- Last OnlineSep 10, 3:55 AM
- GenderMale
- BirthdayJan 16, 1991
- LocationThessaloniki, Greece
- JoinedSep 21, 2014
RSS Feeds
|
Oct 9, 2020
Reviewer's note: This is my 3rd entry into the G.I.T.S. franchise unless you count the live-action film of 2017, starring Scarlett Johansson. Also, this review will mirror in many respect my review of the 1st S.A.C.
✪ Genre: action (gunfights), detective, mecha (android, power suit, robot), science fiction (artificial intelligence, cyberpunk, cyborgs/human enhancement) seinen, along with some other themes: law and order (cyberterrorism, police, special squads), military, nudity, political corruption, virtual world
✔Positive Aspects✔
◧ Soundtrack: a solid compilation of compositions spanning multiple genres: instrumental Middle Eastern-influenced percussion, funky jazz fusion, techno, solo piano, orchestral music (violins, violas, pianos, flutes), pop piano ballads, new age (violins, percussion,
...
piano), electro and electropop.
◧ Concept: the series is set in a futuristic, cyberpunk Japanese society where a clandestine law-enforcement/intelligence-gathering/anti-terrorism unit comprised of elite cyborgs is trying to navigate through a very complicated and tense political struggle between 3 million immigrants seeking self-determination and a government administration that is hijacked by some its most politically ambitious and profit-driven Cabinet members with the help of members from the intelligence community.
✘Negative Aspects✘
◧ Animation: this series is based on a combination of colors of moderate to low saturation/moderate illumination. The primary and secondary characters were adequately distinct from one another, but I can't say this was the case for the rest of them. There's a glaring lack of detail when it comes to facial characteristics and body shape.
◧ Action sequences: the third-person perspective is predominantly used, rapid escalation/de-escalation, with a noticeable "lag" just before the impact of blows during hand-to-hand combat with the same Hollywoodian gunfights where the villains are shooting from the hip and the heroes are shooting them down on full auto. Even firefights between trained combatants were plagued with full-auto exchanges, which are non-applicable in reality, except in very specific instances.
》Ambivalent Aspects《
◧ Plot: as far as content goes, this plot is clearly more straightforward, more easily comprehensible compared to that of the 1st S.A.C. However, the strategic planning and decision making by both villains and perceived villains, when they're overlapping during several incidents, are too unrealistic and ambitious even for a work of fiction.
As far as the structure of the series is concerned, the 2nd S.A.C. diverges from the 1st S.A.C. in a significant, but very pleasant way. Even though the majority of episodes are independent, they are not stand-alone since each and every one episode is contributing to the advancement of the underlying plot, either directly or indirectly.
As a final note, the introduction of several new technical elements and more philosophical thought (mostly of the continental variety), even though they greatly refine the series in terms of, tend to overwhelm the viewer, even if someone who has gone through several episodes and is also reasonably familiar with said philosophical variety.
◧ Character development: I start by reiterating my criticism of this aspect from the 1st S.A.C. Specifically, I expressed my utter disbelief in Public Security Section 9's level of cohesiveness and complementarity based on how the relationships between its members are depicted in that series. Even though they have achieved an astounding level of cognitive and physical intimacy due to their incredibly advanced technological means, their attitudes toward each other are quite anemic and unclear.
I do understand that this unit is comprised of cyborgs (mostly), but the franchise goes into great lengths in arguing against the notion of an inherent conflict between mechanical enhancement of humans and our 'humanness' (i.e. whatever qualities, real and perceived, differentiate us from other animals, our humanity in short). Nonetheless, this series does a better job in grappling with this glaring affective deficit, this striking disparity between this unreal level of cognitive intimacy and an almost complete lack of affective attachment among the members, by elaborating on how the Major is viewed by her colleagues, especially during the last couple of episodes (E21: 3:30 is crucial in this respect). This team's level of cohesion seems to be predicated upon the individual members' high regard for the Major's strategic thinking, tactical decision making, and combat skills. Still, this does not suffice in my view.
Regarding the rest of the characters, antagonistic and non-antagonistic alike, there's a noticeably better use of airtime because of the consistent focus on their ' backgrounds, thought processes, beliefs, ideological viewpoints, and emotions, irrespective of their importance to the underlying plot.
Overall: Notwithstanding the series' unaltered animation/action side. the 2nd S.A.C. is clearly an improvement over its predecessor because of its solid plot structure and improved development of its characters through the use of flashbacks, past decisions catching up to the present, and sporadic displays of positive emotion among the team's members.
