April 6th, 2013
Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse
Anime Relations: Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse
Ok, i'll start off by saying that this has been a long time coming! I first watched the series back in, i think it was, November and i've been meaning to write up a review (lol yeah right, it's gonna be a total rant) for ages now but never had the time to fully go into it.
Until now!
WARNING: This is gonna have spoilers, it's going to be a rant and it's probably going to be LONG!
Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse, imo, is a failure of an anime! This is not due to bad sound, art, voice acting, soundtrack, characters, plot or any of the other parts that you would normally attribute to such a failure, in fact in many cases thruout these are all good, it's just they've all been thrown together in an almighty mess that just doesn't work together, but there's an even greater crime this anime commits and that is to completely fail to live up to what it shows you it could be.
Episodes 1 & 2 open this anime with exceptional promise. A dark world where earth is being invaded by a vast horde of huge flesh-eating aliens, the BETA, humanity is on the verge of extinction as little can slow down their relentless swarm and around about two 3rds of the world is already lost by the opening of the series. We're introduced to a group of girls undergoing heavy training to become Tactical Surface Fighter Eishi (pilots), you think you're in for your bog standard schoolgirls and Mecha anime but instead the training is largely passed over in a sort of montage. The main character thruout this is Takamura Yui, we follow her as she shows off her skill, befriends a rival, helps her friends with their training and discuss their views on current events. One of the key things learned during this part of the story is of the "8 minutes of death", which is that in battle with the BETA the average life expectancy of an Eishi is only 8 minutes. Once the training is done (again this is over very quickly largely covered as it is by a series of montages) we see her say her goodbyes to her family and sent off to duty. From that point it is not long before Yui and her friends are thrown right into the action as defensive lines a broken by the BETA. This proves to be action packed but also grim as you see friend after friend of Yui killed by various means, often quite grusome. It gets to the point where the girls are so overwhelmed they must retreat and they begin a fast pace and high tension run as they fly incredibly fast and low in an effort to avoid being shot down by the BETA. Unfortunately more of the girls are shot down until it is just Yui and 2 others left eventually even the three of them are knocked down as well. After Yui crashes we see her emerge from her TSF and descend down some stairs, into what i assume is an underground system of some sort, armed with only a pistol. Here we see our first look at the Solider Type BETA (the smallest of the BETA but still roughly twice the size of a human) and they are devouring one of Yui's friends (we see this in quite graphic detail), Yui descends further to find the last of her friends still trapped in her TSF. The Soldiers come and start ripping apart the TSF to get and Yui's friend begs her to shoot her but Yui can't do it and so she is torn apart in front of us, the last we see of her is her head catapulted out and it rolls across the floor towards Yui. The Soldiers turn towards Yui and she is saved just in the nick of time by a TSF. In one of the final scenes we see Yui recovering in a medical tent with some pretty serious injuries and struck silent by the remorse of being the only survivor out of all of her friends.
Now you may be wondering why i went into so much detail about what happened during those two episodes, well i wanted to make it quite clear that there was a serious tone thruout, i also wanted to point out how horrific some of the imagery was. Having watched those two episodes my expectations where high, i was vastly impressed by the way that had handled this dark story and how they had maintained the serious tone without giving in to moeness, comic relief or fan service (there's one scene in those two episodes that could be considered true fan service but it's over so quick that you could blink and miss the fan service... and i think i did), i was happy to lay all the concerns i had had about the series to rest and settle down to a action pact and serious dark sci-fi anime (lord knows there's too few of them out there!) following Yui as she devotes herself to fighting the BETA to find both justice and redemption... little did i know that what i was in fact going to get was the complete mess that pretty much dumps all over what it could have been.
Let's tackle the problems one at a time.
First off Yui: She's not the main character. You might be mistaken thinking that she's the main character seeing how we had spent two whole episodes setting up her back story but she's not. She barely even qualifies as a secondary character as little she has to do with the plot most of the time. Instead we get Yuuya Bridges, whom i might have been more inclined to have liked if i hadn't gone thru the jarring experience of having the main character switched on me only after 2 episodes! Also his back story is more of a kind of whiny "i'll do whatever i want cause i was bullied as a child" which kinda pales in comparison to Yui's "I watched all of my friends torn apart and eaten before my eyes and stared death in the face myself" in trying to garner our sympathy, he's never even fought against the BETA in combat so knows nothing of the horrors of the war, or it would if Yui wasn't a completely broken character. She displays none of the psychological issues one would expect from someone who had gone thru such a trauma as she had. During the first few episodes she's rather harsh on Yuuya and the team, so you think that she's keeping every body at a distance so she doesn't have to go thru seeing another friend die, but no, it disappears incredibly quickly (almost as if the writer forgot about it) and Yui pretty much becomes the lamest example of a Tsundere i've ever come across (this is also due to the result of her falling in Love with Yuuya in a ridiclously short amount of time). We only see 2 examples of her struggling with the memories of what had happened to her and her friends but as soon as they're over there's no sign that she's even upset by these memories she just gets on with what she's doing. Yui's completely broken personality, a personality would be appropriate in your bog standard slice of life harem anime but doesn't fit this character and her back story at all at all, is a constant issue which prevented me from enjoying any of the scenes she appears in.
