- Last OnlineOct 25, 2020 9:48 AM
- GenderFemale
- BirthdayMar 5
- LocationEurope, the Netherlands
- JoinedSep 9, 2010
Also Available at
RSS Feeds
|
![]()
Mar 13, 2018
And here we go again. Another Fate adaptation. Was I hyped? Of course, it’s Fate. If not for the story, Fate is at the very least worth watching for its amazing fight scenes. That’s what I thought till now. And then Shaft’s adaptation of Last Encore came out…
Story: 5/10
This is not your regular Fate story. In this world magic is more of a technological/scientific - phenomenon. Usually not really my cup of tea, but it has a potential to be an amazing and enjoyable story if done right.
The 1st episode was confusing to say the least, but I was willing to give it the
...
benefit of the doubt. I mean, the 1st episode of Steins;Gate didn’t make much sense either and the show turned out to be a masterpiece. But while Steins;Gate picked up its pace rather quickly, Last Encore is still a mess after 6 episodes.
Characters: 4/10
This is going to be painful…and not only because the characters look awful (I mean, what’s up with Rin’s design?)
usually, I start caring for characters by episode 2 - 3. In case of Fate/Zero/UBW/Apocrypha (yes, I enjoyed Apocrypha) I already cared by the 2nd half of the first episode. After 6 episodes of Last Encore I still don’t give a thing about all these characters. You wanna know why?
The main character is way too plain and not capable of showing any emotion (even Sieg in Apocrypha had more character and he was SUPPOSED to be plain being a homocolus and all). From time to time he says how he hates everyone, but he doesn’t show it at all, so it’s hard to believe. I have absolutely no idea why his servant even bothers with him. Speaking of...
Saber has potential to be a badass character with the right amount of cheerfulness. However, Shaft seems to use her only for unnecessary and obvious fan service, not giving her any character development.
As for other characters…they don’t get enough screen time and don’t get any character development (till now). They each get to be an episode the most and they don’t even get the spotlight. Other Fate adaptations have proven that a servant or a master doesn’t need to be the main character to get some decent backstory and to make the viewers care for him/her. Last Encore fails miserably in that regard.
Art: 2/10
Biggest disappointment of all. Simply put, the animation does not do Fate justice. AT ALL. It looks way too cheap and flat for a Fate series. While watching this show I constantly have the feeling that Last Encore is a low budget project that tries really hard to hide this fact by adding random movements and poses. Some scenes make me thing that someone put a ‘darken’ filter over them and muted the colours, other scenes just scream that the staff lacked imagination. This all is really dissappointing, since Shaft has produced some nice - looking stuff (like 3 - gatsu no Lion).
Music: 6/10
Not memorable at all, but guess it’s okay - it at least isn’t annoying, unlike the characters and the animation
Am I going to continue watching this show? Probably. Is it worth watching? Probably not
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
What did you think of this review?
Nice
 0
Love it
 0
Funny
 0
Confusing
 0
Well-written
 0
Creative
 0Show all
![]()
Aug 24, 2017
So, here we are, talking about 'HunterxHunter the Last Mission'!
I was pleasantly surprised by the series HunterxHunter (2011); it has an interesting and a not-childish story, great characters, nice soundtracks and great animation. And I wish I could say the same about 'the Last Mission', but it's quite the opposite; I am unpleasantly 'surprised' with this movie
Well, let's start with what's good about 'the Last Mission':
- we get more HunterxHunter
- the soundtrack is nice (though not really outstanding)
- we get to know the concept of 'On' (something like a dark Nen)
- we get to see some 'long-forgotten' (supporting) characters again, like Zushi, Wing-san,
...
Melody, Neon and Kurapika (seriously, we never saw that dude after the phantom-troupe arc again)
but the last point is also the problem; we get to SEE all the characters, but these characters don't get to ACT or show any personality whatsoever. Let's take for example Hisoka (my personal favourite). In 'the Last Mission' he's just there to shuffle cards and make some unnecessary and obvious remarks; we even never get to see him fight! Saying that that's disappointing would be an understatement. Leorio is even worse; he's just there to yell for two minutes and that's kinda it. And then there's Netero, who to be fair has more lines than Hisoka and Leorio combined, but who doesn't do anything either besides hanging in the air...
the story of 'the Last Mission' is way more childish than the main series' story. Its main message, that 'the power of friendship can overcome everything', makes 'the Last Mission' boring and way inferior to the main series. The main villain is generic with unoriginal motivations. The other 'villains' don't really qualify as such. Furthermore the plot also felt a bit rushed...
