- Last OnlineFeb 22, 12:05 PM
- GenderMale
- BirthdayApr 10, 1984
- JoinedJan 17, 2016
RSS Feeds
|
![]()
Jan 26, 2017
Allow me to ask some interesting questions
What is the point with action?
What is the point wiht suspence?
What is the point with character development?
What is the point with problems or struggle in anime?
While we all have different opinions on this matter we can all agree on one thing, all of those things above are needed in order for us to enjoy a show and feel that the story and characters can make progression, it is then we can say that it was good.
Let me tell you about a show that ignores all that, a show where nothing matters except for one thing, the hero of the
...
story. A show where only one person matters and the rest of the cast is there simply to serve the hero and to be amazed at how the hero is so good. This hero is named Tatsuya Shiba and the show is called Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei or The Irregular magical highschool in english. So stay a while and listen.........
Story:
In the future where magic rules and is the law, where you are considered a outcast if you cant use magic correctly or lack in any department. Even schools are segregated based upon this theory, upper and lower classes. It is here where our main protagonist is introduced. Tatsuya Shiba and his sister Tatsuya Miyuki enters the magical school but in different classes. Tatsuya is placed in the group of Weeds which is the low class magic users. They have scored the low on all the exams and are considered usless while at the same time his sister Miyuki is placed with the Blooms, an elite group who even have different uniforms with more style on them so to speak.
OK, this does not sound so bad right? i mean, this could be good, an documentary about human friction and relationships with different ranks could be quite good. A brother on one side and the sister on the other, this boils down for some good and emotional conflict right?. WRONG. The very first episode and ep 2 showcases that Tatsuya is simply placed wrong becouse he cant clean bathrooms but he is very powerful, in fact, it is showcased that he can do everything and when i say everything i mean exactly that. The conflict between Blooms and Weeds are later thrown out and it does not even matter after few episodes becouse this show is not about society nor its struggle, its about a light novel protagonist that is so OP that nothing matters anymore. This show simply becomes Tatsuya Shiba adventure where he is put into different scenarios but even this is pointless. Story from now on simply stops and i dont care.
Characters:
Dear lord, lets begin.............
Tatsuya Shiba
The main hero of this stupid non existent story. Tatsuya is one of the worst characters i have ever seen in anime and i have up to this point watched around 216, sure it may not be much but enough to judge this asshole and how ridiculous he is. This show is supposed to be an action show but with him, sorry, all the battles, everything he does boils down to that he is so OP that nothing matters, nothing. I bitched about Kirito from SAO the way he was but let me tell you, Kirito is simply a child and a crybaby compared to what Tatsuya is. Tatsuya can heal, revive people from death, stop nuclear weapons, disable weapons with an EMP, pretty much nothing stops him. He is cold and only speaks wise words, you know becouse its edgy. I think that he would fit more of an antagonist role becouse he is smart and everything he does, he had planned it from the start.
This is not an human being, he is a monster of an character, he is what many cool kids wants to be, allways win, allway be on top of things and allways have the cutest girls around him so they can drool on how amazing Tatsuya truly is. The fact that he is still a kid in school makes this almost like a comedy of sorts on how retarded and pendering this entire light novel adopations truly are. Tatsuya Shiba is everything that is wrong with OP charcters, well no, not character becouse and actual character have a personality, Tatsuya Shiba is everthing in one, a Monster that a mad doctor made in a lab somewhere.
Miyuki
And now to his sister, an incest infected sister at that. Miyuki is there for one thing and one thing alone, to glow and drool over her big brother and how awsome he is. Oni sama, oni sama and more oni sama, thats her character in a nutshell. To make things even worse, she is also in love with her own brother and blushes every time he says somethng good to her. When other girls show any kind of interest towards Tatsuya she becomes hostile to them and to her own brother for daring to offer his affections to someone else than her. What an pure garbage character, like any girl in this show, she is there to be rescued when danger appears, she lacks her own goal, her character is basicly to have her brother for herself and allways want his body near her. i think you get the point.
Action scenes and expositions:
If Tatsuya was not bad enough the entire show is so damn boring, remember those long and boring science classes, for me i allways fell asleep during them. this is exactly how i feel about this garbage, the long expositions is simply way too much dragged out. One battle takes about less than a minute to conclude but the show then spends over 3 minutes to talk about the battle and what happened during it. The writers felt the need to go into detail about magic, science and what not. I dont think a lot of people will even care about it, they are here for the action not some badly written expositions and tries to be so in deph that we all loose the interest. Instead of flashing out the world,setting and story the show spends time instead on science which i dont even care about. This show gets it all wrong, exposition is good but only if it serves the overall narrative.
