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May 7, 2013
How I found out about this anime is a little bit of a funny story... Well not really, a guy posted a gif on funnyjunk of Suushy turning her gaze and I liked the look of the art style so I asked for the source. Anyway, what is LWA? We'll it's a little indie film (well it's called a movie even though it's only about half an hour long) to train people new to the animation job in Japan, and it was good enough that people wanted a series made. Oh, did I mention this shit was made by studio trigger? You know they made
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some good stuff like Gurran Laggen... Doesn't ring a bell?... Well how about INFERNO MOTHERFUCKING COP! Yeah, that alone is reason to watch this. But enough of speaking of the greatest anime ever created, on the this anime!:
Story 7/10: The story of LWA is a fairly simple one to be honest (but considering it's only a single episode I suppose it has to be). And aspiring young witch, Akko, joins an academy of witches to emulate her hero, Shining Chariot, a performance artist witch who most "real" witches look down upon but who taught Akko to follow her dreams. Like I said, pretty simple. Oh and toss in an ancient dragon in there because we need an epic final battle. Yeah, the story is fairly decent and for the most part well executed, but not without it's flaws. For the most part the plot seems a bit shallow in actual execution due to how short it is: Girl see's her personal hero preform, time skip, girl is in witch academy, someone puts down her hero, she gets made, few quirky bits, big epic dragon fight, more quirk and big epic ending. Honestly if we had more time to expand upon this it would have been much better but as of now it just comes off a little shallow. Not bad, just shallow.
Art 10/10: As you may have read above it was a single small gif with barely any movement that made me watch LWA and I will still say it was my favourite part of the show. The animation was wonderfully fluid that it put many things to shame (then again in this industry that's not a very hard thing to do. Have you seen Infinite stratos and the like, I mean Jesus fucking Christ). But the main point is the art style, good god that wonderful art style. I mean you can debate whether you liked it or not but you can't deny that it was refreshing unique compared to about 98% of the stuff in this form of media. The far more cartoon-y look giving the whole thing a more... Disney feel. Actually that's a pretty apt comparison as much of this show feels like a short disney film, the story, the art style, and the...
Sound 7/10: Yes the music feels very disney and it even has the exaggerated western kids cartoon sound effects like the big popping noise when someone pulled their (apparently skull-less) head out of a helmet with a thin neck brace. All of this really helps contribute to the overall feel of the show, quirky, cartoon-y fun for the whole family. Until the elitist mature anime pricks come along and demand a pregnant woman has her fetus forcefully- No! Bad mdude! We're talking about wholesome cartoon-y fun! Think happy thoughts. Lalalala, so happy and upbeat!
Character 8/10: What quirky upbeat disney-esh show wouldn't be complete without an equally quirky cast of totally non-child mutilating characters? Well we have plenty. We got Akko, the very bad witch who's trying to emulate her hero. Lotte, the voice of reason. And Suushy, the kinda goth girl who seems to carry several horrible mutilating poisons on her at all times... God damn it, quirky fun! Oh and Diana, the series antagonist who despite being bit of an arrogant bitch is genuinely a good person. I want to put special mention to that last character, this is how you're supposed to have us like an antagonist people, give her plenty of redeeming qualities early in, not have the being a baby mutilating cunt since day one and then about ten seconds before the end do a "oh, I was only doing _______ because *insert traumatic past experiences here*" this is why I hated Vi from the night angel series, you do everything you can to make us hate her and then expect us to start liking her after a few pet the dogs moments after we already firmly hate her? Anyway yeah, the characters are fun and quirky despite not really doing much in terms of development, what did you want? It's only half an hour.
Enjoyment 9/10: This is not a gory anime with a bunch of bullshit philosophical rants that every elitist prick for a ten mile radius clambers around and starts telling everyone it's the greatest thing in existence because it's "deep and mature." This is a fun for all ages quirky little show for fun, and that's fine, you don't have to kill like seven thousand people by pulling their heart out of their nostrils and then whine about the sanctity of human life to be entertaining and don't let anyone tell you otherwise because the people who crusade that only gory super serious anime is the only good anime probably haven't showered in years. If you go into it fully expecting a somewhat childish but fun to watch show you'll be sure to thoroughly enjoy it. And if you can't enjoy anything that you think children can also watch without being scarred for life than go jerk of to some gore porn or something.
Overall 8/10: Taking all the previous scores, adding them together, not actually doing that because I'm too lazy to get an actual average, and then picking a random number that seems about right considering the other scores we come to a very respectable 8/10. It's only 26 minutes and it's fun to watch, what more do you want? If you basically hate anything cartoon-y (despite the fact that anime are cartoons, just Japanese cartoons, deal with it) that is somewhat childishly fun and quirky then avoid this thing like it's a plague that's only symptom is making anyone infect by it crack a smile every now and again you gloomy sod. If you actual have a face that isn't so hard it'll crack if you don't scowl for three seconds than consider giving it a chance.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Mar 24, 2013
Ah yes, good old fashion Queen's Blade. You know, I had considered writing a review about 5 minutes into the first episode but I have a code of honour. I cannot write a review unless I have seen the whole thing, and so I have watch the whole thing so that I may write this review... Would someone please come to my house and stab me several times in the face?... No of course not, you damned "sanctity of human life" pricks. Let's get this over with.
Story 1/10: In a world where metal ore is extremely rare crafting armor has become a very expensive task,
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most blacksmiths can only forge tiny bits of armor such as a bra without going bankrupt and only a few nobles can purchase these armors. Enter Artorius, an aspiring young blacksmith with a dream, to acquire the funds to craft a full practical suit of armor by descending into a hellish underworld... Alright alright! The real plot is a bunch of female fighters have to go to the Queen's Capital to take part in a tournament that will crown the next Queen of apparently the whole world, the queen of course being the strongest and most beautiful (apparently you can be the strongest warrior in all the land, but if you're ugly you can just piss off, I can't be the only who thinks my plot idea was better?). As you can tell the plot is kinda shit, it does serve one purpose though, get a bunch of chicks to knock their armor off in combat and then jiggle around a lot, yeah the plot is a thinly veiled excuse to have half naked girls fighting each other, it's like a fifteen year old got a mad lib (adventure-fantasy addition) and every word he used was tits and ass, and they decided to make an anime out of it.
