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Oct 30, 2019
spoiler heavy review as im going to be discussing some of its more devloped parts such as the tree root thing, the fate franchise, the nasuverse
I have not read the source material so i am by no means coming at this subject from an experts perspective this is more just a review of the anime and some of the more surface level things i can take away from it.
secondly i watched the entire thing dubbed and it was an excellent job particular props go out to David wald as ryuzoji, morgan garret as eriko, eric vale, as takuya, kara edwards as kaori, Barry
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yandell as takuya's father really the whole cast did exceptional but ryuzoji is just so on point
the pacing of any vn adaptation granted it tries to cater to each route of the vn is always going to suffer. that said i see alot of people pointing out the parallels to steins gate, for that reason im going to just acknowledge it and then expunge on its "other" influenced related properties.
firsty the nasu'sverse conception of the ""root"" feels so well represented by the vn's (The ""Auto Diverge Mapping System" (A.D.M.S.)) especially with the anime ending the way that it did with takugi and his daughter at the end of the anime at the birth of the universe. better articulated here and in the visual novel at least the manifestation of this concept as a conceivable entity then portrayed in any nasuverse material I've seen which is like a nice little aesthitic thing but its not really that important as far as i know pertaining to the story
now finally on to the story yes the story itself, the first episode has a very captavtivng hook i went into this show completly blind other than the knowledge of its "based on a visual novel" as someone who considers himself "a nasuverse fan" i was expecting something ecclectic but the first episode does a fairly nice job at introducing its characters and creating a sense of mysticicsim around its supernatural elements.
the girls in this show are hot love there designs
the first route is rather straight forward and can be enjoyed with probabbly the least amount of investment into the shows mythos and grander narrative as its most similar to steins gate's arc were its trying to alter a determined outcome its on a much smaller scale but the sg refrences are most prevelent in this route
after a bit of exposition as to pertaining their postion in episode 7 we go into the mio route which had its strengths story wise but as a character and the whole love triangle dynamic just being a hard thing to pull off sort of made the romantic lead in this route not to my taste to be honest i think as a story thou it was probabbly one of the better parts of the anime
then it just sort of meanders really til we finally get to della granto the big second act
which i had no idea was comming at all and thus i think were the primary cirticsims of this adaptation will be directed at its lob sided arcs 18 episodes in normal world and then 8 episodes it goes full isekai similar to muv luv in that there is a genre shift which was a bit odd at first but after the shock wears off you get down to it and there were some strong episodes in this arc but overall it just felt rushed the prison break episodes were cool even if they dont nessicarily make sense if the ""emperor"" knew who it was all along they still felt alright but just kind of logically inconsistent but one who looks for logical consistency in anime is
someone who has never watched an anime before so i can forgive this ""plot hole"" for the lack of a better word
the final arc is fine but as with all of the dela granto parts they feel way rushed and totally off key
that second ED thou is a banger
i concur with HaXXspetten's review that its more valuable as a piece of anime and vn history then it is interesting itself
i was gonna go on about deluze and gutarri's concept of a body without organs to explain ryuzoji but this review is long enough and the show merely glances over the philisophical parts with an anime kant in one scene im sure the vn is much more thorough in this regard but overall enjoyable soundtrack is great its a fun watch just to be like OH thats where x troupe originates from
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jun 26, 2019
This January there was some strange news from China, the airing of a Karl Marx animated series usually called Karl Marx the anime, but actually titled The Leader. There was quite a bit of fuss on news sites and social media, but oddly once episodes started floating around the net it quickly disappeared. It doesn't seem to have gained much traction even in the circles that make image reactions and jokes.
I found a youtube channel that not only uploaded all seven episodes but had also fansubbed the Chinese dialogue into English and Russian. I watched the whole show, and I think I see why it
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didn't last. Using the channel statistics as a guide, episode one has 100,000+ views, episode 2 though plummeted to 15,000 and the drop continued with the last episode getting around 7,000. There's a lot to untangle so I'm going to break it down a bit.
**Expectations**
I wasn't expecting much going in, its a biopic of Karl Marx that's seven episodes long. Each episode is around 24 minutes long, but at least four of those minutes are dedicated to credit sequences and a preview of the next episode. I was expecting more of a brief timeline and introduction to his ideas and inspirations. This seems to be what they were aiming for and some episodes mostly live up to this but the rest fall quite short.
The Look
Bluntly the show is very incompetent, both in animation and story structure, it seems to have deliberately gone out of its way to show off how poorly made much of it is. There's no consistency, it switches between 3D and 2D animation styles arbitrarily, the models are extremely janky in movement and stick out from the backgrounds. They often look creepy especially when laughing.
The models are also recycled heavily, Marx doesn't appear to age or change his clothes much from age 17 until the 1850's when he starts to show the beginnings of a beard. His wife Jenny is usually seen wearing her wealthy noblewoman dress and her maid is wearing a sexy formal French maids outfit. The crowds are some of the laziest I've ever seen, a good chunk of multiple episodes are dedicated to Marx giving a speech, and we get reaction shots from the audience, but what's weird is that these audiences usually stay motionless until the speech is finished, and then they applaud robotically. Most do not even emote during, and many not in the front row despite being clearly visible often do not have faces.