The tone: It takes a dive! Not straight away admittedly, for the first few episodes it still maintains some seriousness tho things are much much lighter than the first two episodes none-the-less, however when you get to episode 6 (an episode that should live in infamy for anyone who's watched this series) it takes a dive right off the deep end, so much so in fact that you will have a hard time taking anything the anime does seriously from that point onwards! It's your bog standard fan service beach episode which is presented to us on the most flimsy and ludicrous of basis, not just in real life (i seriously doubt any military anywhere would set up such a situation let alone the events that happen during it could happen) but also in their world where humanity (as i remind you) IS FACING EXTINCTION!!!
The Story/Plot: Now essentially it's good, the basis at least is interesting and it provides a lot of action and conflict, the problem is with the implementation. This is an anime where i honestly believe the writers/producers/whoever didn't know what they wanted to do, just just knew they wanted it to be popular and so they went and took a look around at popular animes and just tossed as many of their elements as possible into the mix. I'll lay a few down for you: There's, tsunderes, fan service, mecha, harem, a Big F*ckin' Lazer Canon, cloned psychics, government conspiracies, competition between squads, a tournament, a hot springs episode (even more fan service), more conspiracies, terrorists, and a big bad villain whom either wants to rule the world at the expense of it's defence (so a retard) or wants to destroy the world by compromising it's defence (still quite a retard). All of those were just the things i can remember months later, there's more and worse i remember thinking the same thought quite often thruout the series "Yet another new element that feels like it's from a different anime!". And while we're on this topic i want to point two things out that are pertinent to the overall story: 1. The tournament - THIS WOULD NEVER HAPPEN!!! "This world is facing extinction so lets all throw on a TSF vs TSF competition to inspire unity and improve moral as well as test these weapons!" WHAT?!! Two 3rds of the world is gone to the BETA, you can barely hold your front lines and you want to throw a sports day?! The best place to test weapons and pilots skills against the BETA would be out on the field against the BETA! Also it obviously fails to inspire unity as every squad is competing with each other to win! No unity inspired there! 2. The conspiracies - Now i'm not so optimistic to think that when humanities on the edge there won't be people out for themselves or government agencies putting their own interests above everyone else, but what i can't accept is that ANY human (aside from the completely insane) would ACTIVELY sabotage one of humanity's defensive lines just to get their grubby hands on a piece of tech a rival ally is developing! They try to justify it by saying over and over that once the BETA are dealt with whomever has the technical advantage will rule the world but seriously! The BETA are a serious threat now! I can't over state this: TWO THIRDS OF THE WORLD GONE! I think the priorities would be a little more kill the BETA than try to fuck over the competition.
And that's it basically... well it is right now cause i've gone on for so long i've kinda forgotten if i had any other points... .
Anyway, the facts are that this series shows you, it SHOWS you, in the first two episodes everything it could be and then from episode 3 onwards it not only consistently fails to live up to that but it also constantly tries to add in new and unnecessary components that don't quite fit, don't really make sense and just mess with the anime further turning it all into a rather big mess that doesn't know quite what it wants to be. It's at it's best during the 20% when it's focus is on fighting the BETA, which is where it's focus should have always been from start to end, and it's at it's worst the other 80% of the time when it's doing anything but... oh and Yui, whenever she's on screen after episode 2 that's when it's truly at it's worst!
tl;dr - Watch episode 1 & 2 of this anime and then throw the rest in the bin, DO NOT WATCH THE REST! (unless you crave disappointment)
Until now!
WARNING: This is gonna have spoilers, it's going to be a rant and it's probably going to be LONG!
Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse, imo, is a failure of an anime! This is not due to bad sound, art, voice acting, soundtrack, characters, plot or any of the other parts that you would normally attribute to such a failure, in fact in many cases thruout these are all good, it's just they've all been thrown together in an almighty mess that just doesn't work together, but there's an even greater crime this anime commits and that is to completely fail to live up to what it shows you it could be.
Episodes 1 & 2 open this anime with exceptional promise. A dark world where earth is being invaded by a vast horde of huge flesh-eating aliens, the BETA, humanity is on the verge of extinction as little can slow down their relentless swarm and around about two 3rds of the world is already lost by the opening of the series. We're introduced to a group of girls undergoing heavy training to become Tactical Surface Fighter Eishi (pilots), you think you're in for your bog standard schoolgirls and Mecha anime but instead the training is largely passed over in a sort of montage. The main character thruout this is Takamura Yui, we follow her as she shows off her skill, befriends a rival, helps her friends with their training and discuss their views on current events. One of the key things learned during this part of the story is of the "8 minutes of death", which is that in battle with the BETA the average life expectancy of an Eishi is only 8 minutes. Once the training is done (again this is over very quickly largely covered as it is by a series of montages) we see her say her goodbyes to her family and sent off to duty. From that point it is not long before Yui and her friends are thrown right into the action as defensive lines a broken by the BETA. This proves to be action packed but also grim as you see friend after friend of Yui killed by various means, often quite grusome. It gets to the point where the girls are so overwhelmed they must retreat and they begin a fast pace and high tension run as they fly incredibly fast and low in an effort to avoid being shot down by the BETA. Unfortunately more of the girls are shot down until it is just Yui and 2 others left eventually even the three of them are knocked down as well. After Yui crashes we see her emerge from her TSF and descend down some stairs, into what i assume is an underground system of some sort, armed with only a pistol. Here we see our first look at the Solider Type BETA (the smallest of the BETA but still roughly twice the size of a human) and they are devouring one of Yui's friends (we see this in quite graphic detail), Yui descends further to find the last of her friends still trapped in her TSF. The Soldiers come and start ripping apart the TSF to get and Yui's friend begs her to shoot her but Yui can't do it and so she is torn apart in front of us, the last we see of her is her head catapulted out and it rolls across the floor towards Yui. The Soldiers turn towards Yui and she is saved just in the nick of time by a TSF. In one of the final scenes we see Yui recovering in a medical tent with some pretty serious injuries and struck silent by the remorse of being the only survivor out of all of her friends.
