Monochrome Factor

The story revolves around high school student Akira Nikaido, a typical slacker living a normal life. That is, until he meets the mysterious Shirogane, a man who suddenly appears and tells him that they have a destiny together. When Akira hears this, he is shocked and doesn't believe a word of it. Aya, a friend of Akira, forgets something in the school one night, and asks Akira to help her and go find it. He agrees, and while there, he gets attacked by a shadow monster. Shirogane convinces him that the balance between the human world and the shadow world has been distorted and that Akira must become a "shin"- a creature of the shadow world- in order to help restore the balance. The anime has shonen-ai themes which are completely absent from the manga.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Shirogane Main

Suwabe, Junichi Japanese

Nikaidou, Akira Main

Ono, Daisuke Japanese

Asamura, Kengo Main

Kamiya, Hiroshi Japanese

Kujou, Haruka Main

Saiga, Mitsuki Japanese

Suzuno, Aya Main

Asano, Masumi Japanese

Kou Supporting

Konishi, Katsuyuki Japanese

Nanaya Supporting

Yoshino, Hiroyuki Japanese

Homurabi Supporting

Okiayu, Ryoutarou Japanese

Wagatsuma, Shuuichi Supporting

Hatano, Wataru Japanese

Asamura, Mayu Supporting

Koshimizu, Ami Japanese

Abe, Shoujirou Producer

Oosawa, Nobuhiro Producer

Iizuka, Toshio Producer

Kou, Yuu Director

Reviews

Sep 1, 2009

Gravitation

Recommended

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.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Apr 16, 2009

lekoweko

Mixed Feelings

If this show were a video game it would be terrible. Thank your Wii's it's not. Basically the story revolves around a typical guy, Akira, as he and his friends try to stop the onslaught of "Kokuchi" or shadow monsters from invading Japan and ultimately the world. As you can guess, it can get pretty repetitive. That's not to say, however, that you won't enjoy it, as humor seems to substitute for plot most of the time, which, in this case was a good thing.

Story- 4

Let me first say the pacing of this anime was awful. As a ... common rule enemies are supposed to get stronger as the show goes on, but halfway through it I realized that nothing was going to change- thus my video game analogy. Sure, there's plenty of action to go around if you're okay with transformation sequences longer than the actual battle. There were a few interesting battles scenes though the enemies were very, very generic.

Like I said humor plays a very big role. Expect to laugh even when Akira is slicing and dicing some Kokuchi. Unfortunately, the humor does nothing to further the plot of the anime, though it does make up for it. You would hardly guess that it was time for the finale to come around because of an utterly humorous go-lucky ending from the episode before it, which again is due to horrible pacing. Luckily, the story, when it finally did pick up, was pretty satisfying and DIDN'T have me thinking "I waited twenty-somethn' episodes for this?"

Art- 6

Nothing special. Kind of generic. There isn't a lot of blood and the effects are mostly an embellished digital. I found some of the transformations laughable, but for the most part the art is consistent and mostly simple. The character designs are okay, though you really have to decide for yourself if some characters are really that beautiful or if you're okay with Akira's mullet (IMO- I just wanted to chop it off!).

Sound- 6

Hits and misses. Some pieces seemed like they belonged in the 90s while others conveyed the scene very well through piano.

Characters- 7

A very enjoyable bunch of character, albeit, shallow. The basic characters are here: the bossy girl, the dumb blond, the ambiguous guy, the badass, the genius kid, the guy who can do everything, I could go on. If you're annoyed by ditzy horny and/or violent women with high pitched voices you shouldn't watch this- but then again you're an anime fan so it's like you practically signed up for that kind of stuff anyway. Still, the characters try their hardest with chibi scenes to put a smile on your face, so you can live with them.

The series is also very ambiguous with relationships. They had it all almost- shounen-ai, shoujo-ai and even shota. Though none of them were expounded upon a great deal most of them had something to do with the plot, which can't be said for many other anime with these types of relationships.

Enjoyment- 9

Chances are you'll either be bothered by the pace or the character's antics, but that's exactly what makes this show fun to watch. It's a fun little ride for fans of the actions genre (and doubly fun for those who squee at shounen-ai). I found myself fully enjoying it and in the end humor won over the weak story. That can't really be done for most action anime which take themselves too seriously, so consider this a rare treat- at least where enjoyment is concerned. Overall, it's a fair 6 for me.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Aug 29, 2009

Chalis

Not Recommended

Oh goodness where to begin with this...

When I first learned about this anime, I was hopeful. During the episodes, I still waited for something--anything at all to make it a good series. The only good thing about it is Shirogane. He was the only one in the entire series that had potential to be the shining gem. However he just became annoying along with the rest of the shallow and unpolished characters. I have to admit though, for making such uninteresting characters, they sure did know how to make them all equally annoying.

The novelty of BL in this show would be the only reason it ... might attract a few viewers but the actual content of it (none) irks many away unfortunately too late as they are usually mostly through with the series.

The actual story is the old classic: "This is a complete accident but hey you're the chosen one anyhow so it's okay!". Oh and guess what, some of the characters get their own 'transformation sequence' and I guess the producers wanted you to damn well know how they do it because it happens in each episode all the way through. On a side note I would like to say how utterly pointless the scenes before the actual story line (a few episodes in, you'll understand). They are neither funny nor amusing, or anything close to having wit.

Now, the opening and ending credits are actually very beautiful. They were very well done and it may have been the only thing keeping me going throughout the series, that along with the soundtrack. For those of you fans of music, you may want to look around for the OST.

Last but not least, the art. As I mentioned before, the opening and ending credits are beautiful, and I can actually say that the art style was fairly decent, however, side views are still--erm--odd. In front view, none of the characters have noses.

Overall the series gets a 2. Instead of watching this series, I would suggest watching (or re-watching) Loveless.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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