Back to Romie-chan's Profile Romie-chan's Profile

Requiem for a Phantom is a show that follows two highly trained assassins and their struggle to escape the lives they were forced into. With natural killing talent Raiji, becomes the world’s best and well-known assassin. Contributed by the fact that the assassin’s memories were erased, the fight with morality isn’t hard and killing becomes easy.

At first, when I read the synopsis and looked at the shows main photo, I thought the show would be too gruesome for my taste, but actually it wasn’t so bad. The show is actually centered on a romantic story with a lot of killing and explosions to go around. ... Since the two assassins are hardened killers with severely repressed emotions, it is like watching a romance story being played out by two zombies.

Story 9/10
The story has already been explained pretty well. It follows Raiji a new assassin in training throughout his 5 year life as a hardened murderer. Throughout, he will struggle to remember his past and get in touch with his emotions, but the longer he stays as an assassin, the harder it will be for him to become a normal person later.

Will he succeed and will he fulfill his promises? You’ll have to watch the show.

Sound 9/10
The English dub is actually really good. The voices didn’t seem out of place, however, you will find long strings of dialogue that is mono-tone. When the assassins talk to each other, they truly are like zombies.

And when they have to act out of character to hide their true identity, if feels unsettling and out of place. The sounds for the guns are great, and the voice actors didn’t seem to be reused and that is a big plus for me since other shows tend to reuse the same voice-actors for many characters. This show was not low-budget like that.

Art 9/10
The art is great and it sits perfectly with the show. It has a very serious tone to it and sometimes I forgot I was watching an anime show. The directing is top-notch. The use of darkness to show the loss of morality and the dying flowers are great visual metaphors of what’s happening throughout this well-thought-out story.

Character 9/10
The characters are not intricate beings, but they are still human. I think this show really romanticized what it is like to be an assassin, but the extremely repressed emotions are truly realistic as you may see from soldiers returning from war even today. The characters backgrounds did not go very far, but as I figured out, the memories that these assassins need are not of their forgotten past, but rather the memories they are making together.

In the end, I didn’t get to know much about Raiji or Erin’s past, but I did get very attached to them throughout the show. I felt as if they were monsters, but I also had conflicted feelings that they were also humans that were in pain. You’ll have to decide whether they are too immoral and unforgivable or not.

Enjoyment 9/10
The ending is absolutely driving me nuts and I think you might see why if you watch the show. The blood and gore was not over-the-top and actually you didn’t see the deaths happening half the time. With great directing, it was still very powerful stuff to not even need to see the deaths.

I really did enjoy this show and I hope others will too. This is something I had been avoiding to watch, but now I see it was a mistake to do so. With great directing, great voice casting, art, story and characters, this has to be one of the best directed shows to exist.

Sub Group Used: [Arigatou]

Black Lagoon is an action packed show that puts morality front and center every episode.

The show is centered on a guy named, “Rock” who was captured by pirates and then chose to become one. During the show (Season one and two) Rock struggles with morality. He used to be a white-collar business man from Tokyo who had to suck up to his boss all the time, but now he is a low-life who sees people die nearly every day.

Art 9/10
The shows artwork is very consistent throughout. It has a very serious tone to it. The directors did very well by putting certain episodes in dark ... settings to show how immoral certain things are, but the director also shows how immoral things can also be done in shiny and beautiful places too.

The character art is pretty diverse when it comes down to the main characters. It shows a part of the personality you can’t easily find out. To keep things less realistic, Revy, who is always wearing redneck shorts, always seems to have extra ammo somewhere. She doesn’t wear a backpack or an ammo belt.

Character 9/10
Character development was near constant, although certain characters still ended up just being a shell that could’ve gotten deeper. Rock and Revy get some decent character development while Benny and Dutch hardly get any.

