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Discussion Forums => Anime => Topic started by: Krozam on October 11, 2011, 12:53:03 pm

Title: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on October 11, 2011, 12:53:03 pm
A topic for comments or short reviews once you've finished a series. I know I usually want to comment on a series after finishing it, hopefully there are others like that, too.

Ao no Exorcist
The ending truly surprised me with its quality. I don't know how much of the last two arcs were canon, but I think they're better than the rest of the series. Especially the final arc was very impressive, one of the best thought out final arcs I've ever seen in an anime. Everything fit so neatly, it's hard to believe they could have diverged from the original much. And it was pretty damn epic, too.

However, overall the series still isn't that clearly above average. Its strongest points are entertaining battles and great musics, but there were too many boring episodes between the first few eps and the mid-point, and only a few of the characters truly grew on me, made me care about them. Fortunately the Okumura brothers are pretty good protagonists, and Mephisto is brilliant, so I wouldn't say the characters are bad across the board. 3½/5 stars.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on October 12, 2011, 01:36:24 pm
Sacred Seven

It's nothing great, but I found it quite entertaining. In no way does S7 stand out among the anime of its type, but overall it's not such a weak anime that many make it out to be. The action is entertaining enough, the characters are likeable and have a moderate level of depth and development, and the plot isn't quite as straightforward as I feared it'd be. I even got a little attached to the characters, and was disappointed for the lack of a little romantic moment between Arma and Ruri at the very end. gg deserves a special mention for hilarious translations on Onigawara's lines. S7 is quite worth watching if you're in the mood for some simple action with a slice of romance. 3/5 stars.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Hanover Fist on October 13, 2011, 06:50:27 pm
R-15

So yes, this is a cheesy fan-service show with a potential harem setup. Also, the censored version bludgeons you with blatant and annoying white bars across the screen. On a couple occasions only a small pie slice of screen was visible with a face in it. So maybe it's better to wait for the BD release [last disc out late Feb 2012 (http://forums.hologfx.com/index.php?topic=306.0)].

Surprisingly, there was more humor and plot than I was expecting in this story about the teenage pr0n novelist in the school for assorted geniuses. Taketo's flights of imagination visualizing dirty scenarios were quite funny. While there was the full complement of cliched ecchi situations, Utae's understanding and acceptance of Taketo was a breath of fresh air. Additionally there was more romance than usual in this ecchi show.

When it came to the final few episodes...
(click to show/hide)

So overall it was good light entertainment. A flawed but funny show. 3/5
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on October 15, 2011, 05:08:26 pm
Working!!

Slice of life almost at its best. The quirky, likeable cast keeps thing interesting from the start to the end. The useless manager got on my nerves, but otherwise I like everyone. Satou is my favourite, the most normal of them all yet he manages to be hilarious (also, his relationship with Yachiyo is the very thing that originally made me interested in the series, after I read a very good doujin about it). The childish Poplar, androphobic Inami, katana-carrying Yachiyo, blackmailing Souma etc... the show takes an understanding attitude to each of their problems. Even the protagonist, Souta, has a complex: he really likes small and cute things. Otherwise, he's an unusually reliable and sensible protagonist, he never once made me facepalm.

The comedy is good, I laughed quite a lot when watching, the romances are quite interesting to follow (however one-sided they seem at first), and overall the show left a nice, light-hearted feeling. I'm definitely going to watch the second season. I can't give a purely slice of life show without much depth a really good rating, but for this type of a show, 3½/5 stars is a pretty good rating.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Chadwicke on October 18, 2011, 03:39:32 am
No. 6

Halfway into No. 6, I thought it was Nabari no Ou all over again. Nabari no Ou lured me in with its fantastic action scenes and good concepts regarding their skills and powers, only to turn to a totally different direction with the MC's BL tendencies. It lost the elements I liked halfway and replaced it with the MC's incomprehensible obsession over an introvert with a death sentence. However, since No. 6 only had 11 episodes, I thought I could just forced myself through it (I deleted Nabari no Ou when I was right in the middle of the series).

Rejoice! After finishing No. 6, I found out that it wasn't totally that bad. If you can stomach M2M (http://www.urbandictionary.com/thesaurus.php?term=M2M) kissing (I couldn't), the story is not bad at all. During late episodes though, it lacks a few explanations about what's going on.

Just a little rant, though:
(click to show/hide)

Personally I'd give it a 1/5, but thinking logically and imagining I wasn't homophobic, maybe it's 3/5.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on December 27, 2011, 09:44:28 am
UN-GO

Well, look at that. Apart from some re-watches, this is the first time I watch anime for 1-2 months, and already I finished a series. With my track record (82 stalled anime series, as you can see from my signature), that's kind of unusual.

UN-GO was a bit of a surprise: I started watching it on a whim, not expecting much, but in the end it's quite possibly my favourite of the season. I'm so very glad I didn't miss this anime, because it's a rare treat these days: a classy, plot-driven (if episodic), intelligent anime with no fanservice and very little action to take the focus off what's important. Very enjoyable, especially since it's been a while since I last enjoyed a good detective story.

It's difficult to find anything bad to say about the anime. It's no visual masterpiece, but it delivered a pretty strong atmosphere nonetheless. As a detective story it has a couple of problems, namely two hax characters who gave the detective protagonist quite an edge, but since I like both of those characters, I don't really mind. Most of the arcs are kinda short: while the cases are intelligent, they lack the complexity that they could've been given with more time available. Thankfully, they were smart enough not to try and cram too much into the episodes, so the storyflow never gets too jumpy.

As for its strengths... the foremost among them in my opinion is the existence of multiple different moral codes. There's a character who regularly falsifies information, helps the government with propaganda and hides uncomfortable truths from the general populance. No, he's not an antagonist, although he occasionally sort of takes the role. His daughter, on the other hand, is the classic goody-two-shoes who doesn't lie or deceive. As for the protagonist, he feeds people's souls to his "assistant" - though oddly enough, it doesn't seem to really harm them. The protagonist of this show is a curious case also because he has character development. How many "great detectives" actually have character development? Not many. Also, the antagonists are all very much human. This anime has considerable psychological depth, and while the plots aren't bad, the characters are better.

One more thing worth mentioning is, the ending song is damn sneaky. >.< At first I didn't think much of it, but for some reason I still never skipped it... and then I realized I like the song. The more I listen, the more I like it. As a whole, I'll give the show 4/5 stars. I really wish there'll be more, 11 episodes is way too little of this.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Hanover Fist on December 27, 2011, 05:55:49 pm
Shiki

I had stalled out on this one sometime last year. I finally marathoned it from start to finish over the last couple days and I'm happy I did. It starts out slowly but develops well. One thing (of many) I'm impressed with is that it goes back to the roots of vampire stories: There are no sparkly vampires in the sunlight here. These are honest to goodnessbadness monsters. They're vulnerable to stakes and sunlight, have hypnotic powers and need to be invited to come inside.

The plot builds up well and has many intelligent touches. A few times I was pleasantly surprised by subtle reveals that I only caught on to a couple episodes later, causing me to go "Ooooh! Sneaky! That's what they're doing there." The development is very well thought out.

The characters also show that humans can adapt to just about anything. The huge cast is well defined and the show even has room to show the development in many of them. There are funny moments, but it's basically a horror show. There isn't much fan service and the gore in later episodes isn't excessive but rather complements the plot.

Overall, it's worth your time. I give it 4/5 stars.


Final Approach

I got curious about this one after seeing a 'cap from it in the games thread. It's a short little series from 2004 with 13 half-length episodes. It wasn't something I had saved on my HDs, but once I started watching it I had the strongest sense of deja vu. I must have seen it before but didn't archive it.

Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Approach_%28visual_novel%29) and MAL (http://myanimelist.net/anime/119/Final_Approach) can give you a better plot summary than I can.

I found it to be pretty cute and pretty funny, doing a good job balancing between comedy, drama, romance and slice of life. It starts out leaning toward the comedy and finishes in the romance and drama section. It's not a waste of time, but then again it's not anything I felt the need to keep after watching: 3/5 stars.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Hanover Fist on January 21, 2012, 08:24:41 pm
Mawaru Penguindrum

I just finished this after watching it over the last two days. I made the post (http://forums.hologfx.com/index.php?topic=290.msg8572#msg8572) in the Enticing to Watch thread around episode 17, knowing even before then that it was really good. Now that I've finished, I'm trying to figure out if I liked it or not. well ... yes, I liked it. It tied things up nicely without any major loose ends hanging out. It's more that I'm still trying to wrap my head around the ending. I think it's one of those shows that will make more sense the second time through as you pick up the little clues you missed on the first pass.

Overall, I give it at least a 4/5. Its certainly sucks you in and I'm getting to sleep today much later than I should. ;) On that note. G'night!
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Mortadin on January 25, 2012, 10:31:51 pm
OH hell.. Why did i had to finish this...

School Days

I wish i didnt did a BroContract with my friend about me finishing this series... Frankly... I felt better being dropped by phone by my first girlfriend then watching this... But.. i guess this series is good as it broke many standard on how far can they go on a relatively '' Light '' anime...

It is the most shocking Anime i've watched yet... and i'Ve seen my share of gore and cruel thing...
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Khorne11 on February 08, 2012, 01:42:01 am
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. It was really funny, the characters are great, and the voice actors are just as good. The ONLY problem I had was the endless 8 section in season 2, it would be cool if it was just 3 episodes, but it was a deja vu' section about them repeating summer which was 7 episodes and nothing changed untill the last 10 minutes of the last episode, but besides that NO flaws. The movie (The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya) was awesome but didn't really rap up anything like movie continuations are meant to, it was pretty much just a prolonged episode.

Mikuru is by far my favorite character, shes adorable, awkward, and constantly being bullied buy Huruhi and forced to wear ridiculous (sometimes even fan service) costumes.

 While stoic characters are usually awesome (Mai from Kanon, Sakai from Woshizora e Kakaru Hashi, and Setsuna from school days to name a few), but Yuki was rather boring, she was just TOO stoic, and had no affect what so ever, she made the most boring (though my favorite) character genre seem even more boring.

The story is a 8/10 because of its inconsistencies but is very fun and a definate treat, I strongly recomend this anime to slapstick and mind f*ck fans.

-K11
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on February 08, 2012, 07:00:55 am
What, you review Haruhi without even mentioning the male protagonist? I mean, everyone agrees that Kyon is by far the best thing about Haruhi, as his sarcastic narration makes up at least half of the show's entertainment value... or at least I thought everyone agreed on that before you came along. :o
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: XxanimefreakxX on February 28, 2012, 09:03:07 pm
Shinryaku! Ika Musume 2, it was really awesome and it made me lmao really hard:D
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on April 23, 2012, 12:36:19 am
Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko

I remember that when I watched the first ep for the first time, I thought it was kinda funny, but a bit weird for my taste. The character designs are gorgeous, though, so I didn't hesitate giving it another episode. After watching it, I thought it was a very good anime. After the third ep I was convinced it was a great anime, with the potential to become one of my 5-star favourites. I stalled it after ep 7, because it was so good that I wanted to wait for all the eps to come out and then marathon it for maximum enjoyment.

