Back to Franzor's Profile Franzor's Profile

A lot of people have said that Princess Tutu is not what it looks like. It’s not as girly as it sounds. Don’t judge a book by its cover. Well… I actually disagree with this. In many respects, Princess Tutu is exactly what you might expect. It’s a magical girl fairy tale with romance, ballet, a female lead, and a big bad villain who wants to ruin everything for the protagonist and keep her from her true love and there are several points that might make you feel like you’re watching a classic Disney Princess movie. BUT! I do not think that should stop you ... from watching this. Princess Tutu is truly a hidden gem. I had a lot of fun with this anime and I honestly think anyone of any age, man or woman can still love this show.

--- STORY ---
Princess Tutu in a nutshell is a story of a story. Once upon a time a man wrote a story of a prince who fought against an evil raven. During their battle the two managed to literally come out of the story and into real life. Eventually the prince prevailed and managed to lock the evil raven away forever. However, in the process he had to shatter his own heart in order to do so. Thus leaving him emotionless. Skip ahead to the present and we find that all the characters of the story now reside peacefully in a small town where they all attend a ballet school. This is where our main protagonist comes in. Ahiru. Who’s name literally translates to “duck” Which makes sense since she herself is in fact a duck who through the power of a pendent is able to take on the form of a human girl and it is her role in the story to collect and return the shattered fragments of the prince’s heart. At the same time our main antagonist Princess Kraehe attempts to prevent the prince from regaining his heart while also trying to free her father the raven.

This is definitely one of the more unique stories I have heard among fairy tales and while it may sound like just another typical fairy tale, the story’s execution is fantastic and it tells itself in a very realistic way and there were never any moments that felt too sappy, cheesy, or sugar coated. The story is exceptionally well written and contains a perfect blend of comedy, romance, drama, and even some dark epic moments.

--- CHARACTERS ---
The characters were definitely the highlight of this show for me. I immediately fell in love with ALL of the characters and I was only 2 episodes in when I just HAD to add Ahiru to my favorite characters list.

This show focuses mostly on five main characters.

Ahiru/Princess Tutu – Our goofy, kind and caring protagonist who’s only real desire is to restore the prince’s heart as she wants nothing more than simply to see him smile.

Mytho – The prince of the story who having lost his heart is left with no emotions or even any understanding of emotions.

Fakir – The knight of the story dedicated to protecting Mytho and doing what he believes is best for him though at times he comes off as very controlling.

Rue/Princess Kraehe – The primary antagonist of the story. Also in love with Mytho, she hopes to prevent Mytho from regaining his heart and is constantly getting between him and Ahiru.

Drosselmeyer – The writer of the story of "The Prince and The Raven". Having died after both his hands were severed, he now resides in another dimension where he watches over his tale as it unfolds before him.

The characters all act and feel very believable and they each have a good amount of depth and focus in the story. There is also great character development with not just the protagonist but with all the characters. As the story progresses and we learn more about the characters, some of them turn out to be quite different from who we originally thought they were and they develop very naturally throughout the course of the show. Even the villain goes through some growth. Every character is great and even the minor characters like Neko-sensei are very memorable. Because if you don’t do well in Neko-sensei’s class… He will have you marry him!

--- ART ---
Princess Tutu is a fairly old anime dating back to 2002 and as such it has the art style you would expect from an older show. Despite this, the art is quite good for its time. It is very suitable to the show and has a real charm to it that makes it quite pleasant to look at.

--- SOUND ---
Big fan of classical music? You’ll love this show. The majority of the soundtrack consists of popular classical tunes. Mainly those from the Nutcracker and if there was ever an anime that used classical music well, it’s Princess Tutu. The intro also has a very classical feel to it and goes great with the show. Same goes for the outro.

As for the sub or dub debate, Princess Tutu has one of the better dubs I’ve seen. None of the voices sounded bad and Luci Christian was an excellent choice to play the role of Ahiru (or as she’s called in the dub “Duck”) The original version is also spectacular and is worth watching as well. Want to watch the Japanese version? Every voice fits PERFECTLY. Want to watch the dub? The voices still fit perfectly. So watch whichever version suits your tastes. Or if you have time, watch both!

