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As a prequel Zero does alot to revitalize the Fate franchise and improves on many aspects of it's predecessor Fate/Stay Night.

Unfortunately while the improvements are many I personally felt some aspects were still overlooked and ultimately held the series back. Primarily the story, which while talked about between the characters in an epic fashion is rather plain and without much structure. The Holy Grail war sounds about as epic as you can imagine and as I say the characters do a good job through dialogue making the whole thing very grandiose sounding but ultimately in this first season it amounts to nothing more than random ... encounters seemingly without much purpose or buildup.

Given the War is a 24/7 affair you would think there would be some real tension in this series but often times the Hero's and their Masters are all too happy to converse with each other and forget about the War between them for now. Across the first season only two real fights of any substance occur and little comes of either in the end. Both also involve the spontaneous arrival of another Hero with again no buildup as to why they have decided to attack now shown to the viewer. I guess what I'm trying to say is where is the plan? The path to victory is seldom discussed between Hero and Master save for a few lofty goals they may hope to achieve upon victory. The Holy Grail War is ultimately a game of Survival, Life for the victor and death upon all other participants. Yet the show doesn't build that aspect up like I hoped.

Fortunately the characters are great which while not enough to excuse the somewhat directionless, tension free story does at least mean the show is entertaining. Rider,Gilgamesh, Lancer and Saber are all enjoyable as the mystic Heroes. Kiritsugu and Waver are both great too albeit in vastly differing ways.

Fate/Zero is still a missed opportunity that fails to really deliver on it's grand promise. First half builds up to nothing and is only a separate season by necessity rather than by design.

Hadn't ever heard of this film before Discotek Media licensed it and put it out on Blu Ray. It was such an obscure thing for them to license I just had to see it as soon as I could. Having done so I thought this movie was okay. Nothing overly special but fine in the end, so lets get into why...

The Story is fairly basic (and piggy), split into two distinct halves there isn't anything overly amazing about it. The story revolves around Noriyasu, his journal, his pen, his imagination and the fantastical and somewhat bizarre consequences of this combination. I mean just because Noriyasu ... writes that it rained pigs doesn't mean that it will really happen right?

It's got a great innocence and imagination to it for sure but there are few consequences and as such no real depth. This is fine, I mean it's just meant to be a young kids film mainly and for that it serves up some very creative scenarios and a few lessons are learnt along the way too. But yeah while very imaginative on the surface I didn't really get anything beyond that. I'm okay with this others might not be. I mean at just 72 minutes it certainly doesn't outstay it's welcome but some viewers may not find the time spent overly fulfilling in regards to the story, despite it's innocent charm.

The animation is really amazing, very colorful and fun and while true to the images in the original books it seems they took the animation and detail way further which really brought the whole thing to life while still staying true to the source material. Yes it's a sketchy style but it's very well done, I like the shots of the cities in particular. Also when it's Pig Time there is some really enjoyable sequences. This is definitely the stand out area of this film and I would guesstimate the part that any Anime fan older than 10 is likely going to derive the most pleasure from.

Definitely also worth mentioning the performance of the main VA as Noriyasu as it's very impressive. Voiced by an 11-12 year old Daisuke Namikawa (a prolific VA nowadays) I presume this was one of his earliest roles, if not his first? But yeah what a wonderful performance, he really is fantastic and the fact we get to hear this role not from an adult woman but from an actual young male child makes it all the more interesting and believable. Daisuke even as a child himself was clearly a great actor as he really conveys that child persona in this film. Full of life, creativity and imagination as each newfangled idea unwillingly sets him down another fantastically strange venture. The chuckle we hear everytime Noriyasu thinks he has finally nailed down what to do next or just the sheer enjoyment he finds in his imagination is just glorious and so endearing.

So yeah the film is colorful, imaginative and has a very endearing main character. But overall it's lacking any real substance and depth (at least to anyone old enough to already know the few lessons on offer). If you should watch it is based soley on how much you value 72 minutes of your life and also how far down the Anime Rabbit-hole you like to travel. I thought it was worth it but I'll leave you to decide whether you feel the same.

I adore the original 80's OVA version of this series. To me it's one of the greatest Anime ever made. So to say I went into this version nervous would be an understatement. I mean could it live up to it's predecessor or would it pale in comparison?

