- Last Online6 hours ago
- GenderMale
- BirthdayMay 29, 1985
- Location65fcfe9daeb116c9024a708574d82353
- JoinedSep 22, 2008
Also Available at
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Mar 14, 2021
1 of 1 episodes seen
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0
people found this review helpful
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| Overall |
3 |
| Story |
3 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
5 |
| Character |
3 |
| Enjoyment |
3 |
Human Lost is meant to be an adaptation of Osamu Dazai's novel, No Longer Human, whom some may be familiar with from its earlier animated adaptation from the 2009 anthology series, Aoi Bungaku Series. However, this film only has faint resemblances to the classic psychological novel as it instead dabbles into a dystopian sci-fi world where advances in technology and health have led to certain "chosen" members of society being able to dabble into these benefits at the expense of the majority of the populace. There is resistance from some in the populace against those benefiting from these advances, but they are all being manipulated
by the nihilistic Masao Horiki who has his own chaotic plans in place to cause the dystopian society to fall through the use of monstrous beings he can create from humans called Lost, and a troubled young man named Yozo Oba possibly being the only one who can stop Horiki's plans.
There are enough issues with what Human Lost decides to do with the premise to No Longer Human. Instead of the mentality of a societal outcast being a monster being viewed as a psychological one like from the original novel, Human Lost chooses to go with this more literally as humans not among the "chosen" find themselves becoming Losts through Horiki's manipulations. While exploring No Longer Human's themes in this way may have some storytelling potential, Human Lost instead wastes this opportunity by focusing more on the spectacle of Lost wrecking havoc in violent ways and dabbling too heavily into dystopian sci-fi tropes, with the characters largely being archetypes. Whatever philosophical dabbling that the film seemingly attempts to spin is largely window dressing and the series doesn't dabble too deeply into exploring why its society is set up as it is and what a good deal of its title's jargon even means. In essence, its story is largely hollow and feels like a waste with what its original source material offered up.
With Polygon Pictures at the helm of animating this, their typical 3DCG animation style is employed. Human Lost is among the studio's more ambitious works with the great amount of animation depicted with humans, the Lost, and vehicles. However, the rendering of human characters is still as rough as when I seen a few of Polygon Picture's TV anime with Knights of Sidonia and Ajin in that the designs still have an artificial look and facial expressions still look a bit rough to see in close camera shots.
In short, Human Lost is largely a creative mess that gets too focused on its spectacle at the cost of a potentially intriguing premise coming from Osamu Dazai's well-known masterpiece. If you want a more closer adaptation of No Longer Human, I'd strongly suggest trying to track down Aoi Bungaku Series as its first four episodes depict No Longer Human within the anthology series.
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Feb 20, 2021
12 of 12 episodes seen
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0
people found this review helpful
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| Overall |
8 |
| Story |
6 |
| Animation |
6 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Character |
5 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
Detroit Metal City is a black comedy anime focused on Souichi Negishi, a young man who unwillingly serves as the lead guitarist and frontman of the popular titular death metal band under the guise of Johannes Krauser II, a supposed demonic terrorist from hell who raped and murdered his parents. Negishi despises his involvement with the band and desires to be a successful pop musician. But he finds his direction with this career going nowhere and he uses the anger and frustration from this and other low points of his personal life to vent as Krauser during the band’s musical performances.
Detroit Metal City is largely
a one-trick pony type of comedy that you will love or hate depending on how well you enjoy its crass comedy and misanthropic premise. The content won’t be for everyone as there is enough mention of rape, scenes of violence, unwanted sexual advances, and plenty of profanity uttered throughout this series. The series is set up into 12 two-segment episodes at a combined 14-minute length that largely follow the same gag where Negishi’s optimism in believing in the best of everyone blows up in his face and he uses his alter-ego as Krauser to vent his rage in some crass, over-the-top manner either in public or during any event involving the band.
I suppose as far as my perceptions go for Detroit Metal City, there is some surprising insight it dabbles into outside its crass humor. The series isn’t afraid to show how cynical life can be for people just graduating from college, with Negishi stuck in a successful profession he wants nothing to do with, struggling in his more ideal direction for being a musician, his efforts at optimism blowing up in his face, and using his alter-ego as Krauser to vent his frustrations while on the job and only making Detroit Metal City even more successful. It also has fun ripping into elements of musical subcultures as outside of shock rock, the series rips into pop, rap, and punk rock at points in the series; which is noticeable if you follow the posturing and how inane the lyrics of songs from musicians in these genres are throughout the series. At its best, Detroit Metal City has excellent comedic timing in showing off how cruel the world can be for Negishi and the crass ways he vents at his misfortunes while in the guise of Krauser.
