Rate the last anime you watched!

Aion

Aion

Time-Traveller
This is as straightforward as you can get - Rate the last anime you watched by rating the plot, characters, art, animation and sound, then post the average you get as your total score. Simple.

All the series/films you rate must be finished before you rate them.

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Noein

Plot: 8.5/10

Rich in detail and very complex. The idea of different universes existing for every choice, with the you in that universe going down a different path, is truly fascinating.

I have to mark it down a little because of the slow pacing and unexplained elements of the story. However, I'm sure someone who has a better understanding of quantum physics would add 0.5 to this rating.

Characters: 9.7/10

Watching the main characters develop in Noein is different than in any other anime I've watched. You see how they *possibly* look and act in the future throughout the show (sometimes even more than one possible future version), which creates thoughts and shows the characters from different angles.

My favourite characters were not the main two (Haruka and Yuu), my favourites instead being Ai and Isami. It's both funny and cute seeing them try to hide their feelings for each other as the series progresses, Ai being a fiery red/orange-head and Isami being your average male - Unable to pick-up on signals. Isami's character is probably my favourite due to the future versions of him shown.

The only real bad character point I can think of is Yuu's character - He gets quite annoying with his attitude. The annoyance is worsened by slow plot progression.

Art: 9.5/10
Animation: 9.5/10

I can't rate art and animation accurately since I know nothing about it.

Noein looked amazing and fairly unique to me from the moment I first saw it. The start of the show showed that it obviously had quite a big budget, combining CG with excellent art and animation. The show kept up the high quality visuals until the end, although the less important episodes didn't get the attention the more important ones did.

Sound: 9/10

I'm probably being quite harsh here - The soundtrack is outstanding. The the choral battle/action music really gets you excited, the dramatic music does its job, the cute/funny music is fun to listen to... It's all great. My only reason for not rating higher is because there aren't too many tracks I'd want to listen to when not watching the series.

Total: 9.2/10

All in all, an amazing series. This is a series every anime fan should watch.
 
Urotsukidoji - The Legend of the Overfiend

Plot: 7.5/10
A seemingly omnipotent being called the Choujin (a.k.a the Overfiend) is to appear after 3000 years and unite the three realms (human, demon and man-beast) in order to stop the war and fighting in order to bring balance and peace to the world. This has a slightly Biblical feel to it, and I'm interested by apocalyptic plots. The twist about 2/3 of the way through is pretty decent.

Characters: 5/10
While not annoying, they seemed to lack any creativity. To be honest, I didn't really care too much about them.

Animation/Art: 4/10
It may have been the late 80s/early 90s, but the standard had gone past this level at that moment in time. The demons and monsters are animated decently, but the humans are quite bad.

Sound: 5/10
The music was listenable, but it definitely needed improvement. Sounded like the music was taken straight from an 80s anime, so it was quite cheesy. The voices were kinda meh, and some reactions were funnily underwhelming.

Total: 5.3/10
It had some potential, but I think the violence/sex and criticisms mentioned above stop it from being more than average.
 
S-Cryed

Plot - 6
Wasn't too bad. Had your typical shonen "Beat me up and I get stronger" routine, and the story has the main guys go from enemies to rivalry. It's a very common plot with its own interpretations and events. You know, mortal enemies ally up to defeat a bigger foe and still want to have a piece of each other. It was just something to watch, really.
Characters - 6
In terms of V.A's, it had some experience, but sometimes it was REALLY off on the emotion. Mimori was the worst of them, with sudden spats of useless emotion, where most of the time she seems ignorant at the more crucial times.
In terms of design, I think that was a pleasing thing. The alters were ok, with the straight-forward Kazuma and the more complex (yet narrow minded) Ryoho. Again, nothing too out-of-the-ordinary, but I still like Cougar's approach to life.
Art - 8
At least the art wasn't too bland. I think it was crisp, easy on the eyes and it made the show that more watchable. Something top-notch in the way it was presented, but something I'd expect from today's anime.
Animation - 7
Apart from the odd occasion (i.e. seeing the "Other Side") I didn't see much animated graphics on it. Although you get the general picture from the scene because of it.
They did update the intro often, which worked well for the most part, but it lost its charm after numerous edits.
Sound - 6
Like I've mentioned, V.A's were naff at times, but the overall sound was ok. I could almost recognise most of the SFX from other series, i.e. the crystalized avatar (black/white armed man) sounded like .hack//Sign's dumbell guardians. So nothing new, but it was put to good use.

Average Score - = 6.8
I didn't feel like I've had my fill of excitment from this series. They did unneccessary things at times where it could of been better, and that's where the 'flame' flickered (not wildly) between good and bad.
In a harsh tone, I'd say it was disappointing. It could of been better, but it wasn't. It was just too common, and the work put in struggled to keep it interesting.
 
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Guardian of the Sacred Spirit

Plot: 8/10
Take one water spirit egg, insert into prince, one of the toughest woman in animé trying to protect him from everything who thinks the spirit is a daemon or wants the egg. While this may seem fairly straight forward and a recipe for your formulaic villain of the day/ random encounter adventure animé with comic misunderstandings and a snotty prince trying to get used to every day life. Thing is they don't, they play it as a strait drama, and treated the view like an adult.

Characters: 8/10
They think. What would my enemy do in this situation? How can i counter it? Why did they say that? They all think like this and come up with well thought out answers. That quality raises they above most animé characters, only real gripe is that they don't develop as they are all too well rounded already. Since apart from the prince most are around thirty it is to be sort of expected.