This is not the worst example of lifeless crowds, this is only the first example. From the first episode, about two minutes in
It looks cheap and it's very jarring. Even the show opener highlights many of the worst features of the animation. But what's really strange is that the first episode is the cheapest looking one, every other episode while not perfect is an improvement. Now animations having spikes and drops in quality is nothing unusual, budgets of both time and money can affect production, but I've never known the opening episode to be the one that's the cheapest looking. I honestly had to pause the episode multiple times to process what I was looking at, it's not just that it looks bad, it often actively confuses.
I think the last episode looks the best, and it's much easier to follow, but that's mainly because aside from an epilogue it focusses mostly on Marx coming to terms with his age and ill health. The section with him and his wife Jenny was surprisingly quite emotional.
**The Education**
I was expecting this to be a brief introduction friendly to people who knew nothing of Karl Marx, and I think that was the intent, but it often falls short. I personally think it might be better to skip episodes 1 and 2 and start with 3, not only do the production values increase but not much is lost. Though later episodes do still have some pretty serious issues.
It presents the information in small chunks, but sometimes it does so in a way that only makes sense if you were already familiar with the topic at hand. The bits on Hegel and Kant are pretty blatant examples. Episode 2 covers the deep impression Hegel made on Marx, particularly the "Dialectic" but it doesn't explain what that is, and both philosophers and many others that pop up in the show are reduced to some very quick summaries that rely on terms that aren't in common usage.
Another time Marx is outlining his ideas on Historical Materialism, and his brief explanation is overlaid random scenes on a street in Brussels, but the connection between what he's saying and the imagery is not made clear.
Episode 5 the highpoint for me, is the best at this, it takes its time explaining some of the passages from Capital, and its framing works in the episode. It also has effective use of colorful imagery, the Vampire like a capitalist relationship. Other than that its main problem is its brief run time, big and important ideas and lessons are briefly mentioned and then everything has moved on.
**The Revisionism**
This overlaps a lot with both education and looks, but I wanted to make this its own section for clarity sake. While focussed almost exclusively on Marx, -with one exception to be dealt with later- it does reference and introduces, often for less than a minute some of the other political radicals that Marx rubbed shoulders with. Including his criticism of them. with the exception of Ruge whose briefly mentioned before he appears everyone else Marx interacts with just turns up is introduced by a brief nameplate, cross swords with Marx and either immediately leaves to be banished forever, or like Engels sticks around to become his admirer.
Episode 4 takes this to the extreme. Wietling walks into the Marx home, is briefly introduced for his accomplishments, he then talks and moves incredibly smugly, talks about Christian communism for a bit and toasts himself before Marx speaks up. Every part of this scene, the dialogue, the character movements, facial emotions, etc. Is telling the audience to dislike him, but the argument between him and Marx is so quick and surface level its mostly just angry words. The only part of the disagreement that's clear between the two if you don't already know all about their ideas is that Wietling thinks workers allying with the bourgeoisie is a mistake because they are enemies, and Marx disagrees because of his views on history.
Who was right? Well, we're supposed to sympathize with Marx and Wietling literally storms out of his house never to be seen again so I guess that's a win for Marx*. The International Working Men's Association is depicted as being the soul fruit of the labor of Marx, and it largely accords with his views. The reality was that it was a diverse body full of people he couldn't stand and didn't fall under his direct control until 1872 when it promptly hemorrhaged members and collapsed.
In episode 6 there is a Marx/Bakunin standoff at the Hague Congress, Marx ridicules Bakunin as a conspirator, Bakunin has no allies, and he and his group are expelled. In reality Bakunin was never at the Hague Congress, Marx's motion to expel Bakunin failed, he was later expelled for questioning the new General Council, and when he left the majority of the membership also left, either to join him or like the other non-Marx non-Bakunin aligned groups like Blanqui's supporters simply to get away from the direction Marx was driving. The narration and the final episode don't acknowledge this at all, they give the impression that Marx's decision to prevent a split of the international, by well splitting the international was roaring success.
This episode (heh) demonstrates a key failing in The Leader. It's supposed to be biographical, but it won't tolerate even mild and universally accepted criticism of Marx as a political advocate or as a human being. Marx is apparently faultless when I saw they were including Helene Demuth the maid I wondered if they'd dare depict him getting her pregnant. They didn't, it'd probably get in the way of depicting his relationship with Jenny as a fairy tale romance. His well-known binge drinking is also absent, at one point he even criticizes other revolutionaries for drinking too much. His behavior with his enemies real and imagined is always depicted as noble and correct, but it can't go into detail about their opposing views and criticisms even to set up their defeat, so it all comes across as extremely shallow, which also makes Marx the character seem shallow and clueless. Marx never really convinces by the power of his argument, he just registers his dislike and the reactions of the characters do the hard work of presenting this as a victory to the audience.
