- Last OnlineYesterday, 11:24 PM
- JoinedApr 12, 2008
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Aug 7, 2020
4 of 11 episodes seen
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29
people found this review helpful
Preliminary
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| Overall |
8 |
| Story |
8 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Character |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
Balance: Unlimited delivers more or less on what it promises from the first episode. Action, detective work, and oil and water police partners coming to see eye to eye. Oh, and unlimited money, of course.
Insofar as police shows go, outside of "One of them has unlimited money," this doesn't stray too far outside the sorts of patterns you'd expect to see, however, a show doesn't need to be completely unique to be enjoyable and well-delivered. The unlimited money quirk is enough to make the show interesting, and the rest of the more "normal" writing in its characters and relatively episodic plot isn't particularly stellar, but
good enough to be enjoyable.
As for the more aesthetic elements of the show, the animation quality is reasonably good and the soundtrack is decently catchy. The characters are similar to some we've seen before, but they're enough their own people that they don't feel like total cardboard cutouts.
The plot is reasonably decent and at least a cut above run-of-the-mill as unlimited money allows for some normally unbelievable liberties in its writing. Despite this, some developments seem, even given unlimited money, a little too hard to swallow.
Overall, Balance: Unlimited looks to be a decent show worth watching - nothing particularly special, but different enough to be memorable. Something to consider picking up if you're looking to fill out your Summer 2020 season with another show.
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Jun 8, 2020
12 of 12 episodes seen
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7
people found this review helpful
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| Overall |
8 |
| Story |
8 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Character |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
Note: This review takes into account the combination of the first and second seasons as one continuous plot and rates them as a combined work. Read on and you'll understand why I've chosen this approach.
If you like when the underdog surprises and punches above their weight, this might be the show for you.
I watched this series completely on a whim, expecting a lot of lonely otaku wish-fulfillment / pandering. I'll be quite honest, the start of the first season threw a lot of objectively unbelievable premises at the viewer exactly along these lines. Still, despite the predictably unbelievable start, it had some merits. Once getting
past the initial unbelievable developments, the drama and romance aspects that followed were enough to keep me interested and just enough to make me curious about what would happen in the sequel.
And I'm glad I kept watching. I have to admit that where the first season of this show modestly exceeded my (very low) expectations, the second blew them out of the water. Now keep in mind, blowing very low expectations out of the water doesn't put this on the same level of some of the great romance / drama series that anime has to offer, but there's something satisfying about a show that could have been lazy, but chose to rise above its niche and offer something better.
If you enjoyed the first season, you'll almost certainly like the second. If for some reason you're reading this and haven't watched the first, if the initial lonely otaku pandering aspects of the show don't turn you off it, it actually ends up being worth the watch. Solid character development, interesting romance and drama. There's a sense that the author, for whatever flaws there are in the series, had a good concept of the show's beginning middle and end from the start. Far more than you'd expect from a lot of shows like this that might just drone on in slice of life mediocrity until they peter out on their own.
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Jun 8, 2020
12 of 12 episodes seen
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2
people found this review helpful
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| Overall |
8 |
| Story |
8 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Character |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
If you like the underdog that punches above its weight, this might be the show for you.
I watched this series completely on a whim, expecting a lot of lonely otaku wish-fulfillment / pandering. I'll be quite honest, the start of the first season threw a lot of objectively unbelievable premises at the viewer exactly along these lines. Still, despite the predictably unbelievable start, it had some merits. Once getting past the initial unbelievable developments, the drama and romance aspects that followed were enough to keep me interested and just enough to make me curious about what would happen in the sequel.
And I'm glad I kept
watching. I have to admit that where the first season of this show modestly exceeded my (very low) expectations, the second blew them out of the water. Now keep in mind, blowing very low expectations out of the water doesn't put this on the same level of some of the great romance / drama series that anime has to offer, but there's something satisfying about a show that could have been lazy, but chose to rise above its niche and offer something better.
If you enjoyed the first season, you'll almost certainly like the second. If for some reason you're reading this and haven't watched the first, if the initial lonely otaku pandering aspects of the show don't turn you off it, it actually ends up being worth the watch. Solid character development, interesting romance and drama. There's a sense that the author, for whatever flaws there are in the series, had a good concept of the show's beginning middle and end from the start. Far more than you'd expect from a lot of shows like this that might just drone on in slice of life mediocrity until they peter out on their own.