Animation/Art: 7.5/10
May just have been the version i watched but the animation was a bit grainy and bland, and the CGI solders were a little wooden. Fights were very fluid, and the backgrounds impressive. There was also very impressive attention to detail, the characters came from different ethic backgrounds and this was shown in the character designs, their clothing, and sometimes even movement.

Sound: 7/10
Listenable/ Unmemorable. OP and ED weren't dire, but skipped them most times in episode mood music was not obvious but did help to set them mood. VA's were solid and their voices matched the character and faces.

Overall 8/10
Very solid,well thought out, and detailed but slightly slightly lacking in flair
 
Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo

Plot: 9.7/10

Not having read the novel prior to starting this, I had no idea what to expect. I knew about certain vague details, such as a young man becoming fascinated with Monte Cristo, but that's all.

The setting was quite a shock, with the story taking place in the year 5053, where as the novel takes place during the 1800's. It was a further surprise to discover the story started on the moon. I do kinda wish the story had been told in the 1800's instead since very few details are given about the futuristic universe and the setting becomes more of a distraction than anything.

In a nutshell, Gankutsuou is a fairly simple revenge story that's executed extremely well. The Count is kind on the surface, yet you can tell there's a hatred inside him waiting to explode. He manipulates and kills as his plan to bring those who wronged him to despair is slowly revealed. There's a twist added to his character in the form of a sort of pact with the devil - He gained the power to get revenge by giving his soul and body in exchange, meaning he loses his humanity bit by bit while getting his revenge.

In order to add mystery to the Count's character, the story is not told from his perspective (unlike in the book). Instead, the story is told from the perspective of Albert, a young noble and son of a powerful general. This brings both bad and good points - The good being the added mystery and a different angle on the story, the bad being Albert having the IQ of a dog. I wanted to kill him when he failed to work out that it was in fact the Count pulling the strings behind the awful sequence of events unfolding around him for the 10th time.

The story was a wonderful ride. A timeless classic with artistic differences, it was executed excellently, at times perfectly. You do have to wait for the 'main event' before you discover just how amazingly well told the story is, the first half in particular being nearly all build up, but I still felt compelled to keep watching even without any major twists/events occurring.

Characters: 9.3

This is a tough one. I liked pretty much the entire cast...apart from the main character, Albert. Although I knew he had to be retarded for the sake of the plot, his stupidity and inability to see the obvious became very annoying. You'd think he'd be able to put 2 and 2 together when the Count just randomly kept appearing and the Count himself had told Albert that there were no coincidences!

As I said, I liked the other characters. The Count is easily one of my favourite characters ever, Franz made up for Albert's lack of intelligence by being very bright, Eugene made Albert's character more interesting with their love for one another... Everyone else was great.

Art: 9.7/10
Animation: 9.7/10

The first thing that hits you about Gankutsuou is the rather bizarre CG effect clothing and hair has. The effect is hard to put into words; it's as if the character is reflective. It certainly takes a few episodes to get used to it. If nothing else, you have to praise the studio behind Gankutsuou (Gonzo?) for the huge amount of effort they put in.

The second thing to hit you is the bright range of colours used. If, like me, you went into Gankutsuou expecting to see dark and dull colours you'd be completely wrong since it's anything but dull, vibrant being a much better description.

Gankutsuou also has a fair amount of CG outside of the clothing/hair effect, including some epic mecha fights. The CG stuff is stunning at times, almost jaw dropping for a TV series.

Overall, Gankutsuou is a joy to watch...once you get used to it. Production values were clearly not low here.

Sound: 9.5/10

First of all, let me say that I didn't think very much of the OP or ED. The OP, while fitting, was so dull and slow I had to skip it after watching it once.

The soundtrack is very high quality, as you'd expect. There aren't too many tracks I'd listen to outside of the series (although there is one AMAZING track), but the music fitted the show like a glove and helped keep the story epic.

I have to mention track 18, one of the best pieces of music I've ever listened to. It was almost orgasmic to listen to when it played during the best episode in the series (strangely enough, episode 18!!!), making it even more thrilling than it was already.

Total: 9.6/10

Having watched a fair amount of anime, I'm hard to please. Gankutsuou pleased me.

I'm not sure if it's the best anime I've watched, but it certainly had the best episode of anime I've ever watched (episode 18 ), one of the best fights (episode 18 ), one of the best characters (the Count) and one of the best pieces of music (track 18 ). It's, quite simply, a stunning anime that EVERYONE should watch.
 
Pumpkin Scissors

Plot 8/10
Pumpkin Scissors is set within a delightfully offbeat parrallel world, which shares similarities to WW1/WW2 Germany. The story focus is on the War relief unit of the title, 'Pumpkin Scissors', a laughing stock of the army lead by the excessive Alice A Malvin. The Empire in which it is set has been at war for some time, but despite a truce the country is in tatters, with the impoverished starving, while nobles abuse their power. The plot follows the activities of the Pumpkin Scissors, however with the arrival of a scarred veteran 'Corporal Orland' a dark and sinister plot begins to emerge...

...and that's as much as I know since the said plot is cut frustratingly short at the end of the series, leaving us dangling with many of the questions we started with (what is this? Lost?). Pumpkin Scissors relies too much on the assumption of a second series, and thus ends in a very clumsy fashion with an overly long arc stretching 5 or 6 episodes. Despite this frustration though the main story was quite intriguing and kept me riveted to the end. Accompanied by some nice character developments and a few good to average side storys, it's not half bad. At least Gonzo didn't make up their own ending and completely spoil it.


