Rate the last anime you watched out of 10

Note: There are some (mostly minor) spoilers included. Just a warning in case you plan on watching the series without knowing anything.

Kashimashi: 6.5/10

In the end, I got pretty much what I expected - a silly, simplistic series, complete with lesbians in school girl uniforms. It didn't amaze me, yet I didn't hate it.

Kashimashi is about a boy, Hazumu, who gets transformed into a girl in a very realistic manner. Once he's a girl(!?), he/she/it finds himself in a yuri love triangle with his tomboy childhood friend, Tomari, and the pretty girl, Yasuna, he was chasing after back when he only had two sexual openings (excluding his ears and nose, of course).

It could've been better if the reasoning behind certain aspects of the plot weren't quite so retarded. For example:

#1: Instead of having a spaceship crash into a boy and change his gender...somehow, why not throw in some extra originality and have him fall into some gender changing water? It still would've been daft but nowhere near as 'out there' as having a spaceship crash into a random person and remove his penis...somehow. It seemed to have been done just so some weird alien girl could exist and add "-puu" to the end of every sentence. Don't you just hate those characters whose only quirk is to add a meaningless suffix to the end of everything? It almost makes me believe it was a desperate attempt by the creator of the story to be original; creating a never used before suffix.

#2: Instead of avoiding doing something as terrible as adding depth by making Yasuna's fear of males realistic and giving her a sexual abuse back-story, why did they give her a stupid eye problem where she simply couldn't see males? 'Just go to bloody Specsavers!' came to the front of my mind. They even made the cure for her problem love - like waking sleeping beauty from her sleep with a kiss, which hasn't been repeated many times in various forms. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

There were a lot of things like the above that could've been changed for the better. Whoever came up with/copied the gender swapping story got a lot of the simple things wrong in what was an overly simple story. I should be asked to proof read all manga/anime stories in order to avoid blatant stupidity...

In terms of the love triangle, my biggest issue lies with which way Hazumu went when he decided which girl he wanted. Why, oh why, did he pick a plain pretty girl type instead of his childhood 'prince'? It made no sense whatsoever. *name removed* had always been there for him, where as *named removed 2* had turned Hazumu down before. Now, if I was picking my other half and they both looked hot, I'd go with the one who'd never betray me - that's just logical. But, of course, Hazumu thought differently. The only upside to Hazumu's 'final' choice was that the girl he turned down and himself spent most of the last episode hanging out, saying goodbye to each other in their own way.

Sadly, the love triangle mess only worsened after the finale of the TV series. In the OVA, the girl Hazumu picked decided she'd had enough of him/her after four months of him helping her, informing him she could stand on her own two feet and wanted to be alone. Basically, she made the entire TV series and Hazumu trying to pick between the two pointless - great stuff. The OVA ended with Hazumu going back to the girl he turned down since his first option was no longer available. It was awful and needless.

Like I said at the start, I did get some level of enjoyment out of it. It looked nice, it wasn't overly perverse - not including an 'Oh, I have an extra hole now! I'd best put three fingers in!!!' scene you'd (or, at least, I expected!) expect to see in a gender swapping story - and there were a few decent episodes. But it's far from a classic, and I advise only those with an interest in A) lesbians and/or B) school girls (all straight males, in short) to watch it. Anyone not interest in one of those two would probably hate Kashimashi.
 
Aion said:
back when he only had two sexual openings (excluding his ears and nose, of course)
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Well, I've seen the relevant episode of Family Guy, but I remain unconvinced by the notion that the latter two are eligible for consideration...
 
MONONOKE said:
Ah My Goddess 10/10
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Please explain.
Watched the first dvd and never wanted to touch the license again. Characters were duller than dishwater (and their other incarnations), episodes were needlessly padded out and just bored me watching it. If it suddenly picks up in the next few DVD's may give it another chance, but you gotta give me a reason.
 
hopeful_monster said:
MONONOKE said:
Ah My Goddess 10/10
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Please explain.
Watched the first dvd and never wanted to touch the license again. Characters were duller than dishwater (and their other incarnations), episodes were needlessly padded out and just bored me watching it. If it suddenly picks up in the next few DVD's may give it another chance, but you gotta give me a reason.
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Knowing what you like, I wouldn't recommend this series at all. For me, AMG was the first harem series I've ever seem and I got quite hooked up on it (manga at least).
The OVA's were ok, the mini-goddesses specials were good fun, the movie was not too great, the series is good.

But there are no giant mechas, explosions, fights or spaceships.
In short it is just some inocent fun.
 
