Asura Cryin'

Alright...I'm writing this for a reason. To hope people will read this and so that they won't waste their time watching this anime like I did. I'm still watching it actually, and I do intend to finish it because I don't normally like dropping too many animes. Although if this series had anymore than 13 episodes, I might of had to reconsider.

Story 5/10: Well...what sort of story is it really? There's little to no plot at all. The only thing I can see going on is that everyone wants the Asura Crying. First they're fighting, and the next their figuring out who to fight next ... or being followed by SOMEONE and attacked. Same thing over and over again, and same characters doing the same fighting pattern constantly.

Art 6/10: The artwork isn't COMPLETELY horrible, but it isn't very good either. It's mostly the kind of art your regular mediocre anime would have, whether the plot be good or not. The style isn't totally bland, but it could have been better. The only things that really look good are the machines, which I assume the creators are focusing on as would any other anime devoted to the mecha genre. But seriously, I've seen better looking art in animes that are still focused on making the mechs and what not look the best from anything else.

Sound 7/10: What to say about the sound? I guess it's alright..if it was anything like Mars of Destruction then it would have only made this anime even more horrible. Thank god it isn't. It's pretty good, and seems to flow good with the anime in general. The overal sound EFFECTS are decent as well. Nothing that doesn't make it sound too fake. I'd say this is one of the better qualities of the anime.

Character 5/10: I was going to give this a 4...but I guess I'm being generous. Yes, GENEROUS. The charactes are pretty boring enough as it is. Nothing really original at all. They look boring as well, and the colors for them aren't too 'bright'. Not to mention their personalities are that of any average anime. Girl partnered with a boy that she probably likes, only to have another companion like him as well, as well as another sometimes sexually harassing him. Your typical naive 'hero', spiritual naive girl, girl with an attitude and a probable tsundere just for kicks. Although the REAL character issue would be the random million characters that pop up in every episode with no explanation about them, except for what side their on. Not to mention sometimes when a character pops up, they suddenly become BFFs with the main character, as to which the main character would probably risk their life for them later on.

Enjoyment 3/10: Again, I was going to give this a 2...but eh. As you can see from the other sections, this anime is just boring. I will admit however, that the first few episodes will keep you entertained. But only the first few..maybe the first 4-6 if anything? After that, everything just goes downhill. I really had high hopes for this anime..but after everything I've seen, it's just trash. It was ruined completely with all the random unexplained crap that goes on. I really don't expect it to get any better. Because truthfully, how can it? Maybe if they actually showed some sort of character background and development with the other characters, and made other things more clear, it would have been a tad more interesting.

Overall, I give this anime a 3/10. It's terrible..and I advise anyone and EVERYONE to avoid watching it so they won't waste any time like I have. I feel bad for the talented voice actors that have to provide their voices for this disaster. So really, unless you actually like watching animes with boring characters, confusing 'plot twists' with no explanation, and having a series that's hoarded with tons of random characters at once, then by all means, go for it. If not, seriously. Don't watch this. You're much better off watching something like Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Code Geass, or Macross Frontier. Actual animes with VERY high potential.

Story 6:

The storyline of "Asura Cryin' " happens to be one that has a lot of detail and a lot of planning to it. However, it is one of those storylines that as good as it might be, was definatly not executed to the best ability. On top of this, there are a few things that one should know before they watch the anime.

One of the things that is problematic is that the storyling does not flow well, there are constant flashbacks, and important details that help the anime to run are revealed at intervals that are not always the best time for them to ... come into play.

Another thing is some of the humor that is crammed into the storyline. While some of the humor is actually funny, some of it is not that funny, or it happens to be put in at the wrong time, or the humor is not needed for the story to run along. Some of the humor is sex related.

Another thing is, "Asura Cryin' " is not really about the occult, and not really about the church. It is really a fantasy version of the two, where magic, demons, and mechas exist. Yes, I said mecha... technollogy actually plays a big role in this, which was not something I was expecting. But the way they work together is a nice asspect, however, not exactly executed to the best ability.

Art: 7

I may be the only one, but I was in a way disturbed that two of the male characters had a bang of hair that was longer then the rest of their hair, like double the length, if not more. The art work, which is beuatiful, had been given a down trodding by such things as this that just don't seem in place, or they have a wierd effect.