**Self Sabotage**
Again this is tied in with all the other examples. A bizarre fault with the show is that it kept undermining what it was trying to achieve. An early scene in episode one that seems based on that famous scene from Good Will Hunting with the Bully is supposed to establish Karl Marx as a genius but it totally undermines itself. Marx does this by reciting a very simplified explanation of Kant's views on dogmatism and skepticism, which shouldn't be a problem, but this is shown to stump all the other students, and more importantly, the scene immediately before that was Karl Marx in a classroom listening to his teacher tell him this. So we're supposed to be impressed by his ability to remember basic information told to him three hours earlier.
Another example in episode 3 and 4 they address the poverty of the Marx family, but each time this done while the maid and his wife are onscreen in there expensive clothing, because they were too cheap to update their models. Shortly after criticizing Wietling, Marx starts ripping into Kriege's ideas on universal love, specifically the absurd notion that capitalists and lenders can be reached by appeals to their better nature. He's saying all of this to his good friend and dependable comrade Friedrich Engels, whom the show has established is a factory manager and was moved to become a Communist because witnessing the plight of the working poor appealed to his better nature.
Lest you feel I'm being a bit hard, I personally agree with the criticism of Kriege, it's just that The Leader is just giving out mixed signals in its incompetence.
Last but not least, there's the case of Pierre Proudhon. Engels gives Marx a copy of his Proudhon's new book Philosophy of Poverty. While Marx is holding the book unopened, two random people start throwing out snippets of Proudhon's beliefs. At which point Marx still holding the unopened book starts ranting about Proudhon's "Petits-bourgeois" socialism and declares he will write a criticism called Poverty of Philosophy. It was at this point that I wasn't sure whether some of the instances of self-sabotage were deliberate or not, Marx did write Poverty of Philosophy as an attack on Proudhon, and for many years it was considered a masterpiece in Marxist criticism.
Until people started reading Proudhon's book, where it was discovered that many of Marx's criticisms were incredibly inaccurate if not made up.
**Propaganda**
AKA, the reason this was really made. The Leader isn't really supposed to be an educational text, its made to capitalize on Karl Marx and use his legacy to legitimize the Chinese Communist Party. The CPC fully supported the creation of The Leader, particularly the Propaganda Department of the Communist Youth League and the Central Office for the Research and Construction of Marxist Theory were involved.
It was made and released just before the 200th anniversary of Karl Marx's death, and the first speech Karl Marx gives on the show “Reflections of a Young Man on the Choice of a Profession” was also chosen as an extract for Xi Jinping's speech commemorating the 200th anniversary.
“If we have chosen the position in life in which we can most of all work for mankind, no burdens can bow us down, because they are sacrifices for the benefit of all; then we shall experience no petty, limited, selfish joy, but our happiness will belong to millions, our deeds will live on quietly but perpetually be at work, and over our ashes will be shed the hot tears of noble people.”
Even the titles for the episodes sound like they were taken from propaganda posters
1. Different Youth
2. Defending the Rights of the People
3. New World View
4. Scientific Socialism Shines Brightly
5. Great Work Das Kapital
6. First International
7. Marx Forever
The name of the series The Leader isn't exactly subtle. But in case you didn't get it the last part of the final episode really drives it home. The ending credits are a timeline of key events in Marx's life, except for episode seven. In that episode, the timeline is replaced with a history of Marxism-Leninism, through to the present day in the People's Republic. Complete with a narrator praising Mao Zedong, then Deng Xiaoping then the Three Represents and then finally Xi Jinping.
Xi Jinping's new era of socialism with Chinese Characteristics together will bring the people forward into a new era for China
The intention is, of course, is crystal clear, Karl Marx is the indisputable leader of Communism, and the CPC is the heir to Communism, and so it is the heir to Karl Marx.
There is some attempt to justify this posture though, in an early episode Marx is absolutely indignant at the oppression of peasantry by the landlord class, and the Paris Commune is criticized for not having strong central leadership. Also, Marx did briefly talk about the importance of theory adapting it to historical conditions and reality. Which the narrator echoes at the end by claiming that Maoism through to Xi is just the Sinification of Marxism.
I also think though this is speculation that the propaganda potential of the series is the explanation for its poor production values, especially in earlier episodes. The series premiered on the 28th of January, with an episode a week, meaning it ended roughly around the anniversary date. If the decision to make the series had come late, with the anniversary being the hard deadline it must reach, then that would explain why the earlier episodes are the worst with the most obvious time and cost-cutting. The later episodes which look much better would have had more time available to work on. But even in the last episodes, there are obvious signs of short cuts in some sequences.
**Conclusion**
I think The Leader is doomed to be a curiosity unless the CPC believes it was successful at propagandizing to the youth of China I can't see this experiment being repeated. Its a shame but I don't recommend it, it's not without its charms, but the combination of animation issues, shallow information, and propaganda distortions -and there were many more examples I could have listed- leave this as something best avoided.
Which is a shame, as I don't believe the idea of an animated series is without merit, the Manga adaptation of Capital was largely a success, the films Young Karl Marx and the West German film about Rosa Luxemburg were very informative and interesting to watch, and historical drama is becoming increasingly common and more refined. If the CPC didn't cobble this together to meet its targets and it was allowed artistic freedom it could've been something great. For all its faults the final episode was quite good so the people doing the actual work of making the production seem to have been capable of doing good work.
