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Jul 10, 2010
Gilgamesh is one of those shows that you don't expect much from and end up being presently surprised at how much you enjoyed it. It does however require some patience as it starts off pretty slowly and maintains a slow pace throughout.
What I liked
One of the main things I liked about the show was how it seemed so generic in the first 2 episodes (its teenagers with superpowers fighting other super-powered teenagers) but then managed to do some unique and interesting things. First off while it does seem like your standard good vs evil story , the characters themselves don't really fit into the
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good-guy/bad-guy roles. Isamu, Fuko and Tohru who are the "good-guys" are not your altruistic goody two shoes heroes who are trying to save the world. Their main reason for fighting Gilgamesh is that they don't have anything better to do. Initially they don't seem to really care about anything , Isamu in particular is a very stoic apathetic character, but as the series progresses they develop nicely into quite likable characters. The countess who leads this group also does not fall into the good-guy character and in many scenes is an out-and-out bitch. Her reasons for using the children to fight Gilgamesh are entirely self-serving and she does not care about saving the world. The countess is by far the most interesting character here as she can come across as a cold hearted bitch in one scene and later on we see her as a lonely woman who is a slave to her past and at times you feel sympathy and compassion for her. Likewise those on the side of Gilgamesh, while technically villains, are not what you would call evil and in their own way are trying to save humanity.
The art style is also really good. The world of Gilgamesh with its sherltering sky and such is not a happy place and the art style really gets that point across with a load of dark colors and shades and everything has a real goth feel to it.
And lastly while the plot moves at quite a slow pace there is a good story here and a quite interesting ending.
What I didn't like
Alas not all is good with this show. There are some real flaws and one big one in particular. That main flaw being that while at its core this is a good vs evil story very little time is spent developing the characters on the Gilgamesh side. Other than appearing in battles we never get to see them and the main villain, Enkidu, does not even show up until very late in the series. This was such a missed opportunity as some of the members of Gilgamesh look really badass and from the glimpses of their personality they seem really interesting characters. The show would really have benefited from spending some more time developing the members of Gilgamesh.
Another thing I did not like was the battles and action scenes. They are not bad per say just very generic and not that fun to watch.
Conclusion
Overall I liked Gilgamesh. It is not going to break any new ground and its overly dark, depressing tone and art style can be off-putting at times and the pacing of the story could have been better. But while it starts off slowly it steadily builds steam and finishes well , and it has some really interesting characters and relationships.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jul 10, 2010
Ok this is going to be a long review as this anime contains 2 very different volumes so I feel they need to be addressed separately.
Volume 1:
Volume 1 is the Heian Chapter and it is set in the Heian period of and it is by far the strongest of the volumes. Focusing on the story of Hikaru and her quest to retrieve the stolen Magatama beads to save the capital of this volume focuses heavily on action and suspense and contains a huge plot twist that I did not see coming and was one of the best plot twists that I have
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seen in a long time. These days plot-twists can be seen coming a mile away but this one totally hit me for six and I love when a show/movie succeeds in doing that. Anyway the focus of the plot is the five Magatama beads which represent the 5 elements of earth, fire, wind, water, and metal (not Heart, lol) and it is believed that when the Magatamas are together and arranged in the order of Affinity that the capital will prosper. Currently 3 of the beads are missing and the capital is suffering with famine and death and the task to retrieve them falls on the Minamoto clan. The head of the clan Minamoto no Raiko is gravely ill and so his sister Hikaru impersonates him and takes his place on the quest. What I loved about this volume is that straight away it is apparent that there is more to the Magatamas and that Hikarus quest is about more than saving the capital. While Hikaru and her party believe in the quest to save the capital, we see the scheming politicians the Ministers of the left and right clearly have an agenda, as does the onmyoji Abe no Seimei. And the mysterious warrior Mansairaku clearly has a big role to play somewhere. Everyone seems to have an agenda so it was great to see the story unfold. As the Magatamas are retrieved we see them regarded as cursed objects that bring suffering to those around them so their destiny to save the capital comes into question. As for the characters I love how a new character came into Hikarus group every few episodes as it keeps things interesting. All the characters are fun to watch even if they do seem to fit the same classic staples. Watanabe no Tsuna is the proud warrior who would give his life to protect Hikaru. Usui Sadamitsu is the cocky warrior with an eye for the ladies. Kintaro is the energetic kid with a huge appetite. You get the picture but the characters do have some depth to them. Tsuna hides feelings for Hikaru and Sasamitsu is looking for redemption.
