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Oct 4, 2021
Japanese Animation and Star Wars, two things I've loved for a really long time now and it's surprising the last time I saw someone from the east seriously animate a Star Wars character was Daicon IV. When I heard about this project I was excited, and thought "How could this go wrong?" Well as you can tell from my score, not much did.
As this is an anthology series with 9 disconnected episodes by 7 studios, I think it makes sense to go by and review each individually. Even if the same studio made two episodes, the result was widely different.
1. The Duel, by Kamikaze Douga.
The
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first and arguably the best of the bunch was The Duel, made by the same studio that you might know because they did the absolutely gorgeous CG openings for JoJo Parts 1-3. The Duel is a fantastically animated short with a compelling narrative about a wandering vagrant walking into a town being terrorized by raiders that picked up Empire equipment post-galactic civil war (after episode 6). The entire short is effectively in black and white, with only a few pieces of color here and there for blaster fire or lightsabers. The story is simple yet to the point and the action was well choreographed. I will say that CG animation is still janky looking compared to traditional 2d or computer assisted 2d like most studios do now-a-days, but I found it didn't take away from the overall feel of The Duel. Its hard for me to put in to words why I enjoyed it so much without spoilers, but I can say that if I had to pick one short to get more content this was my second choice. Therefore, I'm very excited to read Ronin when it comes out later this month. The last thing I'll say is I'm entirely convinced these were supposed to be viewed in Japanese, as there is a line in this animation that is very obviously someone saying each syllable of a Japanese word, but because English is not a syllabic language it doesn't translate as well. There are two other shorts I'll recommend watching in Japanese over the English language. However, I'm not a dub purist for the most part and the English voice talent usually did a pretty good job so you wont be disappointed watching it in English if you prefer. The Duel gets an overall 9/10.
2. Tatooine Rhapsody by Studio Colorido.
I don't recognize most of Studio Colorido's work, so you may not have heard of them either, unless you're a big Tito Kubo fan then you might know this is the studio that did the animation for Burn The Witch. Regardless, I don't have much to say about this one, because it honestly wasn't very good. As the name may betray for you as it did me, this one is about music, specifically a Jedi Padawan who runs away during the Clone Wars to join a band. The story was pretty meh and the song was not good in English, but I doubt it would be better in another language. I also was not a fan of the character designs, as they're this weird shrunken psuedo-chibi look that while not being awful wasn't very good. Kind of a low concept piece and so the best adjectives I can give it are "cute" and "quaint". Temeura Morrison reprises his role yet again as Boba Fett so if you're a big fan of his voice like I am thats a plus, but really the only plus I can give it. 5/10.
3. The Twins, by Trigger.
As soon as I saw Trigger did this one, I knew it was going to be weird, and probably not a good weird. Trigger was one of the two studios I recognized by name going in, as I remember all the hype for Kill la Kill when it came out. I watched it because of the hype, and its one of the shows that contributed to why I don't watch things based on hype alone anymore. Speaking of Kill la Kill, that's one thing I certainly didn't want to see mixed with Star Wars, because that's all this is. Complete with Ryuko "Dark Helmet" Matoi-Vader, exploding clothes, and big dumb shounen power-up screams, this was not my style. But I'm getting ahead of myself, the character design and animation work is actually pretty good, with a very intriguing color pallet. Aaaand thats where my compliments end. Again, without spoilers, remember how everyone lost their minds because Leia used the force in space in episode 8? Get ready for half the runtime to take place in the vacuum. Since it was animated it didn't really bug me, but the voice acting from the female twin was really distractingly bad. I don't blame Alison Brie for doing a bad job, but because theres a lot of Dragonball-esque shounen screaming English doesn't work very well. This is one of the two I would recommend watching in Japanese. That being said, I would just skip this one altogether unless you want to watch more patented terrible Trigger animation work. 3/10.
4. The Village Bride by Kinema Citrus.
Kinema Citrus you may not know by name but by work. They're responsible for the Shield Hero adaptation and Made in Abyss, both shows I haven't watched at the time of this review. However, if The Village Bride is anything to go off of, those shows look absolutely stunning. This short was a veritable feast for the eyes, with stellar backgrounds, beautiful characters, and gorgeous animation. A very slow and methodical story, this short spent most of its time just looking really good. It didn't have deep characters, a strong story or anything interesting to offer philosophically for the most part, but it is such a tribute to why I adore Japanese animation I still recommend it anyways. Not much to say, but it made an impact on me. 8/10
5. The Ninth Jedi, by Production IG.
NOW we're bringing out the big guns. The other studio I recognized by name, I knew this one was going to have the best animation out of the entire series, and I wasn't wrong. Take everything I said about The Village Bride, and add in a good storyline with phenomenal animation/sakuga, and you've got yet another feather to add in Production IG's cap. This short also had some interesting pieces of lore it was able to weave into the story that as a longtime Star Wars fan I really enjoyed. If you for whatever reason could only watch one, this would be the one to watch. The worst part about it is that I don't think there will be any more, as the setting and execution of The Ninth Jedi was so fantastic I would love to see a fully produced 12 or so episode anime by Production IG. Whenever I think about Star Wars: Visions, this is the first thing that comes to mind. I'd go on but I think I've made my point. This was my favorite by far and I hope to see more. 10/10.