* Incidentally this same episode covers the revolutions of 1848, during which time many of Europe's bourgeoisie eventually allied with their despotic aristocracy to destroy the more radical workers and student revolutionaries. So it seems like Wietling was largely correct on that point but this is never addressed.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Apr 27, 2019
I love me some big anime tiddies. every now and then to how should i put this use it as a pallet cleanser for when us western weebs get to caught up in the "artistic merits of japaneese animation" not to say there's any thing wrong with you know more how should i put this shows that are deeper then to love ru darkness, yes this show is shallow its the lowest common denomnator and yet i cant help but admire its simplicity its cliches its idiotic premises its shameless ness but lets get to what the real important part of this anime is
the
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girls there all smoldering hotter than the passion of 1000 white hot suns Yui is my favorite tho
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Apr 25, 2019
firstly let me state that this review DOES include my perspective on this series future installments, YES the sequel Seasons are also 10/10's this is, in my opinion, the anime of the decade for the 10's if that means anything
Story: I kept seeing Durarara! on the main site for and finally decided that I would try it, get good reviews, man, am I so glad that I did. The storyline for this anime was by far, brilliant. It was executed in such a fascinating and unique manner. It revolves around several people, each with their own dark secrets and pasts, that are
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intertwined and shows the events that lead them together and the problems that ensue from each encounter they have. Every person and event is somehow intercorrelated in direct and indirect ways in Ikeburo, the setting for the anime, propelling the story forward towards a climatic and an extremely fitting ending. Not everything was all neatly tied at the end but then again, it shouldn't have been because nothing is ever perfect and not all problems can be solved completely. The anime switches from present time to flashbacks correlating seemingly unrelated events, which was done very nicely, and there is twist after twist so I was kept guessing and left surprised episode after episode. The story has a clear direction and had plenty of humor so I was kept laughing despite the serious events going on and so didn't feel bogged down or depressed. The suspense and humor kept me hooked and I kept wanting to watch until the very end.
Animation: Amazing and perfect for the mood of the anime. It was not sparkly, glossy, and shiny like most modern anime nowadays and I am really glad about that. Now don't get me wrong. Though I do love modern animation and how vibrant and rich in color it can be, this anime took on a different style that wonderfully suited the aura that it was trying to project. It is drabber in color and everything is usually washed in a dark tone except occasionally when they want to show the color of a gang, such as Yellow Scarves or Blue Collars, or to emphasize red eyes of the Slasher or a character of importance but this anime has some dark content and so the coloring was very fitting. Even though the coloring may have been washed down, the details are the reason for the high rating. They add little details to everything that may be missed by many but that really stood out to me because it gave each character and the anime in general more personality. Cell phones had individual charms, there were references to different animes/mangas, each character wore certain types of clothing, important people could be seen secluded in the background where their presence would later be signified, even the gray background people who didn't play a significance in the anime had enough detail that they looked unique and were not left faceless, and houses and rooms within the houses were littered with a mess of papers or decorations that described the personality of the character living there. I don't see traits like that in other anime. Usually, background people either have no features or are left looking homogenous, houses/rooms usually look generic, and there is often little to no care to minute items like phones or mugs or whatnot. I can't forget to mention that the animation of the people was done beautifully. Everyone looked distant and expressed their emotions perfectly and often humorously whether it was through the eyes alone or a slight contortion of the face or even through the way they walked and fought. It was fluid, especially with fighting scenes or with Shizou hurling signpost or vending machines, and never awkward so I have little bad to say about animation.
Sound: I was a huge fan of the first opening and ending and 2nd opening through the 2nd ending was rather generic and forgettable. The first opening in itself was enough to get me to watch the anime though I didn't know what it was about. It was catchy and very cool which is rather hard for an anime to come across and yet this opening captured that essence wonderfully. The ending was fun and upbeat lessening some of the heavy content and nicely done. I liked how it represented how each character was tied to another and showed off their individual personalities. The 2nd opening basically described the direction of the 2nd half of the anime and the complications that were going to ensue and was catchy as well. I liked the details it had, such as the background colors for the three middle school kids, which took me a while to catch on to and I'm sure there are plenty of other slight details that I missed but I might get now if I rewatch it. The soundtrack was nice and had a few pieces that stood out but was on occasion forgettable. Despite the few generic pieces, on the whole, the music really added to each scene to make it more creepy/disturbing or suspenseful depending on the scenario. The Slasher theme was by far so creepy that I can still remember it which means the piece did its job. The voice actors and actresses were spot on and did a brilliant job of the conveying the emotions of the characters and adding depth. Rarely did a character fall flat and a lot of that is due to the VAs.