Art 3/10: Let's see. Generic template used for all the character so they not only look almost exactly the same compared to each other but all to 80% of all other anime characters in general? Check. Speed lines during action scenes because the guys using CG to make the whole show got lazy? Check. Absolutely nothing unique about anything in this show? Check. They made the tit's and ass look good I suppose which in all fairness is pretty much the only thing the anime is about so that keeps it from getting a 1/10 but it's still not very good, next topic.
Sound 1/10: First stop the music, it's incredibly generic to the point where you don't even realize it's there, it's not terrible mind you, it's just kinda there. It doesn't help that a lot of the time the overall mood of the song being played doesn't fit the scene well over half the time, this is what I like to call "lazy placement," they knew they needed background music so they got some standard fantasy tracks and slapped them where ever they thought it was too quiet. As for the voice acting, the dub is atrociously bad, I've seen fan dubs where every character (of both gender) were voiced by the same guy in his basement, don't watch it... Then again the sub isn't much better, it's one of the only subs where the fact I don't understand the language stopped me from realizing how bad the acting actually is. Maybe the acting could have been better if the writing wasn't so pathetic, I haven't seen writing this bad in quite a while, at least it does kinda distract from how bad the entire show is by being so bad you laugh at it.
Character 2/10: Actually some of the character development is fairly good, like when the main character witnesses some horrendous poverty and famine within her own lands and decides to do everything within her... Nope, never mind, they kind of forgot about that like a minute later. See the problem is the characters actually did have a lot of opportunity for character development and depth but it usually only last for like half an episode and then the character seems to completely forget about it and continue on happy as a clam with no problems. Probably because people would have a hard time fapping to character depth and thus just continue to focus on tit's and ass. I swear they should have just called this show "tit's and ass with sword." I give characters higher than 1 for have potential but not by much for doing fuck all with it.
Enjoyment 1/10: You know what I could be watching that's better than this show? Fucking anything! This show is porn without being as fun to watch as porn, I have plenty of place to watch actually porn Queen's Blade, if I was in the mood to jerk off I'd go there, not watch your half-assed attempt at making a hentai you can make more money off of by claiming it to be a real show so it's shown on TV. I watched it online so you made no money off me what-so-ever to begin with so eat my shit.
Overall 1/10: What more is there to say? It's a completely crappy show that had a minimal amount of potential with the characters that it never exploited like it was afraid that it might raise to at least the level of mediocrity, like it's somehow allergic to not being complete shit that someone who isn't aware of any actually porn site can jerk off to. Bad show Queen's Blade, ya should have just gone full out porn, at least then you could hide behind the excuse that the show is just meant to be porn and not reviewed seriously.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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Feb 25, 2013
Disclaimer: I am writing this review before I have seen the movie, this is a review for the show and I do not wish for the movie to alter it even if it is supposedly the true ending. Now that that's out of the way onto the review.
Neon Genesis Evangelion (NGE for short) is a very well known classic, much like Akira, Cowboy Bebop, ext... It's also no secret that this show holds a high position in the world of anime, considered by many of those "anime pro's" to be a complete masterpiece and one of the pinicles of anime and anyone who hasn't seen
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it or doesn't think it's the greatest thing since slice bread isn't a real anime fan. Well frankly I'm fine with not being one of those "real anime fans" because they're a bunch of elitist pricks, I'm not saying the show is bad, simply overrated.
Story 8/10: The story of NGE is that there was an event called the second impact that melted the polar ice caps and killed a fuck ton of people, about 14 years later alien beings called "angels" whom there are 17 (or 18, wasn't completely keeping track) start invading one at a time and it's the job of pilots of Eva's (big mechs) to kill them. How do we know there's 18/17 before they all show up? The dead sea scrolls of course! Needless to say the show has a lot of religion involved, anyway starting the show I honestly could not pin why people were say it was such a mind fuck psychological master piece as at first it starts out as a very standard mech show. There's two points to make about this, the first being that yes, much later into the show (around 14-16 episodes) things do start getting a little more thinky-thinky, the problem is it takes far too long to get into it, as by the time you do get into the 16th episode the new psychological aspect seems completely out of place in the already established tone of the show. Now as for the actual second half, it starts of a little introductory psychology 101 and descends into what would happen if Sigmund Freud snorted LCD laced cocaine off of a poster of David Lynch's movie "Eraserhead." And despite being almost impossible to understand by the time you get to the last few episodes it's still very good compared to a lot of other shit on the market.
Art 6/10: I have a rule when it comes to art in anime, I don't care if you do look dated if you are an old show, that will have no effect on the review, however if you use the extremely standard templates for the characters and nothing original in the background you're getting a very average 5. So why did I give this show a 6? Why the mind fuck sequences of course! When you're getting into a crazy mind fuck sequences you have to make what's going on on screen just as erratic and crazy as the dialogue, which NGE does quite well, especially the handful of episodes where I could swear the animation just keeps getting more vague as it goes along. Gold star for some originality NGE... Well not much of a gold star but you're slightly above average, not everyone can say the same.