6. T0-B1, by Science Saru.
Remember how just a paragraph ago I was gushing about my favorite? Well it's followed by my least favorite, T0-B1. Science Saru hasn't done much, but you might know them from a few years back when everyone lost their minds at the rotoscope horror fest that was Ping Pong the Animation. I still haven't watched it because of how ugly it looks, and after having watched Science Saru's work here I most certainly wont now. From an animation standpoint, this one is actually not too bad. The characters are bland and animated awkwardly from time to time but generally not incompetently. I will mention that Professor Mitaka seriously looks like someone just took Dr. Light from MegaMan and stuck him in Star Wars, but I didn't hate his design. The other three characters cannot have the same said about them. The main character, T0-B1, is not fun to look at. I hate his shaving gel hair, and I hate his weird Ponyo looking face. The other main droid, C03, had his mouth animated for some baffling reason. Normally I don't mind the two frames of animation for a character talking in anime, but when the sounds coming out are R2-D2 beeps and whirs... It doesn't work. The last character, and the design I hated the most will only get two words: Teeth Vader. The last thing I'll mention is that the sound design and music were weirdly awful in this short, contributing to my low opinion. There's a fight scene where the only thing that can be heard is a character going "Oof, ah, ouch!". I have no idea why, because the music comes back and so does the SFX, but it's just missing for a stretch of about 30 seconds. Anyways if you were going to skip any of them please skip this one. It's absolutely not worth your time. 1/10.
7. The Elder, by Trigger.
The second animation by Trigger, and what I assume was the A team, as when Kiznaiver aired in 2016, Uchuu Patrol Luluco had started airing a week earlier. Of the two, Kiznaiver is the much better looking one. The difference isn't quiet as drastic when comparing The Elder to The Twins, but The Elder was animated a whole hell of a lot better than The Twins. The character designs are nothing special here, but they're serviceable and memorable enough that I quiet liked them. The plot was also engaging and the sakuga was fun to watch. Not much to say about this one without going into spoilers, but it fits in well with the wider Star Wars universe and has a nice philosophical message to end on that resonated well with me. I can easily recommend this one, 8/10.
8. Lop and Ochou, by Geno Studio
This is the studio I know the least about, as I haven't watched much new anime in years and they're most recent work was in 2017. However, you may know them as the studio that did Golden Kamuy, as that series appears to be decently well rated on this site. Going off the work done in Lop and Ochou, I can definitely see the appeal, as this is one of the absolutely best animated of the bunch. When it wants to be. My main gripe with this short was that it wastes about 40%-60% of the run time with characters standing around talking at each other without saying anything interesting. There are three scenes back-to-back-to-back that all have characters shouting very uninteresting pseudo-political talking points at each other. If it didn't waste so much time I could easily recommend this, as it joins the majority of these shorts with great character designs, and stands out with some truly gorgeous animation and background design. I personally also had some minor lore issues with the short, which also sours it in my memory. On a final note, this is the second of the two that should be watched in Japanese. The voice actors do a decent job, except for child Ochou who speaks in broken English for some unknown reason. But adult Ochou, played by Hiromi Dames does a very bad job towards the end where she starts screaming her lines in a really grating way. If you plan on watching this, don't do it in English. This was the hardest one to rate, but I think 6/10 is fair.
9. Akakiri, by Science Saru.
So Triggers second outing was a lot better than their first, can the same be said here? No. No it cannot. This has the worst character design out of all the shorts, if you look up a picture for Akakiri you'll probably be cursed with Princess Misa's potato like visage and stupid ass black-colored bangs with brown hair combo. She even has a flash back with different hair and it was somehow just as bad as the one she's seen sporting in the present. Which was odd, because I don't dislike any of the other character designs. Tsubaki was great, the older guides Kamahachi and Senshuu also have fun designs, and the antagonist Masago is personally one of my favorites from the entire anthology. But Potato Misa distracted me so much because she is not fun to look at. What also isn't fun to look at is the bizarre motion blur style of animation that was used. I don't know how else to describe it other than it looks like they just cut out frames of animation and added motion blur to fill in the blanks. It looks really bad and took away from what could have been somewhat interesting, as the general plot was serviceable. The music, however, was very bad for this short. I haven't mentioned the music in most of these because it was mostly generic and got the job done, but I don't remember any specific pieces. But in Asakiri it's this really annoying bongo solo with nothing else going on. A shame, because there was some potential here, but I guess Science Monkey is just wholly incompetent. 4/10.
