October 27th, 2012
Anime shows I'd recommend to everyone - Part 2
Anime Relations: Clannad, Clannad: Mou Hitotsu no Sekai, Tomoyo-hen, Clannad: After Story, Clannad: After Story - Mou Hitotsu no Sekai, Kyou-hen
Part 1
Clannad
47 episodes, 2 specials
Drama, romance, slice of life
Kyoto Animation
Second out is this piece of absolute brilliance. Clannad, notably its second season, After Story, is not without reason located among the highest ranked and most critically acclaimed anime series of all time. Following the adventures of tired-of-life high school student Tomoya as he makes friends with several girls at his school, discovers love and eventually joins the rank of the working men after graduating, it does not sound immediately promising as a series, adapting at least for its first season a more typical character arc-oriented storyline.
It ends its first season with a happy-ever-after ending that would leave tears of joy in even the most hard-hearted of people, which itself is notable simply for its evocativeness, however does not stop there, and proceeds into a second season that in each and every imaginable way proves that happy ever after is neither happy nor ever after. Without spoling too much, let me just say this: You will cry. You will cry a lot. Its excellent character portrayal helps make it one of the most gripping and tragic fictional creations out there, and its storytelling is top-notch save the oft-confusing supernatural themes and analogies its original creator, Key, has a penchant for.
It is the third Key visual novel made into an anime by Kyoto Animation, after Air and Kanon, both very excellent shows in their own right, also very sad. Like those two, production values are exellent throughout the series, with aesthetics both in the animation and music departments being of top quality. The animation is smooth and the art is flawless, while the music is the perfect tone of melancholy and sad, with the appropriate contrasts where needed. Its voice acting is also borrowed from the top shelf, the cast performing their best and more throughout the show.
So aside a somewhat contrived plot device in the form of some confusing and ill-explained supernatural themes, there's hardly anything for me to criticize the series for. A slightly slow start perhaps (its second season is definitely better than its first season), but overall I feel the pacing and plot moved well and smooth. This is a show I constantly recommend to people and I will definitely continue to do so.
As is true with most visual novels, you could in the Clannad game choose to pursue love with any one of the heroines. There are two animated specials that explores such a 'what if' scenario regarding two of the girls appearing in theseries. In particular the Tomoya Chapter special is very good, and I found myself crying towards its end.
Clannad
47 episodes, 2 specials
Drama, romance, slice of life
Kyoto Animation
Second out is this piece of absolute brilliance. Clannad, notably its second season, After Story, is not without reason located among the highest ranked and most critically acclaimed anime series of all time. Following the adventures of tired-of-life high school student Tomoya as he makes friends with several girls at his school, discovers love and eventually joins the rank of the working men after graduating, it does not sound immediately promising as a series, adapting at least for its first season a more typical character arc-oriented storyline.
It ends its first season with a happy-ever-after ending that would leave tears of joy in even the most hard-hearted of people, which itself is notable simply for its evocativeness, however does not stop there, and proceeds into a second season that in each and every imaginable way proves that happy ever after is neither happy nor ever after. Without spoling too much, let me just say this: You will cry. You will cry a lot. Its excellent character portrayal helps make it one of the most gripping and tragic fictional creations out there, and its storytelling is top-notch save the oft-confusing supernatural themes and analogies its original creator, Key, has a penchant for.
It is the third Key visual novel made into an anime by Kyoto Animation, after Air and Kanon, both very excellent shows in their own right, also very sad. Like those two, production values are exellent throughout the series, with aesthetics both in the animation and music departments being of top quality. The animation is smooth and the art is flawless, while the music is the perfect tone of melancholy and sad, with the appropriate contrasts where needed. Its voice acting is also borrowed from the top shelf, the cast performing their best and more throughout the show.