Well after having marathoned the series well inside 24 hours I can honestly say this version at the very least captures the spirit of the original. The tone of the series is much the same but it's not without some issues. The main issue I had is this TV remake is missing a bunch of the high ... points in the original OVA's story and alot of the details. The original OVA crescendo's at many points throughout and this version simply does not. To give an example take the Canyon mission, in the OVA this is a really big event and the tension ramps up moment by moment from mission reveal all the way to completion. In this series it just does not receive the same buildup, the incredibly risky venture of flying through this Canyon at night and the reasons why they must do this are all just left out. Even the difficulty of the mission is mostly not touched upon, at least not in the same way. In a microcosm this example sums up most of the problems I have with this version, it's less dramatic moment to moment.

But its clear the series had a different vision in mind, and in many ways a different tale to tell. I've not read the Manga so I don't know if this series is more accurate or neither adaptation matches it. I do know though that Area 88 2004 is not quite the same as Area 88 1985. The structure of the story is much different, the OVA is very melodramatic and the TV series is more of a character study. There are many other changes too, the TV series has a few new characters and leaves out many others. Similarly entire events just don't happen in the TV series that happen in the OVA, this goes so far as certain characters remaining alive. Even the events that do happen across both are often altered to present the same event but in a very different way. The ending to the TV series is also drastically different, not just in story but also in characters actions and motivations, leaving a very different aftertaste.

I'll just touch quickly on these things also... The CG planes were actually pretty good and certainly better than I expected. I was very worried about this aspect of the show prior to viewing but I think the team they got to do them did a good job, especially for early 2004. Next the sound design on the planes also seemed to be on point which really adds to this version just like it did in the original OVA. But I wasn't so hot on the character design changes, I mean yeah obviously this series was made almost 20 years later but Shins hair and overall design is much better in the OVA compared to how he looks in this series where he looks like he just walked out of an episode of YuGiOh at times. Finally there's the OST and this was a pretty big disappointment, I knew going in that the OST was now mainly electronica but that didn't change the fact that it was pretty underwhelming. Not terrible but it's a HUGE downgrade on the OVA's OST. In this version the OST is just sorta there, occasionally adding to the atmosphere but very rarely. The Opening/Ending themes were also both pretty lackluster.

So yeah there are many changes and I will say now that the original OVA is still the superior series, in fact if I hadn't seen it my opinion on this new version may have been drastically different from what it is. I believe the 2004 version is still a great series, the characters are still very interesting and likable, the action is still mostly great and as someone with adoration for the OVA I still enjoyed seeing the series through a different lens. The changes while not for the better in my opinion were not bad, just different and that was fine in the end.

I quite enjoyed this series despite its flaws. The Story while always interesting and often unpredictable was certainly a bit strange overall. Characters were pretty likable, though White's heavy transition to comedic relief in the latter stages of the series became a bit grating, especially since it's clear the humour didn't translate well. I'm guessing there was a lot of Japanese word play in that stuff?

I watched the show with the ADV Dub and it was pretty good though not without one major and unfortunate flaw. For some reason Ahab got a typical 'Shiver Me Timbers' Pirate accent which is some terribly lazy direction. ... I think the actor did an okay job with it but it was pretty bad they chose that, very close minded. Even some of the dialogue was changed specifically to play up the Pirate Accent. Shiver me timbers is seriously muttered by Ahab in the dub on multiple occasions. Anyway yeah other than that the Dub was fine and while I have moaned about it Ahab's accent choice is not a deal breaker in my opinion.

Animation was delightful and I have to say this is without a doubt a fantastic transfer from ADV for the DVD boxset which is how I watched the show. Clearly they had access to great masters. Series was beautifully detailed throughout but I do wish the show wasn't always so dark. Seems alot of shows around this time favoured a dark blue hue and palette, Perhaps it was a cost cutting measure? I think it was almost halfway through the series until we actually saw something resembling an actual daylight scene. Dezaki's classic still painted shots are a plenty across the 26 episodes and all were superb. Character designs were a nice slightly modernized (for the period) version of Dezaki's classic style also, I liked them. There was some really outstanding scenes for the animation that I can't really go into due to spoilers of course but just know that in the shows more climatic moments the series often looks breathtaking for cel TV animation. I was floored by certain sequences.

