Back to AnimeElitist's Profile AnimeElitist's Profile

Overview

Kuzu no Honkai was a refreshing surprise, untainted by generic tropes and contemporary tendencies within the genres of drama and romance in "Chinese cartoons" ^^. Lets start with a disclaimer, to be honest, if you consider Kimi no Na wa to be the benchmark for drama anime or you consider garbage shows such as Shigatsu, Anohana or Tsuki ga Kirei to be proper romance shows, please for the love of god just dont bother and skip this show. You will just hurt the rating and your feelings in the process of watching (lol). On the other hand, if your tastes are more refined with appetite ... for grim and you can appreciate a curveball here and there, go for it. If you enjoyed Kimi ga Nozomu Eien or School days you will enjoy this show, I can guarantee that. In my humble opinion the show is targeting relatively mature male audiences and their fantasy. For any show to be good you do not necessarily have to like it, neither the show must be properly concluded or the plot must be progressive in the way its structured. I would like to stress the importance of actually watching the whole entirety of a show and making your opinion after. The show stays true to the premise as mentioned in its name and conveys intended message in the purest and clearest way possible. The ending is just great and believable. I stress the word “believable” unlike the standard childish drama, over the top feelings and naïve feel-good pathos.

Plot and Characters

Unlike most of the contemporary shows that are based on love triangles and simpler romance structures, here we get something that might be described as an octahedron of romance plot, two main couples with extra cast of characters intervening within the plot and character development. The "love" segment is based on mainly very negative emotions such as regret, greed, lust, possessiveness, hatred, but also unconditional love. Indeed, very interesting and combustive mix of emotions. I must say, I would enjoy addition of violence, but that is just me. Do not expect dramatic plot twists and action, the show is very Japanese in the way of how the romance is portrayed via aspect to aspect approach. The reason I enjoyed the shows plot is due to the non-linear structure of the plot, simultaneous regress and progress in the plot via increase and decrease in the emotional tension/intensity that is not exclusive and happening at the same time on different fronts. In simple terms, multilinear plot can stagnate or regress to be progressive. Every character is developed both externally within the grander narrative of the anime, but also internally by exploring the self and innermost desires. On top of that, this process is believable (rare in anime), due to the characters inability to understand themselves and others. The narration of the plot is multi-perspective and subjective as the story is told and narrated only through the limited view of respective character, therefore being impacted by their bias and limited personal experience. I like the inclusion of sex and basic sexual drive as factor affecting relationships. Despite the fact, that we have the typical retard good guy type MC kun character as part of the cast, other male characters are well written and save the day. The show is not about "the story" per say, the story is mediocre or good at best, but the enjoyability of the plot is achieved through the general approach and how it is being told. Same goes for the characters, they are just grim, twisted and realistic not revolutionary or over the top complex, their relatability and enjoyability comes from the small things such as their knowledge of their limited scope of emotional and cognitive capacity. Despite hating a character personally, you must be able to appreciate how the characters fits within the narrative or how the character is non-progressively developed. Despite the presence of all the character archetypes such as main protagonists, childhood friend, older brother etc. they are developed and explored through unconventional ways. Same applies to the unique and nicely selected emotions that are driving them through the show and are exceptional within the genre.

Art and Sound

Unlike plot and characters, which can be qualitatively and objectively judged up to some point by some commonly recognised literally standards. Art and Sound is more subjective segment of this review. In such a short show consisting of only 12 episodes there is not much ground for commitment with regard to the quality and complexity of composed tracks or animated pieces. It is the grim drama and romance that carries the show, not epic scenes or shouting MC kun. The music is fitting and does great job, no complain on that front. OP and ED are nice, but I did not appreciate the increase in tempo of the track that followed the slow start (30 sec in the ED). OP is generic, ED is slightly better. The animation and background were in contrast with the shows atmosphere, nice and vivid with clear definition and good spectrum of pastel colours. Interesting choice, ideal or not is debatable. I personally enjoyed that most of the scenes were grounded in reality without over-utilisation of abstract scenes trying to impact the emotion and intensity of the scene like was done in Ef tale of, series for example. To be clear this is not good or bad, just one of the possible approaches. Lastly, but not least, unless you were a part of anime production team, do not judge the quality of animation and music by the sound director and lead animator. It is just idiotic and retarded to do so, due to the simple reason that it is often just marketing and PR. Unless you have no internal knowledge of up to what extent were the production externalised or who really did what part of the animation process etc. you are just blabbering nonsense. Judge it just by the eye not by the names behind it. Yes they might be brand for the quality, but scene by scene, art by art approach is more logical.

