Owari no Seraph

Alright, this is one of the most popular shows last season so I found it reasonable for it to serve as my first review for the season.

Story 2/10:
The story is surprisingly bad. Episode one was almost perfectly copied from popular WIT series Attack on Titan. The premise is pretty generic. Main character is trapped and enslaved in a city by vampires along with many other kids. He ends up the sole survivor as he and friends attempt to escape from the city of Vampires. He then vows to get his revenge. Oh boy. He joins the military force to combat the vampires and for some ... odd reason the MC goes through school while receiving his training. His school life was irrelevant other than for making friends so the school setting was unnecessary as he could've made friends anywhere else. The setting is extremely unnatural considering the situation

The story continues to progress predictably while MC meets a typical cast of characters which I'll get into. But the absolute worst thing about the series is the dialogue. It's beyond generic and incredibly predictable. From "I'll kill all the vampires" to "I'll make sure no one dies lol". Just as no one seems to think before they spout whatever trash they want to say, they author doesn't seem give much thought to what dialogue can convey. It's as if he tried to take every cool sounding line from previously anime and manga and apply them where possible only to receive the opposite effect of what he hoped.

The weapons systems is retarded. They are controlled by demons and you must make a contract with a demon using some arbitrary and nonsensical show of "willpower", Which will lead to yet again some more predictable scenes. The fights are strangely favorable to MC and his party even though the power level between humans and Vampires is revealed to be huge. The upper level Vampires never go all out for whatever reason and constantly miss chances to kill, in contrast to episode one where the kids are cut apart in seconds. The thing I realized about this series is there is nothing unique about it. There is nothing that make it stand out and be recognized as "that anime". This isn't simply in comparison to AOT, but many good or at least decent anime. This goes back to the blandness of the dialogue, and the blandness of the characters.

Characters 2/10:
Not much to say here. The character are all dull as I said. The MC is a typical angry little kid who wish to exterminate the vampires. He spouts the expected edgy lines all throughout the first few episode thinking he doesn't need friends to kill, he wants to hurry up and kill, etc. He meets a typical shy kid who seems completely useless but can actually be somewhat helpful, and a typical rival character who is an ass but is actually nice on the inside. Shinoa was actually decent and entertaining as well. Maybe that's why I remember her name along with just a few others. Her smug playfulness drew an interesting contrast with her serious attitude on the field. But that's about it.

Strangely enough with all the emphasis on teamwork you'd think there'd be more tactics in fights but I guess not. The vampires didn't appear enough to do anything other than say the usual antagonistic lines and how things seemed interesting. MCs friend survives and turns into a Vamp, no surprise here. The show does a terrible job drawing sympathy for the viewer for either side, though it clearly aims to do so with MC's friend being turned while MC fights the vampires and a few other reasons.

Art 6/10:
The character designs are good but the animation can be inconsistent with one hilarious episode standing out in terms of poor quality. The water color-esque background are unique and works well for indoor scenes, but outdoors draws an huge contrast with the 2D character figures which can be annoying. Fight scenes were done decently at best, as seems WIT is saving the shekels for AOT.

Music 6/10:
Many people take the opportunity to shamelessly cream themselves when Hiroyuki Sawano is revealed to be handling the music composition for an anime. This is certainly not on the level of AOT or Kill la Kill and it's not anything special. It's has some good moments but nothing else.

Entertainment 5/10
Even with all I mentioned the series managed to remain entertaining enough for me to at least complete it. I may or may not be watching season 2, but I don't feel like I've completely wasted my time somehow. Maybe I still retain hope for the show to get better and haven't been completely let down (considering my expectations were pretty low in the first place)

Overall 3/10:
If you like something generic yet can kill time without causing you to die of boredom, this may be the show for you.

Owari no Seraph, or Seraph of the End, is the quintessential example of a "generic" anime title. It's a show you've undoubtedly seen many times before and one you'll continue to encounter way after its time in the limelight is up. It's a throw-away title that'll be replaced by the next factory-assembled one to take its place. It's the store brand cereal at anime's supermarket; bland, cheap, packaged in a box with little creative effort, always at the bottom shelf, and does very little to distinguish itself from its competitors. At worse, it's a forgettable hodge-podge of clichés and overused tropes, and at best, it's ... a cheap knock-off of a much superior product. It's an entry level show in every regard and depending on how accustomed you've grown to these formulaic setups will determine how much you like/tolerate it.

The story of Owari no Seraph is so standard-fare that if someone were to tweak it with a few name and setting changes, they will be able to use the same synopsis to describe any other show with a familiar setup. Use the template below and see how many bottom-of-the-barrel shows you an insert:
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One day humanity is suddenly attacked by a group of [insert name of threat here] and was brought to the brink of annihilation. [insert amount of years] later, leftovers of this time in mankind's history attempts to scrape together what's left to form a new society out of the event that felt like an act of divine punishment. And with the discovery of [insert name of weapons or power here], they were able to fight back. We follow our protagonist [insert name here] as he and his comrades use [insert name of weapon or power] to fight the [insert name of threat here] and reclaim humanity in this post-apocalyptic world. And in the process of doing so, they slowly discover the mystery of their sudden appearance that might be closer to home than what was intially thought.
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To say that there's little to talk about when discussing Owari's story would be an understatement. Everything I can say here can apply to any other cheaply patched-together narrative. Instead, I'll discuss if the execution of this setup was done right nor not. Despite harping on its overused premise, it can still be done well if executed and presented with some tact... and to the surprise of no one, Owari didn't even manage to do that.

The story is supposed to document the power struggle between humanity and vampires, with our protagonist and his friends being in the centerfold of all the events taking place. You'd think with such a setup that we'd at least get an action-filled romp to keep us entertained but sadly, all we got were less than 2-episodes worth of skirmishes. That's right, a show that boasts "action" as its primary genre couldn't even fulfill that simple quota. That's like ordering a Porterhouse steak and receiving a White Castle slider instead. To add insult to injury, the pacing for Owari was painfully slow, despite what the erratic time-skip-filled 1st episode would have you believe. Plot points that would normally be wrapped up in 10-15 minutes with proper pacing are now extended to 2-3 episodes. This made some events that barely held any plot relevance to adopt the type of pacing akin to long-running battle shounens.

And as if that wasn't enough to seal its fate, the story of Owari is also plagued with plot conveniences happening in rapid succession:

A virus wipes out humanity but "conveniently" doesn't kill anyone 13 and below. Enslaved kids attempt a big escape from their vampire capturers and our protagonist is "conveniently" the only one to get away, where he "conveniently" meets a resistance force that was "conveniently" waiting right outside the escapee's exit. Humanity has "conveniently" discovered a way to infuse demon's energy into weapons to fight against the vampires with the scriptwriters' explanation being "just because." And since shounen protagonists are always special snowflakes, he "conveniently" mastered this infusion where many others have been known to fail. And no, he never practiced, because God knows he's the special snowflake. And the rest of the story adheres to this painfully forced path from beginning to end. There isn't an episode that goes by where you're not thinking "well that sure was convenient." The screenplay is plagued with the artifice of fatalistic storytelling while pretending that aspect to its writing doesn't exist. "You can't have your cake and eat it too" perfectly encapsulates the issue on display.
Haven't done a lick of training but need a power boost? Well, how about this "conveniently" placed power-boost pill that was never foreshadowed or properly introduced beforehand. Stuck in a dire situation where all your friends are in trouble? Well, how about a "conveniently" timed supernatural powerup using the trite "dark side" shounen cliche.

And again, a formulaic setup isn't inherently a bad thing if done with finesse but this show just doesn't demonstrate any concern for decent storytelling whatsoever. It's a show that would rather abuse every literary device in the book if it'll get it the results it wants rather than achieving the same end-result through careful consideration. Owari is sloppy writing 101.

An area that demonstrated some effort, however, was the art and animation. By itself, the art and animation were fine but when brought together, they mixed as seamlessly as oil and water. The 2D character designs in contrast to the watercolor/oil-pastel inspired backgrounds felt very out of place. This was made apparent in open environments where the individual scenes showed no proper separation between its foreground and background. There's no dimension or depth in the background, which result in the characters moving awkwardly across the landscape. It's like watching them play things out on a green screen, which is made all the more amusing given that it's animated and not live-action.

