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Jun 30, 2015
Ever since I first watched Fate/Stay Night anime, I got hooked. A lot of people were complaining how it didn't live up to their expectations especially the ones who played the Visual Novel before, but as someone who didn't, I quite enjoyed the anime a bit. Of course afterwards I immediately went to play the game, and I managed to only finish the Fate route for some reason. Then I went to explore a bit for other TYPE-MOON series and discovering Tsukihime and Kara no Kyoukai, which the latter is one of my all time favorite.
Now for years people have been saying that Unlimited Blade
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Works is the best TYPE-MOON story in the game, and how amazing it is and that it is levels above the Fate route. So of course, an anime adaptation at last of the best route should be pretty enetertaining - and it was.
Unlimited Blade Works is about a boy named Shirou with a strong sense of justice, and selfless boy who rarely or almost never says no to anyone. He gets pulled into a sort of an age-old ritual, where the Holy Grail chooses Masters which in turn they summon servants, who are heroic spirits from the past (ex. Heracles, Gilgamesh, King Arthur etc.) to aid them in their quest. It is said that the Grail can grant the winner any wish he desires
Now, the plot sounds very interesting - and it is, especially when in the series we get to see some famous and interesting characters from other tales we heard like Heracles and King Arthur. The series also has some high quality animation with flawless character designs, ways improved from the past adaptations. However, as far as the OST goes, I must say I prefered the version of the 2006 Fate/Stay Night adaptations, especially the opening "Kirameku Namida wa Hoshi ni", one of my favorite anime openings. I never skipped listening to it in Fate, while here I always skipped them.
However, Unlimited Blade Works is not without flaws. I felt like a lot of people expressed in their opinions that some episodes were very rushed, and it seemed like a lot of it was cutout. The fight scenes were very impressive, however the constant dialogue and flashbacks occuring ruined the intensity which resulted in being a little anti-climatic. The main character doesn't just suffer from the typical idealistic shounen character views as to "save everyone without anyone getting hurt", but also suffers from out of nowhere "power-ups" like how he could fight on equal footing with the Heroic Spirits and even defeat them, when he didn't really have that much time to properly train. I can see why many people would dislike Shirou also because other supporting characters are much more interesting than him, like Archer, Gilgamesh and Lancer (Lancer suddenly acting out of character and dying for Rin and all, what the hell was that about? It didn't give a proper explanation for his actions).
His idealistic views can be considered childish, especially in the world we live in today, with all the corruption, terrorism, crime and povery all over the world. The truth is you can't save everyone which is why a lot of people failed to symphatize with our main character. Rin also sometimes annoyed me with the over-used high-pitched voice tsundere archetype. However I must admit I admired how sometimes straight forward Shirou was with expressing his feelings for Rin and how she gets all flustered and embarrased, it was pretty funny.
I felt a little backstory on some characters would have made the show more entertaining and we could have connected with the characters more. I would have liked to see some Gilgamesh, Lancer, Caster and Heracles backstory. Also Rider felt like it barely was part of the series. By the second season I completely forgot about her.
Still, this was a pretty entertaining and fun ride. It had a lot of potential and great build up, but it ended up being anti-climatic and a little rushed, but the the ending was satisfying and a happy one. I admit I expected a lot more since as I said, for years I've been told that Unlimited Blade Works is the best damn thing TYPE-MOON came out with, but it was still good. The other Fate anime defiinitely had more memorable moments but every fan of the Fate series and TYPE-MOON has to watch this. Maybe it's time to resume playing the game for me and finish UBW and Heaven's feel route.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jun 24, 2015
Ever since I came across the manga, Berserk has always been one of my top favorite series of all time. I finished the manga in a few hours because I couldn't stop reading, it was like I was possesed. The story is incredible, and the art kept getting better and better so of course after I finished the manga I wanted to check out the anime, and boy I wasn't disappointed albeit I was unhappy that it ended so short. It covered the most popular and best rated arc of the series, the "Band of the Hawks Arc". When I heard about the movies, I
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was overjoyed that after 15 years have gone by since the anime ended, we're going to have new Beserk animation again!
This movie is about a young mercenary fighter called Guts who doesn't really have any purpose in life except fighting and making a living day by day just to survive. Another young charming and mysterious man called Griffith witnesses Guts in action and immediately recognizes his potential and wants to do anything to get him to join his Band of the Hawks. Of course Guts is reluctant at first, but eventually gives up and Griffith makes Guts "his" and joins the band.
Compared to the manga and the anime, I felt they toned down a little bit the gore and gave off a less darker feel than the anime. However you can't deny the superb quality of the animation and the amazing use of CGI. Many people complained about the increase in quality and CGI use which baffles me, because I couldn't help but notice the beautiful visuals there is in this movie and the fighting scenes are just done right. Many Berserk fans should appreciate this.
Another thing I always liked about Berserk is the theme about friendship and betrayal. It's not a secret how close Guts and Griffith become, even giving the most important and secretive tasks to Guts rather than anyone else in the band. This series reminds me of Gungrave and the relationship between the main character and his best friend, one who is doing the "dirty work" and with the exceptional fighting skills, and the other trying to rise to the top of the food chain in the business they are involved in. Also the character development of Guts, from someone who knows nothing but fighting and just doing anything necessary to live just another day, developing into someone who comes to care about his comrades and even finds a dream of his own is simply beautiful to watch. Of course, this is portayed a lot better in the anime and manga, which is why people shouldn't start Berserk by watching the movies first.