--- VERDICT ---
Princess Tutu is a highly under appreciated show that deserves far more attention than it gets. If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend it. Definitely one of if not the best magical girl anime out there.

Thanks for reading

People must be overreacting. There’s no WAY Pupa is as bad as everybody says. There must be SOMETHING good about it… right?

Now I’m the type of person who whenever I hear about a show everybody says is bad I get this sudden urge where I have to watch it and see just how bad it really is. And before I started Pupa I sat down and said to myself “Okay, I don’t care what people say. There must be something good in this show and I’m going to put my full effort into finding everything good in this anime! I’m gonna find something to enjoy!” ... Sadly my strategy did not go as planned. After about a minute in, the show quickly turned into a disgusting, messed up gore fest. “But I’ve seen plenty of messed up shows and movies before that were still good! So if I just look past all the gore in this then I should still be able to enjoy Pupa for the story and characters!” Well… That plan didn’t work so well either.

The story is utter crap. So much so that I almost don’t even know what the show was about other than Yume and her brother Utsutsu Hasegawa get infected with the “pupa” virus that turns Yume into a flesh-eating monster and gives Utsutsu the ability to regenerate from any damage no matter how severe. And because of this regeneration ability, he has to serve as her… food source. Pupa is 12 episodes and each episode is only 4 minutes long. So as you would probably expect from such a short show, the story is rushed. Very… VERY… rushed! The show is constantly jumping around from plot point to plot point with almost no connection between scenes. And apparently the writers also thought it would be a good idea to have practically every episode introduce a new major plot point that raises many big questions but then completely drop said plot point after the episode and never go back to it or bother to explain anything.

Did I mention this show was messed up? Because holy crap is this show messed up and overflowing with disgusting gore! But not messed up in a good way like Higurashi but rather messed up in a way that just makes you think “WTF am I watching?” There are three cannibal scenes in this show that are all very graphic and one of them is literally an entire episode of just Yume eating her brother. Now this could have been a rather thrilling or creepy scene but they portrayed it in a sexual way and he seems to enjoy being eaten by his sister and all I can say to that is… “Who gets turned on by this!?”

How could I describe the characters? Let me see uh… Flat. Boring. One-dimensional. Hollow. Bland. Idiotic. Unrelatable. Unrealistic. Unlikeable. And absolutely NO character development whatsoever! Honestly that’s really all there is to it. I mean what can I say. The characters were TERRIBLE in every possible aspect.

The soundtrack was also crap. Neither the intro nor the outro were anything special and the only track that stood out was the piano instrumental that they played whenever they showed Yume eating her brother and the only reason it stood out to me was because of how unfitting it was to the scene.

The art style in this show was… interesting… but I hesitate to call it “good” Now I’ve heard a lot of people complain about the censorship in this show. However I was lucky enough (and by that I mean unlucky) to see an uncensored version on YouTube in glorious 1080p and the art style was certainly graphic and… detailed (at least in the gore) so I’ll give it that.

Now for the verdict. Pupa is an abomination and as I mentioned before I tried to find good in this show. I really did. I spent the entire show desperately searching for even the tiniest thing besides the art style that I could call even halfway decent thinking “Come on Pupa! Give me something good! Please! Anything I can praise! ANYTHING! AT! ALL!” But as much as I tried to find good, every waking second of Pupa was complete and pure badness and I do not recommend this show to anyone unless you’re like me and like to watch shows just to see how bad they are. Even if you’re into this type of messed up gore there are still plenty of shows out there that are messed up and still have great stories and a cast that doesn’t suck. Or even if you are into cannibalism then just go watch Silence of the Lambs or High School of the Dead or listen to the song Evil Food Eater Conchita. Anything! Is better! Than Pupa! I mean if you really want to see something that's messed up and still good then go watch A Clockwork Orange.