Sound: 10

The sound on this is supreme. The opening and ending is beuatifully done, not to mention that the voice actors are fairly good. The sound effects also work into it well.

Character: 9

Another strong point in "Asura Cryin' " is the numbers of different characters that are within the work, and the depth that has gone into them. Problem is, we only get a glimpse of them overall.

Enjoyment: 8

I had to say I enjoyied the anime for it's relativly neat ideas and concepts here, though I was disapointed by the way the storyline was executed, it seemed sporadic and disconjealed.

Overall: 7

This Anime is definatly not going to be for everyone. As stated above, it will have it's problems. But if one overlooks, or is even forewarned about the storylines... ddity... they might be able to get through it.

Someone has to say it.

If you watch anime because you want to secretly be the protagonist and have all these beautiful girls at school covet you, sleep in your bed, let you touch their tits, giggle when you lift their skirts and get all blushing and innocent even though you have the intentions of a registered sex offender... get a life. I'm sick of stumbling on a harem anime when I was hoping for something with substance.

Also, this anime managed to screw the cliche pooch harder than any in recent memory.

There's the everyguy, shy and reserved Tomo. He has a ghost girl, Misao, following him ... around. He has already met her in the first episode, so we're instead treated to vague flashbacks as to why the hell this is so. The only role Misao seems to have is that if you're a ghost, and suspended in the air, people are going to see your translucent butt.

Tomo also has a weird shepherd's crook dredlock hanging down from his head, so you wind up staring at it as if it's some terrible sore/tumor that's seeping blood and pus.

What puzzles me is how blurbs always refer to the protagonist as "everyday." If you're an everyday high school boy you pop zits and masturbate all of the time. Miko, gun-wielding demons, yakuza, and douchy "holy order" types don't go kicking in the doors and smashing the windows of the luxury home you live in by yourself with a ghost girl.

So that's the premise. "Everyday" boy has a ghost girl and is heir to a secret briefcase that contains a giant robot thing that everyone wants. He goes to a school where everyone dresses like Nazis who have accidentally bleached their arm bands.

The flat characters from his double life conveniently show up at his school--because the evil types in the world don't hang out in political offices, army bases, etc. They prefer high schools, and the many beautiful moe-type girls he knows also show up and are more than willing to let him have his way with them. But he doesn't. Because that's exactly what an "everyday" high school boy would do, right.

The first two eps have essentially set forth such a ludicrious premise that world destruction, the briefcase, moe demon chicks, and the various goons of the yakuza and holy order are linked. And Tomo (with his mysterious "brother" who remains unseen) is at the centre of all of this.

Gee, where shall this go?

Unless I drop this, I'll update in mid-season.

Ok, getting straight into it:
I always watch something to the end no matter what although i'm seriously reconsidering that ultimatum after this.

Story:
Half the time you don't have a flippin' clue as to whats actually going on- no, more than half the time. Every episode, It'll change scene or introduce new unexplained characters who instantly merge themselves into the story with all the sensitivity of a blunt axe swinging down onto a solid block of steel. I suppose if you were to watch it again and again, you may just glimpse the actual plot that does its best to stay away from its rightful position. therefore, ... 2. 1 is reserved for no-plot anime.

Art:
Its not great but its not bad either. There are some bits where I would question whether the artist was feeling alright because the proportions are a little off. Its colourful, which boosts its rating and there's some effort done on the 'robot' things. The artwork is pretty much 'Meh' and gets a middle mark.

Sound:
Sound is good. Sound showcases the seiyuu's talent and rather nice BGM. There's a BOOM when an explosion occurs, a brrrooOOMM when a motorbike moves and even some hydrauliky sounds when the robots move. Its good. Nothing wrong with it, but nothing that makes it exceptional.

Character:
Dear Lord, please throttle them now. It gets as high as 3 because there are some ok characters in it. And by ok, I mean slightly amusing. But the rest, like the idiot main character and everyone that calls him by his full name more than once, are abysmal. Their personalities are messed up, they have such bad decision making and negotiating skills like: "be our POW or die from the 50 bagillion guns pointed at you by year older high school students" The main then replies "That's soo unfair! you're mean! *pouts*" Horrific.

