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Aug 26, 2015
One Piece is an anime frequently classified with Bleach and Naruto as one of the "Big 3" in anime and manga. These 3 have ruled at the top in terms of popularity for over a decade, and their popularity is still high as ever, if not higher. I personally find it really hard to get into long-running animes (+100) but surprisingly, One Piece was an exception, a rare one at that.
One Piece was one of my first anime I've watched. (first being pokemon ofc) It was the anime that got me into anime, especially when there was a time where I thought anime was
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boring and a waste of time. I literally thought that they didn't have anything special about it. However, after getting a recommendation from my brother, One Piece really changed my views on anime. Since I barely knew about anime at that time, I was really intrigued by the aspect of pirates and adventure. I watched one episode, then another, and another... and I was hooked to the show in no time at all. Because I was impressed by One Piece, I started watching other shows, mostly of the similar genre. From then, my love for anime has grew and grew, and is still growing to this day and it's all thanks to one great piece of anime.
One Piece takes place during the Great Age of Pirates, which started when the King of Pirates, Gol D. Roger announced to the world shortly before his death that he had hidden his greatest treasure, the "One Piece" somewhere, and told others to find it. About 20 years later, a boy named Monkey D. Luffy, who ate the Gomu Gomu no mi devil fruit, also interested in finding the One Piece and exploring the world, sets out on a journey full of exciting adventures, dangerous pirates and marines, and meeting new friends. From there, he makes many new comrades to support his journey.
The story itself seems nothing special, but it evolves as the time goes on. At the time of writing this review, One Piece is at 670 episodes, which might tell you that it is rather drawn out. However, during those 670 episodes, they slowly build the world and characters into something unique and huge, enhancing the story bit by bit. The story arcs are fantastic and well thought out, sometimes leaving you in awe. In the story arcs, you are usually introduced to other minor characters, some who are equally interesting to watch just as the main characters. And the fights as a whole, are really well paced and entertaining, mixing blends of action, humor, and drama to keep you hooked.
Also, like most other long running anime, One Piece does have its share of fillers. BUT, they have nowhere near an overwhelming amount of fillers and some fillers can even be enjoyable as well. The fillers also introduce you to new characters, who although non-canon, are still pretty likable as well.
Like many other animes, One Piece also has a system of supernatural powers. In the world of One Piece, there are things known as Devil Fruits, which essentially take the shape of real-life fruits, but taste horrible and give consumers a unique power. Depending on the user and how they use it, the Devil Fruit can become something very powerful. The concept of the Devil Fruit is one of the most impressive aspects of One Piece. There are three types of known Devil Fruit: Paramecia, which gives you the ability of superhuman ability or traits, Zoan which lets you transform into an animal, and finally Logia, which can transform your body into an element like fire or ice.
The idea of eating something and getting superpowers is nothing new, but the fact that One Piece has shown an immense amount of Devil Fruits already, and that no two fruits are ever the same, is quite impressive. Oda really exercised his creativity level on this part, as while some abilities might come off as goofy, you cannot deny the creativity and work Oda put into some of the fruits and their users.
For the Art... now this is the section I've heard the MOST complaints about. To be honest, I was bit skeptical myself when I first saw the art style. It can come off as cartoonish, childish drawing for the most parts, possibly turning off viewers. However, as I watched on and on, I forgot about it. After a couple of episodes, I honestly didn't CARE for how the art looked, as I was just immensely enjoying the hell out of the show. It's really a hit or miss however, as it can turn many people off completely, while others might not be bothered by it so much.
Also, nowadays, the art in One Piece has improved dramatically. It is much more pleasing to the eye than it ever was. The artwork is fresh and clean. The character designs are also outstanding as well. Some might be drawn rather silly, but the uniqueness in some of the character art is very fun to look at.
Now, I've heard some people say that the soundtracks are rather silly and lame. This really depends on your tastes in music, but I personally found most of the soundtracks amazing. While some of them do come off as silly, the osts all fit the scene and atmosphere very well. The voice acting is also equally impressive, with each of the voice actors fitting their characters perfectly, and also being able to deliver emotion, or intensity depending on the scene.