Then we come to the villains and the battles, man, what the hell went wrong here?. Oh yeah, Tatsuya. I mentioned previously what the point with action series was and this show simply does not care about suspence, tactics, strategy,planning and consequences after each battle and what would happen if you loose. This show says goodbye to everything and makes Tatsuya a hero who defeats his opponets with absolute ease without even trying. The series tries to establish that a bounch of terrorists is about to attack and they have powerful weapons on them. Damn,getting good right? WRONG, Tatsuya can disable the weapons with one swoop by using EMPs or whatnot. Yeah, so much for suspence.
One othe scenario that is often showed is that the girls gets trapped but by now you know by now that Tutsuya will save them and that is what the show is waiting for. He allways shows up and he for some reason, allways can forsee everything that will happen. By that point, you realize that nothing is exiting anymore and also i started to question why they even animated the battles to begin with, calling it battle is even insulting to the word itself. Pure self insert garbage from the beginning to the end.
Conclusion:
This show is the worst pieces of gargabe that ever came out from Japan. Everything that is wrong with anime protagonists and LN:s is here. OP character that ruins every battle, has control on all situations, having even other characters to be there just becouse of him and more. Kirito was also Op in his own show but at least he had some human side to him but Tatsuya is on a whole new level of retardness. A fantasy "self insert" written by an 10 year old who just started to write fanfiction for the first time. Everything that happens in this show lacks becouse there is nothing at stake and even if it is, you know it will be solved, the show simply holds time until Tutsuya shows up and resolves the situation in less than a minute but we have to spend about 25 minutes per episode on this garbage.
The irregular Magical Highschool is one of the most pontless shows ever made in my book. If you watch one episode, you have seen them all. Incest sister, OP Tatsuya, pointless and wasted potential, non existent characters, stupid expositions that is pointless and wasted budget on the animation for the battles which by the way can be predicted by simply watching 2 of them.
Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei is a monster of a show and an insult to your intelligence.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
What did you think of this review?
Nice
 0
Love it
 0
Funny
 0
Confusing
 0
Well-written
 0
Creative
 0Show all
![]()
Nov 20, 2016
Enter a world where technology have made it possible to use body transplants to enchance human body in different ways, when there is such a huge technological advance there is also those who wants to abuse it by adopting to its endless possibility to change or commit crimes. In order to counter balance all this there is those who wants to protect the system and its good side, enter Section 9.
Section 9 under the Ministry of iternal affairs, an anti terrorist group who tries to keep the peace in check. Under the leadership of Daisuke Aramaki who has put together a team consisting of ex
...
military staff to professional hackers to combat all crime. One of them is Major Motoko Kusanagi who is beatiful as she is deadly.
Story:
Togusa, one of the members of section 9 recives one night a phone call from his friend who works on a sensitive case, he tells Togusa that there is suspicious activity within the unit that he is part of and asks to meet him so he can give something to Togusa. That night, the contact is suddenly killed in a car accident, Togusa belives that this was not an accident and that the contact had very sensetive information.
The next day, cheif Aramaki gives Togusa permission to investigate the case. Section 9 has done a bunch of jobs, terrorist arrests, spies, Infiltration and robot hijackings but little do they know that this case that Togusa have started will change everything. I will stop here since the rest is up for discovery and i can garantee you, the outcome is mastepiece of writing.
Characters:
Section 9 is full of both of those who has embraced the new changes to the human body and those who has not. Motoko Kusanagi is our female lead, not only is she beatiful but also deadly and smart. Her look at the the world and technology is quite interesting. She embraces the changes and argues that it has made humans better.
One that does not share her view is Togusa himself, he is your "traditional human" who is married and views the world of old where male and female have their roles. I find those two quite interesting and their views.
Batou is your typical "strong male" who prefers brute force when dealing with criminals and likes the changes to the human body.
There are more characters but i found those 3 the most interesting.
Art and sound:
This aired back in 2002 but holy cow is it well done, this looks better than a lot of shows that airs today to be honest, the action scenes are clear and well edited. The ost is also awsome, when action takes place it gets your blood going.
The dub for this show is also amazing, this was the first time i heared Crispin Freeman in anime, as Togusa he makes that character stand out, everyone else is also amazing.
Stand alone episodes:
One thing that i could complain about is the stand alone episodes that is not part of the main plot but you could argue that they flesh out the world a bit more but i think they could have been better spent to develop the characters a bit better but regardless they add more mystery to the world but you should know that they are there. The main plot starts at episode 4 so dont think it is only week to week problem solver show, becouse its not.