Revy aka Two-Hands, is a woman who has been killing since she was a little kid and she, as you may find out, is an amoral person. Rock, as stated before, is a trained business man who chose to become a pirate, but as you’ll see, he never shoots a gun. Benny is the go-to guy when it comes down to technology and Dutch is the captain of the Black Lagoon boat and he seems like a very likable person.

Even though the characters are unique and show very unstable personalities, the show doesn’t give a full sense of development on their personalities. Some characters are very dangerous almost Robot-from-the-future-like, while others are wimpy yet need a million bullets in order to actually hit anything they shoot at.

The characters are probably the most important part of the series. Their personalities dive deep into philosophical and psychological concepts. It is interesting to see that the characters were over-whelmingly well thought out. If you want to see character development at its core, I suggest watching this.

Sound 9/10
I watched the English Dub and I really liked it. One of the voice actresses in the English dub is also in Tenchi Muyo and that brought familiarity to me and helped me get more interested in the show.

Overall, the sound is great; there isn’t much music to speak of other than the ending theme. The dialogue can get frustrating at times because they can be very lengthy, especially towards the end of season two. And the different sounds you’ll hear from different types of deaths (both bodily and vocal) are unique and I never got the sense of voice actors being reused for other character parts.

Story 9/10
It’s the first time I heard of a story concept featuring pirates and romanticizing them, but the story wasn’t bad at all. It starts off with Rock being punched in the face and being asked if the thing he was carrying is what the pirates were looking for. And eventually his boss says he should die in the sea and even got paramilitary groups to kill him and the pirates. Long story short, Rock chooses to become a pirate and the adventures start there. The ending is pretty sad, and it kind of felt that I got robbed of a better ending.

The story concepts are to use several different events placed throughout one year and show how they happened. Some sub-stories will last a couple episodes, and some even reached more than 5, so expect story changes throughout, but the overall/underlying story will always remain.

Enjoyment 7/10
Although, the gun fights were interesting, I tended to get bored because it was usually the same thing over and over. I don’t typically like seeing such a sad ending to such an action-packed show and I think that kind of robbed some of my enjoyment.

Since the story was centered around Rock and Revy, I expected some romance, or at least a little bit and no; there was no romance. There was only an extremely occasional ecchi moment.

But overall I liked the show and it stayed very consistent throughout. With such a sad ending, it felt that Rock’s story truly ended when it was actually only beginning. Great directing, great stories and wonderful sound and art, but the ending should’ve been different (in my opinion) and I think others who love gun-fighting action will love this show. I hope you all enjoy the show too.

Sub Group used: [Exiled Destiny]

Tsubasa Chronicle is a pretty good show and it’s certainly a good way to waste time.

The show’s main concept is built on a romance story. The first episodes will show a love connection between two childhood friends, but coming from different classes, their relationship is split as well as the time they can spend together. During an excavation check on some ancient ruins, Princess Sakura blindly and unconsciously follows a voice to the ruins. There, she ends up sprouting wings and starts her ascension to another dimension, but her ascension was interrupted, and as a result, she lost all of her memories and conveniently, these ... memories are in the shape of many magical feathers. So, the point of the story is for this group of 5 people to travel to many worlds in search of these lost memories, or else, Princess Sakura will die.

Unfortunately, the price Syaoran must pay in order for her memories to be restored is the relationship he had with Princess Sakura. Any memories she had made with him during their childhood will never be fully restored, or will they?

~Story 8/10~
The story isn’t unique, but I found it kind of intriguing at first. The love background is a good hook for those who love romance stories. The concept of having many sub-stories and sub-plots thicken the experience you have watching this show, however, the experience is kept at arms-length because you know the story will inevitably end and another one will start.

These sub-stories were very long. Some encompassed 4-5 episodes while others only needed two. Some of them seemed exceptionally long when there was really no need for them to be.

