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Oct 19, 2015
Fractale Review
Favourite Quote- None
What I Like- Unique setting/Story twists
What I dislike-Too short/not much character development
Other information- I recommend Sword art Online for Online story type similarities or Ghibli movies for art style and story.
Fractale is a 2011, 11 episode anime based in what appears to be a 22nd century Ireland. It centres in around the young protagonist Clain and his adventures following his chance meeting with a mysterious purple haired girl who left him with an amulet. The world is now contained within a type of virtual reality known as Fractale, similar to the world of or the Virtual world in Psycho-pass
...
(without the fighting). However the story does have certain dark undertones as well as tragedy even though it focuses on sci-fi, action and comedy.
Art/Animation: The art style of Fractale is reminiscent of a more refined Ghibli movie. This reflects the shows general atmosphere too. It’s not something that is overly dramatic or thrilling, rather it’s aimed at a younger audience but can also appeal to others too with its darker undertones. The colours are bright and happy, very diverse and in general just good. As it is based in what appears to be Galway in Ireland the Landscapes are almost all country side but this allows backdrops to be done gorgeously as there’s no complex cityscapes to draw/animate. The animation itself isn’t quite stellar. It doesn’t quite live up to the Standards of other A-1 Picture works like Sora no Woto or Blue exorcist. This is disappointing as its only 11 episodes so most would expect good animation. That said it’s not particularly bad, just, average (a little slow seeming but explosions are pretty).
Sound/Voices: The Ost of Fractale is in a way linked to the animation, just average. This includes the opening (though the opening LOOKS beautiful). There’s no standout theme of the anime, nor is there anything really memorable. The ending is the only exception-At a stretch. Down by the Sally Gardens is a poem originally created by William Butler Yates, and although fitting, Hitomi Azuma’s rendition of it in song was far from brilliant. The voice acting overall was quite good. Personally I disliked Clain but that’s opinion rather than the VA was actually bad. Nessa (who’s in the Amulet given to Clain) is done superbly, it almost seems as if the voice actress herself was genuinely happy during recordings. The other notable voice actor was Tomoaki Moaeno who voiced Dias (A character from a bit into the Story). He captures Dias’ carefree yet intimidating persona perfectly and really brings the character to life.
Characters: Given that the anime was only 11 episodes, I knew from the start Character development would be limited at best. However I was pleasantly surprised at just how much they got done with the time constraints. Side characters were even developed modestly with their goals given reason and a small amount of background too. Such as Dias, Enri and Sunda (they oppose Fractale and it is sufficiently explained why later on well further expanding upon their past. The protagonist Clain Necran starts off as a plain, boring child, a typical protagonist but becomes a believable human by the end, with the struggles he faces. Phryne (the Mysterious purple haired girl) also receives considerable plot and in fact becomes one of the leading reasons you should watch this anime. Nessa is a sort of anchor though, a way to remember throughout where you started off, a good detail in my opinion.
Conclusion: This is not for everyone, but it’s a nice escape from the more mainstream anime. You could finish it in a night too. It leaves a bit to be desired but the ending is nicely rounded off and most things are explained enough. For its unique basis alone it’s worth the watch, but it’d be best to watch it without stopping (don’t watch other anime in between episodes). So altogether Fractale is good, not great 7.4/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Sep 27, 2015
ERGO PROXY (I'm using the Anime Amino format as it's easy t use)
Favourite Quote-What a boring Utopia-Re-L
What I like-unique setting and complex plot
What I dislike- can be quite slow and hard to follow at times
Other info-recommended-Gilgamesh for art, Serial Experiments Lain for mind fuckery.
Ergo Proxy is a 23 episode anime from 2006, produced by Manglobe. It has a dub and sub. It's comprised of normal animation, along with 3d animation on occasion.
The story is based in Romdeau in the distant future. This is a seemingly immaculate utopia, but is domed and isolated from the outside world due to some sort of mass
...
extinction a thousand years prior. In this city, AutoRieves have been made to assist humans with daily tasks, but just before the beginning of the anime, some of these androids became self aware and began murdering others and humans. Re-L mayer is assigned, along with her AutoRieve(Iggy) to investigate this by her grandfather-the all powerful leader of Romdeau. However during her explorations, she is attacked by two inhuman creatures-Proxies. While all this is going on, an immigrant named Vincent is being hunted down as he attempts to return to Mosk,his home city. He then just so happens to run into Re-L.
ART/ANIMATION; The art style of this is similar to anime like Death Parade and Gilgamesh. Unlike Death Parade though it doesn't have a wide range of dark colours, it's just dark. It's designed to make the world seem dull and drab even though it's referred to as perfect and.it does this very well. The majority of shades you'll find are grey, black and more grey. However, Re-L's eyes are intentionally outlined with purple eye Liner in order to show she is unique and does not follow the government system.