So aside a somewhat contrived plot device in the form of some confusing and ill-explained supernatural themes, there's hardly anything for me to criticize the series for. A slightly slow start perhaps (its second season is definitely better than its first season), but overall I feel the pacing and plot moved well and smooth. This is a show I constantly recommend to people and I will definitely continue to do so.
As is true with most visual novels, you could in the Clannad game choose to pursue love with any one of the heroines. There are two animated specials that explores such a 'what if' scenario regarding two of the girls appearing in theseries. In particular the Tomoya Chapter special is very good, and I found myself crying towards its end.
Posted by TheLlama | Oct 27, 2012 1:40 PM | 2 comments
October 26th, 2012
Anime shows I'd recommend to everyone - Part 1
Anime Relations: NHK ni Youkoso!
So having racked up tons of experience watching anime, I've decided to compile a list of anime seires I find outstanding. This is not really a top x of y list, and there's no dividing into categories or otherwise ranking one above another. There will be little objectivity. I find these shows to be the best. I love them. I want you to watch them and love them too. Most of them have more or less objective reviews made by me, found here.
Welcome to the NHK!
26 episodes
Comedy, slice of life, dranma, romance, psychological
Gonzo
There are those dramas that forces tears at every turn and twist, those that present deep emotional conflicts in the characters without affecting the viewer noticeably, and then there's the kind of drama that NHK is. The one that simply leaves you thinking, leaves you down, with a poignant melancholy that often lasts until long after you are done watching the show, or an episode of it.
Satou Tatsuhiro is a young man of 20-something years of age, who is what the Japanese has termed a hikikomori - a person who for some reason or another has decided to shut themselves in and retreat from the world, rarely if ever going outside and/or meeting other people. In the case of Tatsuhiro, he was a content (albeit bored) graduate from a high school, ready to take on the world (or at least head to univeristy) when one day the idea was suddenly planted within him that everyone is laughing at him. You do the math, since then he's shut into his room, going out only at night to shop for groceries. What's more, he is certain that this is all a plot, a conspiracy, by an organization called the Nihon Hikikomori Kyoukai (the Japanese Hikokomori Society), whose ultimate goal is the creation of hikikomori.
One day however he happens to meet a girl called Misaki Nakahara, who has made it a personal goal of hers to cure hikikomori, and she selects Tatsuhiro as the first participant of her project, willingly or unwillingly so. Before long the two start making other acquanintances, and get to know them and the struggles they face - for every person in this series have got their emotional baggage, something in their past or present that haunts them and is unwilling to let go - or maybe they are unable to let go of it.
NHK! handles very many social issues through these characters, and does so excellently. The hikikomori lifestyle is at the center, but besides that it also deals with themes such as rejection, abuse, loneliness, self-loathing, or simply escaping from having to deal with reality. The sensation of melancholy and most notably existential ennui sticks to the viewer and has a hard time letting go - likely due to the series' wide array of themes, making it certain that at least one or two hits home with the viewer.
Naturally dealing with such themes can get a bit heavy-handed, but the series' writers show their skill in dealing with them, not in the least because the series also retains a sense of lightheartedness between all the dramatic incidents, without it detrimenting said drama in any way - it is a fine thread one must balance on, and balanced well, it is (Yoda, I am). Such examples include the recurring appearance of the magical girl archetype Pururin, its forays into the world of eroge and MMORPG, or a playful snowball fight-gone wrong.
Its soundtrack also follows suit, with its fair share of bright themes, melancholy themes and those themes that just make you feel empty inside. It has a strong suit of op/ed themes, and Modokashii Sekai no Ue de in particular quickly wrote itself onto my top list of anime themes ever. The voice acting is also strong and Yui Makino especially delieverd an award-winning performance as Misaki, while also performing said favorited ending theme. Now, while the soundtrack is aboslutely fantastic, the animation quality is so-so, not being bad but not being good. Fortunately that does not detract very much, as it does its required job in the various departments of emotion ad character design.
