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Apr 23, 2017
I am writing this review after completing a two and a half months experience of D.Gray-man and D.Gray-man Hallow. I should confess I feel empty, I feel frustrated that I don't know or don't have any further information on what is going to be on of this marvellous history... I have post-anime depression after been absent in me for a long long time. Here are some thoughts:
D.Gray-man Hallow is the sequel of the 2008 anime D.Gray-Man. So the first thing that should be taken into account is that this anime, Hallow, in order to have a maximum enjoyment and understanding, it should be seen immediately
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after the 2008 series. If not, it would absolutely have no sense.
The history continues exactly where the 2008 version was left, with the main character struggling to understand his condition and position in the Black Order that combats the Millenium Earl and the Noahs in the task of reinventing the world. The story, again, can be seen as a trivial approximation of any shonen anime by which the hero opposes any evil in the name of justice. This is what makes Hallow interesting: it diverges from this stereotypical view and enters into a more confronting story in which at the end we don't have any good and bad guys, but rather individuals who go from one side to another.
The history, like in D.Gray-man, is marvellous. And in Hallow the good thing to see is that the original history is further developed for a more matured audience. And the strongest point of this history relies on its characters.
In Hallow, we see mostly the same characters as in D.Gray-man, with the difference that this time we will get the focus on other secondary important characters that on the first season weren't of that relevance. The biggest example of this is Kanda, but with other examples such as Mana and Link. The success relies on the fact that the initial essence of all main characters of the first series remained intact. Furthermore, we see a deeper development of Allen as a character and we get even closer to other facets of the antagonists like the Millenium Earl, Road and Tiki Mikki.
In terms of art and sound, the series is well developed. Although I missed the emotional openings of the first season, the opening was pretty decent and the ending was outstanding.
In general, I see Hallow as an outstanding continuation of the first season that successfully condensed in 13 episodes a marvellous amount of epicness and emotionality. Hallow's audience is, on the other hand, more mature than the audience of D.Gray-man due to the increase of violence and strong moral issues treated. I should definitely praise the Kanda's History arc... without any spoilers, the development of Kanda as a character and its history is just: beautiful, perfect. One of the most charming histories I have seen in anime.
Hallow may not be up to the level of its predecessor as probably the most brilliant shonen anime that I have seen. However, it is the product of an arduous work to continue such an amazing history and it by far deserves a place in the hearts of D.Gray-Man fans. Do not hesitate to see it.
Here it finishes one of the most intriguing histories I have seen in anime and I cannot wait to see what it will bring after.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Apr 23, 2017
I am writing this review after a full enjoyment period of time of almost two and a half months watching D.Gray-man and its 2016 sequel Hallow. I don't know, I will become a bit personal this time and I should confess that it has been a long long time since I felt this feeling of emptiness and sadness of post-anime depression. I will leave apart any relationship with Hallow and I will start then:
D.Gray-man is shonen anime that basically tells the story of an orphan who discovered the power of innocence and is trying to liberate the souls of the unfortunate that have been called
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again to rise from death as machines. As itself, the history sounds a bit trivial, a mixture of somehow a Fullmetal alchemist with some traits of Soul Eater, D.Gray-man evolves from this basic concepts to a more mature and sophisticated story in which lots of different and somehow complex characters are immersed.
The story is remarkable: it is one of the most elaborated and congruent histories that I have experienced in animation since Shingeki no Kyojin.We have a sophisticated plot and a big group of characters that fit into it without any type of improvisation. Of course, there are a couple of filler episodes (I mean, it is a 103 chapter anime), however, I should praise that the history itself didn't require any of them to develop the plot (and some of them I should say are pretty good).
The characters are something also to be praised. I mean, Allen Walker is in no way any annoying shonen hero as, in my opinion, is Eren Jeager. And the history does not only orbit the main character. Some other main and secondary ones, like Kanda, Lenalee, Lavi, etc are remarkable and are constantly developed in a very independent way. However, I should definitely praise the antagonists of this series: they are by far the most complex, effective and well-designed that I have seen in a long period of time. I should mention as example Tyki Mikk, Road and the Millenium Earl (although been such caricaturesque is a wonderful main antagonist)
The art and sound are both remarkable. Opening 3 and 1 are one of the best openings I have heard in anime, background music is totally well-fitted and the animation itself is very good, with excellent characters and scenarios.
