It’s an undeniable fact that the way information is delivered, received, and processed has gone through a drastic change in the last couple of decades. With the advent of the Internet, the urge to know just about anything echoes in the manifolds of the Internet. Available information is acquired from various sources, where each source has a different story to tell on the same subject, even when the possession of such information can be considered unethical or even illegal. What’s more, the load, or even overload of available information; the dependence on various sources; and the ease at which information in various format (story, witness
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accounts, films, photographs) can be falsified makes it increasingly difficult for one to tell apart what is real and what isn’t.
Set in a futuristic society in which technology has advanced to the point where the lines between man and machine; mind and artificial intelligence; reality and virtual reality blur, we have Section 9, a secret public safety organization that solves the day to day crimes ranging from mass murder to cyber hacking. Among these various criminal cases, Section 9 stumbles upon a rather difficult case to solve concerning an A-class hacker, commonly known as The Laughing Man. The crew is soon sent into a chain of events, which leads them closer and closer to the mysterious motives of The Laughing Man.
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex explores in great depth the many facets of one underlying theme: what makes us human. The cyber brain, in essence, contains the 'ghost' of the person, and its implementation is what defines whether one is human and the other a machine. Depending on the user's choice, it also is possible to acquire a prosthetic body. Albeit less human and more machine, the benefits derived from cyberization are many: direct brain-to-brain communication, visual information recording (through one's eyes), replacement of injured body parts, increased strength and stamina, and in particular, the transfer of one's mind from one body to another. However, downsides are also potentially existent: the cyber brain can be hacked by anyone with the necessary skill set, as well as be a victim of unwanted viruses, firewalls, or even conditions like sclerosis and cyber-autism – computer security and biotechnology are constant topics brought up throughout the story.
The existence of Section 9, too, is a reflection of cyberization as a secret intelligence department specialized in counter-terrorism, their raison d'etre is to deal with cases related to the cybernetic realm. Varying from investigation and espionage to covert operations and rescue missions, Section 9 serves as an essential backbone for the maintenance of order and security in the futuristic setting of SAC. The department is composed of several highly skilled agents; each one specialized in a specific area of relevance. On their own, save for Motoko, they aren't particularly complex characters – and they don't have to be. What makes Section 9 special is the integrated whole which is composed of the individual roles of each member, who are characterized realistically with personalities and backgrounds reflective of the futuristic society. The conditions they live in – the construction of the setting here is, once again, is of high relevance, as it sets the parameters for the characterization of the cast.
The approach GIT:SAC takes for character development can be only described as unique as to how it gives almost equal amounts of time to add a layer of depth to each of its characters. In each of the stand-alone episodes where the characters go through events, which reveals their depth of characterization in which they can be, described as normal people reacting logically to their surroundings in the futuristic society.
A lot of praise has been given to the narrative tone of the story and for good reasons. Despite following the steps of a counter-terrorist group, the portrayal of the cast and their mindsets remains neutral throughout. Very much like the criminals they fight against, their behavior and actions are defined as a product of their positions within the society – with laws, socio-political issues, and norms – instead of a product of the polarisation between a 'bad' and 'good' side of the coin. Indeed, the believability and realism of SAC can be largely attributed to how it invites the viewer to explore multiple viewpoints. This by itself is an absolutely formidable feat.
As far as technical aspects go in terms of animation, GIT:SAC never fails to deliver. An incredible lot of detail has been put in especially the backgrounds, equipment, and technology, integrating the futuristic in a setting not too far removed from the present day. The animation is fluid almost throughout with little to no inconsistencies. The show also boasts an excellent level of tact at handling its CGI elements. They never seem out of place and never stand out in the scene in an awkward manner, though there are occasions where the action doesn’t conform with the CGI backgrounds. Even with the said flaws, the show is efficiently animated and the action scenes remain extremely well choreographed.
Talking about the well-choreographed action also brings up another merit of the series, that is, SAC has a very accurate portrayal of combat. Unlike most action shows there aren’t any extravagant finishing moves, power-ups, or extravagant kung-fu hijinks. I also find it extremely wrong to call GIT:SAC an “average action show”, as it has a heavy reliance on tone and pacing, unlike your typical action shows that rely more on faster pacing and generally have no regard for the tone of the show.