Now you may be wondering why i went into so much detail about what happened during those two episodes, well i wanted to make it quite clear that there was a serious tone thruout, i also wanted to point out how horrific some of the imagery was. Having watched those two episodes my expectations where high, i was vastly impressed by the way that had handled this dark story and how they had maintained the serious tone without giving in to moeness, comic relief or fan service (there's one scene in those two episodes that could be considered true fan service but it's over so quick that you could blink and miss the fan service... and i think i did), i was happy to lay all the concerns i had had about the series to rest and settle down to a action pact and serious dark sci-fi anime (lord knows there's too few of them out there!) following Yui as she devotes herself to fighting the BETA to find both justice and redemption... little did i know that what i was in fact going to get was the complete mess that pretty much dumps all over what it could have been.
Let's tackle the problems one at a time.
First off Yui: She's not the main character. You might be mistaken thinking that she's the main character seeing how we had spent two whole episodes setting up her back story but she's not. She barely even qualifies as a secondary character as little she has to do with the plot most of the time. Instead we get Yuuya Bridges, whom i might have been more inclined to have liked if i hadn't gone thru the jarring experience of having the main character switched on me only after 2 episodes! Also his back story is more of a kind of whiny "i'll do whatever i want cause i was bullied as a child" which kinda pales in comparison to Yui's "I watched all of my friends torn apart and eaten before my eyes and stared death in the face myself" in trying to garner our sympathy, he's never even fought against the BETA in combat so knows nothing of the horrors of the war, or it would if Yui wasn't a completely broken character. She displays none of the psychological issues one would expect from someone who had gone thru such a trauma as she had. During the first few episodes she's rather harsh on Yuuya and the team, so you think that she's keeping every body at a distance so she doesn't have to go thru seeing another friend die, but no, it disappears incredibly quickly (almost as if the writer forgot about it) and Yui pretty much becomes the lamest example of a Tsundere i've ever come across (this is also due to the result of her falling in Love with Yuuya in a ridiclously short amount of time). We only see 2 examples of her struggling with the memories of what had happened to her and her friends but as soon as they're over there's no sign that she's even upset by these memories she just gets on with what she's doing. Yui's completely broken personality, a personality would be appropriate in your bog standard slice of life harem anime but doesn't fit this character and her back story at all at all, is a constant issue which prevented me from enjoying any of the scenes she appears in.
The tone: It takes a dive! Not straight away admittedly, for the first few episodes it still maintains some seriousness tho things are much much lighter than the first two episodes none-the-less, however when you get to episode 6 (an episode that should live in infamy for anyone who's watched this series) it takes a dive right off the deep end, so much so in fact that you will have a hard time taking anything the anime does seriously from that point onwards! It's your bog standard fan service beach episode which is presented to us on the most flimsy and ludicrous of basis, not just in real life (i seriously doubt any military anywhere would set up such a situation let alone the events that happen during it could happen) but also in their world where humanity (as i remind you) IS FACING EXTINCTION!!!
The Story/Plot: Now essentially it's good, the basis at least is interesting and it provides a lot of action and conflict, the problem is with the implementation. This is an anime where i honestly believe the writers/producers/whoever didn't know what they wanted to do, just just knew they wanted it to be popular and so they went and took a look around at popular animes and just tossed as many of their elements as possible into the mix. I'll lay a few down for you: There's, tsunderes, fan service, mecha, harem, a Big F*ckin' Lazer Canon, cloned psychics, government conspiracies, competition between squads, a tournament, a hot springs episode (even more fan service), more conspiracies, terrorists, and a big bad villain whom either wants to rule the world at the expense of it's defence (so a retard) or wants to destroy the world by compromising it's defence (still quite a retard). All of those were just the things i can remember months later, there's more and worse i remember thinking the same thought quite often thruout the series "Yet another new element that feels like it's from a different anime!". And while we're on this topic i want to point two things out that are pertinent to the overall story: 1. The tournament - THIS WOULD NEVER HAPPEN!!! "This world is facing extinction so lets all throw on a TSF vs TSF competition to inspire unity and improve moral as well as test these weapons!" WHAT?!! Two 3rds of the world is gone to the BETA, you can barely hold your front lines and you want to throw a sports day?! The best place to test weapons and pilots skills against the BETA would be out on the field against the BETA! Also it obviously fails to inspire unity as every squad is competing with each other to win! No unity inspired there! 2. The conspiracies - Now i'm not so optimistic to think that when humanities on the edge there won't be people out for themselves or government agencies putting their own interests above everyone else, but what i can't accept is that ANY human (aside from the completely insane) would ACTIVELY sabotage one of humanity's defensive lines just to get their grubby hands on a piece of tech a rival ally is developing! They try to justify it by saying over and over that once the BETA are dealt with whomever has the technical advantage will rule the world but seriously! The BETA are a serious threat now! I can't over state this: TWO THIRDS OF THE WORLD GONE! I think the priorities would be a little more kill the BETA than try to fuck over the competition.
And that's it basically... well it is right now cause i've gone on for so long i've kinda forgotten if i had any other points... .
