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Magical Girl Raising Project Review

The magical girl genre has changed dramatically over the years. While there are still the light and fun shows that have been around since Sailor Moon, the dark magical girl genre has taken hold since the release and success of Madoka Magica. Predictably, this critical success created to several Madoka-type anime clones throughout the past few years. Some of these ranged from cringe-worthy and awful to good anime on their ow rights. Where does Magical Girl Raising Project stand in comparison? Well, I thought it was a good show... but it could have been better with some tweaking.

Story: 7

The story of ... MGRP is fairy straightforward. The plot combines your typical battle royale type anime with the magical girl genre and delivers a lot edgier of a magical girl experience. The pacing overall is solid. The action and talking segments are pretty fairly distributed each episode and the show is rarely boring because of this. So, I give credit to the show-runners for keeping a balance.I also thought MGRP stuck the ending for the most part. Not perfect, but satisfying enough to me. However, the problems in the story and pacing come in with its flashbacks. Like many other anime, there are too many of them. Some of them come out of nowhere, do not tell enough, or slow down the pace.Additionally, I feel like Magical Girl Raising Project forgets who the main character is in the second half. She disappears and re-appears out of the action constantly without much explanation. Lastly, MGRP needed 10 more episodes. Too much story is crammed into twelve episodes and would have really benefited from more time for character development. That being said...

Characters: 5

The biggest problem with MGRP. While there are several characters with fun, interesting, and zany personalities, almost none of them receive enough development. Without spoiling too much, this show has a lot of death. I appreciate a show willing to kill off its characters greatly. However, when the character doesn't receive enough screentime, the deaths ring much hollower than they should. There's several girls I was very interested in learning more about, but we never really found out much of anything. The villains in particular do not have much motivation to their actions without much reason giving. One was stated to "have a screw loose", and that was all we got. As stated in the story section, this anime really needed 22 episodes to develop the magical girls' characters better. That would have given the deaths more emotion and a longer time to know each of them before their demises. That being said, I thought several characters were genuinely likable and there was no character that was outright bad. Still, a disappointing category.

Sound and Art: 7

For me personally, art and sound do not play much of a role in me enjoying an anime. Unless the two are really bad or really good, it does not make much of an impact on me. With that being said, both were good but not all that memorable. The opening was catchy and looked good and the ending was above average. Overall, I thought everything here was fine.

Enjoyment: 8

The strongest aspect of MGRP is the enjoyment factor, which is the most important score for me when grading a show. The fights were some of the better in the magical genre that I have seen. Each character used a unique fighting style which made each fight more enjoyable. In my opinion, they were the strongest part of the show. While a few were predictable, the anime also has a few nice twists I did not expect. As previously stated, I really wish each girl had better character development and the show was ten episodes. While I still think this, I was anxious every episode to see if any of my favorite characters would be killed. Not as nervous as I would have been had the characters been better developed, but it made MGRP more suspenseful.

Overall: 7

The math I had gave Magical Girl Raising Project just short of a 7. Despite this, I'm going to round up to a 7 due to its enjoyment factor alone. If you like the dark magical girl genre as much as I do, give this one a try. You could watch way worse 12 episode anime. If you like the battle royale genre in general, I would give this one a try too.

Pros and Cons:
+ Solid fights and fight choreography
+ Brutal Deaths
+ Fluid Pacing, sticks the land

-Not enough character development
-Show needed ten more episodes to spread out development
-Too many flashbacks

If you liked this one, try...
Madoka Magica (if you have not somehow seen it)
Yuuki Yuuna is a Hero! (another solid dark magical girl show IMO)
Akame ga Kill (due to the kill count and overall brutality)

Elfen Lied. Is it a bloody mess or brutally brilliant? Many have argued the show does not deserve the masterpiece stamp it has been given by countless fans over the years. Many have called it over-violent, unfocused, and only liked because of the incredible amount of gory scenes the series possesses. However, I for the most part find the accusations in the last statement to be untrue. This show may certainly not be for everyone though due to several factors, which will be touched upon here.