Today was finally the day I marathoned it. It never let me down, not even once. To be honest, I was completely defenceless against Erio's moe, she's the only character to ever make me so completely and utterly surrender to moe that I wouldn't have cared if the show was horrible otherwise. The most beautiful character design I've ever seen combined with irresistibly moe personality. She's the heart and soul of this anime.

However, she's not the entire anime. The fact is, Denpa Onna has not only the most beautiful female character designs ever, it also has immensely entertaining dialogue, a lovable quirky cast of characters, lots of depth hidden beneath all the silliness, great character development, fantastic direction, storytelling and 'camera' angles, a harem that keeps me rooting for one character while being unable to bring myself to dislike any of the others, and finally, plenty of touching, beautiful scenes with strong atmosphere. It's mainly a slice of life story, so I can't say there's much plot, but there's plenty of development in characters alone, so you don't need any more plot than that.

The ending is... inconclusive, but definitely climatic enough. I didn't expect a conclusive ending, since there are still light novels left to adapt, so I'm perfectly happy with the 13th episode. I really, really hope that the whole story will be adapted to anime. I want more of this, I want to know more about these quirky characters, I want more scenes that make me tear up, and I want a fulfilling conclusion to the romance - even at the risk that it's not my favourite girl who wins.

Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko is now officially my fifth 5-star anime series, the fifth series I've ever seen that I consider near perfect. At the moment I'm unable to objectively say which place it takes in my top 5, but it's in there, that much is certain. It's a masterpiece.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Fernando Factor on April 23, 2012, 09:25:56 pm
Guilty Crown

Long time no see an Anime capable to make me excited. In the first episode I though it was too shounen to my likes and I was about to forsake, but the curiosity push me a little further, the character desing was really good, and in the following episodes the story was going deep and interesting (omoshiroi).

From the middle to the last episodes the results was changing, and a new course was going, I couldn't stop to think "what will happen next?" I can really recommend if you look for an Anime with a beautifull character desing, an unpredictable story and dramatically deep enough to reach your emotional side.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on April 25, 2012, 10:31:39 pm
Brave10

Entertaining action and cool characters, that's pretty much all there is to say about Brave10. The male lead is pretty awesome, strong from the start. The story is obviously incomplete, so I hope there'll be a second season, I would certainly watch another season of this. 3.5/5 stars.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on April 29, 2012, 11:29:46 pm
Kamisama no Memo-chou

KamiMemo ended up being much better than I expected based on the first few eps. It's a bit of a mismatch between the very realistic, dark-toned crimes and the not-so-realistic and lighter-toned main character group, but in the end it was very enjoyable for me. The weakest point, the somewhat bland protagonist, has a pretty decent character development and by the end he's no longer much of a weak point. The strong point, the realistic crimes (not just murders, it includes drugs, prostitution, organized crime and such) really stand out in the two long arcs, eps 4-8 and 10-12. I think this could've been worth 5 stars without all the NEET nonsense and with characters who were a bit better overall and better suited to their environment. It was certainly intelligent and well dramatised enough for max stars. But, as it is, 4/5 stars.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on May 19, 2012, 12:15:55 pm
Seto no Hanayome

Well, that was... interesting. The comedy in general wasn't really my cup of tea, and the show is fairly reliant on comedy. There was one episode I actually found hilarious, most were so-so, some were fucking terrible. The characters are nothing to brag about either, most of them are one-dimensional comedy characters. The female lead is okay, and I can't say that many of the side characters don't stand out in their own ways, but the male lead is pretty pathetic most of the time. I've seen worse, however, and he does have a few moments of sheer awesomeness. Romance plays a fairly important part, it's... okay. I've seen better, but I guess the romance is somewhat above average. Still, if this were all, I would have dropped Seto no Hanayome before finishing it.

However, the show has two saving graces. First, the music. Music has a pretty important part in the show, and it's composed by the awesome Takanashi Yasuharu, and the two seiyuu who sing in the insert songs are both great. The OST is one of my all-time favourites. Secondly, the show has a few scenes of blindingly brilliant dramatisation. I'll never forget episodes 8, 13 and 24. These episodes alone would have raised the show from 2½-star mediocrity to 3-star above average rating.

Then there is the last episode. The episode that deserves a paragraph of its own. The episode that single-handedly raises the show's rating by one fucking star! I still get the chills remembering it. Such pure awesomeness is so, so rare. I'd say this episode is in my top 3 best concluding episodes I've ever seen, quite possibly the very best. It takes the brilliant dramatisation of the three episodes mentioned above and cranks it up to eleven. It takes the more or less pathetic male lead and turns him into a real man. It gives you various kinds of satisfactions, it's full of action and romance, it's got countless epic moments and dialogue lines. And it gives a pretty satisfying ending (though the story isn't over yet). It's a superbly climatic ending that this barely above average show didn't deserve. It alone makes it worthwhile to suffer the bad comedy and the good-for-nothing male lead for 25 episodes.

I still have the OVA's to watch, but I doubt they'll give me anything new to write about. 4/5 stars.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on May 28, 2012, 01:12:43 am
Strike Witches season 1

Until the 8th episode this was barely worth watching, an episodic fanservice fest focusing on introducing the characters. I'm not a fan of the character designs, so the fanservice had no positive side for me, it was only a negative element. Also, the lack of any major male characters, and the dialogue and comedy overall being quite mediocre, the character interaction was mostly uninteresting for me. The only thing keeping the anime entertaining enough to watch was the action.

Then, once the character introductions were done, around the end of ep 8... the plot kicked in. Despite only lasting about 4-5 episodes, it managed a few interesting twists, not to mention a lot of entertaining action. I really enjoyed these episodes. Overall, it was worth watching. 3/5 stars
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on May 31, 2012, 03:16:01 am
Asura Cryin'

My third watch, and the anime is still as great as ever. The fact that it's a mecha anime might turn you away, but let me tell you this: I despise mecha in general, but I love Asura Cryin'. It's not often you see an anime with an awesome, complex plot like this. It's a bit confusing at first, on the first watch, but intriguing from the start, thanks to numerous mysteries. The main character is also a bit on the bland side in the first season, but he gets a lot better towards the end of the series.

Main character aside, there are many great characters in Asura Cryin'. Misao, the protagonist's ghost childhood friend, always thinks out-of-the-box and comes up with hilarious observations. There are also a bunch of totally kickass female characters. There are antagonists who really make you hate them, and some who turn out to be decent, even admirable. All of them, however, have depth. Despite the protagonist having a harem, I find the balance of male and female characters good enough. Also no complaints about character development, though I don't consider it among the anime's many strong points. Despite a few mediocre cases, overall the crew is pretty awesome.

The settings are full of great ideas. It's funny how large a part of such a grand-scale adventure is spent in a school, but once you get over the absurdity of it, it's actually rather nice. Asura Cryin' is pretty much the only anime that I consider to be on the heavy side yet enjoy re-watching often, and the reason for that might be how well it blends light school life with epic adventure and fantasy action. The world also has a lot of intriguing mysteries that I enjoyed discovering (I love ruins of lost, advanced civilisations), and the fusion of magic and technology, demons and mecha, gave birth to a very interesting magic system. I really like the fact that many essential aspects of the magic system are more or less explained.

The action is very nice. Lots of explosions (mostly thanks to Shuri, a woman who carries enough weapons in her body to arm a battalion), magic and unusually cool mecha. There's enough variation to the Asura Machina's and demons' abilities to keep me happy. Besides action, the comedy isn't bad at all, and overall I consider the entertainment value of Asura Cryin' to be in the highest class together with Kaze no Stigma and Ookami-san to Shichi-nin no Nakama-tachi.

Then there are some scenes... beautiful and epic, touching scenes. Foremost among them in my mind is the first season finale, ep 13. Even on my third watch, even though I knew exactly what was coming, the emotional impact was just as strong as ever. Made me cry like a baby. Part of its brilliance is in the 11th episode, which seems oddly peaceful in such an action-packed anime at first, but which deepens some characters nicely in preparation for their starring role in the 13th episode. In its most climatic moments, Asura Cryin' usually manages some great dramatisation.

Musics are generally very good. The best BGM's are very atmospheric, and both seasons have amazing OP's and ED's by angela. Character designs are a bit rough, but the Asura Machina look really cool. Also, the magic circles have pretty cool designs. Battle animation isn't bad at all, there are a few lazy stills but mostly it's pretty fluid combat.

But in the end, the plot is the strongest point of this anime. Certainly, there are a few problems with it that could be considered plotholes, but that's pretty much unavoidable considering there are powers in the story capable of manipulating space and time. In return, they enabled the creation of a really complex, screwed up plotline with lots of delicious mysteries, interesting characters and epic world-saving. What's best, by the end almost everything makes sense (though it might take a second watch): all the important mysteries are properly explained and all the plotlines neatly tied up.

As in any epic fantasy story done right, there is tragedy and comedy, life and death, love and hate, humanity and inhumanity, past and future, a beginning and an end... and a whole lot of good ideas. Asura Cryin' is one of the most complete, fulfilling stories of its kind I've ever seen or read. If not for some minor weaknesses, like the protagonist being rather bland at first, and its wisdom lacking just a bit of depth in comparison to my other 5-star anime... *sigh* Well, missing a place among my 5-star anime by a very small margin, I rate Asura Cryin' 4½/5 stars.

Damn... Wrote another wall of text. -.-'
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on June 01, 2012, 06:24:03 am
Suzumiya Haruhi no Shoushitsu

Hmm... Not bad. A notch above the first season of the series, I'd say. A bit boring at first, and Kyon's embarrassing panicking was downright painful to watch, but other than that, it was enjoyable. The Yuki who actually showed some emotion was much cuter than her extreme kuudere normal self (even if she's slowly changing), though she's still not my type. Haruhi going missing was good, and even when she was found, she wasn't altogether quite as annoying as usual. The little window on Koizumi's true feelings was welcome. Mikuru was lovely, as usual. All the central characters got some development and the plot was deliciously twisted. Animation was top-class, musics okay. I felt Kyon's narration lacked... something, I rarely found it funny. But all in all, a good watch. I'll give it 4/5 stars.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: hensomm on June 01, 2012, 06:58:40 am
Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai

First of all... wtf, long title.

I found it to be an enjoyable anime, with the key feature of realistic and relatable characters which added to the real feel of this anime. While I do find the usually characters in anime to be extremely enjoyable this was a great change of pace to see anime characters who actually 1. acted human and 2. I could imagine being real people.

However the story I found dragged on a bit too much. It seemed to self-glorify the way it stretched out its episodes having minimal levels of character development. By the end I can say that the overall development of the characters was well done, but could have been done so in half the time.

I did like the story, was interesting reminded me of  :fuko: so that is never a bad thing. The ending I have issues with, mainly because it kept dodging around how it actually wanted to end, eventually settling for a contrived "feel good" and cheesy finale.