❗ Ranking: 7/10 ❗
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
Oct 4, 2020
Reviewer's note: This is my 2nd entry into the G.I.T.S. franchise unless you count the live-action film of 2017, starring Scarlett Johansson.
✪ Genre: action (gunfights), detective, mecha (power suit, robot), science fiction (artificial intelligence, cyberpunk, cyborgs/human enhancement) seinen, along with some other themes: law and order (cyberterrorism, police, special squads), nudity, political corruption, virtual world
✔Positive Aspects✔
◧ Soundtrack: It's very unusual for an anime series to have a soundtrack that is as varied as that of S.A.C.'s. It's is comprised of pieces from various genres, such as ambient with and without vocals, trip-hop, instrumental rock, piano ballads with vocals, slow tempo guitar pieces, some goofy tunes
...
akin to cartoon themes, salsa, funky hip hop, orchestral music (usually with violins, violas, piano, etc.), smooth jazz (non-R&B based), and some solo piano work.
◧ Concept: the series is set in a futuristic, cyberpunk Japanese society where a clandestine law-enforcement/intelligence-gathering/anti-terrorism unit comprised of elite cyborgs is trying to untangle a very unusual set of events stretching 6 years back which seem to involve principled cyberterrorists, leaders of multinational corporations and high-profile political leaders.
✘Negative Aspects✘
◧ Animation: this series is based on a combination of colors of moderate to low saturation/moderate illumination. The primary and secondary characters were adequately distinct from one another, but I can't say this was the case for the rest of them. There's a glaring lack of detail when it comes to facial characteristics and body shape.
◧ Plot: even though the anime series is based on an underlying plot, and an incredibly interesting at that, it does not do a good enough job in articulating it in an even, consistent manner. The majority of the episodes are functionally stand-alone pieces of detective fiction, besides the first 6 and the last 6 episodes, which are disentangling a genuinely intriguing, yet very familiar, tale of widespread corporate fraud abetted by opportunistic political figures.
◧ Action sequences: mostly third-person perspectives, escalating/deescalating fairly quickly, with a noticeable "lag" just before the impact of blows during hand-to-hand combat along with the same Hollywoodian gunfights where the villains are shooting from the hip and the heroes are shooting them down on full auto.
Finally, let's not forget about the unreal power suits sported by some of the villains throughout, which were able to withstand shots, and some times consecutive, by .50BMG sniper rifles, 20mm sniper rifles, and 40mm grenade launchers. Get the fuck outta here.
◧ Character development: even though the series built the protagonist and a couple of characters from her unit to an extent, this is not adequate by any means, especially given the amount of airtime used on stand-alone episodes. This elite unit has achieved a level of cohesiveness and complementarity which is not only quite unusual, even by anime standards, but also quite implausible simply in terms of working together for a long period of time. The characters' relationships with one another appear to be incredibly intimate cognitively and physically, but they nonetheless feel completely impoverished, affectively speaking. There are certainly examples of positive emotional expressions by some of the members towards some of their colleagues, but they do not suffice in substantiating their level of cohesion and solidarity.
Overall: This series is surely better than the initial film (I've started with the 2.0 version) in more aspects, yet it does a spectacularly bad job in using its airtime productively.
❗ Ranking: 6,6/10 ❗
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
Sep 28, 2020
Reviewer's note: This is my 1st entry into the G.I.T.S. franchise unless you count the live-action film of 2017, starring Scarlett Johansson.
✪ Genre: action, detective, science fiction (artificial intelligence, cyberpunk, cyborgs/human enhancement) seinen, along with some other themes: law and order (police, special squads), nudity, virtual world
✔Positive Aspects✔
◧ Soundtrack: a couple of Japanese folk music pieces and a certain, quite intriguing track of Japanese/Bulgarian influenced ambient music with some very ominous chorals.
...
◧ Concept/Plot: the film is set in a futuristic, cyberpunk Japanese society where a clandestine law-enforcement/quasi-military unit is trying to track and apprehend a hacker of cyborgs who's constantly engaging in criminal schemes. Meanwhile, the protagonist, the unit's highest-ranking field officer, seems to be contemplating her own existence, if not doubting its human origins outright.
✘Negative Aspects✘
◧ Animation: the film is based on a combination of colors of low saturation/moderate illumination - it felt pretty fuzzy throughout. The characters were distinct from one another but the quality of the animation blurred their distinctiveness.