Sound 9/10: Okay, if there is one part of NGE that truly does deserve recognition as a "master piece" it's the absolutely beautiful music. The opening is often hailed as one of the best openings of any anime, the ending is always a variation of the (made famous by Frank Sinatra) song "Fly Me To The Moon" sung by several different singers depending on the episode, and the in show itself the music ranges everywhere from slow and somber to fast and energetic, original pieces and very well known songs (like "Ode to joy"), ext... And though it's impressive when the songs are used in scenes where they fit perfectly, what's more interesting is when they're used out of where you would think they would be. With many other shows an out of place song would distract from the scene, but somehow here they managed to use in such a way that rather from taking away from the scene they actually give it a very interesting and unique feel, it's just amazingly done. Now as for the dub... It's okay, it's not the greatest thing ever but unless you're a hardcore weeaboo who believes the English language should never have existed (need I remind you it's the language you speak?) you'll have no problems what-so-ever.
Character 8/10: People often say the characters are the best part of NGE, while I do disagree I will say the characters are done well so long as they don't have the last name "Ikari." At first the characters appear fairly one dimensional, Asuka is the standard tsundere, Rei is... Kind nothing, Ikari (the head of nerv, not Shinji) is a prick. But later into the series all these characters seem to get far more intricate, Asuka is a girl attempting to avoid her own fears of being ignored due to a troubled past involving her mother, Rei is struggling for identity as she realize she fears death and loneliness, and Ikari... Is still a prick, and several other characters also get quite a lot of fleshing out near the end. The show makes a point of making sure you know that all the characters are broken on the inside when all's said and done, they aren't all perfect people who take death easily, they all have their own personal trauma's and struggles... Except Ikari, who is merely a prick. And Shinji, who is kind of indecisive bitch who runs away at every opportunity, decides at the last minute not to run away, and then spends the next two episodes bitching about things that easily would have changed if he just fucking got on the train.
Enjoyment 8/10: The show may not be a master piece but it is still very entertaining, whether you like fast paced mech action or are more into the thinking type of psychological drama you'll find something to like about this show.
Overall 8/10: Alright, so definitely not the greatest thing since sliced bread that the elitist "real anime fans" all make it out to be but the show is not bad. A good story combined with (some) very well written characters and of course an amazing OST make this a very good show well worth the watch even if it does start off a little... Meh.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jan 10, 2013
A lot of times I've said that Harem anime is a plague on humanity. And high school anime can work but have recently been kinda shit. But nothing can describe the kind of hatred I feel towards the mixing of high school and harems. So what happens when I watched this high school harem! Belong to the genre that needs to go brutally anal rape itself to death!... It was good... I cannot even begin to comprehend how this anime could possible have been in any way, shape, or form decent! There's something fundamentally wrong with that picture. Well lets get to it.
Story 6/10:
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Okay, the story is only slightly above average. It starts out kind of following the harem formula of coming up with an extremely half-assed reason for having the main lego brick personality protagonist end up surrounded by chicks. In this the lego bricks parents die and he goes to live with his grandpa who just so happens to be extremely rich and our lego brick had no idea. But... Wait?... The plot, starts to make sense after a while in and somewhat diverges into a far more decent political story and story of revenge!... Well to a degree. So yeah the shows plot starts out fairly standard harem but it becomes far better later in. My one problems is *warning, minor spoilers* the main villains motivations for revenge in contrast to what he actually does to get the revenge is kind of, ridiculously over the top. I mean sure some people have embarrassed me as a kid too but you don't see me planning murder, I just slashed their tires later.
Art 5/10: I have nothing bad to say about the art, I also have nothing good to say about it. The art is extremely average and generic. The character all follow the basic anime character template that seems to be so fucking popular (people, when will you learn? Anime means it was made in Japan, it's not a specific art style, you're allowed to make the basic design to make your show look unique!), the backgrounds are nothing special what so ever, and the animation with both just regular walking and fighting is about the same as you'll see almost everywhere else unless you watch something like Akira or Jin-Roh (then again, those were the pinnacle of animation smoothness in anime in my opinion, so it's unfair to compare them)
Sound 5/10: Once again a very average part of the show. All the music is exactly what you'd expect from a harem anime and there are no memorable tracks, nor any that stand out. This is another thing anime studio's need to realize, music is supposed to fit with the scene at hand in a way that perfectly accents the scene and be easily listened to and appreciated by the audience without drawing attention away from the show. If your audience says "wait, there was music going on in that scene? Oh yeah that really background generic stuff, right" you're not leaving a good impression. And my rule about not reviewing voice acting in languages I don't understand still stands so no dub = no voice acting review.
Character 8/10: Fantastic! I now get review the extremely bland and personality-less harem male lead #24601 ("What? No not you Valjean, some other guy") so allow me to rip this sexual oblivious dumb fuck a new assho- Wait a second, the male lead is actually good! Holy shit guys! The internet is about to break, everyone evacuate! ABANDON THREAD!!!!!!...
Is it safe to come back... It looks kind... Yeah, we're good. So anyway, the lead character is actually pretty decent. He's pretty competent, doesn't over-react whenever he accidentally touches breasts, and he's not a complete dumb fuck who's completely oblivious to the fact that women have vagina's. But he's still flawed enough to not be at the hateable level of Mary Sue, he's more on the level of "the lucky pervert!" (honestly, episode 6 will make you shit yourself laugh) As for the females, you have the basic trends of the Mary Sue main (and she's really Mary Sue level, god I hate this archetype), the tsundere, the... Supporting Mary Sue (okay, one was bad enough but this is ridiculous). But one of our other female leads makes up for this, Silvia, who doesn't follow a certain archetype and for a female in a harem anime is actually quite competent on her own.