Overall:
This show is fantastic, well written, interesting characters, very well developed setting. What makes it so good is that it is belivable story despite taking place in fictional setting. The overall tone of the series asks some interesting questions regarding society and its power brokers.
This was the first show i watched that proved to me that anime is more than simply fanservice and all retardness connected to it. It does not hold your hand and expects you to pay attention which i welcome. Some of the episodes does not sit well with me but thats ok since the rest is so good.
If you are into sceince ficton, there is no excuse not to watch this and even if you are new, this is a good start.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Nov 19, 2016
Dear lord, every time light novel is mentioned as a source for an anime i get a bad feeling about it and its for a reason. The latest in the trent of "read the light novel first" is here, Accel World: Infinite Burst. I wont be talking about characters and basics here since i figure you should know the stuff by now so i get straight to the point.
Accel World and the gap:
Accel World season 1 that aired back in 2012 covered the first 4 volumes of the LN material that began with "retun of the black king" and ended with "Dusktaker arc". After that
...
the series ended and the LN continues, from volume 5 to vol 20. After that volume it is here that Infinite Burst takes place, thats right, for the entire 16 volumes of content is lost, everything from new characters to new alliances and game mechanics is also lost. The "only anime viewers" wont have a chance in hell to understand what is going on. The main lead Haruyuki is much stronger and has new abilities but the movie does not care what so ever to explain any of it. You get the picture by this point.
40 minute recap:
I have seen a lot of anime but never things like this, the entire movie is around 120 minutes and 40 of those minutes are spent upon recap from season 1. It does a very bad job of it, it does not explain everything, the first 12 episodes are covered but not the second half where the incarnate system is explained, are you for real?. This is lazy, why would anyone watch this movie unless they are new to the franchise is beyond me.
A side story:
This entire movie is pointless to the overall plot of the series, it deals with a new burst linker that is not explained well at all, in fact she is shown only for a couple of minutes and then its all forgotten untill the last 15 minutes of the movie. This entire movie does not add anything except for confusion and hatred for Reki and what he has done to this movie. To be frank, why does this even exist is something that i cannot explain either.
Light novel and Reki Kawahara:
AW:IB is everything that is wrong with LN and anime combined, Reki has an great idea for the overall plot but fails to carry it out. The original goal was to defeat the six kings of pure color and reach lvl 10 but at this point, who cares?
When you watch this movie, you will see that all of the kings from season 1 and after 15 volumes of LN are still allive, so what has happened during that time? the answer, nothing. Reki introduces new characters constantly but without doing anything with them. I read the LNs until volume 12 and then i lost interest. It is clear that Reki simply writes for the sake of writing instead of having a plot. He is simply doing this in order to sell a LN and if the cover is sexy with all the girls from the show it will sell but the overall goal is lost.
Conclusion:
The only redeeming quality of this show is the music and visual presentation but this is sunrise so its not a big suprise.
Accel World: IB is simply a waste, LN readers may enjoy it but the anime only viewers wont and after this retarded movie, i simply dont care about their goal anymore. I allways said that i considered AW a better show than SAO but that does not say much. Everything that is wrong with LN and anime transitions is here, new characters that is not explained at all, new powers, plot devices that is not explained at all.
Reki Kawahara cant write even if his life depends upon it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Aug 19, 2016
What would you wish for?, i know what i would have wished for, to get my eyesight back on my left eye and finally to do stuff that i cant do now. Sounds good right? yes, indeed, but with every wish there is a price to be paid. I have to sacrifice something in return. This is the theme of Madoka Magica and how everything is simply not given to you just becouse you want it. You have to pay up.
Madoka Kaname lives a happy life, she has a mom working for a company,her dad takes care of the family, her brother greets her every
...
morning with a happy smile and she has nice friend waiting for her when walking to the school. She lives a life a lot of people would wish for, during the same day at school, a new transfer student named Homura Akemi enters her class. She is the "popular type" of student, admired and respected but Madoka seems to recognize her for some reason due to a dream she had last night. Madoka Kaname does not realize that very soon, her life as she knows it will come into question, she will experience the stuff she is foriegn to and will change her. This is here that i will stop wth the plot elements becouse the best way to experience this show is that you dont know anything about it.