9/10

*I would have given it an 8.5 but the creativity and quality of the opening made me give it another .5*


P.s. don't expect me to post here often, I just did it so Krozam would stfu on cbox about being the only one to post here  :hibiki:
Title: Shiki
Post by: Miku on June 04, 2012, 09:54:49 pm
Shiki   # of Ep. 1-22    Rating: 10/10

Well, in a year full of Twilight and Vampire Diaries hypes and other crappy vampire stories, Shiki comes as a refreshing drink. That's how a vampire story has to be. The feeling of suspense and horror, deaths and plot twists. If you can't have this in a vampire story than it's not vampires you're dealing with. It's just some shiny metrosexual guy with fangs.

The story of Shiki is absolutely outstanding. Full of plot twists, heart racing revelations and it gets to a point where you're not absolutely sure which side to support, vampires or humans. While the first half of the anime is for story and suspense development, the second half focuses on the war between the two species.

The art is amazing as well. The sceneries are well detailed, the characters are really well drawn and it always enhances the feelings that are supposed to be conveyed.

The soundtrack, as the art, never fails to help enhancing the atmosphere. Takanashi Yasuharu had already done a great job in Ayakashi: Japanese Classic Horror and in Jigoku Shoujo, among others, and showed his skills once again in this amazing anime.

Possibly the strongest point in this series, the character development is unique. Vampires or humans, all of them are deep and act accordingly to what could be expected in the situation they are. Some will often make you have twisted feelings towards them.

With so many great aspects this is by far and large the best show iv seen about vampires. I enjoyed watching until the very last episode and hopefully there'll be a second season.

So, if you're looking for suspense and vampiries, look no more. Shiki is the one! ;D

Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on June 05, 2012, 08:12:10 am
Well, the original author of Shiki is Ono Fuyumi, the author of masterpieces such as Juuni Kokuki and Ghost Hunt, so the director would have to be really crappy to be able to mess that one up. ┐( ̄ー ̄)┌ I'm not very far into the series yet, and I must admit I wasn't too impressed by the beginning, but I fully expect to love the series once I watch the rest of it. That's how it was for Juuni Kokuki, too: the first 5 eps are nothing special, but in the end it's my all-time favourite anime.

As for musics... Takanashi Yasuharu doing the BGM and Buck-Tick doing the OP, there's so way the musics could be anything less than awesome. ┐( ̄ー ̄)┌
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Miku on June 05, 2012, 04:05:51 pm
Well, the original author of Shiki is Ono Fuyumi, the author of masterpieces such as Juuni Kokuki and Ghost Hunt, so the director would have to be really crappy to be able to mess that one up. ┐( ̄ー ̄)┌ I'm not very far into the series yet, and I must admit I wasn't too impressed by the beginning, but I fully expect to love the series once I watch the rest of it. That's how it was for Juuni Kokuki, too: the first 5 eps are nothing special, but in the end it's my all-time favourite anime.

As for musics... Takanashi Yasuharu doing the BGM and Buck-Tick doing the OP, there's so way the musics could be anything less than awesome. ┐( ̄ー ̄)┌

yes when i first started in episodes 1-5 or 6 i was like this is boring but then it started to get good and i couldn't stop watching it i hope there is a second season  :konata:
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on July 11, 2012, 07:49:05 pm
Haiyore! Nyaruko-san

I enjoyed this anime a helluva lot more than I should have, considering my usual taste in comedy. The comedy is simple, sometimes even crude, but somehow I just found myself laughing more often than not. Also, the romance isn't bad, although the male lead is just a bit too tsun. Honestly, I must say that I found the anime excellent light entertainment, if somewhat too shallow and scarce in character development for my tastes. 3/5 stars.


Nagareboshi Lens

This short shoujo OVA was recommended to me by Irie Naoki. In one sentence it's an extreme case of pure love story. Too sparkly, too innocent female main, too perfect male main, too simple a story... It left the theme of jealousy, which as a properly used element of conflict could have made the story much better, sadly unexplored. Sorry, Irie, but I found it boring. Not unwatchable, I've seen much worse, but worth only 2/5 stars.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on July 30, 2012, 08:02:12 am
Nisemonogatari

As the sequel to Bakemonogatari, which I count among my top 15 anime, I was looking forward to this. Fortunately, it didn't let me down. Maybe it isn't quite as good as Bake, but there's no significant difference. Nise only has two arcs, the first of them spanning 7 eps and thus a bit slower in pace than the arcs in Bake and the other arc which only got 4 eps. I don't mind, though, the dialogue is as brilliant as always and the time that isn't spent advancing the plot is well spent re-acquainting us with all the lovable characters. Of course, it's also very nice to learn more about Shinobu and Koyomi's sisters, who didn't get much time in Bake. There's less of the annoying visual randomness than in Bake, but Akiyuki Shinbou's hand is still noticeable, which I count as a plus. He's a great director when he doesn't go too far with the visual randomness. 4.5/5 stars.

BTW, after watching Nise, I got the urge to re-watch Bake, which I did the next day. It was a nostalgic marathon and confirmed that Bake is indeed as great as I remembered. Senjougahara is one of the most brilliant female characters ever creted, and I immensely enjoy Hachikuji's dialogue.


Acchi Kocchi
Cuteness overload. Romantic slice of life at its best. I don't usually enjoy 4-koma or their adaptations, but something about Acchi Kocchi makes it unusually enjoyable. The female lead is cute and the male lead is likeable and both are cool. The supporting cast are are a fun bunch. The comedy is sometimes great, sometimes good - usually great - and I love the carefree mood, somehow it's not boring at all, it just sucks you into the show. 4/5 stars, the best rating I've ever given a mainly slice of life show.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: AnimeIndex22 on August 02, 2012, 11:20:39 am
C3 CubexCursedxCurious

I personally liked this series. It was better than I thought it would be. Has action/comedy/romance/ecchi etc. Story is really getting good. Hope the studio does a second season. It really deserves a second season!  :konata: like the emoticons. :P

8.5/10
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: AnimeIndex22 on August 12, 2012, 06:29:34 pm
Angel Beats!

What can i say about this? Well the story was very interesting. The characters were very well-developed (well to me). TK was probably one of my favorite characters. Great music/soundtracks. Has comedy and some romance. Action with GUNS LOL! It was good. Angel Beats! even made me get teary eyed.
It was a great show. Kept my interests.

9/10
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Oukimuni on September 10, 2012, 10:15:21 pm
Katanagatari :togame:

I was exited by the art style, but It was tough getting into the dialogue heavy show. I had to strain through the first episode, but after that the series flew by, despite being 50min episodes.
The experience was unique and fun, the characters were adorable, and vibrant, and the story was wonderful.

I suggest any who have felt a slump in anime to find and watch this series.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on September 21, 2012, 09:38:42 pm
Katanagatari is good, I should finish it one of these days...

Haven't watched anime for a month or so. Been busy with studies and stuff. This weekend I'm going to try and catch up on a few recent/ongoing series. First off:

Hyouka
An excellent anime. At first I was somewhat underwhelmed by the slice of life element's domination and the... 'insignificant' nature of the mysteries, but on the other hand, I was quite impressed that they managed to make those 'insignificant' mysteries so interesting. I also liked the characters and the calm atmosphere, and the fact that they didn't rush the story, opting to adapt a small enough number of novels into 22 episodes, instead of the nowadays all too common 12-13 eps.

Regarding characters, I find Houtarou, the protagonist, quite easy to identify with, as I'm also very lazy and somewhat unsocial, lol. I also like the smart type over all the useless idiots and most of the action heroes. I don't find Eru quite as adorable as everyone else seems to think, but she's cute enough and amusing. I actually prefer Mayaka, her personality is darker and more complex, but still not too much of a downer, and I like her character design more. Satoshi is an unusually good 'sidekick' character with a deep and complex personality, it was a delight to see the story peel off layer after layer of his carefree exterior.

Later on there are some really intriguing mysteries, though they never stray far from the minor everyday problems concept. Throughout the series there is a pleasant, calm but powerful atmosphere that kept me hooked well enough. The dialogue is good - nowhere near Bakemonogatari-level good, but good enough to carry the dialogue-heavy, action-less show through with flying colours. There's a calculated amount of quite decent humour to lighten up the mood. As a spice, there is some romantic tension between the two pairs (another thing I like about the story, no annoying triangles, the pairings are clear from the start), though the romances don't really develop in any significant way.

Did I forget anything that should be mentioned? I'm kinda tired and I've eaten too much sugar tonight, not thinking straight anymore, so this'll have to do for a review. Overall, a pleasant slice of life mystery show with deep and multidimensional characters. 4/5 stars.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on September 22, 2012, 05:51:41 pm
Hagure Yuusha no Estetica

A nice, entertaining action fantasy, comparable to Brave10 and such. The male lead is pretty badass, and his nonchalant pervertedness brings some good comedy into the mix. Somewhat simple and predictable he is, but his coolness and likeable personality far outweigh this flaw. My interest in the other characters varies, some are pretty interesting, some are bland and boring. Some of the central characters are given some depth, but overall they're just as simple and thin as you can expect from an action-oriented show - so far. As for the plot... well, the first half, while entertaining, felt like playing around, and it only really got interesting to me on the second half. It has potential to continue getting more and more interesting in following seasons, provided such are made (the ending clearly suggests they're prepared to continue if a second season is green-lit), there is a fair amount of unsolved mysteries and two worlds with different settings to explore. Not to mention the basic concept of the story, which has potential for much more than this first season of Hagure achieved.

My problem from the start was that I wasn't really... feeling it. The story, while interesting and entertaining on some level, left me cold until the last few eps, which drew me in a bit more. Too many of the characters are one-dimensional and boring, and I didn't really get attached to any of them (even the ones given some depth), though I did get a few pleasant surprises in the end (the deal with the bully, to name one that left me an impression). Overall, I was well entertained and I'd definitely watch more of this, but there are some areas that I hope would be improved in the second season. 3.5/5 stars.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Hamadarusama on September 22, 2012, 11:58:28 pm
ToAru Majutsu no Index ^ ToAru Kagaku no Railgun

Genre:
Sci-fi, comedy, supernatural

Story:
Both are the same anime (as you can probably see for yourselfs), but they have 2 different sides of the world to focus on. Majutsu (which means magic) focuses on the magic side of the world (no shit!(^□^*)), while Kagaku (which means science) focuses on the science side of the world. The stories of both are very well composed and has some cool features, battles, twists and more. The endings of both are also satisfying to watch. There are many that can complain about them, but they were done perfectly. d(-_^)

Characters:
Some of what they did best with this anime, was the personalities of the characters. They are all special, from a sixty years old loli, to 20.000 clones all talking in the same way and with the same cold expression. Every character is very special! (^∀^*) The relations between the main characters are also very variated and carefully thought out and it feels like they're really friends/enemies. It also makes viewers of the series feel that they know the characters personally.
Most of the story revolves around the main characters interacting with each other in some sort of way, either fightning each other or biting and harrasing each other for the funs. (_ _)ヾ(‘ ロ ‘)

Battles/conflicts: (>_<)○------(^o^)○
If you have watched and liked Hajime no Ippo, i recommend you to watch toaru too! This is like falcon punch central (well at least Majutsu). The main character is always using though punches to defeat his opponents who are using magic or esper powers. But anyways, the battles are well fought out, with some surprises in some of them and some epic sights in some others that can send a chill down your spine ((+_+)) Another thing that's great about the battles are that they are exciting. There are so many unknown and interesting powers in this anime, so it's nice to see some cool effects and think about how the main character will defeat the opponent.