The animation wasn't anything special - not that different from the main series, which is disappointing cuz usually movies have a bigger budget and therefore more quality. I think I even like the animation from the main series more (it's a bit more detailed and there at least Killua and Gon don't look 3 years younger than they really are)
'The Last Mission' has a lot of negative points to it. But to be honest with you, it's not like I completely didn't enjoy this movie. I got to see more HunterxHunter! And that's enough reason to watch it. It's definitely not a movie I'll watch again though
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Oct 28, 2016
Apparently, writing a shoujo story is difficult. Why? Because 90% of them is basically the same story. Sure, there are some shows out there, like 'Nana' or 'Ouran High School Host Club', that are one of a kind. But for some reason, there aren't many of them and unfortunately, 'Orange' does not belong to this category of original stories.
'Orange' attempts to be original by adding a 'time travel element'. Our main character, Naho gets a letter from her future self. The letter instructs Naho to keep an eye on a new transfer student in order to 'save him and erase her regrets'.
This could've
...
been interesting and give 'Orange' originality. However, this 'time travel element' was so small, that it was too weak to save the show from being generic.
It's not that they let the audience forget that there is a letter from the future. Oh no, we are reminded of it quite often. It's just that Naho takes the letter for granted; she never even tries to figure out how her future self managed to sent a letter to the past. If I got such a letter I would want to know that in the first place! (at least after it proved to be the real thing) I was certain that the show wouldn't even bother to reveal this to us. I was wrong though: we've got an explanation, but only in episode 12 and it was 'explained' like in 2 minutes (far from Steins;Gate level here).
A thing that doesn't add to originality at all is the high school setting. Seriously, why does it always has to be high school? 'Nana' and 'Paradise Kiss' proved that a good shoujo story doesn't have to take place in high school. If Orange would've had a different setting, it might've been more interesting and a bit more unique.
There are some shoujo shows out there that aren't too original, but still enjoyable to watch. 'My little Monster' for example; the story and the cast aren't too unique, but the comedy really adds to it. So even though you won't get a feeling that you've seen something completely new from such a show, you'll most likely be entertained by it and won't feel like you've waisted your time on it.
Unfortunately, 'Orange' is different. 'Orange' is a serious drama series. But in order to be a good serious drama, an anime has to be able to trigger the viewer's feels. It has to leave the viewer emotionally touched. And this is where 'Orange' fails miserably. The only thing Orange has left me is annoyance towards the characters.
Aaaah, the characters….
Let's start with Naho, our main character, probably the most annoying one in the show. Naho is a sweet, shy girl. But when I say shy, I mean EXTREMELY SHY. She's convinced that she is a bother to EVERYONE by just breathing. She's even afraid to say 'good morning' to Kakeru (the transfer student) and that after they've already become friends. She is kinda determined that to change the future and erase her regrets, however her shyness kicks even here. Naho really does want to save Kakeru, but because she's too shy to do the things that might save him (like talk to him and make him feel comfortable at the new school) she gets angry at her future self for giving her such a task. This is kinda frustrating and it makes Naho whiney. Not to the outside world, oh no. She'll rather die than complain about anything to her friends. She's whiney in her head and we, the audience have to put up with that.
Girl, man up a bit!!!!
Then we have Kakeru, the new transfer student and Naho's romantic interest. The show maintains the believe that he has a certain darkness in him. However, we never actually get to see it. Well…we do at some point get to see him gloomy. But it was portrayed rather weak.
Another character that we get to see quite often is Suwa. He is in love with Naho, but because he too wants to help Kakeru he pushes his feelings for her away. He's convinced that if Naho and Kakeru don't end up together they will not manage to save Kakeru. That self - sacrifice is annoying. I don't get what made Suwa think that was the only way to save Kakeru. Why does he has to give up his own happiness? The idea that due his self-sacrificing way of saving Kakeru, Suwa will be the one who'll need saving in the next letter from the future apparently never crossed his mind. Pretty sure that if Suwa's hurting Naho will be sad and will try to help him too
There's not that much to say about the rest of the cast, except that they are average. There are 3 more characters labelled as 'main character', but honestly, after 13 episodes I still had no idea who they were. They don't get any backstory or character development AT ALL. There is Azusa and there is Takako. Both are smiling for 96% of the time, which gave me the feeling that the creators of the show were too lazy to give them any other facial expressions. Same goes for Hagita. The only difference is that he never bothers to smile and tries to be mr Cool, which might've worked out in another show.
