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Nov 14, 2010
Ayakashi ~ Japanese Classic Horror is divided in three individual stories. Each of them stands alone and has nothing to do with the other two. They also share a totally different art style, atmosphere, motives and characters for each of these tales.
Ayakashi begins with the story called Yotsuya Kaidan. The first episode is horrible, it starts just so boring, and keeps this on until the end of it. But then again, that was easily the worst episode of Ayakashi. The good part starts at the second episode, when some great deaths come past the screen, ending at the fourth episode with a satisfying climax. The
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art style is really old-fashoned, though it remains ugly. Though I guess that that was meant to be that way, as the theme of this story is ugly as well. It’s about the evil that humans can accomplish, and these humans eventually get punished. The characters are all horrible bastards, with a few exception, which only makes it more enjoyable to watch when these characters go berserk. Still, even though it was an enjoyable tale, the story itself is mostly one-layered, with a small exception in the second and third episode.
Then comes the tale Ten Shu Mono Gatari, and if it wasn’t for the fact that they share both the name Ayakashi, I would’ve been unable to identify it with Yotsuya Kaidan. Ten Shu Mono Gatari is suddenly a love story, the total opposite of its predecessor. The Horror-part of Ayakashi is also nowhere to be found in this story, it’s just a normal human and a supernatural being falling in love with each other. The art looks really nice this time, especially when compared to Yotsuya Kaidan. The first three episodes build up perfectly, and end into a very satisfying climax. Though, I have to say that Yotsuya Kaidan is the better one of these two, as it featured some memorable scenes, and it has chaos included which Ten Shu Mono Gatari misses.
Then the third story, Bake Neko, comes. And without a doubt it’s the highlight of the series. The art turns into something really unique, I can only say that I loved it, though it takes some time getting used to. The Horror-part is finally clearly distinctable, and the entire three episodes it consists of turn into an amazing roller-coaster ride with a couple of amazing quiet moments. The characters are each wonderful, and I haven’t even began about the story, which was truly one of the best ones I’ve yet to see.
Overall, I’m recommending Ayakashi ~ Japanese Classic Horror. Especially to the ones who love great deaths, though the fans of love-stories will also be satisfied, and even if you’re not one of these people, just give this series a chance. The first episode is what turned most people off, though it you manage to survive that one, you get treated to some brilliant scenes. You can also just skip the first eight episodes, and immediately turn to Bake Neko if you wish, as each of the stories have no relationships with each other.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Nov 14, 2010
Yagami Light finds himself a notebook, dropped by a Shinigami: the Death Note. If you write down the name of a person in this Death Note, he’ll die, no matter what. With this new Death Note, Light begins to create a perfect world, killing off all criminals. Then, a detective who goes by the name of “L” gets assigned to catch him.
Let me first state that Death Note is unique amongst shounen-anime. There are nearly no fights, and nearly the entire anime consists out of people planning and plotting to outsmart each other. Through the course of the anime, Light makes optimal use of the
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Death Note, and he comes up with a number of really smart and careful plans.
Because of this, the main good points of Death Note, especially in the beginning, are its surprises. Some plot twists are ingeniously incorporated in the storyline, and they make sure for maximum shock-value. This makes sure for a number of really intense episodes, even with the lack of fighting or other forms of physical action.
The graphics and music only contribute to this. The art that is used in Death Note is unique, and incredibly detailed. The animators made some really creative “action”-scenes, which you won’t be seeing in any other anime, and they really makes sure that these scenes are as creepy as they can get. The music consists out of a number of very addictive choir-songs, which fit the mood perfectly.
Still, despite the awesome climaxes, this series didn’t make it in the 9/10-range for a reason, as it’s got quite a few humps and bumps along the way. The most obvious one is the middle part of the series. Death Note has an excellent beginning, and an awesome ending, but the Yotsuba-arc in the middle was so bad that it made me almost lose my faith in the series. The climaxes stop being interesting, and the creators turn the series in some kind of joke of itself. Luckily, the anime picks up again with episode 24, and delivers an awesome climax, but the thorn remains. The beginning is also filled with a couple of nasty coincidences, for example Light’s father being the police-officer who is in charge of catching Light.
