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Jun 26, 2016
In a world, where all of a sudden humanity has gained superpowers called Quirks…
A world, in which almost all humans look like alien mutants and the crime rate has significantly increased…
Where being a hero is considered a profession and Saitama definitely doesn’t exist… There exists a boy who belongs to the minority that doesn’t have a superpower...
The boy, called Izuku Midoriya, has a dream… He wants to be the mightiest hero of all, he wants to become the second ALL MIGHT!
The very young protagonist, despite having no Quirk, tries his very best to become one. But is that possible at all,
...
when the profession “hero” is all about being strong? And how could one possibly beat superhuman powers if you don’t have a special ability?
Boku no Hero Academia is set in a modern world where every single person wants to become a hero to save the useless people that don’t know what to do with their Quirks from the bad people who use their abilities to wreak havoc and be evil. Being a hero and become the focus of attention is way better than doing mundane things such as becoming a random office worker, right?
This is where the first problem arises. How can society work if the 80% that have superpowers want to become a hero? And if, on top of that, not having a Quirk is being looked down upon; and doing everything that needs to be done to make everyday life function correctly is disregarded, why would these normal (or maybe abnormal) people even bother? You, the reader, must realize that there is no way the farmers will be able to produce enough food if their population decreases by 80%. Society can simply NOT function in the way this world is presented to us. But hey, since there is a superpower for anything, this might just be miraculously solved!
With that out of the way, I’ll start talking about the main plot. The main character Midorima, in his eagerness to become a hero, takes notes on every hero he sees and looks how they fight against villains. But since he himself has no Quirk, it is very hard for him to become a hero. This is also why many other kids in his class look down on him, making his life more miserable. On top of that, his “childhood friend”, who is constantly bullying him, makes him realize all the more that it would be an impossible task for a quirkless person.
It seems like his quest for becoming a hero will certainly fail, when he has a fateful encounter with an emaciated geezer that always coughs up blood. This encounter proves to change his life radically, because Deus ex Machina is overwhelmingly overpowered and seems to be able to solve any problem without much effort. Well, maybe not exactly without much effort, but certainly it is a half-assed way to solve things. This is when he sees a light at the end of the endless darkness. HOPE! He can maybe become a hero!
The next section I will discuss is characters. Although the cast of character is certainly not huge, being most of them sidekick heroes or unimportant hero students, there are four important characters in this show.
The protagonist, Izuki Midoriya, is a young boy that at the beginning of the show hasn’t entered high school yet. During his whole life he aimed to be a hero, but it seemed as though his Quirk never wanted to appear. Despite that, he continually worked hard to become one through studying alone. He obviously will succeed, as he is the protagonist. That aside, this character seems to evolve slightly, going from a total coward to someone that dares to speak up (a bit). Although he isn’t a total retard, his personality is still the same as most shounen protagonists.
The second main character, Bakugou, is supposed to be Izuki’s childhood friend, which completely baffled me, as this character is constantly bullying the protagonist bcuz eevil is gud and is objectively superior since he has a nice “bang”. It’s also rather annoying that he underwent a sudden character change; all of a sudden he is a “good” guy, and the reason to it is rather stupid.
Another character introduced to us is the emaciated geezer, who is something like a mentor to Midoriya. He is the responsible for making it possible for the protagonist to become a hero and has an interesting story which I won’t tell because spoilers. Nevertheless, I really doubt his choice-making ability, as Midoriya doesn’t seem that special to me.
The only female lead is a girl called Ochako, whom Izuki met in the hero entrance exam and seems to be nice to Izuki, without any reason. She is a dimensionless character who doesn’t really add anything to the show.
Thus concludes the characters section and starts another one; sound and animation.
As for the sound, the music played throughout the different scenes was satisfying; there was no mismatch between music and type of scene. The used soundtracks were well used and could be considered good. Furthermore, the voice actors played their role well and managed to match the personalities of the characters with their voices. The opening and ending themes were shit as with nearly all shows, and nothing anyone says can change this particular opinion of mine. Overall nothing special in this regard, only what is required to not make it disturbing.
The animation used in this show was good enough; background was well done (though it had no movement) and the moving parts were drawn well. Battle animations were fluid and special effects also transmitted all the information that was needed easily observe what is happening.
Finally, I’ll discuss enjoyment and make a small summary of the show.
