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I have a fanfiction.net account (go nuts Dangan Ronpa fans) and Twitter under AnotherStatsGuy. I also have a Youtube channel, again under AnotherStatsGuy. It's also my Reddit username. I am most active on r/NBA and r/NolaPelicans. (Though I am active on other subs as well).
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Mar 14, 2019
I just saw this movie in theaters less than an hour ago. So I may come back and edited this review after I've seen a second time. (If I've seen it a second time.)
I have to say, What was that? And I'm not talking about the animation or the soundtrack. The Credits Song "I Beg You" by Aimer is fantastic, I'm more knocking this for its characters. I feel they relied too heavily on "Because Fate".
SPOILERS:
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As far as I can recall Saber Alter gets a single line and a single scene. The battle between Berserker and Alter is fantastic when the camera work is kept simplistic. But they go a bit too dynamic with the shots at certain points. I'm hoping that they explain how Saber became Alter in III because I don't have access to the original visual novel.
Not to mention, this is a compressed adaptation. I understand that some things are going to be cut. But there are two things that Shinji does that made go "What does THAT do?" The first is when he breaks an earring Sakura is wearing. It's quite clearly a power limiter of some sort. I understand that exposition about the whole mechanics of it would have slowed the scene, but you couldn't have given Rin or Shinji a line naming the earring. The other is this small bottle of purple liquid. It might as well be referred to as Virtue's Last Reward's "Axelavir." Perhaps instead of that gratuitous scene between Shirou and Sakura that could have been left implied, they could have devoted a scene to giving a brief rundown as to what that bottle contains. What is its name? What are its' properties? With III not due out in theaters for another year, explaining this ahead of time would have been helpful.
I'm also convinced that the writers in here weren't on the same page. There had to be one was all about the gratuitous scenes and another who was trying to turn this film into a comedy. Now a laugh or two is fine. But it seems like the whole middle of this film became a comedy sketch. The funny moments that come from Rider acting contrary to how Saber did in the same situation work. The moment where Sakura is staring horrified at a bandaged Shirou is not supposed to be and yet it is! Narm at its finest. The camera angle seems to say "Whomp. Whomp. Shirou got himself injured and brought home two more girls in your sister and the 10 year old. Classic Shirou!"
There was also at couple of plot points shoved to a single scene. At one point, it looks Sakura is about to go Yandere or at the very least, violently protective. She, at one point, contemplates not letting Shirou leave the house. That plot point becomes dropped when Shirou not only comes from home with two more girls, but leaves the house again. The other single plot point scene comes from a Fujimura flashback where Kiritsugu leaves the house and Fujimura the same way Shirou goes out with Sakura staying home. I found that plot much more interesting.
They seem to applying equal compression to the plot instead of knowing where to streamline it. Overall, the score on this site is being slightly inflated by the fact that if you're reaching Heaven Feel's II you've gone through at least one of Zero, Deen, or UBW and Heaven's Feel I.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jan 18, 2019
Watched Dubbed On HIDIVE
This review is short, but meant to be get to the point. Should you watch this show? Can you handle the juxtaposition of cutesy characters and gore? (This show is rated M for a reason.) Any time I watch more than three episodes of a show in a row without pausing, I almost always automatically give it at least an 8. From the onset, this fantastical setting sucks you in, immediately culminating in one of the most beautiful money shots I have ever seen in anime at the end of the first episode. The soundtrack is absolutely gorgeous to listen
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to from the opening notes. The actual drawings of the animation aren't super impressive opting for a cutesy moe-y style, but the lighting is so top-notch a viewer can't help but notice and praise it. The narrative naturally builds off each other and the character dynamics between Riko and Reg are endearingly straightforward. They truly are best friends, Riko as the excitable girl and Reg as the calm boy. It slowly adds to the world, and the deeper into the abyss the characters go, the more development they receive.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Dec 29, 2018
(Mainly focused on the last 5 episodes in order to give people ideas about what they can expect.)
When this show is good, it's really, really good, but it goes ice-cold for long stretches.
Characterization: When he's going over the top for the sake of “comedy”, the main male character is obnoxious. I won't bother with his name. I can't remember his name. He's a generic main male character. Dark-haired with glasses, not completely social adept, it's a little hypocritical of me, but I stand by my assessment. Whether that's meant to be relatable or not, I still suffered from secondhand cringe when watching him in motion.