Thanks for reading.

Mushishi is a unique show in many ways. It’s rather weird and bizarre but is also very intriguing and definitely grabs your interest. This show was much different from what I expected it to be (in a good way) and for many episodes I had my eyes glued to the screen, watching intensely. Mushishi has a calm, mellow, and soothing, but also very deep and powerful feel to it.

---STORY---
I think the story is one of the strongest points in this anime. What makes Mushishi different from most anime is that it does not focus on a single overarching story and instead each episode has its ... own short story with a new plot and characters (aside from Ginko who is in every episode) And this actually works quite well as each story is beautifully well told with many powerful moments that sometimes leave you speechless. You may find a couple of episodes to be a little boring but the vast majority of them are very well written stories that pace themselves very nicely. If I were to describe the plot of the show as a whole, I would say it’s about Ginko traveling from place to place in feudal Japan dealing with different cases that deal with mushi. Which brings us to the next great point of this show. The Mushi.

Where do I begin with the mushi? They are one of the most unique concepts I’ve come across. I’ve seen many things similar to demons and spirits in shows before but nothing quite like the mushi. Just trying to explain what they are can be a bit of a challenge. If you want the most accurate description of what they are then read the synopsis of this show. The mushi and the effects they have on people and the world are the main focus of each episode and there are many different types of mushi that take on different forms and act in different ways. There are some that reside in your pillow and make your dreams reality and there are those that slip into your brain through your ear and feast off of your memories until you can no longer remember anything. Some mushi are harmless and others are dangerous. And though many of the mushi featured in the show do harm, I absolutely love the way they are portrayed. Regardless of what they may do, there are no good or evil mushi. They’re just creatures trying to survive.

Normally when watching shows or movies we see the characters go through many struggles throughout the story. But no matter how bad or hopeless it gets, we know that things will almost always end well. And that's a good thing of course. I mean everybody likes to see the protagonist come out on top. However in Mushishi this is not always the case. And because the show is episodic, they can get away with this. Some episodes end well and some don’t. Many of the mushi act similar to diseases. And like diseases, sometimes there’s simply nothing you can do. You can treat it but you can’t cure it. This is great because it keeps the show unpredictable and helps give it a good sense of realism as well as provide us with some deep and rather sad endings. And every episode I found myself always wondering “I wonder how this is going to end up. Will it end well for the characters or not?”

The only real negative thing I think I can say about the story is that it does get a little repetitive. While the individual stories themselves are very different, each episode follows the same general formula.

There is a problem.
It’s mushi related.
Ginko shows up.
The problem is explained.
Ginko attempts to solve the problem.

Repetitiveness aside, the story is still spectacular and each episode is great and worth watching.

---CHARACTERS---
Ginko is the main protagonist of this series and is a mushi-shi (A person who studies mushi) He’s a calm, relaxed individual who is constantly travelling not just to solve cases involving mushi but also because he himself attracts mushi, thus he cannot stay in one place for too long or he will attract dangerous mushi to the area. His character is rather simple but I still found him very easy to like and he gets an interesting backstory about halfway thorough the show.

Ginko is the only character that remains throughout the show. And aside from him, each episode deals with different characters. Despite this, the characters of each episode are quite good and easy to connect with and feel for, despite the short amount of time they each get in the show.

---SOUND & ART---
As for the soundtrack, it’s fantastic! The intro is amazing and does a great job of setting the mood. It’s also nice to hear an English intro every now and then. Especially one sang by a native English speaker. The outro changes every episode and all 26 of them are beautiful instrumentals and I sat through the credits every time just to listen to them. The art style is also great and really shows in the way they animate the mushi and the background. The only downside is that the characters themselves don't look very detailed and most of the side characters look very much alike and you might find yourself thinking "Wait a minute. Isn't that the guy from the last episode?"

