| Gunslinger Girl Season One 7/10 I liked the animation and parts of episodes. Clamp in Wonderland Clamp in Wonderland 2 Good for not recognzing some of the clamp shows. |
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| Genshiken 2- 7/10 I prefer season one. However, this season didn't disappoint. It seemed a little more focused on the characters and their relationships with one another. There were some light and funny moments. The ending was quite well done- it wasn't rushed and I was satisfied with it. Overall, it was enjoyable though not awesome. |
| One Piece (2000) First movie 7/10 No sanji insight and series is much better :-D |
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| Full Metal Panic - 7/10 Some of my friends told me that it's a good comedy/high school life Anime. But gah, the seriousness battle at the end of the series killed me. I'm not really a fan of Mecha Anime, so yeah -- I hope Fumoffu will fill me some comedy scenes. But so far it did a good job. ;3 |
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| The End of Evangelion movie. 8/10. Wow. Another series where I basically had to read the wiki-articles due to so much shit happening at the same time (also I pretty much had to since I want to confirm about what I was thinking). Do I concentrate on the subtitles? Or the overwhelming amount of STUFF happening on the screen? A few minutes after the beginning, and I had a feeling that this will be similar to TTGL (yea TTGL came after, still, similar) except it's suppose to make some "sense" since there was so much goddamn explanations which were SO VERY FAST described on screen. Really, I think a lot of stuff weren't actually emphasized at all. Only by reading like a collective article on the entire structure of the story outline did I get a more complete sense of say, why the damn moon arose from an impossible area (I know there was something under Japan, but my memory sucks, and it's apparently a GIANT BLACK MOON). Anyways, I actually liked this ending, way more than that 2 WTF episodes at the end of the series. The only reason I actually gave both the series and the movie 8s was because, really, it was kind of hard to enjoy a series where everyone and their mothers had some psychological issue or trauma. It didn't help that Shinji and Asuka were complete dicks or bitches, at certain episodes. I mean, sure, yeah, they were mistreated or lacked any treatments at all from their parents, but really now? |
| Ahahahaha, I'm glad I'm not the only one who didn't even begin to understand End of Eva. Itazura na Kiss: 9/10 This show is underrated in my opinion. It has extremely old-school art for a show made in 2008, but I guess it was to be closer to the manga. Anyway, although it can definitely be considered extremely average in some respects, I personally thought the story was good. We get to see the entire relationship, which is something I really enjoy. Lots of happy feelings. Each episode kept me interested, never bored, which can be rare with shows like this. It was also interesting to see not just a high school romance, but a real relationship that went through college and after. YAY KOTOKO AND IRIE!! :) |
| Genshiken OVA- 7/10 Although it was short (3 eps), they were all really good especially the second. It's a direct continuation where season 1 left off, but watching it after completing season 2 doesn't make much of a difference. |
| Samurai Champloo - 8.5/10 (but for my anime list, rounded up to a 9) I'm so glad I finally got around to finishing this awesome series. A great balance of slick action scenes, serious drama, and good, LOL-worthy comedy. It is rather episodic, so for a while, it's hard to really grasp where the plot is going. Looking back at it overall, though, you can see just how far Mugen, Jin, and Fuu have gone and how much they've changed. The ending was a great thrill, full of suspense, action, drama, and character development, and finally, a tear-jerker. It was very bittersweet, and I wanted to cry ;_; All in all, a very strong anime and highly recommended. |
| Texhnolyze 7/10 The first episode was REALLY slow, but from then onwards I really liked the show. The atmosphere, setting and plot were good and I marathoned through it. However the last few episodes weren't too great imo, they tried to hard to be deep and I somehow totally lost my connection to the story and characters during these last episodes. Made me downgrade it from a strong 8 to a 7. |
| I probably regret this post by now. |
| Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou: 8/10 I liked it. Story was pretty original and the comedy that I actually laughed from wasn't forced. Characters were alright, I thought they where kind of shallow but that doesn't matter since it's an ecchi anime. Probably the only ecchi I've liked in a while. Going through what's available of the specials now. |
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| chaos head 7/10 pretty nice anime, a bit confusing though. Characters arent very well developed but still a great series. |