The characters in the Straw Hat Pirates are special. Not really because they will be the most unique characters you'll ever see, but because of the bond they share with each other. The characters are very well developed, have interesting/fun personalities, and most importantly, they are easy to love. They all have interesting backgrounds, some which are tragic, and are striving to achieve their dreams as they adventure together. As they travel along, they start to care for each other so deeply to the point where they would do anything to protect each other, creating extremely powerful and emotional episodes or arcs at some point.
The Straw Hat crew members are exceptionally great, but the supporting characters themselves are no slouch either. Most of them are designed well and have unique, interesting personalities. Unlike many anime, they aren't just pushed to the side, no. Most of them have interesting, yet traguc backgrounds and goals, and you can't help but cheer for them as they try to achieve their own goals. Some even are just as lovable as the main characters themselves! Hell, I even cheered for some of the antagonists at one point as well, as they were just too likable and unique.
One Piece is an amazing anime. Although not perfect, it still is one of the most fun and entertaining experience I've ever had. I know many people who won't even give One Piece a chance for couple of reasons. Most are turned away by the art, some are discouraged because of the episode count, and some are even victims of the infamous 4kids dub (which was HORRIBLE btw). Well, I can't force people to watch it, but I really think everyone should give One Piece at least a chance. In one anime, you'll be taken through a journey full of adventure, good action, comedy, and drama. Who knows? You could enjoy the hell out of this show, and possibly forget about every downsides I mentioned above.
I sure did, and maybe you could as well, if you just give it a try.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Aug 26, 2015
This is definitely a must read for fans of the anime version of Angel Beats! Angel Beats! Heaven's Door is served as a prequel to the anime, and this time, it is not focused on Otonashi, but is focused mainly on Hinata, Yurippe, and Kanade. (Otonashi barely makes an appearance, only a tiny bit, just a heads up for people who are looking forward to seeing him.)
For those who were disappointed with a lack of character backstories in the anime, rejoice, as this manga, so far, covers a couple of other characters not shown in the anime. So far it has covered Shiina, Yusa, Chaa,
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Ooyama and a bit more clear story of Hinata's death.
I have said in my review of the anime that I was disappointed that only a few characters managed to get proper backstories. The manga, however, has managed to rekindle some of my hopes in wanting to see some other characters go into detail (T.K. and Noda mainly). The characters that were mostly kept in the dark (Shiina, Yusa, Chaa) have interesting backgrounds and had a very different, much darker personality before they eventually joined the SSS. Hinata's "death" was explained much more clearly, and we also got to see what kind of personalities Ooyama and Noda had a bit more clearly. Although we're still far from getting all of the SSS members' backstory, the content of the manga so far is definitely satisfying (although they aren't uploading that much... 34 chapters in about 3 years. Still hoping for the best though...).
As for the art, it's beautiful. I expected nothing less from it. It's clean and has good character and background designs. Just like the anime, it's one of strong points of the manga.
So far, I am enjoying this a lot. I probably enjoyed this more than I enjoyed the anime itself. Some good humor, fighting, and most importantly allowing us to explore into a couple of characters have been enough to make me like this manga more than I thought I would have.
As I am waiting day by day for a new chapter, I'm also hoping that they somehow don't screw this up, and end it early just like the anime. (Which would be Very, VERY disappointing, seeing as how the manga panned out so far.) In the very least, I'm expecting to see at least a couple more characters go into detail, about 4-5 more. Unfortunately the waiting seems to be forever as it's been about 2 months since we got the latest chapter. However, as slow as it might seem, it is still worth waiting for the sake of wanting to know other characters more.
As I have said before, Angel Beats! Heaven's Door is a must read for those who liked the anime. It is also a must read for those who wanted to know more about the other characters, as well as what happened prior to the anime series. All in all, this is turning out to be a great read. Now if they could just keep this up...
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Aug 26, 2015
Before I start this review, I want to say that I haven''t read the light novel of Madan no Ou to Vanadis, so do not expect any comparison of the two in my review. This review is solely based on only the anime itself.