So, to end up. I should praise D.Gray-Man as probably one of the best animes that I have seen and with the title of the best Shonen anime on my list (yes, better than FMA). I should praise a wonderful imagination, an outstanding history, a group of magnificent characters and a beautiful soundtrack. Probably the history doesn't have the strong moral confrontations that other shonen animes have (again like FMA), however, the sense of loyalty and redemption that it portraits plus all the major points that I previously mentioned make it a total worth and enjoyable recommendation.
Oh D.Gray-man... I will for sure miss all the adrenaline and enjoyment that I had before each chapter.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Aug 28, 2016
Science Fiction is probably one of the most interesting genres and also one of the most complicated to deal with. Along ScFi topics is "Time Travelling", topic that, besides been already a scientific complicated aspect to understand, is the majority of times thought very difficult to be easy to be understoond and furthermore to be enjoyed.
Well, I have found an exception to this rule, and that is: Stains;Gate. Steins:Gate is an anime that basically uses the classical, idealised time-travel scenario to build up an anime that can simply be described with the word "fantastic".
The story starts with Okarin, Mayuusi and Doku, three good friends
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who share an small home-made laboratory. After Okarin having contact with the Genius scientist Kurisu, they both discover they can send text-messages (and later the entire conciousness of someone) to the past by using a Microwave (Yes, a Microwave!) connected with a cellphone. In order not to enter into too many details, the story explores the concepts of time sequences, development of events and the overlaping of time in general. The story is so well developed, full of clear, coherent details, that is not only able for the viewer to fully follow it, but also to understand it!
Characters, in general, are also a very good strength of the show. The principal one, Okarin, has not only a wonderful intepretation of Mamoru Miyano, but also is extremely well developed in social and psychological aspects. I can also say all other characters are also so well developed that it is almost impossible not to feel any empathy towards them.
To conclude, Steins;Gate is a brilliant masterpiece of Sci-Fic that develops a brilliant story within a range of extremly enjoyable characters. I should deffinitely say it worths to be seen
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Feb 28, 2016
Hybid child... it is always difficult to start, so I will make my best to be concise.
I should start saying that this is one of the best animes that I have seen. It is one of the fews that have left a deep melancholy and impression, without mentioning that it is one of the few ones that made me really cry. The story focuses on the Hybrid Childs. They are androids (or humanoids) that react and develop to the love they are given from their owners. At a first instance, the topic of Artificial Intelligence and the esence of what makes or builds up human
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beings rises into question, as these prototipes, who are neither machines nor humans, are able to interact and deal perfectly with human emotions. They also maintain a very strong bound with their "owners", who at the end they end up not performing these type of submission role, but rather a full equal one based on mutual understandment and affection.
The anime itself is very short. It composes of four episodes and a limited number of 6 characters. Something I must really say about these characters is their wonderfull development. You can actually feel them, understand them, suffer with them. You are able to develop a mutual emphaty along the character, that for a very short anime this is something amazing. All characters deal up with topics such as mortality and the way in which death affects our relationship with themselves and with the other characters. Other one is the concept of identity. To what extent are these androids just a vague extrapolation of their owner's hearths? are their just the shadows of the feelings of these hearths? Therefore the question that if the owners are attracted to something that resemble their own feelings (their fall in love with theirselves??) rather than on an external individual also arises.
This is a Boy's Love (Yaoi) anime, and I would like to precise that the argument itself is developed through this situation. I have always considered these types of anime as BL rather than "gay", because these characters do not follow the concept of homosexuality that we are used to. These characters do not pay attention to their sexual and gendre orientation, this is completely irrelevant. The reason why me, as a guy, like BL, is because characters just fall in love other characters at specific static situations, without any further specification. In respect to Hybrid Child, characters realize that they are in love when they have to face extreme situations such as Death or Ilness. This is is done in a marvellous ways, and in fact the anime is not very grafic, it is extremely emotional, to what I consider is a strength.
In respect to music, I just can describe it with two words: emotional, sensational.
To end this, I should definitely say Hybrid Child is one of the best animes I have ever seen. I can see it again and again, I will always end up with a strong feeling of nostalgia at the end of chapter 4. Do not hesitate to see it!