"From this day forward I will be your sword and your shield; I will be the fist that you raise to fight; and I'll make sure I will never lose again!"

Kannazuki no Miko - 5/10

A timid young girl named Himeko has a fateful meeting with Chikane, the elegant daughter of an obscenely wealthy family. There's an immediate emotional connection between them, but Chikane finds herself unable to act on her feelings and Himeko is kind of dating her bland childhood friend Souma. By the time the first credit sequence plays out it's revealed that they're the latest reincarnations of shrine maidens who must defend world from a mythical beast who wants to destroy it for some reason. Ooookay.

The more I watched this show the more convinced I became that it's all an elaborate pisstake. Let's take the bad guys, who include a busty vixen, a loli catgirl, a failed pop star, and a bored manga artist. They attack the maidens and Souma randomly, usually one at a time and with no apparent strategy, in giant robots that literally appear out of nowhere. After the battles the girls return to their normal (relatively speaking) lives as if nothing had happened. It's full of clichés and self-consciously dramatic moments like heart wrenching speeches and sudden gusts of wind that signify events of great meaning. It laughs in the face of concepts such as subtlety.

But, really, that's all window dressing. Kannazuki no Miko is really about the relationship between Chiakne and Himeko. The problem is that Chikane is the only interesting character in the entire show. Himeko is continually bawling and wallowing in doubt and self pity. Souma is the stereotypical hot blooded love interest who'd do anything to protect his object of affection and shouts a lot. Who cares about these dullards? The bad guys spend most of the show standing around in their own little dimension doing nothing, and receive token development by way of a brief image montage.

Yet there was something that kept me coming back for more. It was certainly not the clunky animation, bland designs, or pedestrian direction. It might have been the promise of hot girl-on-girl action (that, sadly, never materialzed) or simply the trainwreck-like quality of the storytelling. Kannazuki no Miko is pure soap opera melodrama and I found myself unable to tear my eyes away from the carnage unfolding on my screen. It's utterly awful but in a strangely compelling way.
 
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time - ?/10

I really want to like this film but overall I'm not at all sure how I'd rate the experience. On one hand the animation style was one of my favourites to date but on the other, some things seemed a little confused and drawn out. I need to watch it again (soon), I'm hoping I just had an off-day.
For some reason I found myself welling up when her aunt was describing the painting ...I'm a softie like that.
 
Nah, Bleach is absolutely rocking at that stage. Sometimes I randomly do a one man theatre of the scene where Aizen et al are finally cornered and then get magicked away to Hueco Mundo, I like it that much.
 
(Clannad) Another World: Tomoyo Chapter - 9/10

This morning I visted Anime News Network and read Theron Martin's review of the second Clannad collection. He praised this alternate reality episode while sounding distinctly unimpressed with the main series (which he rated B+ anyway, presumably in an attempt to dampen the fanrage that would no doubt engulf the internet had it scored lower). Since I, too, was underwhelmed by Clannad, I didn't watch this episode before selling my DVDs, despite Tomoyo being one of two girls in the show I actually liked. So I decided to have a look.

And it's lovely. The main series lacks romantic content, and in any case the main love interest, Nagisa, is anathema to me. Tomoyo, on the other hand, is a much stronger, more self-sufficient character. The episode starts with her and Tomoya already dating, and goes on to accomplish more in 24 minutes than Cannad managed in 22 episodes. Maybe's it's because Tomoyo is one of the more interesting characters in the show. Maybe it's because there's actual romance here. Or maybe it's because I can relate to Tomoya's situation. Whatever the reason, this episode had me fighting back tears at the end while the main series, with its drawn out multiple episode arcs, left me completely cold (and bored). It even has time for some humour, which Clannad does very well.
 
Hmm, so are the Bleach series after the Rescue arc all that bad? I can't say I've delved into the rescue arc yet since I'm waiting for the boxset. Is it just the filler arcs that are bad?

Anyway, I was given Black Blood Brothers as a pre-fathers day type gift.........it wasn't really on my list but it was fairly enjoyable. Not much of an original storyline but hey, it was okay. If you're into vampire anime then you'll probably enjoy it. I'll give it a generous 7/10 since it's pretty much worth it for the price of the set. £1 an episode, can't really go wrong.
 
Starship Operators: 7.5/10

Considering the start, I'm very pleased with how this series turned out. I thought it was going to be distinctly average to begin with because it seemed to be no more than a sci-fi series complete with one too many hot young girls on a battleship. While that fact didn't change, and the premise of one battleship taking on a planetary alliance and not being attacked by ten ships at once never stopped being stupid, my enjoyment level did continue to rise the further I progressed.