In the first twelve or so minutes of the first episode, the viewer is shocked to see the rapid dismemberment ... of fifty or so guards with blood spraying everywhere. A naked, horned, Diclonius named Lucy's emotionless expression is drawn on her face while everyone around her is murdered by her Vectors (invisible four extra, extending hands). Surprisingly, the scene ends with the least violent moment of the first segment: a bullet shot into Lucy's head. While it does not kill her, Lucy loses her memories and is found naked on a beach by the main two protagonists: Kouta and Yuka. Forgetting her past as a murderer, Lucy can only say the pseudo-word, "Nyu". One would think the viewer could feel relaxed for a few minutes, but that peace does not last long.

As the anime progresses, the peacetime almost completely disappears the farther it goes along. Most people would soon discover that this is one depressing show fairly on. Happy moments rarely occur outside of the comedic moments between Lucy/Nyu and the other main characters while she is in her innocent state. Most of these moments are pretty funny and very few fall flat along the way. The plot and narration are pretty loose admittedly. The frame story unfolds slowly, while the pace of the many subplots moves at a rapid pace. This mostly works. However, it presents a few problems as well. A few plot holes jump out at a few points mostly involving the famous "Disappearing Character Syndrome", which is when characters disappear in an anime and randomly appear in the last spot we saw them at a separate time that is not logical.

Speaking of falling flat, a few of the characters never become as interesting or likable as they should be. The shallow characterization of Yuka does not give the character enough depth or memorability to stand out. While not quite as low as the level of Yuka, Mayu and Bandoh do not have enough significant scenes to show off themselves. However, the other members of the main cast are solid, dynamic characters whom the audience will definitely feel sorry for as the story progresses. Kouta being haunted by his past losses, Lucy's terrible upbringing, and Nana's inability to get her "father" to be proud of her could bring a tear to anyone emotional person's eyes.

And speaking of eyes, the art beginning at the eye opening at the beginning of the opening song, "Lilium" is pretty solid. I am not a stickler on art style myself, but I found nothing wrong the quality. I think it's actually aged quite well nine years later. The opening song is beautiful. No other word can describe it better. Fantastic variations are used of it throughout the series that fit each scene very well. While the ending theme is a decent song, I really do not think it fits the tone of the rest of the series.

Did it seem like there were quite a few cons in those last few paragraphs? Here's a few more pros to balance it out. The morals/themes and symbolism are excellent throughout the thirteen episodes. The theme of whether the Diclonii or the humans being the real monsters is well-written and presented and becomes very clear near the end. The symbolism, which I will not spoil, is subtle, yet powerful, particularly in the flashbacks. I am often critical on the overuse or misuse of flashbacks, but Elfen Lied uses them effectively and in organized clusters.

In the end, Elfen Lied is a taste anime that is not for everyone. If you're squeamish with blood, run far away. If the sight of a child or puppy being struck multiple times is too much for you, this may not be the anime for you.However, if as a viewer you enjoy dark, gritty, bloodbath anime, Elfen Lied is a must watch. Through its minor minor flaws, Elfen Lied is a truly great anime that deserves the praise it often gets.

(This is only a review of the first season of Gantz. I have not watched the second yet. [English Dub])

Going into watching this anime, I never thought it would teach me a lesson. What is that lesson exactly? People suck. It's that simple. The anime did a great job of portraying this. This anime proved that the world is not as nice as it appears. There is greed, violence, and lust running rampant through the veins of this show. While Gantz does an excellent job of executing these themes, is the anime as good as it should be?

Well, I'll just come out right ... now and say no. Problems begin in the story/storytelling. The premise and basic plot for Gantz is bizarre, but very interesting. The basic plot consists of people dying in the real world, but instead of going to Heaven or Hell, the victims join in on a survival game. In this game, the people selected by Gantz must hunt down an exotic creature and kill it before the sixty minutes are up. Kills earn them points in the game, but I won't give anymore details in the game. What can be so bad about that? The pacing is way too slow.