Characters 9/10
Plot aside, Pumpkin Scissors has a likeable cast of characters who play off one another well.

Corporal Orland is a war torn veteran, scarred from head to foot but seemingly docile and shy, characteristics which are nicely juxtaposed against how he acts in battle. When he turns on a bizzare lattern he carries, he is suddenly transformed into a suicidally aggressive freak, who will face a tank without blinking an eye. It may sound cliche, but it actually works pretty well. Alice, the leader of the Pumpkin Scissors is a young girl from a noble family with a strong sense of justice and a tendency to start shouting and waving a sword around when it isn't implemented. However as the series goes on she begins to seem increasing naive, her idealistic vision of right and wrong being tested repeatedly.

Other characters such as the nervy Mach's and womanising Oreldo also get some development but ultimately take a back seat in the proceedings.
At any rate, the characters helped to fuel the story and rarely seemed trite or boring.

Art/Animation 9/10
The art and animation is ultimately inconsistent, looking fantastic at times and shaky at others. However, it still stands out visually as one Gonzo's better recent efforts. The detail on equipment and vehicles is particularly nice, while action is for the most part exhilirating and nicely choregraphed.

Sound 8/10
The sound may be the weakest aspect of the production for me. Not to say it's bad, but overuse of the same music tracks does start to grind the nerves a little. The OP isn't too bad, but the ending theme feels a little out of place being purposefully silly and comical. The voice acting and sound effects are great however and just about compensate for the musical weaknesses.

Total 8/10
Frankly my liking of Pumpkin Scissors is totally irrational, after the ending I was livid. However, the reason I was so livid was because up to that point I'd been loving it. It's got tons of problems and I can't recommend it to everyone, but personally I found it to be a very enjoyable show.
 
I'm going to write this as honestly as I can, and do it without trying to act like I know **** about anime. =|

Space Runaway Ideon

Plot: 8/10

Pretty standard plotline here for something made in the 80s, this **** made the clichés, it doesn't rely on them as heavily as modern series do today.

Humans stumble across ancient technology whilst on a new planet, aliens come across them and watch what's going on, aliens get curious and investigate while others attack. Humans fight back with ancient technology, chaos ensured, now the humans must continously fight for their lives against this alien force while figuring out the deal with this ancient technology they've discovered.

Not going into detail and giving out the basic plot, pretty standard, no?

Characters: 7/10

A lot of characters within the series are developed, not to the extent you can really feel for them, or so is how I felt, I mean, I can understand what they're going through and how they'd feel, but nothing that really happened ever brought me to tears or made me really think.

There's also some characters who're just... there and don't really develop at all, unless they're going to die in that episode. I'm looking at you, Moera.

Animation: 6/10

Standard animation for something of this age, no real problems here, although it's the same animation throughout the entire series, minus the movie which has some form of change.

Sound: 9/10

Now this is were Ideon picks up the points, the opening, in all honesty, is AMAZING, it blows me away every time I listen to it. The ending, although I never had time to listen to it at first is really good too, both quite fitting for the series having some significant meaning with the themes within the series.

The OST itself? A lot of the tracks really stick in your mind, when a certain tune comes on to an action scene it really fits, the OST overall is just incredibly epic and well done.

Overall: 9/10

Slow starter but picks up around mid-way, when it starts getting a little more serious, great series, was worth my time. :O
 
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The last complete anime that I watched... A couple of weeks ago it would have been Noein, and I could have done a cut and paste of the first post.

Since then however, I've given Salaryman Kintaro, from Artsmagic DVD a rewatch.

Plot 8/10

Yajima Kintaro is a former legendary biker gang leader who's trying to lead a respectable life as a final promise to his dead wife (who died in giving birth to their son Ryuuta). That means getting a job as a salaryman in a construction company. But Kintaro is unwilling to sacrifice his individualistic principles in order to fit in to a society where conformity and corporate butt kissing is the norm. Through his sheer force of will and personailty, he inspires those around him, and changes things for the better, fighting against bureacracy and corruption at the highest level, and making some powerful friends on the way.

Characters 6/10

Less rounded characters than they are archetypes, Kintaro plays to an audience that expects certain things from its entertainment. Kintaro is upright and unyielding. His sponsor at Yamato Construction, the Chairman is grandfatherly and warm, his colleagues in awe of him, women go crazy for him, and the bad guys all spend time growing moustaches just to twirl them. It's all great fun. And all strong, brave men are reduced to manly tears at least once in the series, if not more regularly.

Animation 4/10

Cheap and cheerful is the order of the day. It does enough to tell the story, and nothing more. Character designs are simplistic, the animation is wholly 2-dimensional, detail is minimal, there are plenty of primary colours, and it looks like it was done by the cheapest bidder. But, the quality never detracts from the story. Artsmagic's transfer isn't the greatest either, with NTSC-PAL artifacts evident, as well as signs of compression.

Sound 4/10

The Yumi Matsuzawa opener is an awesome track that livens you up for the show. The ending is more Chris de Burgh though, and the incidental music basically reuses the same themes again and again. Artsmagic offers a 5.1 surround and 2.0 stereo tracks for its discs, but the surround is just a glorified stereo track, and on a couple of discs the encode goes awry, with the central channel shunted to the rears.