The above written is quite negative. So I'm going to mention something I DID like about this show: it looked kinda good. That's it, the only good thing worth mentioning about 'Orange' (I honestly can't think of anything else)
Orange is a sweet, naive, generic, high - school shoujo drama series about friendship. If you like that sort of thing, then go watch it. But I honestly don't think it's worth your time. There are much better shoujo shows out there, which are more original than this one.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Oct 4, 2016
See, I have a problem with this show. This 'problem' didn't stop me from enjoying this show. Oh no, no, you can even say I loved it. However, as much as I like to, I cannot ignore this 'problem'. Let me explain what I mean
The story of "Boku dake ga Inai Machi" aka "the Town where only I am missing" aka "Erased" follows a 29 – year old man who is struggling to be a manga artist named Satoru. But because no one wants to serialise him, he has to work as a pizza delivery guy.
The interesting thing about this man is that he
...
possesses a supernatural ability, ‘Revival’, which enables him to travel a few moments back in time to prevent certain accidents from happening. However, he cannot control his ability and it happens to him at random.
A fact which he finds quite inconvenient from time to time. Like at the end of episode 1 when Satoru is framed for the murder of his own mother. In order to prevent this from happening, Satoru's ability sends him back to his elementary school days, 18 years ago.
Back in those days, there was a series of child abduction and murder cases. And as it turns out, the killer was never caught. So it's up to Satoru to prevent the abductions and figure ought who the killer is.
Unfortunately, he doesn't remember that much and needs to figure everything out basically from scratch
Aaaand here's where the first part of my 'problem' comes in: it is predictable. Not in the sense that you can guess every single move the characters make, cuz you can’t (which is good, otherwise the show would be really boring). But in the sense that if you have watched a certain amount of mystery series or are a bit smart or both, you can easily tell who the abductor/murder is by episode 4 or something. When I figured it out, I was kinda hoping that I’d be wrong, but alas.
Erased just doesn’t give you that many options on who the bad guy could be, which is quite a pity.
But in it’s defence, although you can call Erased a psychological mystery, you should be careful at labelling it as a murder mystery. Our main character, Satoru, never actually tries to figure out who the murderer is. He tries to prevent the abductions and murders. This is were the show's focus lies and less on the 'murder - aspect'. Sigh…although I'm trying to sell this as a mitigating factor for the predictability on the culprit's identity, I'm not really convinced myself - so problem of predictability stays
The second part of my 'problem' is the show's ending, in particular the last 2 episodes. I was watching this show while it was airing and every week it got me on the edge of my seat. Every week I was like 'no! episode don't end! I need to know what happens next!'. And taking the show's ranking into account, I assume I wasn't the only one.
If my memory serves me right, after the first episode Erased was ranked 50 on the myanimelist top. Then after three episodes it crawled it's way in the top 10. And at some point (around episode 8 or 9) it was even number 5 or 3!
….and then it dropped….
From the last 2 episodes I got a feeling that they didn't have enough time to wrap everything up nicely and smoothly. So they just squeezed everything they could into those 2 episodes. This is probably the show's greatest flaw. And it's such a shame! The anime was doing so good!
I'll be short on the animation, sound and characters.
This show, looks amazing and sounds amazing. The tones are not per se dark, but rather cold. The music fits it perfectly
The characters are quite simple, but you still grow to care for them. Also, Satoru's mom is like the most awesome support character I've seen in a few years
Erased is a simple anime that touches upon though issues. Because of that, it can toy with your feelings. Although it is not perfect, it is enjoyable to watch. And because of the enjoyment that I got out of it I'm giving it an overall score of 10. It is an amazing show, despite it's flaws
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Sep 22, 2016
Each one of us makes mistakes. Some mistakes have greater consequences than others. There are little, nonessential mistakes that are forgotten right away, but there are also fatal mistakes that will hunt you down for years.
While believing what he is doing is right, Dr. Tenma makes mistake. The one whose live he saves, who he believes to be an innocent child, turns into one of the most evil men you’ll have the displeasure to meet. Being hunted down by his ‘mistake’, Dr. Tenma decides to ‘right his wrong’. This is the story of Monster in a nutshell. Sounds simple doesn’t it?
While watching this
...
show I realised why the description of it was so simple; you cannot make it more detailed without spoiling anything.
At first I was quite sceptical about Monster. The story sounded interesting enough, but the length was terrifying. Now I know that there are anime out there that are much longer than Monster is, but still 74 episodes is quite a considerable length. Anime with a large amount of episodes (let’s ignore the term long – running since I’m not too sure when exactly you can call an anime that) tend to have a lot of filler – episodes, which I’m personally not a fan of.