Other stuff, ost, op etc:
I still can't get the opening songs from ToAru out of my head. They are so amazing and match the anime perfectly. Also the osts are so simple, yet so compactable with the situation that they are used in to create a fun, or an epic battle moment. (^∀^)ノ

Bottom Line:
With such interesting powers, special personalities, epic battles and a well composed story, all placed in a beautiful city with an amazing fresh feel to it, i can only recommend everyone to watch it. It's definietly one of my favourite animes atm and i'm glad that i started watching it. (・∀・ )

9.1/10

Well then that's my opinion of that, guess i'll see you guys later. Cha!! ( ´ ▽ ` )ノ
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: AnimeIndex22 on October 08, 2012, 01:50:34 am
To Love-Ru/Motto To Love-Ru

9.5/10

Nothing much to say......I'm a fan of ECCHI, COMEDY, and ROMANCE. :)

I'm ready for TO LOVE-RU DARKNESS!! after a long time of waiting! :D
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on October 14, 2012, 06:48:31 pm
Campione!

I'll save you the heated rant I'd like to write, and keep this short. It's really bad, especially as an adaptation, but also on its own. Five light novels crammed into 13 episodes, the last of them being almost entirely anime-only, it's obvious that the result is incredibly rushed. The only reason I forced myself to take the torture all the way to the end is because I wanted to see certain scenes from the novels animated. Usually I was disappointed, but sometimes, especially the 4th episode, it was okay. I'll give this 2 stars, because the musics are great, the art & animation are good, and the characters stayed surprisingly well in character. And because of that single good episode. While I recommend reading the novels, they are good, I also recommend steering clear of this anime, if you're like me and dislike wasting time on below average anime.


Scrapped Princess

To balance the negative review of Campione, I have something really good for you. I saw from the start that Scrapped Princess is good: I established my expectations at 4 stars during the first few episodes. However, I didn't expect it to keep getting better and better. The characters are likeable, deep and multi-dimensional; the plot is excellent; there is quite a lot of depth; the entertainment value (battles, comedy etc.) is fairly high; the production values are high for an old-ish anime (2003); and both the concept and the settings are quite interesting. Apart from the first 4 episodes, I marathoned this entire anime last night: I didn't want to stop despite being very tired for hours before I was finished. I was about 20 episodes in when I realised that it had long ago surpassed the 4 stars point, and I was watching a clear 4.5- or 5-star anime.

If I had to name weaknesses in the anime, I'd say that a few of the characters are a bit too emo, it might annoy some viewers. But personally I wasn't bothered, because those characters seriously have hard lives, and they have plenty of other moods as well besides the angst. Another thing is that a couple of characters I'd have liked to see more developed didn't get the attention they deserve (mainly Raquel). However, most of the major characters were developed more than sufficiently, so it's a minor problem. The third thing is, the musics are a bit meh. Not bad altogether, but the OP and ED should have been changed into more somber ones halfway down the road, and the BG musics are just average stuff that supports the story well enough, but never really caught my attention.

The special thing about this anime is what it does with the classic fantasy adventure concept that it starts with. It gets darker towards the end, there is tragedy you wouldn't expect from such a light-hearted OP (which is why I skipped it after a certain point: it no longer fit the mood of the story); it blends in scifi elements (I love ancient technology in fantasy settings!); and while it doesn't avoid all the clichés, some of them it explains, gives them reason, unlike any other fantasy anime/manga I've ever seen/read. How often do you actually get a valid explanation why the fantasy worlds seems to be permanently stuck in the middle ages? The ending is great, it's climatic and unpredictable, though there are a few minor things I would have done differently.

Besides the ancient technology, the story has other elements I really like, such as humans struggling against gods, so you could say that a part of the favourable tone in my review is because the story is very much up my alley. However, looking as objectively as I can, this is still a very high quality story with lots of depth and no major weaknesses. There were more than a few scenes where I teared up, a couple where I actually cried a bit, so I have a fairly heavy emotional investment on some of the characters. A damn good anime. 5/5 stars.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on October 15, 2012, 11:10:39 pm
Macademi Wasshoi!

Huh... That was one hell of ride. Magic and explosions, fanservice and harem comedy, this energetic parody anime is a bucketful of sheer fun. The only exception is the 11th episode, which is much, much more serious than the others and acts as the climax to the almost non-existent plot. I had a lot of fun watching this, my only small complaint is that the male lead is a bit useless, the harem ends up doing most of the work. It's a shame this was only 12 episodes long, I would've gladly watched more. 4/5 stars, because of the immense entertainment value.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on October 17, 2012, 09:12:48 am
Kono Naka ni Hitori, Imouto ga Iru!

Better than I expected. Yes, it's a generic harem anime where I couldn't even bother memorising everyone's names, and yes, you can guess the sister already in the second arc, but still, the plot was surprisingly good.

(click to show/hide)

Anyway, as a whole the anime kept my interest pretty well: the comedy is okay, and as I said, the plot is actually quite good for a generic harem anime. I'm holding on to the dim hope that the OVA will have a conclusion instead of being a pointless fanservice episode... 3/5
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on November 10, 2012, 05:30:24 am
I just watched Special A. It was good and I had the time, so I marathoned it all at once. One of the best romance anime I've seen. Even though it's shoujo with a tomboy girl for main character and a perfect guy for a male lead, it's not the kind of shoujo I dislike. The guy isn't a cold bastard and the girl isn't in love with him - the concept is more like Kaichou wa Maid-sama, the guy is after the girl, who's freaking oblivious to the notion of liking someone, she only sees him as a rival. So, the guy makes sure he beats her in everything, so she doesn't lose interest in him. It works surprisingly well.

Another thing unlike most shoujo manga/anime is that the secondary characters get a fair amount of focus and character development, even their own romances (one of which is almost better than the main one, unless you really dislike the violent tsundere archetype). There's also a pretty conclusive ending, though it's obvious that the anime cut the story short, there's no way it could have gone through 17 volumes of manga in 24 episodes. The characters really grew on me, and I teared up a couple of times.

One thing bothered me in the beginning: the character designs are worse than Clamp's, with their straight, ridiculously long legs. But the art style improved over time, and what bad parts remained, I got used to.

As I said, one of the best romance anime I've seen. 4/5 stars. In comparison, Maid-sama, which is one of my favourite shoujo romances, got only 3.5. Shuffle got 4. Toradora and Kaitou Saint Tail got 4.5, though, they had an even stronger emotional effect on me.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: doki2x on June 27, 2013, 06:25:14 pm
I just finish uta no prince sama. I really like the ending..
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Kuroneko on July 30, 2013, 01:04:45 pm
Mayo Chiki

Awesome anime with a few ecchi scenes. I really like this anime for its ecchi and a bit of romance it blends perfectly for me for its genre is like balance where in you would'nt get bored but some scenes are predictable in a whole new different word. This is so awesome to even my brother love this but what my younger brother and i loves the most is the scene wherein sakamaCHI KINjirou got sick episode 4 i guess. well glad to share some thoughts about anime to this group.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Hanover Fist on September 04, 2013, 12:30:16 pm
Kagihime Monogatari – Eikyuu Alice Rondo (http://bakabt.me/description.php?id=166089) - (torrent (http://bakabt.me/166089-kagihime-monogatari-eikyuu-alice-rondo-jumonji-giri.html))

This series dates back to 2006 so it's a little bit old-school, but it was worth the re-watch: Aruto is a big fan of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and does some fan-fiction writing himself. He strongly wishes there was a third Alice novel. One night he sees a magical bunny-girl bouncing across the rooftops and he follows her to the library. He discovers that (mainly large-breasted) girls battle in this Wonderland Space to gain each others' stories. When all the stories are combined, they will form a third Alice novel - The Eternal Alice - and grant a wish.

The plot is sufficiently twisty with some action, some ecchi, magical girls and a hint of wincest. There are 12 episodes and a silly special for #13. I don't think it deserves a full Enticing to Watch (http://forums.fansub.co/index.php?board=31.0) thread writeup but it was a fun ride and rates a good 4 out of 5.
Title: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Hanover Fist on September 06, 2013, 05:48:33 pm
I got a 4 TB external last week and I copied the best of my ancient .avis to an old 2 TB drive. This is now plugged straight into the big screen's USB. It saves a little time avoiding the desktop to thumb drive to laptop to HDMI to TV route. I stumbled upon Krozam's post (http://forums.fansub.co/index.php?topic=382.msg9837#msg9837) above and I foolishly started watching Scrapped Princess off that drive yesterday afternoon. I hadn't seen it in almost a decade and it ranked pretty good in my faded memory ...

Now that I've finished an accidental 24 episode marathon, awake for well over a day now, "pretty good" is an understatement. "FRACKING AWESOME" might be more accurate. Krozam did a much better job than I can (in my sleep-deprived state) of explaining why the show is so excellent. So I'll just close with a 4.9 out of 5.0 and a torrent (http://bakabt.me/146056-scrapped-princess-rabbit-force-dvd-h264-vorbis.html) link. G'night!
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on September 07, 2013, 07:05:32 pm
I got hooked to it as well and ended up watching the end through tired eyes. I don't let just any anime in my 5/5 club. ;)
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Hanover Fist on September 23, 2013, 06:20:49 am
Kiniro Mosaic

This was a cute little slice of life series with some good laughs. Nothing extraordinary: A Japanese girl named Shinobu goes to visit England for a homestay as a child. She meets and later befriends a cute and shy English blonde named Alice even though they only understand a word or two of the other's speech. Shinobu goes home. Alice learns Japanese and comes to Japan years later in her first year of high school.

I'm not archiving it and probably won't watch it again, but it wasn't a waste of time. The ED song was also quite catchy in a big band sort of way. I'd give it a 3/5.

Edit: Dexter

I also just finished off the final Dexter season. I have happy memories of marathoning the earlier seasons with my late father year after year. It's sad that he missed the final season. I'm not sure how I would have expected the writers to end the show, but I felt a little dissatisfied by the way they chose. Still an intriguing watch.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on January 15, 2014, 04:55:07 pm
Kyoukai no Kanata
I like this anime quite a bit for its funny, snappy dialogue and strong mood. It also has moe girls and standard KyoAni animation, so it's very aesthetically pleasing. A decent male protagonist and entertaining, well-animated action. The plot is so-so. I could've given this 4 stars if not for the cheap ending, which drops it down to 3½ stars.