Overall 5.5/10

The averages don't do this show justice, as it's worth more than a 6 in my book. It's an anime soap opera of the old school. I haven't seen too many soap operas animated, so for sheer novelty value it deserves a mention. It puts me in mind of the old eighties power soaps like Dallas and Dynasty, so maybe I'm biased towards it. It also lays on the shmaltz with an unrestrained hand. There's got to be a little space for some melodrama somewhere. The Artsmagic DVDs let the side down on the technicals, but do offer some interesting extras, interviews with the director and producer on each disc.
 
Finished off another series last night... Heat Guy J released in the UK by Manga Entertainment. It's the first of their release schedule debacles, twin disc volumes that were stopped one release from the end in favour of a boxset. But that boxset is still ridiculously cheap... £6.89 for a full length series from Sendit.com, and only about £25 RRP

http://www.sendit.com/video/item/7001000126105

But why should you bother?

Plot 8/10

Because it's what Kazuki Akane and Satelight did before Noein! If you look at Aion's first post, then it should be enough to get you interested. On the surface it seems like just another cliched sci-fi story, a tale of one man and his droid. Set in a future world, one of those special criminal units has been set up to fight crime that goes beyond the purview of the regular police. Daisuke Aurora takes orders from his councilman brother Shun, and works with admistrator Kyoko Milchan, and J, the sole android allowed in the city of Judoh. 'Machines' have been banned in Judoh following violent incidents, including the attack that killed Daisuke and Shun's brother, and J is an experiment to see if they can be reintroduced into society. Daisuke has to deal with the mafia, illegal immigrants and corruption, but underying all the various crimes is a deep conspiracy that reaches to the highest levels, and will hit Daisuke personally.

So far so cliched, but what makes Heat Guy J worthwhile is the vision of a furture society, living in a highly regimented and automated city following some sort of collapse that wiped out much of the population. Only a handful of cities remain, overseen by the mysterious Celestials, who alone know the secrets of the technology that keeps the cities working. The literally hold the power of life and death over the millions of inhabitants. Few people live outside the cities, and do so by going back to nature completely, eschewing all technology. Another aspect is crime and punishment especially in the neighboring city of Magnagalia. Long serving prisoners are genetically altered, making them into chimera with animal heads, and enhanced strength (Not much of a punishment if you actually make them stronger criminals, but it is visually striking). There is also a literal underworld beneath Judoh, where the outcast of the city live. It all makes for a lively and appealing future world.

Characters 8.5/10

The characters, while not exactly deep and rounded, are at least interesting and compelling. Daisuke Aurora is an easy-going action hero, slow to anger, and always with a smile on his face. He's partnered well by J, a cross between Terminator and Robocop, who tries to understand humanity by quoting aphorisms about what a man should be. Daisuke provides the speed and wit, while J provides the brawn. Their administrator is Kyoko Milchan, a cute but officious type, who is always down on Daisuke to get his reports in on time, and is notoriously stingy with ammunition. In this future world, accountancy outweighs bang, and Dai is likely to get just three bullets per mission. Shame the bad guys have machine guns. Speaking of which, the head of the mafia is a suitably psychotic type named Clair Leonelli, Vampire of Company Vita. He's got the maniacal laugh down pat, and has a personal grudge against Dai and J. Other notable characters include J's creator Antonia, policeman Ken Edmundo, street photographer Monica, and werewolf Boma. Heat Guy J has a rich tapestry of characters to draw on, and interest never flags.

Animation and Artwork 8/10

Judoh is a fairly European looking city, but there is enough futurism to make an individual statement. The character designs are pleasant, and the animation remains of high quality throughout. Like Noein, there is a blend of 2D and 3D CGI here, but the CGI doesn't fit quite as deftly, standing out quite obviously when it appears. It's easy to get used to though. Manga presents 26 episodes across 6 discs, with a 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer, with no problems to my eyes.

Sound 9/10

DTS, DD 5.1, DD 2.0 in both English and Japanese, with translated subtitles. No individual signs track though. Heat Guy J has a stock set of themes that while limited in number, are enough to make the story feel large and expansive. They are also of consistently high quality and easy on the ears. The second end theme, Hikari composed by Yuki Kajiura and vocals by Saeko Chiba, is one of my favourite anime songs.


Overall 8.375/10

Heat Guy J is a futuristic cop show that stays on the light and fun side of the story spectrum. It's utterly enjoyable, fun and entertaining. While it is a pretty generic action sci-fi, with the usual conspiracy themes, the characters are well-written enough to make it work without seeming creaky and worn. It also helps that there are no pure heroes and villains in this show, everyone has a dark and light side, and the motives behind the ultimate plot are emotional not moustache twirling. It's hard for a generic action show to generate sympathy and understanding, but Heat Guy J manages it. Also you get to see some of that imagination and exploration of ideas that made Noein so special. It's daftly cheap. There's no reason not to buy a copy and give it a try.
 
Koi Kaze

Let me start this review by saying Koi Kaze is the most depressing story I've ever seen. A love that cannot blossom does just that gradually throughout the series, with the viewers sense of dread building along with the story. This isn't for kids.

There will be MINOR spoilers when I'm describing the story/characters since I'm feeling a little chatty. :)

Plot: 9.7

The plot of Kai Koze is very simple: A brother and a sister who haven't seen each other since they were very little start living together (along with their father) when 15 year old Nanoka (who had been living with the siblings mother) needs to move closer to her new school. The brother, Koshiro, is 27, meaning there's a 12 year age gap between the siblings. The two instantly have a connection and feelings for each other that go above simple friendship/family feelings.