There are only two games during the first season, and I really think there could have been at least one more if the producers picked up the pace a lot. The episodes that separated the games were either random or repetitive. This bizarre, sluggish pace made me feel like I was being dragged through the mud by the world's slowest race horse. This series should have had a lot more action in it to keep the excitement up. A lot of the time, I would get frustrated because something that could have easily occurred within one episode was spread into three. Overall, great ideas, but horrendous pacing. (6)

Along with the storyline, the art was disappointing at times too. While I liked the 2D shape in a 3D world perspective, some of the art clashed sometimes and looked a bit goofy. A lot of facial expressions were either Slenderman esque, or unreal looking. That is not a good thing in an anime which wants to convey a feeling of real people in it. Besides those flaws, the animation looks pretty good during the fight scenes and most other scenes throughout the anime. Overall, not bad, but could've been more consistent. (6)

In contradiction to the last two categories, the sound in this anime were very well done. First of all, the music was fantastic. The opening theme was really zany, which was a good match to the feel of the anime' s material. However, I really, really loved the song during the ending credits. The female singing had a beautiful voice, and I think the lyrics of the song matched up with some themes of the anime pretty well. The music during the action scenes were high octane, blood rushing tunes like they should have been. The other music in other scenes matched well as well.

The only thing that brings down the score here a point is some of the voice acting. While mostly all of the characters had a fitting voice for their character, some of them got on my nerves in screaming scenes in particular. I've always liked Greg Ayres' voice-acting, but when his character, Kei Kurono, screamed it gave me a little bit of a headache. His definitely was not the only one. Overall, an excellent score with pretty decent voice acting. (8)

While the music was rather good in this anime, the characters were a real letdown. Our three main heroes, were decently developed, but lacked likability. First of all, I'm going to talk about Kei Kurono. Kurono is one of the most lusty, sex-crazed heroes I have ever witnessed in an anime. He has very few sensible morals, which is not a good thing. Kurono cannot make a decision and lacks the aggressiveness expected him to have. While he gets more tolerable later in series, he still ends up being hard to support.

Along with Kurono, Kei Kishimoto is fairly unlikable. While her character design is very attractive and memorable, nothing about her personality is. She is incapable of doing much of anything for herself, and she is as bad as Kurono on the decision making level. I liked her backstory, but overall, she Kishimoto is not all that likable either. Of the three, the most likable, but still not great character, is Masaru Katou. Katou has an interesting backstory that truly makes the viewer want to cheer for him. However, I think he is a worse decision maker than the other two combined. His morals clash way too often and create a train wreck of confusion the audience. He also has a bad habit of crying at really inappropriate times, which is unintentionally laughable. With the exception of two fellows named Tetsu and Nishi, none of the supporting characters are very interesting. Many end up being flat out annoying. All in all, I believe this is the anime's main flaw. (4)

How much did I enjoy Gantz? Well, as much as I possibly could. As previously stated, the overly slow pace frustrated me a lot. Watching the characters argue instead of fight things made Gantz a lot less enjoyable than it should have been. Stupid decision making by the characters also made me facepalm, per say.

While it was not the main focus of the anime, the humor was pretty well done when it had relevance to the plot. A lot of the dialogue was very funny, but at times it was cringe-worthy. The humorous lines outweighed the clunky ones though. The first few, and particularly the last two episodes, are what made this anime have an enjoyment factor of a 6 rather than a 4. Overall, I enjoyed the action and humor Gantz provided, even though the pacing was way too slow. (6)

Overall, Gantz was a decent anime, but could have been a whole lot better. The depiction of selfish, greedy people living in the everyday world was almost perfectly done, but the characters and pacing suffered because of it. I went into Gantz with high expectations because it was on the recommendations list of almost every show I enjoyed most. Unfortunately, a lot of those expectations were not met. I still did enjoy the uniqueness and draw of this very different anime. I hope the second season can build on these efforts and end up a point or two higher on my scale.

