Back to Catnis's Profile Catnis's Profile

After reading the summary for Natsume Yuujinchou I braced myself for a creepy ride. Much to my surprise though, this anime gave me more "awww"s than "ahhh!"s. No disappointment there though.

STORY: IX
The first few episodes are dedicated to introducing the characters and the impetus that sets the story into motion so there wasn't really anything to look forward to. As the story progresses, however, the plot and the characters become more interesting. It isn't because of an intense climax or an unfolding of a much bigger story. In fact, the whole anime is pretty much about the Natsume's everyday ordinary life, with the added ... exception of a youkai for a bodyguard. It is because it becomes so easy to empathize with the characters. Each episode makes you understand Natsume, the boy who tries to make his already extraordinary life more extraordinary by making the most of everything that he experiences.

ART: VIII
The visual presentation is pretty decent. I especially loved it when some scenes would be paused for a moment to look much like a painting. These short pauses attract attention and empathizes a particular touching moment.

SOUND: IX
The background music compliments the emotion being roused by a scene in the anime. My favorite would be how the instrumental of the ending theme plays on the background during the last few seconds of an episode when Natsume reflects on what just happened.

CHARACTERS: XIII
The personality of the main characters compliments each other. Although the cool&mean-cute&kind duo where the kind guy is dominated by the mean guy is a usual sight in many animes, I liked how the less domineering Natsume won't budge to the whimpers and whines of the more domineering Madara. This creates a balance in their relationship. There were a few annoying supporting characters though. But they pretty much become more bearable at the end of every episode.

ENJOYMENT: IX
For me, enjoyment is a lot of laughter and more laughter. Natsume Yuujinchou doesn't deliver much in the laughter category. It's delight, however, is a passive-looking character called Natsume and how his views about life and the world would sometimes be the same with mine even if I don't live an unusual life like he does.

OVERALL: IX
Natsume Yuujinchou is a must see for those who are bloated by the dense environment of action/gore animes or the superficial atmosphere of some romance animes. This makes a light Sunday afternoon movie - with the exception of the sudden appearance of creepy youkais.

One of the best things about this anime is its pacing. In a 26-episode series, you would usually expect too much fillers to make-up for the lack of substance or too little episodes to contain one big plot. Although there are 4 episodes dedicated for flashbacks, every single episode would always explain the characters and their drives. The pacing of this anime makes the plot and the characters more meaningful.

STORY: The story revolves around four protagonists who travel in search of their future in a place called Paradise. This alone drives them to do anything - even to death. Although this may seem superficial to ... some, the way that the plot is able to tangle all the main and supporting characters' lives, makes the story more exciting and intricate.

ART: Everything is wonderfully depicted in this anime - the characters, the scenes, and the effects. But really, the story is too engrossing for the art (or the lack of it) to overshadow anything.

SOUND: The music is excellent. Although I didn't really like the opening and ending themes, the background music is definitely always on cue and is always beautiful supplementary to whatever is going on in the story.

CHARACTER: Ah, what can I say. The characters are the best part of this anime. The main protagonists are introduced during the first few episodes and this makes it more special because, as the story progresses, they become someone who you learn to empathize with. Although one of the protagonists would become annoying sometimes, the other three would always make him so much bearable. Even the minor characters' quirks and ambitions were shown. Every important character then became the foundation for this epic and unique anime.

ENJOYMENT: This anime has a little of everything. There's enough humor to cast light on the gloomy setting of the anime. And although its action, the fighting only happens when it is necessary for the protagonists to fight. In fact, I believe that this is an adventure from beginning to end. And it was a beautiful adventure.

There were two reasons why I decided to watch Umineko: [1] I heard it was a "sister" anime of Higurashi (I liked Higurashi) and [2] I was expecting a lot of killing and blood and killing and blood and...oh you get it :) Umineko no Naku Koro ni revolves around the Ushiromiya family, who have gathered in the family's island for the first time during the year 1986 to discuss the inheritance of the family-head-status.

Suddenly, someone from the eighteen people - the family, five servants, and the family doctor - is murdered after every few hours ... or minutes. These murders seem to be point to the fictional character (to the characters in the anime, of course) Beatrice the Golden Witch. Battler Ushiromiya (the main protagonist), who doesn't believe in magic but doesn't want to blame anyone of the 18, tries to find another person to blame. In the end, however, everyone is killed and Beatrice shows herself to a shocked and suspicious Battler. The story then becomes a battle of wit to prove (on Beatrice's side) or disprove (on Battler's side) the existence of witches.

Story: 7
Like Higurashi, Umineko was crazy enough to incite repulsion because of all the gore and curiosity because of its twists. Unlike Higurashi, however, it wasn’t interesting or exciting enough to keep the viewer interested with the constant repetition of what happened during that time. Moreover, the logic puzzles presented in the anime were more exhausting, rather than stimulating, to think of.

Art: 9
On the other hand, the art was cool. Since the story was set on 1986, their clothes were pretty, big, and elegant Victorian dresses (that I would like to wear ~grin). Since it’s also a recent anime, the animation was good too.