Enjoyment:
Well aside from EVERYTHING else, the fight scenes are alright and the poor usage of comedy makes me feel so sympathetic that I give them the undeserving score of 4. I think i've laughed once during my time watching it, I could be mistaken; Its so hard to remember between the frowns and disgust that surface every few minutes. I would not watch this ever again and may delete it from my library. The second series will be ignored and I will watch Kobato by CLAMP instead.

Overall:
Crap. Pigs spew. Grandma Dorris's hairy arse.
If you want to waste 260 hours of your 700,000+/- hour lifespan, then by all means, watch Asura Cryin'. Thank you for your time XD

*Bows Low*

Wow was I suprised after I watched the first episode of this show, it has an extremely misleading title. When you see Asura Cryin, you think slice of life, or romance, you dont think at all that it would be a battle anime, but lo and behold it is.

the story hasnt been fully hashed out after the first episode, so I wont really go into it, but there are battles, and ghosts, and magic, and mystery, and big suits of armor, so I think it will be worth the ride.

Art is solid, nothing out of the ordinary. the Designs on the armor are pretty slick ... though.

Sound again pretty average, the opening was catchy and had a cool Techno beat.

The characters werent explained a whole lot but its got a pretty big twist on the main heroin, the fact that shes not alive provides an interesting obstacle to be over come by the main hero.

As far as the first episode goes, it was very enjoyable, the show has sort of a Chrome Shelled Regios feel to it, with a touch of Escaflone. If you enjoy high school life/ Battle anime, I would definetly check this one out.

P.S. This review will (probably) be updated after the show is over.

What to say for this series... It was very bad.

Art: No, just no. The art may seem fine, but it really isn't. It is inconsistent and unoriginal. We see the creators drawing Tomoharu normally, and then pinning a hair tail and a squiggily thing up on his head to make him look unique, but it just makes him look overly retarded. Then we have inconsistency with the drawings. Some parts, we see the eyes drawn weirdly, or one scene there is a whole bunch of blood, the next there's none. We might say Kanade looks well drawn, but she really isn't. Not trying to ... sound like a pervert or anything, but the breasts are all drawn inconsistently (no, I don't only look at her breasts while watching this anime, just something I noticed >.>) All the characters have some weird hair style, or their faces just look really weird.

Characters: Oh, the things I hate the most. This is the funniest part out of the whole anime on what Tomoharu did. Kanade tells him not to use Kurogane anymore. Then during a time when Shuri was kidnapped, he remembers what Kanade tells him, looks at Misao, then summons Kurogane. Kanade tells him two times to not use Kurogane and he just ignores her, and then at the end, he yells why didn't anyone tell me this. He is the most stupidest and densest person in anime history. Not to mention all of a sudden making Misao turn visible. That was the most random and stupidest turn of events. Then they make Kanade nothing more than an object of fanservice. Making her say lewd jokes or having lewd things done to her. She clearly is an important character, but...let's make the audience thing otherwise. All the characters have unoriginal characters or appearances. They are all stupidly dumb or retarded.

Sound: What to say, nothing really. It wasn't good or bad. At the end, they just used the opening and ending back to back. The music wasn't great, but it wasn't too bad. I mean when someone gets stabbed, we actually hear it. So it's "normal". The opening was ok, not really my taste.

Story: Story is horrible. We see one episode they're doing something serious, the next, they're going to Hawaii. At episode one, they throw out all these questions at you. Answer some of it, and forgot the other ones. We see characters like the Third Student President show up at the first episode, then as if they forgot all about her, decide to put her in the last two episodes. One episode, they show Tomoharu meeting Yoh for the first time, next episode, Tomoharu knows all about Yoh and who they're talking about. Then we see Yoh injuring Shuri severely, then we see them in a good character relationship. The story is poorly thought out, and it seems the creators are just throwing everything out randomly, like demons, mechas, ghosts and a Seto Gozubarou type father.

Enjoyment Factor: The only enjoyment I ever liked was the fact that I get to see retards running around in the anime and doing stupid stuff over and over again. It was, overall, a poorly thought out story.