There are also a number of rather annoying characters in this anime. I’m referring to the ones that mainly exist for comic relief like Misa and Matsuda. They usually have no purpose at all, and they whine too much to really become interesting. The characters that are introduced later in the series also need a lot of episodes to get enough development to stop getting annoying. There are also quite an amount of people that lack a bit of background. To give one example, we learn just as much about Aizawa’s (a minor character) background as L’s (a major character) background, and believe me, that isn’t much. There’s also a time-leap somewhere in the middle of the series that just lacks proper development as well, with the result that it makes no sense in lots of areas.
Still, despite this, there are a lot of good characters with enough background to become interesting. Light himself is a fascinating person, and it’s interesting to see how he develops and eventually declines. Some temporary and side-characters also turned out really touching, and L, despite his lack of background is well developed and turns into a really enjoyable character.
Overall, it’s not the best anime out there, but it’s definitely worth a watch. It has awesome climaxes, but the fairly low rating comes from the fact that it just has too many areas that could have been improved.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Nov 14, 2010
The xxxHolic Series is an excellent series about modern folklore, discussing a wide range of thought-provoking topics. The OVA does not disappoint either.
Story: Watanuki and Dōmeki enjoy meal and drinks with the fortune teller, where Kohane is staying. There, it's explained that everyone changes with every meeting they experience with others, and that all four there, and even Yūko, have changed from meeting Watanuki. Later on, Haruka and Watanuki meet in a dream, in which Haruka asks Watanuki to look for something in the temple's storeroom. However, as they look around, they might step into the realm
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within the books by accident... Also, Watanuki acts like he appreciates Dōmeki for once. In the 2nd part Watanuki and Dōmeki continue to search for the four items that Haruka requested. Watanuki unlocks a fifth item that leads to an encounter with someone close to him. Later, Watanuki vows to grant Yūko her wish
Art: Everything you could expect from the xxxHolic series is here and thank goodness there was still lots of WatanukixDomekixHimawari.
Sound: The Score is very important for a filim in the super natural realm and captures the reflective mood of the protagonists amicably.
Character: Yuko was the central character and with Watanuki his "rival" Domeki and his love interest Himawari the movie represents a glimpse at their life.
Enjoyment: The OVA although short at only 2 eps leads us to the dream of sorts but is the weakest part of xxxHolic to be honest, but that’s mostly because the others were simply that good. Mostly building up for future OVAs.
All in all it is still an awesome mystery-drama that even though it has nothing to do with the continuity, stands out with really imaginative visuals and very naturally evolves and lets the viewer guess what the heck is going on.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Nov 9, 2010
It is a satisfying journey of love, justice and self-discovery.
Rurouni Kenshin is a satisfying journey of love, justice and self-discovery.The basic idea of the plot talks about a sword art-master from the fudal era, named Kenshin, who becomes a wanderer to console the chaos of his past. The anime uses the myth of master Kenshin as a theme as well as metaphor to explore the political and social life in Japan during its early days of independence.
Kenshin, the hero of the anime was brave and bravery, most of the time, involves naiveté. Kenshin was naive enough to fall into violence and sacrifice his human-life and
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take up the loneliness of a samurai.
The anime also addresses many social issues of Japan post independence, like the jobless war vets, construction boom, westernization, the growing spiritual inclination of the people and communal tensions. The anime is ably scripted with excellent historical background and ingenious character development. The charm of old school artwork and the fantastic background score makes it masterful.
The anime masterfully mixes swordplay with the history and political life of Japan, in this wonderful anime simultaneously bringing up the politics of ecology, family and social existence. Rurouni Kenshin won the hearts of many and is easily one of the best animes of the past century.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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