Overall: The intertwining of events and characters and reshowing of events in different perspectives while constantly switching from present to past creates for a unique anime that kept me hooked and surprised from episode to episode. I repeat, go see this anime if you haven't already. It is not to be missed.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Apr 12, 2019
Animation:
The first thing you have to talk about in an anime is the animation! Clannad has never been something to write home to about, but I was pleased to see After Story had some much-needed improvement. Movements were more fluid, facial expressions are TOP NOTCH and really enhance the quality of the scenes, and the backgrounds looked great. I assume the art style was just to keep it in-line with the visual novel and as a result, we have Nagisa's eyes. (UPDATE: In 1080p it SHINES with clear, crisp animation. However, in darker scenes the animation gets cloudy and degrades in quality).
Sound:
The opening is regarded
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as being one of the best in all of anime fandom. I completely agree and as the series progresses the opening gets better, due to events in the show. The ending is ok; not exactly as good as Secret Base from AnoHana or the ending from the first series, but still decent. The shows actual music is hit or miss. It's a very visual novel-y, which I tend not to like. Fate/Stay Night (also a visual novel originally) had a superior score, redone by Kenji Kawaii. There is one thing that must be said though. In all the moments it has to the music REALLY pulls through and makes the scene. By the time you finish episode 16, you'll understand what I mean.
The show's dub is mediocre. I wound up watching it subbed and I'm glad I did. Tomoya's voice actor is phenomenal. Every emotion is brought to life as he speaks and it's incredibly convincing. The rest of the cast is also quite good. Akio is melo-dramatic and theatrical. Sanae is always amusing in her comedic crying fits over bread. Fuko is as childish as ever.
Characters:
The biggest problem with an anime based on a visual novel is that the main character is usually shovelware. This DEFINITELY was NOT the case with Clannad After Story. In fact, Tomoya was one of the most excellent leading characters I have ever seen. All his expressions, reactions, and dialogue is very believable and contains great depth. Granted he isn't as scripted as Lelouch from Code Geass, but this allows the viewer to fill into his role. Thus experiencing the emotion in a more first-hand kind of way. I was never really a fan of Nagisa. Her animation really lets the character down, but in the later parts of After Story, she really comes into her own. Akio is a refreshing character. Managing to be both serious and comedic in equal proportions. The rest of the harem isn't really shown much, but that's understandable considering the flow of the story this time around.
Story:
Clannad After Story is a medley of emotions. You'll laugh, shed tears of sadness and tears of joy. You'll feel yourself in the story. The first part of Clannad After Story, which I really enjoyed was when we get to see into Misae's (the dorm mother's) past. That story could EASILY hold its own anime. Very romantic and very fun. The ending was a tad bit stupid though, but it was the predictable ending. The arc about delinquents and gangs was tedious, but it's worth watching to reach the true story of Clannad. Tomoya's life with his family. The ending wasn't what I had hoped for, although most viewers will be satisfied with it (depending on your preferences of course). At the very least it won't leave you bitter. The ending is very visual novel-ish. You "unlock" the true route when you collect enough of an item. Despite that, it was a decent ending and the rest of the show's story is phenomenal.
TLDR:
Clannad After Story is incredible. Tomoya is one of the greatest characters of all time. The show is VERY emotional. I recommend it to all who enjoy good anime. If you liked this you should also watch Angel Beats (same writer).
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Apr 12, 2019
This review does NOT contain storyline spoilers of ANY kind.
First Impression
So, Clannad. I heard about this anime when I was browsing an anime tracker. I saw a torrent, "Clannad.1080p.FLAC" and I said to myself: "Hmm, nice quality, interesting name, good ANIdb score...Let's give it a shot". Then I noticed: "based on a visual novel" and I rolled my eyes. But since I already downloaded it, I reluctantly made the decision to watch it nonetheless.
Oh boy, was I in for a shock. This anime has climbed to number 1 in my personal "Best Drama Anime Eva' " in just 6 episodes. If I got your
...
attention, let's continue to...
Storyline
Since it's base DNA is a visual novel, as you'd expect, the story is chapter based. The first two chapters tell the story of the male lead and two other girls. Each one lasts around 6-7 episodes. Although the "main" story is present in these chapters, it's somewhat on the afterburner. Some may argue that this is a major flaw of the anime: lack of concentration on the romantic development of the main characters, but I think these "side" chapters really manage to flesh out the human features of both Tomoya and Nagisa, as well as the other characters.
At about the halfway mark of the series, the main story picks up and you're tossed in a maelstrom of emotions: you will laugh at the mischievous pranks pulled by Tomoya, your heart will warm up at the innocence of Nagisa, you will be there, with the characters, living their story, feeling their love, their despair, their sadness, their hope. No other anime has sunk its claws so deep into my soul, dragging it out screaming and kicking only to put it back warm and fuzzy :D.
Animation
It's gorgeous. If you have the possibility to watch it in full HD, you won't be disappointed. The backgrounds are fantastic, from the diminishing rays of the sunset sun which bathe the scene in a crimson red to the sea of stunning blue, to the character design which manages to create extremely expressive faces and eyes, without exaggerating.
I remember a scene with sakura trees in full bloom which absolutely blew my mind away. It looked divine.
