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Mar 30, 2025
It's really good, a bit dark and edgy but that's how I like my anime.
Every episode is a two parter, so each arc is pretty self contained. Secondary guest characters get lots of time to be fleshed out which is nice. Even if they are killed off or thrown away at the end of the arc you still get time to come to understand and enjoy them.
I will admit that the protagonist Hei is more than a little cliche but he's well written and voiced enough to still be emotionally resonant. Every other major character is fairly interesting and gets just the right amount
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of spotlighting, the entire show is supremely tightly written with fantastic pacing. The show also runs the full gamut of human emotion, some episodes are crushingly dark and sad while others are much more light hearted. So it avoids feeling overwhelming and never lets you get inured to one feeling or the other.
Animationwise is alright, about average for its era nothing extremely great nor awful. Character designs are generally grounded and basic except for Yin and Kiko, which I think is intended to foreshadow their friendship.
Sound and music is great, especially the intro tracks. Both versions will be stuck in my head for a long time yet. Although I can't say the same about the second outtro which I found frankly annoying.
Also for those who don't like fan service Darker than Black generally avoids it, except for one character near the end who must be naked to use her powers. Everyone else is portrayed fairly seriously and without much room for eroticisim.
Over all this show gets my highest recommendation. Its very well put together and doesn't have anything I feel I'd need to warn potential viewers of.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Nov 22, 2024
If you can get past the fact the first 30 minutes is just a soft core porn film. What awaits you is one of the best James Bond films I've ever seen.
The action is a lot more bloody than what you'd expect from a Bond film. But the plot, characters and everything else would feel right at home especially in the more action focused modern era of Bond films.
The entire movie looks beatiful, even the CGI bits look good and the intro was amazingly well done. Everything just looks fantastic, every character oozes personality in a way that modern computer aided animation just
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no longer does. It also got a great soundtrack full of 80s era synths and blaring instruments that set the tone perfectly for every scene. Even the mandatory sex scenes are at least well scored if tedious to watch.
I do have to dock points for how long it takes to get going, and the sheer amount of nudity is a little off putting at times. But its a solid film overall.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Oct 3, 2024
I'm sure that readers who like a quiet book, where they can just sit down and soak up the art will enjoy Blame! but that's just not me.
Blame! is a very visual story, beautiful art, cool characters and freaky monsters.
Its tough to describe because it is just so visual, one of those "a picture is worth a thousand words" things and if you wanna stare at pretty pictures you could do a lot worse than this.
I realise that sounds quite flippant but honestly, I'm not an art critic. I wouldn't know what to say beyond:
"I like the art a lot and if
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I was only focusing on that Blame! would be a 9/10"
But personally, I need something more than that.
The world of Blame! is fascinating and strange, this agoraphobic mega city that literally stretches beyond the furthest bounds of the solar system. But because the story is so lacking in dialogue its never explained or adressed, I only know the scale of the city because I read it on wikipedia. I really adore this world and the visuals that it gives us, twisted Escher-esc buildings that loop in on themselves. Multi hundred thousand kilometer wide empty spaces that exist to do nothing, buildings where gravity itself randomly flips position, guys in power armor thats modled after fantasy knights. It's just so cool.
So why is it written like a mystery box!?
We know the protagonist Killy is looking for someone with "The Net Terminal Gene" but its never explained WHY he's looking for this person or what this Net Terminal Gene even does. He himself doesn't even know, it's the old protagonist amnesia special.
A classic instant drama trope but since Killy never figures himself out neither do we. What little context for the world of Blame! we do have, paints the city as so gargantuan that it leaves me feeling like even if Killy achieved his goals that not much would change.
We are talking about a place where a basic elevator ride takes 800 hours and where a walk of 300 THOUSAND kilometers is achievable because Killy is, something not human.
There's some good mystery around what exactly Killy is, he's clearly not human. Able to go the full story without eating or sleeping, he's crazy fast and strong, he's got a weird HUD and his energy gun draws its power from his body. But his origins and purpose are never fully adressed. We know he's not "silicon life" or a "Safeguard" because he's able to go places and do things they can't. But the only other human whose able to keep up with him is Cibo, and she cheats via technobable.
Killy's backstory is just a big void meant to make him supperficially cool.
We get far more backstory for his side kick Cibo, but she is equally void of personality or character development. She shows up, we get a bit of history on her as a scientist and she gets a few power ups via technobable throughout the story. But ultimately Cibo just kind of exists to do techy stuff that Killy can't do. The manga equivelant of every female deuteragonist in an early 2000s FPS who just exists to hack computers and pick locks.
Maybe there is some kind of crazy metaphor underlying the whole plot that would just blow my mind if I could grasp it.
Personally, I doubt it.
Given how much effort went into the art I think its safe to say that is where all the author's energy was going and it really shows.
Like I said, on art alone its a 9/10. But when taken holistically, as a marriage of both written and visual art. I can't say I particularly enjoyed Blame!
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Mar 11, 2024
If you played the game, you already know Yosuke's story. So there's no reason to read this manga
If you haven't played the game, then don't read this manga because it's full of spoilers.
It doesn't really add any new context to his character in my honest opinion.
It just rehashes things from the game, but it does it well. Not an awful read, but not one I find myself willing to recommend or re-do.
