Back to Isalina's Profile Isalina's Profile

My first review about a manga, and in fact, rather about a manhwa. In my opinion, a very well drawn and written one.

This was pretty much my first real look into some korean history. I'm not very much into history or literature though so I may be the wrong person to say how wonderful it was, but I still enjoyed it.

The story revolves around a wandering Angyo Onshi, called Munsu, roaming the lands to execute his own justice, after his homeland, Jushin, was destroyed.
At the start, the story picks up several korean tales, bringing korean culture nearer to the reader and later starts to ... get deeper into the real story, building it up steadily to a nice climax and calming end.

The art changes throughout the work from rough to soft. In other words, at the beginning the art was not as good as later on, but still good. Speaking from where the art was nearly perfect, it could be considered one of the main reasons I actually read it. It is detailed, beautiful and still can be called realistic, with some exceptions.

Munsu, a main character which is not your average hero from your average fairy tales, but could rather be considered an "anti-hero", who acts not always like you probably wish he would, but you can't help but like him. At least that would be my experience. I think Munsu is a character you have only two, and I repeat myself here, only two options. Either you like him or you hate him.
Every main character though, is destined to encounter several companions throughout the series, mostly two. Which are in this case, a strong girl called Chun Hyang or nicknamed Sando and the loyal Bang Ja. Both, having their individual past stories, join Munsu on his journey and make the group complete. They will encounter several other interesting characters who all have their own role to fulfill. If those characters are good or bad may actually lay in each persons judgement. Personally, I often thought a character was the worst and later came to understand their reasons better and end up not hating him/her.
Munsu actually was one of those, but no matter what he did, I couldn't start disliking him. Staying strong to his believes is a main trait of Munsu and is very remarkable.

When I read a manga, if don't feel like simply reading it, I enjoyed it the most. Shin Angyo Onshi was one of those. I laughed, cried, was angry at times or felt sorry. It was exciting and entertaining, almost breathtaking. May it be about the brutality or the beauty. While I tend to not understand history or literature related elements very well, I still enjoyed the work in it's enterity.

It was a great read. A work that teaches you many things. To stay strong to my believes isn't what I learned in this piece, but it encouraged me to stay true to this, no matter what difficulty I may face.

Okay let's start. This will probably going to be a very long review, so I hope you're prepared to read a little.

Despite so many people hating this anime, after watching the whole thing, I came to my own opinion about it being one of the best anime I've seen until now. I had many ups and downs while watching it. Sometimes I was hating it, sometimes I was loving or rather liking it. I'm sure many others had the same experience.

This anime is about many natural and important parts of a human's life. It's about humans choosing their paths, wanting to reach their ... goals, mistakes and second chances and overall just being human in a super natural setting with fantasy and sci-fi elements.

To shorten up everything, I gave all things a 9. I would have given a 10, but "outstanding" just doesn't fit it. The story is great on it's own level. It might be something other people have seen many times before, but that isn't the important thing. You know why stories resemble other stories so much? Right. Because they're made by humans and humans resemble each other in the way of thinking and acting.
There's no point in comparing anime with a similar story, because like humans who're alike in certain parts, but differ in other parts, stories as well have their differences despite being alike. I think of this story as a great one, because it kept me watch and in the end it satisfied me. Also I liked it's ups and downs. So I gave it a 9. As for the art, I think I don't have to say that it is beautiful and without flaws. The sound as well is a masterpiece and made me one eargasm after another. The characters are like the whole theme of the anime. They're humans and develope as humans or they don't. In this case they developed a lot. They do things a human does. They make mistakes and make their choices. One gets a second chance, the other gets none. And despite so many people not getting it, it was perfectly shown how humans are. And I liked that. So it gets also a 9.
I enjoyed this show a lot. Probably because of it's ups and downs and my own ups and downs. It's boring if a show is all bad or all good. It has to have ups and downs to keep especially me watching. That means also a 9 for this. And overall of course a 9 too. Since everything was to my liking it couldn't possibly be something less.

Guilty Crown was a very enjoyable anime for me. There were times when I thought about dropping it, but I'm glad that I didn't. I think that the title "Guilty Crown" was very fitting. And again it's just like humans are. If you take the human view of guilt, all humans are guilty of the one thing or the other, but guilt isn't always a bad thing or something that needs to be punished. Sometimes life punishes you and sometimes you punish yourself. Sometimes you just learn from your mistakes and without mistakes you cannot live. Mistakes make you learn about life and I think the protagonist Shuu is the best example here.

I also want point out that all that I wrote here is my personal impression and my personal opinion. It's how I understood Guilty Crown.

Well, this is my first review, just to say this first. I'll write my true feelings about this show.

I don't know why I write my first review about Blood-C, but I had just a feeling I should write one when I watched the last episode. Okay let's start.

To be honest I can't say I liked it and I can't say I disliked it either. I've seen neither Blood: The last Vampire nor Blood+ so I wasn't prepared for what might come. It was ... bloody. That's the only thing I can say about it, if you ask me to discribe Blood-C with only one word. ...

Coming to the story. It was kinda complicated for me, since the real thing came really late. The meaning of everything what happened. I think it was not fully explained, so I hope it will in the movie. At first it was all sunny, fluffy and nice with a bloody red aftertaste. Then it turned more and more red with sorrow and death.
The motto in this show, at least for Saya was "I will protect everyone", but it was quite the opposite what happened. I think if you take the story, this was really good. If you take the feelings that come out of this, it's just sad and frustrating. Someone can easily imagine what Saya felt. And I think that's an important part of a story. So I'll give it at least a 7.

Now the art. I think it was good, nothing much to say about it. Get's a 8.

Sound. Well I didn't have many anime which sound was bad. So this one is an anime with great sound just like many others. The sound suited the scenes perfektly and I personally liked the dramatic one. The Seiyuu cast was a great choice just as always (imo). Deserves a 9.

Now characters. Well it was dissapointing. Since at first everyone seemed very symapthic to me, later it turned out to be a total farce. Characters I liked turned out to be assholes (excuse me :x), but well that is part of the story, and since it makes the characters the way they are (unfortunately), it's good. I think I shouldn't rate characters low, just because I don't like them. I should judge about how they suit the story and how they act.
Now for the character design. It was not as much CLAMP as other series of their manga for example. I don't really like the character design of CLAMP, but since it wasn't this extreme, I liked it very much. Overall it get's a 8.

Now the most important part imo. The enjoyment of this anime. I did NOT enjoy it. I found it interesting. I found the morals, persons and how the show would progress interesting. Note that it is not the same as enjoyment. I give it a 2.
Since I don't enjoy bloodshed, especially not this much and I don't enjoy massacres. Though I thought some specific characters deserved it at the end. I cryed about only one death. Especially the extreme massacre at the end was the worst of all and if it would've been at the start I would've dropped it right away.

Overall I think it wasn't a bad anime, but it wasn't very good either. It was just bloody, but it had an interesting story. I look forward to the movie. But I hope those massacres won't continue. I would prefer it to have more story, since much has to be cleared.

Thank you for reading.