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EVERY TIME I CLOSE MY EYES, WAKING UP WANTING MORE JOJO


Welcome to the fifth iteration of the amazing, bizarre adventure of JoJo's. With the long awaited adaptation Vento Aureo being a third of the way through and personally being one of my favorite parts of the series I feel obliged to put my two cents forward on this wild ride. With out further adieu, here's my review of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind (Vento Aureo)




Starting off with the story we are introduced with Koichi trying to find our protagonist, Giorno Giovanna, the bastard son of Dio. Giorno has mostly led a troubled life with abusive ... parents until one day he helps out a gangster which in turn more or less 180's his life. With this sudden change for Giorno, he takes it upon himself to give back to others who have been down on their luck. He then one day runs into Bruno Bucciarati, which after discovering Bucciarati has a stand himself and then fights him comes to lean on him for help since he finds out quickly that Bucciarati is out to clean the streets himself. After going through initiation with Polpo, Giorno is introduced the rest of Bucciarati posse and thusly they go out and do orders for the Passione's boss meanwhile finding a way to get to him. The story of Vento Aureo as a whole, is by no means revolutionary, but it's still highly entertaining and action packed. Action packed JoJo is JoJo at its best if you ask me.




As always, the art of JoJo is pristine and fits the vibe of the series to a T. It's a hybrid of the Stardust Crusaders rough, gritty tone and Diamond is Unbreakable's flashy, contemporary design. The animation is very crisp and all the battle scenes are as fluid as you could ask. David Pro nailed it yet again and it's a treat to watch every week.



The OST is nothing short of fitting with part 5, we get a top notch OP to start off with Fighting Gold, bringing back Coda is great. The synth work in itself is fantastic and the song as a whole gives off a James Bond vibe. The character theme's are great and fit with the characters personalities. My god, the Prince remix for the Torture Dance was downright perfect. We didn't deserve how hard David Pro for us, but thank the anime gods they did. I was personally a bit skeptical on the ED at first, but after finishing the manga for pt5, it honestly fits in a strange way. Go figure, it's JoJo after all.



The Jo bro's this time around are some of the best we've got yet. While I don't love them AS much as SC's bro's, all of them on part 5 have something good to offer and to make the experience entertaining. As I stated earlier, minus their backstories, the motivations between Giorno and Bucciarati are similar in more ways then one so I'll lump the two together. Both have a strong sense of justice, meanwhile Giorno HAS A DREAM, they want what's best for the community as a whole, especially the children. I'm not really going to touch up on Giorno's stand as it is a very multi layered stand, that quite frankly does a lot of shenanigans, especially later on down the line. Bucciarati's stand, Sticky Fingers, is a stand which opens up inanimate objects, people, areas, amongst other things to various things like placing objects or making a quick escape. Next up we have Mista, a quirky young man who has a phobia over the number four. Mista somewhat falls into comic relief sometimes along with Narancia since it seems like those two attract trouble the most. Both of them are basically just big ol' goobers. Mista has a rather gray area stand. It more or less boils down to a long range stand that he has a symbiotic relationship with. My goodness Sex Pistols is an adorable stand though, truly the best boys. Narancia, the youngest outside of Giorno, is an ill-tempered kinda dope-ish kid who was betrayed by his older brother figure which lead him to a life of poverty and nearly dying himself until Fugo introduced him to Bucciarati. His stand, Aerosmith, is a remote controlled type cropduster airplane which can shoot a machine gun and missiles at his target. Along with his stand he can track them down with a radar system. Fugo is an intellectual whom had trouble expressing his emotions until he just cracked on a professor who was trying to sexually assault him. It's clear to say he's the brains of the group and was on a path to success until he boiled over, even though he was absolutely in the right to defend himself. His stand, Purple Haze is a true pinpoint reflection of his mental state. A mutli-faceted being that has insane amounts of power that he has trouble concealing and has a quirky neat freak tucked away inside. Lastly of the bro's we have Abbacchio. Abbacchio can come off as a huge ass, but this is mainly due to the mistakes he made in the past, so he has a hard time letting others in and trusting them. I can be hard on him as a character, but I /get/ why he does what he does to the characters he knows little about, like Giorno. To round the group up we have Trish. There's not much I can say about her, due to the anime being up to only up to episode 15 and I'm absolutely not going to spoil it for the anime only fans. Basically all that's been said is that she's the boss's daughter and Giorno and the Jo bro's have been tasked to protect her up until a certain point in time. I tried my damndest to not spoil things about these character since I truly love each of them in their own ways.