Deconstruction of an genre:
Madoka Magica takes the magical girl genre and changes it, previously you had an girl, a animal of sorts shows up, gives the girl some magical power and bam, she is fighting the enemy. Madoka changes that, not only does the main heroine get those powers but as i stated before, there is allways a price for that. The show treats this in a very mature way, it establishes the characters and their motives and gives the reason why the girls is so called "the magical girls". That means that every character has a reason to why they want to become one, the plot tells us those stories that are simply belivable and touching at the same time, i cant talk about it but when you are watching you will see for yourself.
The shows antagonists is in the form of "the witches", instead of being evil for the sake of plot, they are established very well too, what are they, what do they want, why are they doing the things that they do?. This is also well explained.
Now just becouse it is a deconstruction of a genre does not mean that the show is good just becouse it changes things around, it is good becouse it does a very good job of making all those elements work and makes it a far more mature experience than you would belive by simply watching the front cover of this show. Simply put, this show has to be experienced in order to see why it does an amazing job.
Sound and animation:
As soon as Madoka starts playing, you will see that studio Shaft put some good effort into the design and special attention to art and backgrounds. This brings the feeling that we are in for a super treat here and it brings the feeling that the writers wanted. Combining Shafts designs with the writing of Gen Urobuchi and you know you are in for a treat.
The soundtrack is produced by non other than Yuki Kajiura and i have to say, some of the tracks are pure gold here, the haunting sounds combined with her usual style is simply amazing. It brings so much to this show that the words cant describe it. This is perhaps her best work since her glorious days of Kara No Kyoukai soundtrack, which tells you something.
Conclusion:
As you perhaps can see by now, i dont talk about the characters that much, i just mentioned them by simply taking about the show. This is becouse the show is only 12 episodes long and talking about all of them is simply going to ruin your experience, this is a review after all and not an analysis article, the less you know, the better. Madoka Magica does so many things right and it will shock you with suprises it has in store for you. It treats you with respect and does not allways hold your hand, you have to pay attention to what is going on and how it all wraps up to what i consider to be one of the best told and planned out story for such an short anime like this one.
Madoka Magica to me is an anime sent from heaven,the ost, animation, art design, writing and characters are simply amazing and Madoka Kaname is a very good protagonist, you will understand why once you are done with this show. There are flaws as well too but they are outwaged by how much good that is in this show so i could not care less about them. This show aired back in 2011 and still today i have to find a anime that touches my heart as this show has, it makes you think twice.
This show restored my faith in anime, it shows that anime can be a very powerful medium when comparing it to the movies and such, it fact, this show does more serious work on script writing than Hollywood can ever dream of doing.
Madoka Magica is simply a masterpiece and a show that i will allways care for and love with all respect.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Jul 31, 2016
After one of the most badly written anime i have seen in a while, it is time to talk about the sequel, SAO II and i have to say that it has some improvements over the shallow, badly written and wasted potential of season 1,it is still broken and it suffers from the same thinks as before but we will get to that.
Story:
GGO arc:
This time the story takes place in a new game called GGO or Gun Gale Online, Kirito is sent there by the japanese goverment to investigate the deaths of certain players caused by someone named Death Gun. Kiritos mission is to find
...
out if he is the murderer and find out how he does it and report back to the goverment contact that he meets. In the game he meets a new player named Sinon, a sniper that will help Kirito in the GGO.
This time, Reki Kawahara actually manages to stay on course with this arc but i cant say that it is well written one. Many things are broken in many ways. It does not take a brain to understand that Kirito and Death Gun will duel so what is the point to "investigate the plotline". Its not like the japanese goverment will take over, if they could not solve the hostage crisis from season 1, what are the odds that they will do fine here. It is also funny that a kid can do an job of detective investigation better than a professional trained agent, well, i am thinking again, better stop with that.
Mothers Rosario Arc:
The only redeeming quality of this show is a arc where Asuna takes over as a main and thank god for that. No jesus kun and his op bullshit, we actually get an arc with human beings on the screen for once but as much as i like it i still think it is a bit rushed. Asuna meets the new character Yuuki but the show rushes their relationship. In one episode, Asuna meets her and bam in the next one, they are best of friends, If the Excalibur arc (mini arc ep, 15, 16,17) was taken out and Mothers Rosario was placed in there, i belive we would have an amazing arc but right now it is not enough. Overall a good time with Asuna
now lets talk about the characters.
Kirito:
The biggest problem with this show is him, he enters GGO and immediately starts owning all the elite players in a game that he never played before. He never looses and is never in danger to loose, and that makes this show and its action scenes pointless. Jesus kun has returned folks.