In closing, skip 3, 6, and 9. Watch 2 and 8 if you really want to, but I wouldn't as it's generally not worth your time. But if you're a fan of Star Wars, Anime, or both, I cannot recommend 1, 4, 5, and 7 enough. Especially 1. The Duel and 5. The Ninth Jedi. I'll continue to recommend all four of those to people for years to come as shining examples of what the best Japanese animation looks like.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Oct 11, 2015
As this is the second cour for the show Aldnoah.Zero, I will assume you have already seen the first half, but not the second. Going off this basis I will partially discuss major plot lines that occur within the first cour of the show. If you actually plan on wasting your time with the first and possibly the second cour after my (and many others) warning against such a path, I would suggest you find another review. Though I honestly don't know why you'd want to, as there are far many other mecha anime out there that both look better and are presented better. But
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without further ado, here is my take on Aldnoah.Zero's second cour.
Story: 3/10
Picking up nineteen months after the first half, we find not much has really changed on a whole. We discover that Slain is now a knight under Count Saazbaum. Princess Asseylum is in a bacta tank recovering from her gunshot wound at the end of the first cour, and is thus comatose. Finally, we find that Kirit- I mean Inaho, is not dead and now has a supercomputer in place of his eye, as he was shot in the face at the end of the first half. It appears almost nothing has happened in the last nineteen months, as the war is still on, but none of the characters have changed, or have changed so little its unnoticeable. All major developments have been stalled, and it seems like the only purpose for this time skip was to make it more dramatic when Asseylum inevitably wakes up, making the time skip wholly unnecessary.
Without spoiling anything that occurs in the second cour, this show story clearly had a lot potential, as The Urobutcher himself created the original concept and first episode. Being a big fan of Urobuchi anime, (Psycho-Pass, Fate/Zero, Madoka Magica, to name a few) this show had a lot going for it. However, with constant nonsensical character developments, and the walking Deus Ex Machina of an MC, we get a very unpolished product. This show had a direction, but it felt like the directors wrote the story into a corner, and instead of re-writing it, they just had Kiri- I mean Inaho, fix all the problems magically. While this is less annoying in the second half and more realistic due to the introduction of Cortana in the form of Inaho's left eye, it's still extremely annoy to watch the supposedly vastly inferior Earth forces constantly overpower and win out over the technologically superior Martian invading forces, because some kid is far too intelligent for his age.
Art: 4/10
While the art is not godawful, for a mecha show, you expect your mechas to look nice. But when they are just mechas are all CG all the time, they look very choppy and out of place with the rest of the characters. The characters themselves are pretty boring, and only have a couple of unique features, but for the most part just look like your average KyoAni esque anime character. (Note, I realize Kyoto Animation did not animate this show, that's just the name I've given to characters that look like this, as they might as well be KyoAni characters) While I do like the KyoAni style design, it's getting really monotonous, when everybody looks the same. However, my major gripe and the reason why I score the art so low, is because the CG mechs. I cannot stand this trend of godawful CG showing up in shows. It's lazy, looks like garbage, and it needs to desist, as it brings down quality as a whole. Speaking of lazy...
Sound: 3/10
To me, sound might as well just mean soundtrack, and so that is the biggest factor for this low score. However, the voice acting in this show was of average quality, and I had no qualms with it. The actual SFX was decent as well, but wasn't anything all that unique, but was certainly not bad. Now my main issue with this series is Hiroyuki Sawano. This is a man who has taken the Call of Duty approach to sound design. The first show I saw that he worked on was Guilty Crown. Guilty Crown has one of my all time favorite OST's, and is a big reason I think so highly of it, even though it has some awkward plot lines here and there. The next show I watched that had Hiroyuki's name on it was Shingeki no Kyojin. This show also had a very good soundtrack, but I couldn't help but feel it was far too similar to GC's. Take Bios and The Armored Titan's Theme, for example. Both have German-ese vocals, loud orchestral music + bass. Not exactly the same but the style just feels stagnate. It only gets worse from there, as next was Kill La Kill, which like Aldnoah was also a disappointment. I feel this is also in part to Hiroyuki, but KlK had a lot of it's own problems. Again, the only song I even remember is "Don't Lose Your Way", and only because it's so campy. Finally, we get to A.Z's OST, and at this point it all just sounds like poorer versions of GC's OST, as if Hiroyuki has run out of conductive genius, and is just trying to emulate his previous successes.
Characters: 2/10
I've already said basically anything that needs to be said about Inaho Kirigaya. Kazuto Kaizuka is Deus Ex Machina, and nothing more. He's a kuudere, but without the dere. He's completely unlikable, and I was very excited at the concept of him being dead at the end of the first cour, as it meant we'd hopefully get less plot convenience and more actual story. However, he comes in and saves everything every time, so much so that he's not even a character, he's more like a force within the series that pushes it forward because no one knew how to write a story without the Eagles coming in and saving the Earth and Company.