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Mar 28, 2020
3 of 5 episodes seen
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31
people found this review helpful
Preliminary
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| Overall |
7 |
| Story |
7 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Character |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
The first two episodes are essentially pure fanservice, which drags the score down for me. If you like fanservice, you will most certainly enjoy them more than I did.
If you're looking more for something that hits the "regular" pace of this show, the third OVA gets back into that, starting a story centering around the academy kids. As it ends partway through telling the story, the 4th OVA will doubtlessly continue, and perhaps even on to the 5th.
This OVA isn't really anything special and I doubt that it will significantly change the direction of the plot, but if you really like the show, it's worth
watching.
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Sep 16, 2014
13 of 13 episodes seen
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54
people found this review helpful
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| Overall |
8 |
| Story |
7 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Character |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
**No spoilers** The Pilot's Love Song is a mix of drama, romance and action, though I would say it leans toward primarily being a drama. The show starts with a relatively easygoing feeling, but gets much more serious by the halfway point and remains so until the end.
The main theme that this series focuses on is the reality of war, which includes the concepts of overcoming fear, accepting loss and the importance of forgiveness through love. There is a fairly decent-sized cast of side characters without being too overwhelming, and there are several romantic interests among them which helps to keep your interest even if
you're not super into the main relationship. Though their primary purpose is generally to further the drama, the action scenes are quite well-done and do a good job of making you feel like the characters are truly in danger.
On the negative, the story, at times, is a little confusing and the pacing feels a little off. Given that this is a short series at only 13 episodes, there was perhaps a little too much time spent both on the initial ramping-up to the main conflict and on the denouement after the main conflict.
There are also times you may find yourself questioning the decisions of the characters, or exactly what their motivations are, and, while that is often a good thing to some extent in storytelling, I felt that there could have been a little more gradual hinting given to the watcher so that some things didn't seem quite as sudden when they were revealed. Having said that, most things are tied up by the end, though it may leave some people feeling a little unfulfilled.
In summary, if you're the type of person who focuses a lot on logic, consistency and smooth storytelling, this series may not be for you. On the other hand, if you are more about the character relationships and the drama, while being able to suspend your disbelief regarding some inconsistencies or unexplained phenomenon, you will probably enjoy this show like I did.
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Sep 30, 2011
1 of 1 episodes seen
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75
people found this review helpful
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| Overall |
6 |
| Story |
6 |
| Animation |
6 |
| Sound |
6 |
| Character |
6 |
| Enjoyment |
6 |
This is a four minute short that basically consists of minute clips of several characters saying what makes Christmas important to them.
The odd part about it is how the...format of the clip is the same for every character, regardless of gender...
Very odd little special. If you like Idiots & Tests, I guess it's worth your 4 minutes?
Jan 5, 2010
1 of 13 episodes seen
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28
people found this review helpful
Preliminary
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| Overall |
8 |
| Story |
8 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Character |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
There are two ways you can look at this series:
1) It's something that's trying to be a serious action series and fails because it's terribly cheesy,
or
2) This is ~meant~ to be a throwback to cheesy cartoons of the 1970s and 1980s, and the cheese is, at least in part, self-satire.
Personally, I lean more towards the second interpretation, and find that the series is accomplishing what it's set out to do. If you don't like cheesy old-school or satire, you're really not going to like this series at all, I'll give you that as a fair warning.
First, you've got the typical daredevil macho hero with
an arm that looks like it belongs on Megaman, then there's the scantily clad heroine and the villain I can almost imagine yelling "I'll get you next time, Gadget!" as she flies away in her ship after having her plans foiled. (I want to say again, but this is only the first episode so far)
Second, you've got what looks like a pretty typical plot - keep the key to the Universe from the bad guys while you get it to where it needs to be. Nothing fancy at all here.
So, why the (somewhat) high rating?
Maybe it's just that something feels almost nostalgic about this, or maybe it's that this type of "typical" is actually pretty uncommon in anime. I'd say the main character almost feels like He-Man with a gun arm, and certainly seems like he'd belong more in an American-style cartoon rather than an anime.
I also appreciated a couple of satirical bits in the first episode: Normally, when the hero blasts away a vehicle as it races towards him, the flaming debris that should remain seems to conveniently vanish. This wasn't the case with Cobra, as the flying vehicle speeding towards the hero simply became a flaming flying vehicle speeding towards the hero instead.
