January 15th, 2024
Re:CREATORS Review
Anime Relations: Re:Creators
Right to the point, i thought the show was good at best. There's so much i want to say about this show, the execution, the direction, the concept, the character's and there's so much more i wanted from it but i just don't have the strength.
There was only 4 things in the show that kept me watching by the end and those were Altair, Magane, the action and the OST everything else i will not lie i didn't care about or barely cared about.
The show by the end, to me felt like it had broken down into this very cliché, predictable plot with a lot of ass pulling. Many of the characters themselves at this point i didn't care about backstory wise or as actual characters, i just wanted to see them fight. One of the main reason for this was i just felt like they, didn't feel fleshed out enough with their goals and motifs, like in the final fight we have the rival of Yuuya join the fight on the opposite side with very little reason as to why besides "my rival is on the other side that's enough" and no justification for never questioning his side's end goal.
Due to, many, points in both the story's slow deterioration and poor execution of plot and character's slow developments that equated to my interest dying out, two character's stayed my favourite start to finish by process of elimination, and that was Altair and Magane.
Altair stayed my favourite for numerous reasons, her character design was was imo the most unique in the show and in general. A thick double breasted military overcoat with golden red decals on black, two chunky looking metal gauntlets, long white hair tied in twin tails, her unique eyes that fate from red, navy blue to square pupils and Toyosaki Aki work as her voice actor, rapidly grew on me as one of the most unique designs of the show. Likewise her abilities we initially see also interested me to a large degree, watching her summon large numbers of military Calvary sabres and then use a Soviet PPSh-41 and a sabre to imitate playing a violin to activate an ability was really interesting and hooking as a concept.
Besides from that, her character and personality although started off slow, still intrigued me either way. Labelled the antagonist very early on, her expression and attitude as very daring, self confident and intimating in how she looked at her opponents also won my heart early one. Her motives although felt very predictable also interested me as it felt incredibly infused by her personality and character.
By the end, again as everything started making me loose interest and character's just bored me, Altair still remained one of my top character maybe out of how i just wanted the other character's to leave the scene so Altair could get more screen time, or maybe because i was still entranced in her looks and how at the end she was going full psychotic power God antagonist and wiping the battlefield in a majestic fashion despite being heavily outnumbered and backstabbed once or twice and yet managed to explain how she was aware of the "ally side" plan and had reversed engineered it to benefit her instead, or maybe because after her goal to destroy the world because of what it did to her creator was revealed that made me pander more to her due to empathy, the fact still stood that at the end Altair was one of the characters that intrigued and entertained me the most at the end and i just wanted her to win.
But on a serious point, her character was something that deeply interested me and after having confirmed that her goals were directly linked to Setsuna's death it really stuck with me. I feel like they although the execution of it was a bit messy, they still hit the point and hit it well enough to make me feel sympathetic and side with her more then the limited reasonings i had to side with the "ally" side.
On the topic of her "redemption" or "realisation" or what ever at the end it was that fully explained her character and personality and even went beyond that to her accepting the reality and changing as a person, i'd say it was definitely one of the plot points in the show that i will praise greatly overall.
Although i could probably only comprehend 45% of Setsuna and Altair's conversation, what i took away was the majority of Altair's true feelings and emotions, her speech about being the "villain" and showing her true feelings that backed up her motifs, as well as her accepting that the Setsuna in front of her might be a fake and forever a fake, was very hear touching and emotional for me, and the absolute lengths she'd go to back those emotions up was well executed. The whole "saving Setsuna from fate by using God like powers to create a new world, or story, for Altair and Setsuna to forever be together making their own stories" was good imo, it had some really wholesome moments and i'm incredibly happy that they ended Altair and Setsuna's story there.
Magane is a bit different, from the start i liked her and i feel like my bias would show if i said one reason i started the show was because of her design which is true. I did start the show because of Magane and might be the bias talking, but i ended the show with Magane being my other favourite character.
I don't know what to else to say I just really like wild cards, on neither side, care free do what they want or what's the most fun, cause havoc for both parties or even benefit a certain party, characters a lot. They feel like such a valuable point to the plot because of their unpredictable nature, but also how they are their own leader and aren't exclusively driven by certain narratives, and that's something i'll praise the show about, i thought they used Magane's character or role in the show as a wild card very well. Magane in the quite literal darkest of moments for me in the show where i considered just dropping it because i thought the plot had delved too far into something i had little interest in, spiced the story back up by throwing oil in the cooking pan and shot my engagement quite literally ten folds. However maybe i'd argue they abused he role a bit to far as in the end they literally just used her as an ass pull to cement the "ally" side to win and although i found it cheap, eh Magane W and Altair W in the end.
The action and OST can be summed up pretty easily, i loved them, both of them fit like cookies and milk and was also both an initial selling point for the show, and the hook that made me stay watching the show. Even though i had lost a lot of initial interest in the show and the points that made me hype for it, the action and OST were among the things that brought my consciousness back into the show.
Story
Now the story, take a grain of salt from what i say next because i don't know how else to explain this then a lot of the time the story put me to sleep or had me phasing out from how nothing interesting or engaging was going on for the nth time, so don't expect an accurate or fair review of the story.
The story for me was fine, best way i could put it, i simply thought the overall story was fine. Besides the ass pulls, cliché, predictable plot, badly written MC and some characters i thought the story was still ok at best when it did pull out surprising and new concept, and occasionally make character's interesting with development.
I still made it to the end so that's something, obviously like what i said before it wasn't because of those 4 things that kept me hooked, but also because in their own right Altair and Magane i felt like were well utilised to a certain extent in the story making it interesting. The initial arrival of the main cast was good, the reveal of how the government was going to handle the situation after finding out was surprising and honestly well done. The drama of Altari killing Mamika, Magane twisting words to make Alicetaria go after Meteora yeah sure that was good. The set up for the final fight, the bird cage, Altair flipping it on them was also good.
Honestly another plus of the story was just how overpowered Altair was cus it made for some amazing action scenes and i got to see her completely bulldoze the other side in a blaze of glory. Some people argue that it's ball shit, i argue that it's one of the best points in the final fight or even the show, and that you just can't handle her silly side. Also it was pretty clearly stated that Altair being an OC, obtained her power's not from a creator, but from the influx of concepts and ideas of the internet and it's creations of her, quite literally making her power infinite and infinitely scaling.
Those were some of the more notable story points that i thought were memorable or good, but personally weighting it out with the downsides in my head just makes me think the story was simply fine at best.
Now some of the downsides of the story that lived rent free in my head were, the weird concept that "audience / fame = power" for creations. I mean yeah sure i guess it kinda makes sense but the idea that the main characters can get stronger from the support of their fans felt so cliché to me. Characters just lost my interest with their interactions in the story, new ones were getting thrown in left and right with little development. The ending was incredibly Cliché with Magane ability on Souta at the end, honestly a lot of the story was Cliché like Altair's creator and her reason for destroying the world, Blitz's creator bringing his daughter back, Blitz and Alicertaria swapping sides.
There was also one big downside that is probably a skill issue on me, but by the end while i was barely keeping conscious a lot of the time, and when i did zone back in the plot had turned to talking about fate, destiny, the creations defying the story, creators rewriting the story, rewriting fate itself, changing the script of this world, changing the plot of the birdcage's world (which was Altair's world) creating a new world and just idk probably on me for not paying attention, but holy shit man this was not the expected, depth(?), i thought the show would sink to.
The ending was what ever for me, i've also seen some people argue how it was less since they just "handed Altair what she wanted" but honestly i would of gladly taken Altair ending the world as it would of been the greatest and funniest plot twist that i would have ever watched after the mountains of previous predictable, cliché and ass pull plot points.