All in all, Welcome to the NHK! is a series that leaves the viewer with a lot of impressions, fearlessly exploring deep societal issues and doing a great jobn at it. I myself found myself in a state of existential pondering and melancholy for several days afer watching this series, and to me, a show that evokes such a feeling is a very, very, very good show.
Welcome to the NHK!
26 episodes
Comedy, slice of life, dranma, romance, psychological
Gonzo
There are those dramas that forces tears at every turn and twist, those that present deep emotional conflicts in the characters without affecting the viewer noticeably, and then there's the kind of drama that NHK is. The one that simply leaves you thinking, leaves you down, with a poignant melancholy that often lasts until long after you are done watching the show, or an episode of it.
Satou Tatsuhiro is a young man of 20-something years of age, who is what the Japanese has termed a hikikomori - a person who for some reason or another has decided to shut themselves in and retreat from the world, rarely if ever going outside and/or meeting other people. In the case of Tatsuhiro, he was a content (albeit bored) graduate from a high school, ready to take on the world (or at least head to univeristy) when one day the idea was suddenly planted within him that everyone is laughing at him. You do the math, since then he's shut into his room, going out only at night to shop for groceries. What's more, he is certain that this is all a plot, a conspiracy, by an organization called the Nihon Hikikomori Kyoukai (the Japanese Hikokomori Society), whose ultimate goal is the creation of hikikomori.
One day however he happens to meet a girl called Misaki Nakahara, who has made it a personal goal of hers to cure hikikomori, and she selects Tatsuhiro as the first participant of her project, willingly or unwillingly so. Before long the two start making other acquanintances, and get to know them and the struggles they face - for every person in this series have got their emotional baggage, something in their past or present that haunts them and is unwilling to let go - or maybe they are unable to let go of it.
NHK! handles very many social issues through these characters, and does so excellently. The hikikomori lifestyle is at the center, but besides that it also deals with themes such as rejection, abuse, loneliness, self-loathing, or simply escaping from having to deal with reality. The sensation of melancholy and most notably existential ennui sticks to the viewer and has a hard time letting go - likely due to the series' wide array of themes, making it certain that at least one or two hits home with the viewer.
Naturally dealing with such themes can get a bit heavy-handed, but the series' writers show their skill in dealing with them, not in the least because the series also retains a sense of lightheartedness between all the dramatic incidents, without it detrimenting said drama in any way - it is a fine thread one must balance on, and balanced well, it is (Yoda, I am). Such examples include the recurring appearance of the magical girl archetype Pururin, its forays into the world of eroge and MMORPG, or a playful snowball fight-gone wrong.
Its soundtrack also follows suit, with its fair share of bright themes, melancholy themes and those themes that just make you feel empty inside. It has a strong suit of op/ed themes, and Modokashii Sekai no Ue de in particular quickly wrote itself onto my top list of anime themes ever. The voice acting is also strong and Yui Makino especially delieverd an award-winning performance as Misaki, while also performing said favorited ending theme. Now, while the soundtrack is aboslutely fantastic, the animation quality is so-so, not being bad but not being good. Fortunately that does not detract very much, as it does its required job in the various departments of emotion ad character design.
All in all, Welcome to the NHK! is a series that leaves the viewer with a lot of impressions, fearlessly exploring deep societal issues and doing a great jobn at it. I myself found myself in a state of existential pondering and melancholy for several days afer watching this series, and to me, a show that evokes such a feeling is a very, very, very good show.
Posted by TheLlama | Oct 26, 2012 4:35 PM | 0 comments
August 3rd, 2012
Review - Welcome to the NHK!
Anime Relations: NHK ni Youkoso!
Re-posting this review here for the purpose of sharing with friends off-site.
Welcome to the NHK!
Every now and then you come across those shows that just strike you with a sort of emotional response you rarely get elsewhere. It's not a directly tragic response, it's more a gentle, melancholy feeling - a grippingway of portraying reality for what it is - not a happy optimistic place, not a place where you're guaranteed a bright future, but a harsh place that some people find so hard to deal with they shut themselves away from it instead.