While they didn't mesh well together, the creators still deserve credit for at least attempting to make it different, as the backgrounds did look quite nice at times, with a nice range of color choices and purposeful brush stroke-like textures. The character designs were all fine as well, being distinct enough to tell apart from other series. However, I am disappointed that they never had any well-choreographed fights, especially considering the limited amount of physical encounters they chose to have, to begin with. As a whole, the art and animation were passable, it wasn't the best but it did demonstrate some creative decisions in its visual output. At worst, a bit off model and at best, a serviceable piece of work.

If Owari had any saving graces it'll be the opening theme that came with it. It was a toe-tappingly infectious tune with well-timed visuals that I found myself playing on repeat. A catchy pop ballad that hit just the right notes and visual presentation that kept it in tempo. Surprisingly enough, the soundtrack had some restraint to it, which is uncommon for Hiroyuki Sawano, especially when taking into consideration his previous work on Attack on Giant Naked People and Kill La Wincest. While it still had his signature use of orchestric soundbites and digital glitch-pop buildup, it was often intertwined with shyer melodic tunes. It was refreshing if only unexpected for what Sawano is known for.
The voice acting was all fine, with the standout being Takahiro Sakurai's performance for the vampire antagonist, Ferid Bathory. He did a good job giving him a playful yet sinister tone, which really helps to sell how much of a baddie he was. But enough appraisal, time to address the biggest crux of Owari, and that were the characters.

Like the underbaked story, the characters suffered from an equal amount of problems. On top of being indistinguishable from your garden variety shounen lineup, they were also all grossly underdeveloped. Our protagonist, Yuu Hyakuya, is yet another hot-blooded teen who's on a quest for revenge. His one-track mindset is only topped by his regurgitated "I will defeat them all!", "I don't need friends!" mantras that he seems to want to yell out every 10-minutes. What's disheartening about the protagonist is that if given the proper time, he could have actually received decent characterization. There were several opportunities that could have allowed for this to occur but they were never taken advantage of. If you want the audience to get invested in a conflict, there needs to be proper time given to let the events unfold. If something life-altering happens to our protagonist that would cause a metamorphosis upon conquering that mental dilemma, it would benefit the story to let the audience see that play out. But instead of giving the proper time to allow this to happen, they simply time skipped pass this rough stage altogether. So not only was the story written with a sense of artificiality, but even the little decency it could have attained through demonstrating the character's growth was completely disregarded.

The rest of the cast were all forgettable nobodies you could find in other series. There was the pussy sidekick, the friendemy rival, the tsundere, and Douchbag teacher-sama, and the list goes on and on. Possibly the only character that had a decent personality was Shinoa Hiiragi, one of our protagonist's comrades. Her snarky, playful attitude made her interaction with the others fun to watch, but like the others, she remained underdeveloped and lacked any proper characterization outside of the already playful nature that she possessed. Another key character brought up was Yuu's childhood friend, Mikaela, but his involvement comes with spoilers so I'll leave it at that. The vampire antagonists were all one-dimensional baddies and none of them really mattered in the end. The only one that really got focus was Ferid Bathory, due to his involvement with our protagonist's life-altering incident. He's cartoonishly sinister and takes lives in a carefree manner, and that's about the extent of him as a character.

And after running through everything that Owari no Seraph had to offer, the final verdict can't surmount to anything other than generic.

Enjoyment: 5/10

This title is a knock-off brand shounen in every way possible. While I wasn't really bothered watching it, I certainly wasn't impressed either. The setup was predictable and the cliched moments just came in by the truckload. It was a time-passer, but not a good one at that.

Overall: 4/10

If you're a newcomer to anime then Owari could, at best, serve as a gateway title to help you get a little insight into the medium's common practices. But if you've been a part of the anime community for a decent amount of time and have grown tired of these formulaic setups, then I suggest skipping this one as it does nothing but follow a set checklist like its life depended on it.

(This is my first review ever, I apologize for being poor in details)
I browsed many times looking for a good anime that aired in 2015, so I gave a shot to this one (haven't read the manga yet unfortunately).

Story: 6/10
I have lost count of how many times vampires were used in anime, and frankly, I see nothing new in the plot, the post-apocalyptic genre is something I dislike but I haven't seen in many anime.
The question is now, WHY does the virus attack only people older than 13? Did I probably miss something while watching it? I would have been happier if they could have ... explained it with some silly reason for it, but the authors didn't even care about explaining in the details HOW THIS happened, which is really annoying.

Art: 7/10
I didn't really have any issue with the art, it's not the most well animated anime I know but there are far more popular anime that are animated worse than this one.

Sound: 5/10
The Opening is okay, but I barely noticed any music in the anime, let alone the fact that I detest its ending song.

Character: 2/10
This is the most annoying part: the characters are blatantly H-O-R-R-I-B-L-E. Yu is the typical shonen main character you see everyday in anime, pretty much like Eren Jaeger, and guess what? Both struggle to get revenge, what a nice coincidence, I like somewhat Mika more but it doesn't change the fact that I hate Yu. Shinoa Hiiragi and Yoiichi are likely the only characters I could save the anime for, as for Shihou Kimizuki, well, let's just not talk about it.

Enjoyement: 5/10
If you want something original, I advise you to stay away from this anime, I was seriously disappointed about it. If you're a newbie to anime and liked AoT then you'll probably like it more, though.

Overall: 4/10
As I said before, I was disappointed about the show, in my opinion it's nothing to be hyped about, as I think it's one of worst anime I saw this year.

If you have seen Attack on Titan, there is no reason to watch this. Within 10 seconds of the start of the show the apocalypse happens and vampires come to gather the survivors who are only children. Our main character begins as an almost copy paste of Eren Jaeger, who is an orphan who is being held captive in a vampire camp. The only thing he wants to do is get his orphan family out of there and kill all of the vampires. The story is a pretty generic and lacking in any sort of originality, it is like a Frankenstein's ... Monster of Attack on Titan, Sword Art Online and some other stupidly popular show that is pretty generic. The art is the hardest part to rate because the only thing that really ever looks nice are the backgrounds because they are painted and just sit there as a jpeg. The animation isn't noteworthy, just average. The music is nothing to write home about, has your classic "hardly noticeable background music", your "we are fighting now", and "attempted philosophical score for our 10 minutes of exposition". The characters are all bland and generic other than one. Your main character is a brooding teenager who lost something dear to him, your cowardly and timid barely even classified as a boy, your stuck up generic rival to the MC who will end up his friend, your tsundere who thinks she knows everything when she actually knows nothing, then the one good character who is the playful, joking person that actually has some power. If you were hoping for character development, you will not find any here. There is very little enjoyment that can be found in this show.

Owari No Seraph gave me the feeling that I have to some childhood friends who stick around till now, that feeling of ''you are not that awsome, in fact you aren't awsome at all, but I like you.'' this is the only reason why I'm going to watch the second season.

Art: 6
it is not creative nor interesting, but it's nice. I especially liked the way the characters are dressed. But as someone who's training to be a mangaka, this doesn't add anything to me.

Story: 4
Everything about Seraph Of The End is typical. Motivation coming only from loss and desire of revenge is becoming the trend ... of anime these days, it causes you to feel sorry for the character and I don't like that at all. Yu says ''I don't want any of my friends to die anymore'' he isn't afraid of losing his friends , what he really fears is feeling guilty like the time he ran away in the beginning. There isn't much you can learn from it.

Enjoyement: 6
it is the perfect thing to kill time with.

Overall I give it a decent 4, I believe it doesen't deserve no more nor less than that.

(This has been adapted from my blog/reddit thread. Spoilers ahead!)

When my brother and I were growing up at home, we always did everything together. We hung out with our neighbor friends, rode bikes, played video games; the normal, sibling stuff. But I’m the older brother, and as the older brother, I was “in charge.” There’s a distinct memory my brother always likes to bring up to sort of torment me for my immaturity. Basically, whenever my little brother wouldn’t listen to me, I’d warn him, “If you don’t do as I say, I won’t be your friend anymore.” And he would always listen. Eventually, he ... realized that my words were moot, but today I still feel bad about treating my brother meanly. He’s my family first and foremost, and I would do everything I could to protect him. Owari no Seraph is about brothers, family, and protecting the ones you love, but it turns out, it’s the one that needs the saving.

