Monochrome Factor

genre: action, fantasy

Synopsis: monochrome factor is the story about akira nikaido, A young school boy with slim amount of friends who thinks he has a normal life, until a he meets a man by the name of shirogane. later that night he meets shirogane again after being attacked by a shadow monster! akira becomes a "shin" (a powerful monster from the shadow world) to protect the balance between the two worlds!

Review: Monochrome factor is a great anime, full of action and comedy. its a must see for fans of bleach and yuu yuu hakusho. within a few episodes i fell in love with it, the ... plot is kinda old, boy gets/has powers and has to use them to save the world. but, its done a whole new way and whole new set of powers and people.

The characters are probably my favorite part of this anime, the way they interact with one another is great, from a serious talk to being attacking each other with a sword in a matter of seconds. within the first few episodes you see the bond of friendship between two of the main characters, and it really makes you wish you had a friend like that.

the voices in this show fit perfectly with the characters they play as, the main graphics are nothing new and out of the ordinary, but are still very well done. At times it cuts to a chibi-ish style of graphics that makes the comedy even funnier.

I find this show to be one of the most entertaining animes i have seen in a while, and i watch alot. its one of those shows you wanna sit down and watch all at once.

My ratings for this show would be.

overall - 9

story -8

animation -8

sounds -8

characters -9

enjoyment - 9

I was entertained by watching this series. At first i thougt that it would be only fighting, but there's more to it. In the series there's some episodes that are alike, when they just have to fight the shadow monsters, but the ending was very good. The character Shirogane was the most interesting person. I think it's a good story, allthough in the middle it gets boring, but you just have to watch it till the ending.

I know that there are very different opinions on this show, especially since the adaption of the anime varies so greatly from the original manga. Fortunately excellent voice acting, nice artwork and hilarious characters are all able to save the series from a complete failure.

Story - 6/10

The story is a common one. Ordinary highschooler meets mysterious stranger and gains mighty powers with which he has to save the universe. Of course, his friends join him in the quest. And we can't forget that he has a destiny.

As if the plot wasn't bad enough, the entire series seemed to drag on, especially when it came to ... the fights. Not even half of the episodes had any real relation to the plot and the "real" evil was only revealed in the last episode, where it all seemed awfully rushed. This could have been done a LOT better!

The major downside of Monochrome Factor is, that the manga was not finished by the time that the anime was made. Therefore what we get is something that can be compared to the first Fullmetal Alchemist series; it starts out promising, but takes a wrong turn.

Art - 8/10

As a fan of this genre, I liked the artwork of the characters. The artwork was slightly different than other shonen-ai series I had been watching and it was really nice. The background art was a bit generic though, but I like the way the characters were drawn, as at least that point stayed true to the manga. I found the transformation scenes rather silly, but overall, the artwork was just as I liked it.

Sound - 8/10

I do not remember much of the background music in this series, which drags this down to an 9, but the ending themes and voice acting was top-notch:
Daisuke Ono as Akira, Hiroshi Kamiya as Kengo, Junichi Suwabe as Shirogane and Katsuyuki Konishi as Kou. Those are just the voice actors that I can remember. The entire cast of this series was absolutely wonderful. And the ending, oh the ending! I absolutely adored the first ending, sung by Ono and Kamiya. Overall, wonderful.

Character - 8/10

Apart from being a bit flat, the characters where humorous. You have a wide range of characters with each its own personality. I especially enjoyed the interaction between Akira and Kengo, the childhood friends and between Akira and Kou, who has also have a relationship from far back (no spoilers!).
Unfortunately, this once again leaves me wanting more. I want to know more, especially about Akira's past and how he and Kengo first met Kou (which is a rather important part of the manga). Also, I slightly dislike the personality of Shirogane as he constantly flirts with Akira, something which I found non-existant in the manga.

Enjoyment - 9/10

Apart from dragging on too long, Monochrome Factor was able to keep my attention with its constant joking. Also, the appearance of Kou in the opening left me wanting to know who he was (funny how much 5 seconds can leave you wanting more).
Through the first half of the series, it was mostly the funny shonen-ai moments between Akira and Shirogane that kept my interest, as well as Kengo's silly personality. During the second half, it was mainly the flirty Kou, who kept my interest up.
Again, the reason I can enjoy the series so much is because I always enjoy series with good voice acting which can leave me watching it over and over again. So far, I have watched Monochrome Factor from beginning to end 4 times and I still have not grown tired of it.

Overall - 8/10

Despite the shallow and rather ridiculous plot, the series is saved by a wonderful cast of characters and a good dose of shonen-ai hints for the fangirls. This is not a series for people who wants a deep plot and serious characters, but rather for girls who likes a lighthearted and funny story with lovable characters.
As a last recommendation, for those who enjoyed the series and wishes to know more about the series, read the manga! You will not be disappointed.

