one, the only exception being Adashino-sensei, a doctor and collector of paranormal items, who appears in three different episodes. But because the characters appear for one episode you really never get to like them much because of the lack of screen time. In the end, the only character that you end up getting attached to is Ginko, as he is the only character that appears in every chapter of this series, being him the protagonist and everything, not that I´m complaining Ginko is a great character and while he is usually laid back he is a complete professional in his work. But besides him while some of the characters in this series are pretty good you just don´t have enough time to start liking them.
So, this is a show that I enjoyed because it was very relaxing and the stories in every episode were unpredictable and interesting, but it´s something that you need to watch expecting that it won´t be "cheerful" or "exciting", but rather depressing even if an episode has a happy ending.
In the end, Mushishi is the perfect show to watch with a cup of the hot beverage that you prefer and relax and you will probably not get disappointed with the show.
And now I bid you farewell and I hope that this review has been helpful and that you have enjoyed reading this review as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Wait, is that what what I think it is? A second season? Mushishi Zoku Shou? Well, better late than never I guess, time to watch it. Adiós, to you all.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Mar 28, 2014
Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica is a show that disguised itself as a typical magical girl series but ended up as a deconstruction of the genre, doing a whole 360° and transforming an apparently innocent show into a dark fantasy series.
The story of Madoka Magica started up as a regular Magical Girl series, our young protagonist Madoka meets the "adorable" and "cute" magical creature Kyubey who
offers her to fulfill one wish, whatever it could be, and, in exchange, she would have to start being a magical girl.
So for the first two episodes they carry out this "normal" mahou shoujo plot as any other show
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of the same genre would, we see the magical girls fighting with their natural enemies, "The Witches" and the characters interact with each other as any other teenager would. But this is only the quiet before the storm.
In episode three the show turns itself upside down and becomes a dark fantasy, and we see the characters trying to unravel the horrible truth behind the witches, the magical girls and their inescapable reality.
The director of this series was Akiyuki Shinbou who also directed Hidamari Sketch a moe looking show. As such the artwork in Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica is also kind of moe which was part of the reason why nobody would have guessed that it would become such a dark series and thought that this would be only a straightforward and light-hearted show.
However when things get crazy and people start dying, getting suicide and going insane, the moe looking artwork makes a high contrast and makes everything even more disturbing.
The design of the main enemies the "Witches" is also used to make a contrast as they have a rather cartoonish look that make them seem harmless while, in reality, they are lethal monsters.
The animation itself is fluid and consistent and it looks even more amazing in the battle scenes that is when it truly shines.
The soundtrack can be described in one word and that particular word would be "EPIC", the reason behind this is only one and that is because Yuki Kajiura is its composer.
The fact that Mrs. Kajiura composed the soundtrack of this series was kind of a clue about the show´s real nature, as she is usually involved in series with dark tones such as Fate/Zero and Kara no Kyoukai. But when this soundtrack really shines is in the battle scenes, where we can hear the orchestra with the vocal choirs in the background, and I´m a sucker for those.
As for the openings and endings, the opening was "Connect" by ClariS and it was
a very nice song, granted, but it sounded kinda like it was made for a completely
different show and, as the series went forward, this opening ended up being less and less fitting for the show, but it was very catchy so that´s really my only complain about it.
The ending theme, however, it´s a completely different story because it fit the show perfectly, the ending theme is "Magia" by Kalafina and the ending became unskippable for me just because of that song, it´s simply awesome.
In regards of the voice acting it was pretty solid I really have no complains about it and Chiwa Saito did an amazing job as Homura because she managed to give feelings to a character that, at first, apparently had none.
For a 12 episode series, this show has some heavy development for every one of it´s characters and by the end you will probably be attached to most of them which will only make the trauma worst when you see them dying RIGHT in front of your eyes in the most dramatic and sad way possible.
The weakest character in this series is probably it´s protagonist, Madoka, because she is very indecisive on whether being a magical girl or not because even if there isn´t something she wants so much that she would risk her life for, she feels the need to help people and to help other magical girls in their fight, so there is a kind of dilemma, but when I thought about it I asked myself "If I had seen the kind of sh*t this girl has seen, would I have done something different?", and the answer to that is NO because everyone would be scared if someone told them to risk their life like that even if by doing so they can have a wish granted. So even if she is indecisive she has a very good justification for it.
The series ended great and it had the two things I love the the most in any kind of medium: a dark story and a fantasy setting, plus it looks and sounds incredible. How could I not like this show?