The show also deals with an mini subplot of him having regrets about his past in SAO and his connections with a guild named Laughing Coffin that killed other players in that game. This is so funny, why dont i remember any of this in the past, oh yes, like before, when the plot requires Kirito to remember or care, he does. Almost an entire episode is dedicated to this crap and now he wimpers and moans about something he did long time ago. Incosistent, OP, self insert, super detective skills pulled out of his ass and so on, yeah, you know the drill by now, my dislike for him continues and is now sky high.
Sinon:
Sinon is the new girl and the only human being that gets treated as such, i really enjoyed her emotional development when it comes to guns. If she was the main, i would enjoy it much more, true human that actually fears and is afraid and scared, like i said, true human. She is one of the new additions to Kiritos harem collection but she does not join immediatley but she will and in the next arc, she is there with everyone else in the everending collection of girls. Asuna and the others must be happy to get some competition.
Asuna:
She is sidelined for the most of GGO arc and the only place she shines is Mothers Rosario arc, She gets some time with her mother and we learn something about this girl ,finally. Should have been the main.
Everyone else:
Pointless like allways.
Animation and sound:
I have to say, the animation this time around is nothing to brag about, sure it still looks good but nothing that made the previous season so good, we even have a scene where Kirito is fighting but everyone else is standing still. The music is not that good either, Yuki Kajiura sounds nothing special here to be honest, all of her music has been a bit dull on the late, dont know, perhaps we need more experiments that she is known for.
Thoughts and irritations:
I have allways said that Reki Kawahara cant write good characters, and this show proves it, Kirito is "plot armor" protected, does only care when the plot requires him to, wins by deus ex machina ass pulls and more. You are not an badass just becouse you are written to be one. A true badass challenges the opponents that is equal or stronger than you and when the viewer sees this struggle only then can we see the progression within a character and then you are a badass.
Also, this is a game called GGO, why is Kirito using swords or light sabers and also, there is a scene where a sniper shoots at him on open field and misses and Kirito does not move one inch. This is retarded, man i am a badass, every kid now wants to be like Kirito. There is hovewer one scene where kirito and Sinon sits in a cave and then for some reason, Kirito figures out the entire plot by himself when he sees a lizard with two tails, holy cow, cant talk about it since this is a review but you will see what i mean.
Also, another big plothole is Yui, the child AI from the previous season, she is also able to figure out entire plot by herself when Asuna confronts the agent Kirito is in contact with, fucking how, how does she know all this and why did she not tell Asuna about this?, Only Reki knows. There are so much more plotholes but to be honest you get the point by now.
Conclusion:
While SAO II is more cleaner than season 1 when it comes to theme and pacing, it still suffers from all the bullshit that we had to endure during season 1. One positive thing is that we dont get any timeskips and thanks for that. What we get is a fanfiction setting where Jesus kun is the master and no one matters, not even Sinon becouse in the end, she is there for the ride and Kirito is the one that takes care of the problem. All other characters do not matter at all. Asuna gets her turn in Rosario arc but even that feels rushed. The game is not even that well explained either, some guns are better than others, agility nerfing, laser swords that can take and reflect bullets etc. Also, there is a lot of sitting with boring exposition and recaps that characters repat of stuff we allready know about.
Reki Kawahara simply cant write good lore, characters, settings, expositions,sidelines everyone else that is not Asuna and Kirito. While Sinon is a good character, he should have put Asuna there since they are a couple, that way, he could have made Kirito and Asuna more unique if they struggled together and that way, get them closer. Right now it feels like their romance never happened and that they are at the beginning. The plot with the Laughing Coffin idea is stupid since the first season did a very poor job of talking about them and therefore the audience will not even remember who they were and i certanly did not.
SAO II is simply fanfiction self insert anime that i cant stand. Reki Kawahara, for the next work, write a fucking script and not "what i feel at the moment".
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
May 14, 2016
There are anime that i consider bad and somewhat enjoyable but there comes a time when there is an anime that simply is so stupid that you feel insulted by simply watching it for pure enjoyment, enter Sword Art Online or SAO for short. This is so badly written that "turning off your brain" does not help either. I am a long time avid gamer and have experience playing MMOs in general, from early Everquest to World of warcraft and watching this anime that tries to mimic its merits is nothing more than insulting.
Lets begin.....