The Animation and character designs are top-notch but my one complaint was how they drew the characters eyes. For the most part it looks fine but up close they just looked weird. The battles look great and being set in feudal you get what you expect but they are directed and animated well. As for sound the music is great and I really liked the opening for volume 1. Voice work is all around great and as usual I watched the dub. My one complaint on the voices is that Kintaro is voiced by Mona Marshall who has done a crapload of voiceovers in anime and video games and I felt Kintaro sounded too similar to other characters she has voiced.
But overall the first volume of this anime is excellent. Great story with a quick pace so you are never bored. Great animation and sound and a killer plot twist at the end. I was all pumped up for a great second volume but alas I was let down.
Volume 2
Volume 2 is the chapter and it is set in modern day Tokyo and it features the descendants of the characters from the Heian chapter or to be more exact their reincarnations. So while all the characters are here they are very different people yet maintain some traits of their ancestors so they are believable reincarnations. Hikaru is now a landlady of an apartment building and all of her party from the previous volume are residents there. While everyone is different from their ancestors some of their traits are still present. Tsuna is still a very proud man and still wants to protect Hikaru, Sadamitsu still likes the ladies and Kintaro still eats anything in sight etc… The story here revolves around the disappearance of Hikarus brother Raiko a year ago and it does eventually tie into the events from the capital from the end of volume 1. My problem with this volume is that the story moves at a much slower pace and there is not really much action to speak of. The story evolves very slowly and how it all ties into volume 1 does not become clear until the very end. All of the episodes follow the same pattern. Hikaru and Tsuna investigate reports of paranormal activity mostly because Tsuna is a reporter/photographer and these are his assignments and other times it’s related to some photos that Raiko took before he vanished and Hikaru believes these are clues to finding him. Each time Hikaru witnesses some paranormal event like seeing a ghost train with her brother on board, or in another episode Hikaru and Sadamitsu witness Sadamitsus fathers’ last fight as a boxer on the night his mother died. Along the way Hikaru meets a strange man who turns out the Mansairaku and while it his clear he knows what is going on he just talks in riddles and warnings. My problem with this volume stems from the fact that all these paranormal events and the stories around them were just not interesting and while you always sensed it had something to do with the events at the end of volume 1 none of this becomes apparent until the last 2 episodes. Now it does all tie up nicely and at the end and we understand the significance of the paranormal activity and the plot from volumes 1 and 2 come together nicely. But the problem was that you knew this was inevitable and they just took too long to get there and what happened in between was just not interesting enough and was plain boring in parts. There are about 4-5 episodes in the middle that do nothing to move on the main story and while the story ends nicely I felt they could have stretched the finale over more episodes or at least developed the main story better along the way. The most interesting thing for me in this volume was trying to figure out how Mansairaku was connected to the paranormal activity and was he the cause or was he trying to stop them. My other main complaint was the Hikarus ing cast had very little to do in the second volume and compared to their ancestors in Volume 1 they came across as downright dull.
Animation and voice acting is at the same high level as volume 1 and the opening and closing themes are different and they fit the less serious tone of Volume 2 quite well.