◧ Character development: besides the protagonist's existential crisis and her partner's protectiveness towards her, there's no serious engagement with the rest of the characters.
◧ Action sequences: mostly third-person based with some instances of first-person perspective (enemy robots) - overall, pretty monotonous and unexciting.
Overall: an interesting plot that, unfortunately, was not explored as actively and as lengthily as it should.
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
Sep 24, 2020
Reviewer's note: This is my 20th entry into the Fate franchise.
✪ Genre: drama, contemporary fantasy, detective, magic (magic school, spellcasting), seinen, superpower, with elements of comedy and action (swordplay, gunfights)
✔Positive Aspects✔
◧ Animation: the series roughly follows the character design standards set by the previous studios, a combination of colors of moderate to low saturation/moderate illumination with the internal and external environments being more muted comparison. Even though the characters seem distinct enough, the series' entire 'atmosphere' feels a little more muted than usual.
◧ Soundtrack: seems to be, mostly, comprised of orchestral music (violins, violas, percussion, flute, piano, etc.) with some of it being lower in
...
tempo, while other pieces are more upbeat. Also, I've noticed a track or two having Middle Eastern
influences.
◧ Concept: this may have been the first spin-off work that overtly displaces the Fate franchise's general premise, that magicians are searching for the omnipotent magical artifact called "Holy Grail" by summoning Heroic Spirits and fighting it out, in favor of a detective story in the Holmesian tradition early on, and in the Poirotian tradition later on.
✘Negative Aspects✘
◧ Plot: there's not much to speak off. The first 6 episodes are stand-alone, clearly meant to introduce as to the way the protagonistic duo go about their way, while the next 6 episode constitutes a narrative, sort of. Even though I am fairly acquainted with the franchise, this spin-off introduced so many new elements that I did not manage to grasp them all in their entirety, since I've finished the series with quite a few questions.
◧ Character development: once again, there's not much to speak of. Even though the series uses the first 6 episodes to introduce as to the protagonists and deuteragonists, and their way of living, there's only a depiction of their character traits and temperament without anything substantial. Further into the series, there is some biographical information given but it is quite limited and somewhat perplexing.
◧ Action sequences: since the importance of fighting is downgraded and is substituted by Holmesian detective work, it's no surprise that the action scenes are generic, mostly based on a third-person camera perspective. There are few quick zoom-ins/outs, no alternating between different camera 'heights' during battle, and certainly no Michael Bay-influenced, heavily distorted & slowed down sound effects at the beginning of and moments before the impact of high-energy attacks (which are no more than a handful).
Overall: A combination of multiple deuteragonists with both heroic and villainous qualities, along with countless, new story elements and a significant reduction of action scenes in favor of the detectivization of the story, makes for a very substandard end-result.
P.S. For further reviews of the Fate franchise, please take a look at my profile.
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
Sep 22, 2020
Reviewer's note: This is my 19th entry into the Fate franchise.
✪ Genre: action, contemporary fantasy, magic (spellcasting), seinen, superpower
◧ Animation: the series roughly follows the character design standards set by the previous studios, a combination of colors of moderate to low saturation/moderate illumination with the internal and external environments being more muted comparison. Even though the characters seem distinct enough, the series' entire 'atmosphere' feels a little more muted than usual.
◧ Character development: one episode cannot suffice in order for me to make an assessment, but the protagonist's character traits, temperament, self-image are roughly outlined through his interactions with some of the deuteragonists and through
...
the use of biographical flashbacks.
◧ Soundtrack: seems to be comprised of orchestral music (violins, violas, percussion, flute, piano, etc.) with some of it being slower in tempo, while other pieces are more upbeat.
◧ Plot: it seems to pick up a decade after Fate/Zero in London, but there's nothing else to speak of besides the sense that a new antagonist may be lurking in the shadows
◧ Action sequences: besides 45" worth of a car chase, there's nothing much to speak off but it was choreographed well enough to warrant further engagement with the series.