Next is easily the best and most frustrating character in the series, Slaine. Slaine was the most relatable character within the series, and is thus the most frustrating because he is not given the proper development he needed to really shine and make this a series worth watching. In the end he just feels like a crappy version of Suzaku. He gets a very good arc that could have gone sooo perfectly for him, but you know he can't achieve his goals because the "good" guys have to win.
All other characters feel like set pieces, and are so distant they don't feel real. The only one I want to mention is Kouichirou Marito. This is a character that in the first cour gets a great amount of development and could actually be a great character fighting with his PTSD after encounter a Martian warship and his forces being devastated by it. But I can tell you exactly what's wrong with him, by simply quoting what is, at the time of writing this, is his bio on MAL itself: "No biography written."
Enjoyment: 1/10
Very few shows actually piss me off. Even shows I absolutely despise, like Mirai Nikki, were incapable of pulling this feat off. I knew exactly what was going to happen at every turn, and was never surprised. This show followed the most linear path it might as well have been a line on a piece of paper, it's about as generic as one too, so I'd have trouble distinguishing which was which. That's a lie of course, because one of the lines would make me extremely perturbed, telling me exactly which is which. I don't write reviews that often, but when I do, it's for shows that I love so much and think are underrated, or I hate so much I feel it's my civic duty to warn others to stay far, far away from them.
Overall, I personally rate this a 1/10, but I think it's actually closer to a 3/10. This was a mainly negative critic, but I felt this show had so much potential, and because it didn't live up to it, I personally feel like it stole my time from me. And I want it back.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Jun 21, 2014
Akuma no Riddle was an interesting anime. But not in a good way. Potential seems to be the name of the game now-a-days, and if you have it you must be good, right? This was an example of that being completely, and truly, false.
Story - 6/10
If you're here, you've probably heard this anime referred to as the "DanganRonpa with Yuri". As of finishing the series, I can assure you, that this was partially true. This, like DanganRonpa, had a lot of potential and a very interesting plot going in. This also shares DanganRonpa's somewhat bad traits by having everything culminate into next to nothing.
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However, in Dangan, it's next to nothing. Here, we get absolutely nothing. Nothing changes throughout the course of the series, and it leaves me with a very bland feeling that nothing was accomplished after 12 episodes.
Now, this would be minor spoilers, but the tags on MAL are wrong. If you are watching this purely for Yuri, you will be extremely disappointed. There is very little Yuri, if you could even call it that. Maybe if you have some pretty intense Yuri googles, you might enjoy this.
Art - 8/10
Let's be honest, the art is really good, and the animation is beautiful. I do recognize that it is 2014, but we still have shows like Kill La Kill that look terrible. Yes, I know that money is a factor, but it still doesn't excuse poor animation. Anyways, the animation in Akuma no Riddle is very fluid and looks amazing. Very few corners were cut here, and we don't have books covering peoples mouths so they didn't have to animate them talking...
Sound - 8/10
This is and Art are the only places Akuma no Riddle shines. This anime had some very enjoyable OST's that really fit the feel and mood of the show. But the thing that really stood out to me was that each ending of this show is unique, and each has a unique song. This is something that may have been done before, but I have never seen this before, and it shows that the creators at least put something into creating this show. I liked this most of all, but I'm not someone who's big on the OP/ED of shows. I much prefer the actual content, and a bad/good opening/ending doesn't really reflect the content within the show for me.
Characters - 4/10
The way the story develops the characters is in a really poor way. It goes the route of introducing them each individually. Then, it will give you the characters backstory. The problem with this is all the side characters shove out the mains and leave them with less development time. I'm not fan of this way of character development at all because now I feel like I know next to nothing about any of the characters, because the screen time was too evenly split. Therefore, it's more like things doing actions rather than an actual character you can grab on to.
Overall/Enjoyment - 4
Honestly, I was very disappointed by Akuma no Riddle. I thought it would be this new innovative anime that would really try to branch out and do its own thing and end up amazing. This was not the case as it reverted to the old tried and true methods that we've all seen before.
So, in conclusion, I would not recommend this anime to almost anyone, as it has my cliffhangers and boring design choices that left me yearning for what could have been, instead of what we got.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Jan 12, 2014
This anime is one that has a lot of good surrounding it by word of mouth, and every once in a while you hear someone say it was meh or not worth watching. When I originally watched this, I had only seen the opening and I thought it was amazing and one of the best openings I've ever seen, as I still hold to this idea today. Upon watching the first few episodes, I was intrigued, but not impressed. When I finally finished it, I felt like I had wasted a tremendous amount of time and immediately wrote it off with a one out of
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ten and rushed a poorly written and bad review of it here, which no longer exists. Then, after many months, I began to think: "What if it actually wasn't as bad as I initially thought?" and so I began the perilous quest of rewatching my most hated anime at this current time, and after finishing it, I wrote this review.
This review takes a bit to get going to my main points, but if you're seriously considering watching this anime, I HIGHLY suggest you finish my review, and then read some other reviews that may/may not be more positive than mine.