The soundtrack is done by celebrated composer Youko Kanno, who has been the topic of various discussions in the anime community regarding her merits as a composer. Personally, I'm not a big fan but, with the GIT: SAC soundtrack, she hit the nail right on the head. The tracks themselves may be simple rock songs but fit the visuals far too well. The opening song was done by Origa. It's called “Inner Universe”, and is a personal favorite. A quick note on the voice acting: They are both fantastic in both the dub and the sub and I would openly recommend the dub to someone tolerant towards dubs. In fact, it’s one of those dubs I’d consider better than the subs itself, along with Cowboy Bebop and Baccano. Yes, the dub is that good!
Even after all this praise, I must say that the series does have its fair share of flaws. My main critique is that though the narrative is unique and smart, it’s easy to get lost in the political mechanics of the show and the story may often come-off as rather convoluted (or I'm simply a dumbfuck). The character animation takes a slight dip in quality when the camera is seen panning at a distance, but the good vastly outweighs the bad and that’s what matters in the end.
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex is a brilliantly crafted show with its excellent narrative, unique approach, various themes, and a vast universe along with some really strong characterization. Themes and philosophies are implicitly presented but some may this to be off-putting, but Stand Alone Complex, was never intended to be all glamour and no substance (lol kek la kek). With all said and done, I’d like to say that I personally immensely enjoyed the blend of mystery, action, and philosophy presented by SAC and it really wouldn’t be an exaggeration to label it as one of the best futuristic construction of society not only within anime as a medium, but fiction as a whole.
Go watch Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Shit’s Crazy.
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Mar 22, 2021 Recommended
It’s an undeniable fact that the way information is delivered, received, and processed has gone through a drastic change in the last couple of decades. With the advent of the Internet, the urge to know just about anything echoes in the manifolds of the Internet. Available information is acquired from various sources, where each source has a different story to tell on the same subject, even when the possession of such information can be considered unethical or even illegal. What’s more, the load, or even overload of available information; the dependence on various sources; and the ease at which information in various format (story, witness
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Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Mar 22, 2021
Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica
(Anime)
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Mixed Feelings --- The review contains spoilers --- Shock tactics have been used by armies numerous times throughout the course of history to gain an upper hand over their opponents. Generally, such tactics ranged from a full-force charge to a sudden firearms attack. The whole point of such tactics used is not victory but to keep the opponent under constant psychological pressure. Aside from war and combat, such shock tactics have become staples in mediative forms of entertainment such as anime and films. Although this time around it doesn't revolve around destroying the enemy; the basic objective remains the same. Sadly in recent years, the objective of shock ... tactics has diverted from enhancing story and characters to rather being cheap tricks to keep the viewer's attention. By now you, the reader must be wondering what does shock tactics have to do with cute moe magical girls? The problem with an abundance of magical girl anime is that they are far too static in terms of plot structure and characters both. Some random cutesy average middle school girl gets weird magical powers from a cute little monster and they fight other monsters every other episode. Repeat and rehash this for a 2-3 cour and you would have yourself a typical magical girl title. As such the mahou shoujo genre hardly has any variety to it thus become dull after watching a couple of shows, but Shaft's newest entry to the mahout shoujo title is here to create change. Puella Magi Madoka Magica is an original series written by Gen Urobuchi and animated by the head-tilt loving studio, Shaft. The basic premise revolves around a young girl named Kaname Madoka and her sudden encounter with the magical creature, Kyuubey. Kyuubey can grant Madoka and her friends a wish at the cost of her becoming a magical girl and having to fight against evil beings called witches. Though the premise seems almost identical to most magical girl titles at first glance, it is anything but. Instead of eating cake and being surrounded by feelings of love and happiness, Madoka finds herself surrounded by death, despair, and isolation. While being a magical girl may seem like fun and games at first, the girls soon discover that it’s a one-way ticket to hell. Within a few episodes, the show quickly shifts gears from a sugary magical girl title to something more along the lines of a tragedy. For one, the plot-heavy structure of the show already makes it so that events become the driving force behind Madoka’s emotional development rather than the characters. Since a lot of the series focuses more on outright plot twists and important secrets being revealed, the characters tend to take a back seat at times. As a result, this leaves very little time for proper interaction between Madoka and the other characters. Sure, Madoka and the other girls do