Overall: A decent introductory special episode that does not really give me much of an idea as to what will transpire moving forward. 5.4/10
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
Sep 21, 2020
Reviewer's note: This is my 19th entry into the Fate franchise overall. I would not recommend this series to anyone who's not sufficiently acquainted with the franchise (i.e. having watched the Fate/Stay Night universe, at a minimum)
✪ Genre: action (swordplay, gunfights), contemporary fantasy, drama, magic (spellcasting), seinen, superpower
✔Positive Aspects✔
◧ Animation: even though every studio after Ufotable attempted to replicate its level of animation, only A-1 Pictures came incredibly close with the series under review. The studio uses the same combination of colors, of moderate to high saturation/moderate to high illumination, with the characters 'popping out' against the more 'muted' landscapes and man-made structures. Wonderful work,
...
although it could have been a little crisper, especially during the highly destructive action sequences.
◧ Character development: the creators do an excellent job of consistently and gradually contribute to our understanding of the characters' beliefs, emotions, thought processes, motivations for participating in the Holy Grail War by elaborating on their personal histories both in-between and during the action sequences. Even though at least half of the deuteragonists' personal histories were, unfortunately, not depicted through flashbacks, we, nevertheless, we do get to understand them well enough through their current actions.
Elaborating further, there are (2) points which are worth mentioning:
1) The first point refers to the fact that it's genuinely hard to differentiate between heroes and villains and not because the characters switched, and some of them more than once. Unlike the other works in the franchise, the majority of the characters were not really interested in acquiring the grail, some of them not even nominally. This was, even more, the case with the Heroic Spirits. Due to the sheer amount of Heroic Spirits involved which are coming from very diverse backgrounds and widely deviating eras, the majority of them were constantly walking this implausibly thin line between heroism and villainy.
2) The second point applies only to the Heroic Spirits and the fact that they are conceived in a radically different manner compared to the Heroic Spirits in other Fate franchise entries. There's a very glaring incongruity between the Heroic Spirits' skillsets and their classes. Most of them, do not really exemplify their respective classes since they seem to be occupying more than one, with some of them occupying as many as 3 classes. This may strike as very peculiar to some of you, but I found this feature to be a breath of fresh air.
◧ Plot: out of all the Fate spin-off works so far, the only ones that I found to be spectacular are Fate/Grand Order: Babylonia and this one. The notion of a "Great Holy War" which is fought against 2 sets of Heroic Spirits from each class is absolutely interesting. The plot is itself greatly enhanced by the very unique development of characters that the series is pursuing.
◧ Soundtrack: mostly a collection of slow tempo orchestral music, usually based on different combinations of various instruments (violin, viola, flute, percussion, piano) and piano/new age piano pieces. More uplifting pieces could have been used during the action sequences, but it nevertheless worked out well.
◧ Action sequences: reiterating my compliment, A-1 Pictures does a wonderful job of replicating Ufotable's spectacular works. Specifically, it successfully alternates between various camera perspectives (first-person, second-person, third-person) coupled with different camera 'heights', while utilizing quick zoom-ins/outs, and the occasional Michael Bay-influenced, heavily distorted & slowed down sound effects at the beginning of and the moments before the impact of high-energy attacks. The result is not as breathtaking as that of Unlimited Blade Works, but it is pretty darn close.
✘Negative Aspects✘
Honestly, this is a phenomenal series that does not seem to suffer from any egregious flaws. Since I have already elaborated on some of its minor shortcomings in the previous subsections, I shall not restate them.
Overall: I am uncertain as to why this series is rated at 7.1 on this platform and 6.4 on AniDB, but it is without a doubt one of the very best works in the entire franchise, hence my rating of exactly 9 out of 10.
P.S. For further reviews of the Fate franchise, please take a look at my profile.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
Sep 12, 2020
Reviewer's note: This is my 18th entry into the Fate franchise and this review encompasses all 13 episodes.
✪ Genre: action (swordplay, gunfights), contemporary fantasy, magic (spellcasting), RPG, seinen, (superpower) with elements of sci-fi (artificial intelligence, post-apocalyptic, dystopia, virtual world)
✔Positive Aspects✔
◧ Animation: even though this series was created by Shaft, the design standards fit the same mold that previous studios followed - a combination of colors of moderate to low saturation/medium to high illumination, with the environment and landscapes, urban, natural and surreal, being comparably more "muted".
◧ Soundtrack: cool soundtrack, mostly dominated by slow and medium tempo orchestral music, whereas, and more infrequently, new age
...
and medium temp electronic music is used.
◧ Character development: probably the best aspect of this title, since every single episode devotes significant time into explaining the motivations, intentions, and personal histories of the protagonists and/or deuteragonists and/or respective antagonists. On the downside, significant filling out of the protagonists'/antagonists' background histories took place during episodes 8, 9, and early 13, instead of taking place throughout the series in an even manner. Lastly, I found the regendering of the protagonistic servant a very interesting touch, especially given the unlikeliness of such a figure occupying that high of a position of power during his respective time period.