Soundtrack
The music is mostly orchestral. The opening is a very catchy, yet undeniably sad song which presents the characters. The ending, on the other hand is very cute and childish on the surface, but always brings a tear to my eye. You'll know what I mean after you finish the anime (well, both seasons). The overall soundtrack is taken almost directly from the visual novel. Although I played the VN, after I watched the anime (which I highly recommend doing), the music didn't seem out of place in the anime. It's good.
It manages to create atmosphere, a very sublime atmosphere, in the tragic moments but it kinda fails to bring a smile to my face in the comedy scenes.
Characters
It's an absolute joy to see a male lead who isn't a pervert, incredibly dense, clumsy or indecisive. Tomoya looks like a normal guy; not the "normal" in most harem animes. Just a plain old Joe or Jack. But you must never judge a book by its cover. Tomoya has a very devious mind and the pranks he pulls (mostly of Fuuko) are absolutely hilarious. The "harem" has it all: tsundere, the shy one, the genius, the clumsy one, etc, etc etc, but what makes Clannad so vastly different from other animes is that all those characters feel real. They have real emotions, real pasts, real dreams...By the way, there's no fanservice here. And I wouldn't like it any other way.
Don't get me wrong, I like boobs in my anime, but in this anime, it would just feel cheap to reduce such splendid characters to mere eye-candy.
Conclusion
Clannad is a marvelous story, an excellent drama with a pinch of real comedy. The name actually means "family" in Irish and although this idea is hinted through the first season, it only picks up during the second. But if you wish to see a true romance anime, this one is for you: a diamond among others.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Apr 12, 2019
[C] The Money of Soul and Possibility Control has a pretty original hook: It's a story starring economics college-student Yoga Kimimaro who only wants to acquire a job with income stable enough to support a family. One day he meets some eccentric dude named Masakaki (who looks a fusion between Willy Wonka and the Cheshire Cat) who offers him a large sum of money, asking in return that he put up his future for "collateral". From that day forward, Yoga is transported to a realm known as the Financial District where he must engage in battles known as "deals" in which he must offer not
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only his money but his future as well. It doesn't just stop there since the money printed in the Financial District is different than your average bills. "Midas money" as it's called not only has adverse side-effects on the economy but on the fabrics of reality as well
If there's anything [C] does that's remarkable, it's that the series tackles issues you never see tackled and gets off to a fairly strong start because of it. The idea of a financial crisis being the core conflict in a series sounds pretty cool. The main character is pretty easy to relate to (college student with money issues), the Financial District looks pretty neat, and Masakaki is awesome. Why did it all have to go so wrong?
Let's start with the battles. To expand further on the above synopsis, people who engage in deals within the financial district are known as entres (short for entrepreneurs), and they are given ass kicking super-powered sidekicks called assets to do most of the fighting for them. The creators try to make these showdowns seem complicated by giving them a ton of rules and financial terminology that imply depth, but the way the battles are actually executed resembles pretty much every proxy battle series out there. They are often rather short and resort to run-of-the-mill beam-spam where characters yell out the name of their attacks before firing in true Digimon fashion. Strategies are limited to mostly deus-ex machina and straight-up luck, so don't come into expecting any sort of complex mind-games. They look pretty, but the deals are mostly brain-dead affairs. You don't really need to understand the terminology or rules really, whoever has the biggest blast wins. Strangely enough, one of the most hyped battles of the entire series is also skipped over right in the middle of the action to have the characters simply spend time explaining the results, just thought that was worth tossing out there.
When they're off the battlefield our central duo isn't particularly interesting either. Yoga is a pretty dull and passive lead character. His involvement in the story is really little more than an excuse to introduce the viewers to the premise since we learn about the Financial District at the same time he does. He has no real involvement with the main plot going on under his nose until the final episodes. He's not a completely terrible lead though since his ideologies make for a decent foil for the ideologies of the people he meets and battle within the Financial District, especially the last boss. The real problem here is his asset Msyu. She's basically a loli-tsundere who develops into a loli-tsundere waifu. Her interactions with the Yoga as she slowly falls in love with him are cringe-inducing and eat up far too much time. I figured a show with such a deep setting that only has eleven episodes to work with would know not to spend time on teaching your pet waifu how to eat or what a kiss is, but there's always enough time for otaku-bait I suppose. The nature of the relationship between entries and assets is something I won't go into much for the sake of avoiding spoilers, but it's where I was hoping this show would differentiate Yoga and Msyu from all the other dull male/female leads out there, but it's a sub-plot that pretty much gets dropped right before giving us any kind of meaningful answer. Thus leaving us with yet another lead couple who won't do much for anyone not wanting another cliched central couple. Meh.
I feel no need to mention most of the other entries for the reason that they are mostly one-note entities who fail to amount to something memorable due to short screen-time. I will give props to show for the antagonist (though you could also call him an anti-hero) Mikuni, who is far more interesting to follow then our boring lead and his digital waifu. He understands the effects that losing deals has on other entries (not only do they lose money, but a part of their lives will suddenly vanish). His motives were rather interesting and understandable. I applaud the show for not giving us the main antagonist solely driven by greed which is something that I was expecting from a series where money is behind everything. His plot too is analogous to the idea of quantitative easing, wherein he tries to inject Midas Money into the Japanese economy. His role in the story was a pretty interesting one that provided some interesting criticisms to the practice.