All I can say is AWESOME.
Although I was a little disappointed in the lack of boy x boy action (i was quite hopeful...) I still give it 5 stars. Its a great story, good characters with alot of laughs and some evil shadow butt-kicking. Highly recommended

I enjoyed this story, but it may not be for everyone.

It takes a few episodes to gain momentom into the story line, as well as devoloping characters, but over all its a really good anime.

The way the charaters interact with each other is a way that ive never seen before and seem to be completely different for each other. The basic plot follows a person getting possesed and the team find ways of destroying them.

Story- 9
Art -10
Sound-9
Character-10
... Enjoyment-10
Overall-10

This anime is one of my favourites right now, the main characters, especially Shirogane are so easy to fall in love with. The story line begins on an impressive note but I noticed how the main story line as unfolding the fillers where slightly boring and yet comical. This anime has a strong theme of light, dark and love. I do realise the manga didnt have any Shounen Ai themes but i believe this makes the anime even more attractive.

The graphics are generally quite good, mixed with the storyline it makes this anime top notch.

The supernatural themes, love and action makes this ... anime worthy of a 10 rate, although i do believe that there should be another series as I would most probably fan girl over it.

But yes, all things considered i really enjoyed this anime and would recommend it to anybody looking for a complex, comical and yet serious anime to watch.

I watched this a few years ago, but the fact that I still remember the plot and characters is something to comment on.

Story~ 6/7

Monochrome Factor is one of those animes with a decent set up for a plot, but the build up to the end is rather tedious. For the first 4 episodes or so, you get a real feel for the kinds of characters you're going to be with for the next 20. Unfortunately, despite this solid beginning, the following episodes do tend to be predictable; the protagonist fighting the bad guys, except there's a twist in how he does it, or maybe they'll ... span it over two episodes instead.
That was one of the bigger let downs, because I did fall in love with the characters. They did contribute a lot to the comedy of the show, which did compensate somewhat for the dryer episodes.

Characters ~ 8

The gang of 4 (plus 1 in later episodes) are an epic team with different strengths and weaknesses, which makes them so effective together, and you really can't imagine them without each other. Akira is a kid with attitude and gives a whole new meaning to leading a double life. I adore the concept of him switching between a normal and shadow form, though it's not a new idea. It's more than just changing outfits and new hair colours, but you can see the differences between his two forms without losing his character. The others all contribute to a fantastic four; the best friend, Kengo, doubles up with Akira, and is the comedy behind the show. Shirogane certainly spices the show up, with his near-yaoi nature and his quirky personality. He can also get a bit dark, which is refreshing to see. And we can't have an anime without a girl, right? Aya fills in that role, and fortunately she's not one of those chicks lavishing in this harem, but she has a real kick-ass side to her. The character development for all of them is definitely noticeable, although subtle for some.

Art~ 7

You know, it's just generic anime style, right? Nothing as impacting as the fight scenes in Sword Art Online, or characters as cleanly designed as Hyouka, but it's a solid art style to be appreciated.

Sound~ 7

I for one, loved the opening track, but that is all that left a significant mark. The instrumental throughout wasn't memorable, but they did fit the scenes relatively well. Nothing to be overly praised, but certainly acceptable.

Enjoyment~ 8

Overall, despite the somewhat disappointing carry of the plot and the plain animation, I did enjoy the anime and didn't regret finishing it. The build up to the finale did seem to trail a bit, but I feel as if it was worth waiting. It did come to a quick conclusion, but there were a lot of factors gained throughout. Worth a try.

Let me first state, the manga is better. I haven't even gotten halfway in the manga and it's much better than this. Review time.

Story - 6 - The story...was a little neglected. There were bits and pieces that were like the original story of the manga but other than that, it was mostly filled with fillers. The anime actually resolves mostly around a character that was made just for the anime. He did appear at all in the manga, so, most of the manga was left out and a lot was added in. It was actually a poor job of substation.

Art - 8 - I ... liked the art, it had a nice and clean look to it as well as stayed consistent, quality wise. All the characters looks were like how they were in the manga, even the style was like the manga. So they get good points for that. They somehow made the completely new character seem like they could belong to the manga.

Sound - 9 - The opening and ending fit well with the anime and the story. Even if that story was completely made up from the manga. I actually would find myself singing along with the opening. The voices also all suit the personalities and looks of the characters, I have to say that all the voices matched. And the sound effects fit well with the visual effects. So, at least the sound was well thought out.

Character - 9 - Since most of the character traits were from the manga, I have to say that I liked them. Each person was their own and nothing seemed of the norm when it came to characters, except one or two. It rarely showed side characters who appeared more than once in an episode. Most of the characters shown were all of the main or supporting class. The interactions between the characters was genuine and settled well with the mood and plot.