chat, but there’s very little in the way of an actual realistic conversation between any of the characters. Now while the lack of character conversations may seem beneficial to the tight pacing of the series, it is crucial as character deaths are highly abundant. Considering that human bonds and relationships are part of the foundation for a healthy emotional state, it would make sense that if more time was given towards Madoka’s connection with the other characters that their deaths would have held more water. Unfortunately, Urobuchi and Shaft felt the need to simply go for a quick emotional appeal by trying to shock the viewer through numerous character deaths. And despite these scenarios being a bit of a shock the first time , they quickly lose their impact as the story progresses. Towards the end of the series, characters start dropping like flies, and you’ll begin to wonder just how much emotional damage one girl can possibly take before she cracks. The direction of the series does have its merits though as a number of plot twists are well thought out. While some of them get predictable, others will completely take you by utter surprise. The general unpredictable nature of the show along with its fast pacing makes for an entertaining series. It's fairly easy to get pulled into the dark atmosphere. So from an entertainment point of view, Madoka is strong, but sadly enough the more shocking twists in the story only serve the same purpose as the numerous character deaths. Rather than be used to further enhance the characters, these twists exist to briefly "wow" the viewer or attempt to further differentiate Madoka from more standard magical girl titles. Also, the fact that a number of these twists are just clichés or devices borrowed from popular sci-fi titles makes their integration into the plot very poorly handled, shallow, and also a tad bit too forced for my liking. A running gag has been storming through the anime community that Urobuchi is more of a heartless bastard who derives orgasmic pleasure in the killing of his characters with his works, hence the name Uro'butcher'. Anyone that has read Fate/Zero or the visual novel, Saya no Uta, will mostly be familiar with the way Urobutcher utilizes a character's death to play with the emotions of the viewer/reader. However, unlike his past works like Fate/Zero, Madoka characters are simply killed off without little to no character development. It isn't easy to watch a character that we have got emotionally attached to over a period of time. For any death to have an emotional impact, there needs to be some prior development, the establishment of the core personality of the character, and their strong relationship with others in the story. You can't just introduce random characters, kill them, and say "ohhhh they died isnt that saaaaaaaad." and expect an emotional impact. You need development. In a particular fashion of writing, it would be appropriate to say, Madoka characters are like puppets on a stage, once they have done their job of moving the story forward, they are given the axe. Considering she’s the character that the entire ordeal revolves around, one would think Kaname Madoka would at least be a fairly interesting character. Unfortunately, Madoka herself has very little in the way of an actual personality. Through her few personable interactions with the other characters, we find out that she’s a sweet girl with very little self-confidence. The little development she gets comes from all the events around her rather than the strength or will of her own character. It is not until the very end of the huge slaughter-fest that Madoka starts to show any reasonable development and change thus making the change rather forced than a gradual change from the psychological breakdown she was going through. In short, she’s almost like the female version of Shinji Ikari, just without all the psychological development (wow, I just appreciated eva, lol). One could even make the argument that you could place anybody in Madoka’s shoes and the story would still progress in the same way. Besides the main character, Madoka, all other magical girls have their personalities set on a specific trait. You have the female badass, the well-mannered senior, the lively best friend, and also the mysterious transfer student. Perfect cookies made from the perfect cookie cutter. With a few exceptions, each of the other magical girls goes through a small transition in a similar vein to Madoka’s where she faces despair before reaching an untimely end. Though each is teeming with potential for growth, the lack of development leaves a bland feeling. A final mention goes to the series mascot, Kyuubey. Though he seems to be nothing more than the complimentary mascot character at first, he does provide the series with another layer of depth to set it apart from the bulk of magical girl titles. Despite remaining fairly stagnant over the course of the series, Kyuubey’s role in the story at least keeps it engaging. Also, the main villain boss, Walperugis, lacked any sort of personality. It's just lazy writing when even the main villain has no speaking factor about him other than being big, bad, black, and randomly introduced. As a title by the highly renowned animation studio SHAFT, high-quality animation was expected and delivered. Anyone familiar with their works of the -gatari franchise should be familiar with the quality animation in madoka. The artistic direction by Akiyuki Shinbo is one of the series' stronger points. The witches and the labyrinth designs are highly experimental and are also the highlight of the show and maintain their beauty throughout the run of the show. The show's aesthetics are great from futuristic classrooms but they are never really