Story:
The story opens up with the information that a new game
...
named SAO just got released, it is an virtual mmo game that is played by using Nerve gear, which will simulate the events as if you were there, it is connected to your brainwaves that simulate all this. The main character Kirito is one of thousands of players who enters this game. At first everything seems fine until Kirito realizes that the "logout" button is not working, then the gamecreator Kayaba Akihiko appears and reveals that everyone in the game is trapped and cannot logout. The only way out is to defeat the game and destroy the final boss, but there is a catch, if you die in this world, you die in real life. It is from this moment that the "death scenario" is created and the reason why the series will hook you, at first.
Now you are thinking "ok, so this sounds interesting so what is wrong with all this?" well its simple, the story and the episodes that follows after episode 3, does not even focus on this so instead of expanding on the theme of "death game" and development of the lore, characters and what more, the series is then nothing more than a side story journey. Episodes 4 and onward to episode 13, does not even attempt to defeat the game or its "bosses" and only after half way with episode 13 do we get this theme back but then how it ends will shock you to the core how it all ends. SAO is nothing more than wasted potential in this front. But belive me, it gets worse.
Characters:
Perhaps the worst part of the series, so i will break it down in detail.
Kirito:
Kirito is perhaps one of the worst characters i have seen, he is OP, can do everything by himself despite that the show is all about an social mmo game. He can be whatever the plot wants him to, therefore he is not a character but more of an "self insert" type. That means that he can be whatever the plot feels like at the moment. He does something stupid in episode 3 that will haunt him but only after several episodes will it be mentioned. When he breaks down in front of Asuna and tells her about the event, funny, why did he not feel bad about it when it all happened?. Oh yeah, now i remeber, the plot now requires him to remember so he does. He has all the girls, can have a skill that no one in the game can and more. Basicly, he is a wish thinking character that many young boys wants to be and nothing more than that. Kirito is this kind of "self insert" character. There is a difference between a powerful character and an OP one. Kirito ruins the entire show becouse of his OP stuff, makes no misstake, wins almost every fight and more. Simply boring as hell character.
Asuna:
The only character that i like in this show, at first, she is this "badass" female that is second in command of the Bloodknights guild. That is until she meets Kirito and later starts dating him where her character is wasted. She cant do a thing without her boyfriend and therefore ends up in the background for the rest of this arc and the rest of ALO arc, more on that later. SImply wasted character alltogether, no redeeming qualities about her.
The rest:
Pretty much pointless, they dont matter at all, not in this arc nor in the future in season 2. The only purpose for them is to be "Kiritos" leftovers or harem girls as they are called.
ALO Arc:
At episode 15, the next arc starts but it has nothing to do with SAO, it is as if its a new anime alltogether. It just features the same characters, cant talk about it since it may be a spoiler but lets just say that it is "garbage" and episode 21 in itself will make you puke. The death game is gone and no penalty is present. Kiritos own cousin Sugha is introduced and she is horrible, cut her out and nothing is lost.
Sound and animation:
The only redeeming quality of this show is its animation and sound, the animation is fluid and the soundtrack adds to the feel of the game and battles, Yuki Kajiura is the composer of the soundtrack and this show does not deserve to have her making the music. While not in her best form, she is still awsome.
Game mechanics:
This is here where the entire show collapses, Kirito gains a dual wield skill that he and "only" he can use. Sorry but gaming does not work that way, immagine what would happen if a player have access to a ability in Dota, wow or Starcraft or any game for that matter that no one has access too, it would be a shit storm pretty much. So where is all the magic gone? where is the support classes, everyone in the anime seems to be some kind of melee knight sort of, i am sorry but this kind of game would be pretty boring to play if only the melee was the option.
Also, SAO uses a system it calls "switching" but it is not explained how this is benificial especially when there is no healing involved. So what happens if everyone is injured, who to switch to if everyone is close to death?. Log Horizon does a much better job of this, there are roles and that adds to the fights, SAO ignores all that and pretends that you are retarded and stupid and that you would not ask those questions. Even Nerve gear is not that well explained despite that it is a very important plot device in the story.
When people claim that Kirito is a gamer and they want to be like him, sorry to burst your bubbles but gaming in general does not work like that, Kirito is so OP that he almost breaks the game becouse of it.
SAO from different views:
So who is SAO for? is it for gamers, action lovers or romance lovers?, well lets take a look.
Action and MMO progression....
Sorry but there are not many action scenes that are exiting, for several reasons. First, Kirito is OP, this alone ruins everything, having battles with good animation is great but if you can predct it then it becomes pointless. Character progression takes a hit as well, for one reason, "time skips" thats right. Kiritos leveling leaps a huge leap between episodes, yes, seeing him grinding would be boring but they could have made it so that while he and Asuna is on the quest to complete the challenges they could have done leveling that way. So sorry, no action, only filler episodes.