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| Durarara 9/10 Amazing. If you want something different than the usual, you need to watch it. |
| Rozen Maiden Season 1 8/10 Great series, animation is pretty decent and the bgm is superb. |
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| Im halfway through Berserk. Im going to say 6-7/10. It's a good series, but it doesn't leave me exceptionally excited to see the next episode. It seems overrated to me so far. |
| Gun X Sword: 7/10 Actually this was mostly very generic, but I expected it to be. Still the major part of the series was a 6 at best, all up until about episode 20. The last episodes though were surprisingly good, and besides from the most generic endfight, not too foreseeable. I especially liked the Claw and how he kinda stayed "good" until the end. I hate it when animes or mangas make cool and kinda reasonable bad guys flip in the last minute just so they have an excuse to kill them off without any question of morality. His last words being "All I got is love for you" before mercilessly being chopped down was quite great imo. Same goes for the end of Michael and Vaselina. Just drop a stone on them ^^. Somehow hilarious and awesome ending. I hesitated if the last 5-6 episodes were enough to upgrade the score to 7, but I decided that they were. |
| I probably regret this post by now. |
| Tactics 6/10 started off ok but got very dull very fast and the first 15 or so episodes were not interesting and followed very similar structures. but when the main plot finally gets going it gets better and the last 5 -6 episodes were really good. Also had a good, unexpected twist in the last episode. |
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| Hellsing (TV) - 10/10 Nice series, with a cool story. It´s not like the manga, but it´s very fun. Have a good OST with nice openning and nice ending (Mr. Big´s song). I just think that Alucard is very overpowered for your enemies.... |
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| One Outs - 9/10 Two words: Psychological baseball. I heard about this series before, and got motivated to watch it after a friend recommended it to me. Most of the strategies weren't terribly convoluted. But I'm guessing as the manga digs deeper into the league season, it will get more and more complicated. Kind of like the general tendency for psychological/strategic titles to actually continue. What I liked the most is figuring out yourself of what's going to happen, and see if it really does happen, or not. Back to the statement that it didn't get TOO convoluted. It doesn't make the series predictable in a bad sense, but you feel a brief form of accomplishment when "everything is going according to plan". Another thing was how hilarious it could be at times. Tokuchi intentionally making mistakes (HITTING A PITCHER) is jokes. It's a series that balanced strategy well with comedy, I thought. I laugh because the owners, no matter how many times he loses, he STILL think he might beat Tokuchi. I laugh when Tokuchi mercilessly crush his opponents. It gets a 9 than a 10 from me because some of the explanations might have gone too long, ending was sort of mediocre (it had to be inconclusive, but that doesn't mean I have to like it a lot), and Tokuchi was TOO badass that the only sorts of realism you get out of him is the behavior of the people he manipulates. |
| 2x2=Shinobuden: 8/10 I started watching without having any expectations and I'm pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. There's basically no plot, but it does a good job in delivering humour in all of the random happenings. It's light and fun, doesn't require you to think and just sit back and relax. Definitely a must-watch. |
| Sumomomo Momomo 8/10 I heard so many fun things about this anime and I wasnt surprised. The guy has a "NO!" pillow which is pretty epic lol. Iroha is probably one of the cutest things of the generation and I was always hoping that she would win but its typical of anime of this genre. The plot always winds up where it starts so it only gets an 8 as it didnt break this mould. |
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| Ikkitousen: Xtreme Xecutor- 2/10 Of all the Ikkitousen seasons, this is the worst. I didn't think it could've been worse than Great Guardians whiich was all fillers. Xtreme was basically a complete mess. It started off mediocre, but at least with a somewhat okay although nothing unique sorta plot. Some episodes were decent, but they were forgettable. The ending was just so badly done that I don't even wanna talk about it. At some point, the plot was forgotten (Bachou wanted to take revenge for her dead bro) and instead was discarded. Overall, really bad and I'd recommend those interested to skip all the anime series and just read the manga. |