Praises aside, Detroit Metal City isn’t without its imperfections. With Negishi’s misery and his crass ventings as Krauser largely being the main attraction to the series, the series does occasionally stumble in some of the segments it offers up. Some segments devolve into milking humor off bodily fluids or Negishi’s love interest, Yuri, falling victim to Negishi usually letting his act as Krauser get the better of him during outings with the pair, the latter crossing close into misogyny as Yuri, dumbfoundingly, still sticks with Negishi in spite of his blunders as Krauser. Plus outside of Negishi, there isn’t much else to get enjoyment out of with the series as all the other characters follow simple character types meant to reflect the cynical and inane world view that is depicted within Detroit Metal City.
Overall, Detroit Metal City’s crass humor has great timing in its high points and is surprisingly believable at depicting how cruel life can be for college graduates in the working world. However as mentioned, its humor is largely a one-trick pony relishing off Negishi’s misery and his crass antics as Krauser. If you can’t get any enjoyment out of this, you will more than likely not get as much enjoyment out of the humor offered with the series.
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Feb 16, 2021
24 of 24 episodes seen
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0
people found this review helpful
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| Overall |
6 |
| Story |
6 |
| Animation |
6 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Character |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
6 |
Studio Deen’s TV adaptation of Fate/Stay Night adapts the visual novel game’s Fate route focused on Shiro Emiya, a young man caught up in a magical conflict called the Holy Grail War. In it, magi summon seven heroes from different points of history to serve as their Servants with the last surviving Master and Servant able to claim the legendary artifact, the Holy Grail, to make a wish. Shiro unwillingly summons a Servant of the Saber class to aid him in the conflict, as he comes to discover some shocking truths regarding the true nature of the Holy Grail War.
Fans of Ufotable’s richly animated adaptations
of the Fate franchise may be disappointed to know this first animated adaptation of Type-Moon’s popular series was animated by Studio Deen. Deen are well-known for being rather inconsistent with the quality of animation for their works and being rather budget-restrictive for what they can offer up, and this certainly shows with their work on Fate/Stay Night. Lacking the highly-detailed visuals and fluid animation found from Ufotable’s later involvement with animating the franchise, fans of those more recent adaptations may be underwhelmed with the animation in this series.
As far as the story development goes, Fate/Stay Night is mostly pretty faithful to adapting the Fate route’s events. The series goes into enough detail to cover the inner workings of the Grail War, exploring many of the developments of Shiro and Saber’s characters, and having its twists in revealing more about the shadier elements of the conflict. But perhaps to lengthen the runtime of the anime, Fate/Stay Night does expand on some of its story by adding in plot elements from the Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven’s Feel routes of the visual novel. These do lead to some major character revelations that were otherwise not revealed during Fate route and don’t really add anything to the main story of the series being Shiro and Saber’s involvement within the Holy Grail War.
In addition compared to the more interesting developments offered with the Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven’s Feel routes, I don’t really think too strongly of the story offered up with Fate route with Fate/Stay Night. The later two routes within the visual novel serve to dabble into the flaws of Shiro’s ideals when confronted with them and the young man coming to different conclusions with confronting these flaws when affected by the different developments of the Grail War faced in each story route, making for the more engaging routes of the visual novel with their animated adaptations from Ufotable. With Fate route, the story has Shiro go the idealist route with his character’s development as he doesn’t undergo the significant character growth he underwent from the two mentioned story routes and making it less interesting to watch through as a result. Plus due to the anime removing a decent number of moments from the visual novel with inner monologues from Shiro reflecting on present story developments, it does unintentionally make him come off as sexist to the audience with how he doesn’t want Saber to continue fighting in the Grail War, when his inner monologues on the matter in the visual novel shown that his actions were the result of his survivor’s guilt. On the plus side, Saber’s character developments are more engaging as the series explores more of her backstory and motives for her involvement in the Grail War.