However, there is also a crack theory that if true, sky rockets my initial thoughts from an ok 7/10 to a fucking amazing PR stunt and galaxy brain move of a 9/10 and that is if the reason they made the story so bad with so many asspulls and reasons to not like the "ally" side or to support them, was because the entire story and show was Altair's all along and it was entirely intentional to make the views want to support Altair, and because of her power being infinite from how she works, and the birdcage being reversed into her favour so audience appreciation = more strength, she become so unbelievably powerful to wipe the floor, only Megana's power of reality bending was able to put a wrench in her plan.
If the shows plan all along was this psychological mind game to end up making me support Altair therefore making her stronger, bravo fucking brilliant i fell in hook line and sinker and i would genuinely believe this would be one of the dumbest yet most hardcore badass stunts of all time.
And for the time being it'll remain my head canon until my copium runs out.
Guys please I swear *inhale* the story being so lopsided was intended as a practical PR stunt necessary for the plot of the show *inhale* you have to believe me *coughs*
Characters
I'm not gonna sugar coat it, the characters ranged from ass to enjoyable for me. All the characters, besides the two i already mentioned, i struggled to keep interest in at various points. Meteora was kinda there doing the planning and shit, Kanoya was also just kinda there piloting a big robot, Mamika fucking exploded lmao and i mean many of the creators themselves were underwhelming to me. Like there just wasn't a lot of, character progression / depth / backstory which kinda sucked. I get that maybe giving these characters some backstory can be kind hard since we already know most of their backstory due them being fictional and already out there, but idk the character progression or change or depth they went for some of them didn't feel as nearly as enough or impactful to me.
BUT i will give the show some credit, thinking about it now it did change, progress, go in depth with character, some more so then other.
Selesia was a weird one for me, on one hand she was advertised as a heroine to me and rightfully she did have a lot of screen time and take the lead, but on the other halfway through i realised she kinda was staying as a main character female leading character and not really changing, until the end when she met her partner and double suicided with him. That i thought was actually a good show of change in a character.
Yuuya was also interesting, initially i thought he was going to be a wild card third party for the "ally" side since originally he was the rival and i'm guessing antagonist in his world, but no he actually stayed with the crew and was pretty chill. Although i did struggle to actually figure out why he wanted to stay besides "for the fun of it" his character did kinda grow on me, he saved Souta, bonded with the others and Kanoya, and the ending when he meets his rival was actually really interesting. Although imo the execution was messy, they still kinda got the point across that they didn't need to fight and how he was sorry and that they really needed to work together right now and the dialogue really didn't help but still he changed from his hard nut gang leader die hard to this really chill and cool dude at the end.
Alicetaria i mean as much as i didn't really like her and kinda laughed at her death, her character development was also pretty good. She started as the average main character heroine that had a close minded view on other's opinion about whether she was doing the right or wrong, because of her original world being so devoided of that. After Mamika's death and Magane playing her like a fool and getting some sense beaten into her, she turned out to be an alright character after the soul searching she did with her creator, understanding why her creator made her and her world so depressing, and later seeing her story as a show of strength and hope. I was ok with her character development, but i guess one thing still led to another and by the laws of the world or fate or destiny or what ever she still thought she was a main character and backstabbing Altair, failing, then turning it into a 1v1 was inevitable. Altair of course, Altair'd all over her before dropping one of the hardest final lines in the show by telling her, "You aren't the main character in this story, just a side one."
Honestly when i think about it hard enough with the story, i start to believe that maybe none of the character actually had any development to begin with. Crack theory, a recurring theme i read a lot in the show for the characters / plot was how "everything was planned because all of these actions were scripted by the creators or by the law of the world" or something along those lines, basically meaning that the characters were always suppose to be like this, even if it seemed like they were changing from their experiences on the planet, at their core they were always like this or always were going to because they were written like this in the story.
Hear me out, Blitz's talk with Suruga before shooting her, this scene stays rent free in my head because of how i feel like it shows the creations don't really have a means to develop. Suruga brought Blitz's daughter back in an elaborate way to make him stop from both killing her but to back stab Altair, not only was this scene a complete fucking ass pull that they could apparently just always bring more creations to their world by writing them in a "way the audience likes" but also make Blitz swap sides, the entire scene was scripted to look like Suruga planned it from the start with some of that birdcage changing destiny and world script changing logic. She literally says Blitz's words along side him, and there were already military personal waiting outside with his daughter, Suruga also mentions something along the lines of how "i am your God" along other lines about how more or less enforcing how she was the creator of Blitz's world and person, their for she had complete control of what he would do / say. Making him come all the way here to initially kill her, then stop when he saw his daughter and swap sides can be argued from this logic, all planned by Suruga and therefore not actually a product of him changing as an individual, but instead it was always meant to be this way.
Another point could be Selesia's death at the end, her creator's reaction to it made it seem like it was always bounded to happen to the story since her character genre led her to her outcome.
Visuals
Visuals if i haven't said it already, was another redeeming thing about the show. The animation felt very consistent for 22 episodes, i don't think i actually noticed any drop in quality for fights or in general, likewise fight scenes were visually very well done. Camera work was fine, visual effects were by far outstanding start to finish, CGI was good and fight choreography was well done.
Again combine this with the really high quality SFX and OST, and this show can push out some really fucking great works of art.
Character designs were also incredibly very unique. Besides my earlier rant on Altair that also described her design, i also thought design wise the other characters had it going. All of them had their own unique look that respectably reflected the theme / genre they were from. Meteora had that classic MMO RPG final fantasy mage look, Selesia kinda had the same thing going besides looking a bit more futuristic respectfully, Kanoya had a literal plug suit, Alicetaria had an end game dark souls armour set and literally all the other characters i think have really respectable designs for their genre. Maybe besides from like Blitz, but that's because i never actually understood what his world / story / setting / time frame was. I'll give it to the creators design too, they also had unique design that reflected on the story / creations they made quite well.
Overall i thought character design was a strong suit for the show, they definitely hit the nail on the head with unique yet accurate designs for characters from various genres.
OST
The original soundtrack for this anime is undeniably some of the best works i think i've heard from Sawano Hiroyuki. I cannot express fully how truly mesmerising and amazing the OST was, it had a very large range of tracks that worked incredibly well with different scenes and really dug in the emotions that the directors aimed for.
The first opening was hands down flawless and another reason i kept watching. Everything down to the lyrics felt incredibly in line with the shows concept and theme, the animation pared with it likewise had my hyped in the first op but again, shame it didn't really meet my own expectations.
Indefinitely the OST for this anime was a huge selling point for me and what kept me in, again i don't think i could put into words how well done the OST was and how i genuinely think that if it wasn't for Sawano Hiroyuki's work on it, i would have dropped the show.
SFX was also in it's own right incredible in the show, like i was stunned with how well the audio was done. Glass breaking, gun shots, metal on metal, environmental atmosphere and probably a lot more i didn't name, all sounded amazingly real and crisp. Again, paired with the fluent animation and action this anime managed to throw out some of the best action sequences i could of asked for.
All in all i just, i don't know. A lot of what i feel about the show and it's downsides were probably my own doing by putting my own expectations so high, but on the other hand i can only tell myself "it'll get better soon" so many times before i give in. There were genuinely things that i enjoyed about the story and character's, and again i absolutely adored the OST. The animation was also incredibly well done paired with the SFX, but i really don't think the visuals and sfx can help weight the show to a better overall score for me, hence why i think Re:Creators overall is a 7 for me. Feels like so much more could of been done and I'm still trying to give it the benefit of the doubt, but hay end of the day what can you do.
edit: Overall ranking
Story: 7/10
Characters / development: 6/10
Visuals / Animation: 9/10
SFX / OST: 10/10
Overall: 7/10
There was only 4 things in the show that kept me watching by the end and those were Altair, Magane, the action and the OST everything else i will not lie i didn't care about or barely cared about.
