Shinigami no Ballad.

I\'m the first to write a review about this lovely anime?

Surprising. Well, Shinigami No Ballad is pretty much this: There\'s a shinigami named Momo, and if you don\'t know what a shinigami is.. it\'s basically a death god. A god that takes people\'s lives. So she\'s all around watching people and judging who\'s life she\'s going to take next. But the thing about this is, there\'s more to just that.

Each episode is based on one or two people, sort of like mini stories about each person, and the reason why they\'ve been chosen to take their lives away is based on what they\'ve been doing, ... or what they wish for, or the fact it is really their time to go.

It\'s really a nice, sweet anime to watch. Honestly, 6 episodes wasn\'t really enough.. it could have gone on for at least another 6. Momo is a really sensitive character, considering her job is to take lives away, but in the anime, she says \"I cry for them\". Each story is really touching, I think the first episode got me into it straight away because of the story.

It\'s short, which I personally think is a downfall to the overall score I\'ll give it, because I think it\'s enjoyable, and the music is pleasing to the ear. But I would say the stories are pretty good to watch, I guess it depends on everyone\'s preference. But, give it a go and see how you like it.

5 WORDS OR LESS REVIEW: Nothing special. Bland.

If I would describe Shinigami no Ballad in one word, I would describe it as bland. I usually like loli anime, but Shinigami no Ballad barely caught my attention.

Cute girl gets her hands dirty by working a job that involves death. Such premise is almost similar to the plot of Hell Girl, except Hell Girl had more “zing” to it. There were no high or low points in Shinigami no Ballad – it was monotonous during the whole 6 episodes. There wasn’t really a climax either. You’d think the last episode would be more exciting than the first ... 5 episodes, but nothing really set it apart from the other episodes. I think the problem lies in the storytelling – the sequencing of events were a bit off, there were some holes in the story, and you couldn’t really relate to the events or the characters.

Speaking of the characters, the characters didn’t grab me either. As much as I like lolis, I didn’t like Momo at all. I thought her personality was weird, she seemed almost bipolar. Whenever she did her job, she seemed cold and stoic, but in the end she would always cry for some reason. It wasn’t really explained why she was such a crybaby, but apparently her assistant cat (Daniel) thinks the same. As for the other characters, they were all forgettable and almost insignificant. They all lacked charisma.

The character design needed work too. I didn’t like how the characters looked like each other – if they had the same hairstyle, there would be almost no way to tell them apart. Furthermore, nothing about the character design was striking. In fact, as a whole, Shinigami no Ballad’s visuals were bland.

I don’t completely hate Shinigami no Ballad, I actually like the voice acting. The voices really matched their respective characters. Also, a lot of notable names on the cast list, such as Ai Shimizu (Koyori in Sola, Tamao from Strawberry Panic), who played Daniel. Other notable names are Daisuke Ono (Yukito from Air, Koizumi from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya), Kana Ueda (Yumi in Maria-sama ga Miteru, Sakuya from Hayate no Gotoku) and Ryoko Shiraishi (Hayate from Hayate no Gotoku). I’m a little disappointed that these voice actors were only present for one episode each.

The music wasn’t bad either. I liked the playful BGM, but it was still lacking. There was nothing really special about the BGM. It’s the same for the opening and ending themes. It was okay, but not great – the themes didn’t grab me at all. If any, they made me a bit sleepy because both songs were too mellow.

I’m glad that Shinigami no Ballad was only made up of 6 episodes, but then again, I think that more episodes would make it better. Shinigami no Ballad definitely has potential to become a great story, probably even better than Hell Girl, and I think having only 6 episodes stifled that potential a bit. More episodes would definitely provide more room for that potential to shine.

No Spoiler Review:
The series is a collection of short stories told over the course of 6 episodes. The show comes off lackluster with it's presentation and the soundtrack used was awful. The bumper music used to transition from the first half of the episode to the second half of the episode is like listening to nails to a chalkboard. Tons of synching issues with sound and the characters talking as well. Very distracting. The choice of characters that were being followed was a bit odd as well. I can't go to into the details about the previous statement but with this show diving into the ... supernatural you could've shown different instances of life and death from ALL walks of life. The anime tries its hardest to come off as a comfy, bitter sweet series that the animation failed to meet. Overall, the show is very short animation and can be viewed in one go. There are certainly interesting premises done with the death god (Momo). The idea of characters finding their own reason to keep moving and finding purpose has its' own charm. Melancholic but with technical issues throughout the show, it is not recommended but does have its moments.