Enjoyment 7/10: Okay, I liked watch Princess Lover, I will admit to actually having enjoyed a... A... *mumble*... A HIGH SCHOOL HAREM!!!! The show, despite the average art and sound and only slightly above average story is actually quite entertaining. Every episode is generally packed with plenty of fun to watch antics or suspense (I say this is thanks to the 12 episode length that keeps the show nice and compact, keep this in mind anime industry, longer is not necessarily better. Yes, I'm looking at you 300+ episode shows)
Overall 7/10: So yes, it's a high school harem, and it's actually fairly decent. I don't know how they managed to pull it off but Princess Lover is actually quite a good show and I'd recommend it if you're looking for something short. One thing people often complain about though is the romantically inconclusive ending however I myself didn't really mind this too much. But if you don't like shows where the romance aspect isn't resolved at the end you should be wary of this show.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jan 5, 2013
"What's this? An anime staring a completely nameless male protagonist and 13 young girls, who are on the cover all looking at the viewer while smiling? Better get the napalm ready... Wait a minute? This isn't some extremely shitty harem, it's a fairly decent slice of life... Well actually this thing is great!" -mdude009
In reality I went into The IDOLM@STER (damn that's kinda annoying to spell, from this point on I'm gonna call it "TI") expecting as I said some half-assed harem crap that seems to be plaguing a good portion of this industry. But although it gives off this bad
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impression on a first glance the actual show is a very nicely done slice of life... Although I am kinda sad I didn't get to use my napalm, I love that stuff.
Story 10/10: TI starts off as more of a formula show rather then a linear story line, and later on though the story does become more concrete the formula is still used. The show is basically about 12 fairly unknown idols (Sidenote: I though idol was a title, not a profession?) working for a small time company, 765 productions. Basically we follow these 12 idols as they slowly get more and more famous. The formula is basically one of the idols has a problem, and the producer or other idols help her get over her problem.
Both the story and formula seem fairly straight forward eh? Honestly though, despite the simple idea behind it the story is actually handled very well, especially in the progression. They start off as essentially a bunch of nobodies and slowly raise to stardom, it's not a perfect ascend though. The whole way up they are burdened by the downsides of fame as well as the uplifting moments. This depiction of raising stardom shown from a not completely "everything gets better as you go" angle really does give the overall show a much more human feel to it. I can't really get into it too much without spoilers but trust me, the plot in this regard is handled extremely well and is definitely one of the high points of the show.
Art 7/10: The art... Damn, I really don't want to talk about the art. Art is definitely one of the shows lowest points, it's not "bad," it's just kind of... Generic. The characters all look fairly template-y (if you've read some of my previous reviews you'll know that what I mean by this is how they look like they follow a standard "template" of anime characters that seems to be used for 95% of the industry). And the background are also fairly generic for the most part. I will however praise the shows dancing parts, I can't talk ill of these, it's smooth and solid. Nothing to write home about but decent.
Sound 9/10: This was the part I was dreading, how do you review something you know next to nothing about? Unlike someone else who's familiar with J-pop and that type of music (which is what makes up a very large portion of this show) who can easily tell you what's good and bad within that specific genre out of experience, I myself have almost no knowledge of it. But I'll give it a go, I can't skip this section, music makes up a large portion of the anime. The music is fairly good in my personal opinion, some of the songs are far more energetic and fast paces where-as others are slower and more somber, but they all sound good... Well most of them, and they do fit in with the show. And as for the voice acting I have no idea! This show has no dub and my attitude when it comes to sub is that: a) I can't understand their language or how it works and b) I'm too busy reading the subs to really pay attention to how good the speaking I have no understanding of is. So I don't review subs because it would be unfair.
Characters 9/10: Finally we get to this point, I apologize if the previous entries were kind of boring but the characters really are the meat of the show (as is common with slice of life shows). And we all know the meats got to be good, I mean if you order a steak sure the baked potato might be amazing but if the steak is shit then it doesn't really matter. Thankfully this show doesn't have that problem, the characters are likable and (with the exception of a few problems) very well done. They all have their own personal quirks, personalities, and of course problems (fairly down to earth problems too, with the exceptions of a few silly and over the top moments here and there), making all the character quite human and relatable in some circumstances.
"Wait, you mentioned it wasn't completely perfect!" True... True... When I went into this show after the first few episodes (when it convinced me that this wasn't some crappy harem) I had a small fear. "If there's 25 episodes and 12 main protagonists, won't there be some spreading out issues?" Turns out my fear was not unjustified. Let me compare it to this: You have 10 slices of bread, but only a small amount of jam. Now you could equally distribute it but then it would be spread fairly thin, or you could put more on certain pieces but then the other would have an even thinner spread. TI went with the latter. In the end we have characters like Chihaya that are very fleshed out with plenty of screen time (not that I'm complaining, I loved the way her story played out) but we also have characters like Ami/Mami, Iori, Azusa, ext... Who despite being central protagonists seem to just be supporting character. Though (arguably) it's better like this then having about 60 episodes of it, the shows good but that many episodes would be pushing it.
Enjoyment 10/10: Like I said before, I did not go into this anime expecting much. I was pleasantly surprised, the show in the end turned out to be quite enjoyable. The great characters combined with the very will handled story and quality sound do make this an anime worth watching. Don't worry my skeptical friends, no shitty harems over here.
Overall 9/10: If you're looking for a good slice of life anime (you know, if you're not on the other 50% of anime fans who despise slice of life and everything it stands for) you've definitely come to the right place, a good mix of drama and comedy with likable characters and a good story. You won't be disappointed... And if you are let me know, my napalm may go to good use after all.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Dec 1, 2012
Cybersix is definitely a strange show, not in it's subject matter but more it's history. It started out as a mature Argentinian comic series, and then was picked up by a Canadian company and animated by a Japanese company and made into a more kid-friendly cartoon/anime (to be honest I'm not really sure what to classify it as, it was animated in Japan but for the most part it's a Canadian show). But you're not interested in the origins, you want a review not a lecture, so lets get to it.
*DISCLAIMER*
This show was first aired 1999 in Canada (and Argentina), I myself being a
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Canadian born in 1994 was a young child when I first watched this show. Admittedly I came across it on youtube recently and was driven by nostalgia to watch it again. I tried to watch this show with a critical eye rather then watching through nostalgia goggles and hope the review also is free of it, but be warned that this review might be a bit biased due to that reason.
anyway, moving on.