Pros-
Exciting and action packed story
Great art/animation
Great characters
On point OST
Fantastic fan service David Pro added in (i.e the expanded Torture Dance)


Cons-
Gotta wait a week for every episode



My final rating, due to personal bias is a 10. I love JoJo and especially part 5. Hope you guys enjoy the rest of the ride.

Time to review the proverbial hype train of 2018 that is also known as Goblin Slayer. As always, my views from on forth are purely subjective and this review is just the basis of how I feel towards the anime adaption of aforementioned series. Lets go into detail shall we?


To start off Goblin Slayer is a dark fantasy that's based around the notion of, you guessed it, slaying goblins. It's nothing incredibly deep nor profound and it's obvious to anyone that's what the author was aiming for. Amongst the twelve episode span we are subjected to the cruel atrocities these vile creatures will perform on ... various creatures especially female humanoids, since after all goblins are strictly male and enslaving and many other cruel and horrible things are the only way for them to procreate. Other than that, we follow the multitude of slaying events Goblin Slayer himself takes upon to get back at the goblins for things he's personally been subjected to and to protect the peoples he cares about. There's quite honestly not much going for the story, and that's perfectly fine if you aren't wanting something heavily story focused, but I personally could do with more material so I could become more attached. Another big issue I have with the story is the general pacing. It feels like the direction was lost within some side stories that didn't do much of anything to advance the plot. Nothing to develop Goblin Slayer or the others as characters. Also, the massive peak(s) and many valleys the story went into. The story basically peaked in episode one, which is a death sentence to the over arching story.

Art/Animation: Heh, this should be fine to discuss more of. The art itself, I wouldn't necessarily call generic. However, a lot of the characters, most especially the females are nothing that gives off a wow factor in design. It's mainly two different types here for the women of the show: petite or large breasted moe-centric girls. It's nothing that we haven't seen for the last decade so, bif ol' fat meh for me. I really do like the Lizardman's design and Goblin Slayer's armor design is actually pretty badass aesthetically. But, as the show giveth, it also taketh away in spades. The animation can be described in many, many ways. The way I will describe it myself will be as such- mostly piss poor. I don't know if White Fox was in a rush with animation this year, but my god the use of CGI by them has been down right offensive. Who in absolute god's name thought it was a brilliant idea to make Goblin Slayer be CG while standing still. It is one of the most jarring uses of the style to comes out in a long, long time. Not only that, but just some of the movement frames and blood splatters they utilize looks absolutely off-putting and took out immersion. There were particular scenes however, where they used special effects to great effect but those were incredibly few and far between. Outside of the characters, the practice of animation used and the way they went about it is easily my biggest gripe of the series, just right ahead of the characters.


Up next, we have the bevy of incredibly shallow and outright boring characters: Now firstly I must say, my dislike of these characters are from necessarily bad writing, but the lack of back story they receive for me to be interested at them. It's more or less left to lore and there's an incredibly minute amount we are given withing this adaptation. Firstly, we have Goblin Slayer himself. A broken dead-pan man who is only in interested in his namesake. The only main party member we get a plethora of back story on, him being the way he is makes one hundred perfect sense and they stuck with it through thick and thin which is quite admirable even within the tiny cracks to open up the barrier of his self-seclusion. Like any main character of a dark fantasy setting, he has a tragic past that of which still effects him to the present day, what you see if what you get with him. Next up, the Priestess. She throughout the series is mostly serving as a side kick like character to Goblin Slayer, providing battle support to the party, learning new spells, trying to crack open GS's shell, overcoming confidence issues, etc etc. Now for the Elf. The elf serves as the quick witted, tsundere-esque archer of the team. As with the character trait she quickly grows to depend on Goblin Slayer and like the other members gave him their own personal nickname. Now for the Dwarf, he's your typical grey. Experienced in many things in life and also quick witted with the Elf, as seen with all the banter between him and her. Outside of GS himself, Lizardman is the only other party member who holds any kind of enjoyment for myself. His infatuation with cheese is nothing short of adorable and his races summons are quite intriguing, really hope he gets more story in the future. Note for a few of the side characters: The way...Majo talks... is incredibly... irritating and Cow Girl (lol) is ok, I guess? She is at least one of the few characters that gives Goblin Slayer more motivation to break out of his shell. All in all, don't really care for much of any of them, they seem just to be generalizations of their classes/species than characters to be attached towards.