Art: 6/10
I will start with the art, as this is obviously the first thing you notice. For a 2011 anime, it's definitely up to par and has no really glaring problems, and is actually rather well done. That being said, I have seen much better anime, even in the same year. It also has some CGI, but it's nothing amazing, but it was done tastefully enough that it doesn't seem really awkward or make a bad contrast with the rest of the art. However, a large problem I have with this is if you are watching an uncensored version (AKA Not the TV version) like I had the misfortune of doing, then you will see some anime boobies. This may or may not bother you, but it bothered me as it was unnecessary fan service and it was more creepy and distracting than anything. Why am I mentioning this in the TV version? As a warning to those that there is a difference. The TV version also censors some very odd things, at least to a North American viewer such as myself, like severed limbs. Japan may have some different laws or preferences to us in NA, but it looks really dumb and childish when something like this happens, and it really takes you out of a suspenseful scenario.
Sound: 8/10
As I have already stated, the opening is great, and I watch it almost every time. Same goes for the second opening and both endings. I highly enjoy all of these, and they are worth sticking around for instead of just jumping into the episode or to the next. The background music fits the tone for almost every scene and Tatsuya Kato did a good job in producing it. However, unlike some other music directors, like Hiroyuki Sawano, none of his tracks are very memorable, and so makes the music in the actual anime lacking to an extent, as there was nothing unique or fresh about his style. This is only a real problem for those of us who like anime OST's and will search them up after watching a scene where the song is what really made it for you.
Story 4/10
Now this is where my review starts getting negative. If you're a big fan of the show and you don't like constructive criticism, turn away now. The story is about a young boy named Yukiteru Amano who is a very lonely and boring middle school child, who is just going through the motions of life trying not to disturb anyone and only observing the daily events that unfold around him. He himself never takes a large role in anything in his life. The only thing he has to go home to is his imaginary friends, Dues ex Machina, the "god" of space and time, and his servant, Mur Mur (Japanese pronunciation Mura Mura, which I much prefer and shall be writing it as such from here on out), who does nothing and a lot of it. One day, Yukiteru wakes up and finds that his diary entries, had already been written for him. Immediately writing it off, he starts his daily routine. Suddenly, the events in his dairy begin to unfold as they were written. Taking advantage of this, he starts utilizing his "future diary". However, he is soon approached by a pink haired classmate named Yuno Gasai, who somehow knows what Mura Mura looks like, even though she's just a part of Yukiteru's imagination. Yukiteru is appalled by this, and runs off, only to be continually cut off by Yuno, who then explains to him that there are eleven other diary owners that are all trying to kill each other to become "god", as the current one, Deus ex Machina, is dying and needs a suitable replacement in one of these diary holders. Yuno also makes it a point to confess her love for Yukiteru, by showing him her future diary, which tells her everything there is to know about Yukiteru, perfect for a stalker, as she has been doing for the past year. Now, thrust into this game of life and death, Yukiteru, with much help from Yuno, must outwit and outfight his enemies that are the other diary holders.
Okay, that's the intro. Cue lots of filler and boring episodes where nothing happens, episodes that are really reminiscent of generic "villain of the week" shounen anime, and so many plot holes you could sink a ship with them. Upon rewatching this, there were many episodes I skipped because either A: Nothing happens in them, or B: They're just so boring to watch you can't help but skip them. I have so many problems with scenes or ways characters handle things that I could write a spoiled version of this review and it would be twice as long, but I won't. I will just warn you that this anime assumes you're stupid sometimes and creates hype with no build up and no pay off. But let's be honest here. If you have a friend that told you to watch this, but you're not so sure and want to read a review first, there's a reason they wanted you to watch this show...
Characters 1/10
Now, for the absolute lowest point of this anime, it's characters. If you're a hardcore fan and decided to still read this review despite my warning, here's where you will be raging. My biggest problem with many shows are weak protagonists. Whether they are just too generic, too perfect, or in this case, too pathetic. Yukiteru, is not a good character. Most anime is marketed towards high schoolers and young adults, hence why most anime is in the Slice of High School Life Rom/Com genre. The reason for this is because if you can have a connection with the characters, you are way more likely to enjoy the show and keep watching. Therefore, when you're mains are all middle schoolers, you can't relate to them as much, or in my case, at all. In a survival game where you have to kill people, I understand why a middle schooler would be hesitant.
Sake Esuno, the original content creator's solution to this? Yuno Gasai, whose brain doesn't work normally and easily is the first thing that will pop into an otaku's head when they hear the term, "Yandere". Yuno murders everyone and anyone who gets in between her and Yukiteru, unless Yukiteru has explicitly told her not to, but occasionally not even then, if she really hates them. While this isn't always a bad thing, listening to a middle school kid cry and scream is not pleasant, even if it's warranted. More on Yuno, she eventually loses all purpose and then begins doing crazy things just to be crazy so that you'll point at the screen, laugh and say, "Oh that Yuno, always being so nuts!". This is another part of the "hype because hype" driving factor behind some scenarios that ultimately make them blow up in the episodes own face. As for the supporting cast, they are either really well done and don't get enough screen time, or get some but are very obnoxious and you'd just wish they'd go away. Because of this, none of them are worth even mentioning, even though I quite like some of them.