The biggest flaw of the series is the lack of character development. Due to the story starting as the action got under way, and the series only lasting for 13 episodes, there just wasn't enough time to flesh out anyone fully enough so that I could really care. I didn't even learn the names of most of the crew members. And, when a character did get some development, it usually meant he/she was on the verge of death and the development was just done in an attempt to get a reaction out of the viewers. But I did care about the core cast enough to care about outcome of the story, so I suppose there was just enough development where it mattered.

What I feel the series did very well with is with the space battle side. Ignoring the fact the most an army ever sends after a 'government in exile' is five ships, the tactics were great. Basic without all the jargon, perhaps, but I was able to get into the battles because of how easy to understand the tactics were once the battles got underway. The tactical side gave the series an epic edge, which resulted in me keeping watching until the very end.

Overall, the series isn't the classic it could've been with more episodes, but it's still a highly enjoyable sci-fi for those who love space battles. It was worth a tenner and I'll be keeping it, Poundland case or not.

Black Blood Brothers: 5.5-6/10

It started out in a promising manner, for a short vampire series. It ended horribly.

The first volume made me think it was going to be a rewarding enough 7/10 experience. The first four episodes flowed well, it looked decent, there was some good humour and the action wasn't bad. There even appeared to be a decent vampire love triangle, involving a betrayal and a death, lurking in Jiro's past. I was looking forward to seeing more of Jiro and his new virgin friend, Mimiko, in the final two volumes.

...sadly, however, that's where the good parts ended. The series became a complete mess once the team reached the Special Zone. Jiro fought people for little to no reason, there were meetings between important people that bored me and added nothing, the once intense seeming love triangle back-story of Jiro turned out to be so simplistic that it needed to be explained in short, out of order sequences at the start of every episode, none of the major plot points were ever explained and the end of the series concluded nothing. It's quite possibly the most pointless series I've ever watched - it didn't even have a story; just a collection of soulless conversations and battles between vampires.

Why did only Jiro get hurt by water? Why couldn't Jiro enter the Special Zone without an invite, despite him being a Black Blood? How did the Kowloon Children come to exist in the first place? Why are the Kowloon Children shown to be more powerful than standard vampires? What exactly went on in Hong Kong ten years prior to the start of the story? Why and how did Kasa betray Alice? Why was Alice referred to as a sage? Why was Kane, a vampire, able to transform into a werewolf?... WHY!?

If the story was planned out in advance, the author is an idiot because he/she managed only to create a confusing mess; one that only a simple child could ever appreciate. Despite its £12 price, it's one to avoid unless you're really desperate for something new to watch.
 
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time - 8/10

Watching through this a second time I have to wonder what the hell was wrong with me the first time through. This time, I absolutely loved this film. I enjoyed the storyline, the characters and more then anything the art and animation of the film. It felt like it was the perfect length, and everything was executed with style and precision.

That said, one thing bugs me; Chiaki told Makoto that he'd be 'waiting in the future' for her. I don't quite get this, I thought it was really sweet that she was going to preserve the painting for him, and that would be the link between them, but something about the 'I'll be waiting for you' feels kind of... Hollywood. Like they had to have that romantic moment, some promise of them getting together (although I'm sure they'll probably never meet again). What are your thoughts on this? What did the directors actually imply for the future with this line?
 
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Just finished of Naruto this morning, i managed to get through all 220 episodes. I would give the first 135 9/10 an the remaining filler 7/10. I also just finished watching Kino's Journey which was pretty good, i give it 7.5/10.
 
iisan said:
What did the directors actually imply for the future with this line?
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I take it on face value. They will indeed meet again, but the resulting age difference may prevent their relationship restarting in the future. Of course, the opposite may be true, but if so the line becomes an effective way to end their affair in a mutually comforting way. As you say, the line may feel a little befitting of Hollywood, but I consider narrative to be the most effective when it's purposely written to produce a certain emotional response.
 
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iisan said:
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time - 8/10

Watching through this a second time I have to wonder what the hell was wrong with me the first time through. This time, I absolutely loved this film. I enjoyed the storyline, the characters and more then anything the art and animation of the film. It felt like it was the perfect length, and everything was executed with style and precision.