Anyway, the facts are that this series shows you, it SHOWS you, in the first two episodes everything it could be and then from episode 3 onwards it not only consistently fails to live up to that but it also constantly tries to add in new and unnecessary components that don't quite fit, don't really make sense and just mess with the anime further turning it all into a rather big mess that doesn't know quite what it wants to be. It's at it's best during the 20% when it's focus is on fighting the BETA, which is where it's focus should have always been from start to end, and it's at it's worst the other 80% of the time when it's doing anything but... oh and Yui, whenever she's on screen after episode 2 that's when it's truly at it's worst!
tl;dr - Watch episode 1 & 2 of this anime and then throw the rest in the bin, DO NOT WATCH THE REST! (unless you crave disappointment)
Posted by BlurredExistence | Apr 6, 2013 5:13 PM | 0 comments
June 25th, 2012
Homeworld Anime?
Anime Relations: Heroic Age
Would anyone else love to see an Anime series based off the storylines of the Homeworld series of RTS games? For some reason i think that would work really well.
The first series covering the events of Homeworld. Beginning on Kharak the first few episodes could go into more detail of how the Kushan survived on such a hostile world as well as giving a bit of depth into the clan system as we, say, get to know some of the crew as they prepare themselves for embarking upon the Mothership and for the long journey ahead. Progressing onto them initially foraying out to a nearby system but then suddenly being attacked by the Taiidan for the first time and then having to retreat to Kharak arriving just too late to find the world that had been their home for so long burning beneath them and the very last survivors of their people under attack as they are defenseless sleeping within their cryopods which need to be quickly rescued and recovered. All giving the series a tense and gripping kick off as we move onto the other critical events from the game as the series progresses, ie. meeting the Bentusi for the first time or their conflict with the Protectors of the Garden of Kadesh. Before we finally reach Hiigara and see the Kushan win their ancestral homeworld back from the Taiidan Imperium.
Then we could have a spin off based upon the events of Homeworld: Cataclysm. Following the crew of the Kuun-Lan as both they and their ship transform, thru their horrific experiences in their battles against the Beast, from a group of miners and their mining ship to battle hardened soldiers and their warship spouting a massive siege cannon!
Finally wrapping things off with the story of Homeworld 2 and the Hiigarans' (formerly Kushan) attempts to save their homeworld of Hiigara from the invasion of the Vaygr by following a prophecy too reawaken Sajuuk. This too has many epic moments which would need to be taken from the game: Like the battle of the Angel Moon where the Hiigaran mothership rushes to resupply ask a Vaygr carrier group bears down on her, or the encounter with the last of the Bentusi (their flight from the galaxy begun in Cataclysm) and the final battle against the Vaygr fought above Hiigara in a race against time as the longer the battle goes on the more Vaygr missiles hit planet side.
I just think that the stories from each of these games is so rich that it deserves something and i believe it would be best explored in Anime form. Mind you it's probably no coincidence that these thoughts have struck me as i'm re-watching Heroic Age. The feel of both the over-arching storyline for the Homeworld series, of a people undertaking a journey in the effort to find and return to their homeworld and then go on a journey to find a savior to save their home and bring prosperity to the galaxy, and that of Heroic Age's, a people taking a journey with their savior to free their homeworld and then lead them to find the secrets to bring prosperity to the galaxy, are very similar. Plus their both epic sci-fi space stories set on motherships, which helps. ;)
Anyway just pointless hoping here, probably looking to see if anyone agrees with me but it's not totally necessary. What i would like tho is that anyone who has read this and hasn't played any of the Homeworld series (or watched Heroic Age for that matter) to go out their and find it, play it and enjoy it! They are truly epic Sci-Fi Strategy games (infact Homeworld was the first one to even do the whole 3D free movement in space thing) which i'm fairly sure you can pick up for next to nothing these days.
The first series covering the events of Homeworld. Beginning on Kharak the first few episodes could go into more detail of how the Kushan survived on such a hostile world as well as giving a bit of depth into the clan system as we, say, get to know some of the crew as they prepare themselves for embarking upon the Mothership and for the long journey ahead. Progressing onto them initially foraying out to a nearby system but then suddenly being attacked by the Taiidan for the first time and then having to retreat to Kharak arriving just too late to find the world that had been their home for so long burning beneath them and the very last survivors of their people under attack as they are defenseless sleeping within their cryopods which need to be quickly rescued and recovered. All giving the series a tense and gripping kick off as we move onto the other critical events from the game as the series progresses, ie. meeting the Bentusi for the first time or their conflict with the Protectors of the Garden of Kadesh. Before we finally reach Hiigara and see the Kushan win their ancestral homeworld back from the Taiidan Imperium.
Then we could have a spin off based upon the events of Homeworld: Cataclysm. Following the crew of the Kuun-Lan as both they and their ship transform, thru their horrific experiences in their battles against the Beast, from a group of miners and their mining ship to battle hardened soldiers and their warship spouting a massive siege cannon!
Finally wrapping things off with the story of Homeworld 2 and the Hiigarans' (formerly Kushan) attempts to save their homeworld of Hiigara from the invasion of the Vaygr by following a prophecy too reawaken Sajuuk. This too has many epic moments which would need to be taken from the game: Like the battle of the Angel Moon where the Hiigaran mothership rushes to resupply ask a Vaygr carrier group bears down on her, or the encounter with the last of the Bentusi (their flight from the galaxy begun in Cataclysm) and the final battle against the Vaygr fought above Hiigara in a race against time as the longer the battle goes on the more Vaygr missiles hit planet side.