Dub or Sub?
The dub for Mushishi is fairly descent. Ginko is played by Travis Willingham, who some of you may recognize as the voice of Roy Mustang. I had my doubts at first but now I can say that he was an excellent choice for Ginko. As for all the side characters, they’re mostly hit or miss. Some of them sound bad while others sound quite good. The good news is that for the bad voices you’ll only have to put up with them for one episode. The Mushishi dub is good but I would never recommend it over the sub. The voice acting in the original was truly spectacular and maybe its just me but when I watch an anime that takes place in feudal Japan, back when Japanese was pretty much the only language spoken, I feel that watching the Japanese version really helps give it that feeling of authenticity. So I will highly recommend the sub for this show. But this is just my opinion so watch whichever version you like :)

---VERDICT---
Mushishi is not for everyone. If you’re looking for an anime dripping with action then you’ll probably find this show very boring. Nonetheless, this show is still fantastic and I was very impressed with this anime. And if this show sounds even remotely interesting to you then I definitely suggest you put this show in your watching or at least in your plan to watch under high priority.

Thanks for reading.

Deadman Wonderland has gotten its fair share of mixed reviews over the years. It’s got its ups and downs. Is it overrated? Probably. Is it bad? I wouldn’t say so. I think most people will enjoy it to some extent and it's definitely great for people looking to watch a good violent thriller show.

As for the story, it’s fairly descent but not flawless. So our main character Ganta is thrown into Deadman Wonderland. A prison where inmates fight each other to the death and endure deadly obstacle courses for the amusement of the public. I know. It’s sick. Especially when you see families with their ... children in the crowd. Eventually Ganta discovers that he’s one of the “deadman” a person who can control their blood and use it as a weapon.

I have to say that for me the best episodes were the first few of the show as they set up a great concept. The downfall is that the show takes a slightly different rout than we expect it to. Ganta gets involved in a few fights with other deadman convicts but eventually teams up with the other deadman of the prison in an attempt to escape and let the world know of all the horrors going on in the prison. (because apparently the citizens believe all the blood and deaths they are seeing are just special effects) I wouldn't say this story is bad by any means but I think it could have been much better if they had focused more on Ganta trying to prove his innocence and find out the identity of the “Redman” (the one who really killed all his classmates) while in the meantime, trying to survive the dangers of the prison. Now these things are not dropped. They are dealt with in the show, but I felt they treated them too much as minor subplots when they should have been the main focus of the story. The blood fights themselves are definitely cool and each deadman has different abilities and styles in which they use their blood which makes fights very fun to watch but I still would have rather seen them focus a little more on obstacle courses like the one in episode 2. The pacing is a little on the slow side but there are a lot of points in the show that should keep you interested nonetheless.

Ganta is an alright protagonist. Out of nowhere he’s suddenly framed for the brutal murder of his entire class and is thrown into the worst prison in the world so he obviously starts off scared and confused thinking “What in the world just happened to me!?!” like anyone would but once he comes to terms with what happened, he has the drive to become stronger which makes him fairly admirable. His character develops slowly but it does develop.

Shiro is pretty great. Fun, goofy, and loveable with a good amount of mystery to her to keep you interested and Kana Hanazawa does a fantastic acting job as always. Not to mention there's a jaw-dropping plot twist with her character around half way through the show that will more than double your interest in her.

Minatsuki Takami aka “Hummingbird” is also a great character but there’s not much I can tell you about her without spoilers. I’ll just say that I though she was great and it’s a little disappointing that she got such a small amount of screen time. She got a lot of focus when she first showed up but then kind of faded away.

As for the other characters in the show, they’re descent enough as they each have their own things about them that make them interesting. A lot of the deadman later on in the show seem to be fairly good people and it makes you wonder what they did that got them thrown into a prison like Deadman Wonderland and if maybe they were framed like Ganta.

The art style is good and the blood fights especially are well animated. The soundtrack is also good and the opening fits the show well.