~Character 5/10~
The characters are quite similar to other shows and some of them you’ll see are from xXxHoLiC such as Yuko and Mokona. The other characters are pretty typical. Princess Sakura is a very “good” person who brings honesty and kindness out of people. Syaoran is a fearless young man who will do anything he needs to in order for Sakura to smile. Kurogane is a very classical Japanese person who has a very hard time tolerating others and does not conform well to new rules that they so often run into in the new worlds. Fai is a carefree-fugitive magician who is on the run from a very powerful man who could easily kill him.

As said before, the characters are not unique. What is even worse is that the characters do not seem to have any ability to critically think. For example, the first world they travel to; the very first person they run into had the feather they are looking for. Unfortunately, it was hidden and was being unintentionally used and Mokona can feel when the feather is nearby and they were able to feel the presence of the feather a few different times when they were with their new friend. So… 4 episodes later, the gang finally realizes that their new friend is the one who had the feather all along. That is what I mean by the lack of critical thinking. They could not put together the idea that their friend was the one who had the feather. I was able to guess who had the feather 10 minutes after they arrived to the new world.

Character depth was good, however, the supporting characters (Fai and Kurogane) don’t seem to get very much depth to their backgrounds. Syaoran has the best depth of all the characters and shows why he is so willing to put his life in danger to retrieve the memories of the girl he loved.

~Sound 8/10~
One of my favorite voice actresses plays many characters in the English dub. And not to mention the English Dub isn’t bad at all. The music is pretty good actually, but the dialogue can be frustrating. The magic sounds are not unique, so there will be a sense of familiarity.

The dialogue drives me nuts. Whenever I watch a show, someone will make a statement, and another character will repeat the same sentence, but this time with a question mark. After a hundred of those repeated lines, I was quite frustrated with Tsubasa Chronicle.

~Art 8/10~
The art style is very consistent throughout the show. It isn’t too child-like and isn’t too serious and that set will with this kind of series. It’s nice to see different color palettes being used for different worlds, even the darker worlds seem better with a little light.

~Enjoyment 8/10~
I enjoyed the series, but I found myself getting frustrated with the lack of critical thinking and planning. Fighting happens often enough to keep me from getting bored, but the dialogue can sometimes be very lengthy and hard to understand. Overall, this series is pretty good. If you are someone who liked Dragonball Z, xXxHoLiC or Zero no Tsukaima, then I think you’ll enjoy this show too.

Sub Group Used: [Arigatou]

Seitokai Yakuindomo requires a specific taste in order to enjoy. The comedy is fast-paced with almost 100% of it being sexual puns, word plays with double meanings. The series runs without an underlying plot, but does a fair job going into some of the characters backgrounds and personalities.

~Story 6/10~
There is no grand-underlying plot, it's just a show full of random events and jokes within a 9 month period. I am not disappointed in the randomness, but I am disappointed that there weren't any romantic strings being pulled throughout the series. There were a few spots here and there where romantic flags pop up but they ... only last for a few seconds then it's back to sexual puns.

~Art 8/10~
The art is pretty good actually. It is a near perfect fit for this kind of random comedy show. The backgrounds are well detailed and the art style did not change constantly, which is a big plus for me.

The scene sequences are often the same ones you'd see in almost every single anime show. A beach, a school/academy, giant mansion, an inn, you'll also go through an athletic festival a cultural festival, entrance exams and an entrance ceremony. All in synch with other anime shows.
You just know there will always have to be a beach scene, it just never fails to show up.

~Sound 6/10~
Although Dialogue was the main focus of this show, the dialogue was fast-paced all the time. As someone who isn't up-to-date on all the cultural references, I tend to have to read the notes that help explain the word play being used and by the time I get a few words of it read, the dialogue has already changed to something else.

The word play and disjunct conversations between two or more people gets frustrating after a while. For example in an episode someone said, "stand", but instead someone interpreted it as "penis." That is the kind of word play you'll see and hear throughout the ENTIRE show. So, if that is your kind of humor, then enjoy.

~Character 6/10~
There was nothing very deep about the characters. Most were just shells of a complex personality. The characters are also not very unique in nature. There is a dense guy with common sense, a flawless female as student council president, a klutz with big breasts and a short genius girl.