Story 7/10 (warning, this is gonna get long): The story of the show is fairly simple for the most part, a woman with superhuman strength and agility (Cyber 6) who cross dresses as a man to take on her secret identity (Adrian Seidelman) watches over a South American city fighting against the genetic creations of the evil Doctor Von Reichter and his equally evil eight year old son José. immediately I began to see some minor flaws with this show (Critic: 1, Nostalgia: 0), most prominant being the lack of explain certain things that seem like they would be important. What exactly is Cyber 6? What was that green stuff she drank in the first episode? What is Von Reichter trying to accomplish and why does he want Cyber dead? These are all interesting questions that the show gives tiny hints at but never really offers a sense of understanding, we get that Cyber is a cyber woman but that could mean several things. And at the very last episode we finally get an explanation of the green liquid, turns out it's something she needs to drink to survive (despite the fact that after the first episode it was almost never brought up again until the end). The comic apparently explains most these question, in fact a brief story synopsis on wikipedia of the comics will give you a much better understanding of some of the minor plot points that seem unanswered yet shown through the show. But as I said with my Akira review, you shouldn't need to look it up or read the reference material, the minor and larger plot point should be weaved into the story. (I'd also like to make it clear that I have never read the comic, though from what I understand from many who have they aren't very good) Fortunately these are minor plot points that can be overlooked.
One last thing I'd like to state is something that I think brings the score for the story high then it normally would be. The ending is done well for once! Many shows (especially cartoons from the late 90's to early 2000's) always had the problem of ending on low notes as cliffhangers or a blatant "hey, if we get enough money we'll make more episodes!" Cyber 6 doesn't suffer from this, the ending subtly hints that there is the possibility of a second season yet still has a proper conclusive ending where something is actually accomplished rather then the typical "I'll get you next time my pretty!" Personally I enjoyed this immensely and although I feel the show could have gone on was glad they weren't completely counting on it by making a half-assed ending.
Art 8/10: (sorry about the overly long story section, I'll try to keep the other areas shorter) As I said, the show was animated by a Japanese company so it has anime like elements to it despite being made mainly as a western show. However the animators rather then making the whole show follow the same anime template for character designs and such that's been used in... Almost ever anime ever! (Sorry, I just hate the lack of uniqueness in many anime) They stuck to a more cartoonish approach to the characters, however the movement is just as fluid as you would expect to see in any anime. I have notice some aspects where the it seems choppy (mostly during very fast or very large sequences) but for the most part the animation is solid and the design is quite nice actually (I've seen some pages from the comics and believe they were trying to stay as close to the character designs from there).
Sound 7/10: First, the voice acting. The voice acting is strange, for the most part it's solid, fits the characters well (most of the time), and is overall fairly decent... After the first few episodes. It may just be me but it seems like the voices are off in the first couple of episodes but then get better, almost like the voice actors weren't really sure what they were going for but figured it out later, this might just be me but it's something I can't overlook. And as noted early, some of the voice just don't fit, it's almost like the actors thought they were voicing someone completely different and the voices seem ridiculously out of place, this however only limits itself to a few bit roles and is not present a lot, enough so that it throws you off a little. Also, something I feel I should state, the show was owned by a Canadian company and so the show was primarily Canadian, and therefore the original language was indeed English, meaning on the whole sub vs dub debate, there is none, not an important fact but one that I felt should be mentioned. As for the music, as with the voices it's well done but sometimes out of place, occasionally you'll get things like the music being to cheery and uplifting for the situation being used and vice versa, this problem is present quite a few times and although it does drag the score down a bit it's not enough to derail the whole show.
Character 9/10: The characters are an interesting topic, since the story (until near the end) is kind of lacking the characters are basically the meat of the show. If you're making a show that heavily relies on the characters they'd better be good... Thankfully they are, although occasionally seeming a little one beat and overly silly they are present well and given enough personality to keep the show going strong. Nothing is played over the top with them and everything is fairly subtle, such as the relationship between Cyber 6 and her friend (and male personas co-worker) Lucas. It's not played as a "Hey! Cyber! I'm Lucas and I love you! Totally! We should go out!" but rather more like a friendship with some definite sense of romantic feels between the two. Julian (a street kid who befriends Cyber) has a sad back story but nothing overdone like "I'm sad because my parents were killed by a rogue toaster," he has to do things he's not entirely proud of to keep a roof over his head but it's not done to the point where you should feel sorry for him because "we told you to!" One problem I do have that keeps the score from a ten is the villains, Von Reichter and José. These characters are evil, why? Because they want to kill Cyber 6 and take over the city. Why do they want to do that? Because they're evil. See where I'm coming from, we have villains who are villains just for the sake of being villains, we're not even given much of a reason as to why Reichter want's Cyber dead, with José we can at least get where he's coming, who doesn't want to control a city after all? But Reichter just seems to be there because he was in the comics.
Enjoyment 10/10: I'm afraid if nostalgia goggles will play a role in any part of this review, this is most likely it. Cybersix is indeed a very enjoyable show, it has plenty of everything: action, comedy, drama, romance, and all are very well done and don't suffer the problem many other shows with several aims do, such as fighting over control of the shows main focus until there is none. The show knows it's an action, and romance, drama, and comedy rather then try to replace it just help accent it, keep it fresh and keep it enjoyable, this also allows it to be enjoyed by all ages seeing as how it doesn't just cater to kids love of seeing people being punched (well in all fairness I think everyone enjoys that), but the other more subtle areas definitely appeal to wider audiences. The show is just plain fun to watch. (Well nostalgia goggles, you had your chance, hope you didn't do too much damage)
Overall 8/10: The verdict is that Cybersix is a good show (though criminally under-rated) and is definitely worth a look. It's fairly short and sweet so you can feel satisfied but not like you spent too much time with it. The characters and overall entertainment value of this show are very well done despite some minor downside that can be easily overlooked. So check it out if you don't have anything to do over the weekend, you won't be disappointed.