The story had potential, but you find yourself despising the protagonist, Tomo. And if you can't enjoy or even like the main character, then the whole thing is doomed to failure. Everything else is just standard anime fair and not an issue, but Tomo isn't just pathetic, he's an apathetic excuse for a character! His annoying-whiny-uselessness is only overshadowed by his idiotic acceptance of everything; he doesn't even have the wit to ask relevant questions. By the end of the second season, I'd completely lost hope for any redeeming quality and was just trying to get to the end; some ... sort of masochistic urge.

Spoilers Ahead.





I was expecting an ordinary romantic/comedy about a guy who falls in love with his ghost............ ooooh how wrong i was.

I wasnt expecting a wierd briefcase,shoot outs,samurai assasins,and MECHA

... But this seems to me that this series will be a "Good Supprise" to many people and hopefully it will stay this way untill the end, then this series will be great.


Art
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Was not the best ive ever seen but to me there sort of unique, i cant put my finger on it but they seems to look different from many series ive seen, also this bit near the end of the epiosde "purple stuff" was animated perfectly

Story
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To me it seems quite plain at the moment all its about it protecting this briefcase,but the good thing about it was you still dont know about the girl (2 coloured eyes) and about what that briefcase really is.

Sound
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Nothing special but fits the scenes very well. The voice acting is good too.

Story

The story's complicated and is always misleading, the first few episodes were not really making sense, a briefcase which has weird slime coming out of it at first and turns into a mecha which they call 'Asura Machina'. Overall, this anime only got better towards the end and the story was pretty decent. I was expecting a good ending and it turned out good at first but later near the end of the last episode, a twist in the plot happened which was pretty touching in my opinion.

Art

The art and design given by this anime is pretty good, character expressions were actually alright and above ... decent while the effects were nice too.

Sound

Voice acting's actually kind of good but some effort could be put in, I like the opening for this anime and sound effects were pretty good.

Enjoyment

Asura Cryin' was not really a serious anime at first, I had a good laugh at the start of the few episodes because there were some humorous scenes, and after when the characters know about the truth, the anime totally changed into a serious sequence which kept me in excitement wanting to what will happen next.

Overall, I find this anime actually enjoyable if you have nothing to do. It's not bad but some may find it terrible because of the plot.

Oh dear god, this series..............


Oh well, better just jump into the review

Story: 5/10

Somehow it involves mecha, ghosts, dark magic, yakuza, agents of God, and decides to throw it all in a high school setting. Sure, they try to throw in some normal segments of high school life, but then *BOOM* sceneshift and you have no idea what is going on. Score is higher than I want it to be.

Art: 6/10
...
Well..... the mecha look interesting.....

Sound: 4/10

I dislike nearly everything about the music to the series. The only good things are some of the voices.

Characters: 3/10

There really doesn't seem to be any coherent thought process that could have even begun to create this series. So far the viewer has been introduced to a miko who happens to be the daughter of a yakuza boss (or something like that), the president of the (what looks like cultic) science club who knew your older mysterious (OOOOH!) brother, a ghost girl who is bound to you for some strange reason, and some crazy "religious higher order" zealots. Doesn't help when you're stuck trying to figure out what the hell they all want with the main character.

Enjoyment: 4/10

There really isn't a good reason why I am still watching this. I mean, when I'm spending about 1/2 the time trying to piece together what the hell is going on, you can tell there's something wrong. What feels even more wrong is that the series tries to take itself seriously.



Overall:
Watch if you want to see a train wreck or a mash-up of everything and want to laugh about how mediocre an attempt it is.

NOTICE: This review covers both seasons of this title.

It’s a light novel adaptation so TADAAA you already know it is trash material for people with low expectations. It tries to be spooky at times, only to end up sounding as such: Thunders and spells and dramatic set up, and zooming to a wizard using magic speels full of weird lingo. In the name of God’s blissful existence I command you to… Oh! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to grab your boobs! Really! And my Johnny magically appeared between them! I’m sorry for being a normal teenager; I’m terribly sorry! Well thanks for killing the mood ... you idiot!

