Viper's Creed

Despite the low viewer rating and the first review here for Viper's Creed, I absolutely loved this anime and I'm really hoping for a sequel.

Story: 10--a good story, especially for so few episodes. Yes, the general storyline is a classic one, but it's a storyline that works, which is why it's been used so many times.

Art: 8--at the beginning I remember thinking that the art could have used a few more frames to smooth out some of the movements, but overall it's animated in the usual style for the newer anime, and the action scenes are done really well. They knew how ... to create tension with the visuals as well as the storyline and sound effects by zooming in on something and omitting the focus. Really keeps you watching.

Sound: 9--consistently throughout the series, I was amazed at the background music. It set the tone perfectly for each scene without making the view actually notice it until the director wanted the viewer to notice. Also, the ending song is my newest favorite (will be listening on repeat for another month). Sound effects were good overall, though most are the usual mech anime sounds (hydraulics, gunshots, metal, etc.).

Character: 10--Great character development. They structure the story so that you really invest in the characters, even though the anime is so short. Very realistic characters, flaws and all. At times you want to hate them, at times you want to just hug them 'til they suffocate. (o.O moe?)

Enjoyment: 9--absolutely loved (almost) every minute of the anime. I usually go for happy anime (Shugo Chara anyone?), and too much strife mid-series can permanently turn me off of a series. Great beginning, great end, it's the middle you have to watch out for. So, I docked one point, but still, it's a 9/10.

Overall: 10--period.

Viper's Creed was made in 2009 by AIC Spirits (A company with some good stuff but a pretty questionable history overall.) It was was created by Aramaki Shinji. It aired briefly in America, but was quickly canceled due to low ratings. Honestly, given the stuff that gets popular in America, I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad sign. So let's take a look at Viper's Creed and find out.

The story is pretty simple. Air and sea travel has been made impossible by a large-scale war. Cities have been isolated and contractors called Blademen have been hired by a foreign business to safeguard ... the city from bug mechs. A terrorist group with really nonsensical ideas called Hound is also causing problems and the Viper team finds itself in the middle of a conspiracy. The story does some things well. The setup is pretty interesting and, when you find out the nature of the conspiracy, a lot of the seemingly nonsensical elements do end up making some sense. But the story still has a couple major issues. Instead of developing their characters naturally in the narrative they have several episodes that barely connect to the main story in which they inundate you with backstory. Because that's much better than learning about a character naturally. The story is also pretty minimal, when they do get to the main plot what you actually get is a lot of action sequences with short bursts of story. The ending is also a load of crap, but I can't go into details about why without spoilers.

Let's move into the characters. To Viper's Creed's credit, they do try to develop the six major characters and it works, they are three-dimensional characters. The major problem is with the supporting cast, which is composed largely of one-dimensional characters and the antagonists who barely get any motivation. Another problem is that some of the major characters are just unsympathetic. The main example of this being Haruki who goes beyond naive and into the realm of being a complete moron. The worst part is that his complete idiocy is barely questioned.

Let's talk about the art for a moment. The machines in this look really good. The action scenes are really intense and well done. That being said, they do some bizarre things with faces and the backgrounds are pretty lazy most of the time.

The voice acting is good. Toyoguchi Megumi, Kuroda Takaya, Minagawa Junko and several others do well in their roles. The one real exception is Akiyama Nana who gives a rather uninspired and flat performance. I haven't heard her in anything else so I couldn't tell you whether this was the direction, inexperience or just a lack of ability at expressing emotions. I'm not even going to bother speculating on it. Then there's the music, a lot of it just doesn't work with the series. It's just too soft and serene for the action-packed content.

The yuri factor is a 1/10. There's no yuri in this.

My final rating for Viper's Creed is a 6/10. It does have some major issues, but it also has some great characters and great action scenes. If you can handle the story issues and the more minor issues then it is a decent watch.

I've not seen many bad anime in my lifetime but this is for sure one of them. While it's for sure not the bottom of the barrel by any means it's easily the worst anime that I have personally seen.

The story makes no sense. Nothing is explained. The main characters and organization just fight generic robots on highways in their mech-cars/bikes. It's like the show can't decide if it wants to be post-apocalyptic or be futuristic sci-fi so what we actually get is something generic and uninteresting.

The artstyle and soundtrack is fine for its time. The OP is the best thing about the series and ... even then you'll barely remember it after the years pass.

The characters are absolutely bland and dull. You don't have much of a reason to care about anyone or anything in this universe.

Overall I only watched the show one day when I was really sick and didn't really care what was on the television. If nothing else it's at least memorable for being bad. Not like that is a good thing. 3/10.