The main character of NHK!, Satou Tatsuhiro, is one such person. What the Japanese call a hikikomori (from wikipedia: "h. is a Japanese term to refer to the phenomenon of reclusive adolescents or young adults who withdraw from social life, often seeking extreme degrees of isolation and confinement."). He dropped out from college, has no job, and he spends his days locked up in his apartment living off his parents' allowance, only going out at night to buy food and goods from a local convenience store. On top of this, he has a firm belief that everything is a conspiracy, right down to why he is a hikikomori (he believes that an organization known as the Japan Hikikomori Organziation, or the Nihon Hikikomori Kyokai (the titular NHK) exists and has the one and only goal to produce more hikikomori).
Then one day he meets a girl, who happens to know quite a lot about him. A variety of circumstances eventually leads to him being a part of a 'project' this girl has devised; one aimed at curing the hikikomori condition. Now, the "troubled boy meets girl and everything slowly improves, interspersed with some drama" story line isn't exactly what you would associate with something good or brilliant right off the bat, but the means by which NHK! handles it is anything but mediocre.
Chiefly, for me, this reason lay in its thematics, the way it handled the various issues it crosses. While it mainly deals with the issues of a shut-in lifestyle, it touches upon many other issues: Dealing with an unfulfilling life, ambitions that never came true, how to face life and its ramifications, wanting to end one's life - and many more in that line, all of which can be cooked down to one simple thing: Reality kind of sucks. It's a harsh, often unforgiving place where you don't get anything on a silver platter. Happiness and success are both goals that lie far away, in high-reaching places, and it's hard to get there. NHK! manages to portray this poignant realization of reality with evocative storytelling and brilliant charaters.
Dealing with such heavy themes, of course, can become quite a lot if that is the sole focus of the series. Thankfully its makers had the sense and wits to insert comedic relief, and at very appropriate moments, even. It manages to retain a slightly light-hearted tone without ruining the concept or derivating from the thematics, and that is a very big accomplishment in and of itself. Not only that, but the comedy is consistently of high quality. There's no reliance on stupid fan service, moe antics or predictable escapades from stupid characters who's only there to serve as comedic relief.
Indeed, every character you see in NHK! has a very well-placed purpose within the plot, they are of high quality and are enjoyable to watch. Satou is a well-balanced character; he's a college dropout and a hikikomori, but he is not a stupid idiot who hangs around for comedic relief nor is he shallow. The scenes where he reflects on his time in high school with his senpai, Hitomi Kashiwa (who also believes everything is a conspiracy), are very nostalgic in their nature and points to a character who knows that his life is askew, who knows that he's on a bad road, who wants to turn, but it's hard. Life is unforgiving and once you're off track it is not easy to get back.
The rest of the cast are just as good as characters; the good-hearted yet mysterious Misaki who wants to help Satou recover from his hikikomori ways, his galge-obsessed neighbor Yamazaki, his old high school senpai who's obsessed with conspiracies, and then some - all of them play a very important part in Satou's story, but never once are you left with the feeling that they are not good characters in their own right. Watching them go through the miseries of their existences, reacting to and developing from all that; it is very, very evocative.
Every one of these characters has a grim story to tell, something that bogs them down and makes their lives hard. But never, even once, do their troubles, their drama, feel forced or unnatural. It is all extremely moving, it feels right and it is handled very skillfully, as we progress through themes such as abuse, family troubles, reality escape, failed ambitions, obsessive thoughts, depression, self-loathing, loneliness and even suicide; all handled with immaculate care and presented quite brilliantly.
The series' soundtrack is absolutely impeccable; it does the job that a soundtrack is supposed to do perfectly; bringing life to the emotions of the series. The dolorousity, the loneliness, the fun and comedy; NHK! has the right songs for the right places, and also features a drove of insert songs, something rarely seen in anime - yet almost always very effectual, as is indeed the case with this series. I also greatly enjoyed the series' opening and ending themes; Modokashii Sekai no Ue de by Yui Makino has written itself onto my absolute top list of anime themes.