used to enhance the overall story so they don't count more than being eye candy. There are many obscure camera angles, dynamic lighting which is a signature of the studio itself. Unfortunately, these scenes are few in number throughout the series, which is a shame considering they had the potential to add a metaphorical layer to the show. Though the viewer may choose to read into the symbolic elements of the show, there just isn't nearly enough exposition given to allow them to enhance the value of the title. As such, the artistic direction in Madoka carries little weight other than to act as an element of visual shock The sound was done by the famous anime and video game music composer and a person I fanboy myself, Yuki Kajiura. She waves her magic wand over the show to give it the mysterious feel it has. Much of the mysterious and pseudo-dark atmosphere originates from the music itself. Several times scenes came out much stronger due to the music e.g. the rooftop conversation between Madoka, Sayaka, and Kyuubey. Voice acting is also very strong overall as the all-star cast of seiyuu selected are able to successfully breathe life into their respective characters. In a similar vein to the utilization of Kajiura’s score, the voice acting is an element that greatly enhances the mood of certain scenes. Despite deviating from the norm of magical girl titles, Madoka struggles to establish a strong emotional connection with the viewer and its characters. In an attempt to remedy this fault, the series engages the viewer through multiple instances of shock rather than the characters and their interactions. And while it is entertaining to see characters drop like flies, there’s very little to actually differentiate Madoka from the bulk of grim-dark titles out there. For people who generally enjoy a darker touch to their story, Madoka can be a good recommendation, however, those who feel shows can be creative without resorting to shock value almost all the time there's much to recommend other than Madoka.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jan 28, 2014
Mimi wo Sumaseba
(Anime)
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Adolescence is among the most memorable phases in one's life. During this time, we tend to make decisions based on adrenaline instincts, work as we wish to, while repudiating any advice. Some of us even develop endearing feelings of love for someone, while also chasing our own dream or even remoulding them for the sake of someone else, often out of inspiration and seldom out of desperation.
Working on the themes of adolescence and infatuation giving rise to a wonderful journey of self discovery, Studio Ghibli presents us with Mimi wo Sumaseba also commonly known as Whisper of the Heart. The story mainly revolves around the ... female lead, Shizuku Tsukishima, a junior high school girl living in New Tama Town. The story progresses as Shizuku constantly finds a certain someone, named Seiji Awasama, always issuing books before she does at her town library, which leads her to grow a sense of respect while her imagination weaves together a personality of Seiji as one could only describe as the "Prince Charming of her life." Much to her disappointment, Seiji is any thing but the "prince charming" she had imagined him to be; but Seiji had a unique charm of his own. One thing led to another and soon, Shizuku starts facing typical teenage life problem ranging from the urge to rebel against her parent's wishes, unnecessarily squabbling with her siblings, while also realising she has fallen in love with the "not-the-prince-charming-she-had-imagined", Seiji. Hereby follows a movie about self discovery, presented in the most heartwarming way possible. Now it may seem like any other teenage-romance on pen and paper, but Whisper of the Heart, has its own charm, specially due to the way it presents itself. The problem with most romance shows now a days is that they tend to be extremely dull or overly melodramatic and their predictable plot structure doesn’t help them much either. While being melodramatic, most also tend to be highly unrealistic with their character interactions, their behaviour, body language and much more which just brings their over all quality down. Whisper of the heart, throws all these out of the window and carves its path through this genre in a rather realistic and dramatic way, without crossing the dreaded line between the dramatic and the melodramatic. Character interactions are seamless and seem as realistic as it can get for a story of such sorts. Characters behave as a mere reflection of any other ordinary teenager, as they would to the shown circumstances and these strokes of realism are even more integrated into the movie with the help of detailed, subtle body language of the the characters through which many emotions are shown, rather than told through mere dialogue exchange. The characters themselves are rather eccentric even though they are fairly ordinary people. The female lead, Shizuka, is a rather charming and adorable girl. Her relation with her family and her friends is well portrayed through meaningful dialogue. Her monologues of what she thinks about her sister, mother, her best friends and her general view of the situations she faces helps build up her base character along with her relationship with the side characters in a gradual and methodical way. The development that Shizuka goes through the movie, simply put, is phenomenal. From a naive junior high student, who didn’t know what she wanted to do with her talent, and on the bigger scale, with her life; Shizuka realises her field of interest and recognises her talents. Her love for writing also explores her vivid and colourful imagination. She comes to realise the