| Toaru Majutsu no Index - 6/10 for enjoyment This started off really well, and Touma made for a really great protagonist. But the show wandered off into random stuff, never really going anywhere. Touma wrote a full review for me, if you want to read all the details. Ef - Tale of Memories - 7/10 Really artistic, well-animated, etc. The story flowed along well for the most part, but there were a few events that felt completely random. To be honest the two characters that were most interesting to me were the ones whose stories weren't covered in this--apparently I'll have to watch the sequel anime to learn about them. |
| Eureka Seven: Pocket full of rainbows - 1/10 I have never seen a more incomprehensible abomination of a revamp then this. Holy Shit saying this movie was terrible does it no justice. The story felt like they went and got the worst fanfiction they could possibly find and turned it into a movie. Ugh I can't even think about it anymore, it's making me sick. |
| It doesn't think, it doesn't feel, it doesn't laugh or cry..... All it does from dusk till dawn is make the soldiers die. |
| H20 ~Footprints in the Sand~ - Good Series 7.5/10 (rounded to 8) Blind kid is new to the village and he goes out of his way to "help" some of the people of the village. Slowly unveils the "secrets" of the village, more tragedies occur. Definite must-watch if you are a fan of Clannad/Kanon/Air etc. style series. |
Will you be able to do.... what must be done? |
| the last one i watched in full; Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni 10 out of effing 10 at first, watching this i was like WTF is going on before I realized it consisted of question and answer arcs. I really enjoyed it, cute as anything but with a dark twisted side... i reccomend. i seriously reccomend. most of you probably had seen it already, but mannnn do i ever love that series. |
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| Seitokai Yakuindomo - 8/10 I like school animes and this was a good spring anime to saw, The girls are completely "wtf" because they have an imagination of sexual jokes out of normal and in general the anime is really funny, and that's why i reccomend since is just 13 eps. |
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| Denpateki na Kanojo- 7/10 Prior to watching it, I had thought it would be one hell of an intense and bloody anime. It wasn't. However, the anime created the right atmosphere for it. It was interesting from the beginning to the ending. I gotta say, I really liked the ending. Despite only being 2 episodes long, it was satisfying and quite gripping. |
| Touch: 7.5/10 Close to 10/10 throughout the opening 1-27 section. The childhood love triangle allowed for most romance cliches to be avoided, and Adachi's a MASTER at creating lovable but believable 2D ladies. But, after the early tragedy, the main relationship didn't progress AT ALL throughout the remainder of the series, and there wasn't even a conclusion. I stuck with it because the start had made me LOVE Minami, and the baseball was fairly intense, but it became something of a chore, eventually... and Tatsuya made me want to punch him the longer the series went on. Seriously: what sort of teenage guy places a plot-device in a room he shares with the girl he loves to avoid sex? I'm unsure if to classify him as moronic or slightly gay; much like anal-master Fabio. Cross Game: 7-7.5/10 Not the perfected version of Touch I had envisioned. Unlike Touch, there was no build-up to the tragedy that shaped the rest of the story, and that left it seeming like a far more empty version of Touch. And the 'romance' was executed so badly that I'm not even sure if romance should be one of CG's genre. The baseball was generally better than Touch's, the supporting characters were likable, and it looked nice... but it became just as fillerized as Touch once a clone of the deceased JUST HAPPENED to move in next door to the lead, and it even lacked a conclusion - just like ALL of Adachi's work. Only close to Touch's rating because it lasted half as long. Kimagure Orange Road: 7-7.5/10 For a 50ish episode series, the fact that the important bits only got covered in the two movie-sequels says a lot bad about what is, ultimately, a silly romantic comedy. The love triangle was ruined by one-third being an annoying plot device from hell, too. But there was something insanely attractive about the heroine, Madoka; her truly having the "adult allure" mentioned by the spineless lead, Kyousuke, and that kept me coming back for more episodic silliness, until the end. The episodes dedicated to Kyousuke going into a trance/trying to have his way with Madoka were great - them highlighting how soon the story could have ended, had Kyousuke not been a spineless idiot, as well as making Madoka cute. Kimagure Orange Road: Summer's Beginning - 9-9.5/10 I expected another 'Miss Lonely Yesterday' of Touch infamy. I got my all-time favourite anime movie. Summer's Beginning differed from what came before in the sense it gave me exactly what I wanted and didn't include what irked me previously. It left me completely