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Going into this anime, I didn't expect much. You know just reading the summary that it's about a teenage boy getting teleported to a magical world, and then attending a magical high school, learning the ways of magic. However, despite my low expectations, this anime failed to meet even those.

The fact that the character is from an alternate world could have been left out completely. He adjusts almost immediately to his knew surrounding, with it only brought up a couple of times that he's not originally from this universe. Never once does he question if this version of his ... father is really his father, or if this version of his sister is the same he loves so dearly. He just states everything is the same except now there's magic.

I would say the anime was at it's best when it focused on Mo, Fan becoming a hunter, living a dual life, raising money for his family. However, being this is only a 12 episode anime, that part of the plot only lasts a few episodes.

As for characters, there really isn't much for development besides our main characters and his best friend in school. This was really disappointing considering our hero's main motivation is to make a better life for his father and younger sister.

Mo, Fan's step-sister is only present for three short scenes in the entire anime, yet she's featured on most the art for the anime, as well as listed as a major character. With that being said, the few scenes she is in are golden. The scene where she literally throws herself out of her wheelchair to hug her brother upon his return from slaying a monster, or when he gives her money so she can buy a cell-phone and be safe, are touching. However, considering she's supposed to be one of his main love interests (yes, it's one of those anime people), she should have had a greater presence in the anime.

While the father is at least present in a few episodes, they continuously use the same clip over and over. Yes, I understand that his father being humiliated for him is our main characters motivation, but giving additional interactions would have better solidified their relationship.

These two characters weren't even present during the season finale when our hero faces is facing his dual to finally prove himself for their welling being. Their lack of presence, either cheering him off or showing concern for his safety really subtracts from the tension and fulfillment the final episode should have given.

As for our main character, Mo, Fan, he is more entertaining than I expected. So many times in anime such as these, the main character is either a complete prick and uses everyone to achieve his goals, or becomes so overpowered nothing serves as a challenge to him. Quanzhi Fashi makes neither of these mistakes. While our main hero certainly has unique abilities from the begging, he needs to continuously train just to learn the basics of them, making his victories and these unique powers feel more rewarding. He's also generally a decent person, willing to risk his life to protect his classmates, and cares about other individuals than just those select few he fights for. With that being said though, he isn't a saint either, making him a well rounded individual.

Overall this anime is nothing special, nor did I expect it to be. However, with rushed pacing, and lack of character interactions from what is supposed to be some of your most important characters, really pulls it down from being O.K. to feeling mediocre.

When I first saw the announcement of this anime, I was absolutely ecstatic. Waver Velvet and Rider were my favorite pair in Fate Stay Zero, which also happens to be one of my highest rated anime to date. The possibilities of what one could do with his character as an adult seemed endless. Sadly, The Case Files of Lord El-Melloi II only serves as a continuation of the downfall of what was once revered as one of the greatest series of anime.

How do you take one of the best characters from arguable the best Fate series to ... date and get such a bland result? Well apparently you do it by giving more screen time to a Loli than your actual main character and using plot devices so convoluted that it sounds like characters are just making them up as you go.

Let's begin with the characters.

The anime was suppose to feature Waver, serving as a magical detective, solving cases in an almost Sherlock Holmes style while still dealing with the lost of his partner, Rider. However, for one of the most developed characters from Fate Zero, it feels like the writers didn't know what to do with Waver. While he certainly has some development towards the end of the Anime, it falls shallow when compared to his young self. The first couple of episodes featuring him started out very strong, but then we get to a main issue of the anime; Grey.

Grey is a shy, enigmatic girl who for some reason bears and uncanny resemblance to Saber of the original series. She has an undying loyalty to Waver and despite being a butt kicking, scythe wielding warrior, suffers from low self esteem. Grey very much steals the show, with the mysteries of her and her attachment to the main character never being fully explored unless you want to rely on Wikipedia. While not necessarily a bad character, she was mostly an unnecessary one, and felt like little more than a Loli trope.