Conclusion

The show is just lovely, the plot is being unveiled through fresh approaches and is non-linear, emotional intensity is progressive, regressive and stagnant variably throughout the show and evades common approaches within the genre. Unfortunately within the standard rating system we do not have proper rating tools to appreciate this gem (Such as telling, narration etc). If you disliked the show, wait a few years and watch it again. If the previous is not applicable and indeed you are mature member of the society you might just be sensitive human being with proper moral compass (I envy and pity you at the same time). Getting acquainted with western and eastern movie and cinema might come handy in dissecting controversial anime shows, in the end it is just another visual medium. Kuzu no Honkai is a more mature version of School Days without the unnecessary edge, thus not in need of the impact factor of respective show. Kuzu no Honkai was indeed pleasant surprise where drama and romance was nicely spread throughout the series.

*PROFANITY AND SPOILERS*
Well, I am not going to start with any of those cliché and cheesy wannabe catchy intros that have literally zero informational value nor with overviewing whether show was popular or not, but i am gonna jump right into the shit and save your time by telling you: This show is kinda meh but good wait a sec. actually not really. Here you go, thank me later. Anyway, you are reading trough reviews for two reasons only. Either you can't decide if you wanna watch it or wanna look up some opinions after you actually watched it. For the first group of ... people I can recommend following: Watch it if you haven't consumed enough media so your bullshit resilience is higher or you are under like 16-17 yrs of age with mediocre intellect. In other cases there are plenty of way more worthwhile shows out there. If you are interested in reading my true and only right opinion on the show read the next paragraph. I am going to focus mostly on problems that i have with this show. There is no reason for words of praise for the good things, they should be automatic and considered as standard.

There are some things that I just have to put out there. Another time travel show with nice concept obliterated by negligence and Japanese Moe comform norms. OMG. Why do we have to be in a school setting, why not take the ideas and project them in some more interesting one? Why the childish characters are always the smart-asses and adults are just dumb background bush. What the fuck is wrong with some lips of female characters? I won't get answers ever i suppose, at least not the satisfactory ones. The story is executed far from well, we have some nice moments building tension and climax, but very often resulting in expected outcomes. The time travel concept is mystery that is not working logically as well. There is nothing innovative nor interesting on this front. Whole story gave me "well lets do it like this we have no time nor money to do it properly, even though we had few nice ideas" feel. The show wants to be seinen and psychological? I don't feel it, not enough. Everyone lives happily after end was a big anticlimax for me. And what was with all of the happy kids running around wanting to be friends? This show wanted to be fucking Lucky Star and Monster hybrid? Certain setting and ideas just can't work together, especially in execution provided by mentioned show. Only mystery for me in this show is the question how the heck did it become so popular. Secondly, only significant seinen element is the... wait there is none. Well lets move on. You might ask is this even review? I can answer you that if the show could not interest me or provide me with enjoyment am I expected to elaborate on the aspects of the show more even though there is nothing to be said. Sometimes the question is an answer. Art and Sound was OK. Characters... ooh boy, don't even let me start on this shit. Nice parade of "unique" characters to sum it up. I must say the show is not that bad it might be considered good thanks to an interesting time travel concept where the times goes back, but the mental state of traveling individual is the only unchanging aspect (adult in a child's body). The relationship of mother and teacher could be elaborated as well as the use of darker tones and mature elements in the murderous mysterious string was sketchy. The first story that has been just some pathetic foreshadowing was totally cut off from main arc not serving any higher purpose. Romance between some girls and main character could be involved. I could go on and on about many things but why? To sum it up this anime has some bright points, but fails in executing them. Doesn't even stick to its planned genre. Consists of many plot holes and conveniences. Golden shit is still a shit even if the production value is good.

Melancholic story about love and long journey full of beautiful images. In less than half an hour Shinkai will drag you from the "boring dead end" train station somewhere in Japan to remote galaxies. He is executing the whole process very skillfully by mixing poetism with sci-fi.

It is remarkable that he did all the work by myself. Deficiencies seen in particular on animation of characters, static backgrounds are however very nice. The film deserves more elaborate scenario. Fights animations are in my opinion, completely unnecessary and in this genre we should feel pretty comfy even without them. On the other hand, it must be ... said they are very nicely done. Same goes for sound effects and music which are splendid. Especially in romantic moments sounds of rain, wind, the city in the background and light tones of the piano brings the atmosphere almost to perfection.