STORY

Owari seems to take place in modern times, revolving around vampires and their uprising following a virus that kills off many adult humans. Yu Hyakuya, a normal human boy, sees his family killed right before his eyes, with his purpose becoming the eradication of the species he has grown to hate so much.

Looking at Owari a bit more closely, it’s actually pretty thematically interesting. It works with two separate ideas at the same time: the definition of morality and the importance placed on family. Sometimes, it even combines the two, forming a nice set of insights that allow the viewer to question what is right, what is wrong, and what he or she would do in that same situation. But there’s something holding it all back, something that the anime doesn’t shake off except for in one specific area. This is the show’s events not matching the tone of the show itself.

Before getting into the stumbling narrative, it’s important to understand the previous ideas first. Morality is a concept we’re all familiar with. Picking up someone’s book off the ground for them is good, but taking it and throwing it in the garbage is bad. Helping someone cross the street is good, but kicking them over is bad. Often times, there is a clear-cut distinction between the correct and incorrect thing to do. The hardship comes when it isn’t black or white, but instead some shade of grey. For instance, is it okay to shoot a person in self-defense? What about spending money you earned on yourself over donating it to charity? The answers aren’t as easy because the situations are a bit more argumentative.

Owari plays with this notion a bit, with both the human and vampire sides. Humanity wants to survive; they’re on the brink of extinction and used essentially as cattle for the vampires. That means doing whatever it takes to defeat their adversary, to the point of going the “ethically concerning” route of human experimentation. Is it wrong to mess with the genetics of a few people in order to save millions, especially without their consent? The same goes for the vampires. While their background isn’t as out in the open, they’re simply doing the same: surviving. That means sucking human blood and containing them in a manner that doesn’t spread disease and famine. Are they wrong for looking out for themselves? The humans are to vampires as cows are to humans, “meat” to be used for sustenance. The vampires’ actions might look bad to the humans, but to them, they’re merely living their lives.

Throughout all of this, there is also the show’s focus on family and how it important is. Many of the happenings during the show highlight how much family means to people. The opening sequence and Yu’s inability to help, the Moon Demon squad and their relationships with each other, and even the covert operation that put the crew in danger because a little girl’s info was designed to protect her family are each instances of this theme of “family comes first.” Again, the vampires don’t show this as much, but instead the opposite. They don’t seem to have families, and instead work for themselves rather than the betterment of those around them. This is what paints them in such a bad light; their motivations are entirely selfish and are not aimed at aiding those close to them.

So, why aren’t these two themes – morality and family – executed as well as they can be over the course of the season? The reason was brought up in the beginning: tone. This isn’t so much tonal dissonance, meaning that the tone is constantly changing. It’s that what happens doesn’t coincide with the tone it went for. The first episode had genocide, the murdering of children, poverty, rampant disease, and slavery. It’s a grim, despondent tone, with everything being as bad as one can possibly imagine. But the remainder of the season never reaches this same level. There are no more killings, no more deplorable conditions, and nothing overtly terrible happening to anyone. In fact, many of the issues they faced are gone: demons give them power, drugs let them fight, and pockets of humanity can be found all over.

Since the rest of the season’s tone remains (nearly) consistently lower in terms of depravity, the aforementioned themes never have the chance to be explored to the extent that they should be by the anime’s standards. The moral conundrums are removed since the vampires’ goal is reduced down to killing humans only. Family becomes an afterthought when the cast never has anything remotely harrowing to overcome. Everything becomes rather complacent instead of the apocalyptic tension that had been initially conceived.

Earlier, “one specific area” was brought up because there is a situation that does manage to have that same tone: episode eleven, right before Yu’s transformation. There, Yu’s dilemma mirrors his initial one; he struggles with the protection of his “family” while simultaneously dealing with the moral implications of the decision he has to make. There the tone is the same as before and subsequently the themes are as prominent as they had been. That is, when the events taking place manage to capture the same feeling as the anime is attempting to portray, the motifs it utilizes take on that same strength. The majority of Owari no Seraph does not do this, reducing its overall impact.

ANIMATION

Owari’s art manages to keep itself from blending too much together due to the pastoral direction that it takes. The background locations seem painted, varying in their severity of dilapidation to make the world feel as decrepit as it is. Abandoned cars, disheveled buildings, and concrete structures are the norm, as are wooden shacks, abandoned subway stations, and classical décor. It makes everything feel lonely and barren, fitting the mood while contrasting with the themes nicely.

The character designs are fine for what they are but aren’t particularly striking. This is mostly due to both the vampires and the humans each having their own outfits that every single person wears. Krul, the vampire queen, manages to look like the position she holds if only because she doesn’t “follow suit,” if you will. Even Yu’s transformed version is lackluster; the one red-eye and jagged black wing aren’t scary or foreboding. They’re not comical either, instead just “there.”

Actual animation is severely hit or miss. When the show wants to go all-out, it can, and the fight scenes and detailed movements are nice to see. Then there is the opposite spectrum, where still frames and weird battle choreography take precedent. It’s mostly somewhere down the middle, but the really good and the really bad are usually noticeable.

CHARACTERS

Many of the characters within Owari aren’t particularly engaging, mostly because the show has yet to fully develop them adequately. This is due to a common anime move where the series is (purposefully) split in two. In other words, this season gave the audience a lot of characterization and backstory for those involved. Shinoa has a deceased sister who was integral to the development of the “Cursed Gear,” but we don’t know anything else. Mitsuba has a hard time getting buddy-buddy with her comrades due to her own previous failures, but nothing more. Shihou has a sickly sister whereas Yoichi’s was killed, but there isn’t much more to them than that.

It sounds like a dilution of their characters – and to an extent, it is somewhat of a hyperbole – but this is because the show strangely keeps the focus away from them after they’ve been learned about. Shihou and Yoichi, after the viewer discovers their pasts, are oddly absent from many of the dealings afterwards, saying only a few words here and there. The same goes for Mitsuba; after her initial telling and rescue, she doesn’t do much besides get flustered and angry. Shinoa and Yu manage to avoid this pitfall because the anime handles their cases in the correct fashion. Rather than a “get and forget” approach, the show takes its time with their individual persons, both in terms of personality and importance. This should obviously be the case with Yu, so watching Shinoa put on a mask to hide her true feelings – the fear she has when fighting, the care that manifests towards Yu, and the ambivalence she probably has towards her older sister – gave her character more dimensionality compared to the others.

However, even if Shinoa and Yu manage to remain prevalent, there exists another character that is so frustratingly illogical that it becomes impossible to take him and his actions seriously. This is none other than Mikaela. Now a vampire, he harbors a hate for his kind and humans…which is weird, considering who he was and what he saw. Supposedly he hates all humans (except for, conveniently, Yu) because of the human experimentation they have done to him. But his reasoning makes no sense; he knows that Yu is not only a good person but so was his entire family, so extending the thinking that all humans are evil doesn’t make sense. It makes even less sense when one takes the themes into context. Mikaela was always the guy who was all about family and togetherness. So him being unable to see that Yu is alive because of these humans doesn’t follow his own characterization. The argument is that his turning and his time spent among the vampires has brainwashed him. This also doesn’t work for two reasons: he still hates vampires and their society and he is still able to recognize Yu for whom he is despite being human. He’s a poor character whose actions and thinking are asinine, which is a shame, considering how interesting his position in the anime is.

SOUND

The opening theme starts off with a distinct techno vibe that doesn’t fit the show’s overall mood. The middle of the piece is also strangely calm despite what the show tries to work with. The latter half eventually picks up the beat, but by that point the OP has already lost its power. As for the ending theme, it definitely fits better, being gloomier in instruments and vocals. Here, the second part of the ED is favorable, replacing the apparent loss with a nice sense of hope due in part to the singer’s impassioned words.