Romance part.....
Once again, "time skips" stands in the way. The anime tries to tell us that Kirito and Asuna is cute together but fails to tell us how they ended up together, it seems that the writers tells us that relationship is easy, all you have to do is "point the finger" and the girl is yours. Sorry but this attempt fails big time. In one episode, they are friends, in the next they are a couple and in the later one, they are married. So if you are a romance fan and wants some more than simply a kiss then you will not find it here.
Conclusion:
SAO is the worst anime writing i have seen in fiction, stupid antagonist, plot holes, time skips, Op Kirito, sidelined and wasted characters, not understanding the MMO genre in general is killing this show. Vast majority of episodes for the first arc is nothing than filler with characters that has nothing to do with the plot nor will they ever be important.
Kirito is a wish character that comes out from a fan fiction withing at its worst, brooding, anti social which is stupid becouse he is pretty good for someone that is anti social, manages to catch the attention of any female in the ass long radius, i wish i had those "anti social" problems. All in all, one of the most overhyped anime that i have seen, no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Reki Kawahara the writer of the series is not capable of writing, not the lore nor the characters. If you want to create a anime based upon a MMO, please do some research how MMO works.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Feb 14, 2016
When you write reviews in general there is one thing that you need to keep in mind, dont spoil the story but at the same time try to give your readers a reason to watch it. In this case, i dont have to worry about that becouse you see, there is nothing to spoil here becouse there are no story whatsoever to speak of.
Story:
Kanata Age, your swordsman main protagonist is recruited by the academy to train 3 girls to fight the big ass bugs for a reason we never learn, i guess they want to conquer the world or something. So thats it, nothing more
...
nothing less, you wont see more progress in the story department. I could have easily copied MALs own summery but that would be cheap. So if you can accept that "training program" stuff then yeah, that your story. The anime does not lie to you about it.
Characters:
Did i just say characters? well sorry, not in this one. The 3 girls he trains is your typical harem trophes you have seen a million times before. Move on.
Art and sound:
The only redeeming quality is its looks, good looking girls, your typical guy with a big fat sword
Conclusion:
I dont hate this show, i just dont like it. There is nothing for me to hate, there is no plot advancement whatsoever so bitching about a plot that does not exist is kind of hard. Sky wizards academy is just stupid and it does not need to even exist becouse it does not contribute to anything.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Feb 10, 2016
Anime have changed me in many ways, i can watch all kind of stuff concerning anime in general but there are those moments when "something special" comes around to blow you away. That anime for me was FateZero and still today it holds my top favorite. If someone asked me to show them the difference between old school cartoons and japanese anime, i would point them to FateZero. It is serious, mature,bloody and asks serious questions about morale, humanity and dark aspects of our souls.
Story:
FateZero takes place 10 years before Fate Stay Night and tells a story from the forth holy grail war. A war
...
waged to get the holy grail, an artifact belived to grant any wish you might desire. Of course, this leads several of the leading mage families into conflict with each other. But in order to get the grail a human cant touch it themselves but the grail grants them the ability to summon heroic spirits to fight each other and the last one will be able to claim it. You need to discover the rest.
Characters:
FateZero is a bit unique in its setup stage, it does not have a traditional main character, instead the show follows several families and their reason for war and why they want to claim the grail. We then follow Kiritsugu Emya who is a mercenary and works for Einzbern family, which has lost the patience of the previous losses and now wants to secure the grail by using Kiritsugu as a master for one of the more powerful servants.
Then we follow Kirei Kotomine who has been hired by Thosaka family in order to use his special talents as a executioner for the holy church.
Of course, what would a war be without its heroes, the summoned spirits that a grail can summon is, rider,saber, archer,caster, berserker, lancer and assasin. All of them gets the treatment of their past lives and how they effected the history. Some are more developed than others but you get to know something about each one of them.
Animation and Sound:
Its Ufotable and i dont need to say more, the fights we have here is very well crafted with some of the best animation i have yet seen for a tv series. The lightning and shadow effects describes the tone of the anime very well and brings the atmosphere to the next level.
Yuki Kajiura makes her presence known by her wonderful music, while i dont think this is her best soundtrack but it is still amazing, i mean its Yuki we are talking about here.
Final Thoughts:
Storyline may be simple at first since its concept are easy to grasp but keep in mind that this is also written by Gen urobuchi and you know what that means, dark settings, humanity and ideals. I am not going to talk about it more since you need to discover more yourself but i can garantee that you will be suprised.