Soundtrack didn't really stand out to me as anything overly special, though often times thats something that tends to change overtime as I tend to listen to OST's after watching a show. But at least in the moment the OST sufficed and that was about it really. Maybe over time I'll come to love it but as of right now it served it's function and that was it, no tracks really stood out. The OP/ED's were fine.

Overall this Anime is a good show but not quite a great one. There is a ton to enjoy about the series and it has a certain amount of whimsy that's hard to not love. Story might not be quite as grand as perhaps the creators had intended in many ways but it was always interesting. It was a strange ride at times but with plenty of left turns the show did a good job at keeping a stranglehold on me. I was never left bored by it as I could never really confidently predict what it had in store next. So with all that said I give it a solid 7/10 'Good'.

The greatest OVA ever for me. I've seen alot (A few hundred) but Area 88 stands above the lot. It's just a great story with superb animation, a truly epic soundtrack and wonderful sound design, It has a beautiful conclusion, It's just a perfect piece.

Originally 3 episodes but now available as two movies it's incredible how good the endings to each of them are. The ending to the first film (second OVA) is an immense crescendo of story, animation and soundtrack. It'll live long in the memory. The Ending to the second film (Third OVA) is a perfect of example of giving the viewer ... just what they need and nothing more, allowing this masterwork to bury itself into your Anime psyche forever.

Not really sure what else to say, when I think about this OVA all my brain goes to is superlative central with little depth. It's just a special thing and has to be seen.

Norn9 is a series with two distinct personalities.

On the one hand it's a very shoujo styled drama with lots of time spent focusing on romance and the relationships of all the main characters. In this regard the show is solid which is to be expected given the show is an adaption of a visual novel. Now while some of the drama that unfolds is melodramatic and similarly unoriginal it is at least compelling. Or to me it was, I was never bored with this aspect of the show.

Now on the other hand Norn9 is also a sci-fi drama, the setting is aboard the ... 'ship' Norn is visually very interesting helped alot by the solid visuals in the show. But the Sci-Fi plot is the weaker side of the series and what ultimately for me at least held it back. This is because for most of the shows 12 episodes beyond the location of the Norn itself not very much time is given to explaining just what on earth is going on. We are presented with somewhat of a mystery and yet we are given very few clues for at least half the show and while the layers do eventually begin to unwrap it takes too long in doing so. Once it has though you'd be forgiven for not caring as the show rarely seems to either, the same could definitely be said for the characters also.

I would argue that the shows visual novel roots are to blame here, in a visual novel the characters are the story and are notorious for dolling out their plots slowly in favor of character development. Also much like a visual novel tends to do once the show decides it's Sci-Fi time it really goes for it, it's actually quite jarring how bait and switch it is. We go from light romance melodrama to full on Science Fiction with a bunch of ideas being thrown out at you and it becomes very hard to keep up at times.

For me Norn9 is a show with bags of potential that was just poorly handled. I like the setting, the characters while typical of their otome Visual Novel roots are likable and interesting and and the Sci-Fi plot, while again somewhat typical of the genre is still quite ambitious and interesting but ultimately the two sides of this show just don't blend well enough to be satisfactory. They are both fighting against each other and neither have really enough time to breath in just 12 episodes.

So finally I would like to say that if the synopsis strikes your fancy then give the show a try but just hold expectations in check becauses chances are the show will struggle to meet them.

Cyborg 009 vs Devilman is a weird OVA. On the face of it the whole concept of mashing these two properties together is just completely bizarre and not something I fully understand. But then that naturally at least makes it an interesting idea, I mean just how would a story mashing up the Sci-Fi trappings of Cyborg 009 with the Horror style of Devilman come out? Well the answer is in short 'okay', strange of course but certainly not awful.

The decision to keep the two worlds combined i.e as if both sets of characters, stories and essentially mythos exist and have existed concurrently with ... each other is quite a equally commendable and baffling decision. I mean sure they could have taken the easy way out given Devilman's supernatural origins and had some basic parallel universe story to explain away how we manage to have these characters together on screen but instead we're given the much harder to pull off approach and as mentioned while commendable I just don't think it ever quite worked. Most of the time watching this I felt like I was watching two separate shows at the same time, more often than not this OVA presents its story in this fashion. Most of the actual crossover is from the Cyborg 009 crew interacting and dealing with the discovery of Demons, whilst the Devilman crew basically continue much in the same vein they always do.