Vanadis (as I will be calling for the rest of the review) is set in Western Europe, during times of war. In a way, the fights and strategies are similar to what was used in real life, but in Vanadis, there are beings known as War Maidens, who are essentially the leader of their respective armies, and have extraordinary powers and abilites,
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allowing for them to make an immediate impact on any battle.
The plot is nothing too amazing. Tigrevurmud Vorn, is an archer fighting for his country, Brune. However, during a battle with a War Maiden, he gets captured and is taken hostage, until Eleonora, the War Maiden, sees his skill with the bow and what he is worth, eventually sparing his life in exchange for him to serve under her.
The first problem with Vanadis throughout the series is the pacing. It is very fast paced, to the point where the introductions of the war maidens were cut off, with most of them hardly getting involved with the main plot whatsoever. Also, while the story somewhat revolves around wars and battles, they in my opinion, lacked the tension they need for us to actually care about what's going on in the battlefield. Some battles and individual fights also seem to be cut short, with one gaining the win in an instant at times, building no tension to the battle. From episode 1 to 13, the pacing was just poorly done, and severely damaged the series overall. This issue probably would have been cleared up if the series was split up into two cours, but nope, instead we got what felt like an almost incomplete show with an anti-climatic ending.
One important factor I have to mention is that during the battles, the scenes are usually interrupted by something called chess wars, which is basically explaining tactics and showing the map of the battle, while replacing the soldiers with mini chess like pieces, all different depending on their own class or what weapon they have. The thing is that, the battles (not including individual fights) are mostly fought on this.. map, with figures... though it did show up less and less as we got to the final episode. I'm personally a bit so-so on this as they could still have shown what was going on without introducing those things. But thankfully, they were short and didn't show up as much in the later episodes.
Moving on to the art, it's good, but not great. The character designs other than Tigre or some of the war maidens are very lacking. Even Ludmilla, a major character in the story, looked a little bit off at times. (maybe it's just me though) Sometimes faces could look longer than normal, and eyes could even look uneven on minor characters. Thankfully, these issues mostly clear up as we head to the anti-climatic finale. The background itself is good and fitting, however, do not expect anything too outstanding.
The animation is definitely disappointing in my opinion. While some scenes are animated very well, others could be clunky and choppy. Even in some of the battles, the soldiers sometimes look like they are striking at nothing, but they are made to constantly do it over and over again in the background, which is not all that important, but nonetheless, a flaw.
A final word on the art. If you like fanservice, then Vanadis does not disappoint. The war maidens and a couple of other woman are very busty, some wear a lack of clothing, all their breasts jiggle, and some are even shown nude. So just a heads up for people who either like fanservice or dislike it.
The soundtracks for this anime is nothing too outstanding, but it still does its job at fitting well with the scenes shown. As for the opening theme, I personally loved it, really liked the choir at the back accompanying the lyrics. But as for the voice acting, it disappoints. It isn't bad, but like many have said before, there is always room for improvement. Some sound bland, and couldn't really capture the scene very well, while some were good, but again, nothing too outstanding.
And now for the characters... yes, this was the biggest disappointment for me. As I have said before, in Vanadis, there are a severe lack of character development. The only noticeable one is probably Vorn, but even then, it's not all that praiseworthy. Also to the people who eventually die, it is hard to actually care for them when they have been shown too little to bring out any personality. Furthermore, even the so called war maidens hardly get a development whatsoever.
The biggest problem of this series for me was that most of the War Maidens barely got any screen time, with the exception of two, Ludmilla, and Eleonora. Hell, some didn't even show up! This is a huge problem because the show is partly about those war maidens and what they are capable of during batles, but it was extremely disappointing to see them barely involved with the main plot whatsoever. The war maidens themselves mostly had bland personality, while a couple others barely had ANY time to show their personality and goals. Finally, out of the couple of war maidens that actually showed up, only 3 got involved in battle, which is a shame. (again, this probably would have been much better if this was split up into 2 cours...) And as for the other characters, it's not even worth mentioning them, but they are essentially same as the rest of the characters, with bland personality and no development.