For a 2009 work it hardly looks as one. The characters are drawn rushly, with their facial anatomy looking too sketchy and distorted half of the time. Not that they would be that eye-catchy even if they were drawn more consistent; they overused the school uniform fuss and everyone seems to wear only one set of clothes. Most monsters have really lame looks and the koala mascot animal wasn’t even shaking its mouth. So lazy! The 3D mechas also have some really crude movements, a further indication of low budget. This doesn’t apply for the final episodes; the budget is tripled there and everything looks awesome. Also, throughout the series there is variety in background settings and special effects. They did a decent job at mixing hi-tech with religious allusions, even if it was superficial and eventually forgettable.

Directing-wise it is a mixed bag, as almost every battle looks like a random line of independent shots, where things pop out of nowhere, pay no real attention to physics and end in quite boring and uneventful ways. But what a surprise, every time the lead is in an ecchi situation the girls’ looks and naked bodies are given a lot of focus. That tells you a lot about what they really cared to animate properly, doesn’t it? Anyways, the finale is an exception, since it had very good battle choreography. That dimensional eye in the sky and the energy beams were really something! If the rest of the series was like that I would be left amazed. The cinematics they used in the opening and ending videos is another sign of how they had the talent but not the interest or money to offer a steady level of quality.

Typical to most light novels, they think it is cool to throw as much as possible in the script, hoping that will make it interesting, only to be quicky proven they are just lazily trying to dress up a typical harem comedy. Variety in themes and symbolisms may be making something more interesting to pay attention to, but not when it is used superficially for some really trashy content. Religion clashes with fringe science, summoning monsters, contracts with demons and ghosts, mechas popping out of shadows, teenagers with superpowers, magic gismo that fulfils wishes, alternative dimensions, ero-jokes… Yes, sounds cool, but down to it, it is a disjoined random compilation of anime clichés.

The concept is damn good. The whole alternative dimension theory and the pseudo science parts are very interesting, even if you have no clue about them up until the last half of the second season… which is surprisingly very good just for that. That’s right, the terminology is explained almost at the end. I mean, ok, they don’t have to start by infodumping everything and revealing all the mysteries at once. But wasting three quarters of the show in seemingly random battles and ecchi humor and then expecting us to give a damn in the end is plain retarded. If you expect to make the viewer care, you should offer the juicy parts right away.

Other elements like pacing and action were also below average up until the final arc. It offers a satisfying closure and nice last impressions, but up until then it plays out like random scenes from different series exchanging places with no order. On one episode the lead has a fight that determines the lives of millions. On the next episode… beach fan service! Yeah, that’s what should follow an epic battle for the salvation of the Earth, where each one of them almost died. Another huge battle happens, after of which we get a… spa episode! Yup, 18 episodes of archetypical date sim girls interacting with the dork lead and lots of subpar battles with robots and superpowers. And of course, the police or the army or in many cases casual bystanders simply DON’T EXIST! And wow, look at that, a high school student council is running around with enough firepower to level half the world and the teachers or parents don’t mind. Doodily doodily doo, my disbelief is trying to escape through the ventilation shafts, someone stop it!

But as I said, the final 6 episodes are in fact damn good and I almost beg you to skip the rest and watch only those. I was thinking something along the lines of “OMG, my date sim performed a fusion dance with Noein!” This clearly shows that the producers CAN offer something good if they try. I have nothing against showing some bare leg from time to time, but focusing on those alone for MOST OF THE FRAKKING SERIES becomes a challenge on your nerves.

Fan service ruins the personalities of any character, and this series is yet another example. The lead character is your typical lame, spineless, useless, self-insert indecisive lead characterTM all lazy scriptwriters use instead of… I don’t know, trying not to do the obvious thing. As a result he is a boring character, who, as his archetype dictates, keeps bumping on boobs and naked women and keeps asking for forgiveness before being accused of being a sex driven beast… which translates to a normal teenager. He also has this annoying long line of hair on one side of his head, which is supposed to make him stand out from all others of his brood but it was REALLY pissing me off. I wanted to yank it off!

And then there is his harem… Man, they threw in every archetype you can find in typical eroges. But hey, at least each one of them has an extra feature to make her look a bit more unique. We get Childhood friend/ghost/part of an apocalyptic conspiracy, Miko priestess/fire user/shy with huge boobs, loli tsundere/luck eater/that changes age, bold mature glasses woman/missile thrower/with meek twin sister. Yeah, we have something cooking up nicely here. They have personalities, backdrops, agendas, there is hardly anyone useless in the story. Even the lead male grows some balls and gets more active. And they all get a decent catharsis by the end of the series.