To me, FateZero is a holy grail, it made me belive that anime can be so much more than all that fanservice and japanese porn. It is mature, thought provoking, scarring and much more. Some people fight for their own greed, some fight for someone else and some seek a better future for humanity.
Together with Madoka Magica, FMA: Brotherhood and FateZero, those are my own big three.
DO not miss this!
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Feb 6, 2016
Here is my attempt of a review.
Hunter X Hunter 2011 is an shounen adventure featuring Gon Freecss who decides that he needs to look for his long gone father Ging that has been gone a long time to become a hunter. Gon wants to find out why Ging abandoned him and his family to become a hunter and what is so special about this profession. Gon wants also to become a hunter.
Along the way he meets his 3 friends, Killua, Kurapika and Leorio. All of those characters have their own backstories and the reason to join up with Gon in order for them to become
...
hunters.
What is so special about this shounen compared to the rest?
Gon is a 12 year old boy who wants to become a hunter but in this show he does not overpower everyone after a while, yes, he gets his powers too via training but it is a brilliant ride to see him gain all those abillities, they are all very well explained in how they work and what they do. Gon is young and he does not know anything about this world but as he learns it so do we, for every event Gon gains knowledge around him but also responsibility. All the main cast is treated the same way, none of them feels like side characters but more of an family to Gon.
Story arc telling
While the main "father" plot is pretty mediocre, it is the arcs and those characters that brings Hunter x Hunter together. Eeach arc features a theme and develops the show further, some arcs deals with different main character and their desire why they want to be hunters in the first place.
The battles and animation
This shounen differs a lot from the crowd. Gon is 12 and the rest of the group is pretty young and therefore the battles are not resolved with brute force but rather with brains. There are pure battles of course but it never feels like the main group gets overpowered and destroys stuff. Since Hunter X Hunter is 148 episodes long you may think that the animation and production value would decrease over the time but thats not true. In fact, the battles feels like movie quality and the animation is almost Ufotable quality.
My personal favorite fight takes place almost at the end of the series where the music, animation and sound effects brings it to life. I dont want to tell you more since its a spoiler. When you finish HXH you will understand why the rest of the shounen genre is so far behind.
Final opinion
I have to mention that there are a bit of sluggish and dragged out episodes, betwen episode 100 to 120 feels like a drag and it could have been shorter. The beginning is not that strong either, the series starts out very light hearted but around episode 30 or so the series starts to grab you. Dont get me wrong, its not bad but not great either, its your typical shounen start.
I cant stand shounen becouse of all those years of crap shows like Naruto, Fairy Tail and many more. Those shounen series is what i dropped very quickly but HXH 2011 shows that the genre can change and the series is a proof of that, similar to what FMA: Brotherhood did back in the day. Those two are the staple of the genre for me.
Hunter X Hunter 2011 is amazing and you should watch it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Jan 17, 2016
While i liked the first half the season but then the second half starts and i am very conflicted towards it. Instead of talking about the animation and soundeffects i want to talk more about the problems that i see in the second half.
Problem 1: Visual novel sickness
Unlimited blade works is the second route in the Fate Stay Night visual novel and therefore it is clear that some characters does not get any screentime while others get plenty of it. The transition from the novel to the anime is a painful one, Saber for example is such victim. If you came from FateZero and never
...
read the novel you will see the difference where she is standing in the background but if you have read the novel you know why.
Shirou and Archer gets plenty of time since this is their route while Rin gets to be the helpless girl in the second half of the show and does not contribute too much. Therefore the anime on its own cannot stand on its two legs if you are watching this without any knoledge about the novel itself.
Problem 2: heavy dialogue
In the second half the dialogue is very heavy, dialogue between Archer and Shirou is a pure example. Episode 19 och 20 is almost delicated to the dialogue where Shirou and Archer exchanges their point of view when it comes to justice and ideals. The problem with this is that it is not very complex dialogue but it is dragged out for no reason and it slows the action down, something that Ufotable is known for. Almost every episode feels like a drag when it comes to dialogue. This is holy grail war not some talkshow about ideals. Sure, FateZero had also this kind of dialogue between Saber and Kiritsugu but it felt more integrated within the context and it did not take up the entire episode.
Conclusion:
Dialogue heavy second half slows the show down and also contributes to its pacing issues. Battles are great when they take place but you need patience until then. I can understand both Shirou and Archers motives but if you repeat them several times over and over again then it becomes dull and somewhat stupid.
Second half is worth watch but be warned that you need some patience to finish it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
|