Given that we're only at the first episode right now, I could be wrong and this could turn out to be a terrible series, but so far I'm leaning towards believing it's satire and am enjoying it thoroughly.
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Dec 14, 2009
1 of 1 episodes seen
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17
people found this review helpful
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| Overall |
7 |
| Story |
7 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Character |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
This was originally supposed to be aired as episode 10 in the DearS TV series, but wasn't aired mostly due to excessive nudity. (It's Barbie doll nudity) It was released with the DVDs as an extra episode and is sometimes labelled as episode 13.
This is pretty much your standard fanservice episode - there's not really character development or plot, the episode is here for the fanservice. That said, despite the fact that I generally don't like fanservice episodes, this one didn't go so far as to totally distort the characters or tone of the series, so I didn't dislike it. Given the style of show
DearS is to begin with, a fanservice episode doesn't go all that far away from the tone the series already had.
So, if you enjoy your guilty pleasures, you'll probably like this episode, if you're not really into it, it's probably still worth if you liked DearS. If you haven't watched DearS yet, but plan to, you could watch this where episode 10 should happen, since that's actually where it's supposed to be. Overall, it doesn't really matter much since it doesn't really affect the story.
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Dec 13, 2009
14 of 14 episodes seen
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16
people found this review helpful
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| Overall |
8 |
| Story |
8 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Character |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
*This review is spoiler-free, for those few who have not yet been spoiled*
*Please note: I have given this season an 8/10 based on a particular way of viewing it, please read on to understand what I mean.*
So, finally, this is the second season of Haruhi and whether you've heard or not - there's a lot of controversy surrounding it. As any comments on the controversy will inevitably lead to spoilers, I will refrain, and instead give you some helpful advice on how to best enjoy the season while avoiding its less pleasant side.
So, what's this advice, you ask? Just skip episodes 4-8. Yes, I'm serious.
You'll understand when you get there.
As a 9 episode series, the second season earns an 8/10 rating from me, and I'm sure you'll find it enjoyable as well. As a 14 episode series? Probably a 5 or 6.
In terms of content, this season has three "arcs": episode 1, episodes 2-9 and episodes 10-14. As some of you may or may not know, this season actually fits into the middle of the first season, so, if you're in the mood, you can rewatch it as part of the first season, (it is not, however, necessary) to do so, just follow these easy steps!
1) Make sure you're watching the first season in chronological, not airing order. (Read more on Wikipedia if you're not sure what this means).
2) After original episode 7, "The Boredom of Haruhi Suzumiya", insert the first episode of the second season.
3) After this, continue watching the first season normally until original episode 12, "Remote Island Syndrome Part 2", insert the rest of the second season episodes here, leaving out episodes 4-8.
4) After the end of the second season, insert the remainder of the first season episodes.
Please note: I do not in any way endorse what KyoAni did with around 35% of this season, I am merely proposing what I feel to be the best solution given the circumstances. If you gave this season a poor rating, I can't say I blame you, though I try to look at things in a more positive light. I found that, having only watched 1-3 and 9-14, I found the season rather enjoyable, and so my review reflects that.
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Dec 13, 2009
1 of 1 episodes seen
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21
people found this review helpful
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| Overall |
6 |
| Story |
3 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Character |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
6 |
First of all - this is an OVA of the series Akikan! It takes place after the main series, though there is little content so that barely matters other than for knowing who the characters are. I suggest watching the TV series before the OVA.
Second, I am not particularly fond of fanservice, so consider my review in that light. If you like fanservice in general, you may enjoy this a lot more than I did. (I find that fanservice usually detracts from the characters/story).
This is your typical hot springs episode. All of the important characters make appearances, but there's virtually no story or character-driven content
whatsoever. To make a fairer comparison - the pool episode in the TV series had fanservice, but also some plot as well, whereas this OVA lacks any semblance of plot or interesting character interactions. To me, it felt artificial and contrived. There are still a couple of amusing parts, but nothing had quite the same special cheesy-to-the-point-of-actually-funny that the TV series did.
If you liked Akikan, the OVA is a ~little~ something extra. If you're really into fanservice stuff, you'll probably like it too, but there aren't any nipples, so don't get your hopes (or anything else) up.
Oh, and if you do watch it, there's also an extra 15 seconds or so after the credits.
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