In short, Fate/Stay Night offers up a decent enough adaptation of the Fate route, though said story developments aren’t as interesting in their developments with Shiro’s character compared to later routes from the visual novel game. The adaptation has some hiccups where its addition or removal of story elements does hinder the anime’s intended plot focus and direction at points. Plus, it’s not as visually pleasing to see in action compared to Ufotable’s later animated adaptations of the Fate franchise. But if you are looking for an animated adaptation of the Fate route from the Fate/Stay Night visual novel, this 2006 adaptation is decent enough to see as it does provide the most focus on Saber’s character due to being Shiro’s love interest within the game route.
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Jan 28, 2021
13 of 13 episodes seen
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1
people found this review helpful
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| Overall |
8 |
| Story |
8 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Character |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
Gleipnir focuses on a high school student named Shuichi Kagaya who has the ability to transform into a dog-like mascot costume with a large pistol and can unzip itself from the back to allow someone to take control over him. One night, he saves the life of a girl his age from a building fire, unaware that she was intending to commit suicide within the building. The girl, Claire Aoki, blackmails Shuichi under threat of revealing his abilities to others to help her learn more about others with the ability to transform like him and mysterious coins connected to this phenomenon. As the two work
together to learn more about these "monsters," they come to realize both are kindred spirits in having broken pasts caused from the events and that those close to them are connected with the mysterious events unfolding.
I do want to kind of be careful with what I get into with Gleipnir as a good chunk of what it dabbles into with its plot and themes would have major spoilers. But basically, the series explores how those facing personal problems within society would make use of powers granted to them and how making use of these abilities affect those close to them. This is prominently focused on with Claire and Shuichi who each have suffered mentally to varying degrees due to finding themselves caught up in the conflict between "monsters" and the series gradually reveals the horrific degree that these developments have on them both mentally and within their personal lives. The two gradually find themselves having to make life-altering and morally questionable decisions to ensure their safety in the conflict, even having to coming at odds with people close to them at points within the series. Other characters are focused on to show how they view the benefits of having their abilities and what to do with them based on the pressures they face within society or any problems within their personal lives, which help add additional dimension to the "monster" conflict and the mental developments faced by the characters.
As far as what the plot dabbles into with the causes surrounding the "monster" conflict, they are kind of a double-edged sword. The reveal of what is behind the "monster" conflict also relates to past events that shaped Shuichi and Claire's current mental well-being and the current state of the conflict, and shows that the main instigator of the conflict has some rather morally ambiguous motives that aren't completely clear for why he's allowed the conflict to continue unfolding. This helps add an additional layer to the twisted developments that shape how the characters within the series view the world around them and how this leads them to utilize their abilities. On the other hand, some of the revelations revealed concerning said origins do happen at a rather inopportune time as they happen toward the end of the series, which is conveniently left with an unresolved ending as Gleipnir's manga source material is still ongoing as of the time I write this review and still leaves the true motives of said instigator unclear.
While having some issues because of its source material still being ongoing, Gleipnir still made for an engaging supernatural horror/action series that explores the flaws of its characters with how they utilize the abilities of their transformed states as "monsters" and what led them to take on their mindsets with utilizing their abilities, with the origins concerning said conflict adding more layers to how this shaped the mental state of Gleipnir's main characters of Shuichi and Claire. A definite recommendation if you enjoy supernatural action titles that have a psychological direction to them.
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Jan 16, 2021
1 of 1 episodes seen
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1
people found this review helpful
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| Overall |
5 |
| Story |
5 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
6 |
| Character |
5 |
| Enjoyment |
5 |
Weathering with You is the latest film to come out from director Makoto Shinkai. The film focuses on a teen runaway named Hodaka Morishima arriving in Tokyo and struggling to get by on his own until he becomes part of a shady occult magazine. Through the magazine, he comes to learn of a story involving a girl that has the power to bring about the sun through prayer, something considered miraculous with the heavy rainfall that comes down upon the city daily. Hodaka comes to discover this story is true upon encountering a girl named Hina Amano who has this power. The two then decided
to start a business together where they use Hina's powers to bring about sunny weather to others, unaware of the serious consequences that Hina's power and their presence in Tokyo brings for the both of them.