As I said before though, I think there is a lot of Berserk material from the manga to work with, not just the "Band of the Hawks Arc", and while I appreciate the improved quality and CGI use in the movies, I honestly believe it would have been better if we could have gotten a continuation of the anime which left off on a cliffhanger years ago. The manga is still not over, it's been at least 26 years albeit countless hiatus from the author and many people who don't read manga which are fans of the series would want to know what happened after the anime.
They also changed the voice cast of the series, but after 15 years that was to be expected imo. I like the new voice cast to be honest, I think they did a great job so far especially with Griffith. The music wasn't as good as the anime, a series like this needs to have a more darker tone especially when it comes to fighting, you have to feel the evil and danger the characters put themselves up against. The anime's soundtrack is mind-blowing, they should have gone for a similar feel. The OST of the anime is one of the best anime soundtracks I've ever heard, and I'm seriously not exaggerating!
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed watching this movie, it felt like 30 minutes have gone by instead of 1hr 16mins. I'd recommend this to any fan after completing the anime, and I recommend Berserk to anyone! This series is just fanastic, but it should cover more material from the manga because it feels so leftout and there are more amazing characters introduced which the anime failed to do so by ending on a cliffhanger. I hope these three movies which I have yet to finish aren't the only ones we're getting. Let's pray they will animate the rest of the manga.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jun 24, 2015
This series is overrated. It peaked my interest when I saw it on the front page at the highest rated anime on this site. I thought to myself this was worth a watch, I definitely won't be disappointed since the top rated anime here pretty much deserve to be there. How wrong was I.
Let me first start by saying this series is melodramatic, slow-paced and cliched as hell. We have Arima Kousei, a depressed and traumatized 14-year-old pianist prodigy who lost his abusive mother two years prior to the story. The anime may come off as an anime that focuses a lot on music, but
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music is merely a sub-genre here. If you're watching this anime just for the music, you will be disappointed more than me. I couldn't symphatize with any of the characters in the story, it was pretty much predictable all the time. The romance is pretty below par too.
We're introduced to two rivals early in the story, but that's about it, they don't really have any impact or effect the main character in anyway. They end up being just mere acquaintances by the end. They tried to redeem his horrible mother whiched failed miserably. Characters are crying all the time, then they bring out a loli in the middle of the series with nothing to add to the story, just a mandatory irrelevant loli which seems to be a running occurance in every anime now. The main character barely develops during the story, he doesn't really accomplish anything in the musical world during the 22-episode course of the series, we're constantly having flashbacks about his past and how horrible his mother was to him. The dialogue in the series sounded too poetic and cheesy most of the time, and we're are constantly thrown life quotes at us, which was funny to me considering the main characters are 14-year-olds.
Of course it has its strong points too. The animation really flows well with the series and while I'm not a fan of classical music, I must say I enjoyed the music being played throughout the series. But that doesn't exclude the fact that there are hundreds of anime out there with the same school drama setting with teenagers as main characters. This series ain't no Clannad, it just tries too hard. The main girls all seem to have a thing for the main character, but I didn't feel much romance effect here. The story was all about Arima coming out of his depressed self and back to the real world again. The ending wasn't really a tearjerker, as I predicted it way before during the course of the series, so there was no element of surprise here.
Overall I can't say I particuarly enjoyed the series nor would I recommend it to others. I guess I COULD recommend it to someone who is particuarly interested in music, but then I'd also would recommend K-ON as well. It isn't a masterpiece like people are constantly saying. It's not bad but it's not good either - just average.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jun 23, 2015
Hunter X Hunter has always been a favorite anime of mine. Ever since it used to air the old series on TV, I used to watch it every day after coming back home from school. I would never have imagined that a series like this could ever need a reboot and that it could actually surpass it. The quality of the anime is way better than the original series, but as far as character designs go, I have to say I prefer the older version compared to this one.
I actually dropped this a couple of years ago as it was airing and I recently
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decided to pick it up again.
Story - The story is pretty interesting. Sometimes it can be light-hearted and cheerful, and sometimes it can get pretty dark and tragic. Characters die in this anime. Gon wants to become a hunter and finally meet his dad, sounds pretty simple right? Well it isn't really as one has to put his life on the line to become a hunter and even after becoming one. That might sound very interesting, but the most interesting aspect I found in this anime is actually in other characters like Kurapika. The best arc for me was definitely the Phantom Troupe arc, and I feel it was kinda short-lived compared to the long Chimera Ants arc. What bothers me is that despite the anime is over, the story is not. There are a lot more things that have yet to be explored and resolved, which the anime leaves open. Sometimes I felt like there isn't much action going on an a lot of dialogue and narration especially during the Chimera Ants arc. The narration kept going on for a good 4-5 episodes without much happening, but that didn't stop me from enjoying the episodes.
Characters / Art - Gon isn't a bad main character, but I felt he is over-shadowed by other superior characters, like Kurapika, Hisoka and Killua. My favorite character was definitely Kurapika as I said even his arc stood out more than the other arcs for me. Revenge is always an interesting subject, and even his past intrigues me. I also like how Gon and Killua don't end up being the strongest characters in the series like most other shounen anime after an arc or two. There are actually a lot stronger characters in the series, way beyond their level sometimes. As for the quality of the animation and character desgins, I think the quality is top-notch and very smooth animation, but as character desgins go, I prefer the older version because I think they are more "mature-looking" and fits more with the series. It might also be my nostalgia goggles talking here, but that's the way I feel.
Overall - I enjoyed the series, I would recommend it not to just any specific anime fan, but to all anime fans. It's not perfect by far, it might not be everyone's cup of tea, but it's definitely worth a try. I would definitely like to see more of this, but we might have to wait a little while because of the constant hiatus regarding the original creator of Hunter X Hunter. I might try reading the manga where the anime left off sometime in the future.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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