However, when I finally got to Monster I was pleasantly surprised: in the range of 74 episodes there was only 1 (max.2) episode that was skipable. I wouldn’t even call it filler, just that it didn’t add much to the plot. Each other episode, even when it doesn’t seem important, adds something to the plot. Sometimes it's something little that helps you understand a certain character a bit more, sometimes it's something crucial that makes the plot twist. Monster has so much quality with regards to the story it tells and it keeps it up till the last episode.
There is however a problem, at least if you want to call it that. The show starts rather slow. It's not until episode 11 or something that it starts getting you on the edge of your chair. Before that, I personally didn't have the urge to marathon the series, it was an episode or two at the time. After episode 11….you can say I was hooked.
However, if you consider that Monster has 74 episodes, the slow start shouldn't come as a surprise. It is even forgiven.
A nice thing about the series was the setting: it wasn't in Japan (like most of the anime is) and it wasn't limited to only one location. We get to see different cities in Germany and a bit of Prague. All of it was really well captured.
Now, as for the characters….this is another aspect which pleasantly surprised me. All characters are well thought - through and get quite some development. There are not that many characters who'll leave you indifferent to them - they all make an impression. Some of them you'll hate, others you'll love. Some of them you'll think of as wise, for others you'll feel sorry. Monster really cares about its characters and it goes into depth of their souls.
The confusing thing about the characters was their nationalities. Until it's said in the anime where a certain person comes from you cannot tell. However, I liked the fact that there were different nationalities like Germans, Japanese, English, Vietnamese and Czech
There are many characters and most of them are worth mentioning, however I'd like to talk about these two here:
Dr. Kenzou Tenma
Tenma starts of as a naive neurosurgeon who does exactly what he's asked to do. This changes when he's forced to face the ugly truth of reality. Tenma is driven by the belief that all lives are equal and because of it starts to go against his superiors. This is the first step in his development that we get to see. Throughout the series, Tenma gets tougher while still holding on to his beliefs. Life doesn't treat him nicely, but no matter what happens, Tenma stays a doctor who'll save people's lives. This is quite interesting: Tenma toughens up, but still has his original goals in sight.
Johan Liebert
Johan, often referred to as the Monster, is the boy who Dr. Tenma saved and who turned out to be a cruel serial killer. This is the only main character who gets no development whatsoever. Oddly enough, this is a good thing. Johan is covered in mystery. We don't know that much about him or about his motives. Sure, we get to know something ABOUT him from time to time, but we don't get to know HIM. We never get to see what he feels, what he likes, what he dislikes. Put in another way, we never get to see what's going on from his perspective, even though we get him to see alone a few times. Why is this a good thing? Because if we would see things from his pov or know more about what he thinks, Johan would seem human.
Johan is this dark cold beautiful mystery. If this amazing character would be portrayed as more human, he would loose his charm. There would be no 'Monster', there would probably be a 'poor, lost, confused boy' and that is not what the show aims to show us. This is the first anime I've seen till now, which holds on to that 'evil is evil'.
There are a few tiny moments in which Johan shows that he's human, for example when we get to know that he dearly cares about his twin sister, Anna Liebert (aka Nina Fortner). Those little moments make quite the impression thanks to the fact that Johan isn't humanised in the remaining time.
I'll be short on the art of these series; he thing I liked is that it was more realistic than the majority of the anime which fitted into the more heavy, serious tone of Monster than most anime have
The music fitted the series and there are plenty of themes in the soundtrack that I can listen to on their own. My favourites are the pieces called 'we'll be waiting of the night' and 'grain'. The latter is also the opening for the series. It is an alternative opening and I love it
There's no other way to conclude this review than to say 'watch it'. Monster is truly a magnum opus and worth your time. It is dark and it deals with heavy themes, so it might not be everyone's cup of tea. But if you're looking for a mature series that is enjoyable, I can't imagine that you'll be disappointed.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Jun 22, 2015
What do we have? Vampires, an army and a stubborn boy out for revenge. Nothing too special - you have a lot of those anime which are focused on revenge or have an idiot as their protagonist
However, it is hard to combine these elements and make something enjoyable out of it since they're so common. If you're not careful, it becomes boring and you'll give the watcher the feeling of deja vu
This anime does a pretty good job at combining the aforementioned elements and making it enjoyable to watch (even with the idiotic protagonist)
Please note, however, this season was more of a prologue - we
...
will get a 2nd one - and for a prologue anime this is quite a good job. In this way it is similar to the 1st season of Tokyo Ghoul; important stuff happens during the show, but the real trigger is pulled at the end of the anime. Be prepared that this ends in a cliffhanger!