After Grey and Waver, you have the rest of the cast who for the most part had little presence and didn't feel as if they fulfilled much roles in the series. Now I did enjoy Waver's new little sister, Reines. Her methods of tormenting Waver in a comedic fashion never ceased to give me a chuckle. Also, seeing Kairi from Fate Apocrypha was an absolute treat. I also enjoyed Waver's rivalry with Hishiri Adashino, although it was never fully explored.

The rest of the characters fall flat. You have the stereotypical Loli number #2 who's goal is to just get Waver to bang her despite there being a 15 year difference. Then there are a pair twin boys serving as Waver's students whose main shtick is just fighting over Grey's attention. Even the main villain you barely ever see or learn much of.

As far as Plot, the first half of the series focuses on Waver solving mysterious. This is certainly the strongest part of the show. However, even here there is a major issue, and that is the crimes always involve magic, and the magic system is never fully explained in the anime. A good mystery leaves the audience guessing who committed the crime. However, due to having one of the loosest magical systems I've seen in anime, it's impossible for the audience to actual predict where the show will take them. The end of each case simply involves our main hero listing pieces of evidence to the audience that we have little to no way of fully understanding due to the lack of understanding how the world itself works.

The second half of the show features a single, ongoing missions where a Waver's last piece of Rider was stolen from him, and now they have to follow clues to determine the main culprit and stop his plan. Sadly, the issues mentioned earlier in this review are all more prevalent in the second half forcing me to lose interest in the show all together.

The Case Files of Lord El-Melloi II had the potential to be a top notch Anime, focusing on an already strong developed character, and watching him continue to grow while solving mysterious of a magical world. It could have brought the series's focus on moral ideals and what it means to be a hero to another level. Instead the anime falls victim to the same issues as recent Fate series; forgetting its true roots and instead using main-stream cliche's and tropes in an attempt to retain its popularity.

The first 20 minutes of this movie surpassed my expectations. Providing some backstory of Frieza first taking control of the Saiyan planet and what Goku's parents were like was a pleasant surprise.

I found Paragus to be a well written character who you could really relate to. He and his son are viewed as low level trash among the Saiyans royals. Seeing the King banishes Brolly just because he was born with a higher power level than his own child, Paragus's reaction was natural for any parent to take.

The fact they made Broly more than just some ... mindless brute of destruction was a nice change in pace, and watching him befriend new characters really added some charm to this new version of the character.

However, the remainder of the movie was nothing but a long, drawn out action sequence. I never thought I'd get so bored watching an action scene. While the animation was beautiful, having 40+ minutes of nothing but fighting is too much. Any good writer knows that proper pacing and settings are fundamental, especially in an action movie. If you are high energy all the time, that desensitizes the viewer to the action instead of leaving them to grave more. So much of the fighting in this movie was so fast, with countless effects going off, I couldn't even keep track half the time.

Its really too bad. If the movie had continued with the deep character moments like the first part had, it could have been the greatest Dragon Ball movie to date. Instead it fell into the same rut too many action anime do today by appealing to testosterone trips over real substance.

This is one of my favorite anime I've seen in a while. The deep character development, the application of realistic issues in a magical world, and animation were all beautiful. There are countless episodes I could go into detail on, but I will try to focus on what I consider the major points.

I'd love to give this anime a 10 out of 10 but the rushed pacing in the beginning is the one thing that sets this anime back for me.

The first few episodes really just throw the audience into the main plot. Instead of the intro being ... two episodes, it could have easily fit into three.
I would have liked to see them focus just a couple more minutes on what Naofumi's life was like before being sucked into this new world, allowing for us to get a better idea of who he was as a normal person. Then after meeting Princess B**tch the writers could have spent the remainder of the additional time focusing on her building a relationship between her and our main character. This would have allowed the audience to bond with her as a character, and would have created a greater tragedy upon her actions as we would have better felt the sting of her betrayal.

The episode of Naofumi and Raphtalia bonding should have been two parts, with the second part focusing on their adventures in the mines and Raphtalia facing her own fears.

Overall though, I found the character development fantastic.