Listening to the remaining tracks of the original soundtrack isn’t annoying but it also isn’t too much fun, either. There are tracks befitting nearly all circumstances, such as piano medleys for those sad moments and ominous tracks for the foreboding ones. A lot of them utilize instruments and tempos that sound off-kilter to make the situations feel that much more dramatic, but aren’t impressive in their own right. Unfortunately, the musical pieces all kind of mesh together after a while, becoming nothing more than background noise.

Voice acting for the show is somewhere around average, with no notable performances to be had.

ENJOYMENT

I’ll admit that I was quite bored with the way this one went in the middle. I think part of it is not really knowing or understanding the vampires’ side of things. I know that they have factions and their own area, but I don’t know who they really are. Many of the vampires are, more or less, the same, just with different weapons and hair color. Some did bad things to others, but without knowing what makes them “them,” I had no investment into their characters.

The anime provided nothing on the vampires, meaning Yu and his friends were the ones who needed to bring the entertainment. Mikaela is insufferable; that goes without saying. Yu was passable as the lead, but Shihou’s constant head-butting with his similar friend was usually fun. Yoichi was a bit too wimpy, at least for now, and I wish that Mitsuba was given more time on-screen since her character seems to be one of the more interesting of the bunch. Shinoa, though, takes the cake; her smugness, sarcastic cuteness, and romantic feelings were always welcomed. Finally, if anything, the show managed to stick in my head for a few days after episode eleven; it was quite jarring and should have been like that the entire ride, not just right near the end.

Owari no Seraph has a slew of interesting facets that each have a good amount of potential. But the execution is presently missing. The narrative needs to follow the tone, the cast needs more individual focus, and the animation needs more consistency, to name just a few problems. Considering the title of the anime, this one might need a bit of prayer to get it on the right track to conclude in a concise manner.

SUMMARY

Story: Fine, interesting themes of morality and family that aren’t as strong due to tonal irregularities

Animation: Fine, nice art style, okay character designs, about average actual animation

Characters: Bad, Shinoa and Yu are characterized nicely, Shihou, Yoichi, and Mitsuba are forgotten, but worst of all is how frustratingly illogical Mikaela is

Sound: Fine, okay OP, good ED, okay soundtrack, average VA work

Enjoyment: Bad, the middle stretch is boring, Shihou and especially Shinoa are fun, but the rest of the cast is either subpar or insufferable

Final Score: 4/10

Seraph of the End is pretty much one of the most popular anime that came out this Spring season of 2015, so I'm gonna be reviewing it.
Seraph of the End is about a virus of vampires that, for no fucking reason, only affects people over the age of 13. We're introduced to our MC named Yu, who now wants to kill all vampires!! Let's jump right into it.
#jumpyreviews

After watching this show, all I can say is that it's a steaming pile of shit.
The story is actually really bad. After copy pasting the first Attack on Titan episode to this series, we get the ... school setting for Yu, the main character, make friends and somehow learn to be better at killing vampires. First of all, that's retarded. Second, why does he need friends to defeat the vampires? The only reason he is set in school is to make friends, they could've easily done this without shoehorning school into the mix. The problem with this is that they don't even work together, the fights are not only directed horribly at times, but the team barely works together. But this is a shounen, and everything has to be unoriginal and cliché.

The story is basically him trying to kill every vampire because he wants revenge. That's it, there's not much else to it. It's boring, predictable and just plain bland. You can't say that this series is in any way original. It's just a copy and paste series that no one will mention in the next 5 years.
Unless it gets as popular as Attack on Titan, which I hope it doesn't.

The characters are probably the worst part of this anime. They're all bland and dull.

Yuichiro Hyakuya -

Yu is that typical cliché shounen main character that wants to kill all vampires. He's a hot-headed idiot that needs no friends and wants to do everything by himself. His character never develops, he never does what he's supposed to do and is frustrating to watch. Not to mention that he's a fucking idiot. I could never care for the character, I actually wanted him to die. The show want you to care for him, but he's just too bland and annoying for me to like.

Mikaela Hyakuya -

They kinda try to make him work, but he's boring, stale and bland. He's probably the biggest Yandere of this year.

Shinoa -

She's my favorite character, not because she's a great character or has development, but because she's not generic nor boring. Her personality is what makes her stand out the most, if the show focused more on her, I think this could've been better.

Shihou Kimizuki -

Holy shit, this guy is just horrible. The typical and cliché character that hates and screams at everyone, but actually cares for everyone, he just can't show it for the sakes of being an asshole. Extremely unlikable and boring.

Mitsuba Sangu -

I swear, one of the most annoying characters in the series. It's honestly hard to pick which was more annoying, they're all just so bad and bland. This one is literally the typical tsundere with a stupid backstory that never made me want to connect with the character. Mostly because she was just very unlikable.

Yoichi -

I swear, it gets even more bland guys. This was probably a character that they could've completely erased in the series and nothing would've changed. He's a nerdy shy prick that doesn't do much at all.

The animation was a pretty solid at first, but after awhile, the backgrounds were completely terrible. I'm not sure what happened, but it never blended in with the character models. The character design isn't really all that good, most of them look pretty generic, except for Shinoa and a loli vampire with pink hair.

The music carries the show, it's actually pretty good. The opening song is pretty good and the ending song is also pretty good. The score has its good moments and plays when it is needed.

Overall, Seraph of the End is a piece of shit. I would say that you skip this or drop it if you were already a few episodes in. If I had to give it a score I would give it a 3/10. Definitely not worth your time.

Whenever a certain product becomes popular among the masses, it is guaranteed to have imitators trying to off its success. So when Attack on Titan became mainstream, imitators started popping up. One of these shows is Owari no Seraph or Seraph of the End in English.

Right off the bat, the world makes zero sense. In the first episode, a virus kills basically everyone except people 13 years of age. And why everyone 13 and under survives this super virus that wiped out most of the human in like a day? Here’s the biggest problem with Seraph when it comes to its narrative, it never answers ... why things happen. When it comes to any story, there are five important questions to ask: What happened? Who was there? Why did it happen? When did it happens? Where did it happen? Now if you were to why stuff happen to Seraph, you will soon realize how many things happen just because. Why is people thirteen year and younger unaffected by the virus? Why were the vampires in hiding all this time? Where are there demons? Why some of the adults survive the super virus that killed nearly everyone in an hour? None of these questions are answered and the only reasoning behind these events are to move the plot in the direction the writer wants it to go.

Even if you were to over the very flimsy plotting, there isn’t much to the show. The plot is a hogpog mess of ideas. There’s high schools, teenagers with giant weapons, a prophesy, vampires taking over the world, etcetera. Being unoriginal isn’t inherently a bad thing, but the show doesn’t do anything new or interesting with the ideas they had. Because of this, the show fails to have its own identity.

As for the characters, they are by far the worst part of this show. They all reek of “shonen” and are completely void of development. The main lead ( Yuuichirou Hyakuya ) is an obnoxious, hot headed git. All he ever talks about is how he wants to kill all them vampires or how he doesn’t need any friends. It is impossible to get behind him since he doesn’t have any relatable aspects except raw anger.

As for the other characters, they are pretty forgettable. Most of them consists of overused archetypes. To give an example, the MC team consists of a blond, twintails tsundere, a wimp, a male rival, and Mary Sue. The only character I liked was Shinoa. Even though she is a Mary Sue, her sarcastic attitude make her more bearable, especially in comparison to Eren Jager 2.0.

In the animation department, the show fails to impress. The character designs are quite generic and it doesn’t help that the 2D character designs poorly blend in with the water colored backgrounds. Also, the military uniforms that everyone wears look stupid. The uniforms for the Japanese Imperial Demon Army are black and lined with neon green as if they was Tron and the vampires wear black and white 18th century military uniforms. As for the action, it is quite underwhelming. All the action in this season consists of only small skirmishes that don’t have the impact or choreography to make them memorable.

Despite being composed by Hiroyuki Sawano, someone who has a rather good track, the soundtrack for Seraph is rather lacking. Most of the anime consists of silence. And when I listened to the soundtrack separately, I was all like “ where the hell all this music went to?” It is basically the opposite problem that Aldnoah Zero. In Aldnoah, the soundtrack was overused so that it became repetitive and to take away from any impact the series might of had. In Seraph’s case, the music was used too sparingly that it makes the show feel empty.