*DISCLAIMER*
Regarding the comic series, if you liked the show and want feel like you want more you can always check these out. They don't have an official English translation out but you're in luck if you can read Spanish, there are also a few fan translations floating around on the internet so you can try your luck there. But be warned, the comics (from what I've heard from other at least) are not very good. They are also nowhere near as kid friendly as the show, I saw a picture that I thought was some of the weird fetishy rule 34 pics the internet loves to spit out (full out reverse pedophilia action) but turns out it was actually the cover for one of the volumes (no, not a page, the actual cover). You have been warned.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jun 3, 2012
A grenadier by definition was a soldier in around the Napoleonic era that specialized in using grenades, however in anime terms aparently grenadier means "take a concept of a show that was good and add over-the-top fan-service." That good show I'm talking about is of course Trigun, and you will see me use that show as an example a lot during this review because the fact of the matter is that Grenadier is basically a half-assed rule 63 (one of the rules of the internet, "if it exists, there is a female version of it, no exception") version of Trigun. On to the review.
Story 2/10:
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A skilled guns-woman who is a complete pacifist (sound unfamiliar?) going around with some philosophy that if she's unarmed and smiling then suddenly the whole world will act like everything is sunshine and butterflies. Eventually the plot picks up when her former teacher (who is the living embodiment of kindness, so much so it becomes rage inducing, more on that later) puts out the order for a elite group of fighters to assassinate the main character Tendo. The fact that this plot lacks any form of originality truly does harm its score however it's not just that, I've seen shows that lack originality before but still managed to be moderately good, this show is just the same thing over and over. Where as Trigun had it's moments where things got serious and more grey shade then just black and white Grenadier does away with any of the deeper moments and just makes everything pure white, this leads the show to have absolutely no dept and thus makes the plot just plain bad.
Art 8/10: The art itself is a little dated however for the most part it's pretty good. As for the animation I'll admit it's not all that bad, the movements for the combat are smooth enough although it does suffer from the same problems many modern day anime does which is the occasional part where the animation just seems poorly done and choppy. As for the character designs... It basically follows the idea that "if we put hot chicks with big tits in it they won't question if it's physically possible!" Wrong, I noticed it, the females in this show look like god damn tooth picks with breast so large you could land a helicopter on them. Forget back pain, how the hell haven't these chicks snapped in half yet?
Sound 3/10: First the music, like many anime today it's forgettable, none of the tracks particularly stand out and they just seem to blend into the background. This however is not a bad things seeing as the point of music in any form of media (other then the music industry itself) is not to distract from the show but add to the overall mood, unfortunately the music in grenadier does not in anyway do this seeing as how most of the time it just seems like a completely random track was chosen half the time rather then something that would work with the scene in question. And now for the part I've been dreading, the voice acting, the dub, good god the dub! The dub is something that make you want to rip your hair out by its roots and punch yourself repeatedly in the genitals, the voice actors are so annoying and their acting is so ungodly bad! Do yourself a favour and watch the sub, I've never seen it but it could not in any possible way be worse then the dub.
Character 2/10: I think the way they figured out who the characters would be was by buying a mad lib, the Trigun edition! Tendo is Vash the Stampede with breasts, Yajirou is Meryl, Teppa is Wolfwood, and the Tenshi guys were basically the Gung-ho Demons. Since all those characters were good though these ones must be too right? Wrong. Not only are all these characters complete rip-offs, but they're also so over the top it become infuriating! Where as Vash the Stampede actually had his more human moments where things weren't so black and white Tendo is a complete Mary Sue character, it seems the character was just made to be fapping material. And don't even get me start on Tenshi, she was so nice and perfect that I just wanted to punch her face clean off! There's also the problem of no build-ups! There's a few parts in the story where the villain is revealed and it's done in a way where they want us to be like "oh my god, *blank* was actually *blank* the whole time?!" Problem is, we don't know who the hell those characters are supposed to! I mean it's fine if it's just a few minor characters, but when the main villain is finally reveals herself at the final episode the audience shouldn't be thinking "so it was her in disguise all along!... Wait, who is she anyway?"
Enjoyment 4/10: The first few gunfights were actually enjoyable, although a little over the top (even Vash the Stampede wasn't this good of a gunman, and he wasn't even human!), however it's only the first few fight that are somewhat good because all the fights are the same! Tendo spins around to dodge the bullets, shoots the guns out of the bad guys hands, reloads using her breasts, rinse and repeat. It's just the same thing over and over from the first episode to the second last. I'll admit that at least the final battle of the whole series was somewhat entertaining with all the crazy kung-foo with guns stuff but that's about it.
Overall 4/10: You ever wanted to watch a clone of Trigun where Vash is a chick with huge tits, almost no plot and character dept, and a dub that makes you want to go to a back alley and beg junkies to beat your brains out with a tire iron? Well then you've found the perfect show! In truth Grenadier isn't horrible but it's definitely half-ass, I would recommend you just re-watch Trigun if you're looking for this kind of show, or if you haven't already seen it just watch Trigun for the first time, in which case I envy you, first times always the best.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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May 22, 2012
Once in a while you come across a show, a show that's so stupid and pointless that you can almost hear your brain cells screaming in pain as they slowly die. Desert Punk takes that idea and cranks it so high your brain will shrivel up in a matter of seconds, and that's why the show is so good! Screw deep plots! We need more high speed shotgun and tit action!