Sound: The sound ost of the GS is actually quite fitting for most of the series more or less. We get the hyped rock and orchestral tracks for the battles, the somber music for the more dramatic moments and every thing else in between. All in all, it's quite enjoyable and the composer did their job well.




Pros: Fun action (at times)
Good music

Cons: Bare bones story and characters
Jarring as hell CGI
Somewhat of a slog



I'm not quite sure I'll continue to follow this series since it honestly wasn't that entertaining to me, but I'm sure the target audience sure loved it. This show will go down in the meh territory of shows like Attack on Titan and Tokyo Ghoul for me, over hyped series that didn't live up to it for me. The only thing performed critically well here was garnering attention towards the show, if not for the infamous scene and blunder of Crunchyroll having a lower rating than need be GS would've completely flew under the radar as yet another meh fantasy anime. Hopefully, you guys found it to more of your liking than I did and we can discuss any further details about the series if you'd like.


(P.S, this review was written on impulse after completing the final episode so I may come back and revise this at a later date in time.)

I'll keep this review decently short and to the point since after all, this is a one off non-canon OVA.

Story: First off, don't go into this expecting any furthering the plot of Steins;Gate 0. This OVA is nothing more than a short, sweet just for fun episode.
The entire gist of it is more or less all the girls of the series making chocolates for Valentine's Day. With a sprinkle in of the friendship between Maho and Makise. It's nothing elaborate or profound in any way, so bear that in mind and don't take this too seriously.

Characters: Nothing really to say here, ... we just have a majority of the characters returning for the non-depressing shenanigans the cast we've come to enjoy (for the most part).


Sound: Still great; uses the ost from the anime/VN, which I find to be a supremely well put together.

Animation/art: Again, basically the same minus the jank looking CG we got with that helicopter from the full length series.


In conclusion, this ova just like the one from original S;G is nothing more than a short sweet addition. Also, the post scene credits is a decently big "oof".

Time to dive into the classic shonen series by my personal favorite mangaka, Yoshihiro Togashi. Yu Yu Hakusho has been watched by a multitude of us anime watchers who grew up in the Toonami days and I'm sure plenty of us still fondly have nostalgia over it. This is quite honestly going to be a rather challenging show for me to show unbiased objectivity towards, since after all it's my favorite series ever and also was what helped me garner a respect for the medium of anime as an adolescent. As always, my points are purely subjective and you can always feel free to agree ... or disagree with my points. Now, time for me to start rambling and get on with this bad boy.



Story: Yu Yu Hakusho, while at its basest roots seems like your typical shonen anime, but the way it handles its mature themes is almost second to none within its own genre, especially back in the early 90's. Torture, equal rights, sexism towards both sexes, slavery, good and evil deeds committed by human beings, etc. These are all just some of the themes that are touched upon in interesting and enlightening ways. We also get your typical shonen tropes along the way, friendship, taking down the new big bad, the absolutely fantastic tournament arcs (minus the last one due to rushed time constraints), just your typical schtick. The only major complaint I can give the story on my behalf, is that the last part of the series was unfortunately rushed, like I touched upon. From what I've come to read Togashi had a strict timeframe to put out his issues and had a very limited staff to help him. You also have to take into consideration his developing ailment and its side effects that he still deals with to this day. It's a total shame, especially with how spectacular the second and third seasons were.