I can’t really recommend Seraph even as a stupid time waster. I won’t fulfill anyone in terms of writing or aesthetics. I would say give this show a pass since it’s not worth your time.

As for alternative shows, try out Attack on Titan or Blue Gender. Even though both shows eventually become train wrecks, they do the “ humanity is on the brink of extinction” far better that Seraph. If you want to see some cool vampire action, try out Hellsing (preferably Ultimate) or Blood the Last Vampire since they have better action and writing.

Video Version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EH2tkFqrVJU

Seraph of the End 終わりのセラ
Review

Every once in a while in anime a show comes along, that becomes so popular that it creates its own genre. The every so popular Sword Art Online spawned Log Horizon, No Game No Life and even this season's Overlord. So with the huge success of Attack on Titan comes many clones. Alongside God Eater, Aldnoah Zero and Knights of Sidonia comes Owari no Seraph also known as in English as Seraph of the End and also known as Attack on Titan: Vampire Edition. We follow our protagonist Yuichiro as he fights the Vampires in a post-apocalyptic world in ... order to get revenge for what the Vampires had done to his family and he does this by... by going to high school to make friend.

Seraph of the End was adapted from an ongoing manga of the same name because adaptations of ongoing manga are the best. The show has been adapted by Wit Studio the same studio that had its hands in Attack on Titan… aah that make more sense now. And also got a broadcast dub from Funimation which I watched. The first half came out this Spring with 12 episodes and the sequel is going to be released this fall with another 12 episodes.

Seraph of the End is the definition of generic. This reflects on every part of the anime. The story takes place when a virus kills everyone over the age of 13 [what?] and then Vampires come and enslave the children as a food source and treat them like livestock. So our group of kids try to escape, all die except our protagonist… well thats unless you’ve seen the opening which spoils one of the only redeeming qualities of the show. And this give him his reason [tiny face meme] for revenge. Not so bad right? Well thats the best this show has to offer. From then on to achieve vengeance he goes to high school.This is because he is
told that he needs to learn teamwork to join the Moon Demon Company aka the Survey Corps , and the best way for him to learn teamwork is by forcing a stupid highschool arc. The story is pretty slow and boring and the best twist, is still a cliche, is ruined in the opening.

Now onto the characters. Our protagonist,Yuichiro , who clearly a cool kid because unlike any other character, he always keeps his hands in his pockets and he is just generic trash. His character as a whole is kinda flawed. When he sees his family killed in front of him, he only helps Mikela despite all of the other characters killed even though they call themselves family. And even afterwards he only remembers Mikela not even regarding the rest of the family. In episode 6, when our protagonist has to kill his friend he just says this: [Episode 06 15:00]. What!? For all he knew he was actually going to kill his friend and all he says is “Sorry but you’re going down”. What???

Mikela, the kid who is supposed to be dead but even though he was in the opening, he didn’t appear much in this anime but he really is the most interesting character in this anime.

Shinoa, while writing this review I was thinking of things to say about her but then came to a realisation that she is one of the most forgettable and boring characters that anime has produced in recent time.

And other than that the rest of the main cast is made up of tropes including the blonde one, the old one, the shy one and the rival.

Though not a main character, I do want to talk about Ferid, the vampire that kills Yuichiro’s family and the person that Mikela works with. He along with Mikela are the most interesting part of the show due to their mystery.

And Finally I want to talk about the vampires, they for some reason really want to hurt little kids and do the Michael Jackson in more ways that one.


This anime is just generic and with more negatives than actual positives. The main plot twist of the show is literally ruined in the opening. The animation is average. The soundtrack is shit. The characters are shit and in a nutshell it’s Attack on Titan done wrong. And the worst thing about it is, it could’ve actually been a good show because I’ve heard that the manga is actually good but instead it is a cliched mess. But with all that being said, will I watch the second season coming this fall...Yes. Even though it the story is poorly executed, I’m still interested in it to see what will happen and that has to count for something right. So i give Seraph of the End a 4/10. Literally, just go watch any other show than this. Go watch Kaiji. Do that.

If you asked me to rate the first 6 episodes separately from the latter half of the show, I would easily give it 8/10 for the art, animation, and plot set-up.

But the last 6 episodes barely deserve 2/10 and here's why:

Art 7/10
I personally liked the art style and even the weird colour schemes grew on me. The fight sequences are excellent in the beginning but the animation gets sloppier and sloppier as the show goes on. What should have been a climactic battle deteriorates into what looks like a turn based rpg.

Story 5/10
The premise of the show is able to seamlessly blend ... together elements from the most popular shonen out there, including Attack on Titan, Tokyo Ghoul, Bleach, and Blue Exorcist. Contrary to what other people may think, I don't think it's bad storytelling to reuse tropes especially when they've already proven to be effective.

WITH THAT SAID, the plot progression beyond is initial set-up is abysmal. Plot device after plot device is introduced without actually showing their relevance to the overall plot. There is absolutely no tension because Yuu is ridiculously overpowered, not to mention abnormally lucky since nothing seems to go seriously wrong despite everyone's warnings against his dumbass decisions.

Character 2/10
Forget two dimensional, some of these characters struggle to be one dimensional. No one learns anything in their "character arcs" (and I'm using that term loosely). Yuu is reckless and overpowered, then becomes unapologetically reckless and overpowered. Mikaela's life revolves around Yuu, then it revolves around Yuu some more while he angsts. Guren starts out with "lazy but cool older brother figure" then becomes a heartless bastard for no apparent reason.

Enjoyment 5/10
I feel that this is a generous rating considering how much I hate the second half of this cour. By a certain point, the only thing that kept me coming back was the OP and ED.

This is one of the worst Anime I've seen yet and boyz, this anime is so plain bad and generic, I don'T get it why so many ppl loved it and gave it a high rating.

Story:
The story was so bad, it hurted tbh.
Episode 1 was really generic and lazy writing everywhere, like literally telling the viewer, that there's a virus, that instantly (for some reason) kills ppl under 14 (or 13, I forgot) . It's so lazily done, as if we couldn't get it by ourself that something is killing everything but kids, since it's basically everything the virus is. It's never described further what ... the virus is. Also it's really weird that they all died instantly and for some reason they can't kill anyone under 13 becuz anime logic, I guess.
Also the tone is all over the place from happy go lucky to "I must kill all the vampires" and the pacing is bad as well.
Everything is generic and have been done elsewhere better. A lot better.
The storytelling is, like I mentioned, poor written and had everything spelled out to the viewer. It was just like the anime insulted my intelligent, since it had to say things like "it's a memory" out loud, as if the viewer would in no way get it himself.
It's mainly about the humans vs vampire with Yuu and his harem in focus. The pacing is akwardly slow and the intense scenes were utterly boring, I lost my attention in mere seconds. It's not like we all don't know what'll happens, since it's really, really predictable.
Somehow does everything the story just "happens", becuz of "convenient reasons". The world is shallow and why the heck is there a school in the middle of a warfield. Everything feels so forced, due of it's lazy writing, which includes exposition and dialog. And also many things didn't make sense, yeah.


Characters
A story can be shitty as hell, but when the characters are good, an anime can still be enjoyable
Guess what
I hated almost everyone.
Especially Yuu, the protaganist aka the generic shounen hothead MC.
Was he made to be so annoying, since I hated the hell out of him. Everytime he opened his mouth to say "i need to kill the vampires" or "I need to protect my harem/friends" I want to punch him into his face.
btw, his mood is really weird, since it switched constantly from revenge to protecting his friends. The mood change feels so forced, it's like he's a robot with only these two options given.
Also, why is he constantly disobeying almost everytime?

The rest of the cast are mainly built of walking cliché, so I don't bother with them.

Art:
The art was ok,
the background looked pretty, but boy, the animation quality dropped so hard, in the end there were almost no movement in the "action" scenes, yeah... "action".
Otherwise it was ok or more like watchable. My only problem with the artstyle the series goes is that it looks so out of place, meaning that the art and the animation don't synch with each other. Doesn't look like they belong to each other.
Inside a building it was barely noticeable, but in the outside the difference could be spotted easily.
Anyway it's still decent enough.

