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What Did You Just Finish?

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Krozam:
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.

Hanover Fist:
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 and MAL 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.

Hanover Fist:
Mawaru Penguindrum

I just finished this after watching it over the last two days. I made the post 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!

Mortadin:
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...

Khorne11:
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

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