Art: For the most part the art style/animation of Yu Yu Hakusho still looks great even judging compared to today's glossy standard of animation. While you do have the re-usage of still and frames it is still quite an appealing style. The weak point would be during the first season as it was the biggest offender of what I stated. Where this series really begins to shine is during the Dark Tournament and the following arc. The palettes and dark shading used fits the atmosphere and nature of the arcs to a T. The animation is fluid and riveting, just an absolute pleasure to witness. These two arcs are where Togashi and Studio Pierrot shined their brightest.




Characters: Let me start out by saying I adore the hell out of the main cast and just the overall cast as a whole. From Yusuke's quick witted hard ass personality, Kuwabara's goofball wholesomeness, Kurama's cool calm and collected nature and Hiei's over the top no nonsense personality. I could write an entire essay alone why I love these characters, but I'll just give a quick rundown why the main four and others are just so well written. Yusuke at face value just might come up as a dime a dozen good for nothing hoodrat, but deep down at his core he's a genuine kid who wants to protect his loved ones. He doesn't care about his opponents sex, gender, etc, as long as he gets a good fight he'll treat a tough fighter with respect. Kuwabara, just like Yusuke, may look like a punk but he's in fact just a huge teddy bear. He wants nothing more than the best for the people who do right by others and willingly would protect someone who needs it, even if they tried to kill him (as seen with Seaman). Kurama is easily the most tactical of the group with well thought out plans and observations to adjust to his opponents. While he seems cool on the inside a vast majority of times we do get glimpses of his inner turmoil, specifically during times dealing with his mother, dealing with Gamemaster and Yomi. Hiei, the cut-throat of the group,does have a somewhat softer side to him that is shown through certain ordeals. For example, his brash yet caring nature for his sister, helping Yusuke get out of his rut before his fight with Sensui and him helping alleviate the inner struggle for Mukuro. I also, need to touch up briefly on Younger Toguro and Sensui as both are multi faceted deeper villains. Toguro at his core is a very mysterious driven villain whom we never get confirmation of if his motivations were out of greed, vengeance, sorrow or pure lust of power. Leaving this up for interpretation was definitely the best aspect of his character and y'know his shades are dope. Sensui himself is a deeply psychologically broken man, as we get to see through his multiple personalities emerge (kinda wish we would've got to see more of them but I'll take what we got). With overly astute sense of justice he utterly broke at the site of the human beings whom he protected commit vile, obscene and gruesome acts to demons. Lastly, shoutout to Botan and Koto for being good girls.






Sound/OST: I've seen mixed reception about series OST and personally, I'm on the side who quite enjoys it. Now it's not something I'd personally go out and download it to listen to, but it quite fits the show with its muti-genre tracks to improve the atmosphere for various situations. From having more light-hearted pop oriented tracks, to heavier rock based moments for the fights, the ambient and brass lead tracks for the more sinister moments. It in itself won't blow you away, but it gets the job done.



Voice acting: As someone who grew in the United States and also grew up on the dub my opinion on this aspect is incredibly biased so bare with me. I love the dub of this show, even to this day counting a few omissions naturally, I find it to be one of the better dubs out there. I'm absolutely sure the sub of this show is great too, but I'm not sure I'll be able to watch it outside of the dub with how many times I've watched Yu Yu Hakusho in it already. Tl;dr it's good in both, just watch this show it's amazing.





Roundup time: I hope you guys find this review helpful, even with my somewhat bias and absolute gushing. I tried not too hard to go in incredibly specific detail about the plot and characters, as I'm sure there's anime fans out there who haven't seen this wonderful series in its entirety yet. Hope you guys enjoy this classic even an inkling of the amount I do.

Insert cliche first review line here (and mild spoilers)


Oh, Elfen Lied. The highly gory, questionable and shallow mess you are. To start off, everything I'm about to write about this series is purely subjective and not a be all end all fact of how the mass community should feel about this controversial show.