Surprisingly, this show managed to be enjoyable for me, for about 3 episodes. This is where the whole idea started to become too stereotypical and predictable, making me start to dislike it. As the show progressed, everything became more and more predictable; and thus more boring. All the Deus ex Machina didn’t really help my enjoyment of the show either, contributing to the low score I gave to this section.
In essence, heroes are gud and villains are bad; small children must go into a hero academia to beat eevil. Even though there are some terrible people amongst these heroes.
Do I recommend Boku no Hero Academia? No, I don’t think watching this is worth the time for people who actually think about what is happening in an anime while watching, because the amount of plot holes and inconsistencies is too big. For those who prefer to just enjoy a show and not think about it (or those that are new to anime), I do believe that it is worth watching, though.
If you read through all of this, I applaud you. Furthermore I would like to add that feedback is appreciated.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Feb 8, 2016
REEEEBOORN!! Super hax for 20 seconds!!! Impossiburu! The! Strongest! In! The! World!!! But at all other times he's a useless cry-baby that's attractive to the most popular women! Why! I don't know!
Katekyo Hitman REBORN! is an episodic anime about a useless kid named Tsuna (it's not his full name) who gets a home tutor named Reborn. Reborn is a baby. A baby who is the most intelligent, best, and deadliest hitman in the (Italian) Mafia who went to Japan to find a new Mafia boss, Vongola X. He went to Japan to find a new (11 y. o.) Italian mafia boss. Makes sense? This
...
is only the beginning. Every couple of episodes a new character is introduced; all of them better than Tsuna. Because he's a tuna. And tuna is not very successful in life, though it may have more success as a dish. Tsuna has a crush for the most popular girl in his school, and she seems to like him as well, especially after he shows his super hax his home tutor has learnt him. Well, how original is THAT?
The everyday life of Tsuna & co. is doing implausible things while the MC breaks his clothes every couple of minutes for deathperation mode. He seems to have an infinite supply of clothes. And the amount of people that ends up living at his place is ridiculous; but don't worry, momma doesn't care (I wonder if Tsuna's family is rich?). Your reaction to what I have written here will be: 1) Sounds kiinda interesting, or 2) This will be quite boring.
The correct answer is 2.
So, yeah, Katekyo Hitman REBORN! is very boring and should definitely not be ranked that high.
Thanks for reading. Now you may just drop this series.
...Or that's what the first 20 episodes make you think. Do not worry, for after that lame and long introduction finally an interesting arc appears (though it has a length of only 5 eps). Tsuna is still a weakling, but, it becomes a bit more interesting due to what happens. This show is made out of battle arcs, and in between them there always are episodes to relieve the tension, which is not bad. It seems to become the typical shonen, in which you get the usual "become 20x stronger in 3 days", and "beat the strongest, most experienced people even though you have started fighting a couple of weeks ago". Oh well, it's quite fun because there are times at which you think: "I'm sure he's going to win", but then you get a surprise; he does NOT win. Sometimes. Sometimes.
The second arc is quite well done, since it is much more entertaining than the first, despite the before mentioned typical shonen elements. In this arc the powers that everyone has are explained quite convincingly (at least there IS a reason why it works like that). The villains that appear have their reasons to do what they do; it's not that they are doing mad stuff on a whim.
And after that arc you may prepare to cry... because we get around 40 episodes in which nothing notorious happens, after which the longest battle arc starts (I think that the rest belongs to this arc). One thing that I personally did not like at all was that the screen-time of the people who don't go to battle is ridiculously big. This typically consists of 30% of the episode in which we see a screen (our TV or PC screen) in which people are looking at another screen in which they see their friends doing something (sometimes); or something about the daily worries of a house maid. A lot of doing nothing, in short. I think it would have been a bit more enjoyable if this time was reduced by, say 20%. MOAR ACTION!! Special mention: episode 132, with an astounding 40% of story and rest filler!
That aside, villains have good reasons to fight; in this arc I even thought that it would be plausible to act like that, given their circumstances.
In this arc we get to see new mysteries that are really interesting and well transmitted; again the superpowers and their origin are explained quite convincingly, adding to the overall enjoyment. This arc is where I found the first obvious plot holes and incongruencies. I think it is best to not touch this subject further since it would make everyone who hasn't seen it hate me. Besides, spoilers aren't allowed anyways.