The animation follows a similar style in that it tends to drag along and is rarely flashy(except during fights). Everything done by the art and animation is to show is things are not always as perfect as they seem, and a world of order is not necessarily a good one.
SOUNDS/VOICES; The soundtrack of Ergo Proxy is equally as dismal. They're there to add to the generally dreary atmosphere(once more with the exception of fight scenes). Even the opening- Kiri by Moneral-has a hopeless tone to it with lyrics like 'Come and save me'. Literally almost everything emphasises just how terrible this world is. The voices are exceptional in the sub and dub. I watched a mix of both because I heard Crispin Freeman did Vincent's voice at episode 11 and had to switch over. The voices once again follow suite. Everyone sounds very pessimistic and unhappy....with 1 exception-Pino. I believe this has to do with the idea that even afyer an apocalypse, there's still hope in the form of a child's innocence. Nonetheless I very much like the voices in that Re-L sounded powerful, iggy sounded obsessive and Vincent's constantly seemed surprised(dubbed and subbed).
CHARACTERS; Overall, the characters of Ergo Proxy are good, not amazing. Re-L never seems to develop past being slightly more tolerant people. She sees a little more hope for humanity towards the end too, but otherwise, nothing. It was refreshing having a realistic, strong, female protagonist to a non-fan service show though(basically it doesn't use her body to attract watchers). Vincent too seems to never fully comprehend his situation until very near the end. Although he does have a little more development, it's like a child adapting to the world-he just goes along with things. The AutoRieves are the most fascinating by far. These supposedly soulless machines show more humanity than the characters that are human. It symbolises that humans thought that logic is perfect is wrong. Emotions are natural and even in an item designed to work for precision, they are needed. It also creates the question of whether humans should play God(as does the whole show-but no more or else spoilers). Pino(am AutoRieve designed to be a daughter) is the manifestation of the above statement in a good way, others take on the darker human form.
CONCLUSION; This is rare in that it's the story that brought me in as well as the setting. The characters are good, but are more of a method of portraying what the story is saying to us. The philosophy in this and constant mystery may put some people off but it's really worth it in the end, if you can overcome the slow pacing too. If you're easily invested in anime, this is for you.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Sep 27, 2015
DEATH PARADE (I'm using the Anime Amino format as it's easy to use)
Favourite Quotes- Life really is a mysterious thing. Each and every life spins its own, totally separate tale, yet they become intricately entwined in each other. And no one knows how they will end up- Decim
What I like -character development, overall plot, arbiters rules
What I dislike - seemingly important side plots that turn out to be irrelevant.
Other info- I recommend Deathnote or Angel Beats.
Death Parade is a semi-recent anime that was released in January this year with 12 episodes. It was animated by Madhouse and was preceded by an OVA, Death Billiards(pretty much
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a pilot for death parade). The show centres around a mysterious bar called Quindecim and it's bartender, Decim. In this bar, two people come to be judged-for Heaven or Hell. That's because this bar is actually something similar to purgatory, and Decim is an arbiter who's job it is to put people through extreme conditions to see the Darkness in one's soul. He uses games to do so. A major part of the show also revolves around his unnamed female apprentice who gives a more human input into Decim's decisions.
ART/ANIMATION; Death Parade is very modern and as such has animation and art to match. Although I can't really say it's superb(due to series at the same time like Fate Stay Night Unlimited Bladeworks), it is still very good. The movements are quick and realistic and it's never slow or lagging, even in the scenes that require a lot of work(like Decim using his threads). The art style of this anime was something I absolutely loved. It's a little difficult to explain, but it's very colourful with a dark pallete. It has a massive range of darkly shaded colours-midnight blue, foggy greys, pitch black, deep purple and so on. But I think this is the point. The colour scheme is dark, ominous and creates a very sombre atmosphere, which is-in short-what death parade is like. It carries the theme of mystery and morality very well using the variety of gloomy, yet beautiful hues.
SOUNDS/VOICES; Death Parade is rather pessimistic in its approach to life and it's meaning and that's why I love the opening so much. Flyers by Bradio is a very upbeat and dancy type of song that would make anyone happy to hear. This juxtaposes the entire show though. Even the characters shown in the opening are seemingly joyous and gleefully dancing. I can only assume this was done so the watcher is left shocked after seeing how cynical the show is. It wasn't only the opening I liked though the entire OST was amazing. Each song carried so much emotion and added to the bleak l, hopeless ambience of the anime. Its mostly comprised of slow and melodious orchestral music or on rare occasion(2 tracks I believe), light jazz(that could still probably make you cry). There is both a dub and sub for death parade and both are equally good. I prefered the sub for Decim's deep and commanding tone or Nona's seductive yet intimidating voice. I personally don't think the higher pitched and more emotive English voices suit the arbiters-but that'd likely because I just started with the sub.