As for the ending, the show is unfinished and requires a season 2 (which I’m guessing they won’t make) They did this with Claymore too, though Deadman Wonderland is a much more open ending than Claymore’s was. Basically if you want to finish the story you will need to read the manga, which is completed. I myself have not read it yet but I’m sure I will eventually because I do want to know how this show ends considering the ginormous amount of unanswered vital questions this show left us with. And who knows. It might change everything I’ve said in this review but for now these are my thoughts on this show.

So if you haven’t seen Deadman Wonderland yet then this is a show I would recommend you see at some point in your anime life especially if your into this type of genre. I definitely enjoyed this show and I’d say watch it at your convenience but it’s not something I would really push anyone to watch.

Thanks for reading.

Warning: minor spoilers

There are certain standards and requirements that make a good show or movie. Well-written story, good character development, steady pacing, the works. The problem with Mirai Nikki is that it fails miserably at even the most basic rules of storytelling.

The story itself is sloppily written at best. The concept itself is actually quite great and the whole idea of being thrown into a survival game that uses future predicting cell phones where the winner becomes god of time and space is brilliant and it definitely adds interest to the show. However it’s the concept’s execution that causes the story to fall apart.

Mirai ... Nikki constantly presents itself in a way to make you expect certain things and then go in the complete opposite direction. The main weapon that all the contestants use are obviously their diaries all of which are able to predict the future and each have their own special abilities that make them unique and as the diary owners take actions, the future written in the diaries will change. With a concept such as this you would assume that means that the characters will have to use their diaries to outsmart their opponents and will show a lot of intelligence, cunning, and elaborate planning. But nope! Most of the characters are idiots and instead Mirai Nikki focuses not enough on the diaries and too much on action, fight scenes which are mostly bland and boring, and back stories for characters we don't care about. Many diary owners are defeated the same way. Yuno brutally hacks her way through all their minions before finally reaching the diary owner and slaughtering them in cold blood or destroying their diary. Mirai Nikki also has a bad habit of throwing in bad jokes in serious moments and there are MASS amounts of mood killers in this show that make Mirai Nikki seriously unworthy of the title "psychological thriller" the story moves slowly, the plot forces itself along constantly, and the overall show is ridiculously repetitive.

The show also tries way too hard to get you hooked as nearly every episode will leave off with a major cliffhanger, which would be fine except the next episode almost never picks up where it left off and will usually take several episodes to get any answers. The questions all lead up to huge plot twists that yes are definitely surprising. I did not see them coming. But surprising does not necessarily mean good. Most of the plot twists create more questions than they answer. Most of which will also take forever to answer or will just not get explained at all and there are a mountain of things in Mirai Nikki that simply don’t make sense. It gets even worse towards the end of the show when they start hitting you with plot holes big enough to fly a jumbo jet through. Plus all the completely random crap they start making up on the spot towards the end to the point where there is no longer anything in the show that makes any sense anymore.

Warning: The next paragraph contains spoilers.

I don't normally like to include spoilers in my reviews but I feel like I just have to talk about this. When you get right down to it, Mirai Nikki is a love story and if you want to see the worst, cheesiest, most forced love story ever that makes soap operas look like masterpieces then look no further. Yukiteru has a million reasons to hate Yuno, he spends most of the show lying about loving her, and then at the end he decides to fall in love with her for real with no logical or believable reason other than “just because”. This is immediately after she made him kill all his friends by the way. Not to mention that there is absolutely NO chemistry between the two of them at all. And even if she did save his life a few times, it does not justify the horrible way she treated him throughout the series and is still not a good reason to fall in love with a psychopathic serial killer that could do who knows what to you. *cough cough* She tries to kill him. *cough cough*

Still a better love story than Twilight? Nope. Not this time.

Spoilers over.

The characters overall are horrible. Many of them will often take actions simply because the plot demands it and as far as intelligence goes, the characters are flat out stupid. You know. The kind of stupid that’s painful to watch and makes you want to go smash your head against the wall. Keep in mind that this is supposed to be a psychological thriller.