That said, one thing bugs me; Chiaki told Makoto that he'd be 'waiting in the future' for her. I don't quite get this, I thought it was really sweet that she was going to preserve the painting for him, and that would be the link between them, but something about the 'I'll be waiting for you' feels kind of... Hollywood. Like they had to have that romantic moment, some promise of them getting together (although I'm sure they'll probably never meet again). What are your thoughts on this? What did the directors actually imply for the future with this line?
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Actually, make that a 9/10.
@Zin5ki: Yeah, the way I hoped it was intended was as a way of saying goodbye/that they wouldn't forget eachother/that he'd be waiting forever.
 
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Phoenix

It's hard to rate this series because it's a collection of five short stories. The only links the stories have is the Phoenix, and the immortal bird of legend tends not to play a huge role in any of the stories, often just being in the background watching the events unfold.

Some of the stories last for four episodes, others one. Some of the stories take place in the past, others in the future. Some of the stories involve battles between Gods, others focus on battles against nature. There's almost too much variation.

The first, four episode story is probably the best of the lot - it flowed well from episode to episode, despite there being a lot of twists. It started with a man washing ashore somewhere, getting captured by a tribe and needing to save the life of a woman to save himself from being executed. The focus then switched to an Apocalypto style raid on the tribe by another country. It then switched yet again, this time to a father and son type of story where one of the invaders raised one of the few survivors of the raid as his own. And, during all this, the story kept switching back to the man who washed ashore trying to survive with the woman from the tribe he saved at the start, with them ended up trapped in a cave and left to the mercy of nature.

Out of all of the stories, the was the most involving. I found myself struggling to care about a lot of the characters included in the series, with some taking drastic actions without any real development having occurred, but in the opening story it was easy to care about the 'father' and 'son' who tried to survive during times of war. My only real complaint about it is that the Phoenix might as well have not even been in this story at all. It did nothing other than get hunted on and off a few times. If the Phoenix had played a more important role, like it does in later stories, I could understand its involvement, but it was just there for no real reason. The messages of the first story are that death is a part life that must be accepted and that war is pointless, neither message needing the Phoenix to be expressed.

The second story occurs in space; on the moon. That's right - a jump from the ancient past to the far future.

The story takes place during a time where the Earth has died and the remnants of the human race have escaped to space. At some point after their escape, some humans on the moon discovered the Phoenix, which has the power to give life, and they managed to get one of its tail feathers. Research on the feather took place on the moon, and one of the men in charge was on the verge of understanding it when an 'accident' occurred, resulting in the destruction of the lab and the death of most in it. Right before the researcher died, he was attempting to save a female friend from falling to her death, her last words being "You traitor..."

After the opening described above, the story quickly caught my interest. The researcher who died had been revived after the 'accident', half of his brain having been replaced by a machine. When he awakened, he couldn't distinguish one human from another - they all looked like distorted monsters to him - and he had no memories of his past. However, he discovered shortly after awakening that robots appeared to be living organisms to him, with one robot in particular looking like a woman, resembling the woman who called him a traitor before his death. Shortly after discovering his new 'female' friend, he runs away from the humans with the robot, escaping to the lab that was destroyed at the start.

I liked the second story a lot. It wasn't as involving as the first, mainly because it only lasted for two episodes, but the story was fascinating. It was basically a story of redemption, where one man had to correct his past mistakes by living on. If there's one thing that's suggested a lot in each story included, it's that, rather than being a blessing, immortality is a curse; a punishment that must be endured.

What follows the above is the only one episode story in the entire series. Back in ancient times once more after the leap into the future of the second story, this time around the story was about a woman killing a healer in order to prevent the healer saving her father. As a punishment for killing the healer, the Phoenix forces the killer to take on the role of the healer she killed, trapping her and taking her back in time. In order to make amends, she must allow herself to be killed by herself and hope that, at some point, the the cycle of life and death stops. It was a decent story but, compared to what went before, it wasn't great and it didn't have the length required to make me care a great deal.

The next story switched back to the four episode formula the series opened up with. This time around, still somewhere in the past, a member of the royal family of some clan or another gets the face of wolf put on him after having his own face scalped. He awakens sometime afterwards to discover what has become of his face and, eventually, heads east to another country in order to try to get his old face back after being informed that his future will be brighter if he does so by an old woman who can predict such things.

I liked the fourth story but never really got into it. The back-story of "Dogface" is never explained in detail, and I was left mystified with regards to what exactly lead up to him getting captured and losing his face. Likewise, I didn't get how the wolves face became his own, mouth movements and all. The only thing that came across clear as day was the message of the story, the message being that no religion is right or wrong; only the people themselves are wrong. Despite it lasting for as long as a movie, I felt the story needed more time, or at the very least needed much better explanations.