~Enjoyment 7/10~
I often found myself frustrated and sighing because the pace was just took quick. I can read the subs pretty fast, but even the dialogue speed was took quick.

The constant use of word play and sexual puns were just too much. At first it was appealing and acceptable, but by episode 8, I just had enough.

But overall, I did enjoy the series for the most part and I would recommend this to others, especially those who love dirty jokes and dirty word play.


[Subs Used :: Ayako]

**This review contains spoilers**

I recently bought the DVD pack for this and I can't tell you how glad I a'm to be done with this.

Tenchi Muyo! GXP isn't very different from the other side stories, but I can tell you point blank that the English Dub sucks and I know it usually does for most shows. The story line for this side story is really just awful. The main character is extremely dense to the point it made me frustrated.

I loved the other Tenchi shows, they had great use of harem, the English dub wasn't bad, the characters felt unique, the shows felt romantic yet ... had lots of action.
GXP really just takes all of that reputation and just trashes it. It had lots of action sure, but the romance just simply wasn't there. The harem felt overdone and the ending plot isn't to have the main character choose his love, but rather he ends up marrying all of them. It felt like such a cheap shot to a fan like me.

~Story 5/10~
The story starts out like almost every other anime does. A dense teenage boy happens to come across a cute chick and ends up joining an academy of some sorts and in this case it was the Galaxy Police. And in his training he will befriend many people (most of them girls) and will fight pirates on an almost daily basis by exploiting Seyna's incredible bad luck. But when he isn't fighting for his life he has lots of fun watching the girls he befriends and gets bloody noses almost every episode.

~Art 6/10~
The Art was not unique, but there were some aspects that did feel unique in the sense of having Angels as giant space-ships. I love that part because mecha's are usually pretty ugly.

~Sounds 5/10~
Well, I only had the opportunity to have the English Dub, and the sound was just deplorable. The music was okay, but did not catch my attention and the use of sound effects throughout the show weren't very good. The sound effects alone make me have to give this a mediocre score.

~Character 6/10~
Well, the characters are not unique and as you may see at the end of the show, the same character traits are used for more than one person. You'll end up seeing double. The characters are your usual harem types: shy and proper, the athletic and daring, the nerdy temptress, the space pirate that ends up being a princess, and the short smart loli character.

I liked the original characters because they felt very unique. After 2 seasons, GXP really made me feel like the Tenchi Muyo! series was way over done.

~Enjoyment 6/10~
I did enjoy some aspects of the show. The first episode is off-putting because it's just so incredibly stupid, but for a while after that (for about 15 episodes), things seemed to be good, but at the end of the series, I felt like it was a chore having to finish the show.

Overall, I give this series a 7/10. It did not meet my expectations and surely didn't even come close to it's predecessors.

Manyuu Hikenchou is a show that requires special taste. It is pretty much a hybrid of hentai and regular anime. If you like excessively gigantic tits that are constantly slapping and shaking all the time, this is your show.

Story:
The show is placed in feudal Japan where Samurai's still exist. And in this era, gigantic tits is a sign of being well off (rich or sophisticated). This tradition is so popular, even the techniques the Samurai's use involve stealing tits from other people. (Obviously the story wasn't the focus).

That's as far as I got.
I dropped this series after episode three. At first, I thought the show ... would get better -maybe less focus on boobs- but that didn't turn out to be the case. I'm all for breast obsessions, but this is just ridiculous.

The show was labeled as an action series, but there is a line that is hardly ever crossed between action and just plain smut. And this show crossed that line.

This really does not suit my taste. I thought it would be ecchi, but this is just over-the-top gigantic boobs constantly slapping and shaking, it's just pure smut or softcore porn... which ever label you prefer.