So, people, do not be fooled by appearances because this is NOT your typical Mahou Shoujo, so if you are looking for great character development, a story with A LOT of plot twist (plus sad and traumatic events) and an awesome ending to the series, you owe it to yourself to watch this series.
For me this series was a 9.4/10 but I can´t use decimals on MAL so it ended up with a 9/10.
So I will see you on my next review I hope. I bid you farewell
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Mar 15, 2014
So here I am with my second review, this time about Jojo´s Bizarre Adventure.
As with my last review, feedback will be very appreciated. Well then let´s begin
Story (7/10):
The story of Jojo´s is quite simple and straightforward, we have our villain that wants to take over the world and our protagonist that wants to defeat the villain and save humanity.
The thing about this series is that it doesn´t take itself too seriously, I mean at all,
because not much of what happens has any sense or logic, everything is over the top and they like to explain everything with our protagonist special power "The Hamon" (or Ripple
...
in the dubbed version) that would be Jojo´s equivalent of other powers like the Ki from DBZ.
So, in the end, they do all kind of things that defies logic and the laws of Physics and the only explanation that we get is "Because Hamon can do it".
But, as I said before, this series doesn´t take itself too seriously, it is one of those series in which you have to turn your brain off in order to watch and enjoy.
Another thing about this series is that it has two stories in it, because it addapts parts 1 and 2 from the manga, being the first arc Phantom Blood, that lasts 9 episodes, and the second arc, which I found more enjoyable than the first, Battle Tendency that lasts the remaining 17 episodes.
Art (8/10):
The character design was quite strange for me because every man in this series was so big and muscular and, until now, I wasn´t really accustomed to this so it was kinda weird to watch the series at first, but once once I got used to it, i ended up liking the artstyle. Another strange thing about the artstyle were the colours that were used because they were shiny and vibrant they changed very often, for example in one second you have a red house and the in the other one you have a blue house, although this kind of change was often seen in the battle scenes, and was made to match the over the top nature of this show.
Sound (8/10):
The background music for the first part is rather orchestral and it fits to the tone and ambientation of this arc so it does it´s job quite well. But in the second arc ,when the ambientation changes, this background music gets replaced by jazz, funk and, most of the time, dubstep.
I´m not joking, we have dubstep in this show. So, while it matches the tone of the arc well, it can be quite weird watching a battle, for example, and hearing dubstep on the background sometimes.
Now as for the voice acting, while most of the characters are well done, the real stars for me are Sugita Tomokazu (the voice of Sakata Gintoki of Gintama and Kyon from Haruhi Suzumiya) as Joseph Joestar and Koyasu Takehito (the voice of Katasugi Shinsuke in Gintama) as Dio Brando, they really make a great representation of their characters.
As for the openings and endings, the first opening is JoJo ~Sono Chi no Sadame~ by Hiroaki TOMMY Tominaga, and the second one is Bloody stream by Coda, and both are very catchy and fit the show very well.
The ending is Roundabout by the legendary band YES, and it was a damn good ending, plus because it is a song of 8:29 minutes long they were able to change the part of the song in the ending from chapter to chapter, which was quite awesome.
Characters (7/10):
Most of the characters in this series were quite simple and, during the first arc, even cliche.
Jonathan Joestar is the typical shonen protagonist, he is kind, strong, always tries to protect everyone and is a true gentleman. Then we´ve got Dio Brando, the villain that is evil just because he likes to be evil and Speedwagon, Jonathan´s sidekick, that is useless in battle but is still loyal as a dog.
Then in the second arc the characters become more complex and more likeable than in the first arc, even the villains are more entertaining to watch.
In this part the protagonist Joseph Joestar, Jonathan´s grandson, is more impulsive and rude than Jonathan but this is actually what makes him more likeable.
Then the sidekick, Caesar A. Zeppeli, a character that is the complete opposite of Joseph and is actually useful in battle.
this is actually what made Battle Tendency far more enjoyable than Phantom Blood for me.
Enjoyment (9/10):
In the end what matters most while watching a show like Jojo´s Bizarre Adventure is the enjoyment.
So did I enjoy it?
Absolutely yes!
This show is just mindless fun and if you don´t try to explain everything with logic and go with the flow of the series, is a very entertaining show to watch.
Overall (8/10)
Wether you like this show or not will be decided by your ability to turn your brain off so if you enjoy over the top series like Gurren Laggan and you are looking for a show that is just to have a good time, you will probably love Jojo´s Bizarre Adventure.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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