Let's start off with the story shall we? In all honesty the first episode of this show didn't start off horribly. We get a sense of what's to come in the near future, an obvious over the top edgy gorefest that's quite something that actually has some affect, because up to this point ... it hasn't completely desensitized you to the shock factor yet. Honestly, after this debut episode that's where it all goes down hill. The story diverges onto a path of plot convenient tragedies of all the cast, to make a shallow attempt of heart-felt "feels" moments that absolutely miss the mark. In the meantime, we have a plethora of just unnecessary fan-service, nudity, out right stupidity, the god forsaken incest trope and don't forget everybodies favorite plot convenient amnesia. The only thing plot related story that is even worth a grain of salt is how the Diclonius reproduce and that's even pushing it. I could go on how the story is a total mess, but at this point it just be re-iteration of what reviewers have said in past reviews.


Next is animation: The animation is pretty much the only thing even decently well done as a whole in this show. From a show that's from the early 2000's it doesn't look half bad, minus the bland characters designs and the CGI used for the Vespers. It's painfully obvious most of the budget here was poured into the blood and gore of this series as shown by the frequent use of said aspect. Honestly isn't much to say about the animation, it's straight forward what you see is what you get.


Sound/ost: Hoo boy, where do I begin with this? The ost of this show is damn near non-existent and it's borderline sickening how it was presented. The composer more or less said "Hey everyone, do you like the OP? Have it shoved down your throats countless times to the point where you're going to end up hating the song!". On my re-watch of Elfen Lied, I can only remember one song that was used outside of some iteration of Lilium. It's almost offensive how many times that song was re-used for some cheap mood setting. Future shows, if you want to use a good example of a show using it's op inside the show itself, look at Hunter x Hunter (2011), not this. Point in case, what ost is there? It's just Lilium dozens upon dozens of times. On top of that, the ED does not fit the nature of the show at all.



Characters: This one is also a doozy. Firstly, we have Kouta. Not much can be said about our MC here outside that he's your typical dim witted cardboard cut-out harem MC. Kouta has all the credentials of a forgettable character (hell almost the entire cast does) and that doesn't help the story of the show itself one bit. Now onto Lucy, I'd say she's actually one of the more well written characters, but being one of the best in a show of chock full of garbage doesn't really give one merit. Totally, disregarding her Nyu half, whom is just worthless in her entire existence. We have a very emotionally scarred Diclonius who was exposed mainly to the horrendous nature of human being from a young age, grew to have an complete loathing of said human beings save for Kouta. I guess in this show if you're not part of the main cast, you're doomed to be an asshole. Also, like Kouta himself she developed the best story condition every of amnesia and we get to witness the terror of Lucy discovering her true self again over time. All in all, she's just another mediocre pink haired yandere to me. Moving along to Yuka, and I honestly don't want to talk about how dreadful this character is. I'm sure you've heard it all bout it before, but in my own summary I'll keep it short and sweet. She's a vapid, greedy, self-centered bimbo. Honestly, one of the worst characters in any medium EVER. For Nana and Mayu, I'll just lump these two characters together since they're basically similar with a few different back story details. Both of these girls aren't in reality awful, they just serve no point. Outside of Nana's "fight" with Lucy, neither of them contribute much of anything to further the story. Just a pair of loli characters the creator made to throw in to Kouta's rag tag harem, I guess. Lastly, we got Kurama. Kurama seems to be, along with Lucy, one of the only characters who has a real point in the story. He himself is more so a behind the scenes characters that we get to see how poorly the Diclonius are treated and all the pain staking tasks to make sure they don't break into society, along with his own personal struggles. If you're going to take anything good from these group of characters it'd be him and Lucy.


Voice acting: This is another aspect of the show that doesn't need a whole lot of discussion. Don't bother with the dub if you feel obligated to watch this show, it's bland and just flat. Absolutely stick to the sub on this one.




Now to sum up feelings towards Elfien Lied. Is it one of the worst shows I've personally seen? Absolutely, yes. However, it is definitely a unique one. It's not on the so bad it's good side, but you'll fine entertainment of the non-purposfully goofiness of the writing. If you like it yourself, that's fine and dandy and more power to you. Hopefully everyone finds this review helpful and while I wouldn't personally recommend this show, if you want to form your own opinion on it you should definitely go watch it for at least its uniqueness.