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Sawamura (the blonde) is excellent if a bit cliché, and Kasumigaoka (the long, dark-haired one) is fun enough to watch in action. Kato (the bland, sweet one) is serviceable. Honestly, the main male character should have jettisoned, his desire to make a game given to Kato, and then the story worked from there. It's like they waffled between harem anime and cute-girl anime, so they decided to split the difference and they fell right into a chasm of boredom.
Sound: Terrible Soundtrack. This show has one of the worst soundtracks I have ever heard with only the credits song even vaguely sticking in my head. At one point, I was struggling to remember if it even played music. There was no engagement to keep the viewer hooked until the last few episodes when the musician finally showed up. A good soundtrack is like a good offensive line in football, everybody overlooks it, but it's going to be very hard for a show to be engaging and entertaining without it. I, personally, place a premium on a good soundtrack. It's why I give more slack towards a show like Guilty Crown. Even when it tries to use music effectively, like in the opening 30 seconds to Episode 9, the track chosen just reminds me of Bakemonogatari or Nisemonogatari. Said attempt is then shot in the ass with a scene transition and attempted meta so jarring that if it were a pair of knees, it would have torn both ACLs. What's even more jarring in regards to the soundtrack is that it spends part of Episode 10 discussing how important a good soundtrack is. ….
The visuals are passable, as they are quite technically sound. When A-1 isn't shoving references to its other works in your face. It's like they decided to save the visual budget by plastering posters of their other works all over the place. SEE OUR OTHER WORK! SEE OUR OTHER WORK! Quick advertisement, and we can save animation time. It does make the world feel realistic, but marketing campaigns are not be-all, end-all. There's no action sequences so the animation can focus on minuscule details in the frames to bring it all together. There are some artistic colorization choices in certain still frames that tell the viewer in that “This is supposed to be a key psychological moment in the story” but my investment in the main male character is usually so honestly negative that I barely cared.
In conclusion, the more anime you've seen before, especially in these genres (harem, high-school, slice-of-life, etc.), the less likely you are to enjoy it. A veteran won't be missing anything, but somebody looking to explore the genre can easily find reasons to watch. It doesn't fully commit the meta aspect, but haphazardly throws it in. Though I do recommend watching a different anime in Gurren Lagann beforehand, (unlike me).
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Feb 16, 2018
A couple of months ago, I asked on Reddit, "What is the Andy Dalton of anime?". This anime was one of the answers I received. Since I imagine most members of MAL are not fans of professional American Football, let me explain. The Andy Dalton Line is a hypothetical line for performance in terms of Quarterbacks. If your Quarterback plays better than Andy Dalton, you should keep him. If your Quarterback plays worse than Andy Dalton, you should be searching for a new Quarterback. After watching this 12 episode, I have to agree that this show falls squarely as a Dalton. It is
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however, very taste dependent. Keep that in mind.
The stories starts off with a bunch of teenagers (?) transported to another world. I say teenagers because anime likes working with teenagers, but the ages aren't actually mentioned. That and I presume they are from Earth from dialogue hints, but all of them have lost their memories of their previous lives. It's a story justification to make them complete novices in a fantasy world. I wouldn't be surprised if a couple of them weren't in their early twenties. We're following the less successful of the two groups, and it shows. Even killing one goblin is a struggle.
A major positive of this show is that nothing is taken for granted. One of the main characters is actually excited about buying underwear. I also really liked the pacing. It's very slow so that might not be liked, but I remember each episode focusing on one important event. The art is also kinda pretty even if the character designs are bland.
This show also has its problems. The most obvious one is Ranta. Ranta is that guy that makes fun of a girl's chests. You know the guy that thinks it's a good idea to go peep on the girls in the bath. Yeah, that guy. I was honestly surprised that he remained a part of the group. Between that and his refusal to communicate what he was doing, I would have kicked him out several times over. Would have made a nice change in pace. But maybe that's due to them having to adapt to other changes in party composition.
The other major problem is a bit more subtle. At one point, the group has to integrate a new archpriest into their group after losing the old one. The archpriest is a healer and usually leads the group. Naturally this makes them the first target of the monsters, especially as it's mentioned that parties need an archpriest to be successful. So my issue here is why the group doesn't get a second archpriest? Redundancies in a parties are possible. We see a party with two Warriors in it at one point. I would think a party with two archpriests would be much more stable. They can even heal other.
In short, should you watch this anime? Probably. If the premise is up your alley, I would not be left scratching my head if this show got another Season, which should say enough.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Feb 1, 2017
Dangan Ronpa 2.5. It's an interquel between Dangan Ronpa 2 and Dangan Ronpa 3: Kibou-hen.