Witch Hunter Robin
One of my early anime from about 8 years ago. My third watch. Everything about this anime is slow, from general pacing to the way the characters walk. There's a bit of quite decent action in most episodes, though, and the ending is suitably climatic. At first the show is very episodic, but the main plot that kicks in at ep 11 is sooo good. I love those moments when everything you think you know about the story world is turned upside down. The mood is powerful, melancholic, further enforced by the fantastic OP song. The downside is, the story is almost completely devoid of humour. The characters are realistic, mostly not very stereotypical, and most of them have decent depth. Iwasaki Taku's great soundtrack completes the package. Overall, a great anime, 4/5 stars.

Hataraku Maou-sama
I could've sworn I wrote some kind of a review of this when I finished the show quite long ago, but apparently not. Anyway, I rewatched some action scenes today, figured I might as well add a short review of it in this post. The show is mostly comedy and slice of life, and unfortunately, I don't like the comedy. I cracked a smile maybe once an episode. The characters are also not that interesting or deep, and most of them are quite stereotypical. I'd have dropped the show after the first ep, but someone (Danyo?) convinced me to keep going. Well, at ep 5 I knew why. Most of the action moments are superbly dramatised, and whenever Maou has a bit of magic to use, he's fucking badass. The action moments alone were quite worthy of suffering through everything else. 3 stars.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on January 23, 2014, 07:13:28 am
Happiness!

Quite decent for a slice of life romcom with a little magic for spice. It doesn't try to be the most original story, but what it does, it does fairly well. It even had a plot in the last 4 eps (disregarding the OVA). I wish it'd started a little sooner, the result would have been less rushed. Not that the ending as a whole is rushed, just the one exposition episode, which dumps a lot of character history on the viewer in one go. After that, the ending is nicely paced, suitably climatic, and pleasingly definite. The romance is pretty cute, the comedy is decent, and the cast is likeable enough. The male lead is quite okay, and the girl they chose for main heroine (it's based on a VN by Windmill Oasis) was probably the right choice. I like the show slightly more than the anime adaptation of Windmill's later VN, Shukufuku no Campanella. 3/5 stars.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on March 13, 2014, 09:31:20 am
Overman King Gainer

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this anime for me is that even though it's mecha and full of abilities ridiculous for scifi, my suspension of disbelief system had no problem handling it. I usually hate mecha, and most of Japanese scifi in general. No idea why this one was so easy to accept.

Overman is really quite an enjoyable anime. It's only too bad it doesn't reach half of its full potential. The story settings are very interesting, the characters aren't half-bad, and there's even potential for a nice romance on the side, but all of this is severely hindered by the fact that every single episode is crammed full of action. Don't take me wrong, the action is enjoyable in itself, and both the settings and characters do get some development at times, but it's just not as good as it could be. The beginning is confusing, half the series feels rushed, and after several episodes of excellent build-up, the last ep is somewhat rushed and anti-climatic. It's not like 26 eps wouldn't have been enough for this story, even a much longer story, it's just that with 80% of every ep being spent in battle, there's little time left for what I consider "more interesting stuff."

Anyway, once you get past the first ep, which is pretty confusing and doesn't explain much, the story adopts a "mecha of the week" routine. The main characters are pretty likeable, even the teenage boy in the leading role is gutsy and competent enough. Granted, I don't know what the leads in mecha anime are usually like, but seeing as he does most of the heavy lifting in nearly every battle, and even manages to be reasonably straightforward about his feelings for a girl, I don't think anyone could call him useless. The secondary lead is pretty awesome, the girls in the show aren't half-bad, and most of the major antagonists are given almost more character development than the protagonists, so overall I'm not disappointed with the characters, although they could have been much better.

Starting ep 12, it starts getting better. Still a few forgettable eps in the mix, but most of the eps on the second half are much better than a single one in the first half. As I mentioned earlier, the last arc gets several eps of build-up (battle-filled build-up, of course), only to end in a somewhat rushed and anti-climatic way. I won't call the ending bad, but I was expecting much better based on the build-up.

The episode plots are rather repetitive, but the good villain characters and the interesting - if underused - overarching plot make it worthwhile. The basic concept is great, and there are lots of good ideas thrown around carelessly, half-used. I know I'm repeating myself, but the show could really have been so much better if they'd properly delved into the rich backstory and explored the fairly unique settings.

I'm not a good judge of animation quality, but it's not bad. The combat is fluid, which is very good, since most of the anime is spent in combat. Some of the musics are forgettable, but the OP is epic, the ED is kinda good too, and Meeya's song is very nice. I've already DL'ed the OST.

In conclusion, Overman is a fun ride which wastes the vast potential in its settings and characters by cramming every episode full of, admittedly quite entertaining, action. 3.5/5 stars.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on March 20, 2014, 03:08:58 am
This isn't an anime, it's a live action series, but I wanted to write a review...

GARO (+ the 2nd season, Makai Senki, and the specials/movies Byakuya no Majuu, Red Requiem, Soukoku no Maryuu)

Well, I certainly didn't expect the series to become so good, based on the first few episodes. It stars off as a typical modern fantasy demon hunting story with a monster of the week pattern. Clichéd as fuck, but reasonably entertaining. Quite a lot of action, which is a blend of martial arts and CGI-heavy fantasy battle.

In the 7th ep, I first glimpsed a view of the epicness this series could achieve in its battles. The special effects aren't at their best in the first season, but boy, do they know how to make an aerial battle! Garo's battles put many an anime and manga to shame. I'm rather looking forward to the anime adaptation, it will be interesting to make comparisons.

Starting the 18th ep, the story gets interesting. They finally stop with the monster of the week routine and introduce a plot. The plot is hardly complex, but even as such it makes the series a hell of a lot more interesting. And towards the end, the story gets seriously epic. I consider the ending of the first series a fine example of a properly climatic, fulfilling ending.

The specials, Byakuya no Majuu and Red Requiem are pretty good. They expand the story universe and introduce some good recurring characters. Not to mention having some nice action with improved CGI.

The second season, Makai Senki, is better than the first one. It, too, starts with the monster of the week routine, but it doesn't last so long, and there are occasional plot episodes in between. The plot starts right from the first ep, and it's a lot more interesting than that of the first season. Also, the settings are once again considerably expanded. Of course, the special effects are clearly improved from the first season, and it seems the budget is overall larger, resulting in a larger cast and higher quality overall. The climax of the season is once again epic shit, though I feel like I put my expectations slightly too high, resulting in a slight disappointment. My emotional investment in the second season was far heavier than in the first season, in part thanks to being already familiar with most of the major characters, in part simply because it's better. I teared up a couple of times.

Lastly, there's the movie Soukoku no Maryuu, which I just finished. It's... different. In fact, it's completely fucking absurd. The MC travels to an absurd world clearly inspired by The Wizard of Oz. As such, it's filled with weird creatures, vivid colours and, well, it's by far the most CGI-heavy stuff seen in the series so far. It's a pretty nice movie, though.

The main character, Kouga, is stone-faced, strong and quiet type, curt to the point of coming off as a jerk at first. He's a steadfast hero, and someone might find him boring, but I far prefer his type to an annoying teenager. His character development is slow and not so easily visible, but it's there. The female lead, Kaoru, is in the first season a constant damsel in disteress. Or should I say, demon bait. In the second season, she's no longer plot-centric, and as such her screentime is considerably reduced. But, she play the role of Kouga's love interest well enough, and provides some touching romantic moments. Also, her art is great. I love that picture book she makes during the second season, the pages presented at the end of each episode have a very special mood to them, especially once you know the story that inspired each of them. The rest of the recurring characters are generally pretty good, both the villains and the supporting characters. Among the numerous one-episode characters and Horrors that Kouga routinely slays, there are some interesting ones, too.

The acting work is generally pretty good. The actors even manage to pull off all the dramatic, anime-like lines and poses with the necessary seriousness, lol. Kouga's actor has an "easy" role, as a character who rarely shows emotion, but it suits him pretty well. The level of Japanese actors, in my experience, isn't quite on the level of their voice actors, but this one has decent actors, mostly.   

If you can stomach the monster of the week routine, the series is actually very enjoyable. It's hardly deep, but it's entertaining, especially once they start expanding the settings. The best part is definitely the epic fights, where they go all out with the CGI to create flashy magical effects, giant beasts, foreign dimensions and awesome aerial battles. For the series overall, I'd give 4/5 stars. Note that the first season alone would only deserve 3 stars, 3.5 at most. The last 8 eps are great, but most of the first 17 eps are pretty mediocre.

The series continues, but the 3rd season, Yami o Terasu Mono, has a different cast, and the coming 4th season has a different cast again. I'll miss Kouga and co.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on March 23, 2014, 07:45:28 am
Log Horizon

Every once in a while, I come across an adaptation that renews my faith in adaptations. Log Horizon is one of those. It's patient, faithful, improves on the original instead of crapping all over it, and it's simply good. It covers the first 5 volumes of the light novels, each volume given approximately 5 episodes (most LN adaptations give 3, max 4 eps for one novel - explains why most LN adaptations are crap). The adaptation is faithful (though I've only read the 5th novel, so I'm not entirely sure how faithfully the first 4 vols are adapted), with slight improvements on the pacing and comedy and replacing some of the slightly excessive amounts of inner monologue and narrator explanation with dialogue - shows that the director not only respects the original material, he also understands what needs to be changed when transferring the story over to another medium.

Everybody knows that the concept of Log Horizon is very similar to that of the widely popular Sword Art Online, on paper. What everyone who has watched/read both knows is that in reality, they're nothing alike. IMO, LH is much better. But I haven't watched SAO completely, so I won't go any further with that comparison.

A more interesting comparison, in my mind, can be made to a korean webtoon manhwa called The Gamer. These two stories have the opposite approaches to essentially the same theme. The Gamer plays with the idea of what would happen if a live human were to become like a game character, while remaining in the real world, only applying game logic to his life. He gains experience, his physical and mental attributes are determined by his stats, he kills monsters and gains loot, he can learn skills by reading a book etc. Log Horizon, on the other hand, takes place in a virtual game world, which the human players eventually discover to be more alike a real world than they ever imagined. In many ways, real world logic applies to that world. I can't say much more without spoiling important plot points, but I really find the comparison between these two works quite interesting.

But enough about adaptations and comparisons, let's talk about the anime and its own merits. One of the first things you'll realise when starting to watch it is that Log Horizon is rather slow-paced. There's some action, but it never really takes the spotlight, this story is about something else. It's mostly about discovery, settings building. This is achieved without all that much travelling, for what is discovered here is not so much what lies beyond the horizon, but more about the rules that govern that world, and gaining a deeper understanding of its indigenous people - the NPC's. That's some freaky advanced AI that controls these NPC's, they're so much like living humans that players can befriend them, or fall in love, before they realise that the other party isn't a player character.

Another very interesting element in the story is politics. I don't know what it is in fantasy politics that I so much enjoy (I care little about real world politics), but LH is one story that serves me well in that regard. Just as the main character's intelligence serves him well in this new world he's found himself and 30,000 other players. I do love an intelligent protagonist, perhaps even more than a badass one. Shiroe would have no need to be ashamed in the company of characters such as Keima from The World God Only Knows, Tooru from Iris Zero and the nameless protagonist of Hammer Session. He's a masterful organiser, manipulator and strategist, who is awesome enough to change the very rules governing his new world.