The animation quality is overall solid but it does not quite live up to the standard of the rest of the series. It does have a rich colour palette and its background work is generally solid, but at times the character designs feel rather askew which does detract a little bit.
All in all though, this is the best show I have watched in a very, very long time. The quality of its story, characters and its thematics was fantastic, and the lasting sensation of melancholy the series brought forth in me is something I have not experienced in other fiction to date. Well done!
Welcome to the NHK!
Every now and then you come across those shows that just strike you with a sort of emotional response you rarely get elsewhere. It's not a directly tragic response, it's more a gentle, melancholy feeling - a grippingway of portraying reality for what it is - not a happy optimistic place, not a place where you're guaranteed a bright future, but a harsh place that some people find so hard to deal with they shut themselves away from it instead.
The main character of NHK!, Satou Tatsuhiro, is one such person. What the Japanese call a hikikomori (from wikipedia: "h. is a Japanese term to refer to the phenomenon of reclusive adolescents or young adults who withdraw from social life, often seeking extreme degrees of isolation and confinement."). He dropped out from college, has no job, and he spends his days locked up in his apartment living off his parents' allowance, only going out at night to buy food and goods from a local convenience store. On top of this, he has a firm belief that everything is a conspiracy, right down to why he is a hikikomori (he believes that an organization known as the Japan Hikikomori Organziation, or the Nihon Hikikomori Kyokai (the titular NHK) exists and has the one and only goal to produce more hikikomori).
Then one day he meets a girl, who happens to know quite a lot about him. A variety of circumstances eventually leads to him being a part of a 'project' this girl has devised; one aimed at curing the hikikomori condition. Now, the "troubled boy meets girl and everything slowly improves, interspersed with some drama" story line isn't exactly what you would associate with something good or brilliant right off the bat, but the means by which NHK! handles it is anything but mediocre.
Chiefly, for me, this reason lay in its thematics, the way it handled the various issues it crosses. While it mainly deals with the issues of a shut-in lifestyle, it touches upon many other issues: Dealing with an unfulfilling life, ambitions that never came true, how to face life and its ramifications, wanting to end one's life - and many more in that line, all of which can be cooked down to one simple thing: Reality kind of sucks. It's a harsh, often unforgiving place where you don't get anything on a silver platter. Happiness and success are both goals that lie far away, in high-reaching places, and it's hard to get there. NHK! manages to portray this poignant realization of reality with evocative storytelling and brilliant charaters.
Dealing with such heavy themes, of course, can become quite a lot if that is the sole focus of the series. Thankfully its makers had the sense and wits to insert comedic relief, and at very appropriate moments, even. It manages to retain a slightly light-hearted tone without ruining the concept or derivating from the thematics, and that is a very big accomplishment in and of itself. Not only that, but the comedy is consistently of high quality. There's no reliance on stupid fan service, moe antics or predictable escapades from stupid characters who's only there to serve as comedic relief.
Indeed, every character you see in NHK! has a very well-placed purpose within the plot, they are of high quality and are enjoyable to watch. Satou is a well-balanced character; he's a college dropout and a hikikomori, but he is not a stupid idiot who hangs around for comedic relief nor is he shallow. The scenes where he reflects on his time in high school with his senpai, Hitomi Kashiwa (who also believes everything is a conspiracy), are very nostalgic in their nature and points to a character who knows that his life is askew, who knows that he's on a bad road, who wants to turn, but it's hard. Life is unforgiving and once you're off track it is not easy to get back.