I just think that the stories from each of these games is so rich that it deserves something and i believe it would be best explored in Anime form. Mind you it's probably no coincidence that these thoughts have struck me as i'm re-watching Heroic Age. The feel of both the over-arching storyline for the Homeworld series, of a people undertaking a journey in the effort to find and return to their homeworld and then go on a journey to find a savior to save their home and bring prosperity to the galaxy, and that of Heroic Age's, a people taking a journey with their savior to free their homeworld and then lead them to find the secrets to bring prosperity to the galaxy, are very similar. Plus their both epic sci-fi space stories set on motherships, which helps. ;)
Anyway just pointless hoping here, probably looking to see if anyone agrees with me but it's not totally necessary. What i would like tho is that anyone who has read this and hasn't played any of the Homeworld series (or watched Heroic Age for that matter) to go out their and find it, play it and enjoy it! They are truly epic Sci-Fi Strategy games (infact Homeworld was the first one to even do the whole 3D free movement in space thing) which i'm fairly sure you can pick up for next to nothing these days.
Posted by BlurredExistence | Jun 25, 2012 6:21 PM | 0 comments
February 22nd, 2012
Anime Love Stories
Why are they all two steps forward, one massive step backwards and then, right at the end, set off to walk together but we don't get to actually see them walking together?
Seriously, as much as i love these stories i do get kind of annoyed by the lack of pay off. I can't tell you how many of these love stories i've seen where we don't even get to see the couple kissing (Clanned: After Story for example tho they're boyfriend and girlfriend and then husband and wife all we get to see is them holding hands, and possibly hug, and then we're suddenly introduced to the idea that they've had sex?? What?!), or we don't get until the very last 5 seconds, which after all the drama that had led up to this 5 second reunion isn't a very satisfying pay off!
Also i would like it if they would make up their minds whether it's a tragic love story or not. 3 times now have i watched an Anime that kills off one of the couple only to resurrect them right at the end so they can have their totally unsatisfying happily ever after. If you want to kill them off then do it and stick to it, if you want a happy ending then think of some other obstacle for them to overcome and keep them alive!
Seriously, as much as i love these stories i do get kind of annoyed by the lack of pay off. I can't tell you how many of these love stories i've seen where we don't even get to see the couple kissing (Clanned: After Story for example tho they're boyfriend and girlfriend and then husband and wife all we get to see is them holding hands, and possibly hug, and then we're suddenly introduced to the idea that they've had sex?? What?!), or we don't get until the very last 5 seconds, which after all the drama that had led up to this 5 second reunion isn't a very satisfying pay off!
Also i would like it if they would make up their minds whether it's a tragic love story or not. 3 times now have i watched an Anime that kills off one of the couple only to resurrect them right at the end so they can have their totally unsatisfying happily ever after. If you want to kill them off then do it and stick to it, if you want a happy ending then think of some other obstacle for them to overcome and keep them alive!
Posted by BlurredExistence | Feb 22, 2012 6:02 PM | 1 comments
February 9th, 2012
Blood-C
If you like me had watched and loved Blood: The Last Vampire and/or Blood+ then when you first heard about Blood-C you would have been excited. However as more and more details were released you would have been caught off guard by what would have seen as pretty substantial changes, especially to Saya (Why has she got long hair? Why have they given her glasses? Why is she dressed up as a Shrine Maiden? When exactly is this supposed to be set?).
Upon finally getting around to watching this Anime i my concerns quickly turned to disappointment as nothing matched up to the movie or the other series. Blood-C has NOTHING to do with Blood: The Last Vampire or Blood+! Abandon any and all assumptions that it does and you might be able to enjoy this Anime far more than i was able to.
I probably should have followed this Anime better and read up more about it than i did before watching, so really i have no one else but myself to blame, and i do hope that now i know better should i re-watch it in the future i'll be able to enjoy it more. However saying all that i do question why the hell they did name their main character Saya as obviously that would lead to the same confusion conclusion as i came to, i'm fine with them using Blood in the title but seriously why risk that confusion?
I also had a number of other issues with the player i was using to view the Anime as well as the version i was watching having been very heavily and badly censored to hide the more gory imagery, which i totally don't get why anyone would do that! Seriously?! If you don't think your audience can handle that sort of thing then don't choose to show that Anime! Definitely don't go about butchering it just to obscure what you think might be upsetting to others.
I do plan on rewatching this again some time in the future and re-rate it but for now i can say it's not as good as either Blood: The Last Vampire or Blood+ which i shouldn't have really been comparing it against but ended up doing thruout regardless.
Upon finally getting around to watching this Anime i my concerns quickly turned to disappointment as nothing matched up to the movie or the other series. Blood-C has NOTHING to do with Blood: The Last Vampire or Blood+! Abandon any and all assumptions that it does and you might be able to enjoy this Anime far more than i was able to.
I probably should have followed this Anime better and read up more about it than i did before watching, so really i have no one else but myself to blame, and i do hope that now i know better should i re-watch it in the future i'll be able to enjoy it more. However saying all that i do question why the hell they did name their main character Saya as obviously that would lead to the same confusion conclusion as i came to, i'm fine with them using Blood in the title but seriously why risk that confusion?