What really bothered me was the love story aspect of the fourth story. One of the many 'Gods' of the nation in the east fell for Dogface at first sight, never even having a conversation with him before deciding to follow him. She also risked her life for him without much chatter between the two. Their relationship never came across as a real because not enough time was put into it by the author and/or the animation studio. And the end of the story made little sense, with her leaving Dogface randomly, Dogface randomly getting his face back and the two seemingly ending up back together, despite Dogface losing his memory for some reason.

Moving onto the final, two episode story, the story once again took place in the distant future, just like the second story did. In the future depicted in the last story, humans had moved under the surface of the Earth in an attempt to survive after life could no longer be lived above ground. One scientist (Saruta), however, stayed above ground in an attempt to solve of the mystery of life in order to save the earth. He tried and tried to create life, always falling short. When he was on the verge of giving up, the Phoenix appeared before him and told him that a miracle would occur. It turned out that the miracle would be a young man who arrived at Saruta's lab after escaping from the underground cities because his companion - an alien shapeshifter - wasn't allowed to exist. He ended up getting shot and killed by someone who followed him. The miracle occurred when the Phoenix allowed him to drink her blood and made him immortal.

Following these events, every other life on Earth died, leaving the young man alone. It was then that he realized the true pain of loneliness, with nothing to do and no-one to talk to. For billions of years he lived alone in a wasteland, unable to die. He was eventually rewarded by being able to see the rebirth of the world as it began anew and the cycle of life started over.

For me, the message of this final story wasn't very clear. Why wasn't the man simply allowed to die, instead being forced to suffer the pain of loneliness? If I had been in his shoes, seeing the world restart wouldn't have been enough to make up for billions of years of boredom. The main message of Phoenix - that immortality is a curse - came across well in the last story, but it still seemed a bit pointless compared to the earlier stories.

If you're still with me after reading the descriptions of all five stories and my thoughts, I'm sure you'll understand the difficulty of reviewing this title. On one hand, it's far more meaningful than most series out there and has none of the "moe" elements that plague anime based on a lot of the more recent stories. The mangaka clearly had some important messages about life he wanted to express and did so as best he could. But, on the other hand, the series is all over the place because of the variation between each story, and I wouldn't call any of the stories included polished. The stories were released in manga form a long time ago and, compared to the character development and the like in more recent anime, the age of some of of the stories shows. Depending on how you look at it, Phoenix is either very flawed or brilliant because it avoids the holes stories from our age fall into time and time again.

In terms of the visuals, Phoenix is very nice to look at. Someone on Amazon described the art/animation as being something he imagined Disney coming up with after "going on a bender", but I don't think that's an insult when we're talking about an anime TV series. The character designs are rather cartoony, with characters having HUGE noses and the like, but it looks very nice. It's different than most art nowadays, but not in a bad way. The worst thing you can say about the art is that the character designs of the characters in the five stories are mostly very similar, the recurring character Saruta always having the same big nose and stumpy look. The animation was pleasing, too - whenever there was action, it flowed pretty well. There were some nice fight sequences in the fourth story.

I can't really comment on the music because, honestly, I can only remember the orchestral opening. Since I've only just finished watching the series (well, last night...), that doesn't say a lot good about the soundtrack. But, although I can't remember any amazing tracks, I can't say I remember any bad music, so I suppose the soundtrack was simply good without being amazing.

To sum it up, I'm pleased I watched Phoenix, ignoring the fact it isn't highly rated and isn't a name known to many. It isn't like any of the other anime I've watched, and that's why I respect it. I've watched a ton of anime that have no messages; series that were made just to put something on TV - Phoenix isn't one of those series. And like an IGN reviewer is quoted as saying on the back of the box set, Phoenix has a quality that keeps viewers hooked, preventing them from leaving until the end. In an age where I'm used to constantly checking my DVD timer to see how much longer an episode has left to run, Phoenix was a breath of fresh air. It's far from perfect, and it isn't something I'm willing to score too highly, but it's definitely a series I'm proud to own on DVD, and one I'd recommend to those tired of all the "moe" rubbish going around.

Phoenix: 8.5/10


One last thing (honest!): I STRONGLY recommend you, the random reader who has somehow survived to this point, look into getting the box set. I imported the box set for a lowly sum of £13.99 from PlayUSA, and I'm sure Americans can get it for even less. The box set is made up of a thin box and three book-like cases, which are basically hardback book covers with plastic stuck on to hold the discs. For what is a budget set, getting these unique cases - which I haven't seen used before - is a major plus point. The case covers are even reflective, making the set appear even more expensive than it really is.
 
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