Before I get into my thoughts on this film's storytelling, I'll at least give my praises to Weathering With You's visuals. Shinkai films have been well-known for having gorgeous scenic shots and highly-fluid animation and this film continues this trend with the highly-detailed urban environment of Tokyo and the great amount of detail put into depicting the rainfall and changes in weather brought about by Hina's abilities. Other animated highlights include some chase scenes where Hodaka and Hina are fleeing police later in the film and some shots of Hina flying in the sky as an effect of the use of her powers. In terms of animation, Weathering With You is easily one of the more visually impressive anime titles I've seen in recent years.
But when it comes to storytelling, Weathering with You does suffer from the same stumbling with its plot that a number of Shinkai's prior films suffer having a long-distance relationship plot with supernatural elements involved in it. It looked like Shinkai was attempting to depict an "individual against society" bent with portraying the developments faced by its major characters in Tokyo. The problem with going for this story direction is that the film doesn't provide enough fleshing out of a number of its major characters to explore why they are going about in this direction and making a good number of them come off looking selfish and misguided with their choices and justifications as a result, with Hina's circumstances being the only one fleshed out enough where there would be justification for her actions. The police who are involved in going after Hodaka and Hina later in the film are meant to depicted as the antagonists within the context of the film's story direction for getting in the way of the couple's decision to live on their own, in spite of the fact both are still seen as minors within society and the police are only going about with their actions for their safety and well-being, especially with the believable hardships that the two are confronted with struggling on their own within Tokyo. Granted, Japanese society does have its real-life issues to confront due to its group-focused mindset and there are anime titles that believably explore elements of this to confront the flaws of Japan's group-based mindset. But Weathering with You doesn't convincingly confront these issues due to the romantic melodrama and idealist bent it tries pushing for with Hina and Hodaka's relationship.
The storytelling problems also carry over with Hina's abilities to affect the weather. It is suggested that these abilities are connected to the regular heavy rainfall affecting Japan and that Hina's use of her powers carry a heavy price for their regular use. Weathering with You explores this in its second half as things start to get heavy with the drama in the film's plot. While Hina resigns herself to the cost that comes with using her abilities, Hodaka attempts to defy this fate in spite of the potentially disastrous consequences this would have for Tokyo as consequence of Hodaka and Hina's use of her abilities. The film tries to depict Hodaka's decision as a positive one for this character, in spite of the disaster that befalls Tokyo and is probably the worst element of the film's storytelling I found with Weathering with You's take on confronting individual over societal wants.
In short, Weathering with You is yet another romantic drama from Makoto Shinkai to be rather underwhelming due to its shoddy handling of its storytelling, moral, and supernatural elements. While dabbling into confronting the flaws of Japan's group-based society is an admirable moral that a number of anime have done well with exploring, this film is rather sloppy in its exploration of this due to the majority of its characters not having enough fleshing out to make their actions to defy society seem justifiable and make them largely come off as selfish or misguided in a superficial attempt at melodrama. This is easily one of the weakest offerings from Shinkai I've seen to date thanks to how flawed its dabbling into its "individual over society" moral comes off.
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Dec 26, 2020
13 of 13 episodes seen
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0
people found this review helpful
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| Overall |
6 |
| Story |
5 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
6 |
| Character |
6 |
| Enjoyment |
6 |
Based on the ongoing popular South Korean manhwa, Tower of God depicts a mysterious tower home to various unique environments on each of its floors and said to allow whoever reaches the top of it to be granted any wish they desire. Twenty-Fifth Bam is a young man trying to locate the whereabouts of his missing friend, Rachel, who chose to venture up the Tower. Choosing to climb the Tower himself to find Rachel, Bam encounters and befriends other participants of the trek up the Tower who have their own hardships faced due to their upbringings within the Tower.
I suppose I’ll get things out of
the way and reveal my major issue with Tower of God that comes in the form of the show’s pacing. It does seem like the series is aiming to have a large-scale to its plot involving the world within the Tower itself and how the characters are affected by its power structure with some shown plotting and manipulating others to get an advantage to get further along in the tower’s trials. And there were enough characters introduced throughout the show’s 13-episode run, enough as such where it did make it tricky at points to figure who was who. The brisk pacing of Tower of God’s anime adaptation is more a detriment to this sort of plot because it left me the impression there were things with the manhwa cut out to fit it into a 13-episode series which does affect the flow of how events develop and how much time the series can have to flesh out its characters. Some like Rachel, Khun and Anaak do have enough fleshed out about them to explore their motives and/or pasts, but others left much to be desired either existing to fill a specific role for the series or seemingly would be important for later events within the series if another anime season comes out.