importance of family and meeting up with family expectations, while chasing her individual dream too, but the main motivation behind most of her development is her love interest, Seiji. Seiji is quite the character himself. He is shown as an ordinary boy, working at his grandfather’s small antique shop, while learning both, to build and play the violin. The development between Seiji and Shizuko’s romantic relationship, albeit a bit cheesy, was handled with great care. While Seiji doesn’t receive as much development as Shizuko on screen, most of his character development is rather implied. While maintaining Seiji’s lively manner, we see a sense of responsibility grow in him which we naturally see in most teens as they go through their phase of adolescence. His growth in sense of responsibility is established through his interactions with Shizuko, specially, the conversation they have on the school rooftop where they realise they have to work their way so that they could live and spend more time together in the future.All these character interactions which lead to their subtle development, was neatly woven together by the skilful hands of the director, Yoshifumi Kondou, who is known for his works in various other critically acclaimed works such as Omoide Poroporo and Akage no Anne as an animation director. Studio Ghibli has always been known for sending the audience into another magical dimension with their various works, but sometimes, due to the lack of proper direction, the whole magical element backfires, and in the end, the movie tends to become a mess. Thankfully, Whisper of the Heart, is not one of these movies! Even though the movie is highly realistic at its core, Studio Ghibli didn’t stop from adding their key fantasy elements into the movie. And with the efficient direction, these were used to enhance the whole experience of the viewer. Shizuka’s main writing work is dynamically shown, rather than being simply narrated. These scenes range from talking rabbits wearing monocles to riding an air stream to an unknown mysterious castle. All these fantasy elements are integrated into the movie with great caress without leaving deep scars on the strokes of realism, the movie portrays. The animation delivered by Studio Ghibli, as usual, is fantastic. Great detail is maintained in almost every frame and the movement of characters and the general motion is as fluid as it can get. The landscape scenes are pretty eye candy and the movie is completely devoid of any ugly CGI. There are some great camera angles used when necessary, sometime to show the overarching city while some soothing music plays to evoke a strange feeling of nostalgia. The artistic direction of the movie takes credits when the fantasy world is involved, as the colour palette becomes much more vibrant and animation becomes subtly smoother and camera angles range from the typical to experimental ones where Shizuka is shown riding the winds to the castle. Along with the magical animation, the movie imbues a deep sense of nostalgia with its musical direction. The movie begins with Olivia Newton John’s cover of the famous song, Country Road, which itself evokes a warm fuzzy feeling in the viewer, making them feel right at home. Other than that particular cover of John Dever’s, country road, a japanese rendition is sung many times in the movie and their placement couldn’t have been more correct which added to the overall atmosphere of the film, whenever they were used. A personal favourite would be when Seiji plays the violin and Shizuka sings along and the elders join in with various other instruments, to create one of the most joyous and heart warming scenes in anime for me personally, but one could feel free to disagree, I guess. Other soundtracks just add to the magic of the film and its overarching, heartwarming atmosphere. To weave such a fantastic atmosphere, and evoke feelings of nostalgia with the music alone, credits must be given to the “music director”, Yuuiji Nomi who is also known for his quirky OST’s in Nichijou. With all that said and done, I must conclude by saying that Whisper of the Heart is a wonderful coming of age film; and a journey of self discovery. This film has something for everybody to enjoy, whether it be seeing yourself as a teenager grow up in the movie, facing similar problems or for parents, who could see how to co-operate with their child when they’re in their rebellious phase of life and let them freely chase their dreams. The fantastic musical score coupled with the fluid animation has the right balance of drama imbibed into it. It may appear to some as a typical animated work at first glance but once the experience is over, many will quickly realise that Whisper of the Heart is anything but typical. And yeah, Country Roads, will never be the same again, for me at least.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Dec 12, 2013
Elfen Lied
(Anime)
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Not Recommended
An anime can be critically successful for many reasons, it could be due to a well written and engaging plot, innovative ideas that are perfectly handled or even have a deep plot revolving around thought-provoking themes. More so, "depth" has been a cause for the critical success of many anime over the course of time for example "The Tatami Galaxy", but for a show to have a level of depth is not an easy task for any writer. However, superficial depth can be achieved easily and even more easily confused for genuine depth. Such superficial depth ranges from cheap shock factor to random philosophical questions that
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have no relations to the core plot or characters and Elfen Lied is a prime example of such superficial depth.