Though the fact that our gang of kids wins against people with way more experience than them is still going rampant in this arc, it is done in a way that is much more believable than in previous arc (though this is not obvious at first).
All these events, powerups and fights culminate in the final 15 episodes, where asspulls are rampant and battles are very intense. The author didn’t even try to hide the cliffhangers since there were more here than in all of the other episodes combined. Now, this doesn’t mean that it is something bad; it’s almost the opposite, since the battles are highly entertaining and keep you on the edge of your seat.
Finally, the conclusion. It is very rare in series to have a satisfying conclusion, as nearly all shows end in episodes that are like “Our fight has just begun!”, or every character is shown as if they still have some unknown objective. This kind of conclusion leaves me (I don’t know if this is true for everyone) an unsatisfying feeling, as I will never get to know if there really was something else. Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, however, is different. The conclusion is neatly wrapped up and no loose ends are left, making the conclusion, however cliché it might be, very good.
Okay, that's the end of the story part; let's delve into the characterization.
First off, Tsuna. Loser Tsuna is a failure in absolutely everything, which apparently makes him a normal kid (for real?). He does nothing well until he meets our favorite baby, Reborn. That meeting is a turning point in his life, after which he all of a sudden gets a heap of very very loyal friends and gets two girls who love him. He's a kid everyone has high expectations of and he's supposed to become Vongola X because his latent abilities. Will those expectations be met by our protagonist?
Our main character undergoes some character development, but it is not something spectacular, since his beliefs don't change during the anime. His way of acting does change a bit, though. And since there was no real mystery surrounding him, there is not much more that can be said.
His gang is made out of a few incredible people that decide to join our protagonist because... Tsuna is fun? Anyway, these people are not failures in life, since there is the rebel tsundere genius Gokudera (a hitman), the baseball pro Yamamoto (he's dumb), the apathic and mysterious and invincible Hibari (a madman), the EXTREME boxer Ryohei (noisy man), the illusionist C.D. (who doesn't do much but moan) and I can't say more since that would be huge spoilers. The fleshing out of these characters is done quite well, though some characters are more interesting than others.
Gokudera deserves special mention, mainly due to the mystery surrounding him: Where does he come from? Why is his personality like that? All these questions are answered later on, adding to the overall satisfaction of the show. But all these characters are interesting in their own way, and though character development is not much of a thing here, the fleshing out of them is done well.
The supporting female cast is made up by about 4 persons; of which one is the mother of Tsunayoshi. She is your typical nice and young house wife, and nothing else. Then there are two girls, called Haru and Kyoko, who have their unique quirks (Haru, at least); these go to different schools and are best friends. Furthermore there is a young woman called Bianchi, who is a charming woman that throws food at other people.
I see one major problem with these characters, though. They are portrayed stereotypically as housewives. This means that the only thing they do is house chores, cooking, and doing very dangerous and totally useless stuff ("Let's run straight into the open arms of the enemy :D"). The sole purpose of the weird things they do is making the male characters, though mostly Tsuna, worried. It is no real problem in itself, but in my opinion it was waay overdone in this show; they have no deep purpose, they only serve as "mental support". My only reaction to this was annoyance.
Another notorious character is Reborn. Reborn is a baby that belongs to the Shichibukai Arcobaleno, which is composed of the 7 strongest babies of the world (this probably means that they are stronger than every other person, not amongst only babies). Since Arcobaleno means rainbow, and the rainbow supposedly had 7 colors, it's very fitting, is it not? These babies all have fancy nicknames which actually are their real names, and they all look equally ridiculous. They all have an air of superiority that's kind of annoying, but anyway that makes it funny at times, so it isn't bad.
There's other babies, like Lambo, the one, the best, he whom everyone will love because he rules. He has that oh-so-catchy phrase: HOLD IT BACK!!! Another one is I-Pin (this name...) a chinese fart kenpo hitman, who turns out to be a girl and has constant wars with Lambo.
As for the sound, I think the music is quite fitting; epic battle music is reserved for epic moments, and calming music is used for mundane moments. Nevertheless, some tracks are overused, which may result in irritation. Some of the openings have a nice ring to them, which is quite an achievement, in my opinion, since I usually find openings not worth listening to. The voice actors are good as always; but I personally liked the voices of Tsuna and Haru, just because Tsuna's isn't your typical MC voice and Haru's voice is done in a, let's say, unique way.