Sound
The opening was quite enjoyable, even tho I didn't like it a lot. Reasons would maybe be the intro, since it's a bit weird. But the refrain is quite good and I like hearing to over and over.
The rest of the OST did their job, but nothing really stand out, so that when I'm hearing it, I'd think of OnS
But not bad.

Enjoyment
Like someone might have guessed, I really can't stand the anime.
So many thigns were cringeworthy and I don't have anything I like there.
I didn't even wanted to watch the anime, but since a good friend of mine, who shares smiliar interest, I even bother watching.
In the end, when I lost my hope of the anime eventually becoming good and started laughing at the bad scenes.
It was still a waste of time.

Overall:
If you like to watch generic ppl in a generic plot with generic villains, fine go watch it.
Second season is incoming and I don't see any sign of it becoming better.

This show is not redeemable, I can't understand how this became so popular. I was recommended it by a friend and I gave it the three episode chance but couldn't bare to watch anymore after that.

The story is pretty generic and seems similar to the very successful Attack on Titan series. The characters are quite bland as well and to be honest, I couldn't sympathise with a single one of them despite the creator's desperate attempts to make you feel sorry for them. The main character just seemed to be a copy of Eren from Attack On Titan. The art was okay but it ... wasn't anything amazing. The sound was alright and the opening had a decent song; this is sadly the only thing going for the series.

Usually when a series has not drawn me in by the third episode, I will drop it and this happened with Owari No Seraph. I found myself so bored that I was barely watching the show and if that doesn't show you how poor this anime is, I don't know what will.

Whenever a certain product becomes popular among the masses, it is guaranteed to have imitators trying to off its success. So when Attack on Titan became mainstream, imitators started popping up. One of these shows is Owari no Seraph or Seraph of the End in English.

Right off the bat, the world makes zero sense. In the first episode, a virus kills basically everyone except people 13 years of age. And why everyone 13 and under survives this super virus that wiped out most of the human in like a day? Here’s the biggest problem with Seraph when it comes to its narrative, it never answers ... why things happen. When it comes to any story, there are five important questions to ask: What happened? Who was there? Why did it happen? When did it happens? Where did it happen? Now if you were to why stuff happen to Seraph, you will soon realize how many things happen just because. Why is people thirteen year and younger unaffected by the virus? Why were the vampires in hiding all this time? Where are there demons? Why some of the adults survive the super virus that killed nearly everyone in an hour? None of these questions are answered and the only reasoning behind these events are to move the plot in the direction the writer wants it to go.

Even if you were to over the very flimsy plotting, there isn’t much to the show. The plot is a hogpog mess of ideas. There’s high schools, teenagers with giant weapons, a prophesy, vampires taking over the world, etcetera. Being unoriginal isn’t inherently a bad thing, but the show doesn’t do anything new or interesting with the ideas they had. Because of this, the show fails to have its own identity.

As for the characters, they are by far the worst part of this show. They all reek of “shonen” and are completely void of development. The main lead ( Yuuichirou Hyakuya ) is an obnoxious, hot headed git. All he ever talks about is how he wants to kill all them vampires or how he doesn’t need any friends. It is impossible to get behind him since he doesn’t have any relatable aspects except raw anger.

As for the other characters, they are pretty forgettable. Most of them consists of overused archetypes. To give an example, the MC team consists of a blond, twintails tsundere, a wimp, a male rival, and Mary Sue. The only character I liked was Shinoa. Even though she is a Mary Sue, her sarcastic attitude make her more bearable, especially in comparison to Eren Jager 2.0.

In the animation department, the show fails to impress. The character designs are quite generic and it doesn’t help that the 2D character designs poorly blend in with the water colored backgrounds. Also, the military uniforms that everyone wears look stupid. The uniforms for the Japanese Imperial Demon Army are black and lined with neon green as if they was Tron and the vampires wear black and white 18th century military uniforms. As for the action, it is quite underwhelming. All the action in this season consists of only small skirmishes that don’t have the impact or choreography to make them memorable.

Despite being composed by Hiroyuki Sawano, someone who has a rather good track, the soundtrack for Seraph is rather lacking. Most of the anime consists of silence. And when I listened to the soundtrack separately, I was all like “ where the hell all this music went to?” It is basically the opposite problem that Aldnoah Zero. In Aldnoah, the soundtrack was overused so that it became repetitive and to take away from any impact the series might of had. In Seraph’s case, the music was used too sparingly that it makes the show feel empty.

I can’t really recommend Seraph even as a stupid time waster. I won’t fulfill anyone in terms of writing or aesthetics. I would say give this show a pass since it’s not worth your time.

As for alternative shows, try out Attack on Titan or Blue Gender. Even though both shows eventually become train wrecks, they do the “ humanity is on the brink of extinction” far better that Seraph. If you want to see some cool vampire action, try out Hellsing (preferably Ultimate) or Blood the Last Vampire since they have better action and writing.

Owari no Still Frames isn't even close to being the end of still frames, it's got more still frames than you can shake a Fairy Tail guild tattoo at.

Commonly referred to as a gayer version of Twilight, Owari no Seraph is a popcorn show where by the end of it all, the popcorn is the only thing you remember. Generic in every sense of the word, it's impressive how non-hype this series can be at times. Wasn't this supposed to be about slaying vampires? Humanity is in danger, war is everywhere, people are dying left and right! Even if the story sucks, something like this ... should at least be mildly entertaining, yet you know something is wrong when the most entertaining aspect of the show is the sarcastic wit of a midget.

Story:

Without even diving into the actual story, Owari no Seraph's setting itself is just... I don't know. Why is there a virus? Why does it not affect kids? Why does a vampire noble who is later shown to be completely overpowered get taken by surprise by a kid? How does a kid who got pierced right through the chest not get instantly killed when other kids instantly die from seemingly less extreme injuries? How is a kid able to trot his way towards the exit of the vampire camp when vampires are clearly shown to be much faster? The inconsistency of this story's own setting is mindnumbingly hilarious, yet the inconsistency of said world somehow didn't make the story any less predictable. Now that's an oxymoron to end them all.

I went into Owari no Seraph 100% spoiler free, yet I predicted the events of episode 1 with no problem at all. I mean come on. A bunch of kids overly preachy about the whole family aspect, the main kid, normally angsty and anti social, finally accepts the idea that he has a family, smartass yet dumbass blonde friend plans an escape as a family, they are all happy and excited to escape as a family until OH BOY they are finally about to reach the exit! If you can't imagine what happens next, well I don't know what to tell you. After that whole fiasco, main character is the only one to escape, and low and behold, humans are right outside to greet him and, get this, the main officer Guren says that the PROPHECY came true. Yeah, you read that right. The PROPHECY of a kid escaping the vampire camp, this kid is the chosen one! Of course once you get to know Guren's character, you realize that it is very possible that he was just being a sarcastic git like usual, yet this would also mean that he had absolutely no reason to just randomly be there with minimal amount of soldiers in front of a massive vampire camp. So either way, it's a lose-lose dumb-dumb situation.

Queue the time skip, and we see our dumb protagonist being dumb and then being put into a goddamn high school situation. Even this part is predictable. Main character ends up sitting near the window, shenanigans ensue, it becomes a high school romcom for a few episodes. Then, we get to the demon contracting part, which is determined by... willpower. Wow, I am really feeling the hype!

If I were to give any sort of credit where it is due, it's that Owari no Seraph doesn't drag itself out as much as other shows of its nature do. I'm looking at you, Attack on Titan. The whole reunion of Yuu and Mika was something that everyone was looking forward to, and while yes the story did delay this reunion with some sort of side mission that had basically no impact on the story or character progression, when the main event did happen, it happened. There was no flashback to the past or any bullshit like that, something that AoT was quite fond of, hell, there wasn't even a minor episode recap on that episode. It cut right to the action. Shows of this nature have the tendency to drag out the pacing with unnecessary flashbacks, character monologues, or other filler, or straight up delay the entire event to another arc in order to "leave the viewers on the edge of their seats." Thankfully, Owari no Seraph did minimal time wasting, and the event itself was definitely one of the better ones in the story as well.

