Reviews

Skimming through anime series as I usually do to watch, I decided to watch this after reading the brief synopsis of it, not to mention that with a name like this, I thought it was going to be an excellent series. However, just as looks can be deceiving, the same can be applied to the names because although the name oozed awesomeness, the series itself was a total disappointment.

STORY 3/10
The story follows a young apathetic man named Akira who is blackmailed into participating into a tournament to defeat a drug lord and stop the spread of drugs in Toshima. There was no actual fighting in this tournament which was supposed to be a focal part of the anime thereby it defeated the entire purpose and was uninteresting and dull.

ART 8/10
The drawings were very detailed and the background animation was crisp and clean. The colours used depicted the mood of the anime, which was ominous and full of emptiness. The character movements were fluid and the camera angles and shots were picturesque. The costuming of the characters also reflected their personalities as well.

SOUND 9/10
The musical pieces in this anime were mostly rock but there were well placed in the scenes, which were a reflection of the action taking place at that moment. The opening song was not all that bad but the musical numbers within the anime itself were excellent. The voices of the characters were also very clear and audible.

CHARACTER 3/10
There was no significant development of any of the characters in this series. Shiki was an underutilised character although he had some excellent lines. Nevertheless, there were no noteworthy changes or effects in any of the characters from the beginning of the series till the end.

ENJOYMENT 4/10
At the start of the series, it displayed some potential as being a really good one but as it progressed, the realisation hit that that potential was just an illusion. There were moments that I wondered why was I still watching this anime and then it hit me. It was only because of Shiki and his awesome lines since there was no development of plot.

OVERALL 5/10
Honestly, I do not know if the writers believed that they were going to make it to twenty four episodes and hence did nothing to progress the nonexistent story since there were no fights in a tournament that was supposed to be about fighting. The best character in the series, Shiki, was not given enough screen time to display his skills which appeared to be colossal. Akira was just as weak as Keisuke because his skill level was as near to a rabbit compared with Shiki. This series was totally uninteresting and not worth wasting four hours of your life to watch even though Shiki’s appearances and lines is the only highlight of the entire series.