The show by the end, to me felt like it had broken down into this very cliché, predictable plot with a lot of ass pulling. Many of the characters themselves at this point i didn't care about backstory wise or as actual characters, i just wanted to see them fight. One of the main reason for this was i just felt like they, didn't feel fleshed out enough with their goals and motifs, like in the final fight we have the rival of Yuuya join the fight on the opposite side with very little reason as to why besides "my rival is on the other side that's enough" and no justification for never questioning his side's end goal.
Due to, many, points in both the story's slow deterioration and poor execution of plot and character's slow developments that equated to my interest dying out, two character's stayed my favourite start to finish by process of elimination, and that was Altair and Magane.
Altair stayed my favourite for numerous reasons, her character design was was imo the most unique in the show and in general. A thick double breasted military overcoat with golden red decals on black, two chunky looking metal gauntlets, long white hair tied in twin tails, her unique eyes that fate from red, navy blue to square pupils and Toyosaki Aki work as her voice actor, rapidly grew on me as one of the most unique designs of the show. Likewise her abilities we initially see also interested me to a large degree, watching her summon large numbers of military Calvary sabres and then use a Soviet PPSh-41 and a sabre to imitate playing a violin to activate an ability was really interesting and hooking as a concept.
Besides from that, her character and personality although started off slow, still intrigued me either way. Labelled the antagonist very early on, her expression and attitude as very daring, self confident and intimating in how she looked at her opponents also won my heart early one. Her motives although felt very predictable also interested me as it felt incredibly infused by her personality and character.
By the end, again as everything started making me loose interest and character's just bored me, Altair still remained one of my top character maybe out of how i just wanted the other character's to leave the scene so Altair could get more screen time, or maybe because i was still entranced in her looks and how at the end she was going full psychotic power God antagonist and wiping the battlefield in a majestic fashion despite being heavily outnumbered and backstabbed once or twice and yet managed to explain how she was aware of the "ally side" plan and had reversed engineered it to benefit her instead, or maybe because after her goal to destroy the world because of what it did to her creator was revealed that made me pander more to her due to empathy, the fact still stood that at the end Altair was one of the characters that intrigued and entertained me the most at the end and i just wanted her to win.
But on a serious point, her character was something that deeply interested me and after having confirmed that her goals were directly linked to Setsuna's death it really stuck with me. I feel like they although the execution of it was a bit messy, they still hit the point and hit it well enough to make me feel sympathetic and side with her more then the limited reasonings i had to side with the "ally" side.
On the topic of her "redemption" or "realisation" or what ever at the end it was that fully explained her character and personality and even went beyond that to her accepting the reality and changing as a person, i'd say it was definitely one of the plot points in the show that i will praise greatly overall.
Although i could probably only comprehend 45% of Setsuna and Altair's conversation, what i took away was the majority of Altair's true feelings and emotions, her speech about being the "villain" and showing her true feelings that backed up her motifs, as well as her accepting that the Setsuna in front of her might be a fake and forever a fake, was very hear touching and emotional for me, and the absolute lengths she'd go to back those emotions up was well executed. The whole "saving Setsuna from fate by using God like powers to create a new world, or story, for Altair and Setsuna to forever be together making their own stories" was good imo, it had some really wholesome moments and i'm incredibly happy that they ended Altair and Setsuna's story there.
Magane is a bit different, from the start i liked her and i feel like my bias would show if i said one reason i started the show was because of her design which is true. I did start the show because of Magane and might be the bias talking, but i ended the show with Magane being my other favourite character.
I don't know what to else to say I just really like wild cards, on neither side, care free do what they want or what's the most fun, cause havoc for both parties or even benefit a certain party, characters a lot. They feel like such a valuable point to the plot because of their unpredictable nature, but also how they are their own leader and aren't exclusively driven by certain narratives, and that's something i'll praise the show about, i thought they used Magane's character or role in the show as a wild card very well. Magane in the quite literal darkest of moments for me in the show where i considered just dropping it because i thought the plot had delved too far into something i had little interest in, spiced the story back up by throwing oil in the cooking pan and shot my engagement quite literally ten folds. However maybe i'd argue they abused he role a bit to far as in the end they literally just used her as an ass pull to cement the "ally" side to win and although i found it cheap, eh Magane W and Altair W in the end.
The action and OST can be summed up pretty easily, i loved them, both of them fit like cookies and milk and was also both an initial selling point for the show, and the hook that made me stay watching the show. Even though i had lost a lot of initial interest in the show and the points that made me hype for it, the action and OST were among the things that brought my consciousness back into the show.
Story
Now the story, take a grain of salt from what i say next because i don't know how else to explain this then a lot of the time the story put me to sleep or had me phasing out from how nothing interesting or engaging was going on for the nth time, so don't expect an accurate or fair review of the story.
The story for me was fine, best way i could put it, i simply thought the overall story was fine. Besides the ass pulls, cliché, predictable plot, badly written MC and some characters i thought the story was still ok at best when it did pull out surprising and new concept, and occasionally make character's interesting with development.
I still made it to the end so that's something, obviously like what i said before it wasn't because of those 4 things that kept me hooked, but also because in their own right Altair and Magane i felt like were well utilised to a certain extent in the story making it interesting. The initial arrival of the main cast was good, the reveal of how the government was going to handle the situation after finding out was surprising and honestly well done. The drama of Altari killing Mamika, Magane twisting words to make Alicetaria go after Meteora yeah sure that was good. The set up for the final fight, the bird cage, Altair flipping it on them was also good.
Honestly another plus of the story was just how overpowered Altair was cus it made for some amazing action scenes and i got to see her completely bulldoze the other side in a blaze of glory. Some people argue that it's ball shit, i argue that it's one of the best points in the final fight or even the show, and that you just can't handle her silly side. Also it was pretty clearly stated that Altair being an OC, obtained her power's not from a creator, but from the influx of concepts and ideas of the internet and it's creations of her, quite literally making her power infinite and infinitely scaling.
Those were some of the more notable story points that i thought were memorable or good, but personally weighting it out with the downsides in my head just makes me think the story was simply fine at best.
Now some of the downsides of the story that lived rent free in my head were, the weird concept that "audience / fame = power" for creations. I mean yeah sure i guess it kinda makes sense but the idea that the main characters can get stronger from the support of their fans felt so cliché to me. Characters just lost my interest with their interactions in the story, new ones were getting thrown in left and right with little development. The ending was incredibly Cliché with Magane ability on Souta at the end, honestly a lot of the story was Cliché like Altair's creator and her reason for destroying the world, Blitz's creator bringing his daughter back, Blitz and Alicertaria swapping sides.
There was also one big downside that is probably a skill issue on me, but by the end while i was barely keeping conscious a lot of the time, and when i did zone back in the plot had turned to talking about fate, destiny, the creations defying the story, creators rewriting the story, rewriting fate itself, changing the script of this world, changing the plot of the birdcage's world (which was Altair's world) creating a new world and just idk probably on me for not paying attention, but holy shit man this was not the expected, depth(?), i thought the show would sink to.
The ending was what ever for me, i've also seen some people argue how it was less since they just "handed Altair what she wanted" but honestly i would of gladly taken Altair ending the world as it would of been the greatest and funniest plot twist that i would have ever watched after the mountains of previous predictable, cliché and ass pull plot points.