Ok so overall this is an enjoyable show but I would be on the fence about recommending it on the basis that Volume 2 is nowhere near as strong as the first. But I think Volume 1 was just that good that I would suggest you check it out.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jul 10, 2010
I'm not going to beat around the bush here, Heat Guy J is excellent. It is the kind of series you come across every once in a while where you know next to nothing about it and on paper it does not sound that great but once you watch the first few episodes it hooks you in and provides hours of solid entertainment. The reason i liked it so much is 2-fold. First, it has got some great characters, and some really memorable characters: my personal favorites are clair leonelli, the head of the cities biggest crime family , and Buma, a sword-fighting werewolf
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who not only looks cool but has one of the most entertaining sub-plots in the series: and second, the story is extremely well told and is an interesting tale touching on many different themes and as a piece of mafia/crime fiction it could hold its own against many similar tales. The character designs are excellent across the board with one exception, Daisuke's brother Shun could easily pass for the twin brother of Integra from Hellsing, and the dub is extremely good here. a lot of dubs are poor but here it is well casted and all the voice actors do a great job and fit their respective characters to a tee. The story really is the star of the series in my opinion . Once the main plot really starts to develop it moves at a great pace and there is not that many episodes i would consider filler. There are some great twists in the second half of the series and some of them really throw you off guard. The story deals a lot with the theme of revenge and to be specific the idea of taking revenge, versus letting go of your hate. Personally i find the mark of a good series is that when you are not watching it you are thinking about and trying to figure out whats going on, and Heat Guy made me do this a lot.
The animation is also excellent and mixes in some CG/3D effects into some sequences and these sequences look good more than they don't. The action is fast paced and well animated.
Overall this is an excellent series. The main characters Daisuke and J are fun to watch and have a great partnership and most of the support characters are equally if not more entertaining. It's got a great story and excellent animation and voice acting and i would reccomend it to any anime fan.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jul 9, 2010
As a big fan of the Highlander franchise, the first film and the tv series, and not the sucky movie sequels, I had really high hopes for this film. When you consider it was directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri (who as you know directed such classics as Ninja Scroll and Vampire D bloodlust) and the script was penned by one of the writers of the tv series, then I feel I was warranted in expecting a great film. Not to mention that Imagi and Madhouse did the animation.
Unfortunately for me the Search For Vengeance was a bit hit and miss for me. While it ticks
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all the boxes for what you would expect from a film in the highlander franchise it does little else beyond that.
The film is set in a post-apocalyptic New York City where the protagonist Colin Macleod, Of the Clan Macleod (naturally) arrives and discovers that Marcus Octavius, who he has been chasing throughout time in a quest of vengeance over the death of his wife is the leader of this ruined city. Colin joins up with the local rebels of the town, reluctantly, to take down Marcus who is planning to wipe out the city’s population with a virus so he can build his new utopian society from its ashes.
As you would expect from the talent on hand the film looks really, really good. The animation is top notch with some great character designs. I particularly liked the design of Dahlia who with her red hair and clothes is such a stark contrast to the dull and grey environment of this desolate New York. Colin is also well designed as looks like a badass action hero but not in a generic way. Where the animation really excels is in the action scenes and as you would expect from the director of Ninja Scroll the action is fast paced and enjoyable. The audio is quite solid too with a good soundtrack and all the voicework is top notch. Even in the flashbacks to Scotland the accents and the dialogue sound perfect.
Unfortunately it is with the writing that my main criticisms lay. The writers clearly played it safe here and did not tinker with the Highlander formula at all, and beyond the highlander stuff the plot just has that “done to death” feel about it. Films set in a post apocolyptic world are nothing new and neither are stories of vengeance revolving around a murdered lover. As for highlander specific stuff as I said it ticks all the boxes: We get to see how Colin discovers he is immortal and we see plenty of other flashbacks from different points in history and each time the flashback is triggered by something in the present day. Colin has a love interest in the present day who just happens to resemble his one true love from the past. And this was my problem because all of this had either been done in the original movie and tv show and was just not that interesting to me. Now clearly they wanted to make a movie that fans and newcomers could enjoy and I respect that and that was probably the right way to go but as a fan of the franchise there just was nothing here I had not seen before.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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