CHARACTERS; The characters in this were what drove it forward and made me love it. There is literally no character that is left completely untouched, nor do I even hate any characters. The development of people like Decim and Nona really added to my enjoyment. I can't go into detail without spoilers but the fact that these are supposedly emotionless arbiters and yet they're still developed, made me quite happy. This also applies to side characters like Genti and even the guests. Genti seems to be a cruel and merciless arbiter but we see that that's not all there is to him. He even takes actions for the good of others, though few would recognise it as such. As for the guests, I found that they were the most interesting part of Death Parade. Yes it had an over-arching plot, but it was the backgrounds and development of the guests that really kept me guessing and wanting more.
In short, the characters are what makes this anime.
CONCLUSION; Death Parade is very unique in its premise and so I can't really compare it to anything. However, this in itself proves it's brilliant, original ideas for anime are few and far between nowadays. This takes a previously un-approached topic, addresses it, and makes it into an unbelievable, terrific and fascinating topic. If you in any way like character based anime or unique anime, you'll love this. If nothing else, just watch for Decim.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Sep 27, 2015
TEXHNOLYZE (This is the Anime Amino format as i find it very easy to use)
Favourite Quotes-Inhumane and beautiful-slogan
What I like- the ending
What I dislike- lack of protagonists dialogue.
SETTING: the majority of this anime is situated in a dilapidated subterranean city known as Lux. On occasion though a surface area is hinted at....
PLOT OVERVIEW: In this city, three groups are prominent- The Oregano(a seemingly professional syndicate ), the Salvation Union(a group wholly opposed to the use of Texhnolyze limbs) and the Racan(a group of youths with Texhnolyzed limbs). In comes our exceptionally optimistic and talkative protagonist(sarcasm), the boxer Ichisee. After coming afoul of his
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fight promoter he has an arm and a leg cut off. However coincidentally just before bleeding to death a particularly odd young doctor decides to take him in and Texhnolyze his missing limbs, or in other words replace them with artificial robotic like pieces(kinda like automail in FMA). However, he just so happened to get the most advanced Texhnolyzation that was developed. As such Onishee of the Oregano decides to take him and use him as a handyman. This just turns out to drag him into a territory war with the other two groups. Throughout this he is also guided by a mysterious young girl named Ran who seems to know more about this war than anyone else
ART/ANIMATION: A lot of people would pass on this because the art style seems very aged and quite dull, but that's the idea. The lack of lots of colour and the older style fit in with the plot and the setting perfectly. It really emphasises the lack of hope and optimism in the world. It's something similar to Ergo Proxy and Gilgamesh. Animation is a different story though. I can't say that it's done intentionally substandard for the sake of the anime. It's nothing you could consider dreadful, but there's nothing especially noteworthy either, with slow animation at times or just almost laggy (perhaps it was just the website I watched it on). Keep in mind that this was released in 2003 though so it's less than amazing animation is excusable
SOUND/VOICES: The OST for Texhnolyze isn't really something you could sit down and listen to(imo) nor is it that memorable either. That doesn't mean it's not great though. In fact it really is,each tune is associated with a particular feeling-usually negative-and because of that has its own personality. The songs aren't just there to remove the silence, they really add a lot of emotion to the show and create the atmosphere in most scenes. It was composed by Hajime Mizoguchi and Keishi Urata.
The voice acting is stellar too, both the dub and sub. There was not one person who sounded misplaced or forced. Everyone just went together. Personally I preferred the English version because there was a little more diversity in the cast and I just love Carrie Savage(Ran) and Victoria Harwood(the Doc).
CHARACTERS:There's not too much I can say here without spoilers so I'll try just shorten it down. This isn't a show with a massive amount of forward character development. Instead we learn more about their pasts, motivations and goals, but most of them remain the same type of person throughout. There are some good and bad exceptions to this. The Doc is one of the few characters that changes over the course of the show, and not simple goal changes or feelings but she slowly begins to become a new person which I loved. The opposite can be said for the protagonist Ichisee. We are given almost all the information we need about him early on and that's all. Following that his intentions are never clear and neither are his reasons for anything he does. He is just the embodiment of human will to survive. That's an interesting thing on is own but is annoying at times. Also he pretty much doesn't speak.
CONCLUSION:Texhnolyze is an unmarked jewel in the treasure trove of anime and sadly so. It's ost, unique characters, enthralling story and fascinating art style all add up to make this a stupendously good show but very few watch it from what I can tell. I really do recommend it so long as you don't mind slow build ups. All the negatives are hugely outweighed by the positives and can be easily ignored once you get into it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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