However, there is also a crack theory that if true, sky rockets my initial thoughts from an ok 7/10 to a fucking amazing PR stunt and galaxy brain move of a 9/10 and that is if the reason they made the story so bad with so many asspulls and reasons to not like the "ally" side or to support them, was because the entire story and show was Altair's all along and it was entirely intentional to make the views want to support Altair, and because of her power being infinite from how she works, and the birdcage being reversed into her favour so audience appreciation = more strength, she become so unbelievably powerful to wipe the floor, only Megana's power of reality bending was able to put a wrench in her plan.
If the shows plan all along was this psychological mind game to end up making me support Altair therefore making her stronger, bravo fucking brilliant i fell in hook line and sinker and i would genuinely believe this would be one of the dumbest yet most hardcore badass stunts of all time.
And for the time being it'll remain my head canon until my copium runs out.
Guys please I swear *inhale* the story being so lopsided was intended as a practical PR stunt necessary for the plot of the show *inhale* you have to believe me *coughs* Characters
I'm not gonna sugar coat it, the characters ranged from ass to enjoyable for me. All the characters, besides the two i already mentioned, i struggled to keep interest in at various points. Meteora was kinda there doing the planning and shit, Kanoya was also just kinda there piloting a big robot, Mamika fucking exploded lmao and i mean many of the creators themselves were underwhelming to me. Like there just wasn't a lot of, character progression / depth / backstory which kinda sucked. I get that maybe giving these characters some backstory can be kind hard since we already know most of their backstory due them being fictional and already out there, but idk the character progression or change or depth they went for some of them didn't feel as nearly as enough or impactful to me.
BUT i will give the show some credit, thinking about it now it did change, progress, go in depth with character, some more so then other.
Selesia was a weird one for me, on one hand she was advertised as a heroine to me and rightfully she did have a lot of screen time and take the lead, but on the other halfway through i realised she kinda was staying as a main character female leading character and not really changing, until the end when she met her partner and double suicided with him. That i thought was actually a good show of change in a character.
Yuuya was also interesting, initially i thought he was going to be a wild card third party for the "ally" side since originally he was the rival and i'm guessing antagonist in his world, but no he actually stayed with the crew and was pretty chill. Although i did struggle to actually figure out why he wanted to stay besides "for the fun of it" his character did kinda grow on me, he saved Souta, bonded with the others and Kanoya, and the ending when he meets his rival was actually really interesting. Although imo the execution was messy, they still kinda got the point across that they didn't need to fight and how he was sorry and that they really needed to work together right now and the dialogue really didn't help but still he changed from his hard nut gang leader die hard to this really chill and cool dude at the end.
Alicetaria i mean as much as i didn't really like her and kinda laughed at her death, her character development was also pretty good. She started as the average main character heroine that had a close minded view on other's opinion about whether she was doing the right or wrong, because of her original world being so devoided of that. After Mamika's death and Magane playing her like a fool and getting some sense beaten into her, she turned out to be an alright character after the soul searching she did with her creator, understanding why her creator made her and her world so depressing, and later seeing her story as a show of strength and hope. I was ok with her character development, but i guess one thing still led to another and by the laws of the world or fate or destiny or what ever she still thought she was a main character and backstabbing Altair, failing, then turning it into a 1v1 was inevitable. Altair of course, Altair'd all over her before dropping one of the hardest final lines in the show by telling her, "You aren't the main character in this story, just a side one."
Honestly when i think about it hard enough with the story, i start to believe that maybe none of the character actually had any development to begin with. Crack theory, a recurring theme i read a lot in the show for the characters / plot was how "everything was planned because all of these actions were scripted by the creators or by the law of the world" or something along those lines, basically meaning that the characters were always suppose to be like this, even if it seemed like they were changing from their experiences on the planet, at their core they were always like this or always were going to because they were written like this in the story.
Hear me out, Blitz's talk with Suruga before shooting her, this scene stays rent free in my head because of how i feel like it shows the creations don't really have a means to develop. Suruga brought Blitz's daughter back in an elaborate way to make him stop from both killing her but to back stab Altair, not only was this scene a complete fucking ass pull that they could apparently just always bring more creations to their world by writing them in a "way the audience likes" but also make Blitz swap sides, the entire scene was scripted to look like Suruga planned it from the start with some of that birdcage changing destiny and world script changing logic. She literally says Blitz's words along side him, and there were already military personal waiting outside with his daughter, Suruga also mentions something along the lines of how "i am your God" along other lines about how more or less enforcing how she was the creator of Blitz's world and person, their for she had complete control of what he would do / say. Making him come all the way here to initially kill her, then stop when he saw his daughter and swap sides can be argued from this logic, all planned by Suruga and therefore not actually a product of him changing as an individual, but instead it was always meant to be this way.
Another point could be Selesia's death at the end, her creator's reaction to it made it seem like it was always bounded to happen to the story since her character genre led her to her outcome.
Visuals
Visuals if i haven't said it already, was another redeeming thing about the show. The animation felt very consistent for 22 episodes, i don't think i actually noticed any drop in quality for fights or in general, likewise fight scenes were visually very well done. Camera work was fine, visual effects were by far outstanding start to finish, CGI was good and fight choreography was well done.
Again combine this with the really high quality SFX and OST, and this show can push out some really fucking great works of art.
Character designs were also incredibly very unique. Besides my earlier rant on Altair that also described her design, i also thought design wise the other characters had it going. All of them had their own unique look that respectably reflected the theme / genre they were from. Meteora had that classic MMO RPG final fantasy mage look, Selesia kinda had the same thing going besides looking a bit more futuristic respectfully, Kanoya had a literal plug suit, Alicetaria had an end game dark souls armour set and literally all the other characters i think have really respectable designs for their genre. Maybe besides from like Blitz, but that's because i never actually understood what his world / story / setting / time frame was. I'll give it to the creators design too, they also had unique design that reflected on the story / creations they made quite well.
Overall i thought character design was a strong suit for the show, they definitely hit the nail on the head with unique yet accurate designs for characters from various genres.
OST
The original soundtrack for this anime is undeniably some of the best works i think i've heard from Sawano Hiroyuki. I cannot express fully how truly mesmerising and amazing the OST was, it had a very large range of tracks that worked incredibly well with different scenes and really dug in the emotions that the directors aimed for.
The first opening was hands down flawless and another reason i kept watching. Everything down to the lyrics felt incredibly in line with the shows concept and theme, the animation pared with it likewise had my hyped in the first op but again, shame it didn't really meet my own expectations.
Indefinitely the OST for this anime was a huge selling point for me and what kept me in, again i don't think i could put into words how well done the OST was and how i genuinely think that if it wasn't for Sawano Hiroyuki's work on it, i would have dropped the show.
SFX was also in it's own right incredible in the show, like i was stunned with how well the audio was done. Glass breaking, gun shots, metal on metal, environmental atmosphere and probably a lot more i didn't name, all sounded amazingly real and crisp. Again, paired with the fluent animation and action this anime managed to throw out some of the best action sequences i could of asked for.