Overall: 6/10

Oh, High School of the Dead. Where do I begin? To make this introduction simple, I will introduce the main three themes of the High School of the Dead: High school drama, Zombies, and a whole lot of Fanservice. What kind of rating will these three factors combine to score on my rating scale? Well, before you "die" of suspense, I will elaborate.

Story (7)

What can I say about High School of the Dead's story. While I have found that is pretty unique in the anime world through my research, the story has been done countless times in other media. Because of this, the ... whole storyline is pretty formulaic to those who have seen any show about a zombie apocalypse in the past. You should know the drill. A somewhat athletic male lead finds out zombies are attacking his city. He gathers up a few of his friends to take on the zombies, one of the friends being a girl he likes or has liked in the past. They meet up with another group and there is a struggle for who should be the group's alpha-male/leader. The anime follows this routine very closely. However, it still works due to several factors. High School of the Dead adds unique anime elements to the age old formula. These elements add more zaniness and less predictability to the familiar. Overall, it's definitely been done before, but it is a solid version of the same old story.

Art (7)

Overall, HSOtD is very well animated. The action scenes where zombies are getting their heads bashed in look gruesome, bloody, and great. Everyone and everything looks pretty fluid. Now, to discuss one of the main themes of the anime: the fanservice. Oh boy, the fanservice. If you enjoy fanservice anime, you should definitely give this one a look. It is everywhere in these short twelve episodes. When I say everywhere, I mean everywhere. All of the four main female characters are animated with gigantic, bouncy breasts, large rear ends, and have their underwear shown off over ten times each throughout the anime. What do I think about all of this fanservice? While I do not mind a little of it normally, I think this anime overkills on it. Fanservice is inserted in about every point possible, which distracts focus from the action and other qualities of the anime. At some points, I got really annoyed to the point of frustration. All in all, the animation quality was good, even if fanservice was overused.

Sound (4)

This is my main disappointment with the anime. In a series marked as a horror anime, I expected much more music that, well, sounded scary. What do all horror movies have in common? A nice, spooky soundtrack. High School of the Dead lacked that. While a few of the action and suspenseful scenes had nice music, others had music which did not match the atmosphere of the situations on screen at all. In addition to that, I was not a fan of the opening theme song. I did not think it matched the feel of the show, and I did not like the song all that much. Besides the sound, the voice acting was pretty solid otherwise. All of the voices matched the characters well. (I watched the dub)

Characters (5)

This was another main flaw of the anime. Most of the characters were pretty stock. None of the main characters were really that well developed. Along with not being very well developed, all of their archetypes have been seen in several different forms in other anime and zombie shows. We have the tough main character, the somewhat jealous girl he likes, the nerdy guy with a rare talent, the snooty pink-haired prep, the badass girl, and the ditzy blonde girl. All are present here. As stated previously, none of them receive much character development either. Despite there being nothing new about these character types, each of them look unique in the world of the zombie storyline. As previously stated, I do not believe there are any other, if many, zombie apocalypse anime. It's pretty cool to see these characters in a new environment. Also, each of them have unique charms that make them all pretty comical. Kouta's gun obsession particularly made me laugh in several situations. The dialogue is also very, very good and fresh. Overall, all of these characters have been seen before, but they are still fun in their own right.

Enjoyment (8)

Enjoyment of this anime all depends on whether you enjoy the main three themes of the shows. I enjoy two of the three a lot, so I found a lot of enjoyment in this anime. My friends and I have mapped out our zombie apocalypse plan several times in real life, and this show has given me some more ideas for the plan. I normally enjoy high school drama and a little romance in my anime, and I enjoyed it here too. Even if I felt the fanservice was overdone, I still liked some of it. The rest was a little too much for my liking. While the show is not the deepest on earth, I had a great time watching it.