It is a real shame how this meal was left to burn, because of a mostly aimless story and the fap service which sapped all their dignity. Seriously, if it was half as long and lacked the pointless beach and spa episodes, it could have been far better. It is one of those cases where you scream WHYYYY? IT COULD HAVE BEEN SO GOO-OO-OOD! Japan has a thing for sabotaging itself by trashing titles with potential just so it can please roneries with softporn. The story is fine, every single character is there for a reason, the premise for epic battles and mystery is there. But they all went to hell by throwing beach episodes and boob jokes and put to death harem situations and uneventful battles, which effectively translate into 75% dead time and masturbation. And it’s not like titles such as Steins;Gate or Noein didn’t already handle the same premise far better.

Call me a grumpy old man if you like, but modern anime focus way too much on erotism to appeal to a mature veteran like myself. The producers simply gave up. Nowadays they just rehash previous ideas with a boost of 500% more eye candy and fan service. What’s so bad with that? Well… I watch anime for the story and the characters. If I expect ero stuff, there is always hentai or some porn site. Being bombarded with ecchi humor in a series which is supposed to be action, drama, and mystery is like they are telling you “Screw the story; it’s one of the same; just look for pantsu.” Well excuse me then if my reaction to that is giving up and going for a beer…

Alright im gonna keep this review Very short and Very simple(this is my first review). This Anime is NOT that bad. Yes, the story is confusing, but if you have any brain at all you can figure it out. It's a very deep and very complex story that took me in. No, its not laid out in ABC's. You have to think about it and pay attention to the diolouge and whats going on. And if you do that then you you WILLl enjoy this anime.
This story's protagonist is a high school boy who, ... of corse, is draged in to the middle of this battle between conflicting student councle athorites. He himself is very unusual in the fact that he is haunted by his childhood friend(a.k.a. female ghost). Anyways, a lot of things happen and you DO have to pay attention and be able to catch the foreshadowing thats at play, but dont get me wrong if your too dumb to follow a complex story then this is most likely not the anime for you.
The chracters I thought were very good. yeah, there are one or two generic played out characters, but the rest of the characters I found were very enjoyable to watch, And each of the characters has their own complex, unique and interesting past. I loved the characters in this anime; I thought the writers did a fantastic job.
The bottom line is this IS a good watch. With lots of enjoyment factors. If you can keep up, your not gonna be able to stop watching. The whole point of an anime is to get the veiwer to watch the next episode, and trust me your gonna want to know what happens in the next episode. Dont get me wrong, there are a few loose ends, but they all get answerd and your never too lost. Basicly if your into to good animes with, what i beleave, beautifuly written storys that keep you wanting more, Then you'll love it. If your just lazy looking for a casual whatch, then this may not be the anime for you. I'm Insider66047 and I say I'm phyced for the second season of this great anime.

You will have to put a lot of effort to follow this show and frankly you will get little reward for your troubles. Many aspects have a lot of content to them, rules, ins and outs that you need to know to follow the show. However even with all of that I still have no idea what is going on with this show.

"Asura Cryin" has a lot of problems but the one I had the biggest issue with is that the whole show is convoluted. Not only is the story complex but it is unnecessarily complex. There is a lot of different factions and ... rules for these factions. A person may not be able to attack someone if they are a member of a certain faction so long as that person doesn't interact with members of this other faction. Also the way the members of different factions interact don't make any sense. Enemies have lunch with one another, making all the separate groups feel pointless. Just to make sure I don't care about these groups at all the show decided to pick the stupidest and nonsensical covers possible. There is the School Student Council, The Science Club, The Second School Student Council, and it goes from there. Each name more meaningless then the last.

With all this complexity between groups it would makes sense that the story was equally deep, but actually the storyline is very shallow. Some young boy gets a package that holds one of the most powerful magical mechs in the world. Some event needs to be stopped or the world will end. The thing is 13 episodes later I still don't know what that event is and why the world will be destroy. There is a mysterious quality to all of this at first but that soon goes away after the story stops moving forward and the show doesn't seem to be concerned in answering any of the questions it brought up. To be completely fair this isn't the complete story, there is another show, but at the end of the last episode I still don't have enough information to understand so of the basic/core elements of the show.