I also feel that a lot of Persona 4's atmosphere is contained within the game. Within its visuals and music, while the manga recreates some of that it just can't capture the way the
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opening sequence makes you feel or how isolated most areas in Inaba are. And obviously a book can't play music.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Mar 11, 2024
Lets be honest.
This is basically a doujin.
And that's not a bad thing, its most of the reason why I made it so far. But after a certain point all the gimmicks get played out and it stops being fun. There's no real plot or character, just maho girls doing fetishy things. Which when combined with a dodgy fan translation full of out dated memes and phrases like "I stan that" just leaves me feeling bored.
Personally I need some sense of threat or stakes in a series, the world doesn't have to be on the verge of blowing up but I need something. Some kind of
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goal to watch the protagonist strive for.
I would definitely say that I really enjoyed what I read here, its very Kill la Kill. But without that sense of purpose I find my desire to finish the series flagging.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Dec 25, 2023
I really wanna rate this film higher but to put it simply it starts overplaying its hand.
Feels like it really should not have been as long as it is and at some point the script just starts running out of material. Which is weird cause there's at least two whole plot lines that just get completely dropped by the end. Meanwhile for smaller scenes too many set ups are reused which leads to an overall feeling of exhaustion that brings down the end of the film significantly.
If I was rating just the first half or so I'd say it's a 9/10. But with how
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much it drags on it looses a lot of its energy.
Still a good film that I'd give a solid recommendation to if you don't mind a little Christmas shlock.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Nov 5, 2023
I can only recommend this to readers with a strong stomach and a darker sense of humor.
The shortest way I could describe Franken Fran is like an old European Fairytale (like Princess Donkey Skin type stuff) but with much more body horror. Halfway between a Fairy Godparent and Herbert West Reanimator.
Fran is a really good character, her ideal of scientific progress at nearly any cost clashes with her unwillingness to let anyone under her care die. (even if it means crafting a fate far worse than death for them)
Sure its not exactly realistic, but if you stick with my fairytale comparison it makes
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sense. Fran is a being bound by her own esoteric pacts and logic. One comes to desire some impossible thing, which leads them to Fran. Fran tries to caution them against whatever the object of their desire is, but ultimately succumbs to pressure and grants their wish, then their wish turns out to be utterly horrible.
While Fran herself remains untouched because at least they're not dead and she's not really responsible for them misusing her boon.
While granted the other characters aren't as deep, but they're pretty well written and enjoyable enough for it to work. Usually they just exist to be some kind of foil or extension for Fran to play off of.
But the main bulk of the plot will be spent focused directly on Fran.
Perhaps the most memorable thing about Franken Fran is the art, it's disturbing and detailed in all the right ways. I've scarcely seen gore so realistically detailed. No clouds of vaguely defined blood, if someone gets bisected in here you WILL see all their organs and bones neatly split and in remarkable detail. When it comes to seeing Fran distort and ruin the human form almost nothing is held back. It's great.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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May 30, 2023
Spoilers ahead because I seriously can't talk about this one with out them.
I loved the first two volumes.
I was all set for a kitschy werewolf killing story with some trope-y fantasy and some cool post apocalyptic designs (the hermit crab tank was so awesome)
Then book three happened and the story shifted into maximum over drive to desperately burn through as many clichés as it could.
A bunch of nonsense about "Readers" and "Archetypes" that culminates in the lamest meta-textual reveal. Velou was not some clever clogs kid, he didn't game the system, there is no power of friendship backed up by a good
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plan and sound argument.
Everything in the story was pre destined by some lame in-universe story book and the whole world of Hunters Guild just exists as some cosmic prank to appease YOU the reader.
I hate this style of meta-textual writing. Whoever came up with this daddaist "Man vs Story" junk can bite me.
It makes everything meaningless. There was no character growth, no struggle. Just pre ordained time wasting. Why write a story if the characters can't come to a natural conclusion? If the BBEBG was always going to loose then there is no need to write anything.
It disguises factual observation for narrative.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Feb 28, 2023
See, this isn't exactly a good anime. Even for the time it's a bit ugly, the story is very predictable and it doesn't do much unique.
But what it has is a sense of passion, it's a parody sure. But one that adores the genre it's making fun of, leaning into the absurd and extreme clichés out of a genuine curiosity.
"Wouldn't it be funny if the protagonist got caught out while trying to scream his attack name?"
And you know what, it is. It's downright hilarious.
Animation is of course rough like I said earlier, and a lot of things feel like they could use polish. Which
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is a bit weird for a Gainax anime. I'm used to them blowing their budget on the stupidest things and having to render every other scene in flash or do the final few episodes using storyboards and Crayola markers.
I think the biggest thing going for it is that its only two episodes, if it was any longer the jokes would be played out and everyone would get sick of it. That's probably also what saved the budget.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Feb 28, 2023
I cannot think of a single nice thing to say about Gunbuster.
The action scenes are flat, boring and predictable. Gunbuster does some flashy thing, several billion enemies die. There's no weight or risk. The characters are dull. All the protagonist does is cry, promise to stop crying, then cry some more because having actual character development is hard. I could maybe say something nice about the animation, but what's the point in blowing your budget on giant killer mechas if their just going to do the same stuff as a generic shonen? Just scream, fling some laser beams from its fingers and yell attack
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names.
It really doesn't feel like a story made from passion, more like it's just collecting cliches and plot points.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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