If you wanna fully enjoy this piece you have to got atleast a bit of empathy for the characters. For those who are of a more rational nature might be 8 years of waiting for SMS absurd in many ways.
Yes his style might be over-sweet and naivé for somebody and I absolutely get it, but the bittersweet tones as the end comes so typical for Shinkai's "manuscript" are frankly said : the most appealing thing on his style. Best with bit of melancholy and tea.

Let me start off with sharp criticism because that is the first thing I want to do after watching the whole series. I must mention that it took me really long time to deal with this show therefore it can't be called captivating by any means.

Animation quality was flat and inconsistent throughout the episodes. Sound was average as well, we saw similar OP/ED many times before, nothing extra nor memorable happend in the audiovisual area. ZEXCS did very tacky job at this one. The dialogues are miserable and often empty or repetitive. Most of the characters lack charisma and needed depth. The way how they ... are introduced and developed is not properly executed in the whole narrative of the story. Fights choreography could be more complex and dynamic even though i am not sure what the anime is supposed to be, but i will get to this point later. The atmosphere is systematically being compromised by cheesy jokes. Last but foremost King Astals motivation speeches were happening suspiciously often right during sunset. Wasting time on insignificant characters as Milk and Iris is another problem. The end was very disturbing to me even though there was some slight foreshadowing it seemed to me like something that might be called "very bad deus ex machina."

The main fault in this show is over-combination of various elements, meaning : different plot collisions that are not working, wrong pacing of show, Is it serious show or not ? Is the show about intrigues on kings court or action packed adventure ? Are the motives of love, family, death, friendship etc. coherent in the whole package ? All of those things could work, yes i think they could, but in this show they did not. To sum it up : Show had great potential with what seemed to be promise of "more and better" at the start. Unfortunately as the show went on and slowly was coming to an end, left the consumer with just a sense of unfulfilled expectations.

At the peak of my disgust of all of RPG Anime things, here comes the Log horizon. Unfortunately not saving the day just making it a bit better but that suffices for now. Let me clear up some things first before I will get to the review itself.

Usually RPG Anime genre which is at some point certainly very tempting but nonetheless vastly empty, except the fact that the story is happening in virtual environment nothing new nor awesome is going on by all means. Not mentioning all of the wasting of potential for fun-service which is understandable for the simple reason that most of Anime ... consumers are MOE zombies and primal reason of existence of companies is revenue. At the end of the day we don't very often get a quality product.

When I started watching LH I almost quit, guess why? I had enough of "This is not SAO" shows. A week later when I cooled down a bit I gave it a second chance. Now I am really happy that I did so.

I really wanted to evade comparison between SAO and LH. Actually I do not understand why everyone feels the need to compare these two Animes. The only common element here is that real people get stuck in an MMORPG, the result is different. Unfortunately two of them have been confronted so often, that I don't have a choice.

The show started quite slowly with what seemed like typical, hackneyed plot. But later things start to snowball. Problems are getting more serious and world begins to take on dimensions, both growing at a steady pace. The animation is very pleasing for the eye and the music aspect also has a lot of nice "straight out of game" like soundtracks. Action scenes seem to be rather lacking in this kind of genre however the in-show implemented game mechanics explanation is acting like compensation. The imbalance between dialogues {not as important ones} and the action is a con. LH is unfortunately Shounen so we can't evade Cliché and fun service.
Constant rubbing of glasses by our smart-ass heroes was pissing me off. The main character, Shiroe, plays both the protagonist and antagonist role. He is behind everything, playing the game, always having some card in his sleeve {NGNL similarity}. Akatsuki aka. Lolininja is a wasted potential. Then we got a pervy guy Naotsugu and antipole gentleman catman Nyanta {WTF}. Even though this Anime certainly has some problems like slow acceleration from the start and cheesy humor the plot is really good and most importantly the RPG element is very well executed.

The authors of this elaborate work we're aware of the potential and did not make the same mistake as the SAO, which was mostly about {weakly executed} romance and nothing else. LH truly focuses on the breathing online world where the players are imprisoned, the impact of their actions and choices on the world, communication with the NPC, skills and abilities, magic system, events etc. Unlike in SAO. There is no sense of imminent threat. So whatever is happening its still just a game {little memory loss is nothing compared to death imo}

I recommend this show for all the SAO haters out there. Anyway, I am looking forward to the second series.