The visuals in this show are probably as unique as the show's premise but are about as mixed overall as the show's execution. The Financial District is pretty cool to look at with it's distinctive red/white color pallet and the battles that take place are often well animated. The character art, however, does this bizarre thing often goofily switches between 2D designs and 3D models. It was sort of cool at first since Masakaki was the only one doing it in episode 1 and it sort of fit in with the rest of his bizarre characteristics. However, eventually, you get shots of characters walking down the streets in 3D sometimes and the occasional scene where both 2D and 3D characters are interacting on screen at the same time. The actual character designs themselves are also kinda weird in a sometimes derpish way sometimes but is otherwise average. The actual acting is alright on both sides. Funimation's dub doesn't really have much young blood so if you're well acquainted with their previous works, the English version will end up being a rather simple game of "spot the voice actor". Scott Freeman as Masakaki was excellent though. I'd still recommend the Japanese version since it has the highest ratio of Engrish to Japanese speaking (a result of having the International Monetary Fund pop up from time-to-time and the attacks and terminology used during deals) since the likes of Black Lagoon and Beck. It's weird in this since some of the Engrish sounds almost convincing too.
The main plot would've benefited greatly benefited from another cour, but as is the show bites far more then it can chew. I'm not sure if the series had it's episode count slashed or not, but it certainly feels that way (just as much as it did with Angel Beats! too). Much of the series focuses on Yoga/Msyu adventures in the Financial District, yet all of a sudden in the final episodes the show forces a doomsday climax with no build up. It would've been great to get a better understanding of how the show got there and how Mikuni figured into it all. Instead, it feels as if people woke up one day only to find out that they suddenly have an enormous financial crisis that threatens to plunge the world into the "Great Depression " tier misery. These episodes feel to quickly paced and even though the final deal itself is pretty awesome, the show resorts to what I can only call a ridiculously ass-pully resolution that felt much too cheap.
[C] is most definitely a textbook example of a neat premise being ruined beyond all recognition. The unnecessary focus on boring leads you've seen before combined with a plot that didn't get the time it needed to develop alongside the weak character development hamstring the show's potential badly. It's an interesting affair still simply because of the bizarre premise and visuals and won't take up too much time. That's not enough to prevent [C] from being a failure of forgettable proportions. Come for the cute assets and explosions, it won't disappoint too much if that's the fix your looking for.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Apr 12, 2019
story 3/10:
Boy if you've seen one romcom anime you've seen em all fireworks at the end tearful goodbyes this show does nothing to differentiate itself from others its tedious in its build-up and lackluster in its delivery.
Art: 9/10
the only reason to watch this show, in my opinion, is its excellent and consistently good glowy shiny art its got some truly enchanting and beautiful scenery that we've come to expect from p.a works
sound: 3.5/10
op was okay had some pretty shots generic op music nothing memorable animation wise it was excellent but it was just like dry crackers the op song that is
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the same story with the ed
characters 2.5/10
the anime does for its credit stay away for the most part from the tropey-ness that a lot of romcoms does but it more they are more comparable to being a lighter version of these tropes which make the story more frustrating than enjoyable to me, there's a reason there are tropes and tropes done well are fun to watch but tropes that only half committed and try to escape that character dynamic without having characters with distinct personalities is this shows weakest points no one sticks out its so bland with the exception of the art its just nothing of substance
enjoyment 2/10
yeah I didn't like it all I feel bad giving such a great work of pure animation such a bad rating but its other aspects make me feel it'd be a better wallpaper collection than a series Hitomi and Kohaku are cutely designed but that's p much the only thing the shows got going for it
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Apr 7, 2019
okay, First of all, YES I did read the visual novel, no I didn't understand it right away the first time I watched it but the thing with the fate series is that it is much like kingdom hearts or monogatari in that it will always have more to explore.
what is shown is always just the tip of the ice burg. why is that ??? some might ask arrogantly acting like they are entitled to know of a world with immersive depth that is incomprehensible to the average seasonal anime watcher.
this show deal's with Magic. ever since J.K Rowlings Harry Potter series we have
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seen the subject of magic be approached like it is some mathematical formula like it is something easily comprehensible to the layman. this is fundamentally different from fate's interpretation of magic.
Yes magic is taught from family to eldest born, but it is not seen as normal even by its users there is reverence for magecraft something I don't really see in say the likes of harry potter
"facts don't care about your feelings" has become fetishized to the point that some groups of people (Ie Reddit). want to associate themselves with always logical and rational at all times discrediting anything contrary to this world view this obsessive rationality is in a way a form of OCD.
so they avoid anything with "superstitious" or "emotional" components as this might make them look less "rational"
Religion, Astrology, the Arts and yes even some medical scientific disciplines namely Psychology aren't always based on 100 % logic.