This is a mecha show, and with that comes a few action scenes. The quality of the action varies a lot. Most of it is the one mech does its super move and then the other mech does its super move and the fight is over. There are the few the go outside of this norm. These are well done and interesting. Still more often than not the mech scenes are kind of lame.

One of the few things I didn't completely hate in the show was the comedy. The comedy is definitely on the corny side. Expect jokes about Tomo(the male lead) and breasts along with a few toilet jokes. Probably not everyones taste but I kind of like it. However with a few laughs come a honorable sense of timing. I can't count the number of times that the show tells a joke that just destroys what little pacing the show had.

What I loved most about the show was the relationship between the two main characters. The personalities of Tomo and Misao play off one another so well. Those 2 would bring a smile too my face more often then not. The rest of the cast didn't deliver quite as many smiles. They start out good. Each character is given a deep back story and a personality that is all their own. That is where it ends, the show doesn't do anything with the characters after that. I don't mean the show does a poor job of developing them, I mean the show literally doesn't do anything with them. In some cases you don't even see them for 4 or 5 episodes and in the 13 episode show 4 or 5 episodes is kind of a big deal.

Is “Asura Cryin” a good show, not really. Does "Asura Cryin" have its moments, you bet. There were times it made me laugh and the 2 main characters are a joy to watch. It is too bad the there is a lot more bad then good in the show. The rest of the cast could be described as “thin” at best and after the 3rd episode I stopped caring about the story line.

Doing a review for both seasons here.

If you don't believe me that I gave it a good score, look at the second seasons reviews.

Asura Cryin' has a nice art and sound, nothing to complain about there.
The battles look good too.

The characters are a bit flat at times, but still don't feel too stereotypical. Enough for some tearjerkers.

The first season lacks big parts of the backstory since this was put into the second season of the anime. Whoever starts this anime has to prepared to watch both seasons, because without the 2nd season it is way to incomplete to be satisfied. Sounds negative, but ... isn't actually a bad thing. Different from other anime series that give you many hints about the "finished puzzle", you get some pieces, but not enough for the outcome to not be surprising.
It is a light novel series compressed into two anime seasons, so many points sadly can't be clarified.

But despite those complaints, Asura Cryin' is a series that can be enjoyed if you are ready to put some own toughts into it to follow the plot.

basically im writing this review for both asura cryin and asura cryin II as they both are actually connected.. well.. the only bad thing about this anime is that it went too fast and not at the pace of the novel.. i notice some characters that the novel has and the anime dont.. i assume they cut out some characters along with some scenes.. overall i think its great.. some1 who's ur enemy can be ur frined the next day.. kinda remind me of code geass.. anw.. id give this 10/10.. cheers..

This series started out interesting but definitely took a turn for the worse. The story is pretty much par for the course, being a sort of super-natural occult action series with some harem elements peppered in. The character design is the only thing about this series that is mildly interesting. The animation quality fluctuates so much, in some scenes I wasn't sure if I was watching the same series. Crooked eyes, malformed faces and all around bad quality animation plague this series.

If you go into this series expecting as much as I did from the first episode then I am sorry to say but you ... will be disappointed.

Lesse Lesse, Hmm, well the story is over complicated, but at the same time under rated, it does take someone with a basic understanding, very basic, of multiverse theory to get the plot line,

by that i mean you have to understand that there is a universe or reality for different actions, and possibilities,

I understood the entire thing, and felt that although a bit chaotic the story continuously went forward, with mild to severe upsets and losses, with the undertone of romance written inbetween,

the single problem I had with the show is that the second season is ... considered a sequel to the show

The first season is a decent setup for the better second season. It's an enjoyable anime overall but it does have some shortcomings.

There are some parts of the story that they went out of their way to make viewers realize what's going on. They pushed so hard that they made the main character seem dim witted and unable to do simple guess work. I'm not sure why they did this but it did take away from the story for me.