The harem genre has never been an interesting or innovative genre in terms of plot and character since the beginning of time. Most harem shows consist of a bland protagonist surrounded by fetish fulfilling bimbos, who are head over heels for the bland protagonist for the most stupid reasons. Pandering, useless fan service, and sometimes being an insult to one's intellect; most harem shows lose all entertainment value to a mature audience. The mass production of such shows led to the belief that "anime" is only meant for kids and adolescent teens and have nothing of value to offer for someone more mature. However, this notion surprisingly changed after the release of the infamous, Elfen Lied an original story written by Okamoto Lynn which got a one cour anime adaptation, produced by studio ARMS who are also famous for producing other works like Ikkitousen, a ton of hentai titles and Genshiken. At first glance, Elfen Lied is anything but a harem. The show starts with 10 minutes of outright nudity and gore which leaves the viewer in a state of utter shock and terror. These 10 minutes were enough to drive away the weak-hearted. However, after these ten minutes, the story is just a hackneyed amalgamation of cliche, plot devices, plot conveniences, plot holes, and last but not the least some "smart" and fetish pandering wrapped up into a harem. Plot conveniences and cliche are in abundance, for example, Lucy, loses her memory (amnesia cliche) when shot with a bullet in the head with a magnum sniper and floats down to a beach. One would expect the military to be present there, anticipating her arrival on several shores as she is indeed a top secret project and above that a threat to the human race, but she conveniently meets up with her one and only friend she ever had, Kouta. The author tries to handle pandering with different tricks such as using "horns" for cat ears(Kemenomimi). The whole amnesia cliche is further used as a plot device and conveniently too which involves Lucy, regaining her memories and her other personality whenever the plot asks for it and reverting back to her childlike personality whenever the plot asks for it. As the story progresses the writer cleverly turns what could have been a genuinely mature story about racism and discrimination into a cunning little harem. Every female character introduced is forced upon with some miserable past. It almost seems like the writer is a misogynistic sadist who creates female characters just to torture them. One would expect the writer to use these angst-filled backstories to weave up an emotional tale but fails at doing so as how forced these backstories come off and the overall lack of any development of the character doesn't help either. The story also tries to be dark but only fails as it's an edgy mess due to the abundant amount of unnecessary fan service and the whole over the top nature of the show. Many claim this certain title, Elfen Lied, to be "deep", though I fail to understand why. It touches upon the concepts of racism and discrimination in the most superficial way possible. Lucy and other diclonius were born to kill humans, just like the wolf is born to prey on the sheep. It's in their genes, it's a natural instinct. Now if a man were to cage a wolf and let his sheep roam free, it wouldn't be discrimination, but an act of defense. The same logic is for elfen lied, where most diclonius are caged up and kept in miserable states so that they don't end up wiping out the human race. This is not racisms, neither is this discrimination, it's just simple self defense. This is not depth, this is just ridiculous and superficial handling of a theme that could have been done well. The plot progression in Elfen Lied can be only described as utterly stupid. As mentioned before, a "TOP SECRET PROJECT" washes through the sea only to land upon some beach where there are no military personnel to take care of such an important event. Then the couple who encounter Lucy, a naked girl with random horns, takes her home, because yeah, when you meet naked a creature with horns, you take her home and give her a nickname as if it were a stray dog, instead of going to the police to report the event. The military sends the worst soldier to find Lucy. Seriously, what kind of a soldier goes ahead and beats up his own comrade when going up against a man killing diclonius. Then the secret military group sends another diclonius to capture Lucy. It is to be noted that Lucy is the queen of diclonius species, and as a queen, she has the ability to order other diclonius to do her bidding. What kind of a "secret" organization sends an inferior being of the same species to take out its queen, specially when the queen has the ability to order the other around at her bidding through telekinesis? After this attempt fails they send in another diclonius because, yes, when "plan A" fails, you repeat "plan A" again. This organization must be run by a bunch of retards. And when one thinks of it, it's even more stupid as the second diclonius has been known for its sheer hate for humanity to the point of killing any human at sight. What kind of a secret organization sends in such a creature to an inhabited area with the ulterior motive of "saving humans"? Is this some sort of joke? Kouta later finds out that it was Lucy who had killed his entire family and ends up forgiving her in the blink of an eye. Completely logical. The show is comprised of two clear phases. One phase where Lucy regains her memory where the anime becomes edgy and over the top. The other phase is when Lucy is in her amnesia mode where the anime becomes a Harem/SOL. The writers tried hard to make her cute but she is nothing more than pathetic. Roaming around naked for fanservice to the point where she needs help to even change her panties.The changes between these two phases depend absolutely on the convenience of the plot and we yet don't know when she decides to be a pokemon and when a mindless yandere. The characters are the blandest bunch of characters to be ever written and this might not even be an exaggeration. One would expect to have sympathetic feelings towards Lucy due to her tragic past, but everything is so "plot convenient" that