satisfied. No never-ending stream of rom-com silliness; no stalking plot device to stop the lovin'; no old school clumps of hair. The film was based on a light novel written by someone with actual writing talent... unlike KOR proper, and the difference between the tone of this and the older KOR entries was light and day. Sex became a casual thing and even Hikaru's character got rewritten to the point where she had believability AND likability. Even the sci-fi aspect got used to great effect, allowing Kyousuke to jump to the future and interact with an older version of himself; receiving 'virginity losing' support from his experienced self, and teased by an even more womanly Madoka. The love hotel bit at the end made me end what had been a great experience on a very happy note. Maison Ikkoku: 8-8.5/10 Maison Ikkoku is, arguably, the best romance story in existence. I knew this already, based on my faded manga memories from yesteryear. But if I ever doubted my hazy memories then watching the anime reaffirmed my love. Somehow - and I honestly have no idea HOW I managed it - I went on TWO 30 episode marathons; even though I knew the story already. That says it all, really. I was very impressed with Kyoko's voice acting (the "I... HATE YOU!" scene was PERFECT!) and the extra emotion inserted into the drama by the emotional, shimmery eyes - episode 60 managing to actually draw a tear or two out of me. What spoiled my fun was how Kyoko lead-on Mitaka, even though she never loved him/her double standards and the anime cutting out one of the best scenes in the manga (the love hotel/erection struggle bit), as well as numerous lines of Kyoko after that that highlighted how deep her affections for Godai were. In the end, I felt forced to go lower than my manga 9/10 score, after re-reading the final three volumes of the manga after finishing. One Outs: 8-8.5/10 Touch/Cross Game/H2/Adachi had already helped me get into animated baseball. And, after going through those titles, the prospect of baseball mixed with Death Note was too hard to resist. From start to finish, the intensity level NEVER lowered. Whether Toua was introducing himself by out-witting characters who would later become his team-mates or managing to win against the fastest base runner in the world (lol @ the American 'Oh, shit!' guy) with average-speed fastballs, it was totally gripping. Information about Toua's character/characterization wasn't even needed - as long as the reader/viewer knew he was a genius who'd win against anyone by using his brain, nothing else was needed. Even when playing the role of player-manager for his team, as well as taking on both the opposing team AND his team's owner, no-one could stop him - a pitcher with only fastballs - because of how easily he could read and disturb the minds of others. The only reason it isn't a 9/10 is because the full, 20 volume story wasn't animated - leaving it incomplete. Kaiji: 8.5-9/10 Another psychological thriller and another example of Madhouse's excellence. My new #9 anime. Kaiji differs from its psychological thriller brethren for one very simple, easy to understand reason: its titular lead isn't a perfect genius. In fact, he's a good-for-nothing bum who slashes wheels in his spare time. But all that changes when he gets tricked into going on what he thinks is a 'ship of hope' for those in debt. In reality, it's a ship for the scum of society to gamble against each other; the losers getting sold into slavery and losing it all. From this point onwards, Kaiji has to evolve as a person or die as he quickly learns about the true nature of friendship through betrayal after betrayal. The three games - two of which being no more than simple card games - provided thrill after thrill because of how superbly fear and the human mind were examined; the conversations being amazingly intense as the players tore into each other verbally. Much like with One Outs before it, all that let Kaiji down was its story ending incomplete; requiring a sequel. School Days: 7.5/10 I've long grown tired of seeing a dumbfcuk, averagely average lead form a harem - multiple girls throwing themselves at the dumbfcuk - and *SOMEHOW* the lead managing to save himself for the one he loves. And my tiredness is linked into why School Days is so great: because, if there is such a thing, it's the most realistic harem title ever created. It starts out cutely enough; the typical dumbfcuk lead, Makoto, finding himself in a love-love relationship with a big-breasted girl he lusted after, via some help from a girl he'd just got to know. But once good ol' Makoto realized the big-breasted chick wasn't going to put-out with ease, he forgot about her/stopped caring - going back on his 'love' confession - and happily played 'hide the sausage' repeatedly with the girl who hooked him up with the big-breasted chick; her being an easy lay. After this point, the series is all about the psychological breakdown of the big-breasted chick as she's bullied, isolated, called a