Art and Animation:

Oh man, a huge battle is about to happen. Vampires and humans draw their weapons, they glare at each other, the command to attack is given, and then BOOM! Right into a still frame! The sounds of swords clashing in the background continue as BOOM! Another still frame! Oh, but they added the "intense anime lines" special effects to let you know that they are indeed battling. Owari no Still Frames denies its viewers the hype they crave with some of the most inconsistent animation and art in the world.

The animation had moments of goodness. The first spar between Shinoa and Yuu had impact, choreography, and cool special effects. Well, that's all and good right? WRONG, because Shinoa's character design becomes a scrunched up piece of shit as a result! Please Owari no Still Frames, why you gotta give us one over the other? Not to mention, this fight probably has the best animation quality and choreography in the entirety of the first season, yet it's a spar on top of a fucking high school. Meanwhile, the massive battles between the army and the vampires are essentially just manga panels with sound effects. It's a shame that the hype never fully delivers, and the animation and art had something to do with that.

At their best, the art and character designs are pretty good though, however they don't really seem to fit the backgrounds. The backgrounds look like paintings, and the characters clearly stand out and not in a good way. It makes it feel like an unprofessional work. However, they aren't grating to the eyes in any way, but of course, that is only when the artwork and character designs are at their best.

Sound:

For such a hype machine that Hiroyuki Sawano is, his compositions for Owari no Seraph are very mellow in comparison. While many associate his Owari no Seraph soundtrack as one of his weakest as a result, I think it actually kind of fits the hypeless plot of Owari no Seraph in an ironic way. Owari no Seraph is more somber than it is epic, and the more mellow orchestration of its soundtrack kind of supports that feeling. Of course, that means that when it is supposed to get hypey, the soundtrack leaves more to be desired. However, it is still a fairly good listening experience, and the OP is hella catchy as well.

On the side of seiyuu things, they are all very good. Their performances all give the viewers a general sense of their character's personality without it being directly stated. For example, you can easily tell that Ferid is the playful yet sinister type and that Crowley is the calm one with a sense of curiosity just by their voice, even before their actions make it obvious. Also hats off to Shinoa's seiyuu for a sassy voice so teasing that it even makes me mad at the character.

Characters:

First of all, I want to give a shout out to our obnoxious midget Hiiragi Shinoa, the proud winner of my "Favorite Character from my Least Favorite Anime" award! Her sass, her reasoning behind why she is so sassy, not to mention her overall aesthetic of being a badass scythe wielder are all things I can get behind. She's basically one massive middle finger to the usual generic-ness of Owari no Seraph, and I appreciate that more than anything. Congrats Owari no Seraph, you've been saved from an even lower score in the character department and enjoyment department by your lovely yet piece of shit loli.

As for the rest of the characters, they are tropes and nothing else. I'm pretty sure everyone knows this, but Yuu is just Eren Jaeger 2.0, and it's not like Eren Jaeger was all that special as a character either. He starts off being the most unlikeable edgy loser who hates people and wants to kill vampires, and nothing else. His friends are Yoichi, a shy guy. What else is he besides a shy guy? Who knows, and who cares? There's also Kimizuki, a male tsundere. What else is he besides a male tsundere? Who knows, and who cares?

There are 2 other characters besides Shinoa who hold a shred of interesting qualities. Mika is the deteuragonist, and he is definitely at least way more interesting than Yuu. (Hell, even the Owari no Seraph specials blatantly point out how Mika is way more interesting, as well as how marketable Shinoa is. This is why the Owari no Seraph specials are a masterpiece.) Anyways, he still suffers from inconsistency, especially in his IQ in the first episode. He's a smartass for even planning such a complex strategy to escape, but he's also a dumbass for doing so. There is a scene where he shows extreme compassion for humans when he is a vampire, yet he is still depicted as untrusting and disgusted by humans. Yeah, he's probably just psychologically conflicted due to his circumstances, yet the unfathomability of his circumstances make me just not care.

The other interesting one is Guren, for he is one of the only characters that has more about him hidden than what meets the eye. I can tell that there is some juicy back story behind his morals and overall personality, something which I hope gets expanded on in the second season.

Enjoyment:

Because Shinoa existed, I can't call Owari no Seraph boring by any means. It's dumb and brainless, and nowhere near the most enjoyable anime in the world, but it's also not the most boring thing either. However, while it has moments of mild entertainment once in a while, it lacks any sort of satisfaction, which means I can't recommend this show to anyone without feeling like a time wasting monster afterwards.

Overall:

Simply put, it's a time waster, but it has Shinoa, so go for it I guess. I can also see it being enjoyable for someone who is brand new to anime, as they aren't as cynical about tropes as the rest of us.

The anime starts off very promising, offering an interesting story and well-developed characters. At first, the plot is captivating with a perfect combination of action, drama and comedy. However, as it approaches the middle, the quality begins to decline drastically. The plot becomes increasingly inconsistent and seems forced, while previously solid character development begins to be neglected. When entering the final part, this anime increasingly loses direction. The initially complex narrative turns cliche and full of plot holes. The character development is also not as strong as it was at the beginning, making them feel flat and less interesting. Although this anime starts out with ... great potential, the execution in the second half and ending makes it a disappointing experience. Unfortunately, this anime failed to live up to the expectations that were well built at the start.

Apocalyptic-themed anime are becoming quite common. With the right formula, it could become a phenomenal piece of work. Seraph of the End, on the other hand, welcomes the usual clichés and is too inadequate to fulfill that formula.

The plot is pretty generic and cliché with vampires as the villains and a hot-blooded male protagonist (Yuu) who vows to destroy them all. The world is taken over by a virus that affects people over the age of 13, but there are some survivors of course. It was also disappointing to see someone under the age of 13 affected anyway. Some scenes were unnecessary. Yuu’s advancement ... in the militia goes by foolish tactics like how many friends he gains instead of experience like it should be. Since you have to interact with others in the military anyway, his time in school was a waste. There are scenes aimed for shounen ai lovers with intimate vampire blood-sucking moments and friends who are a little too friendly, rubbing against the other.

The fast pacing was ridiculous. The OP in the 2nd episode spoils the climax of the show, so it’s ok to say it here. The characters did not even undergo proper training, and they were immediately put in the battlefield as a way to get Yuu and Mika to meet, not giving the characters any time to develop. There’s a brief training arc with easy trials as if to justify Yuu’s stubbornness with teamwork. The majority of hand-to-hand action was soft with weak punches and kicks. The ending was easy to predict, especially with demon swords as weapons. Of course, there’s a hidden power for Yuu.

The main characters are ordinary with their personalities and unfortunate pasts. There’s the character that the MC can’t possibly get along with (Shihou), the light-hearted comedian (Shinoa), and the weakest link (Yoichi). This cast automatically makes the show predictable. Yuu reminds me a lot like Naruto, drawing attention to himself by declaring himself the best. They each have similar purposes for joining the military, particularly because of a family member. Despite being weak and making supposedly unforgivable mistakes, Yoichi bypassed the trials and joined the military so easily. The vampires and humans don’t vary in ability. Both of them can fly or jump high, and the humans can sustain any amount of injury and carry on normally. Main characters’ bodies are pierced with swords, and they continue maneuvering smoothly despite injuries. One could argue that their demon-possessed swords allow them to have such abilities, but I’m not buying it.

The art is average. The settings are just flat backgrounds imitating pastel paintings. There are a couple of still images. The character designs are made to distinguish the vampires from the humans with their elf ears and red eyes. I envision vampires to be more villainous without pointy ears. Otherwise, they just look goofy to me. Characters experience injuries, and the bloody injury would disappear and reappear between scenes. The animation was good and very detailed. 1D characters move in backgrounds, and objects move in sync with the person controlling it or the wind. The ruins in the show also depict the apocalyptic setting.

I watched the show in both dub and sub, and the dub was hilarious. I couldn’t take the dramatic scene in the first episode seriously at all. The lyrics for the English OP fit the show pretty well. The music in the show didn’t always fit the situation, and I preferred some scenes with no music at all. The blaring music sounded as if it was trying to drown out the seiyuu’s voices. The seiyuu didn’t react to certain situations. When characters are clearly being choked, their voices show no difficulty in speech. Apart from that, I liked the sounds of action from the swords clashing and the creaks of the floors.

