Back to cloud4ever's Profile cloud4ever's Profile

I grew up with Sailor Moon- which is arguably the stamp of the Magical-girl genre- I was seven when it first aired and I still continue to watch it even after 14 years. Why do I mention this? Well because no other magical-girl anime has ever been on par with Sailor Moon- for me it defines a magical-girl anime completely and nothing could compete with it... this was until I watched Madoka Magica.

A lot of people see the cute characters and transformations, the beautiful bright visuals and think 'This is gonna be a typical sugary, cute- magical girl anime with cute transformations and a very ... linear story'- and for those who think that- please- WATCH this anime.

I cannot stress how much I love this anime because everything is done for a reason. The chibi faces, the cute colors, the jokes, the sheer scope of scenery. I have never come any anime that has made me watch it through a second time and understand every single moment of the first 3 episodes- and I gotta be honest after watching the ending and then rewatching it- you'd appreciate what happens at the start about a thousands time more.

While Sailor Moon showed me the innocence of being a magical girl, Madoka Magica handed me Pandora's box with a smile and then unleashed hell.

There is nothing to hate about this show. The art style although questionable at the beginning works really well and does something that Sailor Moon fails to address. Madoka is 14 and I can believe that, Usagi is 14 and I don't believe that. The harshness that comes with actually seeing that these characters are so young is really put into that light and the emotions that a young girl faces in her day to day life is really touched upon. But every entire character is a different depiction- we got the girl that want's her friends to be happy, we got a girl that wants to protect her family, we got another that falls in love. This makes the entire cast different as opposed to just being focused on the typical romance subplot that many Magical Girl genres bludgeon you with.

Back to the art style- it is fantastic! I cannot stress this enough, sure we got those cute moments with bright colors- but then there's a splash of dark orange across the sky and suddenly the world looks frightening.
The dark tones contrasting against the lighter tones really highlights the key-tones of the scenes and further pulls out the meaning of said object. There's this particular moment with chairs, and the coloring and shadowing really puts across the unspoken meaning behind it.

Now while I can talk about the art for ages- I'm gonna move onto the animation. Madoka Magica- is a masterpiece It doesn't just use traditional animation, it also meshes silhouettes and what I assume is mock-cut out animation. And I cannot praise it enough- the moment you see the mock-cut out you feel you've fallen into another world and the only sanity you can pick out is the animation of the characters really standing out against it. And I'm not going to talk about the animation of the silhouette battle which just knocks me off my feet every-time I see it.

Now my final point before the overall would be the sound. And this is where it loses a small point. The dub for me was terrible- everyone was voiced badly and it does try to destroy the experience- but that's just my taste if you find yourself liking the voices then go ahead and watch it in dubbed. Personality for me- I felt the characters either sounded to old or to childish while the Japanese voices were perfect. The entire Japanese voice cast put a lot of effort into it and constantly left me in tears with their performances. The soundtrack is probably the best I've heard it uses the combination of all sorts of styles of music and I could listen to it for hours.

I cannot recommend this anime highly enough. It goes for and then against the entire magical-girl genre. I will warn you though, this anime is very dark and doesn't try to be fluffy and give magical ways out (aha)

So I now have one question for you

／人◕ ‿‿ ◕人＼Contract?

At one point in my life- I used to hunt around like a crazed lunatic to find anything Yaoi/Shonen Ai related- I stumbled upon Papa to Kiss in the Dark and after much hesitation I thought what have I honestly got to lose.
And the answer is- sanity.

So what's first- the story? Well a son and a father constantly engage in 'activities' but outside of that- things are just peachy. This until the son, Mira, finds out that actually his 'father' may not actually be related to him at all. So finally- you'd think that someone has poked back the incest issue with a stick. ... But instead of being glad that they aren't related- the son is horrified that they aren't and figures that his father may be cheating on him.

The characters are as packaged as they come. You've got the baby-faced shota who for some reason guys are attracted to, despite the fact that a flannel has more personality. The father- who fills in the role of the great and powerful seme - and probably needs to be arrested. And then you've got the side characters who are only there to further put the main character into more turmoil and cause further misunderstandings.

Although the art is somewhat decent and the voice acting wasn't bad- the story falls flat on it's face and the characters don't give much support to the plot whatsoever.

If you can look past the incest thing- accept a really awkward plot and can come away actually enjoying it- then I'd applaud you.

However if you go in knowing what you'd find but expecting more- then trust me you won't be getting it here.

If I'm going to talk about this anime I'm going to have to talk about each individual season separately.

In series one- the premise is fairly simple but in some ways does work. The first series does layout a few ground rules for the MMORPG even if to some point realistically it wouldn't work, but let's just say it would.

The real weight of the story comes from the consequences that would befall on a player if they achieve a game over- however at no point in the anime does it take the risks and make you feel like any of the main characters are ... at any peril. Oddly enough I find the main characters to be bland or forgettable- with the exception of the villain- who I gotta say is probably the most interesting character of the bunch. Now while the story on some levels, sometimes works- a lot of it is extremely far-fetched and the fan service for the main character is pretty degrading for actual females that play MMORPG'S- but I'm not gonna moan about that to much because the second series does it a lot worst.

So what do I like about the first series? The art for one- the animators knew what they were doing with this one and really went the distance with making everything really nice and colorful to truly give you the feeling of actually being placed in a fantasy land. I also liked the designs of the weapons and the expressions and movement on the characters faces are impeccable.

I also love the music- once again they really went with this one and chose a selection of sounds to really allow the viewer to plunge into the world.

However if I was just reviewing the first part the art and the sound would of rated higher.

Now let's talk about the second part. And I'm going to just come out and say it- I hate the second part. Okay let's go with it- on a premise that NO way on earth would be allowed to continue- the main character goes back into the virtual world but this time the safety nets on and while some of the characters seemed interesting in the first series, in the second series everyone here is a tool. The plot is essentially the recycled mess of the first series oh no wait- it's completely different because here they have wings.

And while the story was a little bit all over place in the first series- it still knew what direction it was heading. Here- it's a complete mess- you've got so many stories with characters you don't care for and so much fan service that at one point near the end GOES way to far.

Like I said before- the way women are shown here is INSULTING and degrading. Basically they're there to show uncomfortable touchy moments that would land a guy in jail and fill in the spots of damsel in distress and uncomfortable one-sided love interests.

I can recall little of the music in the second part- because for the most part it's all yapping and 'plot'. And while some of the art is still on par with the first series- I feel disappointed that most of it doesn't let us drink in the atmosphere for that long. With the exception of the end scene which does really well with the lighting- I can't recall many moments that made me go Wow! Like they did in the first series.

For the endings of both- they are both quite rushed. But with the first one series at least it was kinda smart and it was nice for a change that it enforced a kinda good twist.

If your looking for an anime that looks nice and has a simple plot- then I would definitely recommend watching the first part of Sword Art Online. And for those just wanting to know what happens next- then watch part 2. But for me personality- I'd just stick to series 1 and conclude that series 2 is just a bad ending