liar and other nice things happen to her, while Makoto somehow manages to screw every chick at his school... eventually blaming one for ruining his life after his seed managed to hit the target. ...I can't say any more for spoiler reasons, but Makoto's actions up until the final episode and what happened in the final episode left me feeling very satisfied, and made the suffering all worth it. Screwed up, yeah, but he had it coming from the moment he complained about being tired of the big-breasted chick after she wouldn't let him into her panties straight away. Shigofumi: 7.5-8/10 The cute, loli character designs of God's mail deliverers was off-putting, before I started the series. But with it having 'psychological' as a genre, and PlayUSA having sold it for £17.99, I was willing to overlook that and give it my time. I mean, really: if God did pick delivery people from the deceased, who's to say he wouldn't only pick little girls? It's not as if the lead is a loli because anime fans love children, or anything! Shigofumi blended together episodic stories about Japanese kids being pushed towards suicide by bullying and a main plot thread involving an eccentric author using his own daughter as a writing pad in order to release his anger over his wife leaving him; him seeing his wife in his daughter. So many kids died or had bad things happen to them at one school that I can't help but be thankful I wasn't born in Japan. Shoujo suggests rape is a common occurrence for high school girls as they fall in love and other stories suggest only isolation and suicide await school kids over there. Not nice! The main, Madlax-esque split-personality issue was contrived; it never being explained how one half of a personality can go about leaving the main body and delivering mail for the dead. And there were a few moments in the episodic stories that made my eyebrows raise, such as a girl randomly - and stupidly - murdering the guy she'd been hanging around with, in an almost Higurashi manner. But, on the whole, the characterization was pretty good, and the episodic content succeeded at being meaningful; the episode about a video game artist having cancer impressing me, in particular. The main plot didn't really do a lot for me, and it irked me how the recurring characters and their love drama was never fully resolved, but it had just enough quality not to drag down the overall quality of the show. Not the worst £17.99 I'll ever spend. Yomigaeru Sora: Rescue Wings - 7.5/10 This is something you don't see every day in anime: an attempt at a realistic portrayal of the work members of disaster rescue squads go through. Where's the moe? A good job was done of making the lead come across as very human, right from the get-go. Kazuhiro found himself flying a helicopter instead of the jet he'd always dreamed of, and he even had to move to some out of the way area - away from his long-time girlfriend from his high school days. Him struggling to come to terms with the realities of his new job, as well as adjusting to his new location and being away from his girlfriend, received lots of focus, early on, and that made Rescue Wings very easy to get into. The rescue operations entertained without being overly melodramatic. There was a limit to what could be done in order for the drama to be exciting without coming across as fake, but I never found myself bored with the attempts at saving lives. From choices over whether to risk the lives of the crew in order to save civilians with the conditions harsh to races against time to save missing jet pilots - there was a decent amount of variation. What let the series down, ultimately, was the complete lack of closure. Kazuhiro's girlfriend, Megumi, received a lot of time - even her work at a publishing company getting shown - and it left a bitter taste in my mouth for the main two to end the series separate, with no plans for marriage or the like. The best episode in the series for me was episode four; the episode being about the two meeting up for the first time since his move after she surprised him with a visit. His anger at her not turning off her phone; her tears over a Catcher in the Rye reference proving to be offensive after tragedy on his last mission; and him ending the episode by telling her that she's his 'Catcher' - great stuff. But for an episode like that - not covering rescuing at all; focusing 100% on romance - to be included and then the series not ending by having the main two advance their relationship... Overall, a good series. Not as good as it could have been but different and mature enough to be worth investing time in. (And the CG helicopter looked nice!) Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom - 9/10 I'm seriously starting to get sick of finding new favourites constantly AFTER using the MAL favourite glitch... MAL tag: "Cal's transformation from loli to babe made child molesters cry. And EP25/Cal making me cry makes it a top tenner. Enthralling crime drama with no happy endings; ignoring the odd flaw - such as characters dying but not dying. Pimp Zwei & his hip-hop, FTW!" Spoilerific EP26 post: http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=118492&show=340#msg9723404 Why it's good to think like Maes and go young:  >>>  (They sure grow fast in two years, these young'uns...) What the following hip-hop track for the lead's new stylin' image made me think of: Track: Thought:  |
| Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 I really liked and enjoyed the first 4 episodes. After that, the episodes just didn't manage to capture my attention. A slight twist at the end made me like the way it ended. Overall, good stuff but it could have been better. |
| Evangelion 2.22 you can not advance Awesome story,characters, animation,and soundtrack,better than Evangelion 1.11,this movie it's truly enjoyable,maybe the best anime movie of this year. |
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| Kaichou wa Maid-Sama (10/10) Mini review: The head of the student council in Seika hight school is Ayuzawa Misaki. She tries to make Seika high school which until 2 years ago was a only boys' school to a nicer school for girls, so she doesn't mind yell at the boys. No one knows, but after school she works as a maid in "Latte Caffe", something that really not like her in school. Usui Takumi, the popular guy, finds out, and decide to keep this as a secret for himself (And tease her on the way). Thoughts: I really liked it! But why aren't there more episodes? And I still have a lot of questions! |
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| Phantom: Requiem of the Phantom: (8/10) I marathoned this series during the last two days. The premise, setting and basic story concept were great, I got hooked very quickly. Mafia, intrigues, hitman, moral questionability, what's not to like? It kept being awesome and then there was an unexpected timeskip. I was a bit worried. but it continued to be just as good. After the second timeskip it went downhill though. The main point of the show (or at elast I thought/hoped so), the battle for power inside Inferno, was not fully covered, many characters potentials were left unused (MacGuire, Godoh group, Clau) or cast aside. Instead the story focused more on more on a drama that wasn't totally believable. To give the weakpoint of this show a name: It's Cal. It started when she was a child, she just didn't fit in the show, gave it another direction I didn't like too much, her entrance just seemed forced etc... Also nobody can tell me a girl can grow so much in all respects in only 2 years. C'mon, she was like 12 so the "old" Cal would've been 14. She gre to be more than twice her original size in those two years, had gigantic boobs and just overall looked like 4-6 years passed, not only 2... Her hate for Reiji wasn't too believable imo, in the end she liked him anyway (which was so obvious) so her existence for the anime was kind apointless, her only point was to change the focus of the show from power struggles to personal drama (although I like drama and it was present in the whole anime, in the end it became too clichèd). In the end it still wasn't bad, but it didn't live up tp the expectation the first 2 parts raised. I would have totally given it 7/10, but the very ending was so unexpected and poetic that I raised my score to 8 in the last minute of the series. I still would've preferred the show to have a different final phase, but I cannot say I didn't thourougly enjoyed the show. |
| I probably regret this post by now. |
| Maria Holic. I really liked and enjoyed it. It's the first time since a long time that I felt that an anime was very awesome and well done. There's nothing I can complain about. I'm glad there's gonna be a second season. |
| Natsu no Arashi! This sort of anime is why i love the production company SHAFT. Clever, funny, interesting characters and lots of references (even though i didn't get all of them). I guess i'll watch the second season soon. xD |
fuck everything and rumble |
| Serial experiments lain 4/10 I'm sure there are many people who would beg to differ since I've heard a lot about it. But I felt the story was a bit too rushed, the animation sucked, the characters were boring, left a lot of unsolved questions, and was just boring in general. Deff expected more from it . |
| Clannad AS 7.5/10, but since you can't give it halfs then i gave it an 8... I stopped watching this series in the summer to watch something else, and since I was sick for a few days I went on an anime watching spree. This was third on my list and I was determined to finish, with only 11 or so episodes left. Episodes 15-21 were amazing, I have to admit. Episodes 1-15 were okay ......... they sort of dragged on imo and all I was wondering is, wtf is so amazing about this anime that made over 50% of people who watched it on here give it a 10? To be frank, I still don't know. It was a big shock when Episode 22 was also a fail. The creators were just like, "Oh sure, we're gonna go back on EVERYTHING interesting that just happened..." WTF F U was all I was thinking. Oh. That was a lie. I was also thinking wtf is going on with the other world and what the fuck was its purpose in the story but to confuse me more then I was ever confused. I still don't understand the significance, but whatever. Lol, it's not as bad as I made it look, but it's not amazing like everyone makes it seem. I may just lower the score on my list to a 7. Round down. |