For the anime’s main character, Bam felt kind of generic as there didn’t seem to be much to him beyond being your typical kind-hearted hero able to befriend mostly everyone and seeming to have strong potential for combat within the Tower, which does make him seem kind of bland compared to most of the other characters in the series. I get the impression that the shocking plot twist seen from the final couple episodes will likely affect Bam’s character for later events in the series. But as this left things open-ended for the anime, it remains to be seen if Tower of God will have more seasons to continue its story.
Overall, I can see where there’s potential in tTower of God with what it dabbles into, but this will all depend on what plays out with Tower of God’s later events in its manhwa. But in regards to its anime adaptation, I think the series would have worked better having a two-cour run so it had more time for exploring its world and better developing its plot and characters. As it is, a good deal felt like it was missing with properly fleshing things out with its plot and characters with the large-scale storytelling that Tower of God’s seemingly striving to go for.
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Sep 25, 2020
13 of 13 episodes seen
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3
people found this review helpful
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| Overall |
6 |
| Story |
6 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Character |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
Appare Ranman is set in the late 19th century where the eccentric Japanese mechanic Appare Sorano and swordsman Kosame Isshiki find themselves in America after the former made a small steamship he intended to use to go on a journey, before Kosame's meddling led them both to be stranded in the ocean before being saved by a large American steamship. Seeking money to return to Japan, the two enter a race crossing the country from Los Angeles to New York City, with Appare converting the steamship he made into a steam-powered car to compete in it.
From the looks of things, Appare Ranman appeared to be
going more for spectacle than any kind of depth with exploring the Trans-America Wild Race that Appare, Kosame, and several other racers wind up participating in. All the characters have their standard character types they follow with a sprinkling of backstory to have reason for them participating in the race, which the first several episodes are focused on dabbling into before the start of the race. Plus, the series seemed to have plenty of anachronisms in accurately depicting the supposed late-19th century setting it has with a number of the cars in the race having more modern designs from the 1920s to 1940s, mention of the Panama Canal which wasn't completed until 1914, the American flag having 50 stars when much of the Western part of the country were still regarded as territories, and one of the racers appearing to listen to modern rap music in his car radio in spite of said radio not coming around until the 1950s.
While it may seem like I'm criticizing these points of the series, the spectacle that Appare Ranman has to offer actually works pretty well to its strengths in spite of its obvious hiccups with depth. Appare's eccentric character is an entertaining one to see with the heavy devotion he has toward building things with his mechanical aptitude and the character chemistry that unfolds between the racers can be entertaining to see at points such as Kosame playing "straight man" to Appare's behavior and some of the antics that unfold during the show's breather episode later in the series. Plus being animated by PA Works, the artwork for Appare-Ranman is nice to see in action with some pretty elaborate character designs with some of the racers and fluid animation coming from the racing and action scenes within the series.
While I could be forgiving toward the anime's lack of depth as it wasn't Appare-Ranman's intended focus, I did take issue with the show's abrupt addition of an antagonist toward the final four episodes of the series. While the show did foreshadow his presence in earlier episodes, said antagonist only exists to add in a needless conflict into the series that gets in the way of the Trans-Atlantic Wild Race due to his presence in the series and is pretty flat as a character compared to the other colorful personalities seen with the racers.
In short, Appare-Ranman largely gets by with the spectacle it offers up with its race with its disregard for historical accuracy and its colorful cast of characters. While I'll admit I was engaged to its racing premise in spite of its issues with depth, the addition of a needless conflict with an antagonist in its final episodes did derail some of the enjoyment I was getting out of the series. As long as you don't question the particulars of things with Appare-Ranman that it blatantly disregards, it still makes for decent entertainment due to it embracing its spectacle and colorful characters.
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Sep 2, 2020
1 of 1 episodes seen
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0
people found this review helpful
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| Overall |
7 |
| Story |
7 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Character |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
Her Blue Sky mainly focuses on teenage Aoi Aioi finding herself disillusioned with her life as her older sister, Akane, was forced to raise her on their own years earlier due to the loss of their parents in a car accident and assumes she led to Akane's separation from her former boyfriend and aspiring musician, Shinnosuke Kanamaro. Wanting to be a musician like Shinnosuke, Aoi has become a skilled bass guitarist and is shocked to see a past manifestation of him appear bound to an abandoned building at the same time an older Shinnosuke returns as a supporting guitarist for an enka band.