As an apocalyptic anime, Seraph of the End is mediocre. The show was really predictable with the plot, ordinary characters, and demon-possessed weapons. The quick pacing really ruined the show, especially with the characters being powerful with hardly any training. Also, just to let you know, the show does not improve in the second season.

To be honest, I don’t have much to say about Owari no Seraph. I’ve only watched the first season, but I barely made it through that, because it was so boring. This series rehashes every anime stereotype in an unimaginative way, with VAMPIRES! Because, anime’s never done that before.

• Fate ordains that the two main, slightly homoerotic protagonists are on opposite sides. Gundam SEED is bad, but it is more interesting than this series, so if you want to watch something with a similar premise and better execution, check it out.

• There’s also a twin-tailed tsundere, a flamboyantly gay vampire, the coy girl, ... and the OP older guy. If you haven’t seen these tropes reused to death than you’re probably fairly new to anime and this series might not be a bad start, but to veterans of anime, like myself, will yawn upon every character introduction.

• The visuals are very pretty, because they’re done by Studio WIT, the animation studio that did Haikyuu and the like, but, like many other WIT shows. It’s appealing to look at, but the plot is boring and requires no thought, whatsoever.

• I thought the most interesting character was probably Krul, though she’s the typical loli vampire, see the Monogatari Series for more examples of this, but the first season was so droll that I could not imagine myself wanting to watch more for her.

• Overall, this series is as interesting as Akame ga Kill, with less edginess and I don’t recommend it, unless you’re new to anime or you’re particularly interested in vampires and pretty people. I give the first season of Owari no Seraph a 3/10.

SPOILER FREE REVIEW, since I'm actually reviewing something with a resemblance of a story for my 2nd review. Let's get down to it! :3

===STORY: 2 ===
I may not know a lot about storytelling(I guess I'm one of those that like every story if it's told by a master narrator), but I can tell when the pacing is ///bad///. That's all I have to say - a pacing of 8 years in one episode to 15 minutes in 3 episodes(OUT OF 12(!))). Close to no back-story, let's just say this one could've been so much more if it only got 26 or more episodes - ... with proper narration and such. There was too much unfolding at once, some parts were rushed and a lot was skipped and just left there hanging. After 12 episodes we... don't get to know anything. We are awkwardly rushed to the main-story part, witness the stupidity of the MC and a ton of stuff that does not matter to avert you from the obvious rush just to see 5 episodes of "battle" at once.

"Continuity? WHATTHEHELLISTHAT???" - WiT studios, probably.

2 for potential, and at least some parts made sense. like 1 out of 5, but still.

===ART: 1 ===
Let me just say this - some oil paint backgrounds were actually pretty ok... but that's like 1 out of 20. Did these people not know metropolises DO NOT dissolve this way? Did they not know that buildings absolutely CANNOT bend 40 or more degrees and still stand? And what the hell is up with rust on STAINLESS STEEL?
Animation was lackluster - most fights were just static panels with sound added to them. And even when they were not - animation seemed choppy.

Characters were flat, operating on only 2 layers of light at most. Barely any 3d effects happened. I hate CGI overdose as much as the next guy, but a little bit won't hurt. Most of the scenery was static, characters were static/blinking(they didn't even bother with some enemies - they just instantly appear behind the protag to... tap them on the shoulder?).

Also - that's not how weapons work. Weapons don't blink into their final position after preliminary movements appeared, not all the time(it could happen on a VERY powerful enemy occasionally).

Most explosions were so flat and bad I could do better myself after 3/4 hours of learning(I'm a complete newb). Most """3d""" debris was not even shaded most of the time and looked like mere sketches. Special effects looked worst than last episodes of Dragonball.

It was bad. Definitely not eye candy, not even once.

=== SOUND: 1 ===
Voice acting was generic at most at really bad at worst and what little sparks of goodness were there - they were butchered after editing. Seiyuus did a "meh" job with almost no emotion - save for the yelling MC.
MUSIC! Not much to say here, I can't even recall any music that was there. It just //was there//.
Most battle sound effects were as good as the graphical part... CRAP. Doppler effect is nonexistent to these guys, sound is flat. No 3d sounds, no earcandy no nothing. Just how in the hell can you give anything more than 3 out of pity is beyond me.

=== CHARACTER: 1 ===
Man, this is too easy - characters are... flat. Their motives, backstory, depth - not there. Screen time is also null. I could tell something about each of them BUT! I can't write anything about something that's not there - they seem to be flat cardboard box devices put there because the MC has to talk to someone. MC was made dumb and an underachiever to not look like a Mary Sue character but he's just that in the end.

They are all flat, boring and most of them don't matter at all.

=== ENJOYMENT: 1 ===
I like action anime with swords, conflicts, demons, supernaturals etc but... I was literally yawning for the most of the anime. The amount of fails on the technical side was too big to handle. Characters were boring, pacing was bad. This could've been SO. MUCH. MORE. Just knowing this killed it for me.

=== OVERALL: 1 ===
This is one of the worst things I've watched so far. No redeeming qualities, no good characters, no good art, no enjoyment, no good scenes. Everything is generic at best, most of the time it's just crap.

Watching this is a waste of time, go watch Steins;Gate or something ;_;

Even though the apocalypse, vampires, and tortured children are not exactly new themes in anime, I decided to give this show the benefit of the doubt until I finished watching it. Having seen people mention it in everything from MAL lists and rankings to cosplay, artwork and videos displayed on all kinds of social networks, I thought this show would be worth watching given its popularity. However, I had also never heard anyone call Owari no Seraph a masterpiece or the best anime they had ever seen, and I soon found out why.

The story is practically nonexistent. It started out well, with some kind ... of premise (albeit a generic one) and characters that had potential for development. Sadly, this was all soon abandoned for the sake of... idunno. Throwing in more random themes and characters I guess?

It is perhaps for this reason that the story never really comes together and just jumps from one "dramatic" incident to another. Dozens of aspects are never explained or explored in detail, and you're left guessing about everything for pretty much the entirety of the series.

As if that wasn't disappointing enough, the characters are also pretty dull and come with little backstory (most of which is repeated over and over again) and even lesser character development. The most interesting character is probably Ichinose Guren (though maybe because Nakamura Yuuichi does a great job at making him come to life), who's not even one of the protagonists.

Additional talented seiyuus (Hayami Saori, Irino Miyu, Daisuke Ono, etc.) also come into the picture, but that hardly makes this show get out of the dead end it's in.

While looking around for other redeeming features, it's always good to consider art and music, but even this kind of fails here. The OST is completely unremarkable and even the English opening does little to spice things up. The art, of course, is nice, but one should expect nothing less from a show that aired in 2015. Additionally, the color palette seemed to be a bit lacking in variety for my taste, and there's only so many scenes of post-apocalyptic Tokyo I can take before getting bored.

Overall, "Seraph of the End" turned out to be "Seraph of Disappointment", because I simply couldn't wait for this show to end. Even if it finally got remotely interesting at the end of episode 10, it quickly turned plain weird and had little time left to redeem itself for the total flatness it made me endure for almost six hours.

If you're like me and your love and curiosity for anime is greater than everything else (hence making you endure even the most humdrum of series simply to see what they're about and why people talk about them so much), then go ahead and get into this mess... but be warned that, when it's over, you'll probably feel just as bored (if not more so) as you were before watching it.

Story: 3/10

Seraph of the End takes the most generic, overused concept (vampires) and turns it into the most predictable and cliche storyline ever. Despite being in a post-apocalyptic setting, there's no sense of urgency. Probably because the characters are too busy getting some kind of bs powerup.

Art: 4/10

The animation is decent. Really nothing special here. The backgrounds were so dull and lifeless though.

Sound: 3/10

... Besides the decent opening, did the OST exist? Forgettable and meh.

Character: 3/10

Shinoa is overrated. Gary Yuu is a terrible main character. I wouldn't have been bothered by the numerous amount of tropes but the characters were flatter than a washboard.

Enjoyment 4/10

See above.

nuff said

Overall: 4/10

Seraph of the End takes an overused concept of vampires and churns out an even more cliched storyline filled with the most boring characters to date. Coupled with the power-up bs, and this makes for an awful experience. Don't bother with this anime since there are a lot other animes to watch and other ways to spend your time.