Kiba

I can't believe such a hyped anime doesn't have a review. Well on with the show:

Story:
I absolutely loved this anime storywise. It begins with a young boy named Zed, who lives in a strange, polluted town known as Calm. One day, a spirit, Amil Gaoul, appears to him, and he is dragged into another world. This of course, might seem cliche within the genre of time/world-traveling hereos, but where Kiba sets itself apart is in the concept of shard casting, the main magical ability of the people of the alternate world. Shard-casters can produce from their body small shards which unleash an elemental attack. Other ... anime have similar concepts, but to use items like this is something that to me is rather new, and I liked it. Also, shardcasters may summon spirits using special shards, and there are six Key Spirits, which are far more powerful than other spirits. Without going into too many spoilers, once the six Key Spirits are brought together, a great power is unleashed, and much of the anime is spent in this quest by multiple factions to obtain the power of the Key Spirits. This makes for a truly epic anime, with a rather interesting ending.

Art:
During the first episode, you get the feeling that the art is dark, due to the nature of Calm, but once Amil Gaoul appears, you see the real art style of this anime. Most of the characters are drawn in rather conventional anime form, but the real artistic value of this anime can be seen in the ethereal forms of the various spirits. Amil Gaoul resembles an angel, but there are also spirits which resemble devils, warriors, mythical creatures such as phoenixes and centaurs. Most of the spirits are bipeds, which really adds to their appeal, in seeing ghostly, two-legged forms of many different beings. The places where the shard casters draw their shards from, can resemble anything from an intricate tattoo to jewelry, to some sort of disease-ridden boil, depending where it is, or the very character of the person.

Sound:
The voice actors are great, although personally I found Roia's voice grating on the nerves sometimes. The battle sequences with Amil Gaoul all have a beautiful chorus to them, so you know when the tide of the battle is going to turn. This is really the only highlight in terms of sound in this anime, the rest could easily be attributed to background sounds.

Character:
I didn't like some of the characters, mostly because they often contradicted their own actions in extreme ways. Zed remains for the better part of the anime, a hero, he takes to his role readily, then experiences doubts about himself, and his mentor, who although appears to have a grandfatherly aspect about him, has a dark past that doesn't come out until the last 5 or so episodes. Zed's best friend is another source of frustration, in that he so easily and completely changes himself into the opposite of Zed.

Enjoyment:
As you are watching the anime, you are completely absorbed in it, and maybe once it ends is when you really start questioning things such as characterization and such, but meanwhile, this is one wild ride. The rather novel concept of shard casting sets this anime apart, and I highly recommend it to everyone

This is a series that is comprised of 51 ep. This series is a Shonen show with some fantasy elements and drama.

Story:

Ok the story i would have to say was Mediocre at best. There was really not any huge plot twists or eye popping scenes. The first Episode was pretty good. You get really involved into it, but then after the first episode, the series just drops in plot and everything becomes your typical average shonen, spirits fighting spirits, good VS evil, etc. The first season really had no shocking moments and it seems like you have learned everything this series has to offer right ... from the start. I almost even thought bout dropping this series due to the pain painstakingly boring fights. How ever towards the second season the plot started picking up again and it became surprisingly bearable to watch. I think in all honesty that this series was to slow, they should of revealed the plot at a faster pace. This series could of been 26 episodes and be a great series, because of all the useless spirit fights that had absolutely nothing to do with the whole plot behind Kiba, i found it rather boring to sit down and watch this anime from start to finish. I will have to say that the ending was really good and it did a great job of wrapping up everything and all the un answered questions bout zed's fateful past were answered. I found it enjoyable to watch the last 10 episodes because they were actually good. The battles were alot more detailed as well towards the end. They also shown alot more of the personalities behind all the Key characters in the series.

ART:

The art was pretty good. Most of the battles had great animation, and you felt like you were not watching a old classic series like (astro boy) lol. You felt like you were watching todays Generation in anime. I have seen anime with better art then this show but it was not all that bad. Its ashame the battles were not that great to go along with the awesome art.

Sound :

This was another thing i really did not like bout kiba was the sound. The BG sound in most fights were just terrible, they could of done MUCH better in this department. The only sounds i found were good and went with the flow of the battle was the music showing the fights with AMil Goal "Zeds key spirit". Other then that, the music was just terrible. Even on the most important scenes were the music was really needed the most was not there. This is really what put the anime in Jeperady was because of the painful music. The OST's were good though, opening and ending theme songs were pretty nice and you find your self humming the tunes in your head but the anime music theme's shouldn't of went with this series at all.

Character:

Not much to say bout this, the characters were great. I really like the personality of zed and Roia. The characters, cried, had emotions and everything, its really ashame that there roles in the plot were not all that important until the very end of the series. Everything from ep 1-35 is just spirit VS spirits, good VS evil. They did not reveal really much of anything behind the characters pasts or personalities until the last 10 episodes or so. If only this series had a better story then this show would of got a rate of 8 or 9 at least.

Bottom line is this series is boring to watch, especially the first season were nothing really happens, just battles between spirits. Like i said before if it wasn't for the filler based episodes in the first 26 episodes of the series and the plot moved along at a faster pace then this series would of be acceptable because of this if you can bear watching all the boring episodes, then it really does get good towards the end. I hope my review does not keep people from watching the series. I found it enjoyable to finally finish the plot and under stand everything.
But there is alot of anime out there that has a much better plot, better music themes then kiba does, i guess its just all about personal opinion!

When I started watching this I loved the show, usually after a couple of episodes you can figure out if you're going to like something or not and I truly thought I was going to love this anime.

The whole story is exactly as the synopsis says and it looked very interesting, except after like 9 episodes I kept seeing moments in the anime where I went "I know what's going to happen", not to mention honestly how stupid some of the situations can get; for instance, Princess Rebecca was captured three times, really!?! three times they captured this same person....

I wouldn't say things are cliche ... but a lot of the situations get very dull and predictable and I could easily point out probably a dozen of situations without even thinking.

If you don't mind this and really think you can watch it through to the end do it, it was very enjoyable in the anime aspect part but as for story line and a lot of the situations that happen, it became completely dull and I quickly lost interest.