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Feb 20, 2016
What can I say? An anime based on a stereotypical concept that girls should be entertained by some handsome boys? That would sound like something totally misogynous to reinforce an exasperated "machismo" culture.
Ouran Koukou Host Club (OHC) gives this first impression, and I should personally say I didn't like the first episoded because of that. However, as the anime went through, I was able to see that I got a completely wrong image. OHC is an anime that adresses questions such as gender identity and makes an ejoyable satire of the various clichés that domain human idealist affective relationships. I must confess that I
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laughed a lot with Tamaki's obessivness, the incestous Boy's Love relationship of Hikaru and Kaouro, the coldness and utilitarism of Kyoya, etc. The "Hosts" are enjoyable creatoins that not only are able to make fun, but are also well good developed with a strong emotional background that shows this Host club is not only a matter to entertain, but rather unify.
However, the major credits that this anime has is its major and fabulous protagonist. Haruhi is a true genuine and marvellous character that makes a perfect synchronicity with all the other ones Haruhi is a true feminist character, a true heroine that challenges the fact that gender identity is irrelevant at the time a person wants to define himself (it is not a surprise that a girl dressed up like a boy was the most popular host among girls) and what really matters is the individual itself. It is beautiful to see the contrast between this silly and untrascendent girls and the only mayor female character of the show, who is the only one able to affect and understand mainly all the members of the club. The female-empowerment of this anime is just brilliant.
To end, this anime is a very interesting piece that I would not hesitate to recommend. It is, in fact, one of my recent discoveries that have let me a true sad-sensation at the time I had realized it has ended.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Feb 13, 2016
Imagine yourself in a place where you have no memmories on how did you get there. Imagine that you simply walk through a corrider and a bartender welcomes you, introduces another client and tells both of you that you have to play a game to get out of the place and that the only risk that you will have is loosing your life.
Well, this seems like a good introduction to the main idea that plays aroud "Death Parade". However, it will be also quite meangfull to summarize all that comes around this anime in just these 4 and a half lines. I should start saying
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that Death Parade is the first anime that has given me the greatest possible confrontation to something I have recently dealing in a very phylosophical matter with: been death.
Because that is what this anime talks about in more or less words: what really happens after we die. It starts with the dualistic perspective that human beings have a soul, an inmaterial object that contains the esence of the being and is the only thing that survives the physical death of the body.
Things become more interesting when souls gather a physical appereance and they go to "somewhere" in the universe where they would be judge. From either a Christian or ATheist perspective, the concept of the judgment is done not on what the person believes, but rather on how it really is. Now an step forward is that this justice is administrated not by any supernatural or onminscent been, but by a bartender whose "liveness" is openly discused around the story. In conclusion: deaths are judged by someone who is not either death or alive. A somehow beautiful and dialectical contradiction!
Along the anime some second minor characters are introduced. They show the different perspectives of humans accepting their own death (because they only know they are death until the end of their judgment) through the inquiry of their memories before they perished.
What "Death Parade" brings us is something that I haven't seen on a very long long time, which is the fact that we get counciousness of our death, that counciousness is in fact able to survive the "physical death" and that the after life is governed by two major scenarios: Either Reincarnation or the Void. Reincarnation itself is not very difficult to be imagines; the void, however, is something that is let out of discussion and is seen as the simple and pure darkness where the nothingness exist. However, as you see the souls of two condemned turning into a small light makes you also think, what would you then find inside the void?
How can someone who is not a human can actually judge something that is attrributed only to humans? Do the judges have any type of free will? how cannot they be alive if they think and are able to develop feelings? Infinite questions that have arosen in my mind and that the anime will make an attempt to answer along its 12 chapters.
In conclusion, there have been very few atempts to describe what happens after we die, the most famous work been "The Divine Comedy" of the italian poet Dante Alighieri. What this anime does is simply a masterpice, a work full of philosophy, confrontations, fears and mostly, talent. It is by far something that, in my opinion, desearves to be seen just by the fact if deepens into a topic that is unfourtunately considered a major taboo and that brings up full of fear and sadness, but something that we will never in an inevitable matter be able to avoid. The designer of this production is by far as talented as Dante itself was.
(This is my first review, I hope it is useful.)
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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