✘Negative Aspects✘
◧ Plot: spin-off titles tend to retain the premise of the Fate franchise, with magicians battling each other in order to acquire the omnipotent magical artifact called "Holy Grail", but reinterpreting it in a way that diverges enough to create a standalone product, and this title is no exception. However, this title reimagines the premise so radically that it moves into sci-fi territory, leading to a fairly convoluted end result. The entire series is largely incoherent until episodes 8 and 9, and 4 minutes into episode 13, and, even then, I can't say that I finished it without any head-scratching questions.
◧ Action sequences: they tend to escalate and finish up quickly, while being fairly generic, even for the genre. Previous studios, especially after Ubisoft's groundbreaking releases, followed a specific approach (various camera perspectives, different camera 'heights', quick zoom-ins/outs, etc.) that produced pretty satisfying fight scenes. Unfortunately, Shaft chose not to follow said approach.
Overall: This is a pretty tedious and confusing title. Usually, I go through a 13-episode series in a day or two, but I was not able to finish this in no less than 5 days.
P.S. For further reviews of the Fate franchise, please take a look at my profile.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
Sep 12, 2020
Reviewer's note: This is my 18th entry into the Fate franchise and this review encompasses the Illustrias Tendousetsu episodes.
✪ Genre: action (swordplay, gunfights), contemporary fantasy, magic (spellcasting), RPG< seinen, (superpower) with elements of sci-fi (artificial intelligence, post-apocalyptic, dystopia, virtual world)
✔Positive Aspects✔
◧ Animation: even though this series was created by Shaft, the design standards fit the same mold that previous studios followed - a combination of colors of moderate to low saturation/medium to high illumination, with the environment and landscapes, urban, natural and surreal, being comparably more "muted".
...
◧ Soundtrack: cool soundtrack, mostly dominated by slow and medium tempo orchestral music, whereas, and more infrequently, new age and medium temp electronic music is used.
◧ Character development: probably the best aspect of this title, since every single episode devotes significant time into explaining the motivations, intentions, and personal histories of the protagonists and/or deuteragonists and/or respective antagonists. On the downside, significant filling out of the protagonists'/antagonists' background histories took place during episodes 8, 9, and early 13, instead of taking place throughout the series in an even manner. Lastly, I found the regendering of the protagonistic servant a very interesting touch, especially given the unlikeliness of such a figure occupying that high of a position of power during his respective time period.
✘Negative Aspects✘
◧ Plot: spin-off titles tend to retain the premise of the Fate franchise, with magicians battling each other in order to acquire the omnipotent magical artifact called "Holy Grail", but reinterpreting it in a way that diverges enough to create a standalone product and this title is no exception. However, this title reimagines the premise so radically that it moves into sci-fi territory, leading to a fairly convoluted end result. The entire series is largely incoherent until episodes 8 and 9, and 4 minutes into episode 13, and even then, I can't say that I finished it without any head-scratching questions.
◧ Action sequences: they tend to escalate and finish up quickly, while being fairly generic, even for the genre. Previous studios, especially after Ubisoft's groundbreaking releases, followed a specific approach (various camera perspectives, different camera 'heights', quick zoom-ins/outs, etc.) that produced pretty satisfying fight scenes. Unfortunately, Shaft chose not to follow said approach.
Overall: This is a pretty tedious and confusing title. Usually, I go through a 13-episode series in a day or two, but I wasted 5 days on this.
P.S. For further reviews of the Fate franchise, please take a look at my profile.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
Sep 7, 2020
Reviewer's note: This is my 3rd entry into the Fate/Grand Order spin-off works, but 17th in the Fate franchise overall.
✪ Genre: action (swordplay, gunfights), contemporary fantasy, magic (spellcasting), seinen, speculative fiction (time travel), superpower
✔Positive Aspects✔
◧ Animation: even though this series was created by Clover Works, it certainly follows the design standards set by the previous studios - it is based on a combination of colors of moderate to low saturation/medium to high illumination, with an ancient rural environment and vast, breathtaking landscapes that are a tad muted in comparison and against which the characters are beautifully "popping out".
◧ Character development: it took the series about
...