Before the pair learn they are brother and sister, they bump into each other on a train after Nanoka drops her ID card. They later randomly bump into each again, ending up going together to an amusement park since Koshiro had just been given 2 tickets. They end up having a heart to heart, telling each other about their love problems, Koshiro ending up crying. They find out they are siblings when their dad meets them together as they're exiting the amusement park.

Koshiro's initial reaction to the sister revelation is to be nasty to her, hiding the conflict going on inside himself. He doesn't want to face up to his feelings for her, choosing instead to simply act like a bad brother. Nanako, being young and naive, initially has no idea about Koshiro's feelings and doesn't understand her own, leading her to be confused about Koshiro's transformation from nice guy to bad brother. She does manage to discover he does care for her due to his actions - Concerned when she has period cramps, worried when she's out in the rain, jealous when she's talking to boys, etc.

As you might have worked out after reading the above, Koi Kaze deals with a taboo subject without really holding back. That doesn't mean incest is glorified here (if anything it's the opposite since the story is tragic); what it does is show a true love that can never be in this world. Both parties don't want to feel how they do, they just do and cannot change it.

The series progresses at a slow pace as their relationship develops. At first it bothered me that nothing seemed to be happening, but once it gripped me the episodes seemed to be going much faster. Give it chance before dropping it.

Characters: 9.7/10

With the focus being on the love between two siblings, the two get a lot of attention.

Koshiro is constantly in conflict with himself throughout the series. His brain knows what he's thinking and doing is wrong, yet his heart tells him otherwise. He tries to hide his inner conflict from Nanako by simply being a bad brother at first, attempting to push her away. His guilt over how he feels eventually drops down and allows him to be VERY friendly with her, but he still knows it's wrong to think and feel how he does about his kid sister.

Nanako, on the other hand, doesn't have the same conflict Koshiro has going on right from the start. Being naive, she takes his aggressive attitude as nothing more than him being a bad brother, not able to understand what reason he could possibly have to act the way he does. She does eventually start to understand that her own feelings are above and beyond sisterly love, leading to the feelings of both coming out in the open.

Both characters have a lot of depth, as you'd expect. The rest of the cast don't really get fleshed out very much, but that doesn't matter an awful lot when the 2 most important characters do get fully fleshed out, hence the high rating.

Art / Animation: 8.5/10

It looks and moves good enough for a show without any action sequences. The art, while not of the highest level, looks good enough to make Nanako look like the most cute thing I've ever seen.

There's no problems, the series is in wide-screen and looks more than good enough for a series that doesn't need fights to drive it.

Sound: 8.5/10

I didn't like the soundtrack very much at first due to there not being many tracks that stand out. However, on reflection, I understand that the music used was pretty much perfect for this type of show - It's irrelevant how many tracks there are that I'd listen to away from the series; the only thing that matters is that the music fits the series and sets the right mood for whatever scene it's playing during, which the Koi Kaze soundtrack does.

Total: 9.1/10

Overall, Koi Kaze is one the best series I've ever watched...along with I being the most depressing and one of the most unsettling. If you can handle a tragic story, this series is unmissable.
 
Four volumes down, and Cromartie High School under my belt.

Plot 7/10

Not so much a plot as it is a format, this is a high school bound sketch show in a 12 minute format, with a collection of delinquents getting into all sort of absurd situations in high school. It begins when straight-laced Kamiyama gets sent to Cromartie High School, a school for kids from the wrong side of town. It's surrealist deadpan comedy, with a collection of bizarre characters, subverting the high school delinquent stereotypes in shows like Tenjho Tenge. And it's got Freddie Mercury in it.

Characters 4/10

Not so much characters as they are caricatures, variations on a stereotype, all given to talking out their issues with much introspection and self analysis, made all the more humorous when expectations are turned upside down by some surreal reversal. The lack of variation proves detrimental in my eyes, despite the Gorilla, Robot, and Freddie Mercury.

Art 3/10

Nothing to write home about, with an animation style that borders on the slideshow. This is a talky show of course, so there isn't a lot of action, indeed the most animated thing is one of the characters Mohican, but it's all deliberately so, indeed part of the joke. The character designs work well enough, as does Freddie Mercury.

Sound 7/0

Dialogue is clear, but I'm not sure about the music. The theme tunes are fine, but the incidental music has an ominous air to it that works against the humorous tone. Shame they couldn't get the rights to some Queen tunes for Freddie Mercury.

Total 5.25/10

I don't get the joke. I can see it's funny. Intellectually I find it humorous, and I even enjoy the show, but all the navel gazing and talking doesn't do anything for me. The delinquent stereotype being subverted here doesn't appeal, and the humour is very limited, just variations on a couple of themes. It's supposed to be a big comedy smash, but for me it's just an acquired taste, one which I failed to acquire. It's also a show that you have to be in the mood for, useless if you are in a stinky mood and need cheering up. It'd definitely not a laugh riot though. Aaaargghh Freddie Mercury!!!
 
Code Geas - Lelouch Rebellion

Plot 6/10

The sotry of a man driven so much by hate towards his family, who just happen to rule a third of the world, enables him to turn a bunch of terrorists into his own private army through a combination of strategies gained through his love of games and his unique ability to control peoples minds.

Character 7/10

Lelouch is a wellt thought out character and we get to see many of his emotions whilst he drifts in and out of happiness, rage and insanity, but throughout I could never decide if I liked him or found his motives just enough as the opposing charcters where never seento be evil, infact you kind of sympathinsed with them too which made for confusing feelings.

Art 8/10

Good art work on both characters and the mechs which makes for some beautiful battle sequences.