Story 7/10: Desert Punk's main theme is this, a midget mercenary known as the demon of the desert (aka, "desert punk" or just "the punk") goes around the post-apocalyptic great Kanto desert doing the
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jobs no one else will do with a near perfect success rate (unless tit's get in the way). That however is the theme and background really since Desert Punk doesn't really have a plot, most the episodes are just random skits following those guidelines. And it works great, Desert Punk is nothing but crazy action, vulgar humour, and tit's, if you're looking for a deep show with a complex plot search elsewhere, but if you want something that will make you laugh so hard you'll cry you're in luck friend.
Art 9/10: Lets get the boring stuff out the way first, the backgrounds. The show takes place in a post-apocalyptic desert and therefore all the backgrounds won't really vary all the much from your basic brown and other shades of brown. Now that that's out of the way lets move on to the good part, the character design! Most modern anime follows a basic template for characters where they all look the same, pointy chin tiny nose pretty boys. Desert Punk takes that template, whips its ass with it, and then sends the shit stained paper back to who gave it to them. Almost all the characters in Desert Punk are (for lack of a better term) ugly, Kanta (the punk) is a short little bastard with big eyebrows, massive ears, a fat round nose, and generally sporting a massive shit eater/psychopath smile, he looks kinda like a rapist monkey at times. And it don't stop with just the punk, everyone in this show looks like they've been beaten to death with the ugly stick, and it fantastic! In a world where almost every anime character looks like the exact same pretty boy seeing characters like it is beyond refreshing.
Sound 10/10: This show has one of the most memorable soundtracks I've ever heard in anime. It's the kind of music where you hear the first half second of the song and suddenly jump up and yell "that's the Desert Punk song!" and then slowly slink back into your seat to avoid the confused glares you're getting from everyone around you. But does memorable necessarily mean good? No. Does it mean good in Desert Punk's case? Hell yes, this music is awesome. And now for the acting, good god the acting. Generally my opinion on dubs is this, the reason to watch a dub is so you don't have to read the subs and miss half the action. Is that the case with this show? Not at all. See most dubs will attempt to stay as true to the original script as possible, problem is Japanese jokes and sayings don't really translate well and as a result the dub just seems off. However the people dubbing Desert Punk decided "here's the basic gist of what they're saying, now make it sound good in English!" The finished product? A dub that might just be better then the sub (blasphemy!). Let me give you an example, in the original Japanese he says "crap, better retreat for now" and in the English dub he says "remember kids, a smart man knows when it's time to RUN LIKE A LITTLE BITCH!" Another problem is that English voice actors half ass like they aren't even being paid to do it, fandubs usually have more emotion. But with Desert Punk the actors really are giving it their all, and you can tell just from their performances that they're actually enjoying their work from once.
Character 9/10: Dear god, the characters, I don't even know where to begin. The characters in Desert Punk... Well there are no good guy characters (except one, but he gets sold into slavery to a gay guy), every character in Desert Punk is more or less, a completely asshole. Kanta, the main protagonist of the show, is a bigger dick then most villains in anime. He is overly-horny, treats everyone like shit, acts like he's the greatest person in the world, he isn't just a jerk, he is the living incarnation of the word jerk, and that's what makes him so great! This is a character you're supposed to hate, the kind of character you're supposed to look at and say "I want you to die!" but in the end you just end up loving this fucking guy. The same goes for most the other characters, the odd part is the characters you generally end up hating the most are the ones that in any other anime you would consider the good guy, like Stryker (the dude who Kanta sells to a gay guy). Characters are definitely the strong point of Desert Punk.
Enjoyment 10/10: This can really go both ways. Do you hate vulgar humour about sex, do you consider the thought of a bunch of goons getting covered in a massive trucks worth of shit and vomiting their guts out to be just plain disgusting? Then you will hate this show. But if you're like me and enjoy vulgar humour that has no real point then you will laugh to death watching this show.
Overall 9/10: Desert Punk is a show that takes every cliche in anime, eats it, shits it out on to a plate, and then forces the modern romance anime market to eat it. Watch this show, it might just end up being one of your favourites.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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May 18, 2012
I have written reviews for both extremely good anime or extremely important anime, but I felt I lacked the one thing ever reviewer needs, a review of something really bad. Enter IS: Infinite Stratos, when I think "I need to review something bad that I've watched through completely and this was the first thing to spring to mind, sit back and hold on to your nipple hair folks, I'm about to rip this anime a new asshole!
Story -10/10: ...Wait, what do you mean I can't give it a negative score? You mean the lowest I can go is 1? God dammit.
Story 1/10: The story of
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IS is, like almost every other harem, a poorly thought-out excuse to have the main character surrounded by females. So basically here's how it is, it's the future (apparently) and we now have crazy exoskeleton mechs that can be magically summoned from watches or earrings (hell you could probably spawn one of these things from a tampon that's been rotting for ten years), and these mechs are so powerful the military said "these things are to dangerous for combat, lets give them to students as a sports item!" Now the thing is only females can use the IS mechs. Enter generic oblivious harem male lead #1364, hell this dude is so generic and lacking character dept he might as well be a lego brick (more on that later!) who is discovered to be the only male who can use the Infinite Gundam suits. What you're left with is 5% mech action and 95% lego brick being so stupid he can't figure out all the women around him are fighting over his cock. Like I said, this plot is nothing but a pitiful excuse to have a guy surrounded by chicks, and don't even get me started on the plot holes! For example, if the future is so advanced we have magical power armor bikini's we can summon out our assholes at any given time why does everything look the same, seriously, there isn't even so much as a flying car. And how in the hell does Charles *spoiler alert, although it's a spoiler you'll figure out within about 20 seconds of first seeing the character* manage to hide her breasts in a skin tight male version of a two piece when her breasts are that goddamn big, bandages only go so far.
Art 6/10: Something IS doesn't completely fail at? Blasphemy! IS uses your generic character templates for all the characters, I don't know who start these templates but people really should learn to make unique looking characters. And when the characters aren't duking it out they move so little they look like cardboard cutouts with moving lips. The mech fight however are kinda well done (as little as they are) and so it gets a better score in this category then it would normally deserve.