The true crossover moments when they do occur are pretty lacking, not helped by the titling of this OVA because there is very little actual Versus action. We get a single brief fight between Cyborg 009 and Devilman in episode 1. It's a decent little scrap but it's not exactly the sort of event that gives you confidence that this whole crossover is going to somehow supersede your expectations. And to my recollection I'm pretty sure thats the only actual time they cross paths.

The problem is that this OVA isn't an actual Versus story. Neither Devilman nor the Cyborg 009 crew are Villians in this. The OVA is actually a teamup against the villains of each property, except it's not even really that because the only real connection between the Villains of each is that a single designer of Cyborgs called Dr.Adams has basically made a pact with a demon to make a super demonic Cyborg. Dr.Adams is the only connection these two stories and sets of characters have and the only thing that is the least bit mashup or crossover about the whole affair. The rest of it feels like the characters are kind of getting in the way of each other.

Alot of this OVA has this weird disconnect, as I said alot of the time you feel like you are watching two stories happening at the same time where the characters occasionally cross paths and sort of help each other out, though it's more like Devilman fights in one corner against a Mega Demon and the Cyborgs fight in another against some Cyborgs and lesser Demons. There is no plan, there is no meeting between human Fudo and the Cyborgs. They don't talk to each other, they just happen to both be on similar quests due to this Dr.Adam dude. So even when taking the whole actual Versus idea away and approaching this as more Cyborg 009 x Devilman the whole OVA still fails to really deliver.

Now with all that being said, and alot was said this OVA is okay. The story is interesting enough, weird most certainly but not awful. And while Devilman cast gets short changed in terms of character moments and just straight up screen time the stuff with the Cyborg 009 crew is pretty decent, nothing amazing but still solid nonetheless. The Animation is nice, alittle dated for when this was made but not by alot. As a whole I liked my time with it, I'm none the wiser as to why this thing needed to exist but I'm not overtly against it either. I watched it and I liked it. I didn't love it nor did I hate it. It was Okay, weird but Okay.

So whats Sadamitsu the Destroyer like? It's not very good sadly.

I was lured into watching this series by the trailer, the series appears action packed with a fun vibe. The actual series is much more bland and boring unfortunately.

The story is really barebones and often fragmented. Leaps in plot can occur and as a viewer this can be confusing. The setup of the series is very shallow with little to no buildup. Stuff just starts happening with little explanation, too many characters are accepting of these scenarios. The side characters are pretty annoying and pointless. Couple that with some pretty mediocre animation, ugly even ... for period character/monster designs and a lifeless soundtrack and the whole thing is just a shell of what it could have been.

There really is a fun idea crammed into this series and it's certainly a shame the series fails to portray it in an interesting way. All that aside the last few episodes while silly and pretty average are at least more engaging and satisfying than the rest so while the payoff is minimal if you can reach the end of this 10 episode journey you should at least somewhat enjoy the destination ... maybe?

Following on from the original series and the OVA Galaxy Railways II presents a rather mixed bag. The story takes a much more episodic approach compared to the first and while some are certainly interesting it's fair to say many are not. Eventually the series does get an actual continuous plot that takes the show to the end and this is actually a pretty interesting sub story with lots of fun ideas and decent action but running about only 6 or so episodes at the end it's not enough to save this show from a sort of going through the motions vibe.

I did still ... enjoy the series as I'm such a huge fan of the Leijiverse in general so the general style and atmosphere of these shows tends to win alot of favor with me where in others it might not. I was willing to overlook the lack of a compelling story but your mileage may vary.

Ken is basically Bruce Lee on steroids living in a Mad Max post apocalyptic world. I personally love the series and while fantasy martial arts is the main focus the action is rather tame, I mean this is still an 80's anime series so don't expect explosive action but more intense buildup and graphic deaths even if the blood is censored to bright white for most scenes. The series has a strong story and really strong (in every sense) characters, it is dragged out at 140+ episodes but the series doesn't outstay it's welcome though some may feel challenged by the length and general pace.