the tragedies seem fake and lose any impact if possible and come out extremely forced. Other than Lucy, every character is just a bland stereotype. Kouta is your generic harem lead and Yuka is the "imouto in love with her brother" archetype. Oh! you thought the bullshit ended with random gore and nudity ? You're wrong, the writers also decide to introduce an incest romance subplot that goes nowhere and just add to the convoluted mess. Other than Lucy and Yuka every other female in the show is a stupid loli as if the "clever fan service" wasn't enough already. There's no development to any of the characters. To sum it up all, the characters are just a bunch of retards and lolis who lack development and any core personality. The opening sequence is probably the best part of the whole show. With the beautiful soundtrack "Lilium" there are some artistic scenes which have no damn relation to the convoluted mess of a plot. The ost is nothing special either and a bunch of them are reused and rehashed constantly but yet fail to be anything memorable. The art and animation is rather average and have nothing special about it. The show lacks aesthetics and any sort of artistic detail. The only details that are probably put in, is during the gore scenes where the disturbing images of the bones of the characters can be seen. The character designs are repetitive to the point where three characters have the same hair color. At least give them some more distinguishable features ffs? Despite trying to be deep, Elfen Lied fails horribly by only touching on its themes very superficially hence lacking any message at the end of the day. It transforms itself into a generic harem with its seemingly "clever" tricks to fool the audience that it's something mature, but at the end of the day, it's just another mindless harem. Also, a useless incest romance subplot that goes nowhere (why is this such a big thing in Japan?) The characters lack personality or development and the art and music is nothing particularly special either. It tries to make up for its flaws with the help of conveniences, cliches, mindless gore and nudity which only worsen the show and makes it "edgy" as all hell. This show might appeal to a gore fan, an imouto incest fanatic, a lolicon, a misogynist or a mindless harem lover. Unfortunately, I'm not one of them.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Nov 29, 2013 Recommended
This is an unusual hentai to be honest, it broke my strong belief that most hentai can't come along with a half decent story. Taboo charming mother on the other hand was more like a twisted story of love which had sex scenes in it. Our story begins with our protagonist, Kazuhiko, who lives in modern day japan, along with his family which consists of his father and his step mother, Misako. Misako was a young and attractive lady who had huge tits and a nice ass and naturally Kazuhiko started developing sexual desires towards his mother. With time Kazuhikos sexual desires took over his
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moral sense of a family relationship and he decided to masturbate while smelling his mothers panties. The twist begins when Misako catches kazuhiko masturbating to her panties one day. She becomes aware of Kazuhikos feelings towards her. To top of the drama factor, Misako was being neglected by her hard working husband as he would return tired every night. Her carnal desires were developing rather fast. She would normally masturbate and put it off sometimes but after sometime she really wanted an erect penis in her vagina instead of her fingers.
The story takes further dramatic twists and turns as Misako starts getting free dildos as gifts from an unknown stranger who would also call her and tease her sexual desires. This genius caller also instigated her sexual feelings towards her own step son. To avoid spoilers I'll stop describing the story here as the amount of dramatic twists and turns blew my mind away. It was comparable to the twists Urasawa Naoki would normally present through the coarse of his famous story "Monster". Yes, this is an indirect recommendation that you all reading this wall of text should read/watch monster. I do have a complain though that the hentai ended on a huge ass cliffhanger just like the manga. The art and animation was amazing. All movements were very smooth. The vaginal fluid looked extremely realistic and unfortunately so did the semen. The character expressions portrayed were really nice. I could literally feel the pleasure of having sex with the MILF that Misako is. Above that there is no censoring, so you won't get those stupid pixelated pussies or random flashes of bright light near the clitoris. The sex scenes are highly stimulating and extremely fappable. There are no real good OST's in the show unfortunately but the VA's did a great job. I could literally feel their emotions and their pleasure. Special mentions for who ever voiced Misako and her sister. they both had extremely stimulating voices and it made my fap session even more enjoyable and fap worthy. I could literally fap to the voices they make without even looking at the video, yes, it's just that good. The characters are probably the strongest point of the story. They are highly relatable, seriously.. I would love to bang a MILF like Misako all day and night. The psychological aspects were great and realistic. The characters were mature and head enough depth and complexity to give your typical shonen filled with one dimensional characters a run for their money. I would have loved the fathers character to be a bit more fleshed out though. Overall, I think this is a god tier hentai and should be watched by anybody who loves watching well written characters, great drama and loves masturbating to chinese cartoons. Extremely fappalicious for its worth and a masterpiece in the hentai-drama genre. Hats-off to two ever made this work of art. Seriously, even works like Bakemonogatari seem shallow in front of this great show. I cannot recommend this show enough to any hentai fan. Please Ignore any made up word or my poor grammar, it's a hentai review FFS. PS: You should watch/read monster written by the ingenious writer "Urasawa Naoki".