I also had a number of other issues with the player i was using to view the Anime as well as the version i was watching having been very heavily and badly censored to hide the more gory imagery, which i totally don't get why anyone would do that! Seriously?! If you don't think your audience can handle that sort of thing then don't choose to show that Anime! Definitely don't go about butchering it just to obscure what you think might be upsetting to others.
I do plan on rewatching this again some time in the future and re-rate it but for now i can say it's not as good as either Blood: The Last Vampire or Blood+ which i shouldn't have really been comparing it against but ended up doing thruout regardless.
Posted by BlurredExistence | Feb 9, 2012 11:39 AM | 0 comments
January 23rd, 2012
Venus Versus Virus
Anime Relations: Venus Versus Virus
Not going to write a long one here as it's quite late over here.
Anyway i sat down to this Anime after thinking it looked quite interesting and made my way thru the entirety of it and i have to say it was quite a disappointment. It's not bad but it's dead in the middle average and i always feel that's something worse than being terrible (at the very least making a bad anime can be seen as something of an accomplishment but being average is nothing worth noting).
The story has a lot of potential in it but unfortunately the writing is just not up to snuff. It get's bogged down with a lot of clichés and you can see the main plot twists coming from, pretty much, the very beginning. While the main cast is likeable there's nothing terribly impressive about them and they could easily disappear into the background if transplanted into a better Anime. There's also the main character's development which doesn't really go anywhere. She's set up to have this major power which she can't control and hasn't fully awakened and she doesn't develop any control and when it does fully awaken nothings done with it.
The worst by far however is the ending, which is just... well there isn't really much of an ending. The big bad is defeated so easily it's just like he's thrown away, which is ridiculous after how much build up he got. Also the epic battle that is foreshadowed from the very first seen of the very first episode is no battle what-so-ever really.
All in all it is, as i said, nothing but a square in the middle average Anime and if you've got nothing better to watch then give it a go, you won't lose your time, but ONLY if you've got nothing better to watch!
Anyway i sat down to this Anime after thinking it looked quite interesting and made my way thru the entirety of it and i have to say it was quite a disappointment. It's not bad but it's dead in the middle average and i always feel that's something worse than being terrible (at the very least making a bad anime can be seen as something of an accomplishment but being average is nothing worth noting).
The story has a lot of potential in it but unfortunately the writing is just not up to snuff. It get's bogged down with a lot of clichés and you can see the main plot twists coming from, pretty much, the very beginning. While the main cast is likeable there's nothing terribly impressive about them and they could easily disappear into the background if transplanted into a better Anime. There's also the main character's development which doesn't really go anywhere. She's set up to have this major power which she can't control and hasn't fully awakened and she doesn't develop any control and when it does fully awaken nothings done with it.
The worst by far however is the ending, which is just... well there isn't really much of an ending. The big bad is defeated so easily it's just like he's thrown away, which is ridiculous after how much build up he got. Also the epic battle that is foreshadowed from the very first seen of the very first episode is no battle what-so-ever really.
All in all it is, as i said, nothing but a square in the middle average Anime and if you've got nothing better to watch then give it a go, you won't lose your time, but ONLY if you've got nothing better to watch!
Posted by BlurredExistence | Jan 23, 2012 9:57 PM | 0 comments
January 21st, 2012
It has finally come!
After a long long wait (i order it just after Xmas) my DVDs of Angel Beats! have finally arrived!!! = D It's my favourite Anime Series which means i'm so extremely happy today! I must say with this news my life is finally complete... well finally a little bit more complete than it was before this day that is. ;)
I'm really eager to sit down and watch it again but i feel like i do need to give myself more of a rest before diving back into something with such a heavy theme, so i'll finish off School Rumble and maybe watch a few more lighthearted Animes before i give in... tho the temptation is going to be hard to fight.
I'm really eager to sit down and watch it again but i feel like i do need to give myself more of a rest before diving back into something with such a heavy theme, so i'll finish off School Rumble and maybe watch a few more lighthearted Animes before i give in... tho the temptation is going to be hard to fight.
Posted by BlurredExistence | Jan 21, 2012 8:29 AM | 3 comments
January 20th, 2012
Emotionally Drained
Anime Relations: Kanon (2006), Clannad: After Story
I think i've been going about overboard with the emotionally touching Animes lately. Yesterday i finished off Kanon with had quite a bit of tragic and touching scenes, and despite enjoying it a heck of a lot i did realise halfway thru that i wasn't really crying at anything it was presenting me. I thought that maybe i the impact of the Anime just wasn't strong enough until i got to a scene that really should hit me hard and then i realised what with coming straight into this Anime from Clannad: After Story and a series of other Animes that had been pulling hard on the old heart strings my emotions are probably just too exhausted to respond appropriately to what's being presented to them. So basically, despite really wanting to continue on with the tearfest, i'm going to have to turn to much lighter Anime, comedies and such, to give myself a rest so i can cry once more.
BTW: I seriously recommend Kanon if you haven't seen it yet!
BTW: I seriously recommend Kanon if you haven't seen it yet!
Posted by BlurredExistence | Jan 20, 2012 8:37 AM | 1 comments
January 19th, 2012
Clannad: My Thoughts
Well i failed. I tried so hard not to let the movie influence my views upon the TV series but unfortunately i couldn't avoid it. Regardless of this i did thoroughly enjoy the TV series, tho i do feel i might have had a better experience if i hadn't watch the film first. Despite their stories doing some very different things there are a lot of similarities that, when they pop up, make it hard not to compare the two.