The rest of the cast are just as good as characters; the good-hearted yet mysterious Misaki who wants to help Satou recover from his hikikomori ways, his galge-obsessed neighbor Yamazaki, his old high school senpai who's obsessed with conspiracies, and then some - all of them play a very important part in Satou's story, but never once are you left with the feeling that they are not good characters in their own right. Watching them go through the miseries of their existences, reacting to and developing from all that; it is very, very evocative.
Every one of these characters has a grim story to tell, something that bogs them down and makes their lives hard. But never, even once, do their troubles, their drama, feel forced or unnatural. It is all extremely moving, it feels right and it is handled very skillfully, as we progress through themes such as abuse, family troubles, reality escape, failed ambitions, obsessive thoughts, depression, self-loathing, loneliness and even suicide; all handled with immaculate care and presented quite brilliantly.
The series' soundtrack is absolutely impeccable; it does the job that a soundtrack is supposed to do perfectly; bringing life to the emotions of the series. The dolorousity, the loneliness, the fun and comedy; NHK! has the right songs for the right places, and also features a drove of insert songs, something rarely seen in anime - yet almost always very effectual, as is indeed the case with this series. I also greatly enjoyed the series' opening and ending themes; Modokashii Sekai no Ue de by Yui Makino has written itself onto my absolute top list of anime themes.
The animation quality is overall solid but it does not quite live up to the standard of the rest of the series. It does have a rich colour palette and its background work is generally solid, but at times the character designs feel rather askew which does detract a little bit.
All in all though, this is the best show I have watched in a very, very long time. The quality of its story, characters and its thematics was fantastic, and the lasting sensation of melancholy the series brought forth in me is something I have not experienced in other fiction to date. Well done!
Posted by TheLlama | Aug 3, 2012 2:50 PM | 1 comments
November 19th, 2008
2 000 votes now =D
My reviews just hit the 2 000 helpful vote milestone, something that makes me very proud as a reviewer =D Thanks to everyone, and I hope you will continue to enjoy my reviews!
Posted by TheLlama | Nov 19, 2008 12:01 PM | 2 comments
October 1st, 2008
How my ratings work! (preview)
Are your feets sore? Does the near-impossibility of opening a new roll of toilet paper annoy you? Do you wonder how my anime ratings work? If yes to the latter, read on!
Basically, I'm working on a list which explains how and why I rate anime series. It's still a work in progress, but I'll share some of it with you.
Note that in my list I weigh enjoyment much more than the actual quality of the anime, so what those ratings show is 90% how much I enjoyed an anime. Or something around that. It's a different story when it comes to review scores, which is what I'll describe in the list.
You should also note that I'm only describing scores from 6 through 10, because anything lower than 6 is not worth spending time on. In this blog I'll show you descriptions of what is needed for 10 ratings only, divided into the categories Story, Art/Animation, Sound(track) & Voice Acting, Character
Story:
- It should be very suspenseful, and the plot should bring new and fresh aspects in as often as possible
- It should be well-written and intriguing
- It should have a very good flow, with the right choice of pacing
- It should have the correct mood at the correct times (adrenaline-pupming, sad, comedic, serious when needed)
- It should have a decent complexity, yet be understandable
- It should have a concluding ending
- It should be original
- It should have at least one memorable scene
Art/animation:
- Very vivid color palette
- Very good ligthing (and shading) effects
- Fluid and realistic movements
- Special effects must be well done - If there's CGI it must be well integrated and not look too out of place
- Background detail must be very high (pretty much objects like furniture and misc. objects)
- Environmental
detail
must also be good (cityscapes, nature)
- Character designs must be of good quality (detail to faces, variable outfits and the like)
Sound(track) & Voice Acting:
- It should have a moody soudntrack - it should fit with the series' tone, the current episode's/scene's tone
- The soundtrack's background music should contain several songs which are so good that I want to listen them outside of watching the show
- The OP/ED themes should be good enough for me to listen to them a lot outside the show after first hearing them
- Sound effects should be highly realistic
- The voice actors should portray emotions so well it makes me believe the characters are experiencing them
- The characters' voices should fit their age and personality (unless for comedic effects, if appropriate)
Characters:
- You should have a decent insight into the psyche of the charcaters, at least what it is that drives them
- Characters should not be stereotypical
- The characters must be protrayed in a realistic manner, as should their relationships
- They should have a good backstory, which scope depends on the size of the anime
- The characters should captivate me - I should be able to feel sad with them, be happy when they are, and wish for them to fulfill their dreams
- Sufficient amounts of character development
should be present
- Note that a series doesn't have to fulfill every requirement to achieve a selected score
- Overall ratings are based on an average from the ratings Story, Animation, Sound and Character (with Enjoyment counting as a "tie breaker" if the average is a .5 score)
Now, I'm looking for a bit of feedback, which is why I'm doing this preview. Is there anything you feel I could've included? Or excluded? Is things too complicated or not?