 "It's just...a bad dream! Wake up, wake up...!" |
| kuroshitsuji II... 8/10 :p (not all anime is perfect..) awesome anime!!! but i dun like the way that ciel turned into demon!! ftw! xD why oh why??! why demon served a demon... well over all i think it's one of the awesome anime on planet... |
| Durarara! 8.5/10 Loved the character's and similar style to Buccano! The way the story went in depth to the character's background history was pulled off nicely without being confusing (just like in Buccano). The art was good which is a big factor in my judgement ;p EPIC intro for op 2 overall great series. |
| Blassreiter - 7/10 To begin with, after an expectation lowering opening episode, I thought Blassreiter had the potential to be something special. The first half was lacking in terms of main plot details (basically, it came down to an evil scientist lady handing out happy pills to the despairing), and Joseph - the supposed lead - remained secondary to other characters throughout the entire show, but these 'flaws' actually did a lot good for the show. During episodes 1-12, three subplots got covered, and caring about the characters involved so much as the events linked together to form a web of misery made it easy for me to forget there had been no explanations about the evolution from man to machine-person. And the slaughtering in episode 12 was the icing on a very tasty cake. Sadly, right after that, it all went wrong. Horribly wrong. Joseph's history with Xargin - the main villain of the piece - got explained as follows: Joseph lived in a modern German town where the rich are allowed to abuse the poor as much as they desire. In Blassreiter's Germany, the poor are fire-bombed in a church after flooding, and scholarship students researching a method for the poor to survive using nanomachines (...) are beaten to death/probably raped simply because they come from poor backgrounds. Xargin helped the poor; Joseph was poor. Like Blassreiter's story in general, the back-story was horribly written. Xargin went from an overly helpful nice guy to fire-wielding God-speaker within minutes (with a horse, 'cause the whole 'Horseman of the Apocalypse' thing needed illustrating), and Joseph was randomly given a bike by the evil director of the nanomachine project which, of course, WASN'T REALLY INTENDED TO HELP THE WEAK AND WAS MEANT TO TURN MAN INTO MACHINE. "Go chase after the now clearly evil Xargin, using this hi-tech bike I pulled out of my arsehole!" Following the flashbacking, out of nowhere it was revealed that Blassreiter's Germany is run from the shadows by Zwolf: a religious organization with its own military. The dead were revived to battle anew as Zwolf's triple, Power Ranger mechas entered the fray. Joseph continued being useless all the way to end as the revived dead continued to try to settle outdated issues. The under-developed characters got a few minutes dedicated to their pasts (in one, a horse was killed because old men don't like girls caring about horses, or something.) And, finally, everything ended with a terrible end duel to the death. You know how, in your typically shitty anime ending, spirits give a show's lead some vocal support in his head, during his moment of need? Well, in Blassreiter, since its lead sucks so much arse even at the very end, he got owned within five seconds and needed DEAD PEOPLE to enter his body to fight for him. Then, after they lost, Joseph himself resumed the good fight, somehow getting an 'OVER 9000!' power-up... and got owned AGAIN; this time after telling Xargin he had no chance against his 'OVER 9000!' self. ..... Without wanting to ramble any further, I'll put it simply: Blassreiter got worse the further it went after the halfway point. How well the struggles of the 'subplot leads' were presented made me think of 9/10ing it. But then it became obvious that the plot hadn't been planned out, the dead kept coming back to life, and it ended fittingly poorly with a character actually saying "Let's keep fighting the good fight!", followed by the dead all reappearing... or something. On a happier end note, the CG looked extremely attractive throughout - blending with the 2D animation superbly. I wasn't taken with it at first, truth be told, but that was more to do with me starting an anime TV series and getting non-step CG shoved down my throat from the get-go. My only complaint is how zoomed-in and frantic some of the battles were; them giving off a hand-held camera impression and making it hard to tell what was happening. My