Sound 6/10

Only part of the sound thats lacking is music, theres no catchy or musical scores that really stand out and that kind of damages the series a little.

Total 6/10

I doubt I will ever watch this again especially with the huge build up towards the end being given such a disappointing ending, I will however have to watch the 2nd series they have planned at the moment.
 
Vandread (Season 1)

After managing to get the OOP box set for £26, I started watching my Vandread DVD's a few days ago.

After watching the first season, while happy with the quality of the series for what I paid, the shallowness of Vandread makes me happy I didn't pay a huge amount for it.

Plot: 7/10

Women are an alien species: We men know this much already. Vandread takes what we know a step further, really making men and women aliens by putting them on different planets.

At the start of the series, the men of Taraak and women of Mejere were about to start a war. The men got fed up of a group of women space pirates and decided to put a stop to them, unleashing a new battleship against them. However, much to the dismay of the men, the launch of the battleship went badly, the women space pirates stealing the ship.

During all this, a young 3rd class worker, Hibiki, decided to sneak onto the battleship to steal a Vanguard (male mecha) part, ending up getting stuck on board when it launched. He soon found himself thrown in the brig by the men, just before the women attack.

After the women took over the ship, the men decided to destroy it rather than let the women have it by firing missiles at the ship. This resulted in the ship *somehow* blocking the missiles and getting sent to a distant part of the galaxy. The men and women on board the battleship then had to start working together since they soon discovered a new alien race that wants to "harvest" humans...

----

The plot did have a lot of potential. If taken seriously, a plot involving a war of the sexes could have been amazing... If turned into a comedy, it had the potential to be insanely funny. Sadly, however, Vandread turned out to be light-hearted, shallow and not very funny.

The plot does not develop much at all once the Nirvana (the battleship mentioned previously) gets warped to a distant part of the galaxy. The crew face battles against their new alien enemy, known only as "harvesters", go down to the mostly deserted planets they pass for supplies, fight with each other, play with each other... Episodic stuff.

It's really quite disappointing that the series was taken in such a light-hearted direction when it would've worked much better as a more adult series.

Characters: 8/10

The characters, while not exactly being deep or unique, saved the show from being bad.

The main character of Vandread is Hibiki, a young male who wants to prove himself. He's simple minded, direct, bad tempered... The type of lead you see in shounen series on a regular basis. Truth be told, he isn't very interesting, with no background details revealed outside of him being a 3rd class citizen; no depth.

Dita, the female lead, was much more likeable. She insists on calling Hibiki "Mr. Alien", following him around everywhere due to being curious about the male gender and generally annoying the hell out of Hibiki. She was the most funny character in the first season and by far my favourite, if only for being a redhead.

The other 2 female main characters, Jura and Meia, were less interesting. Jura is your stereotypical flirtatious woman and Meia is your stereotypical military type, hiding her emotions and commanding the others in battle. Meia has had the most development (not that that's saying much...) so far since her past has been revealed, but the sequence about her past wasn't designed very well and had little to no impact on me.

The other 3 characters found interesting are male: Bart, a wimpy guy who ended up steering the ship since only a male can, the male doctor Duero and Rabat, a Han Solo type. Rabat will hopefully get fleshed out in the 2nd series, him being one of the few intriguing characters.

Art/Animation: 9/10

For a show that aired back in 2000, Vandread most certainly looks impressive. It was a rather nice surprise to discover that the the DVD's are in widescreen format.

There was no obvious corner cutting on the art and animation side during the first season; everything looked smooth and nice to look at. The colours made everything look bright and eye catching.

CG is used for all of the space battles in Vandread. I'm sure it looked amazing back when Vandread originally aired, but the CG sections haven't survived the test of time and didn't impress. I didn't really like the speed the CG battles went at since I found it hard to follow what was going on a lot of time... I suppose the idea was to make the CG battles as fast as possible in order to impress more.

Overall, Vandread looks excellent for its age.

Sound: 5/10

The soundtrack was more distracting than anything. The person who created the soundtrack deserves to be shot... That's all there is to say really.

The OP/ED were pretty good. Nothing too memorable but the themes made watching the OP/ED animation more enjoyable.

As ever with Japanese voice acting, the performances were mostly excellent. There was no noticeable bad performances.

Total: 7.25/10

Enjoyable yet disappointing, Vandread is a great show to watch to pass time. Don't watch it if you're looking for a Death Note beater.
 
Scrapped Princess

Plot: 7/10
I liked the general idea for the plot. Take one medieval world, add a prophecy of doom and portents about a princess who is the “poison that will destroy the worldâ€
 
When They Cry

In order to satisfy my eBay bargain hunger, I picked up Vol. 1, 2 and the art box of When They Cry on eBay.co.uk. Not bad for a total of £13.50!

Before actually getting into reviewing the anime, I'd like to talk about the When They Cry art box Geneon (RIP) released. The art box is pink, with images of the 5 main female characters (Mion, Rena, Rika, Satoko and Shion) in maid outfits, all looking either cute or sexy. I'm not sure what the people who designed the box art and picked the colour were on; the art box would give someone ignorant about the series the wrong impression of the show. No sane male would be seen walking out of a shop with it... Can you imagine how embarrassing it would be to pay for something that looks like animated child porn?