Other than Shiroe, there are a few other characters worthy of notice. First of all, Crusty and princess Leinessia are a pair whose interaction is in the highest class of entertaining, IMO quite comparable to Lawrence and Horo from Spice and Wolf. The two maidens holding special feelings for Shiroe, Akatsuki and Minori, also gain quite some development during the story. And then there's one more very interesting NPC character, whose identity would be a spoiler. There are plenty of entertaining and likeable characters besides them, but honestly, I feel like characters overall are a weak point in the story. They avoid archetypes pretty well, but they're not given much depth either.

The plot is... great. It manages to be unpredictable and entertaining without being overly complex or twisty. But what is perhaps even more impressive is how little it relies on action. Similar to the author's earlier work, Maoyuu Maou Yuusha, there is a measured amount of action, but its role is strictly limited to supporting the plot. It's a bit more reliant on comedy, but in part that is thanks to the adaptation - the original novels have somewhat less comedy. Furthermore, if the anime adaptations are any indication, the author has greatly improved from the days of Maoyuu. LH has a way, way more interesting story to tell. A story about building a society out of a more or less lawless bunch of gamers lost in a familiar yet foreign land, and as I said earlier, about discovering the rules governing that world. This story is clearly settings-oriented, but it's a different kind of settings building from what you usually see in similarly oriented fantasy stories.

I might have rated the anime full 5 stars, if not for the unfortunate fact that the 5th volume happens to be a breather between two more serious arcs. Had the anime ended at 20 episodes, it would have had a properly climatic ending. As it stands, the last arc is interesting, but rather lacking in excitement - not a good finish, it leaves far too mild an aftertaste. It does give us a glimpse of what to expect from the second season, however, and somebody had the good sense to ensure that there WILL be a second season, so that it's not just another annoying incomplete story -ending. Still, the last arc would have served better as the start to the second season.

The visuals are good, but nothing worth talking about. The VA's are good as well, but nothing outstanding. The BGM's aren't bad, but probably not worth DL'ing either. The OP and ED, however, are both great.

In conclusion, Log Horizon is a great anime with fantastic settings building, a likeable cast of characters and a quality plot. It squeezes far more out of its basic concept than I thought possible. It's not for everyone, as there is a significant lack of ecchi and the pacing is pretty slow for the most part, but for me those are positive facts. I score the anime 4.5/5 stars, due to most of the supporting characters being somewhat shallow and the ending being anticlimactic.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Haxton Fale on March 26, 2014, 07:11:54 pm
I somehow got around to watching Aoki Hagane no Arpeggio: Ars Nova, a series best described as "enjoyably mediocre."
The series starts a bit chaotic. At first the NATO fleet fights Fleet of the Fog, then a sudden jump nine years into the future, and a few minutes later - two years back, to explain why a teenager is (successfully) commanding a powerful submarine with a loli at his side. There's also his crew, but they are never properly introduced nor explained. All we know is that they are all fugitives who are hired by various people. To top it off, the animation of people is plain bad by today's standards, with awkward and unnatural gestures, lacking cel-shading, weird-looking eyes, and lack of fluidity, and the music is hardly there.
Despite all that, the show is quite enjoyable and entertaining. The story, even if not the most original and lacking in explanations, is enticing and has some more or less unexpected developments. Fog ships' Mental Models, as the anthropomorphisations are called (for some unexplained reason) are quire diverse in design (especially Haruna (http://donmai.us/posts/1548805), wearing nothing but a cute set under her big coat) and with interesting personalities (save for Iona, for the most part, who is as bland as main heroines go). And, most importantly, the battles.
If there's one thing the show does right, it's the battles. The ship models might not be on the level seen in Strike Witches or Vividbutts, but they sure do look amazing, and the glowing "decals" only add to the charm. The fights are intense but not flashy, good enough for me to not worry too much about the more technical details (like the unreasonably spacious bridge on I-401). And they feature the most (decent) music in the entire show, so that's another plus.

All in all, the show could have gained a lot if only the technical bits were a tad better. A little unoriginal, but clearly entertaining, which earns it a 7.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on March 28, 2014, 01:20:10 am
Mikakunin de Shinkoukei

One of the best slice of life romcoms I've had the pleasure to see. I'd compare it to Acchi Kocchi: they're both very lighthearted and lacking in drama, cute and funny, based on 4-koma manga, and have rather similar atmosphere. I must say I enjoy the AK male lead more than the Mikakunin one, but on the other hand, Mikakunin has more enjoyable female cast. Sure, they're all rather one-dimensional, save perhaps the female lead, Kobeni... but their character dynamics are a constant source of entertainment. The male lead is a bit quiet, but I wouldn't exactly call him bland. He has his good points.

Perhaps the weakest point in the story is around the middle, when they introduce some fantasy elements that, IMO, aren't properly foreshadowed and feel completely unnecessary and out of place in the story. I got used to it, however, and ultimately it was a minor bother to me.

The ending is nice. It feels incomplete, they clearly left the door open for another season, but the last ep is quite a fine finish nonetheless. It has just the right amount of drama to bring such a lighthearted story to a pleasantly climatic end. All in all, Mikakunin was a very pleasant watch, 4/5 stars.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on March 29, 2014, 09:02:51 pm
Strike the Blood

A nice, entertaining fantasy action series. I'd compare it to Campione: there are several common elements, not least of which is a harem which actually looks like it might lead to a real harem end. The male lead is pretty decent - I wouldn't call him cool, and he can be pretty thick-headed when it comes to girls, but he's still relatively capable and likeable. The girls have really cute character designs, and not bad personalities. I especially like Asagi, who is the only "normal" girl in the bunch, but still manages to be very useful (and has the cutest design).

The plots aren't bad, but they're usually pretty straightforward. Fairly high in entertainment value, but not much depth. The fights are entertaining as well, if a bit repetitive. The settings and the magic system are pretty interesting, but not explored enough.

I haven't read the original novels, but I think the anime is probably a pretty good, non-rushed adaptation. After I learned that the author of the original novels is the same person who wrote Asura Cryin', I couldn't help comparing them. Unfortunately, the comparison truly doesn't flatter StB. If it's about the depth and development of the characters or the complexity of the plot, Asura Cryin' stands several levels above StB. The visuals are clearly superior in StB, but AC has far better musics. The comedy, the settings and the magic system are roughly equal. The emotional impact of Asura Cryin' is incomparably higher than that of StB. Both shows are unfortunately thematically shallow.

In conclusion, StB was a nice, light watch. Constantly entertaining, but ultimately left me a pretty mild impression. 3,5/5 stars.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: MrKenkadze27 on July 13, 2014, 12:19:18 pm
Last anime I finished was Little Busters!: Refrain

This anime was amazing compare to the Prequel. It had Animation Improved a lot. The soundtrack was the same, noting new noticed (maybe I am wrong). Some People may consider the rest as A spoiler so... (It's nothing major)
(click to show/hide)
This anime was just amazing, emotionally powerful, Screw Clannad, this was better. (at least for me). It was the "darkest" anime Key has put out to date. Another thing, this Wasn't dubbed, so It was such a pain reading subs but it was worth. I rarely watch subs, meaning this anime was special to me. Score: 9.9/10.

I know I am not good at making reviews but whatever. :)
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on July 28, 2014, 09:06:02 pm
No Game No Life

I'm really tired, so I'll make this relatively brief. A really good anime, surprisingly so. I liked it form the start, but the comedy didn't really hit me in the first few eps, so I was expecting to rate this 4 stars or so. However, it kept getting better, some episodes were downright hilarious. The intelligent main characters are pretty interesting, though a bit lacking in development. The other characters are unfortunately often given comedy relief duties, but every once in a while they all get their chance to shine. The settings and concept reminded me of Mondaiji-tachi at first, but they are pretty interesting, and in many way different, after all. The plot is pretty intelligent, though usually there is too little foreshadowing, the rules of magic aren't well enough known, and the main characters' mental abilities are just too extraordinary, it's a bit disappointing how out of this world the ways with which the MC's win their games are. Luckily, the main game of the last arc somewhat avoids the worst of these problems, making the otherwise worthy climax for the series even better. The hilariously creative fanservice deserves a special mention.

The thing that stands out about this series is its dramatisation. It supports this highly creative fantasy story - with a multitude of out-of-the-box ideas - in a way that not only pleases the eye, it actually makes this anime much more emotionally intensive than it would probably be in its original LN form. I haven't read the LN's, so I don't know that for sure, but seriously, the dramatisation is simply breathtaking at times.

I actually considered full stars, but in the end, the weaknesses are a bit too severe, and there isn't quite enough depth, to justify that. So, 4.5 stars it is.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on July 29, 2014, 07:38:54 pm
Ryuugajou Nanana no Maizoukin

I liked this a lot from the start. An interesting concept combined with excellent characters. I particularly like Juugo, the male lead, who is a decent guy, but makes a point not to be a dreamer or selfless. Many characters in the story are well fleshed out, dodge archetypes, and develop nicely considering the anime is pretty short. The comedy is my type and the production quality quite nice. Overall, there's nothing I dislike about the anime, and plenty I like.

However, it still feels like it failed to entirely achieve its potential. Maybe it's just too short and incomplete, at 11 episodes that seem to barely scratch the surface of a much larger story. This could well be the start of a good plot, but as weird as it feels to say this after an entire season, it's still too early to say. I wouldn't say the impression it left is lukewarm, but it's not as strong as it should be. Despite being entertaining, well balanced and strong across the field, I feel like it's not worth more than a "mere" 4 stars.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on August 01, 2014, 02:14:27 am
Kanojo ga Flag o Oraretara

Hmm... The comedy is mostly too over-the top silly to hit me, but it has occasional funny moments. The dialogue often feels unnatural, though not all the time. The personalities of the girls are usually either too over-the-top or too generic for me, but at least their designs are cute, and the male lead plays a decent tsukkomi. The storyflow is messy and disoriented till the end, but the mystery/plot is actually pretty interesting. The resolution must be anime-original, because it is a definite ending, while the light novel series is still ongoing after 10 volumes - but it's not a bad ending, it's actually better than I expected from such a mediocre anime. Overall, it was just interesting enough to keep me watching, mainly due to the intriguing mystery. 2.5 stars.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on February 10, 2015, 10:13:20 am
Trinity Seven

Trinity 7 is quite possibly the most faithful anime adaptation I've ever seen, it follows the manga almost 1:1. A few events are reorganised and a few dialogue lines cut or added, but that's it. It neither improves from the original material, nor screws up anything. It ends nicely, at pretty much the exact point where I expected it to end. It could use better musics and dramatisation, but they're not bad by any means. Animation and voice acting are as you could expect from today's anime, neither superb nor bad. Adaptation quality aside... well, I might as well just link my review of the manga:

http://forums.fansub.co/index.php?topic=240.msg8721#msg8721

Long story short, it has one of the most awesome harem leads ever, great comedy, decent but sometimes underwhelming fights (they improve as the story progresses), interesting plot and magic system... The other characters are likeable and all, but unfortunately often defined by their relationship to the male lead. They're slowly gaining depth, though. Overall, not a particularly deep story, but entertaining as fuck. Superbly re-readable/rewatchable. 4.5/5 stars.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on April 07, 2015, 05:04:29 am
Magic Kaitou 1412

Delightfully intelligent and well dramatised. I like Kid's style a lot (even if his normal personality is a bit... annoying, even). It suffers from the same problem that plagues Conan - namely, the main plot is slow as fuck - but also enjoys the same strength: the countless "filler cases" are interesting enough that I didn't really miss the main plot often. Perhaps even surprisingly, this is one of the most enjoyable anime for me in the past two seasons. I wish they'd make more anime with concepts like this, they make for a nice break from all the generic harem shit. 4/5 stars.


