- Last OnlineJan 27, 7:45 AM
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- BirthdayJul 11, 1991
- LocationCampbell River, Canada
- JoinedApr 8, 2016
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Jun 28, 2016
Bakuman is a masterpiece. There are three seasons to Bakuman and this review will speak to all of them. Bakuman is one of those anime that is so fulfilling throughout the entire 75 episode story that it will leave you feeling complete and satisfied. I have watched anime from all different genre for the last five years and outside of the typical "masterpieces" that the general public often finds agreement on (think Death Note, Code Geass, etc), I had yet to find a show that is less popular that I consider a true masterpiece. Bakuman changed that for me. There is nothing in any
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season of Bakuman that needed changing - everything comes together throughout the seasons to create a complete and satisfying story that will leave your heart warm and your eyes wet.
{Story} - The story of Bakuman is what created the structure for it to be a masterpiece. Every episode serves a purpose in building up your investment in characters and highlighting key facets of the manga industry. As someone that was previously ignorant of the difficulties and challenges faced by mangaka, Bakuman will draw you into the world of manga and leave you breathless. The story draws you into the creative process and will leave you exhausted alongside the main characters as they fight for serialization and an anime adapation. This anime will make you feel the story like no other.
{Art} - While I am inexperienced in what constitutes "good animation art", the visuals in this anime certainly created an atmosphere that allowed the story and characters to succeed. I would say I have seen more beautiful anime out there, but Bakuman's art felt proper and natural for the setting.
{Sound} - Similar to the art side side, the sound in Bakuman felt right. There was no noise or songs that felt out of place or distracting from the anime. Every song and sound effect added to the ambiance that Bakuman needed to succeed and it did just that.
{Character} - By far and away the strongest point of Bakuman and what filled out the story frame that allowed this anime to become a masterpiece. I often find anime that have many different "main characters" to spread themselves too thin and to draw away from the rest of the story, but every single character in Bakuman served an integral purpose to the overall story. You will care about every character in this story (except maybe Nakai who frustrated the heck out of me) by the time it is finished and understand just how important each person was to the story. I've never felt so heavily invested in over 10 main characters in an anime before - but Bakuman did it in such an excellent fashion that I have zero complaints. I cared more about some of the minor characters in Bakuman due to the way they were developed than I care about most main characters in an average anime.
{Enjoyment} - To put it bluntly, I watched all three seasons of Bakuman (75 episodes) in three days. That's just how incredible the anime was for me. While I tend to binge watch shows, its rare for me to get invested in an anime with more than 25ish episodes and feel the need to watch the next episode immediately. Needless to say, Bakuman is a masterpiece that you will be unable to put down.
{Overall} - Overall I gave Bakuman a 10/10 - a true masterpiece. I felt this anime to be one of the most complete and fulfilling anime that I have ever watched and it will be one of those anime that I binge watch again in the future when I have a hole left in my chest from a less satisfying anime.
Bakuman - a true masterpiece.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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May 28, 2016
Zankyou no Terror is a psychological/mystery thriller that will evoke memories of Death Note in the way that the two main characters "Twelve" and "Nine" play with the police. The story makes use of many riddles and mysteries to progress the story while also alluding to the past so the viewer can understand the characters' motivation. With that said, there was poor development of "Five" (one of the main antagonists) which ultimately felt a little rushed and brought the overall story of the anime down. The anime had excellent music which really brought the story to life and its worth the watch.
{Story} - The story
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started out excellent and I was engrossed in the mystery and psychological aspect from the very first episode. The problem the story ran into was their introduction of "Five" as an antagonist who was very poorly developed and really distracted from the main story. We are never given a reason for Five's interference other than she "is continuing a game from the past". The story did have a very interesting and complete resolution which saved it from its downward spiral.
{Art} - The art in Zankyou no Terror was nothing special but was certainly not bad. The only time it really stood out was in a moment when Twelve began to talk about his synesthesia (the ability to see sound). Other than that moment, it was pretty average but not bad.
{Sound} - Zankyou no Terror made excellent use of music throughout the anime and the opening and ending pieces were both excellent. I had no complaints about the sound or music and it definitely added to the flavor of the anime.