Overall: 3/10
I give this anime a three out of ten because I believe it had a ton of potential, but it was only squandered in favor of poor plot devices, lame twists, and boring fillers. An example of this is this anime is way too long. It has 26 episodes, but it could have easily been finished in 20/22, as the last four/five episodes all drag on very long with extraneous scenes. It may have only seemed like this as I have viewed the show before so I know what was going to happen, but I still feel it could have been shortened. Couple this with some episodes that literally have nothing to do with the plot, and you have a lot of wasted screen time, but more importantly, your time.
Also, a "spoilerless" note about the ending, on the topic of tediously long scenes, I have no idea why there is an OVA other than to make viewers scream at their screen until they find out about the OVA, as the Manga ending is literally two pages away from the animes. Keep in mind, a manga page would contain anywhere from 10 seconds to a minute and a half of anime screen time.Sorry, don't mind me. I had to have another tangent, as this anime has given me much to gripe about.
My final verdict is that this is not worth the watch. However, if, you still decide you wish to view this anime, please watch the subbed version, as the dub for this anime, while not bad, is just wrong, to put bluntly. While the dub voice actors do not do a "bad" job per se, I find it vastly inferior to the subbed version, as Tomosa Murata did such a fantastic job as Yuno, even though the character is poor.
As for alternate anime with survival game themes or feels, I redirect you to instead watch Deadman Wonderland. Bear in mind, Deadman also has a whiny protagonist and a mysterious girl that saves him from everything, and that I don't hold this anime in high regards. I would be cautious with watching it, and even though I enjoyed it, I don't think it's all that special or great, but still a better watch than Mirai Nikki, and you'll spend only half the time.
For an anime that I did like with a survival game feel, I highly HIGHLY recommend Fate/Zero, the prequel to the Fate/Stay Night series. And if the name "Gen Urobuchi" means anything to you, and you haven't seen Fate/Zero yet, I really suggest you fix that. And the dub is amazing, by the way.
Please rate my review as you see fit, and if you have any questions or clarification, please post to my wall, and I will respond when I see it, thanks!
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Jun 3, 2013
If you are ever in a situation where you need to explain something that hasn't been done justice, this should be your go-to example. I have a large problem with Kiseki, because Guilty Crown is my favorite anime. The issue is that Guilty Crown is a 22 episode long anime with lots of character development, great art, an absolutely phenomenal score, and a very interesting and compelling storyline. Kiseki brings only some of what makes Guilty Crown such a great anime to the table. By condensing the storyline, you lose out on soooo much information, making it difficult to comprehend and thereby making the enjoyment
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much lower.
By shortening this, it all seems really all over the place and you don't really understand what's happening unless you've seen the anime, sometimes completely removing gigantic plot elements and leaving you in the dark and wondering what in the heck is going on. Kiseki tries to combat this with a narrative, but in the end that tells you very little and slightly breaks immersion. The narrative is not only an odd design choice, but it LIES to you, claiming things that, if you had seen the actual anime, you would instantly realize as wrong.
Kiseki is also a waste of time for the art reasons. Even if you are a huge fan of GC like I am, do not watch this. Just watch the actual anime. The scenes they used are copy and pasted from the original piece, and therefore invalidates Kiseki as a potential way of entertaining yourself even more.
Kiseki completely omits even saying some characters NAMES for the longest of times. Some of these characters being very important, sometimes pivotal, such as Ayase. You wont be able to understand why a character is important or even what they're doing unless you had seen the original.
I give Kiseki a four out of ten for great animation and sound ALONE, because the storyline is non-existent. I can see no reason to watch Kiseki, because if you're actually interested in the anime, you could and should watch the whole thing for free on Hulu, or just buy the dvd. This is a short review because all that needs to be said is that Guilty Crown is great, and I highly suggest it, but this is not the way to watch it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Dec 12, 2012
Oh Elfen Lied, I attempted to not watch you, but bordem, and the idea of some apocalyptic, psychic mutant attempting to end humanity was far to much for me to pass up. I see lots of people praising and freaking out over this anime, but like other animes, such as Angel Beats!, I believe this was over-exaggerated and undeserving of all the great things people say about it. However, I did not hate this anime, so, without further ado, I shall commence in the writing of my review of the gore, lolicon hentai, sob-story that is, Elfen Lied.
I hate to be negative right off the
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bat, but this anime starts with inconsistencies. In the opening scene it shows this odd creature in a cage with a straight jacket and harness, then said creature destroys the cage and escapes, completely nude of course. I'm sorry, not completely nude, just the chest is visible*, because all otaku's care about is breasts and panties, right? Anyways, she's wearing a straight jacket in the opening scene, then immediately after, totally nude. This happens a couple of times, like Kouhta is holding an umbrella, then "Nyuu" is holding it.