Thankfully, the reversible DVD cover art had someone with a brain design them. One side of the DVD cover is good (happyish looking, but no pink or maid outfits)and the other side of the cover is evil, with shadowy versions of the characters showing. Unlike the art box, you could walk out of a shop holding copies of the DVD's themselves with your head held high. The only issue I have with the DVD's is the infamous Vol. 2 misprint where some intelligent person decided to put the episode descriptions for the first 5 episodes as the descriptions for episodes 6-10. Due to Geneon closing, not many copies were released and even less were re-released with the error corrected.

Whilst talking about the R1 DVD's, it's only right to inform those not in the know that only the first 3 volumes (there was going to be 6) ever got released. Geneon imploded (the child porn art box was the cause, obviously) before they could finish releasing the series and we will probably never see the rest of the series released in English. Also, although I'm not sure, Vol. 3 may well have been the last DVD Geneon released.

Anyway, enough talking about the DVD's: Time to get down to business.

Plot: 8/10

Quite frankly, When They Cry is the hardest anime I've ever had the 'pleasure' of attempting to explain. The reason for this is that the story is told in various question (the mysteries aren't explained) and answer (the mysteries are explained) arcs, with nearly all them being out of sequence for the fun of it. This is further complicated by parallel universes, meaning each arc (question and answer arcs are set in the same universe) have no direct connection to most of the others... Are you confused yet?

All the arcs are set in the fictional village of Hinamizawa, most of the time during June 1983. Changes are made to the characters, varying from them being heroes and villains depending on the arc.

The opening arc reveals that Keiichi, a young boy, moved to the town with his parents a month or so prior to the beginning of the series. By the time the story starts, Keiichi has already become friends with a group of of 4 girls in his class - Mion, Rena, Rika and Satoko. Things soon start to take a darker turn when Keiichi learns that the people of Hinamizawa worship a God known as Oyashiro, said to be the protector of the village. Keiichi discovers that there have been 4 murders each year on the same day as the Cotton Drifting festival; a festival that honours Oyashiro. Concerned about these serial murders, Keiichi starts to have doubts about his new friends when they lie to him about the murders...

Each arc is a variation of the above theme, with a small amount of information revealed about the mystery in each arc. It's very hard to follow if you have a terrible memory (like myself) and you'd probably find yourself re-watching certain arcs later on to see if you missed anything. If you're looking for an easy to follow series, I recommend you run away now.

It's also best to avoid When They Cry if you only enjoy light-hearted series. While the character design and story try to trick you into believing it's a kiddie series at first, you soon discover that When They Cry is actually a horror series - A true rarity in anime. You'd be surprised how shocking it is to see a cute face change into a psychotic one, along with the voice changing from soft to menacing. There's plenty of gore on show, too, with the main characters dying on a regular basis throughout.

My thoughts on the story you ask?

I LOVED the initial four episode arc. The first episode set the tone of the show by opening with someone finishing beating two people to death with a baseball bat, the person screaming and looking seriously disturbed whilst doing so. After that, the scene changes and, for the rest of the first episode, the story follows the largely uneventful day of Keiichi at school with his friends, allowing the viewer to slip into a false sense of security.

To my utter disappointment, I soon discovered the truth about the show; nearly every arc is set in a parallel universe. While it's an interesting and unique way of telling this mysterious story, I couldn't help but feel like the plot was standing still and not moving forward. I started to lose motivation as the story 'progressed', finding it hard to get into a show made up mostly of disconnected stories that will, rather inevitably, link up at the end.

Overall, I did enjoy the unique When They Cry experience. Outside of the parallel universe confusion, the main issue I have is that the mystery is far from solved after 26 episodes and there are still MANY more questions than there are answers... I'll have to watch the 2nd season if I want my headache to go away.

Characters: 8.5/10

In When They Cry, there's a group of 6 characters of importance: Keiichi, Mion, Rena, Rika, Satoko and Shion. Excluding Shion, all of them go to the same school (there's only 1 in Hinamizawa, the only class being a mixed age class). They are all young, none being older than about 15 or 16, some being pre-teen.

Keiichi, the only male in the 6, plays the role of the main character in the first few arcs. Through his eyes you are introduced to Hinamizawa and the other characters. He's a kind, friendly and easy to get on with guy, said to have scored high on IQ tests.

Mion plays the role of the class leader due to her age and dominant personality. She's a green-haired tomboy who hides a more girly side. Her family, the Sonozaki's, are the head family in Hinamizawa and she's the heir to them. The mystery of Oyashiro and the mysterious deaths that occur every year on the day of the Cotton Drifting festival seem to be linked to the Sonozaki family. Mion has a twin sister, Shion, who has been thought of as a cursed child since birth (twins are supposed to be a bad omen), chucked into a distant boarding school away from the the family.

Rena moved to Hinamizawa a year before Keiichi. A shy girl who has a love of cute things, she comes across as the harmless. However, her past is a dark one and she's known for going into a rage at the mention of Oyashiro...

The final 2 main characters are friends and the youngest characters. Rika, a cute blue-haired girl, is the head of the Furude family; one of three main families in Hinamizawa. Much like Rena, she comes across as harmless, but she has the strange tendency to change into a more serious, more intelligent and more sinister person - As if two people were inside her. She will probably play a key role in solving the mystery in the second season. Satoko, a short haired blonde girl, has a tomboy type of personality, mixed in with a lot of insecurity. Her family is hated in Hinamizawa and all are dead or missing, leaving only her.

There are other, seemingly less important, characters who feature on a regular basis: The police officer Oishi and the village doctor Irie making appearances in most of the arcs, Oishi appearing in all of them.