Her Blue Sky
offers solid and grounded exploration of the developments facing Aoi, Akane, and both the younger and older incarnations of Shinnosuke seen throughout the film. Each of the four have their challenges they are learning to confront with the different circumstances and stages of life each are in. Akane and older Shinnosuke are each coping with the decisions they made while younger and learning to live with them as adults. Akane made for an interesting character as she coped with the pressures some pushed on her at points with trying to marry to reduce the burden placed on her caring for Aoi as a single woman, but able to keep her composure in spite of the challenges and stresses. Being a teen, Aoi is naive to the pressures that her older sister had gone through raising her and assumes she is somehow burdening her sister by costing her her relationship with Shinnosuke and being disillusioned that his older self has becoming a struggling musician. The younger Shinnosuke appears to be a representation of what the older incarnation sacrificed from his youth to keep himself going after Akane dumped him years earlier. The parallels between the two incarnations make for an interesting comparison with the younger incarnation having his idealistic aspirations to pursue and the older one confronting the realities of his decisions in adulthood while getting some measure of satisfaction from still being a musician.
The character developments aside, Her Blue Sky isn't without its imperfections. The implementation of its supernatural elements are a bit of a doubled-edged sword. While young Shinnosuke's appearance helps add an additional layer of exploring the issues surrounding the character dynamics between Aoi, Akane, and the older Shinnosuke, the film did get a bit overboard with things for it toward the finale that clashed badly with the more grounded storytelling shown throughout the majority of the film. Plus, the film doesn't really dabble too deeply into what led the younger Shinnosuke to exist within the future without any time abnormalities taking place. And speaking of the ending, it did feel a bit anti-climactic seeing a rather needless plot device that the film resorted to in order to conveniently resolve all the ongoing character developments all at once as this also went against the grounded storytelling of the film's majority. The film probably could have been a bit more longer to properly resolve its character developments instead of having the rather sloppy ending it used to rush through things.
As it is, Her Blue Sky was still a decent movie for me as it did offer solid and occasionally engaging developments with its major characters dealing with decisions that affect their futures and learning to appreciate the bonds they have with one another. The sloppily-implemented ending does ruin the viewing experience somewhat. But if you're looking for a decent two hours to kill for an anime film, you'll at least won't feel like you wasted time with seeing Her Blue Sky.
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Jul 15, 2020
13 of 13 episodes seen
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0
people found this review helpful
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| Overall |
8 |
| Story |
7 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Character |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
The Gunslinger Girl anime was made in 2003 by Madhouse, adapting the first two volumes of the manga series. It is mainly a character-driven series exploring the pasts of some of the cyborg girls before becoming part of the Social Welfare Agency (SWA) and the different fratello relationship dynamics. Being more a character-focused series, the series does a great job dabbling into the different relationship dynamics with the fratello being either professional or family-like and how each cyborg regards their experiences working with the SWA. The series is well aware of the morally questionable treatment that the girls have received due to being made into
cyborg assassins. But when you also factor in the pasts of the girls before becoming part of the organization, it does offer some interesting insight on whether or not the audience would think the lives of the girls may be better off under their current profession instead of being left to suffer physically and mentally from their tragic pasts.
Because the anime only adapts the first two volumes of the manga, this does lead the anime to create a good deal of anime-exclusive material to either expand on stories from the manga or create its own story developments to help pad out its 13-episode length. In cases of story expansion, the additions work to add some more dimension to the fratello relationship dynamics that the manga doesn’t get into. For example, the anime’s first two episodes are each shown from the perspectives of the fratello pairing of Henrietta and Jose, in how each regard their partnership and the handling of busting a local terrorist cell. But in regards to adding anime-exclusive plotting as seen in the show’s final two episodes, it adds nothing new to the story, creates unnecessary drama, and makes the fate of one cyborg go in a direction that it didn’t actually go in the manga at that point. For the last point in question, the anime’s sequel, Il Teatrino, disregards the development in question to stay faithful to the manga source material.