I blame the Harry Potter series for the most part for this as its something that takes the nature of witchcraft magic and a whole myriad of fantastical ideas. reinterprets it in a very western bourgeoisie fashion and says see z = X+ Y for spells it rationalizes magic in the way in the same manner a chemist goes about creating a chemical reaction.
magic is NOT supposed to make sense you ARENT supposed to KNOW EVERYTHING all the time that's part of being in the Nasu verse.
id talk about the story but I'm presuming you've already made up your mind with this series either you love it or you hate it. I like it I feel like
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Apr 3, 2019
Hello, we have ourselves something interesting and relatively new as far as the cliche setting goes. Let's start by saying what this is in terms of genre. You will have your typical teenager coming over to another world. Elves, demons, magic, medieval times - as far as this goes we've all seen this before. However, as far as recommending this I would tell almost everyone to watch it. It doesn't matter if you like this type of show, it's not the dominant trait of it. But let's explain everything like I usually do.
Watch if:
- You generally like shounen-type anime,
- Your idea of watching something involves
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understanding and thinking,
- Fantasy is your drug of choice,
- You appreciate visual fanfare and eye-candy.
Don't watch if:
- You hate cliffhangers,
- You need everything spelled-out in terms of plot and character development.
ANYTHING BELOW THIS POINT MAY CONTAIN MINOR SPOILERS
Story 9/10
My personal ranking as far as story goes rates this anime very high. Probably on par with things like "Death Note" and "Madoka Magica". Do not look for similarities in terms of setting or even the story itself there, though. What I mean by this is that I believe the idea for the anime is great and somewhat unique. This is inevitably tied to both story and characters, but I will put my thoughts down here - before you get bored of reading.
The main concept (apart from "person in another world") here is that the protagonist will ressurect after death. Not only that, but he will turn back time as well. The idea is easiest explained as an "auto-save" feature in real life. He will go back to a point, remember all his choices and will be able to change events somewhat. There are two ways I found one might look at it. You could treat this as the typical hero power an MC gets in this type of story, but I believe that to be incorrect. Another way of looking at it, as I believe the creators might have intended, is that the guy has no special features about him. He isn't some long lost prince, has no sword coming out of his butt or a magical eye that strips females of their wits and garments. There is some kind of curse on him (let's call it auto-save curse) and he will make the best of that bad situation. What you typically see in shows of this genre is the hero making choices that are ALWAYS correct. If you ever thought outside the proverbial box while watching the genre you'd have at some point asked yourself at least one of the below (or a variation of it):
- "How does he always get to the right place, how does he even know where to go?"
- "How come he talks to this person he just met like they know eachother forever and gives them advice?"
- "Seriously, you just got to this world... why do you know everything and do the right thing every single time? Can you read their minds?"
For me it's utterly frustrating that heroes just come and take the reins, guiding everyone, including the viewer through the cliche plot without a single hiccup. Like, "Ok, so I am in this world, and we need to kill the demon lord" - 15 episodes later they are at the demon lord castle, walking to his throne room. How did he even know which way it was...
In this show you get to see what an actual human being might do, if put in the same situation. He will make MISTAKES. Luckily his "auto-save" lets him try and try again until he gets it right, or as close to that as possible given the circumstances. If you never thought about the above cliche you will after you watch this show. This is also the most compelling reason for watching that I can give you.
Animation 8/10
Visuals are stunning. It's pretty, it's colorful, things are animated and move almost like they should. Given some of the gore I feel it might have been a smart idea by the animators to deliberately conceal some of the more gruesome shots - we get to avoid the omnipresent Rays of Light(Tm), while at the same time we know what happened. Some parts might be too light-hearted and maybe attention to detail could have been better with the scenery, but there really is nothing to complain about. You will find that it's pretty, I promise.
Sound 7/10
I loved the OP, most of it anyway. There's absolutely noting bad to say about the VA's as well. Sound is not intrusive, it plays its role, builds up tension and helps the overall vibe. While it is the lowest point of the show, that is only because everything else is so great.
Characters 9/10
Bread and butter of the series. While the idea and story are both amazing, they would not work without the characters. The MC is actually a typical teenager. They made him a bit too dense, but that is most likely so he doesn't intimidate teenage viewers and they don't feel too inferior. Most any teenager should be able to relate to him, given the fact he has no special powers and tends to actually have emotions that resemble a human being. While this sounds negative, it is far from it. Most shows present you with a sock puppet that will headbutt walls, peek on girls and shout out skill names while disposing of enemies. This guy thinks, analyzes, makes mistakes and LEARNS from them. He is also a role model type, so it's safe to let your teenager watch this, if you're a parent.
Characters have layers, but are not rushing to the MC to tell him their life story. They tend to be very secretive and through decent plot manipulation (and use of "auto-save") the MC gets to discover that some are not what they seem. Genuine relationships develop, sometimes cut short but the MC dying and such.
Overall 8/10
This is a show that everyone should at least try. No matter if you're just looking for a casual shounen or you'd like to explore the more interesting aspects of it, this anime will deliver. The only downside is that clever use of cliffhangers makes you want more. As such, for those who hate waiting to see what happens, one might need to wait for all 26 episodes.
Wholeheartedly recommended.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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