Enjoyment - 7 - Like I said before, the manga is better. So my enjoyment with the anime was a little on the low. I liked watched it at some points and others, it lost me and took me a few days to get back into it. I eventually did get bored with the repetitiveness of the different scenarios. The only time something exciting happened was when Shirogane was involved, and that was often rare. Those events usually happened near the end of the show. Personally...it lost my enjoyment about halfway through.

Overall - 8 - I personally did not like the anime, now that I am finished with it, I am eager to continue the manga to I can know what REALLY happened. So, to those who are fans of the manga, I recommend just ignoring this anime, for it will not be like the manga and will just bore you. To those who have not yet read the manga but are looking to watch the anime, I suggest you forget about the anime and just go read the manga, for it is much better and contains a lot more information than the anime provides.

There is my review. I hope this is helpful to those who are looking to watch this, cause really, I don't want you to waste your time on this when you could spend it on the manga.

I must admit, the title itself, "Monochrome Factor", got my entire attention. According to the dictionary, "monochrome" is an adjective that means a product produced in black in white. This explains the entire story. It is believed that everything that has been created has the opposite, black - white, good - bad, heaven - hell and light - shadow. The story deals with this belief and the main characters tries to balance it. With these so called monsters of darkness, the "kokuchis", Akira join forces with Shirogane to fight these monsters.

Despite the fact the world is about the end because darkness will be taking ... over the light, they still make it into a hilarious show. Even when u stop watching it, you could be still laughing considering the priceless jokes and amusing acts! This makes everything worth watching. The characters builds this atmosphere when everything goes wrong, somehow, they seem have to have the energy left to make things funnier.

Overall, everything seems to be okay, there's a twist which seems to be quite interesting and makes the viewer to watch further, yet since there's only 24 episodes, the only thing we can do is to read the manga.

Watched this a few months back but didn't manage to make a review so here I am now doing it lol!

Anyways Akira and Shirogane were quite interesting characters. I thought both of them definitely were a match made in heaven as a couple. I liked how Akira has his own dark ego to kick every bad guys ass he manages to get and it's like Shirogane is rooting for him to do his best. Im not gonna say what happened towards the end but damn my tea spilled with tears and anguish lol. I was so annoyed at the ending man, I want more goddammit! ...

Pretty decent shounen ai anime if you ask me!

I've got to say that Monochrome Factor is a masterpiece. I enjoyed it a lot and Yuu Kou the director should have made more episodes. My favorite character is Kengo. When I started watching the first episode, there was Akira and Aya I thought that they might become a pair but soon enough Shirogane comes and it was intriguing...his appearance and what he said. So I wanted to find out what this is about. Later that day Kengo arrives and drags Akira to the arcade. That moment itself I thought that he is a fun, funny and lovable person. I decided to watch the anime ... and I did. I enjoyed all the 24 episodes like savoring a juicy fruit. In my opinion, this anime is better than its manga version.

Bestie I love this anime. I cannot explain why. It is not great writing, objectively, not a spectacular anime. Still rated it a 9 because of how much I love it and enjoy watching it, and rewatching it, and rewatching it to show it to others. I could not rate it a 10 and keep my dignity but I wanted to.
It has that classic nostalgic feel of a slightly campy, cheesy, and cringey shonen-ai that wasn't Quite Brave Enough to actually canonize the main relationship in the anime. (There are kisses though! And the two main characters are insanely cute and funny when they interact!) ... The main draw is NOT the romance though. It is, as far as I can identify, 3 things. 1. The gender envy I feel for Shirogane. 2. The comedy. 3. Surprisingly the plot??? Look. It has a simple outline right from the start. There are some plot holes. It's not the *best* writing. But. It really went hard on the character development and how it interacted with the plot specifically. AND it tied into the big twist (that I actually did not see coming btw even though I was Suspicious TM it wasn't too soon before the actual reveal, well, I thought it was Suspicious at first, and then the character development actually CHANGED MY MIND AND LULLED ME INTO A FALSE SENSE OF SECURITY, and then it made me cry.) Mega found family trope. The best (slight spoilers skip this sentence) redemption arc I've ever seen in anime. Reliably gave me Overwhelming Feelings. Now, this may be because it was exactly the content I needed at the particular points in my life that I watched this (when I was terrified of being unlovable and irredeemable) but like Wow That Is Some Effective Storytelling. The characters and their relationships are really what makes it though. And now I'm realizing I barely even talked about the comedy which is what initially hooked me on this series. It's funny. Like an endorphin flood.
I am 20 by the way and not an overexcited 12 year old, which is what I realize I sounded like in this review. I just really love this terrible anime, okay? Please watch it, it is my precious comfort media I want to hug it like a stuffed animal and scold it for making me cry.