Gin no Guardian

High school student and gamer Suigin Riku attends the prestigious Shinryou Private Academy, a school for the elite and the children of the wealthy. But rich or wealthy are not words that describe Suigin; in fact, he is dirt poor and must work many part time jobs to pay for his tuition. During one such job, he dives into a pool to save his pet cat, fully aware that he cannot swim. Luckily, he is saved by Rei Riku, the beautiful and popular daughter of a game developer, and he falls in love with her.

He is also drawn to another girl: a new friend he meets in Dungeon Century, his favorite online RPG. But when the game is scheduled to shut down, he knows his adventures with her will soon end. However, the day after the game is shut down, he finds out that Rei and the online girl are one and the same. Soon after, Rei gives Suigin a new game meant to replace Dungeon Century—a tomb raiding game called Grave Buster. But when Rei is suddenly kidnapped, Suigin is pulled inside Grave Buster to save her.

Gin no Guardian follows Suigin as he plays through Grave Buster to save Rei, while uncovering the secrets hidden within the game.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Lu, Shui Yin Main

Fukuyama, Jun Japanese

Lu, Lian Main

Saitou, Yuka Japanese

Fei, Bi Main

Mizuki, Nana Japanese

L Supporting

Akesaka, Satomi Japanese

Hua, Ling Supporting

Nishida, Nozomi Japanese

Collector Supporting

Saitou, Yuka Japanese

Wanchoi Supporting

Matsumoto, Sara Japanese

Lao, Long Supporting

Hirota, Kousei Japanese

Mikan Supporting

Matsumoto, Sara Japanese

Takeshi Supporting

Han, Megumi Japanese

Tang, Yunkang Producer

Ookura, Masahiko Director, Series Composition

Takakuwa, Hajime Sound Director

Andou, Ken Episode Director

Reviews

Oct 7, 2017

PakiUSA

Recommended

STORY: 6/10
CHARACTER: 5/10
ART: 9/10
SOUND: 9/10
ENJOYMENT: 8/10
OVERALL: 7/10

‘Gin no Guardian’ is an anime that resorts to ‘Not overexerting itself’, meaning they go ahead with everything they are comfortable with while leaving out the rest for later! The story is a little confusing in the beginning since the show makes a point of jumping around with their narrative. You start at a strange place with the MC, who’s in this ‘Cool and OP’ stage, as he’s wiping out enemies left and right after which the story jumps right back to its opening where the said MC is just another typical student! These ‘Jumps’ aren’t used a lot, ... but they are pretty jarring! The biggest complain everyone had is the freaking run time of the show, for they are about 13 minutes long including both the OP and ED! Yeah, I am not kidding! This leads to the anime trying to cramp so much due to its short run time, thus resulting to a very rushed and incomplete experience! By not taking time with their content or their characters, it’s hard to care or emotionally attach to something. Sadly, even the plot isn’t particularly unique, so it becomes that much difficult for the anime to make any kind of impact! You have your archetypal ‘Game’ genre situation where the MC is somehow stuck inside a game and must survive by playing as a guardian in order to save the world and the girl of his dreams.

Suigin (MC) is your plain looking, basic student who’s enrolled into an expensive school and makes ends meet by doing multiple jobs. Nothing about him really stands out whether it’s his expressions or his hairstyle, though his red scarf becomes very interesting once it’s seen in action despite the fact it is very distracting at first! The other main character, Rei, is even more generic and cliched than Suigin because she just happens to be side-lined to the one note role of Girlfriend 101! Literally nothing stood out about her! Her display of emotions, personality and expressions were all standard which is sad since she’s the other main romantic lead. I mean you are told great things about her, like how’s she so and so but we never actually see it to believe any of it! And how can you when they have less than 13 mins to demonstrate everything! And I guess the cat is cute so it has that thing going for it.