13 episodes before it started building the characters up. After that, it starts to successfully disentangle the deuteragonists' and the former-antagonists/current allies' seemingly conflicting motivations and intentions behind specific actions. Admittedly, the series could have done a far better job in filling in the former-antagonists/current allies' background histories, especially given the fact that they're incredibly impressive and powerful as individual characters. Also, I love the idea of many different characters, from various civilizations, coming together for a common purpose.
On a side note, I was not persuaded by Ritsuka Fujimaru's (the male protagonist) skillset and his supposed leadership prowess, and as such, I found unwarranted most of the credit that was given to him.
◧ Plot: even though the general premise of the Fate franchise is retained, magicians searching for the omnipotent magical artifact called "Holy Grail", is reimagined in a remarkably fresh manner. Specifically, one magician and his servant are traveling through time into the late-Neolithic period, 4.672 years to be exact, in order to prevent the end of humanity right then and there.
◧ Soundtrack: generally, a pretty decent one that is based on a collection of songs mainly from new age, Japanese pop/pop-rock, and orchestral pop music (slow tempo for non-combat scenes, uplifting mid-tempo for combat scenes).
✘Negative Aspects✘
◧ Action sequences: even though Clover Works is clearly influenced by Ufotable's amazing choreographies just like Lay-Luce and Silver Link before it, specifically, in alternating between various camera perspectives (first-person, second-person, third-person) coupled with different camera 'heights', the utilization of quick zoom-ins/outs, and the Michael Bay-influenced, heavily distorted & slowed down sound effects at the beginning of and moments before the impact of high-energy attacks, the end result is simply not as crisp as that of Fate/Zero, let alone that of U.B.W.
I had a genuinely hard time following the movements and the damage dealt by the parties involved in combat, which is a major turn-off for any action fan.
Overall: Despite its underwhelming action sequences, the series seems to me to be one of the better titles of the Fate franchise.
P.S. For further reviews of the Fate franchise, please take a look at my profile.
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
May 19, 2020
Reviewer's note: This is my 1st entry into the Fate/Grand Order spin-off works, but 16th in the franchise overall.
✪ Genre: action (gunfights, swordplay), contemporary fantasy, dystopian, magic (spellcasting, magic weapons), seinen, superpower (emotions awaken superpowers)
✔Positive Aspects✔
◧ Animation: the characters' design is generally good, based on a combination of colors of moderate to low saturation/medium to high lumination, with the urban environment and the urban landscapes being more muted in comparison. Overall, I feel that Lay-Luce's work trails Silver Link's work in the Fate/Kaleid spin-off series.
◧ Concept: an interesting take on a somewhat familiar scenario - humanity's future appears to be on very shaky grounds, thus
...
time-traveling may be the only way to put it back on track. This idea is combined with the Fate franchise's signature concept, which is the competition of powerful magicians who are able to summon, and bind unto themselves, some of recorded history's most celebrated warriors.
◧ Plot (structural critique): fairly linear in progression, beginning with an introduction to our protagonists, which is followed by an introduction to the state of this fictional world, and finally, the protagonists' unplanned, yet very consequential, engagement with it. Towards the end of the movie, an antagonist seems to appear but without further clarification as to whether or not he is the primary one.
◧ Soundtrack: throughout the film, whether we're referring to dramatic or action sequences, mostly orchestral pieces of music are played of various tempos and intensity depending on the circumstances. Generally, they are pleasantly prominent, helping the audience connect with this very short film.
✘Negative Aspects✘
◧ Plot (narrative critique): this plot feels pretty rushed in the way it unfolds. Even though it unfolds in a seemingly intelligible manner, without leaving significant holes, it does not feel engaging at all. Also, the reader should keep in mind that this is not my 4th or 5th entry into the Fate franchise, but my 15th.
◧ Action scenes: Lay-Luce is clearly influenced, in a very positive way, by the manner in which Ufotable choreographs its action sequences since it is using various camera perspectives (first-person, second-person, third-person) coupled with different camera 'heights', it utilizes quick zoom-ins/outs and makes the magical effects pop more. Unfortunately, and even though its sequences appear sharper than its predecessor, Lay-Luce is not able to replicate Ufotable's visually astonishing results.
◧ Character development: there's not much to speak of. We only get a glimpse into the protagonists', and some of the deuteragonists', personalities, without being able to understand their motivations, their beliefs, their intentions, and their personal histories.
Overall: A woefully mediocre introduction into this new spin-off series.
P.S. For further reviews of the Fate franchise, please take a look at my profile.
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
|