Usually, a reviewer would evaluate the depth and development of the cast when rating. However, this is difficult in the case of When They Cry due to the story being told with parallel universes and the plot not progressing as a whole. I know a lot about the characters after seeing them various angles, playing both the good guy and bad guy, but it's near impossible to rate the development unless I rate the characters in each arc individually.

My favourite characters are the twins; Mion and Shion. Both characters get fleshed out more than the rest in the first series, a lengthy arc towards the end of the series revealing all about the sisters relationship, how their families work and, quite simply, how the sisters feel. The best eye candy (I'm SURE they're 16...well, 99% :D) and character development together - A win-win situation.

The thing I didn't like about the characters was how the characters acted rather bizarrely or out of character in certain arcs to play the roles they played in those arcs. For example, one character decided to kill someone to help one of his friends, who they had known for all of 5 minutes... What kind of person risks going to jail for life to help out someone they don't know very well? That plot point in particular seemed to be a bit forced to me.

I feel that 8.5/10 is a fair rating when, while the characters did have depth, the parallel universe thing stopped any episode 1-26 character development.

Art: 8/10
Animation: 7/10

When They Cry uses cute, loli character designs to first fool the viewer and then shock them later. A horror series with cute looks - Who would've thought it?

As you'd expect for a series that aired in 2006, the series is in widescreen format.

The art is pretty good. There's nothing amazing on show here... It doesn't compare to some of the other series that aired at the same time. I'm sure most people wouldn't mind too much; they'd be too distracted by cute young girls holding meat cleavers whilst laughing in an insane manner!

The animation quality was a little disappointing. It's not an action series, so you can forgive it for not being brilliant, but the few scenes with fast movement that do occur failed to impress me.

Sound: 8.5/10

Rating the When They Cry soundtrack reminds of when I rated the Koi Kaze soundtrack: Koi Kaze didn't have too many tracks that stood out, yet the music fitted the show like a glove.

The opening theme of When They Cry is brilliant. Creepy, dark and a little scary, I couldn't imagine a better song for this type of the show. The ED is also very good; a dark, relaxing type of song, part of which also plays doing the episode previews.

The soundtrack itself is made up of the dark type of music you'd expect to hear, mixed in with some cheerful music that play during the more amusing parts of the show. Very little of the music made me want to download the soundtrack and listen to it while on my PC, meaning it has little to no truly outstanding tracks in my opinion, but the soundtrack does fit the show perfectly.

Just to give the voice acting a quick mention, the voice acting was as excellent as Japanese voice acting usually is. I was impressed by the performance of Satsuki Yukino; the voice actress behind Mion and Shion. I've added her to my favourite voice actor/actress list after watching When They Cry.

Total: 8/10

While I did end the series feeling a little disappointed after the near perfect start, I do regard When They Cry as being up there with the best. It's certainly the best horror series out there... Not that there's much argument when you look at the competition!

My rating may improve when I get around to watching the second season and the questions the first series raised are answered. However, I feel 8/10 is a fair rating for the first season on its own.
 
I remembered this topic just now and, since there's nothing similar, I thought I'd bump it. It's always good to read the views of others. :p

It seems I kinda killed the thread with my When They Cry review above, so instead of C&Ping another my latest lengthy review I'm going to simply link to where I posted it originally - MAL.

I stopped using the rating method outlined in the first post awhile back on my own reviews. It's up to you how you want to type your reviews.

Link: Chrono Crusade (Manga): 9/10
 
The last full series I watched was Chrono Crusade about a week ago. Been meaning to get it for a long time, but it kept slipping through until I saw the box set cheap on amazon.

In all, it was quite good. I never expected it (and it never pretended to be) something utterly groundbreaking, but it was gerally a solid show which kept me interested to the end. The ending was kind of sad, but it was prepared for well enough, but perhaps the only thing that really failed to keep me entertained was that Aion utterly failed to seem sinister in almost any way or at any point. The best episode was the flashback one where the house is frozen in time, it actually felt very atmospheric.

Not entirely in love with the very faux christianity either, but then again, I've no love for christianity full stop so that is just me.

Solid, fun, nothing amazing, but a little heatwarming and saddening.

7.5/10
 
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Gantz

It started out with potential. I don't think I've seen a concept quite so absurd yet. However, it suffered from the fact it was a GONZO series. It lacked any structure. The plot moved far too slow or too quickly. Also, the ending was lame. Nothing actually happens. It just trails off.

5/10
 
Maxon said:
Gantz

It started out with potential. I don't think I've seen a concept quite so absurd yet. However, it suffered from the fact it was a GONZO series. It lacked any structure. The plot moved far too slow or too quickly. Also, the ending was lame. Nothing actually happens. It just trails off.

5/10
Click to expand...
Pro-tip: Read the manga for a much better experience of the Gantz universe!
 
Tenchi Muyo OVA 3

Intro:

There have been many retelling of this anime: Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki is the OVA. There is then Tenchi universe, Tenchi in Tokyo, Tenchi GXP. Tenchi universe (first TV series) and Tenchi in Tokyo (second TV series) are the same timeline were Tenchi GXP is based after the OVA. (I would also like to mention Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure, which is a completely different telling of Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki timeline.)

This is a mini review on Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki.

Plot: 9

This is a classic harem, the main plot is based around a young school boy called Tenchi Masaki. Set in present time Japan, tenchi befriends over 5 different girls in the first season, though different ways. Each girl (like every harem) is trying to make tenchi there husband. Unknown to tenchi, he has a secret power, that produces “matter conversionâ€
 
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