I know many people hate on the anime for using the false accusation of rape to be a plot devise, but from someone who has seen people affected by these false accusations in the past, I appreciate the anime's willingness to tackle such a controversial subject.

Watching Naofumi's character evolve over time was a thrill. Seeing someone completely rejected by the world, nearly ready to turn into a villain himself because of it, was so realistic on how many criminals in real life are created. I felt pushed into his shoes, spending the entire first couple of episodes trying to figure out what was going through his mind. His first time meeting Raphtalia is a fine example of this, as it is left up to audience to determine what his true motivation was for purchasing her. Yes, I do realize the Manga elaborates on this, but letting the audience have their own interpretation was a smart modification to the source material.

His distrust of royalty at first made complete sense giving his past, and once again gave a realistic light to his character.

The idea that Naofumi's good deeds not going unrewarded was pleasing to see. I enjoyed emphasizing the concept that no matter how much the world tried to run him down, he still had the affinity for good, and the people he helped remembered it.


I only wish they had slowed Naofumi's development down a little.
For example, when the village was being attacked by monsters in the first wave, it would have contributed greater to Naofumi and Raphtalia's characters if it had been Naofumi hesitating to save the people and it was Raphtalia who encouraged him.


Raphtalia is an equally well developed character. Watching her go from this timid girl to a bad-ass warrior is a joy. Her affections for Naofumi are also believable when knowing her past. My only critique about her is towards the end of the season, the series practically re-writes her past, trying to make it darker and allowing her to be portrayed as an even stronger character. This I did not appreciate. I had already grown to enjoy Raphtalia as a character and viewed her a strong person. Adding in an even greater tragic backstory when we had already been given one felt like the writer was trying to force the concept that she was strong, and just wasn't needed.

As for the remaining main cast, I have mixed feeling about them. Melty and the Blacksmith are pretty solid, with strong and realistic moments. Filo on the other hand I hate with a passion. She just feels like a third wheel. I also got irritated with the Bow and Sword Heroes' constantly flip-flopping. Sometimes they acted as if they didn't trust Naofumi at all, but at other times they acted as if they suspected Princess B**tch's schemes.

The action scenes in this Anime are extremely well coordinated. I would have never thought a shield could have so many applications to it, and Naofumi's teamwork with Raphtalia and other characters in several scenes is phenomenal.

The plot over all is well done, but I will admit there can be some shaky moments at times. This mostly occurs towards the end when they decided to throw in a religious antagonist. While I felt this came out of no-where and almost felt like an anti-religious message, everything else is pretty solid. The Anime is strongest when it focuses on Naofumi becoming a true hero and better person, despite the world that shunned him, and the anime does a good job of focusing on that.

Personally I would have ended the anime at episode 21, and let the remainder of the episodes carry over to the next season. However, the ending is still strong, allowing Naofumi a last moment of growth, and a touching scene between him and Raphtalia leaving me craving for more to come. I can't wait for season 2!

This has to be one of the most overrated anime series in history. If you just want mindless entertainment that tries to throw every possible idea at you including mechs, magic, high school drama, and fan service, than this is the anime for you. In the end though, I found this the most disappointing show I've ever had the displeasure of watching.

Code Geass is nothing but a giant rush of testosterone and adrenaline that tries to convince the viewer that its inconsistent story telling contains depth. In the end the only real way to enjoy this show is to completely turn off ... your brain so you're not capable of questioning the idiocy of most of the characters' actions.

While there are some beautiful mech fights, there are times when the character designs look awful. Not a single character was designed with originality. They either had border-line anorexic bodies or they were designed with boobs larger than their face. I even noticed some characters' body proportions changing in the middle of episodes. Granted I'm not surprised. When an anime uses every cliche in the book, it's only natural they use same methods for their character designs.

Character development was nearly absent from the series. Yes, the writers make you believe that characters are developing by suddenly changing their perspective, but when a character is constantly doing that and then just reverting back to how they were before, that's not development. That is called flip-flopping, which is what most of the characters do through out this anime.