Another thing I found completely ridiculous was the fact that no one over the age of 18 was shown nude. Now, I have heard arguments for this obvious and distasteful fanservice, that the nudity displayed in Elfen Lied was in fact a celebration of the human body. After watching this anime, I can say that is not the case, and the nudity is just a tactic like a title such as: "Boy kills mother by cutting off own finger and forcing her to choke on it" by some sleazy newspaper, that doesn't even dedicate an entire page to the article even though it was in bold on the front. This is a tried and tested tactic that has shown to be effective. Most people, aka males, hear about an anime with blood and boobies and go crazy about this. Now, as an asexual male, I was offended that such a possible masterpiece be ruined by a few cartoon tits. Which, to you, may make this very offensive or very intriguing, and to me it was obnoxious and annoying, - I believe porn is porn, no matter your age - oh by the way, the only people nude, are always pre-pubescent, or, possibly in puberty? Yeah, I meant it when I said lolicon hentai. No women aloud! Only small children are allowed to get naked. I can think of one scene this may be appropriate, but it's so damn easy to censor it's just stupid. This factor really killed the art aspect of Elfen Lied.
The anime, being a great original idea, does have a plus here. However, it was poorly excited, the man characters were very unimportant, but were made out to be a big deal, which it was really just Diclonius and the secret organization that was studying/containing them for survival reasons. The main group was piss poor, so the storyline and characters suffer greatly because of this. They made odd choices, Kouhta especially, making completely unlikely or unrealistic decisions that result in a whole lot of stupid.
The characters all have some odd pasts, and are either well explained, poorly done, or not done at all. This anime really tries to just shock you, which honestly was just funny because it was so poorly done. Very few things were actually good in this anime, but when they were, they were spectacular.
Elfen Lied also seems to be under the impression that humans have about six times the blood we actually have, and that getting shot in the shoulder = bleeding out. No, I'm not kidding, someone almost dies because of that.
The sound in this anime was okay, but the OST consist of Lillium, and Lillium variants, I mean, the song is in the opening as well so spamming it at least once or twice average an episode is just a n00b move. However, Lillium is not bad, I actually really enjoy the song, and the ending was extremely well done and I enjoyed that song too. But when you spam a song as much as it was it gets boring. More of a soundtrack would have been nice.
But, you want to know if you'd like this anime or not. Basically, there a three facets that may grab your attention. Lolicon fanservice, gore, and sad, depressing character history's. The first is if your a perverted otaku you'd probably like this, the second for fanboys of raw action and other fast paced "BOOM! EXPLOSION! CHUCK NORISS!" styled entertainment, and the third the best way to put this is probably for you if you enjoy soap operas, or if you enjoyed Angel Beats! for more than a comedic value. I didn't have any of these, because I enjoy immense and intriguing storyline's, such as Naoki Urusawa's Monster, Code Geass, and Death Note 1-25. Therefore, I disliked this anime, for it's piss-poor storytelling abilities and cheap tactics employed in the form of hentai/ecchi and "Balls to The Walls Hella ******' Awesome" blood.
Check it out if any of the three plot devices are you, stay far away if you like something like any of the three true psychological animes I mentioned above, because this garbage was no where near psychological. Arigatou gozaimasu!
*If I'm not mistaken, Japan has some odd aversion to the genitalia. If you have ever seen a hentai, you will notice that they do in fact censor the lower halves of individuals. Please note I'm not saying I endorse or watch hentai, merely that they censor that section.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Nov 26, 2012
Kannazuki no Miko. An anime about a demon/god/evil thingy trying to destroy the earth. With mechs. And Yuri. Well, okay then.
The anime starts off pretty normally, then immediately jumps into a mech fight to start you off. After the end of the mech fight, it is revealed that one of the girls, Chikane, - who is an extremely pretty, athletic, very intelligent, rich girl is doted upon for whatever reason I can't think of a reason why - has romantic feelings for the another girl, Himeko, who is a sweet invisible girl with nothing to standout-ish at first glance, other than a pretty face
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and a soft voice. As the series progresses, Chikane and Himeko have been chosen and are the reincarnation of the Lunar and Solar Priestess, respectively, whose purpose is to revive the ancient swordsman Ame No Murakumo. Souma, who is a childhood friend of Himeko, who's basically the male equivalent of Chikane, save for the rich part, is also romantically interested in Himeko, has been chosen to be one of eight of the Yamata no Orochi, the evil incarnations of different kinds of sadness and pain to serve the evil "thingy" to destroy ZAH WARUDO! Sorry, had to.
Anyways, later on in the series, it becomes extremely apparent that Chikane is conflicted about these feelings and doesn't really know what to do with Himeko, so, thinking she wants her to be happy, begins setting her up on dates with Souma. Who's basically the male equivalent of Chikane, save for the rich part. And the rest is spoilers.
Mechs. What else can I say?