Overall (6)

I'd give it a 6.5 if I could. While there is a high entertainment value to be seen, there are several sizable flaws carved throughout this zombie tale. From plot familiarity, to under-developed characters, to mediocre music, and reliance on fanservice, this anime falls a little bit short of where it should. Even with this errors, there is still a lot of fun packed into the hallways of the High School of the Dead.

After reading the synopsis for this anime, I was really excited. After reading that the Guilty Crown had a lot of criticism, I then became a bit hesitant to watch this series. With such a promising premise, I was surprised to see so much hate. However, I have never been someone who did not watch something because of mediocre reviews, so I went for it. Did Guilty Crown end up being a crown I wish I had never tried on, or is it my "guilty" pleasure. Bad puns aside, this review will dissect my feelings of this often criticized anime.

Story: (5)

I would give this a ... 5.5 if I could. The story in this anime is one that I loved and did not fully understand at the same time. In short, the story consists of a somewhat weak high schooler who meets a strange girl and receives a mysterious power that lets him grow stronger. I will not give any more detail in that to keep everything spoiler free. In the first twelve episodes of the show, the plot was all over the place. The base story was set, but random deaths and plot twists were thrown in several spots that. These plot twists either did not make much sense or were way too rushed. I felt the ideas in 11 and 12 were introduced too quickly, and took away a lot of the emotional impact of the emotional events. Despite the action-filled, shaky plot-lined first half, the last ten episodes of the show improved on just about every aspect of the plot I wanted. The plot was more centralized, made a lot more sense, and it had a better mix of action and dialogue scenes. In those last ten episodes, I was thoroughly excited to see what happened next at the end of every episode. The plot still had a few shaky points, but it ended up being very fulfilling in the end.

Art: (9)

Wow. The art in this anime is beautiful. The environments are unique, the characters' appearances are memorable, and the opening and ending credits look fantastic. The art when a void is extracted look brilliant, and the character's expressions while being extracted from looked very believable. My favorite aspect of the art style was during cutscenes with the crystal-like virus (which I will not describe any further). The crystal effects were menacing and beautiful looking at the same time, which perfectly conveyed the theme of beauty being a symbol of destruction in this anime. Overall, right at the 9.0 score level.


Sound: (9)

I may just like the music in this anime than the art. That is saying something. With the power of song being a supporting theme, this anime needed a good soundtrack, which it definitely had. The vocal music was all beautifully sung every time. The instrumental music, particularly in the last few episodes, was nearly perfect in matching the mood of the situations. I loved how Inori sang a lot of the songs rather than just being in the background. It was a touch to make the soundtrack more human-like. As with the rest of the soundtrack first opening is now one of my favorite opening tracks of all time. I liked the second one too, just not as well. Additionally, the voice acting was very good. I thought every voice matched up with the emotions of the respective characters very well. I would give this category a 9.5 if I could.

Characters: (6)

The characters in this anime were a bright spot and a letdown at the same time. The characters who were developed the most were all very likable, or at least memorable. As far as fairly weak main, male protagonist, I liked Shu Ouma a lot. He was a lot less whiny than a lot of other characters in other animes from his archetypes. Interestingly enough, I thought the female characters in this anime were a lot more likable and developed. Hare, Ayase, and Inori all were very cute and likable. Even though I do not think Tsugumi received enough character development, she was also very likable and cute. On the negative side of of the score, I think that the villains were highly disappointing. Each of them were intimidating, but none of them had very clear motivations for their actions. Along with that, I thought that there were too many of them. I thought Daryl could have been an interesting character, for example, but he was not shown in enough dialogue scenes to merit this. Similarly, I thought there were too many characters on the heroes side too. Souta was the only one who I thought received enough depth, besides the ones I have already mentioned. I think if the writers would have worked more character development into the first 12 episodes, this problem would not be as big. The only times I ever felt emotion for a character was in the back half of the series, which should not have been that way.