Personally though, what really kills this anime for me is the ending. The ending should have ended with Lelouch defeating his father, and during his final confrontation with him, realizing he was just as big of a monster as his father and in the end nothing but a hypocrite.

Instead the anime tries to convince us that Lelouch understands these concepts yet continues down the exact same flawed path, showing he has truly learned nothing.

Fans claim he died because that was his punishment; he couldn't live in a happy world with his sister. However, keep in mind Lelouch makes the plan to do die when he thinks Nunnally is dead. When he finds out she's alive, his resolve nearly breaks. His plan wasn't some masterful scheme to help the world. It was the world's most arrogant method of committing suicide.

Lelouch had the audacity to lecture his father about morality. That forcing kindness on individuals is an act of villainy. Even though Charles explains what he has done was for the good of everyone, including Lelouch, Lelouch refuses to listen to his father's views. He can't forgive him for the pain his father caused him. However, what did Lelouch do? He forces his own values on people, acting just like his father did. Now I know people are going to claim what Lelouch did wasn't as bad as his father because Lelouch still gave free will, but when you're mind controlling people through out the series, and even leave many of them mind controlled after the conclusion, that's a pretty weak argument. In the end he was taking the same philosophy as his father. He was forcing his views and his version of peace on everyone else, even though no one seemed to want him to do so; something he said just a couple episodes ago was morally wrong.

I find it interesting that the ends only justify the means when its Lelouch applying the means. If anyone else is killing people or making lives miserable, they're automatically a villain, but apparently not Lelouch.

You can actually make the argument what Lelouch did was worst than his father when it comes down to how he treated Nunnally. Lelouch emotionally scars his sister in far worst ways than his father ever did. Nannually was able to be happy after what her father did to them, but was completely miserable when Lelouch betrayed her. (Yes people, it is Lelouch who betrays her, not the other way around like fans claim). Lelouch was willing to use his Geass on her despite having no need to do so except for the writers desire to be dramatic. Sure he confesses his so called "love" for her while she is under his control, but since she can't hear those words, it counts for nothing. Those words weren't meant for her. They were meant for Lelouch so he could express his feelings for her while not running any risk to himself. He truly was the coward Nunnally called him.

Nannually would have remained completely heartbroken if she hadn't found out at the last minute Lelouch still cared for her. (Granted the way the writers went about Nunnally so easily believing Lelouch was completely evil in the first place was as mind dulling as the rest of the plot. Nunnally has the capability of telling a person's intentions just by holding their hand. You mean to tell me schneizel nor anyone else never held her hand during the entire time schneizel was taking care of her?)


The so called "heart filled" conversation Lelouch had with Suzaku during the last episode about Geass being like dreams and accepting help from others completely contradicts what Lelouch has been doing the entire time. Lelouch did not use his Geass to create dreams. He destroyed the dreams of countless individuals. While he did have help in the end, his last words almost imply as if he did everything without the need of help from others.

Lelouch somehow manages to pull some of the greatest ass-pulls in Anime history, with details left out as to how he actually accomplishes it. The so called peace Lelouch achieves is nothing but a farce and the most far fetched ending I have ever seen in anime. His whole plan is nothing but a lie and in the end doesn't bother touching on truth issues of human society and what creating peace would truly require. Does he really think no one is going to figure out that Suzaku, the guy who helped Lelouch kill billions is actually Zero? Or that no one else is going to start wars?

If the writers had bothered to study politics and world history at all, they would see that creating a common enemy does not create peace. After World War 2, U.S. and Russia became enemies despite being allies against the Nazi's. The Middle East has been known to unite against common enemies such as the British, but once victorious they turn on each other again. What has brought about more peaceful times has been showing mercy and diplomacy. Offering hands of friendship and working together not just in times of war, but in times of need. You need to educate people by removing prejudice and hate from the equation, not increase it. I know that sounds cliche itself, but it is the truth.

In the end Code Geass is an Anime that wants to have its cake and eat it too. It wants to be deep, humorous, serious, and over the top all at the same time, but in the end just feels like a bad written soap opera.