Absolute Duo

As far as generic LN adaptations go, I'd say that this one is among the best of its kind. It does most things right (apart from, you know, being original). The MC is pretty likeable and reliable, the girls have distinct enough personalities, the fanservice is not too intrusive, the fights and animation are decent, the pacing and comedy work most of the time, and the last two eps are climatic enough. I might even say that the plot holds some minor interest to me. 3.5 stars.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Hanover Fist on April 09, 2015, 03:28:27 pm
Hori-san to Miyamura-kun or HoriMiya

I'd watched the first two episodes of this OVA early last year and just discovered the third was out. The OVA is cute, fun and funny. Ultimately it's a teaser for the manga (https://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=70263), but a very successful one. After the first two OVAs I snarfed up all of the manga that was scanlated at the time and have been following it regularly since (49 chapters). So I was quite pleased to find the third episode of the OVA.

It's a high school slice-of-life comedy with unusual aspects: It begins with a focus on intimacy without a romantic aspect. The female lead Hori is a pretty and studious girl that runs the household on her own, taking care of her little brother while her mom works late. Miyamura is a quiet otaku-looking glasses-wearing guy with a surprising hidden dark side of tattoos and piercings, always the outsider.

They first cross paths when Miyamura brings home Hori's little brother Souta after a fall and a bloody nose, and she has Miya stay for dinner. Hori is astounded to learn that the multiply-pierced bishounen is the quiet bland guy in her class. Due to the supposed insistence of Souta wanting to see "Onii-san", Miyamura becomes a regular guest at Hori's home and helps with shopping, meals and keeping Souta occupied and entertained.

Gradually Miyamura gains friends at school while deepening the non-physical intimacy at Hori's home. They discover things about each other that they don't want to share, preferring to keep those things to themselves. The pace in which their relationship grows stronger is a little slow, but very natural, and it feels right.

The OVA doesn't really conclude anything, but it leaves you with a warm and happy glow, having more depth in one episode than most long series out there. The animation is a little plain - not a high budget show, but it doesn't need to be. I'm happy with it and give it a 4/5. Then again I'm hooked on the manga, so I might be biased.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on September 29, 2015, 09:25:14 am
It's been a while since I watched any anime, let alone finished a series...

Kuusen Madoushi Kouhosei no Kyoukan

I'll keep this short. The concept and story are weak, unoriginal and predictable. Its sole saving grace is the fact that the adaptation is - for once - not rushed. Only two arcs in 12 episodes, I'd hazard a guess that it's two LN volumes. It still can't really save a story that was bad to begin with.

But, the characters aren't half-bad. I honestly enjoyed the quirky and flawed characters: one girl being a stubborn, brutish idiot, another being shy to the extreme and lacking in self-confidence, third girl being comically narcisstic. The story also - while failing in pretty much everything else - does a decent job giving them a little bit depth. I will reveal my bias in telling you that, in the presence of these three characters who at least try to escape the most common archetypes, I actually ended up rooting for the fourth girl in the harem, a stereotypical tsundere, for romance. I can't help it, I have a fondness for tsunderes. Although, the fact that she's the only one (relatively) actively pursuing him might have something to do with it. The male lead isn't too bad either, I like his laid-back attitude, and the fact that while he's very strong himself, he's actually more of a strategist than a fighter, drawing out the strength in those he teaches (as an instructor). Too bad the author clearly isn't smart enough to write an exceedingly smart character in a way that takes full advantage of it. Oh, and his obliviousness to the feelings of the girls around him is annoying, though I'm unsure if he's just faking it or genuinely incapable of picking up any hint, no matter how clear.

Nothing else really stands out either positively or negatively. In the end it was a mildly enjoyable light watch, saved by the decent characters. Probably won't ever watch it again, but I don't feel like I wasted my time. 3/5 stars.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on September 30, 2015, 05:53:48 am
OverLord

Hmm... Not bad. Better than I expected. The concept of a VR MMO turning all too real is done to death, of course, and the MC is OP as fuck... but I usually like an OP MC, and this one is interesting enough, I suppose. There's a strong feeling of self-insert, especially apparent in the worship of his NPC servants, that bothered me at first, but I got used to it eventually.

It would be an exaggeration to call the MC evil... although some of his NPC servants do fit the bill... but he's certainly not a regular hero either. As un undead, his human feelings are suppressed, but often he goes out of his way to save people (usually from his own servants, lol). It is left ambiguous how much of it is because of moral reasons, how much of it is cold calculation. Overall, a pretty interesting character.

Nothing amazing about the plot, it's pretty straightforward so far, but at least I'm not bored by it. After the first couple of episodes, there's plenty of action, although apart from the last battle, they were pretty much all utter curb stomps. Characters apart from the MC have been pretty one-dimensional so far. The animation is quite good and the character designs are generally pretty cool, I'd say that visuals are a strong point. Musics aren't bad, but hardly remarkable either - except the OP and ED, which are both pretty good.

Well, I found myself sufficiently entertained, and apart from the "VR MMO turning all too real" bit, it's not too clichéd. I'll give it 3.5/5 stars.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on October 01, 2015, 01:17:00 pm
Log Horizon 2

Roughly as good as the first season, with the same strengths, for the most part, but slightly different weaknesses. It's notable that this season gives a number of characters much more substance. I consider it a wise corrective move, as one of the few weaknesses in the first season was precisely the large number of supporting characters who remained so shallow I couldn't bother memorising their names. On the other hand, this season adds a number of new characters... -_-'

It continues to expand the world and adds new mysteries, some of which are solved, others remain. The plot progression is kind of... sprawling: not out of control, but wandering a bit too much, at least in my brother's opinion. Personally I don't mind, but I can understand why some viewers might like it more if there was, shall we say "less expansion and more progression". There are also a couple of slightly boring episodes that felt like fillers, possibly because there was a shortage of original material for a full 25 eps season. At least this time the ending wasn't so anticlimatic...

Like the first season, this gets 4.5 stars from me. This season does correct the problems I found most significant in the first season, but it has some small problems of its own, so I once again withhold the last ½ a star. Even so, it's a brilliant anime I enjoyed a lot.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on October 25, 2015, 11:13:41 pm
Noragami

I really don't like the comedy in this series, so at first I thought it was so-so. The central characters aren't particularly likeable at first: Yato is just too damn embarrassing with his delusions of grandeur, Yukine is an annoying brat, and Hiyori is an airhead (admittedly I don't mind the last one so much). I kept watching because the fights were good, and because there are occasional flashes of depth.

Juuni Kokuki (12 Kingdoms), my #1 favourite anime ever, suffers from the same problem. You have to get through half a dozen mediocre episodes with annoying or meh characters. Then it gets good. And so does Noragami. For both series, character development is an extremely strong point. By no means is a bad start necessary in order to have superb character development, but it does have some value in the long run. While the first season is wholly focused on the main trio, starting the second season, it seems the supporting characters are also receiving some love.

The plot, too, picks up after the first few episodes. Well, it's still nothing special in the first season, it only gets really good in the first arc of the second season (and my brother, who has read the manga, says that it just keeps getting better, that the main plot only starts to emerge in what should be the second arc of the second eason), but already the last arc of the first season is quite interesting. Furthermore, the flashes of depth are no longer so occasional, they get more frequent and strong as the story progresses. Fortunately, there's also less comedy after the start (though it doesn't get any better).

Animation, music and dramatisation in general are pretty good, though not NGNL level. The first season OP is of particular note, I never skipped it.

Overall, Noragami is an exceptionally promising shounen series, which makes up for its mediocre start by continuously improving. I'll give the first season 4/5 stars, fully expecting to give the second season half a star more.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on October 26, 2015, 05:46:02 am
Madan no Ou to Vanadis

I'll warn you from the start, that I've read the original novels and won't even try to avoid comparing the adaptation to the original. I also can't help comparing it to Campione, another LN series that got a (failed) anime adaptation recently.

Both Campione and Vanadis animes adapted the first 5 novels in just one cour, which is about 7-8 episodes less than ideal, IMO. At its worst, Campione bypassed a volume in just one episode, and extended the last one with an episode of completely original material that broke the rules the author set for the main character's abilities. At its worst, Vanadis anime spared only 1½ episodes for one volume. However, overall Vanadis was adapted smarter: the most material was cut from the middle, while the beginning and the end were left mostly untouched, allowing time for properly introducing the characters and the setting, and to end the story in sufficiently climatic manner. I honestly enjoyed the last two arcs, which both got full 3 episodes, and thus didn't feel overly rushed. Also, the decision to adapt 5 volumes is understandable in light of the fact that the first overarching arc ended in the 5th volume. In Campione's case, there was no such justification, as in the beginning each volume is a largely independent arc.

Campione also changed the story and dialogue in several places, while Vanadis remained loyal to the original material, preferring to cut details and less important scenes and bridge the most important scenes with narration. It's hard to say which is worse... the first method could be better if it was executed well (in Campione's case, it was usually not), while the second method probably cannot avoid giving the storyflow a rushed feeling, but at least it doesn't fuck up the plot. Unfortunately, rushing damages Vanadis where it most hurts, by cutting details from the strategy talk and battles, which are the bread and butter of this story.

To finish the comparison, both series have excellent soundtracks, and Campione also has good animation, while Vanadis uses clumsy, sometimes downright cringe-worthy CGI way too much, so visually I definitely prefer Campione.

Vanadis, at its heart, is not a character-driven story. It's a story about strategy and warfare, a bit of adventure and politics, and a harem for eye candy (there's very little in the way of actual romance, at least as far as I've read the story). Thus, it is forgivable to me that the characters are mostly quite one-dimensional and there's not much character development. Well, I still find most of the characters at least likeable. Some might find Tigre quite bland for a main character, but I like level-headed, sincere characters like him. I guess I find them easy to identify with.

At middle point, I was almost ready to drop it, but like Campione, this was a must watch for me, for virtue of being an adaptation of a LN series that has become quite nostalgic for me. My perseverence was rewarded, as the last two volumes were adapted largely right. For that, I'll give Vanadis 3/5 stars.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on October 27, 2015, 10:06:24 am
Hidan no Aria

The premise is ridiculous: teenagers given guns and swords and some police rights, being educated to become mercenaries. I don't particularly like the lighthearted approach to weapons and fighting this story takes. However, if you can exercise some suspension of disbelief, Hidan no Aria can be a decently entertaining light watch.