Sound: 10
The sounds were my favorite (loving music doesn’t have anything to do with it! *pinky swear)! They totally got me into mood from excited (0.0) to nauseous (-.-) to shock (‘o’). It was even better than the Avatar soundtracks! Okaaaaay, that last sentence was random :)

Character: 7
Just because the characters look good and wear cool clothes, doesn’t mean that the characters are cool too. In fact, this is the first anime that I couldn’t choose a favorite because all the characters were either not interesting enough or just really annoying (it isn’t just because of my hater-ism! ~smile). Although there were times when Battler was cool, he got really stubborn and had poor logic reasoning (as if I was THAT good in logic ~grin). I also like Beatrice at one point until she laughed that annoying, loud laugh and then “poof!” she became an annoying, loud, ugly frog (witch->frog. Get it?? ~laughs at self) :D

Enjoyment: 6
Like I said, there wasn’t enough exciting logic puzzles or cool death scenes for me to enjoy the anime. Haaaaa… I really miss the Higurashi gores (~evil laugh).

So I guess that if you’re looking for the gore and wickedness that Higurashi delivered, you shouldn’t expect much from this film. It was just bloody. Uhm, if you like thinking, though, you might want to consider this. That’s it I guess :)

Nwah! (o‘.’o)

"Monstrous Animals, Rare Species...Buried Riches, Hidden Treasures...Worlds of Demons, Unexplored Lands...The Word 'UNKNOWN' Seems Magic...And Some Men Are Attracted By This Force...They Are Called 'HUNTERS'!"

This is the introductory that meets the reader in the very 1st chapter of the 1st volume of the Hunter X Hunter manga. Having had already watched the anime, I am aware of what Hunter X Hunter is about so the introduction wasn't anything new. Someone who hasn't ever encountered Hunter X Hunter, however, will probably feel disappointed to eventually find out that the manga isn't really about a treasure-hunt or a great adventure into some ... unique, hidden world.

The manga is, in the beginning, about a boy named Gon who joins a Hunter test (a test composed of various practical examinations on anything that the judge wants for the examinees to prove that they deserve the title "HUNTER") in order to find his father, who seems like a popular Hunter who has done a lot of great things. It is during this examination that Gon meets and befriends three other examinees.

At this point in the manga, it seems that the four of them - each with distinct abilities, personality, and reason for taking the Hunter Exam - are the main protagonists in the story. The story itself is interesting because the goals of the protagonists and the challenges they have to go to achieve these goals are quite interesting.

My problem with the manga is that as the story progressed, the plot was solely focused on two of the four protagonists so that the story evolved around them for more than 10 volumes (TEN! TEN! ARGH!!). And I mean FOCUS in a way that as if there has never been the four of them when the story started. Although Gon and Killua's goal (to find Gon's father) isn't boring, the biggest problem I have with it is that the same thing happens every time they find a new clue about where Gon's father could be: clue->new place->new enemies->realize they're not strong enough->meet a master who says the same thing: "they have a lot of potential!" or "who are these kids??"->train->become stronger->defeat enemy who will eventually say the same thing: "these kids are strong, blah, blah"->find a new clue->and it goes on and on and on...

After some time, this becomes really annoying because the story just keeeeeeeeeeeeps dragging on. This is also the same reason I stopped watching Bleach so yeah X)

I'm going to warn you. The anime completely disappointed me so if you haven't seen it yet and you're expecting it to be really good (like I did - my best friend's fault. I should never again trust her recommendations in anime and movies), this review is going to make you think twice. I mean it. The anime ticked me off BIG time.

Of the three points I gave this anime, one point would go to the opening and closing songs (hee); another point would go to the characters that I like (one guy with a green hat who trained the protagonist, the cool antagonist, the ... white haired boy); and the last point would go to the only episode that I appreciated out of the 45 episodes I watched - EPISODE 1. UUUUGH! What is wrong with this anime??? I mean really?! Such a waste of time! If I wasn't so bored, I wouldn't even - ehem. Sorry.

Moving on...

Episode 1 pretty much gives a summary of what the movie is all about: a guy who can see ghosts is given the powers of a Death God so that he could kill the bad spirits (called 'hollows') that kill good spirits. I thought that the anime was going to be interesting because the plot sounded new to me. I mean, "Death God?", "sixth sense?" Yeah, that pretty much persuaded me.

As the anime progressed, however, the story was starting to become typical and boring. Not to mention that there were SO MANY unnecessary flashbacks and SO MANY darned scenes that should have been removed (e.g. 30 seconds of watching a character roll on the ground after getting hit by an enemy, a minute of watching a character swish his sword). I mean come on!! I kept forwarding it 75% of the time. It was like a badly made indie indie (redundancy’s intentional) film.

What I hated the most about the anime was the protagonist. No it’s not the typical goody-goody, martyr, sweet antagonist girl that I hate. In fact, it's a guy with characteristics that are usually something I can stand. What I couldn't bear about him is how the he's supposed to be someone with SOOOO much talent and SOOOO much power that he's almost SOOOO perfect.

Don't get me wrong. I love fiction and I do day dream about impossible stuff AND I am a perfectionist. But, really now, a protagonist who can perfect a technique in three days when it's supposed to be perfected in a 100 years by "even the most talented" (quotation from the film)?? A protagonist who's never really been beaten by anybody?? It's SO annoying! And SO unrealistic! And SO urgh!! Wasn't Lelouche beaten by his brother at some point? Wasn't Naruto beaten by Sasuke at some point? Wasn't Ban sliced by some guy at some point? Weren't 4 of the 7 samurais killed? Whew. I really had to get that off my chest. X)

All in all, the anime sucks. No offense to whoever made it X) but I hardly ever stop midway when watching an anime. This was the first time that I really lost interest and didn't care about how much I spent on the DVD. I just feel so bad about having spent so much time watching it :(