So on the whole, the cast is good, the plot is good, and the fight scenes were good. If you like mechs though and you're watching for mechs, I wouldn't check this anime out. I would watch something like Code Geass, Full-Metal Panic, or Gurren Lagann. But if you like Yuri romances, I would totally check this out if you haven't already. This is totally worth the watch and I defiantly enjoyed myself.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Nov 26, 2012
I decided to watch Mai-HiME after having found several fan fictions of said anime, and I was intrigued. The anime starts off rather average normal High-School-Fantasy style with the main character talking about how normal they are and then immediately moving into some event that gives them powers. Pretty basic start, it's been tried and tested, and nothing to important.
As the anime went on however, it follows the generic storyline with a few major events, a definitive start, middle, and end, and a standard ending. Nothing really stood out to me. I was guessing what would happen and getting it right every time, no mystery
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or surprise, just basic stuff.
Now, this is an anime that is quite a few years old, being created in 2004, but that doesn't excuse the plain mediocrity that was this anime. And I'll tell you why.
One of the reasons is just the plain old boring plot and happy everything-is-fine ending. If you've watched any anime with a girl/guy getting powers and trying to protect family/special someone/ect, or anything similar for that matter, you'll probably be very bored and have a very unenjoyable time with the plot.
My next reason for the below-par score, is the characters. The cast in this anime is about twenty some odd people with most of them being a basic one-dimensional forgettable personality. The biggest flaw with the characters, is the main character Mai. She was not the most important, and I was really disappointed with her mainly because she ends up falling in love with the stupid kid Tate who was equally as boring and obnoxious. Most of the supporting cast I either hated (Mikoto, Tate, ****ing Medusa spawn Shiho). Or I was indefferant about their role and didn't care much for them or their purpose (Yukino, Sister, Nao).
Another reason the cast was flawed is I believe they chose the wrong person to be the main character. If, the character Natsuki, were to be the main character, I believe the anime would have been better. She has a dark past that she wants to get to the bottom of, has a somewhat Tsundere personality, and is trying to take down the organization that is involved in the HiME games. This is why I believe she would have made a better character for the main role.
But enough of my rant, in short, I believe this was a bad anime, and I would not recommend it because it really was an unenjoyable experience.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Sep 25, 2012
First things first, when I watched this series, I had not yet seen Kiddy Grade, but if I had I probably wouldn't have seen this fantastic anime.
An issue I have with several animes that I have seen is that they take a long time for me to actually enjoy them. Some examples of this issue were Code Geass and Durarara!! These both turned out to be on my top 5 list.
This anime did not have this problem. It starts out almost like a splice of life set in the future, with two girls who work at a trannies (Side note, what in the HELL is
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with animes and their trannies?) restaurant, when the president of this universes, well, security force, whatever! It doesn't matter, minor character, but basically she's a VIP and terrorists storm the restaurant and make an attempt on the president's life. After this point it kicks into a high gear with a very fast paced action scene where Ascouer, one of the two girls, takes out the terrorists and their metal dragon bakugon thingy with a bunch of high tech gear like a energy weapon in the form of a blade and tranquilizer darts. Oh and her ability to teleport.
After this the anime becomes very interesting with a semi-original plot line with some interesting characters. And Yuri. There will be Yuri.
Overall I found this to be an intriguing anime but if you want something like Kiddy Grade you will be VERY disappointed. The cast includes some of the original characters like Twiddle-Dee and Twiddle-Dumb, but the storyline focuses on Ascouer and Q-Feuille. Eclair and Lumiere do come into play later, but their role is very minor and only in the first and last episodes. The storyline is almost completely different from Kiddy Grade and doesn't resemble it at all, so it's almost like a sequel reboot, if that makes any sense.
Pros:
+ Great characters
+ Decent storyline
+ Nice animation
+ Well done fight scenes.
+ Doesn't suffer from Bleach Syndrome.
+ Yuri.
Cons:
- Ending was eh.
- Lolicon.
- Tried to tie into Kiddy Grade, when it should have just referenced it.
Anyways, that concludes my review of Kiddy Girl-and, and I would suggest you go watch it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jul 23, 2012
THIS ANIME IS AMAZING!
Before I go any further, PLEASE watch the english dub, the setting for this anime is 1930's America so most of the characters have Chicago style accents, which combined with the Jazz music, makes you REALLY feel like you are in the 1930's some of the time.
I really can't describe how great this anime was but I AM SO GLAD I watched it! The action is great, the characters are fantastic and the storyline-I know this expression is usually used with food but- is to DIE FOR.
The timeline is usually around 1930 and 1932 but it jumps around a lot, and the
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setting is 1930's mobsters and immortal people. Not interested yet? I don't know what else to say, but the ending for this anime is PERFECT. I absolutely loved this ending, it fit perfectly with how the anime is.
If you didn't enjoy this anime you MUST have watched something else, or you're hating it just for attention.
Why are you still reading my review? Go watch Baccano! already!
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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