All in all i just, i don't know. A lot of what i feel about the show and it's downsides were probably my own doing by putting my own expectations so high, but on the other hand i can only tell myself "it'll get better soon" so many times before i give in. There were genuinely things that i enjoyed about the story and character's, and again i absolutely adored the OST. The animation was also incredibly well done paired with the SFX, but i really don't think the visuals and sfx can help weight the show to a better overall score for me, hence why i think Re:Creators overall is a 7 for me. Feels like so much more could of been done and I'm still trying to give it the benefit of the doubt, but hay end of the day what can you do.
edit: Overall ranking
Story: 7/10
Characters / development: 6/10
Visuals / Animation: 9/10
SFX / OST: 10/10
Overall: 7/10
Posted by Code0018 | Jan 15, 1:19 AM | 0 comments
December 31st, 2023
Jujutsu Kaisen 2nd Season Review
Anime Relations: Jujutsu Kaisen 2nd Season
Absolute fire season and great episode to wrap season 2 up in and set up for possible season 3.
First half was great, they really managed to solidify how massive of an impact the events at Shibuya were for practically the entire world by showing the reactions of both humans and Jujutsu sorcerers. All eyes are gonna be on Japan with the economics and the inexplicable events it's actually crazy how, understandably, the government can't find a good cover up and might just publicly announce the existence of curses and curse energy which would actually flip the world on its head. I'm really interested to know next season if they do, i feel like they're kinda at a point where they have no choice, but it'll be interesting to see how the government interacts with the Jujutsu council, and make for some cool spin offs to watch how Jujutsu sorcerers in other countries fair. Likewise we see the Jujutsu council thrown into a state of panic trying to contain all the new curses but probably also prepare themselves for the possible reveal of it all.
Ngl a lot of what kenjaku said at the start was confusing, what i took away was his belief that humanity should have / optimize cursed energy and him using Mahito's Idle transfiguration to destroy some barriers, then activated some spell that enhances certain humans with already high affinity with curse energy just not having the brain to fully utilise it , to become something like Itadori? Essentially making both sorcerers and these new awakened sorcerers equal in numbers to fight to push the awareness and need of cursed energy. He also revealed he made a pact with dozens of curses / cursed objects and i guess with the barriers gone, unleashed those curses and 10million other curses into Japan starting the "World of Heian, the golden age of Jujutsu" which ngl is hardcore af and very much world changing.
Second half was crazy, you get to see the immediate effects of the millions of released curses and how they easily start tearing through the public and how even without the government announcing curses existences, their presence is already rapidly spreading.
Seems the spotlight might shift back to Yuuta which i'm really looking forward to, i enjoyed his story a lot in the movie and excited to see what he does since he got bumped to Special Grade.
The ending sequences with the sentences laid out by the Jujutsu council was also fucking crazy and world changing, interesting how they still label Getou as the perpetrator, but deeming Gojou as an accomplice and anyone attempting to free him deemed a criminal is insane, Yaga's punishment actually made me gasp that shit feels way to extreme and Itadori's death sentence being unfrozen and Yuuta being his executioner i kinda expected. Whelp looks like were gonna see Itadori and the crew go on their rouge phase dodging the council and such.
Season 2 itself was fucking amazing, blew my mind with the animation and action, the plot was really interesting and was really such a fun watch that i enjoyed the shit out of, I absolutely loved Touji's story in the plot the most, probably one of my favourite characters in the franchise.
Still it all came at the expense of the wellbeing of hundreds of MAPPA workers which was really sad to hear about. I'm really thankful season 2 is doing so well, but the reality is pretty depressing hearing about the work environment occurring to make the show.
All in all, i enjoyed the shit out of this season and they did a really good job paving the plot for future seasons.
edit: Overall ranking
Story 8/10
Characters / development 8/10
Visuals / Animation 10/10
SFX / OST 8/10
Overall 9/10
First half was great, they really managed to solidify how massive of an impact the events at Shibuya were for practically the entire world by showing the reactions of both humans and Jujutsu sorcerers. All eyes are gonna be on Japan with the economics and the inexplicable events it's actually crazy how, understandably, the government can't find a good cover up and might just publicly announce the existence of curses and curse energy which would actually flip the world on its head. I'm really interested to know next season if they do, i feel like they're kinda at a point where they have no choice, but it'll be interesting to see how the government interacts with the Jujutsu council, and make for some cool spin offs to watch how Jujutsu sorcerers in other countries fair. Likewise we see the Jujutsu council thrown into a state of panic trying to contain all the new curses but probably also prepare themselves for the possible reveal of it all.
Ngl a lot of what kenjaku said at the start was confusing, what i took away was his belief that humanity should have / optimize cursed energy and him using Mahito's Idle transfiguration to destroy some barriers, then activated some spell that enhances certain humans with already high affinity with curse energy just not having the brain to fully utilise it , to become something like Itadori? Essentially making both sorcerers and these new awakened sorcerers equal in numbers to fight to push the awareness and need of cursed energy. He also revealed he made a pact with dozens of curses / cursed objects and i guess with the barriers gone, unleashed those curses and 10million other curses into Japan starting the "World of Heian, the golden age of Jujutsu" which ngl is hardcore af and very much world changing.
Second half was crazy, you get to see the immediate effects of the millions of released curses and how they easily start tearing through the public and how even without the government announcing curses existences, their presence is already rapidly spreading.
Seems the spotlight might shift back to Yuuta which i'm really looking forward to, i enjoyed his story a lot in the movie and excited to see what he does since he got bumped to Special Grade.
The ending sequences with the sentences laid out by the Jujutsu council was also fucking crazy and world changing, interesting how they still label Getou as the perpetrator, but deeming Gojou as an accomplice and anyone attempting to free him deemed a criminal is insane, Yaga's punishment actually made me gasp that shit feels way to extreme and Itadori's death sentence being unfrozen and Yuuta being his executioner i kinda expected. Whelp looks like were gonna see Itadori and the crew go on their rouge phase dodging the council and such.
Season 2 itself was fucking amazing, blew my mind with the animation and action, the plot was really interesting and was really such a fun watch that i enjoyed the shit out of, I absolutely loved Touji's story in the plot the most, probably one of my favourite characters in the franchise.
Still it all came at the expense of the wellbeing of hundreds of MAPPA workers which was really sad to hear about. I'm really thankful season 2 is doing so well, but the reality is pretty depressing hearing about the work environment occurring to make the show.
All in all, i enjoyed the shit out of this season and they did a really good job paving the plot for future seasons.
edit: Overall ranking
Story 8/10
Characters / development 8/10
Visuals / Animation 10/10
SFX / OST 8/10
Overall 9/10
Posted by Code0018 | Dec 31, 2023 12:05 AM | 0 comments
September 12th, 2023
Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Review
Anime Relations: Bleach: Sennen Kessen-hen
Having followed only the anime, Thousand-Year Blood War has so far been fucking ballistic and amazing. Definitely a solid arc in both of story telling and character developments, this arc is close to everything i hyped it up to be. The visuals as well have been crazy good and such a selling point as well, studio Pierrot really showing off what a modern day Bleach can look like visually with all the lighting and effects.
Story overall i loved. The concept of the TYBW and the disagreement between Quincies and Soul Reapers boiling up and spilling over again and pretty much effecting and changing every single character in the story is great and imo i thought the execution so far has been good. They've managed to lay out a situation that would involve all the soul society and bring Ichigo back to help them, but this time the force is much greater and deadlier and for the first time we see everyone loose.
I'll admit the story so far has made me hooked for how emotional it was and how action packed it was at various points, eps like ep 7 which is probably my favourite ep from this season, is a good example of when the grim reality of the situation settle's in, and through character expression and thematic visuals like dark grim lighting and rain, you could start to really feel Ichigo's emotions. Watching all the character's go through despair, the people we once thought were never going to loose or die like Byakuya, Kenpachi and heck even Yamamoto get ego checked and get brought back down to earth via a frighteningly strong force.
