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Apr 2, 2016

Katanagatari (Anime) add

Recommended

Spoiler

Nisoisin is best known for the Monogatari franchise. A franchise that is truly dependent on large amounts of symbolism and witty dialogue to draw in viewers and keep attention to what is basically 24 minutes of talking. Katanagatari is just that. However instead of being 24 minutes, each episode is 45. This is what initially drives potential viewers away with a remarkably unique art style, even though it is written by the great Nisiosin himself. To people who think that way, I would say give it a chance, because you are truly missing out. *Note: This review contains spoilers.*

Our story revolves around Shichika and Togame, ... and the adventures they share in the path of pursing Togame's goals. At the beginning when we meet Shichika we see why Togame wants to use him to further her goals: he's incredibly strong, and does so without the use of any weapons at all. It's very interesting to note that Shichika's actions in the beginning reflect what he's made out to be: a wielderless weapon. However upon meeting Togame the first human he's interacted with outside of his family, he quickly becomes interested and it's there that he has found his wielder. From there on Katanagatari begins to explore the themes of Humanity in an amazing way through Shichika and the incredible development his character goes through. One such example of this is early on in the series, Shichika is extremely quick to kill his enemies with no signs of emotions or remorse. It's as if he might as well be a sword himself. Just an extension of his wielder. The series does an excellent job in exploring and developing Shichika from being at first; just Togame's sword, into his own full fledged person by the end of the series. The story is incredible and I'd say my personal favorite work of Nisiosin. However, what really drives people away is the episode length and how dialogue heavy the show is. To that I say: just read it all, because it is amazing. Like the Monogatari series the dialogue is chock full of symbolism and witty remarks. One such tribute to this is the troll we get in episode 4 with Sabi. I genuinely wasn't even angry when it happened even though it had taken 4 episodes to build him up like some sort of badass villain, it was actually very well executed. And last but not least, I thought I'd at least mention episode 11. When Togame is dying in Shichika's arms, it's one of the most surreal down to earth reveals in this anime. It's what made her a character rather than a trope. She was so hell bent on vengeance that she had no qualms about using Shichika even though she had fallen for him. What's great about this moment is not only is it just beautiful and tragic at the same time, we get to see Togame's "scheming" eye when she reveals this to Shichika, so it's really left up to viewer interpretation.

Visually, the art is great. It drives a lot of potential viewers away with how unique it is, but I think it really fits the show perfectly. It has sort of a children's book feel the way the character designs are made which fits again, perfectly as the whole show was basically the tale of the adventures of Togame and Shichika. This can be referenced to the "-gatari" in Katanagatari which literally translates to "Sword Story" which is a fitting title. The soundtrack was great. It always captured the mood perfectly. The one track that is the most memorable in my opinion was the theme that played when Togame would speak to Shichika about what she was planning; the track that included the oriental style music with rapping.

Overall, I'd say this anime is truly a masterpiece. It was very deep, and explored it's themes over layers of well done symbolism. Katanagatari is overshadowed by Nisioisin's more popular works: obviously being the Monogatari franchise. It's a damn shame how relatively unknown Katanagatari is compared to the Monogatari franchise is, because in my opinion it's better overall than the Monogatari franchise. And I say this even though I am one of the biggest Monogatari fanboys out there. I'd say Katanagatari is a solid 10/10, one of the only anime I'd consider to be a masterpiece that has come out in this recent day and age.

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Mar 31, 2016

Boku dake ga Inai Machi (Anime) add

Mixed Feelings

Spoiler

Every season, It seems there is one anime that stands head and toes above all others due to "serious themes" and a remote resemblance to a plot since most of the crap we get every season is an ecchi high school harem. ERASED was this seasons Steins Gate. Heavily overhyped and receiving way to much praise because it was being compared against anime such as Ao Kanata No Four Rhythm. This review contains MAJOR SPOILERS.

My first problem with the story arose in episode 1. Yeah sure its cool and all that our main character has the ability to time travel, but it was left COMPLETELY ... unexplained. We don't know what is the trigger for it, and if you try to say that the trigger is "when something goes wrong" than you're wrong because clearly if that were the case, he would be time traveling MUCH more often. The fact that what we witness in episode 1 is him time traveling just a few seconds back versus at the end of episode 1 when he travels 15 YEARS back was just proof to me that the writer just pulled the time travel card out of his ass just to get some oohs and ahs from the viewers. Also after fucking up the first time and being sent back to the future, then just SHOUTING to get sent back again? Come on now. And need I even mention the chocolate bar?

Now I didn't have a problem with the middle part of the story since we really focused on Kayo, whom I actually grew semi fond of as the show progressed. I like how it took some length to build on her relationship with Fujinuma. However, looking past those 2 characters, I really must say that ALL of the other characters were horse shit. Especially the best friend character. I can understand why Fujinuma is acting mature, but why the best friend character as well? They're only 6th graders. Aside from Fujinuma, 6th graders should not have the mental capacity to help prevent murder cases and even believing Fujinuma in the first place. Also the enormous ass pull to prevent the murder of the other 2 kids was infuriating. They spent 9 episodes on Kayo only to say "oh shit the anime's about to be over, we need to hurry up and get to the ending" resulting in rushed as shit pacing for episodes 10 and 11 as well as outright shitting on any possible character development for those 2 kids. Last but not least, the teacher was just downright awful. His motives were just piss poor and done half assed. The big reveal in episode 12, was just terrible. He let Fujinuma live for 15 FUCKING YEARS because he couldn't live without the kid who would've likely got him death sentence had the statues of limitations not been in place.. Okay,

The art was overall decent, it was nothing special. The thing that pissed me off was every time they'd show Kayo and her bruises, it would go monotone and only show color to her bruise. It was like a slap in the face from the director, as it almost in my opinion implied the viewer to be too stupid to notice the bruises. They also had a point of making whoever was to be the "bad guy" in the moment have red eyes such as the teacher when he's attempting to drown Fujinuma, or Kayo's mother when she beats her. Didn't really have to much of a problem with it but it was annoying. The damn butterfly and the sound effect that would play every time he time traveled was just fucking cheesy, and pretty damn annoying. The soundtrack didn't offer anything special either with no memorable songs. The OP and ED are nothing special either, just VERY overhyped.

Now when it comes down to it, I do give this show a ton of shit but I did enjoy it. It had a semi decent middle with the Kayo arc, and I enjoyed her character development as well as her little relationship with Fujinuma. This anime has MASSIVE problems however, but was a rather refreshing change of pace from the bullshit of past seasons. Again, I believe ERASED suffers from the Steins Gate syndrome. It was way to overhyped out the gate, and susceptible to being rated extremely highly by newer anime fans. I would give ERASED an overall 6.25/10 because in the end, I can say that I enjoyed it to a certain degree.

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