Enjoyment: (8)

Even through the dizzy plot line of the first half of the show, I enjoyed the anime as pure entertainment a lot. Even when character and plot development were lacking or sloppy, the action kept me highly entertained. The humor was overall very funny, the action was fast and exciting, and the dialogue was solid. When I watched this show, this is exactly what I planned on wanting: entertainment. This show was fun to watch, and with a little patience pays off for an ending that did not disappoint me. The only hindrance to this fun is the confusing and murky plot line of the first half. It was a little frustrating at times.

Overall: (7)

Guilty Crown is not a perfect anime by any means, but I definitely enjoyed it. I think you all should give it a try too. If you like high-octane action, quirky characters, fantastic art and sound, a little fan service, and debating connections between religion and science, this anime will be enjoyable to you. So, the story is not Shakespearean and the character development is lacking, it does not ruin the show. I think this show is almost criminally over-criticized. It is still a hell of a lot of fun. All in all, this is a crown that you should not have to feel guilty to try on.

Imagine this. There are eleven people around you who want to murder you. To make things worse, you have no idea what their faces look like, and you are not very strong to begin with. A cute, mysterious girl appears and wants to help you fight your battle. Why? You don't know yet...

This is the basis of Mirai Nikki, or Future Diary. Mirai Nikki contains a mixture of romance, blood and gore, and shocking twists around every corner. As a fan of these type of blood bath animes, this is one of the best I have watched. Read on in this spoiler free review to ... know more.

Story (8):

Oh, how I love the story in this anime. While I've never been an uber fan of romance-centered plots, this one packs in tons of bloody violence, dark humor, and edge of your seat moments. The story flows very well through most of the episodes. That being said, I think through the middle it lost its way at times. The best part of the anime for me was definitely between Episodes 18 to 24. Like many others, I was not a fan of some aspects of the conclusion. Parts of it were too complex and out out of left field for my liking. Overall, very good.

Art (9):

The artwork here is fantastic. The blood-soaked battles and explosions looked menacing and haunting as they should have. The animation was very fluent, which is always important in this type of anime. The only reason it did not get a ten is because I have seen a few other animes with slightly better art.

Sound (10):

What can I say, the sound in Mirai Nikki is beyond awesome. The first intro perfectly matched the gloomy images projected on the screen. The tune gets stuck in my head a lot. I also loved the second intro song as well, but I did not like it as well as the first. The other music was also fantastic. The music in the dramatic or sad scenes were some of the best I have ever heard anywhere. The tracks paralleled the emotions of the characters with perfection.

Character (9):

Mirai Nikki hosts a stupendous cast of colorful characters. Each of the twelve competitors possess different motivations, personalities, and appearances. The supporting characters who are not a part of the game such as the mysterious Aru Akise, the dynamic Kosaka, and the cute duo of Hinata and Mao Chan add to the charm of the delightful cast. The only disappointing aspect here is that too many of the characters are killed off too quickly, so they do not fully get developed. Examples of this are Twelfth, Third, and Tenth, among others. However, the main characters along with two other supporting characters, Fourth and Seventh, are developed. First, Second, and Ninth go through very complete character arcs.

Enjoyment (9):

I highly enjoyed this anime. It kept me on the edge of my seat and wanting more. The aspects that make this not a 10 are a few episodes where the romance plot overbears the action by too much, and the ending left me disappointed and a little confused. I feel it makes things up and alienates the audience a bit. Overall, Mikai Nikki was one great ride.

Overall (9):

In my fairly brief time watching anime, this one has to be on my very favorites I have watched. The plot clicks at a rapid pace, the action is tight, the romance is believable and well done, the characters are very memorable, and it has surprising depth. Though the ending and some lack of character development weigh this show down, it is still awesome. If you love intensity, jot down a to do list in your Diary to watch this anime. I guarantee no DEAD END will follow.