advice is as follows: buy the first half of Blassreiter, watch it, and convince yourself it ends with episode 12. Much like with Code Geass, it's MUCH more satisfying to live in blissful ignorance; unaware the writers were actually clueless tosspots in need of shooting. Repeatedly. --------- Fruits Basket - 8-8.5/10 On the face of it, I should hate Fruits Basket (FB). -- An overly nice girl, surrounded by beautiful (and sometimes sexually confused) men. -- Cute animal transformations. -- A predictable (in fiction, the maternal instinct activators always win) cliche uncontrollable bad boy (Kyo) + boring but intelligent and princely pretty boy (Yuki) love triangle, with the nice girl at the center. But I couldn't hate FB. I loved it. When you list the elements that make FB tick, glossing over the positives, then it reads like something aimed squarely at those without penises. However, in reality it's one of the rare 'genderless' shoujo in terms of both genders being able to derive pleasure from watching it. FB's heroine, Tohru, could very well be described as kind to the point of fakeness, but that's not how she came across to me. She'd been raised with loving care and taught numerous life lessons by her mother, and that enabled her to show a natural, always giving loving side to those around her. The entire cast of characters fall for and/or like her not because she's kind but because there's no hidden agenda behind her actions. And, occasionally, along with being genuinely sweet, she'd come out with an intelligent insight or two, using an analogy - such as the time she told Kyo he was like a rice ball that didn't realize he had a plum stuck to his back in an attempt to get him to understand that he's unable to see his good points. Tohru's character alone makes what would be an otherwise uninspiring love triangle worth investing in, emotionally. She stands in the middle of two rivals who hate each other with passion, and she unites them through the love they both hold for her. Because of her, friendship may blossom, but it's also true that their feelings for her may very well push their heated rivalry over the edge - that's why it's so compelling to watch how the trio's relationship develops. Putting Tohru aside, I did start to tire of the episodic silliness, towards the end. The series reached a point, around halfway through, where the love triangle wasn't advancing at all and nothing new regarding the curse was being revealed. Instead, every episode covered a new but largely pointless character, or brought other already introduced characters back into the fray. It was entertaining, most certainly, but it was reaching the point of becoming old and stale. And that's why the final three episodes shocked me so much. I expected a rushed 'original story' finale. Instead, the direction of the show changed completely - the comedy being removed completely - and, out of nowhere, some seriously hard-hitting drama replaced it. Kyo's past and the dark secret he has to live with transformed him into a character with true depth - no longer was he a mere clone of every other bad-tempered, simple-minded, aggressive third point of a love triangle. His issues with his mother being afraid of him and not being honest are deep-rooted, and his happiness over Tohru admitting to being scared of him spoke volumes about the writing, as well as further highlighting why Tohru is so lovable. You see, if Tohru truly was 100% perfect and the type of character that can only exist in the imagination of men, she'd have run right after Kyo after seeing the real him and not once hesitated. But she didn't. Instead, she was sick as she pursued and thought about him, and she couldn't help but admit to her fear. Her actions made me view her as a very human character, and Kyo's... problem means the story is probably going to go in an almost Beauty and the Beast direction. My only disappointment right now is that the anime is incomplete, requiring much manga reading for me to see the story through to its conclusion... In closing, I'm happy I wasn't so foolish as to assume the worst before giving FB my time. Unsurprisingly, considering they share the same director, FB and Kodocha's humour is very similar, and I'm fond of stories that keep me laughing, even when dealing with difficult subjects that would weigh down other stories in doom and gloom. If, like me, you have too many chest hairs to count, fret not: FB will not turn you gay. Every girly-seeming anime box set needs a 'SAFE FOR MANLY MEN!' sticker stuck on, and FB is the first I'd attach such a sticker to. |
| Well, I just finished Kanokon and B Gata H Kei not too long ago. So let's see... Kanokon - 7/10 One reason I kept watching was because of Chizuru's sexual actions. If she wasn't in the show, I probably would have dropped it early on. B Gata H Kei 7/10 Only watched due to a friend's recommendation. Didn't like nor hate it. It was pretty funny at some points. |
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