*Premise: Nagito Komaeda's experiences in the Neo World Program after he dies.
*Strengths: It's satisfying. Some characters really get to shine. Souda, Kuzuryuu, Peko, Sonia.
It was also nice to see how Komaeda could interact with everybody else without his warped world view. Plausible way to exit the Neo World Program.
*Weakness: Oh boy. I'm being so hard on this OVA because I love this franchise. 25 minutes. It takes 25 minutes for this to be resolved. And only a third of the cast gets used. DR2 and overall. I was hoping this would
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be something that could strengthen the bonds of DR2 and DR3, considering it IS called 2.5. But alas, it is not. This falls into the same problem as DR3. I was hoping for it to be longer to allow everything to breathe, something along the lines of a full-length movie in this case. Maybe show a little about Komaeda's past. I saw the Budget constraints on the writing everywhere, especially in how the lines were distributed among the characters. And while the acknowledgements that Maizono and Kuwata do exist were nice. It felt empty.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Sep 3, 2016
This is not anime that will set the world on fire. This is actually more of an anime that you watch to broaden your reference base. That 7.3 composite score should be an indicator of that. Figure out what you like or what you don't like. It's a filler show. Not every anime can be a Soul Eater or a Fullmetal Alchemist or a Familiar of Zero, a game-changer.
Let me start with the characters:
The main guy: Yuki Ojima is nothing special. He runs because he wants to keep his club from being shut down. Along the way, he learns some stuff, yadah, yadah, yadah.
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main girl: Chisato. Best friends since childhood with Ojima. Are you seeing anything familiar?
The rest of the club fills out archetypes. You've got your small girl and your brainiac. (Who happen to be the same character.) The duo of comic relief. The older-sister type. The weirdo. The 'proper lady' who happens to be Ojima's running rival. The teacher that dotes on our main character. Etc.
You're wondering why I gave the characters a 9 when they're all so generic. Because they strike a chord and resonant with the audience. It's the archetypes in motion as they're supposed to be done. Done well, and they can be satisfying to watch, even for a short span of 12 episodes. But the main engine is the interpersonal relationship between Chisato and Ojima, and well, you have to watch the show because if I were to say here, it would ruin the impact.
The weakest element of this show is the story. It's not a very strong premise, but there are no loose ends. The sound is okay.
Moving onto the animation...clearly there must have been a very small, very dedicated group of animators working on this show because while each frame individually looks gorgeous and well put together, the actual motion is disjointed. Often times, the only motion will be lip-flaps. But since this show isn't a big-budget action anime, it can get away with it. It's a unique characteristic of this show that I've never seen before. Good frames, lousy animation.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jun 23, 2016
The Familiar of Zero is required viewing, not because it's particularly great, but because it will allow viewers to accurately gauge other anime's quality. All the tricks (the tsundere girl, the ordinary protagonist, the Casanova second guy, etc.) are all in their basic form here. That's hardly this show's fault for being made in 2006. I believe that a lot of shows looked that this series and imitated its elements without ever understanding WHY those elements were in the show to begin with. That the characters needed a reason to behave the way they behaved in a situation.
The show's premise revolves around a
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Kerr black hole of interactions between Louise and Saito (Her familiar). Unfortunately, it is impossible for me to compress my patience into 36 bytes or less because neither character warrants it all that much. Do I understand them? Yes? Do I particularly care? Not as much as I should as often as I should. There were moments where I was straight-up 'Who Cares', and then there were moments I felt like their happiness was straight of 'D'Awwww.' But viewing it as a 20 year old guy in 2016, maybe I'm out of the age-range needed to fully appreciate this show.
One almost wants to shake Louise, and go 'Your partner is a HUMAN. A HUMAN. WITH INDEPENDENT THOUGHT!" And I can't believe I'm saying this, but Saito really needed a catchphase, something along lines of 'CONTEXT! PLEASE!' everytime something happened that he didn't understand (Which is quite often.)
Saito also couldn't figure out that biting-the-hand humor with Louise, someone's who short on humor, is not exactly a good idea to get into her good graces.
SPOILER FOR THE LAST EPISODE: When Saito gets an old WWII fighter plane, and it looks like he's going to leave, at one point, Louise manages to jump into the cockpit with him. I would have loved for the season to end with them actually getting through the solar eclipse and ending up on Earth. Hey, we spent the first season with Saito being a fish-out-of-water. Now, let's make Louise hold serve.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jun 19, 2016
Man, oh man, if you look at my list, you'll noticed that I tend to prefer English dubbed anime over subbed anime. This is the anime that changed that. I'll have to give it credit for that.