I will sum it up for you right in the start: "Pretty comfy anime, but nothing significant or memorable." Decently drawn show with rather interesting start which unfortunately loses steam as it moves forward. The concept had much potential: possessive love of deranged perfectionist father towards daughter, alcoholic mother apparently tired of living in solitary splendor, the whole make your dead gf thing etc.. but the execution of show seems very tacky, especially in the end. Its a shame that such a short show is filled with fillers which does not reveal any useful information about plot development nor they show any new interesting character ... aspect. Anime is doing quite a good job at breaking zombie cliché. Once again the great story potential was wasted on fanservice. For me, just a big disappointment. Let me say that Kore Wa "Zombie desu ka?" was for more enjoying for me although there is definitely less effort put in the concept. Sometimes having fun with its absurd initial set is better then wasting one.

Abuse recent gaming oriented anime mania add tons of fun service with good plot that is served through backwards rationalization and you get NGNL. NGNL doesn't bring anything new to the scene, actually copies quite a lot from Mondaiji-tachi ga Isekai kara Kuru Sou Desu yo. If you are just average otaku enthusiastically waiting for next dose of titties, ecchi, nekomimi, loli with better than average plot {masses explains the overrating}, taking place in visually unconventional but interesting environment... Here you go this is the right stuff for you. However, "All that glitters is not gold", and same goes for NGNL. Under very appealing cover ... hides just an average anime{for more demanding ones even pathetic} with few unique games in order to settle disputes, poorly written characters{except godlike Shiro and Sora} and right pacing. If you are into NEET stuff go watch NHK ni Youkoso!

LS did a good job at describing the behavior and lifestyles of different types of people. I am sure everyone can find favourite one. One can focus on each new situation separately, which previous to it is mostly unrelated. This makes awesome relaxed atmosphere, once you will get into it I am sure you will enjoy the show very much. I understand that the daily life of female high-schoolers might not be everyone's piece of cake though. Its definitely not mine but i tried and enjoyed it. Once i saw scene on the system of eating chocolate rolls i knew i will definitely give it ... a shot.

LS is not an anime that wouldn't let you sleep unless you finish it first. Also do not expect a coherent story line, because there is not any. Even the individual episodes do not have a coherent theme, but nevertheless Lucky Star maintains a constant quality during all of the 24 parts. Throughout the whole show i felt quite entertained and from time to time even laughed. In the end i have to say that i am not a big fan of Lucky Channel thing.

I am afraid that not everybody will be able to appreciate the value of this anime nor may possess sufficient capacity to fully comprehend this jewel. Surely certain age and a lot of absorbed media will help. Joy, regarding this anime comes from attempt to understand it. It is not the consumption of the finished product, thus my review is very brief.
SEL is psychological thriller full of philosophical ideas integrated in technology around us.
SEL is about (not)reality, (un)identity and (not)alone.
SEL is about generation 90s, Net is vast and infinite.
It is the image of doubts about the objective reality which we call the external world and ... therefore builds on ideas that had been brought by Ghost in the Shell. Lains attitude is the attitude of the nineties: Doubt what you see and think about what you can't see.
It was awesome to watch non mainstream anime from 90s where you need to think about context, anime that forced me to speculate the following day. Of course a few inconsistencies were found, and this raises a number of issues which I don't understand yet. Several rematches may resolve this.
Simple: Mind_fucking

Most overrated anime of 2011. Which had a lot of potential and nice art but ! (yeah here it comes) Because of poor execution of storytelling, failed character psychology design and not so good episode structure, is definitely far from great. Not mentioning all the cliché present in big portions: high-school, black and white, every important guy has to have his girl, she has to be cute or capable(not both), mentally unstable main character, badass char, saving futuristic japan issue... The worst thing is probably the continuity of episodes. Many things doesn't make sense, main plot is barely holding throughout the episodes. Anime itself doesn't ... stick to any genre. You can find mix(mess) of romance, fantasy, sic-fi, mecha, action, tragedy, psychology elements that are misapplied in whole concept. Its obvious that GC tried to copy loads of stuff from Neon Genesis (Shinji,Dad,mom), Code Geass (Rebellion,Tyrant transformation) etc.. Unfortunately Its not working out in the incoherent story with illogical behaviour of characters. The only thing worth of praise is fluid animation and high-quality art design. The anime might be targeting younger audience with lesser anime experience.