All in all, the characters themselves are the weakest and the most disappointing part of this show.
This was disappointing. I've heard many good things about it from others who read the Light novel, and I was honestly expecting something that I was going to be entertained with. However, the series was way too fast paced in general, ignoring much needed developments. They tried to fit all of the war maidens in a such a fast paced show, and they failed miserably. Not only they failed to get developments, but we barely got to know most of them overall.
This could have been good, but turned into a massive disappointment. There were no outstanding aspects at all, with hardly anything to be called a redeeming factor. Overall, Madan no Ou to Vanadis was yet another anime that could have been good, but isn't, as it fails to solidly execute any aspects that make up an anime. A mediocre show at best, I close off this review with a sigh of disappointment.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Aug 25, 2015
Ao no Exorcist, a shounen which has become immensely popular in both anime and manga, loved by many but also disliked/hated by others. A show which started well enough, but soon went downhill quickly due to many plot holes and filler crap.
I'm just going to put this out here right now: the anime version of Ao no Exorcist has filler 2nd half and ending. Yes, the 2nd half is mostly a filler. It does not stick with the manga for the most parts and is therefore punished by it. For those who are looking to watch Ao no Exorcist, I suggest you to watch the
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first half of the show, (about until 16-17 episodes or so) then go read the manga for the rest, especially if you don't want to be disappointed by the filler half.
Story- 6/10
The premise of the show is interesting enough. Satan, demons, exorcists, and the two separated worlds of Gehenna and Assiah, the concept of this show seems pretty good at first, however, it turns out to be yet another typical shounen, set mostly in a school setting with some flat romance.
The first half is good enough, mostly keeping with the manga. The first couple of episodes are probably the best episodes of the series, showing the main characters, bits of our main antagonist, and introductions of the True Cross Academy, and both Gehenna and Assiah. It's decent enough, and I was actually enjoying it up to this point (like up to episode 8 or so) However the episodes that follow don't do the same. The 2nd half which I have said before, is mostly a filler arc, which doesn't stay true to the manga, and just makes their own story up which turned out to be, well, horrible. There are just so many plot holes in the anime as a whole, and a rushed ending makes the quick downfall of the show.
Art- 8/10
One of the best parts of the series comes from the Art/Animation. Although some character designs were lacking in parts, it is still very acceptable. The art is mostly comprised of bright colors, but also feature some darker aspects depending on the scene. I have to say that it complemented the scenes well. The animation is smooth and the characters move well. Overall it is very good.
Sound- 7/10
The composer of the show's soundtrack is Hiroyuki Sawano, who has also composed other stand-out soundtracks for many popular anime like Attack on Titan, Guilty Crown, and Kill la Kill. The battle osts are pretty epic, and it fit the scenes well, however, outside of those osts, nothing else stood out. The OP/ED were catchy enough, I personally didn't like it, but maybe you could find them likable.
Character- 6/10
The characters were good, but didn't have much depth into them. Rin was by far the best character of the series, with bits of calm and cool personality showing through as the show went on. Yukio, although he is the younger brother, he still acts like the older one and is much more mature in situations than the rest of the gang. Finally, Shiemi is a love interest for Rin, and is one of the few characters who actually show character development in the series. The rest of the characters were too shallow and lacked depth overall.
Enjoyment- 6/10
I enjoyed the show for some parts. Like I have said already, the first couple of episodes were good and enjoyable. The rest of the episodes suffered from too many plot holes and filler. The actions were decent enough, but ultimately led to nothing in the end.
Overall- 5/10
I was let down by the anime. I love the manga series, and when I heard that Ao no Exorcist was going to get a anime, I was very excited. However, it lacked direction, and couldn't stay true to the manga for the most parts. Ao no Exorcist is interesting enough at the first glance, good and enjoyable first couple of episodes, but the rest that followed were a mess. I enjoyed parts of it to be fair, but still disliked the series as a whole. I wouldn't exactly recommend this, but who knows, others could find it enjoyable.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Nov 9, 2014
Angel Beats!, an anime hailed by many to be one of the best, if not the best anime ever, but also an anime many think its bad and seriously overrated. So where does it stand? Well, it isn't downright terrible, but it's not the best anime there is either, no, it's not even close to it.