A few other issues arise due to elements of the anime’s storytelling. One episode drops possible hints of the cyborg, Triela’s, origins that the series doesn’t thoroughly explore until Il Teatrino later comes out, though this would be a minor complaint. A major complaint that would vary depending on a viewer’s tastes would be the lack of an ongoing plot. Due to the anime being more character-focused, there isn’t actually an ongoing plot for the series to properly follow and it can seem like the series would be going nowhere for those that care more for plotting with anime they follow.
For visuals, Madhouse’s animated talents go very well in depicting Gunslinger Girl’s animation throughout its run. The series has detailed scenery, character, and firearm designs shown throughout its run, with setting designs being very faithful to the European locales that characters visit and firearm designs being very faithful to the real life guns used by characters for those who are gun enthusiasts. The series also comes with great action choreography depicted through careful camera editing and shot use to convincingly create the illusion of fluid animation, one notable highlight being the first action scene in the series when Henrietta is dispatching a terrorist cell.
Music for the series is depicted with classical musical pieces that fit in well with the show’s Italian setting and help enhance the drama of a number of key scenes throughout the anime’s run. The show’s OP and ED musical choices are hauntingly beautiful and do very well at complementing the mood seen throughout the series.
Overall, Gunslinger Girl works great as a character-driven series exploring the relationship dynamics of each of the fratellos and exploring how each cyborg regards their work with the SWA. The series may not be everyone’s cup of tea due to its lack of an ongoing plot and there are some story elements to it that don’t work well in the show’s ongoing developments due to anime-exclusive content that doesn’t always mesh well with the title’s intended focus. But if character-driven titles with a good deal of action are up your alley, Gunslinger Girl offers up solid enjoyment throughout its run.
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Jun 20, 2020
12 of 12 episodes seen
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0
people found this review helpful
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| Overall |
8 |
| Story |
8 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Character |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
Interspecies Reviewers is a fantasy/ erotic comedy anime that is set in a fantasy world where prostitution is legal and there are plenty of brothels to cater to those with various fetishes and particular species that catch their interest. A group of adventurers provide reviews of their sexual experiences at each of the brothels they visit and post them at the local tavern they drink at.
Before I offer my thoughts on this series, I’ll be the first to admit that the ecchi genre isn’t typically my cup of tea to dabble into for anime to a large degree. This has nothing to do with me
being against perverted content within media in question as I do have my kinks I like getting into with anything saucy, provided those involved in the acts are consenting to them. But for many ecchi anime (and the issue can extend to hentai as well), the perverted acts in question often involve parties not being willing to dabble into them and the actions pushing into sexual harassment or rape depending on circumstances, this disturbingly getting milked for comedy in some ecchi titles I’ve seen. Seeing this from a number of ecchi titles has turned me off from wanting to dabble too much into them, hence why I can be particular with touching titles within the genre.
When I first heard of the reception folks had to Interspecies Reviewers despite its ecchi roots, I was actually somewhat curious to see what it had to offer and must admit I was surprisingly entertained with it. The series appeared to know how shameless its premise was and runs with it throughout its run, especially with how horny many of the male reviewers are. Each of the reviewers seen throughout the series come from different species and have their different fetishes and expectations they hope to get with their experiences at the brothels they visit. In addition, each of the different species of prostitutes shown throughout the series are shown to have physical differences and personality quirks that can affect the sexual experience each of the male reviewers have throughout the series. This does show some interesting explorations of sexual enjoyment as everybody in real life has different moods and expectations they have in mind with enjoying various types of sexual acts. On top of this, the interactions between the reviewers and prostitutes during “business” are depicted to be consensual and there’s enough variety in the types of fetishes and species explored within Interspecies Reviewers for ecchi and erotic comedy fans to be entertained by this series throughout its 12-episode run. The series, however, won’t be for everyone as it does push its sexual content quite hard at a number of points throughout its run and apparently got saucy enough where a number of streaming sites and Japanese TV networks pulled airing of the series following its first few episodes due to being too hot for them to broadcast.
If you can tolerate its saucy content and are a fan of ecchi comedies, I’d strongly recommend checking out Interspecies Reviewers. While I’m not typically a fan of the ecchi genre, I was still largely entertained with seeing the series due to it embracing the shamelessness of its premise and dabbling into the different experiences that the reviewers and prostitutes have with their sexual pleasures with their kinks and expectations.
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