Here I was, looking for something after finishing Shakugan No Shana II, and I come across this show. The premise was unique enough that it warranted me to take a look at it, and at 13 Episodes, it wasn't that much of a time investment. A weekend to be precise.
Let me start by talking about the Characters, I'm giving them a nine, not because I found them particularly
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endearing lall the time. (Though Mahiro is a particularly skilled straight man. Usually.), but because of their designs. Each one is unique and instantly recognizable. I could watch a 1000 anime and instantly recognize these characters. I suppose it's part of the reason I give the art an 8 as well.
The story, however, doesn't go anywhere. With the exception of a very-moving 1st half of Episode 12, a lot of punchlines come from: Mahiro does something to Nyaruko. Nyaruko does the exact the same thing to Ryuuko later in the episode. While it is a clever way to show off the two MCs compatibility to each other from a romantic perspective,, if it's not up your alley for humor, it's going to be obnoxious. And while the show goes to great lengths not to be an Episode of the Week format with cliffhangers, none of them go anywhere. They're all resolved within a couple of minutes of the next episode. And Brick Jokes, part of any good comedy's humor are severely lacking.
The opening is very catchy, and while it fits for the first 11 Episodes, Episode 12 puts it in a very awkward place.
One of the writers must have loved video games, because you've got your parodies of Video Game Consoles, not just 2012's modern ones. (360 and PS3), but a WonderSwan knockoff is even plot-relevant for an episode. How many non-Japanese people are even familiar with the WonderSwan's existence?
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jun 9, 2016
Let me pitch this anime to you: SATAN at McDonalds.
This anime.... this anime.... this anime is amazing. With the exception of Episode 13 (Which feels like a episode from an early 2nd season that might never be made.), all the episodes are on-point. I'm laughed my ass off throughout most the jokes.
There's really not much to say about the art or sound. It's neatly executed.
It's the characters that make this show shine.
Satan, ruler of darkness, is ... a dork.
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Emilia, the all-powerful hero, is ... a dork.
Alciel, the most capable general the Devil has, is ... a dork.
Lucifer, the embodiment of chaos, is ... a dork with a NEET streak.
Suzuno, the Devil's neighbor with her own mysterious backstory... is a dork.
Chiyo, the most adorable coworker you could possibly have, is ... not a dork, but still very endearing. And most of the comedy comes from her being the Devil's Underling (with a crush on him) in MgRonalds as they take on Sentucky Fried Chicken in sales. If you aren't cracking a grin from reading that sentence, you have no soul.
In all seriousness, you just sit back, cheer these characters on, and have yourself a viewing party of one because it is that good. The English Dub is available on iTunes. For about 26.99 plus tax, you can own all 13 episodes. Definitely the way to go.
Unfortunately, this falls in the same category as Unbreakable Machine Doll and D-Frag, as a one-season hit full of strong, and endearing characters, that will PROBABLY NEVER GET A SECOND SEASON because the studios don't know when they have a hit. If Haganai and Chuunibyou could get second seasons, why can't these?
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Apr 14, 2016
Death Note: 37 episodes of the main character Light Yagami going up against some of the greatest users of logic in fiction outside of Sherlock Holmes. L is particularly fun to watch. The premise starts strong and keeps getting stronger as elements are brought up and used and taken as far as they can go.
Now if only I could say the same for the characters, in particular, three characters are introduced after Episode 26. (The only real break/ half-recap episode in the series.) Any major character introduced before Episode 26 gets plenty of screen time. But after Episode 26? Of the most important new
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characters, only one, Near, actually gets to breathe, and show off any of his intellect.
The Music is amazing. L's theme and Light's theme and all variations are a joy to listen to. If the soundtracks were available in NA iTunes, (which they aren't!) instant purchase.
Side Note: The show can lose you partway through the Yostuba Arc. I put the series down for three months after Episode 20. And I kept putting it on hold for a lot of other anime. This is supposed to be the big middle part of the story, and it falls flat, very flat. It's why I'm giving the story an 8 instead of 10.
(Most of the 'A Certain' Franchise, last 7 episodes of Noragami Aragoto, Selector Infected Wixoss, the 1st 6 episodes of Assassination Classroom 2nd Season, the first 29 episodes of Shakugan no Shana, the RE: Cyborg 009 movie, the 1st 14 episodes out of Chuunibiyou's 2 seasons if anyone's wondering.).
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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