I think the main story is summarized pretty nicely on MAL so I won't go in much depth on that. The first few episodes were presented nicely, and definitely looked promising. It introduced you to the characters in the SSS and Tenshi, and for me, I think they did
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a good job on it, making you want to know the truth of the afterlife and how the characters ended up there. From there, however, it started to fall apart, bit by bit.
You see, when an anime is only going to be 13 episodes long, it can have the tendency to get rushed a lot. And when an anime gets rushed, it can usually leave no room for development on both story and characters, sometimes cramming a huge amount of plot in one episode to even make it feel confusing. That's exactly what happened with Angel Beats!. The short duration of the series was at fault when the characters couldn't even get a proper development and backstory and mostly because of that, the story, on the whole, fell short. The huge amount of comic relief (at times, unneeded) didn't help much either. Honestly, they could surely have sacrificed some of the rather drawn-out comical scenes for some backstory right? Well, they obviously thought showing like only 6 backstory (out of like 18+ SSS characters) was ok enough, otherwise they could have shown at least one or two more even in just 13 episodes.
Also for the ending... well it's loved by a lot of people and disliked by others. As for me, I was very disappointed by it. The romance buildup towards the ending only had a few episodes to go for, and was rushed and just crammed together in the last few episodes, having almost no development whatsoever.
The Art is a standout. It was just stunning, beautiful and eye-catching. The character and background designs were, overall, great. The animation was also great. It was crisp and fluid, and everything from character movements to the little bits of battle scenes we had were animated very well.
Moving on to the Sound aspect, which I easily thought was the 2 of the best parts of the show, the other being the Art. The OP/ED were great but the soundtracks were really memorable to me. They fit the scenes very well, especially the beautiful and sad soundtracks. To me, without the soundtracks, some scenes wouldn't have felt the same way as it did.
Now for the characters. What started out as so promising ended up, not terribly, but marred by the short duration of the series. As I have said before, the character development was practically non-existent due to the series being short. The characters themselves, are interesting, but not entirely unique. Likable? yes, Lovable? maybe.
As I have mentioned before, I was really looking forward to seeing the character's past and how they got to the afterlife. However, with just 13 episodes, even if the character's past is cut short, it just seems so hard to fit all 18 members of the SSS + Kanade in the series. That led to having only about 6 character's backstory shown. This also led to the more interesting characters being overlooked. Characters like T.K., Shiina, or Noda had so much potential to become a great character, but were basically brushed off to the side.
Here's what I hear a lot from people who have completed the series. Many of them say that they didn't cry or feel sad throughout the series simply because that they couldn't get attached to the characters in such short amount of time.
This, for the most parts, is true, but also depends on the person watching it. For me, I liked some of the characters, and found myself partly relating to some, (who had a backstory that is) but I didn't get attached to them. But like I said, this just depends on the person watching the series. Some could cry and feel sad for days, but others could just shrug it off and say "meh".
So will you be attached to the characters by the end of the series? It depends. Had the series went on just a bit longer to give characters some more time, most, if not all characters in SSS would probably have gotten a proper development and backstory, and also likely would have made you feel more attached to them.
I personally enjoyed Angel Beats! despite its flaws. Although most of the enjoyment score comes from the first couple of episodes, the last couple still weren't downright terrible, it was just too rushed to the point it became uninteresting. In my opinion, the comedy was decent but it was just too drawn-out. For the sad scenes, I personally found only one scene to be sad, I didn't cry, but it was still, sad.
Overall, Angel Beats! is a good anime with some outstanding aspects to it, accompanied by departments where it could have been executed a LOT better. A longer duration could have helped a lot for Angel Beats! as it could have had more developed story and characters, but what's done is done.
I'd say Angel Beats! is on the overrated side, but being overrated doesn't mean that you shouldn't watch it. Who knows? For you Angel Beats could be a fun, sad, and enjoyable experience as a whole.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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