Amano Yukiteru himself is without a doubt the WORST protagonist I have ever seen. Period! Seriously, how do you screw up the main character this badly? Why is he bad you ask? Because he’s a terribly written character who fails to fulfill his role as the protagonist and is simply unlikeable. Starting at the beginning of the show, Yukiteru is portrayed as weak, pathetic, spineless, cowardly, annoying, and helpless (hell he’s even voiced by a girl) But that’s alright because that’s what character development is all about! And we know he’ll get stronger and braver as the show progresses right? WRONG! Yukiteru spends the entire show doing pretty much nothing but hiding behind Yuno while she does all the dirty work and by the end of the show, Yukiteru is the exact same person he was in the first episode and has not changed at all. The protagonist is supposed to be the hero of the story. The relatable character we root for. Yet Yukiteru doesn't care at all about winning the survival game and does so little that his character could probably be removed entirely and the show would still work. Even when he does start to care about winning towards the end, it's for the most illogical reason imaginable. His character is incredibly inconsistent, he puts way too much trust in all the wrong people and is too quick to forgive thus he ends up consistently making things worse for himself, and as with most characters in this show, he is an idiot.

Now for the other main lead. The yandere poster girl. Yuno is your typical yandere who obsesses over Yuki and threatens to kill anyone who gets near him and she does this part of her role quite well. Murata Tomosa also does a fairly good acting job and her voice fits Yuno pretty well. On the flip side, like everything else in this show, her great potential is ruined. There are many traits that drag down the seriousness of her character. She often acts goofy. Many times even in serious situations and her dialogue is pretty pathetic (not a good trait of a psychotic character) and consists way too much of her constantly crying out “Yukki!” She is also seriously lacking in any decent personality besides yandere.

Regarding the other diary owners, they are obviously supposed to be the antagonist of the show and as such are portrayed as crazy psychopaths. Many of them also get their own tragic back story that I’m guessing is supposed to make us feel sympathetic towards them though it does not excuse the horrible acts they commit and ultimately just creates confusion. Are we supposed to like these guys or not? Of course it doesn’t matter whether or not you like them because most of them won’t be around long enough for us to care much anyway. One of Mirai Nikki's major faults is that it spends way too much time and effort in giving us detailed back stories on minor characters that are only around for a few episodes while the back stories of our main characters that actually matter are barely touched on.

As for all the other characters, they are mostly bland, forgettable, and as I mentioned before… IDIOTS! Though I will say that I kind of liked the character Akise Aru (and when I say "like" I mean "hated the least") Akise seemed to be the only character that possessed intelligence, which makes him a good fit for a psychological thriller like this, though his character is still far from perfect.

As for the art style, it’s fairly good though nothing special. The soundtrack is also pretty average overall but the tracks do their job of fitting the scenes and neither of the openings are bad. Mainly the first intro, which is definitely amazing.

So is there anything good in Mirai Nikki? Well... actually yes. As a matter of fact Mirai Nikki is overflowing with amazing potential to be a great show. The problem is that every ounce of that potential was wasted and shat upon in some way or another. And that's exactly why I consider this to be the worst show I've ever seen. I would rather watch a show that is bad from the get go (e.g. Pupa) than have to sit through the torture of watching such great potential be thrown into the trash heap. And believe me, I REALLY tried to enjoy this show. What’s upsetting is that there are so many underrated shows out there with fantastic characters and stories that clearly were well thought out and had a lot of effort put into them. Of course none of that matters anymore because nowadays you can just slap yandere on a character, throw in a bunch of hack and slash action and apparently that works. And it’s very disappointing that that's the type of show that gets popular nowadays.

So is Mirai Nikki worth it? Well if you’re one of those very casual viewers who likes to pull the good ol' "turn off your brain" trick and watch shows based on pure enjoyment alone and doesn’t care about flaws then by all means feel free to watch this show. Don’t think about it at all and you might like Mirai Nikki. On the other hand if you're any kind of critic with standards then you will probably want to avoid this show as you will most likely see it as the big jumbled mess that it is.

Thanks for reading.