{Character} - Probably the weakest point of the anime. In an 11 episode anime, its difficult to give any depth to the characters and this really came through with both the two female main characters. Neither felt like there was any character progression and both felt poorly developed. I had originally planned to give the character section a 6/10 score, but ultimately decided to bump it to a 7/10 due to the development of the detective Shibazaki who was developed quite nicely.
{Enjoyment} - While the middle of the anime suffered due to the introduction of Five, the anime was quite enjoyable due to its incredibly fast pace and psychological/mystery aspect. I binge watched all 11 episodes in a row and never got bored (although Five definitely detracted from the show).
{Overall} - Overall I gave Zankyou no Terror a 7/10. The show had excellent potential but suffered from poor character development, poor character motivation and a few plot holes. If the show had been given even one or two more episodes to flesh out the backstory on Five a bit further, it may have saved her entire "arc", but the lack of displayed motivation to the viewer really felt unnecessary and dropped this anime from an 8/10.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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May 17, 2016
Tokyo Ravens is often described as a prototypical high-school fantasy style anime. While the description is accurate, it is far and away better than most of the stereotypical high-school fantasy anime that are rolled off the factory line every year. Tokyo Ravens does an outstanding job creating a universe in which you feel fully connected to both the past, present and future of many of the characters and their world. Although I do not do much reading of manga or light novels, I will be pick up the Tokyo Ravens light novel where the anime left off as the anime leaves little closure.
{Story} - Easily
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one of the highlights of Tokyo Ravens, the story is well developed and cohesive throughout the anime. Set in an alternate universe of post-world war II filled with magic, it comes with a few surprising twists and turns. The story is filled with hits of romance, action and fantasy and they all come together to form a story that will have you craving more once it comes to an end.
{Art} - As with many anime that make use of magic, Tokyo Ravens is gorgeous. Top notch visual graphics are used throughout the anime and they really come to the forefront in the final episodes.
{Sound} - As with the visuals, Tokyo Ravens had an excellent audio profile. The anime made excellent use of background music in both emotional and action scenes that never distracted you from the focus point but very much created a beautiful atmosphere.
{Character} - Along with the story, I consider character development to be one of the most important aspects of an anime. Tokyo Ravens did not disappoint. While the anime makes use of quite a few central characters, they're all given fleshed out identities and evolve over the anime. Each character will take turns surprising you and showing why they are as important to the anime as the next character. Unlike many anime, this anime will connect you to characters from the first episode and will leave you wanting to know their future once the anime ends.
{Enjoyment} - Quite frankly, I enjoyed this anime much more than I expected. I binge-watched the entire thing in one day and I do not regret it for a moment. I was surprised when reading other reviews that people found it average and just another fantasy anime - I found it to be head and shoulders above much of the average shows that the anime machine sends out these days.
{Overall} - Overall I gave this anime a 9/10. Much higher than the MAL average but fully deserving of more recognition. I believe Tokyo Ravens is extremely underrated and looked over. With an excellent story and character development along with immersive visuals and audio - this anime needs to be watched.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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May 16, 2016
Madan no Ou to Vanadis is an anime that had all the pieces to create an excellent anime but clearly failed due to lack of budget and and a rushed adaptation. On top of that, the "narrator" that the anime makes use of to explain strategy and battle situations in every episode was extremely annoying and detached you from the fantasy the anime created. The only reason the narrator was remotely necessary was because of just how rushed the anime was as the anime did't have time to "show" the strategy or what took place between episodes and had to resort to "telling" instead.
{Story} -
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The idea behind Vanadis is probably one of its strongest areas and it could have been developed into something great. Unfortunately being only a one cour anime, everything was extremely rushed and the story felt disjointed and very shallow. There were many references to characters in the story that never appear due to time constraints or are given extremely limited (literally one scene) appearances. Ultimately while the story had promise it failed to deliver a show that had you craving for the next episode due to its rushed pace.
{Art} - The art in Vanadis was pretty mediocre. With the quality of anime coming out these days, the bar is set pretty high and Vanadis didn't meet that expectation. There are a lot of clipped scenes, poor animation, and repeated scenes. The show only gave each war maiden one or two abilities and seeing those abilities repeated over and over every episode really draws away from the visual effect.