Anyway onto my thoughts of it all (WARNING: May or may not contain spoilers!!!):
When it came to the first series (Clannad) it started off very well and just got stronger as it went on, tho there were a few early instances of things that i felt had been done better in the movie, ie. the student council defacing the posters that Nagisa had worked so hard on in the movie was much more powerful than how the series handled their opposition to the Drama Club.
As the series went on i was glad to have the opportunity get to know each of the individual characters much better, tho their backstories may be different, between the movie and the series, each character's personality was pretty much the same so it was a fulfilling and fun experience and i also found each of the individual story arcs to be interesting, gripping and touching, particularly Fuko's which end was the first weeping trigger for me.
Everything was going well and i was determined to give Clannad a score of 10/10 up until i hit episode 22, the one covering the play and Tomoya's confession of love to Nagisa. Tbh i wasn't happy with the play at all. In the movie the play itself, Nagisa's performance and Tomoya's reaction (both the realisation that they have shared this dream and that he loves her) all work together to make something incredibly powerful and touching. In the series it's made very corny and rather silly once Akio shows up, i'm sorry but that whole speech about how Nagisa's now their dream right in the middle of the theatre was just too tacky for me to handle (the play also raised another major problem for me but i'll leave that till later). Then afterwards we get a series of fast passing and hardly inspiring images followed by Tomoya's confession of love, which might have been really touching only the music they choose to play just didn't fit the mood at all imo and somewhat ruined it for me.
After episode 22 i decided to mark it down to 9/10 but i've reconsidered that now, i think the rest of the series stands up enough to keep it's top marks.
After Story now. At first i thought it started off rather quite slow. I wanted to get straight into Nagisa's and Tomoya's relationship but instead they took a back seat in two story arcs revolving around secondary characters. After a few episodes tho i found myself really enjoying these stories and i understand why they did them to finish rounding off the characters we hadn't fully explored yet as well as provide us with a bit of a buffer between the events in Clannad and the torrent of emotion After Story gives us later on.
Now if i were to compare the first half of the movie with Clannad then the movie wins out. After Story to the second half tho? There's no comparison as After Story provided everything that i felt the movie was missing. Nagisa and Tomoya's relationship leading up to and after their marriage is explore in far greater detail, this i loved! Nagisa struggling to cope with having to do her senior year a third time and her graduation show in far more detail, this i loved! Nagisa's pregnancy, the birth of Ushio and Nagisa's death was show in intimate detail, this i loved and was devastated by at the same time! All of these things were largely just glossed over in the movie to move onto the return of Tomoya's depression, which overall was much much darker in the movie than it was in the series, which i felt was a shame but the thing i wanted to see the most was where the movie ended: Ushio! I understood why the film ended with the two reuniting for the first time after 5 years but watching Tomoya become Ushio's father, turn his life around and the two of them living happily together in the series was incredibly rewarding!
After Story isn't entirely without problems tho, Ushio's death being one of them. Why? I really don't get that at all! Actually i do know why it happened but it's tied very much too my main problem with the whole of the TV version of Clannad: the supernatural elements.
Now as soon as Fuko was confirmed to be a ghost of a girl in a coma i knew exactly where this introduced supernatural plot line was going to take us and thruout both Clannad and After Story i was hoping that i was wrong, but i wasn't. It's only reason for existence was so they could resurrect both Nagisa and Ushio and it's a narrative ploy so bad it cheapens both of their deaths and the emotions we felt as we watched them go! I know why they did this, they wanted a happy ending for the series but i feel that could have been achieved just by keeping Ushio alive, showing the two get on and enjoy their lives together, but is suppose the problem with making a TV series is that you need some big twist when it comes towards the end otherwise it doesn't feel like you've progressed or achieved anything. Still i feel it's very wrong and it raises my other major problem with the whole of the TV series: The Dream. It barely has a connection to anything, while in the film it's a reflection of both Tomoya's and Nagisa's feelings of loneliness and the hope that they will find each other (without knowing who they're waiting for), in the series it's just a vehicle for the supernatural element to sweep in and do away with all the hardships Nagisa and Tomoya (and us the viewers) have been thru to provide them with their cheep happy ending. Having said all that tho... i was extremely happy with their happy ending as i found each of the characters very endearing and wanted nothing more than to see them all together with the promise of long and happy lives.
Overall i thoroughly enjoy my entire experience of Clannad, both the movie and the TV series. Few Animes have made me cry so much or touched me so deeply, as well as making me fall in love with it's entire cast and laugh so hard (i think at the moment it's only rivalled by Angel Beats! in having done all of those)! Both stand up in their own ways and while i did find a few problems none of those are significant enough to stop me from enjoying and loving this Anime, whatever it's format!
Still i wished had watched the series first tho. = p
Anyway onto my thoughts of it all (WARNING: May or may not contain spoilers!!!):
When it came to the first series (Clannad) it started off very well and just got stronger as it went on, tho there were a few early instances of things that i felt had been done better in the movie, ie. the student council defacing the posters that Nagisa had worked so hard on in the movie was much more powerful than how the series handled their opposition to the Drama Club.
As the series went on i was glad to have the opportunity get to know each of the individual characters much better, tho their backstories may be different, between the movie and the series, each character's personality was pretty much the same so it was a fulfilling and fun experience and i also found each of the individual story arcs to be interesting, gripping and touching, particularly Fuko's which end was the first weeping trigger for me.