Aria is your typical Kugimiya Rie tsundere: unreasonably violent (especially towards the male lead), skilled in battle but incompetent in matters of heart, short and flat-chested... you get the picture. A bitch you don't want anywhere near you, despite her occasionally flashing a cute side. She gets marginally more bearable towards the end. Well, personally, I like tsunderes, and while I prefer more balanced type, I have a high tolerance for violent bitches like her, as long as they do have a cute side that shows every once in a while.

Kinji, the male lead, is a total doormat in front of her, most of the time, but other than that, he's quite likeable. Plus, he does have some cool moments, thanks to his genetic ability, which greatly enhances his abilities and makes him a show-off in front of girls.

Out of the other characters, Riko is notable: she's totally the best girl in the show, and I doubt you'll find many who disagree with that. Her banter with Kinji is far more entertaining than any interaction he has with Aria or his childhood friend with yandere tendencies.

One thing that annoys me is that the story is populated by characters claiming descent from literary and historical character (such as Sherlock Holmes and Jeanne d'Arc), without actually sharing any important characteristics with said characters. All they have from those ancestors is some inherited (often supernatural) ability, which usually doesn't even correspond to the original character's abilities. There are some clan rivalries as well, but they're used in rather crude ways. It feels like the author isn't using even 10% of the idea's potential. A shame, really. I must admit, however, that I'm curious whose bloodline ability Kinji has inherited... a mystery left wholly unexplored in these first 3 arcs.

I haven't read the original novels, but it seems that this is a reasonably good adaptation. 3 first novels in 12 episodes. 4 eps for one novel is generally the ideal ratio for light novel adaptations, IMO. While the story has quite a lot of action, there is no feeling of rush. Unfortunately, that still doesn't mean this is anything special - it's hard to improve on mediocre, largely clichéd original material with no particular depth or intelligent plot. It's a light watch with little value besides the pure entertainment value.

As an action-heavy series, it's good that the animation is serviceable (as far as I can judge, I don't really pay attention unless something is really wrong or really well done). Pretty much what you can expect from J.C.Staff. Musics are the same, you barely notice them, they do their job to set the mood, that's all. The ED is pretty good, though. Edit: Actually, I gave it another listen, and some action scenes actually have pretty good musics. Maybe they're just played too quietly to get my attention... :/

Overall, I could recommend this for someone looking for a light action/harem story, who can stomach a violent tsundere character as a female lead. There is absolutely nothing original, deep or particularly intelligent, but I can't say I was bored watching it, either. 3/5 stars.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on December 15, 2015, 08:15:04 am
High School DxD (all 3 seasons)

Well, I knew it would be extremely ecchi (which is not necessarily a bad thing, when the girls' character designs are as good as these are), so I didn't go in with particularly high expectations. It turned out to be surprisingly good. I don't usually like pervy male leads (except if they're casual about it, like the Trinity Seven MC), but Issei is okay. A dude who puts his life on the line for his girls like Issei does, kinda deserves his harem. It's a bit hard to take some otherwise epic moments seriously, though, when his powerups are often a result of realising a new aspect of his love for boobs... Apart from Issei, the other characters are also pretty good. Each of the other central characters are getting their own arcs, one by one, where their characters are expanded and deepened quite nicely. Even those characters who haven't got their turn yet, and the supporting cast, are all entertaining.

The third season ends with apparently an anime original arc... it's tied into the story well enough, and it's not bad in itself, but after the epic ending for the previous arc, it falls a bit short, feels a bit anticlimatic. As another undesirable result, the 5th and 6th novels don't get quite as much space as the first four, but it doesn't feel like a bad adaptation, not too rushed. I think they may have made space by cutting back a little on ecchi. It's barely noticeable if you aren't collecting screenshots like I am. There was a shortage of good ecchi screenies in the last season, comparatively.

What else...? Well, plenty of excellent ecchi, a surprisingly decent plot, entertaining comedy, and a real harem (not one of those where the MC necessarily has to make a choice in the end). Issei's seiyuu deserves a special mention, he really puts emotion into his acting, even when shouting ridiculous stuff about boobs. Overall, DxD is quite an entertaining light watch... if you don't go into it with too high expectations and aren't bothered by an abundance of ecchi. 3.5/5 stars.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on December 22, 2015, 01:00:22 pm
One-Punch Man

What to say... OPM is one of this season's anime I knew already from the original material - that is, the remake manga. It is an excellent adaptation: faithful, good production quality, good dramatisation. Some minor filler scenes were added to drag it on so that the ending at 12 eps hits the right spot, the most climatic arc in the series up to the point where the remake has made it. Mostly, it just ended up improving the pacing. Honestly, I think this might be one of those cases where the adaptation surpasses the original.

With a MC who kills most enemies in literally one hit, the story is obviously not meant to hold much suspense in its fights - the fights where the MC takes part, anyway. Instead, it's more about the comedy, and giving a new spin to some old clichés. Personally, though, I don't find the comedy particularly good, it's just okay. I'm more interested in the other characters and their fights, which often actually manage to be pretty entertaining. The first 8 eps, where only a few important characters appear, are pretty meh to me. It's only near the end that more interesting characters start appearing. Well, having read the manga, I know that it will just keep getting better, but as whole, the first season isn't anything praiseworthy. The two last arcs (eps 9-12) are good, but that's just 1/3 of the season. 3.5/5 stars.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on December 24, 2015, 11:41:40 am
Okusama ga Seito Kaichou!

This short form anime is adapted from a manga series by Nakata Yumi, which is based on her earlier hentai series. Each episode covers one chapter of the manga, and they're all well done. Problem is, some chapters are skipped, which has two negative results: sometimes, the story seems to advance too quickly... er, not that there is much in the way of a story... maybe it'd be more accurate to say that the character relationships aren't given enough time to develop naturally. Secondly, some supporting characters, who weren't given much spotlight to begin with, they lose even that litte in this adaptation.

This doesn't hold back one bit with the ecchi scenes. It's a nice change to see a main character couple who also enjoy the carnal site of a relationship... er, maybe too much, but still. Kaichou's personality is pretty amusing and charming, and the MC is likeable enough. He makes a good tsukkomi. I quite enjoy the comedy, most of the time, even if truly hilarious scenes aren't that frequent.

3/5 stars. I'd give 3.5 if not for the skipped chapters.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on December 24, 2015, 09:38:52 pm
Monogatari Series Second Season

As always with this series, it's nearly perfect. I never get tired of that dialogue. Several characters gain lots of depth and development during this series. It's pretty refreshing that three of the five arcs this season covers are narrated from someone else's viewpoint, barely having Araragi present at all. The plots of each arc are, if not top class, then at least very high class. The musings about human nature are insightful and interesting. The pacing is excellent: if you enjoy this kind of dialogue, there isn't a dull moment, yet it's never rushed. The last episode is full of awesome, climatic in a very Monogatari-esque way, with a pretty shocking last scene. Although, the last episode of the first arc may be even better.

The only problem is with the visuals. There is certain charm to SHAFT's animation, but drawing non-essential characters only as silhouettes isn't a stylistic choice, it's plain old laziness. You'd think with the financial success this series (and some other series animated by the same studio) have enjoyed, they could afford to be meticulous. Well, I can understand that it would be weird to suddenly start doing that now, this far into the series. What is less forgivable are the text screens that flash by so fast that it sometimes takes minutes of trying to catch them with pause. Somehow they seem to be even more frequent than in previous seasons. It is infuriating, and costs the show half a star from my rating. 4.5/5 stars.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on December 26, 2015, 06:53:55 am
Ushio to Tora

One of the better long shounen anime I've seen. Well, it's not so long yet, just 26 eps, but the original manga is pretty long. And this is going to get another season, starting in the spring season.

Anyway, yeah, it's pretty good. I've always had a thing for fighting pairs, whether they be brothers, lovers, rivals or partners, and Ushio and Tora make for a pretty dynamic and occasionally badass pair. Ushio is a pretty typical protagonist, a not very smart kid with a strong determination and a much too kind heart. Still, he's not too bad, his strong emotions make him easily relatable and there's nothing in particular that I find annoying about him. Tora is a bit of an anti-hero, he keeps saying that he's only helping Ushio in order to one day catch him with his guard down and eat him... but every time he does catch the boy in a weak state, he finds some excuse not to eat him, lol. Unfortunately, as is often the case with this type of anime/manga, the female characters are pretty meh. I've seen worse, but honestly, the only one I'm interested in is a supporting character who has so far been present in only a couple of episodes. That... might or might not have something to do with the fact that she's the only one whose character design and personality I find attractive. <_<

The fights are somewhat atypical for this type of anime, as they rarely include sudden power-ups. The characters have their strengths and weaknesses, and any progress to them is pretty subtle. Other than that, the fights are entertaining, well animated and dramatised, and occasionally pretty emotional. Sadly, they're not particularly intelligent.

The overarching plot is decent, for this kind of a story. Absolutely nothing special, but it serves its purpose and doesn't bore me. At least there haven't been any training arcs so far. There are some mysteries, but they are all more or less resolved during this season.

I hesitate to give this a rating as high as 4/5, but in the end, it's a solid anime, enjoyable enough to justify that. This, Kekkaishi, Nurarihyon no Mago... these are the kind of long shounen series that start out decent, but improve over time. I prefer these instead of the likes of Naruto and Bleach, which start out interesting, but lose their way well before halfway point, and then just keep falling. Of course, after only 26 episodes, it's a little early to say if this will lose its way at some point, but it seems to me that the author has a clear vision and a firm grip of the story.
Title: Re: What Did You Just Finish?
Post by: Krozam on April 11, 2016, 08:33:21 pm
It's been a while since I finished anything...

Watched Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut. It's surprisingly good. Pretty clichéd, and it crams too many novels into 12 episodes, but it actually has a pretty decent plot and characters, and I was quite well entertained. I'm actually interested in reading the novels now, to see what the rushed adaptation left out. It's a shame the author decided to make the MC a typical awkward harem lead with lofty ideals, instead of going for a more interesting dark hero / antihero type, which I feel would have suited the plot better. And it really could have used less of the typical fanservice harem antics. It's always a shame when a fundamentally good story is spoiled by wrong/bad elements like this. There was potential for something so much better... 3.5/5 stars.

Oh, and Phi-chan is the best girl. Her arc was pretty heartbreaking. I do like the blue-haired one as well, though, I found her personality very entertaining and her backstory intriguing (though not explored in sufficient depth). The princess is a bit too much of a typical tsundere, I think she falls behind others in both depth and entertainment value. Celes is hot, but she, too, falls behind the top 2 in depth and entertainment value. The assassin chick is promising, but has too little time, since she's only introduced in the last arc and as an antagonist, doesn't get all that much screentime. The sister is entertaining, she reminds me of Shizuka from Campione (I think it's the same seiyuu, too), but didn't get her own arc yet.