*Full list will be added to profile soon*
Basically, I'm working on a list which explains how and why I rate anime series. It's still a work in progress, but I'll share some of it with you.
Note that in my list I weigh enjoyment much more than the actual quality of the anime, so what those ratings show is 90% how much I enjoyed an anime. Or something around that. It's a different story when it comes to review scores, which is what I'll describe in the list.
You should also note that I'm only describing scores from 6 through 10, because anything lower than 6 is not worth spending time on. In this blog I'll show you descriptions of what is needed for 10 ratings only, divided into the categories Story, Art/Animation, Sound(track) & Voice Acting, Character
Story:
- It should be very suspenseful, and the plot should bring new and fresh aspects in as often as possible
- It should be well-written and intriguing
- It should have a very good flow, with the right choice of pacing
- It should have the correct mood at the correct times (adrenaline-pupming, sad, comedic, serious when needed)
- It should have a decent complexity, yet be understandable
- It should have a concluding ending
- It should be original
- It should have at least one memorable scene
Art/animation:
- Very vivid color palette
- Very good ligthing (and shading) effects
- Fluid and realistic movements
- Special effects must be well done - If there's CGI it must be well integrated and not look too out of place
- Background detail must be very high (pretty much objects like furniture and misc. objects)
- Environmental
detail
must also be good (cityscapes, nature)
- Character designs must be of good quality (detail to faces, variable outfits and the like)
Sound(track) & Voice Acting:
- It should have a moody soudntrack - it should fit with the series' tone, the current episode's/scene's tone
- The soundtrack's background music should contain several songs which are so good that I want to listen them outside of watching the show
- The OP/ED themes should be good enough for me to listen to them a lot outside the show after first hearing them
- Sound effects should be highly realistic
- The voice actors should portray emotions so well it makes me believe the characters are experiencing them
- The characters' voices should fit their age and personality (unless for comedic effects, if appropriate)
Characters:
- You should have a decent insight into the psyche of the charcaters, at least what it is that drives them
- Characters should not be stereotypical
- The characters must be protrayed in a realistic manner, as should their relationships
- They should have a good backstory, which scope depends on the size of the anime
- The characters should captivate me - I should be able to feel sad with them, be happy when they are, and wish for them to fulfill their dreams
- Sufficient amounts of character development
should be present
- Note that a series doesn't have to fulfill every requirement to achieve a selected score
- Overall ratings are based on an average from the ratings Story, Animation, Sound and Character (with Enjoyment counting as a "tie breaker" if the average is a .5 score)
Now, I'm looking for a bit of feedback, which is why I'm doing this preview. Is there anything you feel I could've included? Or excluded? Is things too complicated or not?
*Full list will be added to profile soon*
Posted by TheLlama | Oct 1, 2008 4:17 PM | 9 comments
August 30th, 2008
Triple-O!
So, the number of helpful votes on my reviews has finally passed 1 000 :D This is something I'm really happy about, not to mention proud of.
Posted by TheLlama | Aug 30, 2008 3:10 AM | 4 comments