On the over arching theme of a "war" i will say they have nailed the grim feeling of war, were nothing is fair, people get blasted left and right regardless of who you are or what your status is, one bad move and its over. People getting blown to bites, arms and legs gone, and screaming they all seemed to have nailed in the first invasion and haven't shy away from the details.
I still think the scene of Byakuya's last words to Ichigo as he arrives to a completely wrecked Soul Society were was a great moment that you can fully appreciate with the full given context and mood. Byakuya the monotone and stoic captain, for once removes the mask and speaks his mind about his regrets and his feelings to his comrades, how he failed his duty and asks almost half as a solider and half as a friend, to please save the soul society.
Character development this season was a fucking banger. With the stories plot, i think it was very easy this time to ease in a lot of character development for everyone and i thought they handled it well and went in interesting ways that would change and or developed characters. Kyoraku becoming head caption was fucking lit, i'm really looking forward to what he'll do since i love his type of character, Kenpachi very intense yet passionate training with Unohana that eventually led to Unohana's death and Kenpachi achieving a connection with his Zanpakuto is crazy hype, toshiro still reluctant to give up and continue to train looks interesting, and a lot of other characters that i'm hyped to see what will come of their wake up call.
For Ichigo, man i thought Fullbring arc was good at having Ichigo tough through shit, then this hits. I feel like Ichigo definitely used the experience he gained from Fullbring arc of loosing and feeling helpless, to at least alleviate some of the pain he felt after his fight with Yhwach. His realisation of finding out Tensa Zangetsu couldn't fix wasn't to break down as his only fighting chance had been reduced to 0 so i think that goes to show his mentality had strengthened.
I think the main development point for Ichigo, was 100% finding out his Quincy heritage and the truth of Zangetsu. I thought the Quincy heritage part makes for an interesting plot point, and for a character point it mean Ichigo was able to understand more about himself.
I fucking loved the Zangetsu reveal though, save the best for last and they did. I thought the reveal that the plot point was always in front of us and that it was in development since the beginning was wild. The fact that his Quincy abilities were actually his main fire power while being a soul reaper due to "Zangetsu" suppressing Ichigo's soul reaper power and only letting Ichigo fully unlock all of it once he had accepted Ichigo's decision to walk the path as a soul reaper and ultimately truly being a fateful goodbye, was really nice development for his character.
Visuals were really fucking good i cannot lie. Kubo's art style has changed so much over the years and watching it slowly change and developed has always been amazing to see imo. Studio Pierrot have added what feels like so much more effect with the lighting and VFX that make it feel so much more alive and surreal.
The CGI and effects didn't feel to over the top and imo were perfect. Explosions looked really well done, Getsuga Tensho both looked and sounded so much beefier this season, and yamamoto's bankai was both visually amazing and concept wise bad ass.
Dark lighting and rain to really dig into the grim theme that the soul society had loss on that day as well as some of the most amazing short scenes in one arc of bleach that i could think off, Ichigo's spiritual pressure evaporating the rain, Yamamoto final moment's as he realised his fate, Unohana killer gaze with all the effects and lighting were so fucking visually pleasing.
I'd also like to add how they've most definitely seemed to amped up the gore. Previous arcs there were definitely times were people had their arms and legs cut off, but this season was brutal in how they showed people's head's exploding, humans and hollows getting dematerialised, people exploding, limbs shattering and in general a lot more attention to injury which imo fits the theme of TYBW, there's a war, war's a usually extremely bloody and brutal, add in the superhuman feats of soul reapers and Quincies and the bloodbath i was looking forward too is finally happening.
SFX / OST were so fucking good and nostalgic. The OST was spectacular in how it was remixes of much of the original sound track which imo kept the nostalgia while making it feel new and fresh, Bleach OST to this day is still amazing. SFX were great, i think they hit the nail on the head with a lot of the SFX of various moves like zabimaru's extending sound, flash step being used, or in general explosions and sound of structure being destroyed.
Voice actors once again did an amazing job, i have no complaints, 10 years later the cast are still killing it with the work they do. Each character sounds just as expressive and in tone with how they did 10 years ago. Honestly bravo to the va's.
All in all 8/10 loving the arc, it has it minor downsides like not really showing wtf the Gotei 13 were doing for those 5 days they had to prepare for war besides probably standard protocols, positioning and scrapping as much info on the enemy as possible (which ended up being one thing which was half true). Besides from that i'm really hyped to see where TYBW will go in terms of story and character's since so much of the story's progression will in line development a lot of cast since the plot of TYBW expands to almost every dimension in the show.
edit: Overall ranking UPDATED AS OF 25/01/2024
Story: 8/10
Characters / development: 8/10
Visuals / Animation: 9/10
SFX / OST: 8/10
Overall: 8 9/10
Story overall i loved. The concept of the TYBW and the disagreement between Quincies and Soul Reapers boiling up and spilling over again and pretty much effecting and changing every single character in the story is great and imo i thought the execution so far has been good. They've managed to lay out a situation that would involve all the soul society and bring Ichigo back to help them, but this time the force is much greater and deadlier and for the first time we see everyone loose.
I'll admit the story so far has made me hooked for how emotional it was and how action packed it was at various points, eps like ep 7 which is probably my favourite ep from this season, is a good example of when the grim reality of the situation settle's in, and through character expression and thematic visuals like dark grim lighting and rain, you could start to really feel Ichigo's emotions. Watching all the character's go through despair, the people we once thought were never going to loose or die like Byakuya, Kenpachi and heck even Yamamoto get ego checked and get brought back down to earth via a frighteningly strong force.
On the over arching theme of a "war" i will say they have nailed the grim feeling of war, were nothing is fair, people get blasted left and right regardless of who you are or what your status is, one bad move and its over. People getting blown to bites, arms and legs gone, and screaming they all seemed to have nailed in the first invasion and haven't shy away from the details.
I still think the scene of Byakuya's last words to Ichigo as he arrives to a completely wrecked Soul Society were was a great moment that you can fully appreciate with the full given context and mood. Byakuya the monotone and stoic captain, for once removes the mask and speaks his mind about his regrets and his feelings to his comrades, how he failed his duty and asks almost half as a solider and half as a friend, to please save the soul society.
Character development this season was a fucking banger. With the stories plot, i think it was very easy this time to ease in a lot of character development for everyone and i thought they handled it well and went in interesting ways that would change and or developed characters. Kyoraku becoming head caption was fucking lit, i'm really looking forward to what he'll do since i love his type of character, Kenpachi very intense yet passionate training with Unohana that eventually led to Unohana's death and Kenpachi achieving a connection with his Zanpakuto is crazy hype, toshiro still reluctant to give up and continue to train looks interesting, and a lot of other characters that i'm hyped to see what will come of their wake up call.
For Ichigo, man i thought Fullbring arc was good at having Ichigo tough through shit, then this hits. I feel like Ichigo definitely used the experience he gained from Fullbring arc of loosing and feeling helpless, to at least alleviate some of the pain he felt after his fight with Yhwach. His realisation of finding out Tensa Zangetsu couldn't fix wasn't to break down as his only fighting chance had been reduced to 0 so i think that goes to show his mentality had strengthened.
I think the main development point for Ichigo, was 100% finding out his Quincy heritage and the truth of Zangetsu. I thought the Quincy heritage part makes for an interesting plot point, and for a character point it mean Ichigo was able to understand more about himself.
I fucking loved the Zangetsu reveal though, save the best for last and they did. I thought the reveal that the plot point was always in front of us and that it was in development since the beginning was wild. The fact that his Quincy abilities were actually his main fire power while being a soul reaper due to "Zangetsu" suppressing Ichigo's soul reaper power and only letting Ichigo fully unlock all of it once he had accepted Ichigo's decision to walk the path as a soul reaper and ultimately truly being a fateful goodbye, was really nice development for his character.