{Sound} - As with the art, the sound and music in the anime were pretty mediocre. Nothing stood out as a wow moment and the things that first caught your ear on their first use became very repetitive as the show made use of the same abilities and tactics time after time.
{Character} - As with the story, the characters in Vanadis had a lot of promise but they were severely hampered by the rushed pace and short anime length. Some characters that were introduced were given zero time to show any character progression and others were introduced but the never followed up on. The anime supposedly has seven different war maidens but we're only introduced to six and only three are given any meangingful screen time. Even within those three, only two are really fleshed out as characters while the other one's reason for helping the main character's group is rather vague. Unfortunately what could have been a great story with great characters fell flat due to the extremely rushed pace.
{Enjoyment} - The anime left a lot to be desired. Unlike many great anime that I have watched, I didn't feel the need to watch the next episode right away. I even forgot I was watching the anime for a few days before seeing a picture of the main character online. Again, the anime had a lot of potential but ultimately fell flat and the enjoyment level really suffered from this. I still did enjoy it while I was watching it but it never left me wanting more.
{Overall} - Overall I gave this anime a 5/10 - one of the lowest scores I've given out on my animelist and in a review. The pacing and rushed feeling in Vanadis was such a huge detractor from the anime that I could never really enjoy it. There were a few bright spots in the anime but even those were rushed and pushed aside to hurry to the next plot point of the anime.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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May 10, 2016
Iron-Blooded Orphans (IBO) is the most recent installment in the Mobile Suit Gundam Universe, but avoids the tired and stale aspects of the more recent predecessors. IBO paints the disturbing reality that child soldiers face in a war torn era - it is a provocative yet grief-stricken series that highlights everything wrong with placing a gun in a child's hands. While the story itself is a highlight of the series, IBO's most glaring problem is in character development where it is hard to support the convictions on many of the characters due to incomplete background knowledge of their circumstances.
{Story} - IBO's story is most certainly
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its strongest point. There is never a dull episode and the pacing is consistent and engaging throughout the 25 episode series. The heart-wrenching stories of child soldiers fighting for what they believe is the only way they can live will keep you rooting for characters beyond the main characters and the overarching story is fulfilling.
{Art} - As with nearly all Gundam series, the art is very good. With that said, there is nothing in IBO that makes it stand-out from the rest of the Gundam universe.
{Sound} - Similarly to IBO's art, the sound in IBO is very good and on par with most Gundam series. The opening and ending songs are all very catchy and will likely find their way onto your anime playlist (if you're into that sort of thing).
{Character} - Character development in IBO is where I found the series to fall flat. I really never understood or believed the rationality behind some of the main characters motivations - particularly Mikazuki. While there is an announced season 2 on its way where their background may be expanded upon - until then I found their lack of backstory to be a glaring issue as I never felt connected to anyone except for Orga.
{Enjoyment} - As I mentioned earlier, the series never had a dull moment. Even the slower paced episodes had interesting and important elements that kept the story flowing and keeping the viewers interest. As long as you're into the mecha genre, you'll be entertained the whole way.
{Overall} - Overall I gave IBO an 8/10. The overarching story and subject matter was excellent and would have earned a solid 9/10 if not for a severe lack of character development and background information. Hopefully this will be remedied in the upcoming season 2 in the Fall of 2016! The series is definitely worth watching and my favorite Gundam series since Seed.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Apr 18, 2016
Shinsekai Yori is an incredible work of art that will leave you considering the role humanity has in the natural world along with our despicable history of discrimination, slavery and genocide. In an anime filled with time leaps, you're given the full scope of a generation's view in the so called "utopian" society developed in the 1000 years after modern civilization ended. While this anime will strike you as strange and unique over the first few episodes, it becomes endearing and unmistakable as the series goes on. While the show does suffer from a few unanswered questions, it will keep you flipping through the episodes
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until you're left with a hole in your chest at the end.
{Story - 10/10} - Easily Shinsekai Yori's strength. This anime's storyline and the themes packed into it over 25 episodes is outstanding and will leave you craving for more every time the credits roll. While the world we're introduced to is strange and the storytelling seems disjointed - everything becomes clear as the story progresses and plot-twists will keep your mouth on the floor until the very end.