Sound 3/10: The music in IS is... Wait... I'm trying to remember a few songs from this show... I can't seem to remember any, BECAUSE THERE ARE NO MEMORABLE ONES!!! The music in IS is incredibly generic, and yes I know I've been using that world a lot, but that's because this entire anime is in every sense of the word generic. As for the voice acting, want accents so fake they'll make you want to punch yourself in the nuts? Watch the dub. Want something where the acting might be bad but at least you won't be able to tell because you'll be too busy reading the subtitles to pay attention to the sound? Watch the sub.
Character 1/10: I have made it no secret that I feel nothing but pure homicidal rage towards almost all harem male leads. The reason for this is because they're all the same in terms of stupidity! But our Lego brick here, he's something special, he somehow manages to be even stupider and more oblivious then almost every other one. We're talking about the kind of guy where a chick could strip down completely naked, crawl into his bed, and say "I want you to have sex with me" and he still wouldn't realize she wants his cock (this isn't an exaggeration, this exact scenario actually happens in the show). Oh and apparently he has incest-y feelings towards his sister when he sees her in a bikini but has absolutely no impure thoughts while he's giving her a full body massage, fuck logic, fuck it in the ass until it bleeds! As for the other characters, it seems the show has decide that rather then making all the characters your stereotypical harem female arch-type characters (the childhood friend, the big sister, the tsundere, ext...) it would just make a bunch of characters, and give basically everyone of them all these traits, cut out the middle man, have several characters with different personalities is so yesterday, time to make all our characters as Lego brick-ish as the main lead! (would someone please come to my house and stab me in the throat?)
Enjoyment 3/10: What enjoyment? I would have had a better time scraping my head against a concrete wall for two hours then watch this crap. Okay fine, some of the mech fights were okay but that's about it!
Overall 2/10: Do not watch this shit, honestly, this show will kill your brain cells the same way staring at the sun will kill your eyes, but at least the feeling of going blind while your eyes slowly boil in your eye sockets is far more pleasant then watching this. You do not need to see it and you do not want to see it, avoid this thing like it's a rat carrying the bubonic plague.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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May 9, 2012
I have one question I wish to ask you, why are you looking up reviews for this anime? Honestly, it's a single twenty two minute long episode, that's it, there is absolutely no reason to not just go and watch it. But I can't write a review where I tell you to just go watch it yourself without giving you any information (court ordered, it's a long story) so without further ado here's my review of Pale Cocoon:
Story 10/10: The plot of Pale Cocoon is set in a post-apocalyptic world where it is concluded that earth is now a dead world, brown and completely lifeless.
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Humans all live in an artificially created earth, which at this point is also pretty close to being dead. The main plot revolves around two characters in this near dead facility, they work as archivists working on restoring any information on the old world they can find in order to store it (any information they can find, ranging from historical records all the way to pictures of green fields,) and one day they come across a strange broken record they try to restore. The further it gets into the plot however several of the characters begin to question, what's the point of it all, why find and store information about things that no longer and never again will exist for no apparent reasons. The whole bleakness of the world is presented so wonderfully though the story that you will get completely sucked into it, you may even be a bit depressed, but at the same time you will be so moved by it all. Without no doubt, the plot is an absolute masterpiece.
Art 10/10: When it comes to anime there is one thing that is almost set in stone for me, "3D bad! 2D good!" Well I used to believe that (and for the most part I doubt anything else will make me change my view) but Pale Cocoon has shown me that if you use it right, 3D in anime can be used well, hell in this case it's beautiful. Pale cocoon uses 3D backgrounds and 2D characters, and the backgrounds are used wonderfully, they help you get a better understanding for just how dreary this world really is, which is incredibly important to the plot itself, trust me when I say your eyes will be drinking this like it's a glass of some of the finest wine ever created.
Sound 10/10: I hate sounding like a broken record, but this anime is forcing my hand. Nothing bad can be said about the sound, it's presented exactly at the right times, it always fits the scene perfect. By the time the song near the end begins to play you'll be so deep into the story that hearing a song in this depressing world will be just so damned moving you'll be fighting back tears.
Characters 10/10: Damn you Pale Cocoon! Give me one thing, just one thing to hate or even mildly dislike about you so I can write something that seems more like an actual review rather then just a "I love this" rant! Pale Cocoon has one interesting thing about it, it has almost no characters at all. Generally a show will have somewhere between 1-3 main focus characters and then a whole slew of around 20 secondary characters. Pale Cocoon has, in total, only 3 characters (4 if you count the girl in the recording,) one central protagonist who works in the archives, his female co-worker, and the man on the intercom who also seems to work in the archives (and he's only an extremely minor background character.) The characters aren't even given names! So you're probably assuming "only three characters and they aren't even named? Well I guess this aspect of the OVA sucks" and you are wrong. The characters (well the two main ones at least) and fleshed out incredibly well considering this show is only one episode. We can actually understand their points of views, their feelings and idea's, I dare say the characters were done better in 22 minutes then many characters are done in series that last for 3 seasons.
Enjoyment 10/10: FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-!!!!!! Another 10 out of god damn 10! Would you give me a break! Give me find some flaw to criticize! Just one, that's all I ask for! As I've stated above, you will get completely sucked into the story, the sound and art are simply beautiful, and there characters are wonderfully developed. Trust me when I say you will enjoy every second of Pale Cocoon.
Overall 10/10: I have never to this day, and will almost with absolute certainty never again give any review I ever make a perfect score. However, I have to give this one, perhaps it's because Pale Cocoon is so short I can give it this. With a long several episode series you can always find things to dislike about it, but this OVA doesn't give you the opportunity. All in all, Pale Cocoon is the most beautiful anime I have ever watched. It's only a single episode long, 22 minutes, if you have time to read this review you have time to watch it, so do just that, you will not regret it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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