Visuals were really fucking good i cannot lie. Kubo's art style has changed so much over the years and watching it slowly change and developed has always been amazing to see imo. Studio Pierrot have added what feels like so much more effect with the lighting and VFX that make it feel so much more alive and surreal.
The CGI and effects didn't feel to over the top and imo were perfect. Explosions looked really well done, Getsuga Tensho both looked and sounded so much beefier this season, and yamamoto's bankai was both visually amazing and concept wise bad ass.
Dark lighting and rain to really dig into the grim theme that the soul society had loss on that day as well as some of the most amazing short scenes in one arc of bleach that i could think off, Ichigo's spiritual pressure evaporating the rain, Yamamoto final moment's as he realised his fate, Unohana killer gaze with all the effects and lighting were so fucking visually pleasing.
I'd also like to add how they've most definitely seemed to amped up the gore. Previous arcs there were definitely times were people had their arms and legs cut off, but this season was brutal in how they showed people's head's exploding, humans and hollows getting dematerialised, people exploding, limbs shattering and in general a lot more attention to injury which imo fits the theme of TYBW, there's a war, war's a usually extremely bloody and brutal, add in the superhuman feats of soul reapers and Quincies and the bloodbath i was looking forward too is finally happening.
SFX / OST were so fucking good and nostalgic. The OST was spectacular in how it was remixes of much of the original sound track which imo kept the nostalgia while making it feel new and fresh, Bleach OST to this day is still amazing. SFX were great, i think they hit the nail on the head with a lot of the SFX of various moves like zabimaru's extending sound, flash step being used, or in general explosions and sound of structure being destroyed.
Voice actors once again did an amazing job, i have no complaints, 10 years later the cast are still killing it with the work they do. Each character sounds just as expressive and in tone with how they did 10 years ago. Honestly bravo to the va's.
All in all 8/10 loving the arc, it has it minor downsides like not really showing wtf the Gotei 13 were doing for those 5 days they had to prepare for war besides probably standard protocols, positioning and scrapping as much info on the enemy as possible (which ended up being one thing which was half true). Besides from that i'm really hyped to see where TYBW will go in terms of story and character's since so much of the story's progression will in line development a lot of cast since the plot of TYBW expands to almost every dimension in the show.
edit: Overall ranking UPDATED AS OF 25/01/2024
Story: 8/10
Characters / development: 8/10
Visuals / Animation: 9/10
SFX / OST: 8/10
Overall: 8 9/10
Posted by Code0018 | Sep 12, 2023 2:58 AM | 1 comments
Private Entry
August 4th, 2023
Vinland Saga Review
Anime Relations: Vinland Saga
Wow i really didn't think i'd enjoy that as much as i did.
Story was hooking, it was a mix of action and drama about a very bloody time with no real good or bad side, or any hero or villains. I thought they played the theme of the Viking era in a ok way that was fitting but didn't completely feel out of touch with reality. The action was very good but a little over the top when thinking to hard about it, i'm not a very educated in this era of history but i kinda doubt there were humans back then who could split people in half vertically head down with a single swing, nor people who could throw 12 foot logs across a river and impale multiple people. But needless to say, if you want a "turn your brain off action filled Viking era show" i'd say it hits the mark well.
Characters i think were the only thing that i found iffy. I'm confident i understood each characters role in the story to some degree and overall i thought they were at the very least enjoyable, however at times the main cast would feel very stagnate in development and feel like the only thing progressing was the world building.
I think Thorfinn as the main character is hard to come to terms to, i understood his placement in the story and his goals and what not, but i just found it really rough to watch him at times as it felt his character would sometimes just stagnate and not change at points, but i also will acknowledge when his character did change at times throughout the story, namely some of his duels with Askeladd, first village we see him raid, Leif meeting him in prison as good points that i found appealing. It's just very easy to see him as nothing but a really angry kid/late teen that just fights since that is the majority of his screen time, and getting his ass kicked by Askeladd. I think i would enjoy him more if he used his anger as a form of tool or motivation like in the beginning, we see him survive on his own hunting rabbits and building fires so he could fight Askeladd, then after that Askeladd just blatantly uses him as a tool which Thorfinn gets his training from only to get his ass kicked by Askeladd showing almost no visual development. Thorfinn's story in the whole plot as well, i feel like you could sum it up in a couple sentences, "boy watch's his warrior father die to pirate leader then joins pirate leader's crew to eventually kill leader as a warrior himself while learning ethnics."
Again i will acknowledge the moments when his character did feel like he was changing, a big obvious one would be the last ep when Askeladd asks what his end goal of life is and watching Thorfinn start from being angry at Askeladd for dying to kinda being confused and maybe even sad at the lost of a figure he spent 10 years with along side.
Personally, Askeladd felt like a great character in a number of ways. He felt like a mix of an antagonist, mastermind, protagonist with how he operated. He was a pirate, an extraordinary fighter, a leader and a counsel for the prince before dying for his home and giving everything up. He could quite literally be seen in the show fighting his own war constantly with his beliefs and background. He was always a mystery that kept changing and only revealed himself at the end and watching him plan out throughout the show was entertaining.
That is why i really liked watching Askeladd in the show as a main character a bit more then Thorfinn. Although i think Askeladd character really started having meaningful changes in the final duel with Thorkell and later being Canute's advisor, it isn't to say his performance before hand was extremely captivating. I'd go on as early as to say the scene of him asking Thor, "would you be our leader" was rememberable as it brought so much attention to his character's mystery and goals.
Prince Canute was also an iffy character for me. What mainly made me scratch my head wasn't his snap in character from timid to confident, it was how he somehow also gained the ability to be able to not wince at a fist swung his way, be able to create plans against the king and have amazing charisma like he was training his entire life for it. I just felt like him suddenly flipping his personality is understandable, but to gain so many traits that would take thorough training, especially when it was shown multiple times the type of upbringing he had, is crazy.
Visuals were very good and consistent. For 24 episodes i thought WIP held up well with the animation, it felt fluent and fights were all round good throughout.
edit: Overall ranking
Story 8/10
Characters / development 7/10
Visuals / Animation 8/10
SFX / OST 8/10
Overall 8/10
Story was hooking, it was a mix of action and drama about a very bloody time with no real good or bad side, or any hero or villains. I thought they played the theme of the Viking era in a ok way that was fitting but didn't completely feel out of touch with reality. The action was very good but a little over the top when thinking to hard about it, i'm not a very educated in this era of history but i kinda doubt there were humans back then who could split people in half vertically head down with a single swing, nor people who could throw 12 foot logs across a river and impale multiple people. But needless to say, if you want a "turn your brain off action filled Viking era show" i'd say it hits the mark well.
Characters i think were the only thing that i found iffy. I'm confident i understood each characters role in the story to some degree and overall i thought they were at the very least enjoyable, however at times the main cast would feel very stagnate in development and feel like the only thing progressing was the world building.
I think Thorfinn as the main character is hard to come to terms to, i understood his placement in the story and his goals and what not, but i just found it really rough to watch him at times as it felt his character would sometimes just stagnate and not change at points, but i also will acknowledge when his character did change at times throughout the story, namely some of his duels with Askeladd, first village we see him raid, Leif meeting him in prison as good points that i found appealing. It's just very easy to see him as nothing but a really angry kid/late teen that just fights since that is the majority of his screen time, and getting his ass kicked by Askeladd. I think i would enjoy him more if he used his anger as a form of tool or motivation like in the beginning, we see him survive on his own hunting rabbits and building fires so he could fight Askeladd, then after that Askeladd just blatantly uses him as a tool which Thorfinn gets his training from only to get his ass kicked by Askeladd showing almost no visual development. Thorfinn's story in the whole plot as well, i feel like you could sum it up in a couple sentences, "boy watch's his warrior father die to pirate leader then joins pirate leader's crew to eventually kill leader as a warrior himself while learning ethnics."
