Dec 28, 2009
*Note: if you don't want to read the detailed review, skip to the end to see the pointers and a 1-sentence conclusion.
I am not a fan of horror. The horror anime that I've seen I can count on one hand. The reason for my reluctance is because I like to watch anime for things other than disturb-value, and since I like to complete a series within a couple of days, the grotesqueness of the genre can wear on me after a few hours. But I decided to try "Tokyo Majin Gakuen Kenpucho: Tou" because I like good romance coupled with good action, and "Tokyo Majin"
...
was said to have both; and I also needed a new anime to watch. So I tried it, and let me tell you, it doesn't disappoint.
It has the bizarre and fantastical villains of the horror genre, but what surprised me was the amount of emotional and relational development that filled up the majority of each episode. The art is, in my opinion, excellent, and it complements the avant-garde story progression in an aesthetically-pleasing way. The music by ACID in the opening theme sets the tone for the series as a whole: there is an anthem of hardness interwined with a melodic familiar (parallels the horrific villains versus the friendship of the five main teenagers).
I mentioned that I initially watched "Tokyo Majin" partially for the rumored romance, and although the romance in the show is evident, it is softly presented, and I was glad. What I was more happy to see was the artistically "gore-rific" fight scenes and the character development of the two main male characters. The main female character has her moments of, "Hello, I'm a girl and I'm whiny because I'm more helpless than I want to be," and goodness knows the journalist female student can be annoying (which is her character's purpose), but I overlooked the flaws with the female characters in this show because I felt that they were eventually redeemed by later-revealed strengths.
The story is so-so in this series, nothing completely original, and the dialogue is used to mainly progress the stereotypical persona of the bad boy, the mysterious boy, the ideal girl, etc of the core five. But all in all, the points of interest in this anime are, in a nutshell, and in order of significance:
1) the visuals
2) the portrayal of friendship (especially between Tatsuma and Kyouichi, the two main males)
3) the portrayal of romantic love as something that can only be maintained through sacrifice (sacrifice of self, of life)
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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