Repetition. Get used to it. They use it a lot to fill some episodes to stretch them out to meet their ... time obligations. There's a couple of fillers in the first season that I can't figure out WHY they put them in the first place. There was plenty of story available to do an entire 2 seasons with but they really gyp the viewer with these fillers.

A number of characters blend in with others enough so that if you're not paying attention that you'll be wondering who you're looking at more than a couple of times during this first season.

I was looking for a something similar to "Break Blade" which i will be doing a review on soon. This is the first season of "Asura Cryin" and will also do a review on the second season. So enjoy this review!

Characters

The characters in this anime are quite interesting. The more the story goes on the more you wonder about them. The more you wonder about them, the less answers you get. What i am trying to get at is, there is no background information on the characters. The development between the characters were done quite well, but we don't really know ... who they are.

Art

For an anime that came out in 2009 they had a excellent graphics team put together and did a nice job. The fighting scenes may be short but are quite amazing to watch. Lots of action packed scenes with explosions, missiles, and mecha.

Story

Asura Cryin has a great story, but lacks quite a lot of detail. A somewhat normal teenage life is about to change within minutes. Asura Cryin lacked in the past stories, but makes up for it with the "present" story that is being told.

Enjoyment

From watching this anime kept me entertained for throughout the whole anime. There were many parts that i myself was confused at what was going on. That being said the confusion usually ended after about 5 minutes of watching the anime. There are an amazing amount of questions that are just left un-answered. The anime is quite watchable even without these questions answered, don't let the confusion stop you.

Overall

I would say that this anime had quite a good story but lacked in the character background department. Because it lacked in the characters background it left quite a lot of questions un-answered. But at the end of the anime they announced that a second season will be released, and hopefully they are leaving that information till the second season.

My Opinion

Well, my opinion stays straight to the point that the characters were not explained well enough. I mean there are a lot of characters where stuff is not explained where it should be. But, that does not ruin the story, the story is just amazing! I would recommend this to anyone who likes a Mecha, Action, Romance, Harem genres.

Asura Cryin is a series that seems to be about ghosts... but then turns into a story about mechs and humanoid demons. It is a combination of comedy/mystery/action/mech. I originally jumped on this series due to some fairly interesting teasers and good OP/ED. However, the series seems to hide everything from the viewer to the extent that I ended up confused after each episode. The character development seems half-hearted and the story, though eventually interesting, is cryptic for the majority of the show. If you have a short patience, this isn't your show.

Animation:
The animation quality is fairly good throughout. Colors are vivid, effects are of ... good quality, and characters are well drawn, though I don't know how being a demon entails multiple eye colors... Sadly, all the mech scenes, and a significant part of the fx, are done with CG, and not in a good way. It is used enough that it seemed to be a huge cost-cutting measure.

Sound:
The OP and ED were above average with an electro based OP and eerily dark ED. The bgm is average but decent. The only VA that stands out here is Misao. I didn't find anyone that outstanding. I was also wondering why one of the girls is like monotone all the time (explained near the end of the show).

Music: 4/5, VA: 3/5

Story:
Asura Cryin seems to merge verbally-named special attacks from with the random appearing mech aspect of Kyoshiro and a ghost/apparition aspect of . The combination of so many disparate bases doesn't mix very well, yielding an angry fruit salad based product that is anything but smooth.

There are constantly mysterious themes that repeat throughout the show that are either only explained near the very end or (for the most part) are totally unanswered. It was very displeasing to finish the show and still have no idea what the majority of the show was about. The only consoling aspect is the fact that there will be a second season. The second season does yield more dividends, see that review for more details.

Character:
The characters feel very underdeveloped in this series, mostly since additional background will be given in the second season. For this series, much of the characters pasts are completely unknown and the rare flashbacks that the series provides tends to beget even more questions. The lack of story focus carries on here as well as numerous secondary characters appear, play a significant role in a single instance, and then join the gang and from that point onwards play a minor role (until maybe the second season?). Regardless, it was difficult balancing so many seemingly unimportant characters.

Value:
There are some humorous moments, some occurrences that are just wrong, a bit of fan service, and a few relaxing moments. However, the majority of this series can be described as chaotic and anything but normal slice of life. It tries to bolt on too many features to the extent that none of the characteristics stand out in the end.