Everything was going well and i was determined to give Clannad a score of 10/10 up until i hit episode 22, the one covering the play and Tomoya's confession of love to Nagisa. Tbh i wasn't happy with the play at all. In the movie the play itself, Nagisa's performance and Tomoya's reaction (both the realisation that they have shared this dream and that he loves her) all work together to make something incredibly powerful and touching. In the series it's made very corny and rather silly once Akio shows up, i'm sorry but that whole speech about how Nagisa's now their dream right in the middle of the theatre was just too tacky for me to handle (the play also raised another major problem for me but i'll leave that till later). Then afterwards we get a series of fast passing and hardly inspiring images followed by Tomoya's confession of love, which might have been really touching only the music they choose to play just didn't fit the mood at all imo and somewhat ruined it for me.
After episode 22 i decided to mark it down to 9/10 but i've reconsidered that now, i think the rest of the series stands up enough to keep it's top marks.
After Story now. At first i thought it started off rather quite slow. I wanted to get straight into Nagisa's and Tomoya's relationship but instead they took a back seat in two story arcs revolving around secondary characters. After a few episodes tho i found myself really enjoying these stories and i understand why they did them to finish rounding off the characters we hadn't fully explored yet as well as provide us with a bit of a buffer between the events in Clannad and the torrent of emotion After Story gives us later on.
Now if i were to compare the first half of the movie with Clannad then the movie wins out. After Story to the second half tho? There's no comparison as After Story provided everything that i felt the movie was missing. Nagisa and Tomoya's relationship leading up to and after their marriage is explore in far greater detail, this i loved! Nagisa struggling to cope with having to do her senior year a third time and her graduation show in far more detail, this i loved! Nagisa's pregnancy, the birth of Ushio and Nagisa's death was show in intimate detail, this i loved and was devastated by at the same time! All of these things were largely just glossed over in the movie to move onto the return of Tomoya's depression, which overall was much much darker in the movie than it was in the series, which i felt was a shame but the thing i wanted to see the most was where the movie ended: Ushio! I understood why the film ended with the two reuniting for the first time after 5 years but watching Tomoya become Ushio's father, turn his life around and the two of them living happily together in the series was incredibly rewarding!
After Story isn't entirely without problems tho, Ushio's death being one of them. Why? I really don't get that at all! Actually i do know why it happened but it's tied very much too my main problem with the whole of the TV version of Clannad: the supernatural elements.
Now as soon as Fuko was confirmed to be a ghost of a girl in a coma i knew exactly where this introduced supernatural plot line was going to take us and thruout both Clannad and After Story i was hoping that i was wrong, but i wasn't. It's only reason for existence was so they could resurrect both Nagisa and Ushio and it's a narrative ploy so bad it cheapens both of their deaths and the emotions we felt as we watched them go! I know why they did this, they wanted a happy ending for the series but i feel that could have been achieved just by keeping Ushio alive, showing the two get on and enjoy their lives together, but is suppose the problem with making a TV series is that you need some big twist when it comes towards the end otherwise it doesn't feel like you've progressed or achieved anything. Still i feel it's very wrong and it raises my other major problem with the whole of the TV series: The Dream. It barely has a connection to anything, while in the film it's a reflection of both Tomoya's and Nagisa's feelings of loneliness and the hope that they will find each other (without knowing who they're waiting for), in the series it's just a vehicle for the supernatural element to sweep in and do away with all the hardships Nagisa and Tomoya (and us the viewers) have been thru to provide them with their cheep happy ending. Having said all that tho... i was extremely happy with their happy ending as i found each of the characters very endearing and wanted nothing more than to see them all together with the promise of long and happy lives.
Overall i thoroughly enjoy my entire experience of Clannad, both the movie and the TV series. Few Animes have made me cry so much or touched me so deeply, as well as making me fall in love with it's entire cast and laugh so hard (i think at the moment it's only rivalled by Angel Beats! in having done all of those)! Both stand up in their own ways and while i did find a few problems none of those are significant enough to stop me from enjoying and loving this Anime, whatever it's format!
Still i wished had watched the series first tho. = p
Posted by BlurredExistence | Jan 19, 2012 11:45 AM | 3 comments
January 15th, 2012
Clannad
Anime Relations: Clannad Movie, Clannad
I started watching Clannad for the first time yesterday after having watched the film several months ago. Initially i had problems getting into the series properly due to how many things have been changed from the film, some powerful moments removed, the time line's gone squiffy and several of the main characters are different, however i am slowly but surely getting more and more into it as i constantly remind myself to disassociate the two, this is an alternate story after all.
This is not my main problem tho, no that is the song "Dango Daikazoku" that comes at the end of each episode. In the movie this song was so strongly tied to Nagisa who ends up as such a tragic character that this song, her theme to me, invokes really strong emotions every time i hear it, so much so that now every time it comes to the end of an episode i'm literary weeping before i can make the move to switch to the next one!
6 episodes done, only 18 more to go... i feel like i may die of dehydration at this rate! = p
This is not my main problem tho, no that is the song "Dango Daikazoku" that comes at the end of each episode. In the movie this song was so strongly tied to Nagisa who ends up as such a tragic character that this song, her theme to me, invokes really strong emotions every time i hear it, so much so that now every time it comes to the end of an episode i'm literary weeping before i can make the move to switch to the next one!
6 episodes done, only 18 more to go... i feel like i may die of dehydration at this rate! = p
Posted by BlurredExistence | Jan 15, 2012 1:41 PM | 4 comments