Dantalian no Shoka is a perfect representation of what history actually is. History can be beautiful, serious, mysterious and sometimes down-right brutal. This show does not hide its colors, but emphasizes them. To truly know history you must know every nook and cranny and even the stuff you wish you had never found out. Dantalian no Shoka, shows no mercy.

This is pretty much a random story line, but still has some underlying connections (like relationships). As a young boy Huey, finds and befriends a lonely librarian who watches over a library filled with more than 600,000 books, but that catch is that the library is ... mystical/magical. Then the show starts with Huey being an adult and befriending another young lady named Dantalian. She and Huey go through many adventures both happy ones and gruesome ones. Will they survive?

Story 8/10
I don’t usually like historical stuff, but this really hit the spot for me. I really liked the full tone art-style and the historical feel that is so beautifully presented. However, on some of the adventures, I often found myself getting a little upset or queasy. I directly recall episode four; there was a scene where some of the characters were continuously killed over and over and to make it worse, it was execution style with a bullet in the head. That is something I definitely didn’t want to watch, but that is also a representation of how history isn’t always happy and fun. Overall, there was a slight romance tone, but there really wasn’t anything that connected everything together. And of course the series ended in a way that would allow a second season to be made if ever warranted.

Characters 7/10
The characters are not very unique. Quite frankly, all of them seem a bit dense. You have your usual short-cute tsundere girl in an amazingly complex looking dress, an idiot girl who loves to dress up, an annoying friend who can’t find true love and Huey, a man who was once an army pilot and killed his best friend.

That doesn’t sound very different from other characters does it?

Art 8/10
The art is fantastic, there is a great blend of colors when action happens, but overall the colors are usually dark and the art style is usually full toned (no missing borders, no missing backgrounds etc…).

Sounds 10/10
The OST for this series is just amazing. The opening scenes have a great song that I just had to have and the music that was played throughout the series was just amazing. The focus on instruments was tremendous and I really loved the episode where a famous instrumentalist played in a concert. (Seeing how I am a violinist, this can be very bias).

Enjoyment 8/10
Besides the gruesome-brutal executions, I think the series was pretty enjoyable. The show has a perfect blend of mystery and action while introducing a couple unique aspects that hasn’t been put in an anime before. I commend the use of music and the dialogue is also quite good, but if the brutality is any worse than it was so far, I might not watch the second season if it ever gets made.

R-15 is a show with a mediocre story, your usual art style, fantastic music with your usual harem characters (this is not a harem show). There are tons and I mean absolutely tons of panty shots and nose bleeds, so if you like that kind of stuff in large amounts, this is the show for you.

~Warning~ The very beginning of the show is very off-putting. It is something very unexpected and probably repels most people when they attempt to watch the show.

~Warning 2~ Do not watch this show unless you have downloaded or bought the Blue-Ray version. The censorship that I sat through was ... severe and even simple underwear shots were censored, leaving me to not understand some of the stuff that happened in the show.


Story 6/10
The story isn't very original, but with what parts of the story I could follow, this is how I would summarize it. In the show there will be two girls who love the main male protagonist, but this guy has sex constantly on his mind and not to mention how incredibly dense he is. So, the show is mainly about how he becomes friends with several girls and how they must learn how to over-look his sex obsessions and understand him for who he truly is.

Art 8/10
The art is your usual bright color pallet, the lines are drawn well and the art is very consistent (unless the main character is imagining something). Overall, the backgrounds were well drawn and had focus, the characters had their own style attached to them and nothing seemed over bearing or very off-putting.

Sound 10/10
This show really focused on the dialogue and music. Half of the final episode is pretty much a music video. A clarinet isn't a very popular instrument and I was happy to see that it was a main focus in the show.

Character 8/10
The characters are not unique, but I was most happy with Fukune (the main female character) she is a quiet one that was able to find love. I liked that because the quiet-mysterious girls are usually just supporting characters. All the other characters are your usual harem types: Tusndere, Science genius, peppy-cheerleader, very popular type etc... The main male protagonist, instead of groping and fondling all the chicks, he instead imagines doing it and writes it down like a hentai story.