The animation quality is not bad, but your widescreen is useless for watching this, since it's done for 4:3 screens. Well, not quite, since at episode 102 it is adapted to widescreens. The battle scenes are well done and transmit all the information you need to see what's going on. Another plus point is that the faces are not all the same, which is not the case for many other anime.
The last section is enjoyment. As you might have noticed, my enjoyment varied a lot during the watching of KHR, since there are many ups and downs in this show. The downs were the episodes focused on the jokes, which would get boring after being reused throughout the entire series (though there were some very funny moments) or the ones in which nothing happened. The most enjoyable parts were mostly the battles, though some of them were not that well done. And as I mentioned before, I really liked the conclusion; and the combination of all I have written gave me my final score: 7.
So now the final judgement; the question everyone will want to see answered: do I recommend this? Yes… and no. You see, there are many people who are totally not prepared to wait 20-40 episodes to see things become more entertaining. These people should definitely not watch this show. For those who may want to wait that long, you also need to like shonen anime, because this IS a shonen, in the end. If you can meet both requirements, I would say: give it a shot! (pun intended).
Thanks for reading, and I appreciate any feedback.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Nov 27, 2015
...And all of a sudden errryone had superpowers. Tokyo ESP is an anime in which many people get superpowers because they are on drugs. I say this because a select few persons can see fishes swimming around in air (obviously they are under influence of drugs). The first thing I would think if I saw a flying penguin or fluorescent fishes in the air is ask myself if I am sane. Not these characters, they just believe and inmediately accept what they see. Anyway, jokes aside, these fishes seem to give people superpowers by going in a person. All you have to do is wish
...
for it (that's the impression I got, at least) and you get it.
There is no real explanation as to how the superpowers work; in the first episode I even thought the superpowers were due to the accesories the villains were wearing. However, this disappears later on, so it might be the authors thought the same thing and wanted to make clear that the superpowers were the real deal. There also seems to be a very limited amount of superpowers. I think it does not make any sense for people to have the same skill, but this is, again, not explained.
Another issue is the powerups. It looks like less than a week of training makes you a pro fighter; if you are a genius, you can certainly make faster progress, but not this fast. Besides, all the people are not so bright, most people have mental disorders and some people just know everything; no explanation as to why they know. Are they psychics or something? This obviously makes no sense.
All right, I will just say it: this story does not make any sense. As the story progresses, events seem to have less connection to each other, which results in a bland story. One example is that the connection with the first episode is not well made, since statements that were done in the 1st episode are overwritten and forgotten. Finally, the last episode is an incredible ass-pull: everything "ends" in one single chapter, making everything that happened in this episode plain dumb.
Tokyo ESP has a cast of characters made in such a way that they made me laugh when I first saw them. We have Wolverine as "Muscle Dad", Aristotle as "That yakuza guy", the male main character (whom I liked most) as "The youngster that has seen too much JoJo" and the female MC as "She who became super strong all of a sudden but is useless anyway". Of course there are other characters; one of them is a villain who all of a sudden decided to become friends with the MC just to help fight against "true" evil. There is that girl with glasses that appears in EVERY anime who is quite useless and a boy with glasses who looks like an idiot. I will also write a line about mascots. There were three exotic mascots in this anime. One. every. 4. episodes. Personally, I don't think mascots make something more popular (I found them annoying), but it looks like the authors thought it was the key to success.
The characters have vague pasts at best (even for the male MC), and the reason why they do what they do is not clear either. I guess the authors did not want to think too much about it, since all explanations have holes in them. I think that in the end the villains were the righteous ones. Personally, I won't trust a government that hires Jason (you know, that madman with the mask & bat) as policeman.
The soundtrack is quite good, but I have the impression that battle music is used in the wrong moments. And there is a serious issue with the first episode; the music is so ridiculously loud you can't hear the characters talking, which I found quite annoying. Or maybe I just downloaded the episode from the wrong place.
The art is allright, not really special. Almost all the side characters are incredibly ugly, which is quite funny. I guess all attention has to go to the main and secondary characters. But the mouths... my god. The shading on them is just weird, it feels like the characters are continually using "smug face".
So, Tokyo ESP is not something really good, but if you have some time to fill you might want to give it a shot. Just don't expect much of it. My rating is a 5.
Oh right, this is my first review, so please tell me what you thought about it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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