The art style is very bland and boring with nothing striking, whether it’s the background settings or the character designs. But the animation is a whole new story! I liked the depiction of his scarf even though it doesn’t suit with Suigin’s overall getup. But I liked how it changes colour based on Suigin’s emotions. And if this show succeeds anywhere, it’s the way the action scenes are illustrated! The latter part of those fights is pretty good but the opening battle with that army is simply Spectacular! Despite its use of 3D in the opening, I was blown away by it! You never got that lagging effect, rather the 2D was perfectly incorporated with the 3D which resulted into one smooth Badass fight as Suigin goes dashing into the Army of Skeleton! The OST is another achievement worth mentioning, especially the ED, which was simply Amazing! It’s not just another great music set piece, Nope! It also perfectly sings the overall main arc of the anime’s story! Yes, you heard it right because it harmonizes about the dream and struggle of romance for the characters of this show!

The short yet epic battle at the beginning get your hopes up into believing this will be an exciting anime, unfortunately it never manages to surprise you like that again! The common complain are the short length of episodes which really sucks but what I found frustrating was the direction of the story! It seems to move in one track at first but then suddenly changes course towards the end. Initially the story’s about Suigin and Rei finding each other in real life and a start for romance but then the last few episodes introduce a whole lot of new plotlines and characters which I found annoying. I understand they need to set up for the next season and further expand on the story but with such short episodes, I kinda wanted more closure. The other thing I would like to mention is the unfair kind of reaction this anime is receiving because it seems like people had insane expectations which the anime couldn’t deliver! Totally fair since the 1st episode almost blows you away with how good it is. But in my defence, it also becomes quickly apparent the rest of the anime won’t be following the same route, so people should really tone down your optimisms as well, after all the episodes are only 13 mins long! Since this is made by a Chinese company, I am willing to ignore its faults for now, but they better make big changes for the next season because now they have our feedback of what we liked and what we didn’t like! In the end, I liked the simplistic approach towards ‘Gin no Guardian’ and despite its flaws, I am willing to encourage others to give it a try!

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jun 17, 2017

MD1Champion

Mixed Feelings

My first review...
Beginning of the show started out strong (first couple episodes) and showed some promise.
The shorter episodes left a bitter taste. I didn't even know anime episodes could be this short.

Story line jumped all over the place and was full of holes not to mention continuously adding new characters out of no where.

I'd like to know how if the new game just started and Suigin was the first to get the console/game how he could be the most amateur/newb out there with no knowledge of this game compared to everyone around him...like wtf. Not to mention he started out ... OP and competent and now is just a floppy wet lame towel.

With so many flaws and holes in this anime at least it has some good potential, perhaps the creator can acknowledge the failures and improve upon them. Honestly there is no where to go but up.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Aug 11, 2017

Mowse98

Not Recommended

[SPOILER FREE/SHORT REVIEW]

This is currently the worst thing I have ever added to my list, though I wouldn't say it is the worst show I have ever watched. This is because I don't even consider this a show.

It has been two months since I watched this and I have already forgotten 90% of what happened in it, mainly due to its lack of substance. Nothing matters in this show; there are no stakes, no meaningful character motivations and the show just forgets about its own plot line halfway through.

The first episode opens with a scene that has no context that seems to be set ... later in the story. Basically a guy massacres a bunch of 'undead'. As someone who thoroughly enjoyed steins;gate, this scene gave me expectations that this scene would come up again as some plot point later on that would explain what is going on. This is never seen again.

The main plot line is a 'kidnapped damsel in distress' story, but they just forget about it as our main characters dives into a video game to help some kid win a tournament. It feels like a series of short stories that don't have endings; they just move onto the next one without wrapping anything up.

I can't even say the animation and sound is average. Half the time you can't even tell what is going on and the only decent piece of music in the entire sound track is the ending song.

OVERALL: Don't watch this. I didn't have high expectations and it still disappointing me. 10 minute episodes made the experience slightly less painful, but there is zero merit to this 'show'.

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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