Enjoyment 8/10
I enjoyed the story and the interactions (most of them) between most of the characters, but I didn't enjoy the severe censorship, so I'll have to rewatch this when the dvd's or blue-rays come out.

Overall, the story isn't unique, the art is your usual stuff, the music is fantastic with your usual characters. There are tons and I mean absolutely tons of panty shots and nose bleeds, so if you like that kind of stuff in large amounts, this is the show for you.

Usagi Drop is a very heart-warming story about a little girl (that is illegitimate) growing up with a new guardian who has zero parenting skills, after her real father dies. As the story progresses, this little girl presents many challenges that she receives for herself and her new parent. During a year of living in a new place, she shows so many cute sides of herself leaving me to wonder if being a parent is as great as it looks.

Story 9/10
This story is a very heart-warming one with a wonderful ending. The story at first starts out really slow and kind of boring, but after ... the first episode, things tend to pick up speed and progresses at a very good pace. Daikichi is presented with many challenges that every parent must face at one time or another and tries his hardest to be a good parent and a good friend. Rin finally gets to make friends and discover new things about life and slowly shows her personality to the people she has grown attached to.

Character 10/10
The supporting characters of this series are not very unique, but the main characters (Daikichi and Rin) do seem to have some originality. Unlike many other anime shows I've seen, Rin is actually portrayed as a very innocent child that gets frustrated and sometimes ashamed with growing up. Daikichi seems like a very boring and lazy guy, but is showing his good will and good character by sacrificing more for Rin than he originally thought he would.

Art 8/10
I was very impressed with the art and liked how they tended to use two different art styles. In the beginning of each episode the style reminds me of what people would use when trying to convey a flashback or memory, while the rest of the episode is another more defined style.

The art style all together feels very nostalgic of what anime shows in the 80's and 90's had.

Sound 9/10
The music in the show is just spectacular. It is what makes this anime, not just a show, but a piece of art.

Enjoyment 10/10
I couldn't get enough of the cute situations that Rin was always showing. It really makes me wish that I had a six year old kid. This is something I probably won't forget and I wish there were more than just 11 episodes. I hope there will be another season.

Subs Used: [Kanjouteki]

Similar Animes:
Aishiteruze Baby
- Aishiteruze Baby is about a girl who has been abandoned temporarily and has to live with a new household. She gets up everyday facing new challenges growing up while desperately wanting to keep the memories of her past.

Softenni is a series full of nudity and comedy and finds a way to use them both in a masterful way.

Softennis is pretty much about a female tennis team trying to overcome al thel challenges that come their way, whether it's team-work or playing against another team with an extreme mixture of comedy. The two main female protagonists (Asuna and Kotone) are a soft tennis pair that drives the plot forward every step.

If you start watching this show, it will seem weird that it starts out on a farm, but you'll understand why later on.

Characters 8/10
Although the characters are not unique, they show a unique ... element to an already dysfunctional tennis team. A lazy-drunk coach, a pervert, a stubborn athlete, a clumsy-gluttonous leader, a foreign adventurer, a medium and a mysterious costume-wearing girl. They all play a role in making a weird concept/plot into a very funny story.

Art 9/10
Although the art isn't genre defining, I must compliment the use of backgrounds. In many shows I see that the borders are often uncolored or the backgrounds are often undetailed, and I was pleased that some detail was used in Softenni.

Sound 8/10
The dialogue was the main focus of the show, and the characters' true personalities were brought out very well. There were a few notable moments where there was great music being played, and I even got the OST (Sound Track).

Enjoyment 9/10
Softenni is something I have been looking for. It has a great dose of nudity (unfortunately in my case, censorship) as well as a good dose of comedy. Although I do not know a lot of the Japanese refrences, I was still able to laugh my ass off most of the time. I hope others enjoy this show too.

Subs used: Ayako-Nishishi