{Art - 8/10} - The art in Shinsekai Yori is solid. It isn't a masterpiece but the viewer connects with characters and the story - it fits perfectly. Some of the color schemes evoked specifically in relation to the so-called "fiends" and "karma demons" were spectacular.
{Sound - 7/10} - The music and sound fit the story and nothing felt out of place. With that said, in comparison to how wonderful the story and characters were, the music and sound merely fell into the background and at no point was it awe-inspiring.
{Character - 10/10} - Shinsekai Yori's story was only immaculate due to the excellent character development throughout the story. The relationships in the story attach your heart-strings to characters and more than once those heart-strings will be shattered. While there was controversy surrounding some of the relationships as being "unnatural" due to the LGBT nature - it more than fit the concept of the story and never felt out of place due to the way the story was told.
{Enjoyment} - Shinsekai Yori was one of the few animes over the last few months that has kept me binge watching despite the need to study for exams and work. In fact, I had to write this review immediately after finishing it, despite having a 100% final tomorrow afternoon I should be preparing. This anime is enjoyable for anyone, but it is a must watch for anyone who wishes to connect with an anime on a deeper level and consider philosophical questions about humanity.
{Overall} - Overall I gave Shinsekai Yori a 9/10. The sound and art were less than masterful, but the story and characters kept me coming back endlessly.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Apr 17, 2016
Hyouka was an anime that I had heard opinions from opposite ends of the spectrum. Some people loved it and praised it as a masterpiece while others said they dropped it a few episodes in due to a lack of overall story. Unlike my friends who were polarized about the anime, I found it to be entertaining and well worth watching - albeit not a masterpiece.
{STORY} - Ultimately the lack of an overarching story was my biggest frustration with Hyouka. There was no real linear progression of story between much of the anime other than references back to things that had previously happened. In a
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22 episode anime, there was like 5 different mini-arcs that really could have happened in almost any order. With that said, the anime was a true slice-of-life anime in the sense that you really felt like the anime gave a window into a true daily life scenario of a group of friends who were entertained with ordinary mysteries.
{Art} - Art was quite excellent through the anime but really came to the forefront in the final episode. Beautiful colors and excellent animation of the characters' eyes in particular really makes the art stick out as a feature of Hyouka.
{Sound} - The music choices in Hyouka were superb. The mixture of famous classical pieces along with their mysterious interlude pieces really helped the flow of episodes and will stick with the viewer for a long time.
{Characters} - Character development was very good throughout the anime. Over a 22 episode anime there are very noticeable changes in the characters as well as the relationships between characters. Unlike some anime that rush relationships and force character development, Hyouka was very natural and never felt like it was being rushed.
{Enjoyment} - Overall the enjoyment was very good. Every episode brought an entertaining mystery and character development that kept you glued to the anime.
{Overall} - Overall I gave this anime an 8/10. The lack of a true overarching story or theme dropped it from a 9/10 for me. While it did fit the slice-of-life theme excellently and it could be argued that it was the natural development of a group of friends that was the over-arching story, it just felt like it could have been better served with a mystery that lasted from episode 1 and was solved in episode 22 and was slowly unpacked over the entire anime.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Apr 11, 2016
Nagi no Asukara is a true diamond in the rough. I've watched hundreds of anime over the years that were mediocre and filled the anime craving in my soul - but Nagi no Asukara was what I'd really been looking for.
What really makes Nagi no Asukara stand out are two main things. The first is the outstanding artwork and character development. The scenery porn in this anime is unbelievable and will have you gazing into the background of the main focus many times. On top of that, Nagi no Asukara's character development was extremely fulfilling and there was a strong sense of completeness in
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the journey the viewer goes through in watching the characters develop. The second stand out reason that Nagi no Asukara is a must watch is the connection it shares with the world we currently live in. With the future of our planet being called into question with issues like Climate Change, rising sea levels and the impact it will have on future generations - Nagi no Asukara really hits home with a relevant and important message.
Nagi no Asukara will have you smiling, laughing, crying and yelling at your screen throughout all 26 episodes. As someone who couldn't stop the episodes from playing and binge watched all 26 episodes in a 24 hour period - give this anime a chance and it will fill your soul.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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