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Sep 27, 2013
Fairy Tail
(Anime)
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Not Recommended Fairy Tail ~ Another battle shounen anime to join the glorious world of anime. Adapted from the manga written by Hiro Mashima of the same name. Now before you continue reading I must warn you that if you haven't seen all the episodes or are a huge fan that can't take criticism please refrain from reading this review. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. For those yet reading this review please keep an open mind about what you are going to read. Initially I did enjoy fairy tail but in the end i started disliking the series. Here are a few reasons why First of all the arcs are short. ... Which means there's a lot of things they can't do, bigger story, adventure or exploring, showing more of the side characters, etc. Every arc ends up boring to me and not memorable. The arc size also makes it so predictable. They have to go there without knowing much, be beaten by the enemies easily, get back up and run after them, beat them, a little talk afterwards, then go home. The fillers, Fairy Tail has horrible fillers. Like the Daphne arc and the Starry Key filler arc. Just unbelievably bad. ABove that the filler arc is the second longest arc in the whole series. For those who might argue that fair tail has "less" fillers let me point out that FT has 38 filler episodes out of a total of 175. That's 21% filler, which is quite a lot. Lisanna~They took a nice little cute backstory that helped multiple characters and ruined it. Brought her back without a good explanation and then afterwards nothing has changed. She barely talks to Natsu, she isn't important in the story. It was better when she was gone. Her being back and doing nothing basically ruins the whole flashback which was supposed to show how much she thought of Natsu, he thought of her, how Elfman decided to get stronger after losing her, Mirajane changed to be nicer, etc. There's no training neither any foreshadowing. None of them really change. They were only going to train once but then Mashima said screw you, they're going to instead get powered up in 5 minutes. Natsu had a chance to grow with his powers near the beginning. He learned that he could use his flame to hold things or whatever. He forgot right after, lost a good chance and it hasn't showed up again yet. Natsu's a horrible character. He's a main protagonist of the worst type, cocky yet can't prove it. Always runs ahead and gets beaten easily by the enemies, then he gets up and is able to beat the main boss of the arc. He needs a power up every fight or he loses, he sometimes has to get insulted until he's angry enough to beat him. Why the hell can't they give him a fire lacrima to use in a fight, he always has to get fire from some inconvenient ways. He even forgave Gajeel after he beat Lucy for like an hour, talked to him all nicely about dragons after their fight. I couldn't even care about any of the characters. They are contrived, one dimensional, stereotypical and lack even the little bit of depth that the story sometime requires. Natsu's power is supposed to be unique. Yet, every arc they run into a new dragon slayer. And then they run into god slayers that's powers are even stronger than their dragon slayer counterparts. It's like he's making it up as he goes. The comedy is annoying. Natsu's vehicle sickness got boring when it screwed up his chance to fight, which was by like the 8th episode. After that it's just been used way too much and has messed with his fighting multiple times since. Gray has to strip every god damn episode, they haven't thought of giving him a jumpsuit or whatever. Everyone elses comedy is boring. The only person who ever says something funny is Happy. The action sucked, all the fights weren't interesting and of course were full of random powerups and bad comedy. The animation of the fights were mediocre and most fight end in Natsu consuming fire in some convenient way for the plot or getting help from his "nakama" and magically beating the enemy who seemed overpoweringly strong till now. Story is nothing special. Nothing has really changed since the beginning. Oh the time skip. I totally forgot about mentioning that. It was horrible, a 7 year skip. They didn't even let the mains train or whatever. They came back and were easily able to beat enemies that had almost beaten them 7 years ago and had been training the whole time they were gone. All in all Fairy tail happens to be one of the worst battle shounens i have ever seen and this is coming from a guy who has seen a fair amount of shounen. With this I end my rant. To those rating this review as "Helpful" or "Not Helpful" your feedback is greatly appreciated.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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