It got me curious about what will happen next
~ STORY ~
On what seems a normal day, a mysterious virus occurs and kills every infected human over the age of 13. At the same time vampires appear and take the remaining children, including the children of the Hyakuya orphanage under 'their wing'. To the great dislike of our protagonist Yuuichiro Hyakuya, the children are used as livestock for the vampires.
One day, one of his siblings, Mikaela Hyakuya, convinces the orphans to escape from the vampires. Mikaela stole a map from a noble, which he's convinced will lead them to freedom. Unfortunately, this noble vampire, Ferid Bathory, was just fooling around with the children by letting Mikaela steal his map. Just before the children can make it to the outside world, Ferid kills the majority of the orphans, letting only Yuuichiro escape.
This event is basically what feeds Yuuichiro's hate for the vampires and his desire for revenge
After Yuuichiro's escape, he joins the army to pursue his goal.
I love the vampire genre, but it's really hard to find a good vampire anime/movie/book. There is a lot about these creatures, but the majority is just not worth watching (e.g. Fortune Arterial - seriously guys, that anime is boring)This one, however, I truly enjoyed watching.
My only problem with it was that it focused too much on the army. We see how Yuuichiro learns about both the vampire and human worlds, makes friends, gets a weapon, etc.
I myself am human, so I kinda have a pretty good idea about their feelings and struggles. I wish more time would've been dedicated to the vampires. Like what kind of classes are there besides the nobles, something about their lifestyle, etc. Unfortunately, those fascinating creatures don't get that much screen time if you compare it to that of the army.
~ ART ~
Simply beautiful; nice character design, nice action scenes, love the contrast between the vampire world and the human world
~ SOUND ~
The ost fitted in the scenes, however, I cannot say that there's a song I'll listen on its own
Nothing really stayed in my mind
But the music did spice up the scenes, so that's enough for me to give it a 7
~ CHARACTERS ~
Well, there certainly are a few character that spice up the show and are worth mentioning
Yuuichiro Hyakuya
As I said before, Yuu is kinda an idiot. He doesn't really think before acting; if it helps him to achieve his goal, he'll do it without thinking about the problems that'll occur afterwards. He gets punished (e.g. suspended from the army) and punched a lot by his superior for acting without thinking, which makes Yuu want to prove himself even more. Yuu is short tempered and not really good at getting along with people (especially after the incident with Ferid)
To be honest, Yuuichiro is nothing special - just your usual type of main character
Mikaela Hyakuya
Mikaela on the other hand, is more interesting. As a boy, Mika was kind - hearted and always smiling. He always saw the bright side of everything, even living in the vampire world. Mika wanted for his dear family to be happy and took all the burdens upon himself. However, after his escape - plan failed Mika changed drastically. He became 'dead inside'. His only purpose for living is now saving Yuuichiro from the hands of 'those filthy humans'.
Shinoa Hiiragi
Shinoa is appointed to supervise Yuu during his suspension from the army. Later on, she becomes his squad leader.
This character is quite amusing, though she isn't my favourite. Shinoa doesn't really show emotion at the beginning of the anime. She's always there with a smile. Shinoa's manner of talking is a bit 'fake'; she says things that she doesn't mean and she says them in an exaggerated way that people hear she's being sarcastic. This is what I liked about her.
The rest of the cast is quite the stereotype. Even though a lot of them spice up the show (like Ferid Bathory), they're not really worth mentioning here
~ OVERALL ~
this is an enjoyable show and a good example of a great vampire anime. If you like dark anime, you should watch it
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Jun 8, 2012
We all know the original story: Alice falls into a bunny hole and finds herself in Wonderland...
There are hundreds of stories based on 'Alice in Wonderland', but from what I've seen, Heart no Kuni no Alice (together with Pandora Hearts) is one of the better ones. That was what I thought while reading the manga. I was pretty exited when I found out that they're making an movie. But perhaps my enthusiasm caused my disappointment.
Let me say this: if you didn't read the manga or didn't play the game you're not going to understand the movie. There's almost no story at all in it.
...
You don't get to see how Alice got to Wonderland and her relationships with other characters isn't shown. And if you didn't read the manga it is hard to get where this movie is going
That is really a shame....
Because the characters are actually pretty awesome! But most of them hardly have any lines! For example Boris, Elliot and the Bloody Twins. In the manga they make me laugh all the time, but in the anime you're lucky if you see them just twice. This is really a shame. I really missed a plot in this movie.
Then why is my rating still 7?
Well...I loved to see these characters animated, especially Blood Dupre. The art was just beautiful! The music was also pretty nice.
And actually I did enjoy this anime (even thought it was pretty chaotic). But don't expect too much from it and please read the manga before you watch the anime.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
|