Again i will acknowledge the moments when his character did feel like he was changing, a big obvious one would be the last ep when Askeladd asks what his end goal of life is and watching Thorfinn start from being angry at Askeladd for dying to kinda being confused and maybe even sad at the lost of a figure he spent 10 years with along side.
Personally, Askeladd felt like a great character in a number of ways. He felt like a mix of an antagonist, mastermind, protagonist with how he operated. He was a pirate, an extraordinary fighter, a leader and a counsel for the prince before dying for his home and giving everything up. He could quite literally be seen in the show fighting his own war constantly with his beliefs and background. He was always a mystery that kept changing and only revealed himself at the end and watching him plan out throughout the show was entertaining.
That is why i really liked watching Askeladd in the show as a main character a bit more then Thorfinn. Although i think Askeladd character really started having meaningful changes in the final duel with Thorkell and later being Canute's advisor, it isn't to say his performance before hand was extremely captivating. I'd go on as early as to say the scene of him asking Thor, "would you be our leader" was rememberable as it brought so much attention to his character's mystery and goals.
Prince Canute was also an iffy character for me. What mainly made me scratch my head wasn't his snap in character from timid to confident, it was how he somehow also gained the ability to be able to not wince at a fist swung his way, be able to create plans against the king and have amazing charisma like he was training his entire life for it. I just felt like him suddenly flipping his personality is understandable, but to gain so many traits that would take thorough training, especially when it was shown multiple times the type of upbringing he had, is crazy.
Visuals were very good and consistent. For 24 episodes i thought WIP held up well with the animation, it felt fluent and fights were all round good throughout.
edit: Overall ranking
Story 8/10
Characters / development 7/10
Visuals / Animation 8/10
SFX / OST 8/10
Overall 8/10
Posted by Code0018 | Aug 4, 2023 11:58 PM | 0 comments
August 3rd, 2023
The Garden of Sinners Chapter 7: A Study in Murder - Part 2 Review
Anime Relations: Kara no Kyoukai Movie 7: Satsujin Kousatsu (Go)
Really good movie, a lot of focus on Shiki and Mikiya's characters and relationship, with a lot of deep meaning and exploring to what it means to loose your life when killing another. Applying that to Shiki's story and it made for a really interesting soul search for the character that was shown incredibly well.
I think some of my favourite parts about this movie, was how they took the ideas of "when you kill a person, you not only kill a person but yourself as well." and applied it to Shiki in a way that makes sense. I'll admit it wasn't until now that i clocked that Shiki hasn't killed anyone, SHIKI has. SHIKI was the "person" that killed those people 4 years ago, and there can be so much argument whether or not Shiki can also be guilty for that as technically it's her body except she had no control over it at the time, or so i think. Overall i really liked how they made these themes relevant to the story and in such a fitty way to the characters story.
This movie to me felt incredibly character driven for Shiki and Mikiya, it felt like a movie designed to heavily develop both them individually as characters but their relationship with one another. Firstly it displayed both their character's personalities well, they show Mikiya trying to shoulder Shiki's burden of the murders 4 years ago and trying so hard to solve who the real murderer of the new cases are and give Shiki an alibi. They really showed the kind person he was when he faced Shirazumi head on, i think that convo cements a lot of Mikiya's character. Shiki character we see her kept to herself a lot of the time and this time no less. She doesn't tell anyone that she's actually trying to find the murderer by herself which creates that confusion to if she is the murderer or not early on, then taking on Shirazumi head on by herself. We see her very assertive with her choices except nearer the end where she wavers and does change a bit.
Second we see their relationship which in this movie, which went through and incredible emotional roller coaster. Mikiya fighting tooth and nail to prove Shiki's innocence carried with his feelings for her while pleading Shiki's doesn't kill, while Shiki tries to solve the case herself for her own closure while leaving Mikiya in the dark. They come to a messy disagreement almost like a couples quarrel before they come to realisations about themselves and each other and make it up to one another. In Shiki's case they really focused on her soul searching and self reflecting at the end which was pretty interesting to watch, her monologues i felt were interesting and meaningful with how much character growth she was begging to undergo.
One question i have is, did Shirazumi purposely cut shallow when stabbing Mikiya? Shirazumi was set on wanting Mikiya either dead so Shiki would turn into the homicidal manic he wanted or into a homicidal manic himself, but i'm guessing the sane part of Shirazumi that was left took control and purposely cut shallow to avoid killing Mikiya? Or something else?
By all means i thought the movie was generally well done, but some very minor nit-picks i had about the film that didn't sit with me were:
edit: Overall ranking
Story 8/10
Characters / development 9/10
Visuals / Animation 8/10
SFX / OST 9/10
Overall 8/10
I think some of my favourite parts about this movie, was how they took the ideas of "when you kill a person, you not only kill a person but yourself as well." and applied it to Shiki in a way that makes sense. I'll admit it wasn't until now that i clocked that Shiki hasn't killed anyone, SHIKI has. SHIKI was the "person" that killed those people 4 years ago, and there can be so much argument whether or not Shiki can also be guilty for that as technically it's her body except she had no control over it at the time, or so i think. Overall i really liked how they made these themes relevant to the story and in such a fitty way to the characters story.
This movie to me felt incredibly character driven for Shiki and Mikiya, it felt like a movie designed to heavily develop both them individually as characters but their relationship with one another. Firstly it displayed both their character's personalities well, they show Mikiya trying to shoulder Shiki's burden of the murders 4 years ago and trying so hard to solve who the real murderer of the new cases are and give Shiki an alibi. They really showed the kind person he was when he faced Shirazumi head on, i think that convo cements a lot of Mikiya's character. Shiki character we see her kept to herself a lot of the time and this time no less. She doesn't tell anyone that she's actually trying to find the murderer by herself which creates that confusion to if she is the murderer or not early on, then taking on Shirazumi head on by herself. We see her very assertive with her choices except nearer the end where she wavers and does change a bit.
Second we see their relationship which in this movie, which went through and incredible emotional roller coaster. Mikiya fighting tooth and nail to prove Shiki's innocence carried with his feelings for her while pleading Shiki's doesn't kill, while Shiki tries to solve the case herself for her own closure while leaving Mikiya in the dark. They come to a messy disagreement almost like a couples quarrel before they come to realisations about themselves and each other and make it up to one another. In Shiki's case they really focused on her soul searching and self reflecting at the end which was pretty interesting to watch, her monologues i felt were interesting and meaningful with how much character growth she was begging to undergo.
One question i have is, did Shirazumi purposely cut shallow when stabbing Mikiya? Shirazumi was set on wanting Mikiya either dead so Shiki would turn into the homicidal manic he wanted or into a homicidal manic himself, but i'm guessing the sane part of Shirazumi that was left took control and purposely cut shallow to avoid killing Mikiya? Or something else?
By all means i thought the movie was generally well done, but some very minor nit-picks i had about the film that didn't sit with me were:
edit: Overall ranking
Story 8/10
Characters / development 9/10
Visuals / Animation 8/10
SFX / OST 9/10
Overall 8/10
Posted by Code0018 | Aug 3, 2023 9:31 PM | 1 comments