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I read this back-to-back with Cain Saga. While Cain Saga's storylines were at times hard to follow, I preferred the storytelling there. While it was sometimes melodramatic, the drama ebbed and flowed better.

In God Child, the story is easier to follow, but I found that the tension didn't rise enough to form proper "peaks" to keep me invested. Towards the last volumes, I just wanted to get done with it.

The story felt overall flat, or too mellow. The only point of excitement happened when Riff met with the doctor, but it mellowed down again fast. I was especially disappointed in the villain(s). ... They all seemed to exist only to act as a task/target for Cain, without having much (or any) character growth or proper motives for what they were doing. I enjoyed the side characters' shenanigans better. The ending was ok, though the "final boss" was a disappointment.

The artwork in God Child is noticeably better than in Cain Saga, most likely due to Yuki having more drawing experience. I still had some difficulty recognizing returning characters in the later volumes though.

I have mixed feelings about this one. While this has better art and is more cohesive compared to Cain Saga, the storytelling feels boring. It might be that time hasn't been kind to this manga.

This review has a vague spoiler about the overall plot structure. If you wish to avoid it, don't read the last paragraph.

I somehow thought this manga was made after Godchild, but it seems I was wrong. This is the first manga I've read by the author.

The first half of the manga consists of short stories, which to me were confusing and a bit boring. Their plots seem choppy or like a skeleton of a story with little substance, and it was sometimes hard to keep up with the characters. I was on the verge of dropping the manga, but Kafka with the vampire theme kept ... me lingering.

Side note: I disliked the addition of Yuki's earlier high school-themed work in one of the volumes. It disrupted the overall gothic feeling of the work as a whole. Then again, the author herself was against it too.

The last two volumes have a more consistent story and pacing and are thus easier to read. They also give the characters more depth, which I enjoyed.

Spoilers:
Many of the stories have a theme of swapping a tragic dead girl with another tragic girl (who usually ends up dead, too). It got old very fast. Overall, the amount of death, torture, and tragedy felt melodramatic at times, and it dulled the experience for me.

I read this manga for character personality research purposes, so bear that in mind. This review doesn't contain any major spoilers.

The manga's plot progresses rapidly, especially in the beginning. The plot was still easy to follow, so it didn't bother me that much. Everything starts like a regular triangle drama, but after a while the characters reveal their true colors. It's a shame that they don't stay true to their colors in the end.

The manga's strong point is how the plot is structured, and how new things are gradually introduced to the reader. It made the story easy to follow despite the rapid development. ... The chemistry between the main characters was great, and I enjoyed how the character types were portrayed.

The weak points are the ending, and how some character motivations are left vague or abandoned. I liked the butler character, but his career choices were weird to me. I also despise it how in many shoujo mangas, every time the female lead tries to make friends with other girls, something goes wrong and they become enemies. Also the maid's plot was left abandoned. These points weren't as disappointing as the ending though. It seemed abrupt and untrue to one of the main character's motivations.

Nonetheless, I read this in one sitting, so it's not all that bad. If the ending was better, I would've given this a better score.

I must warn you at this point: even if this is a children's anime, it is very gory, and has cruel themes going on (starvation, child slaughter, war...). But no sex nor rape, obviously. Many of the monster scenes would be considered way too scary for children today.

As of writing this, only half of the episodes have been subbed. I understand some japanese, so the lack of subtitles wasn't a problem, since the story is quite straightforward. Knowledge of old fashioned and slangy japanese is useful, if you wish to keep up with the characters' lines.

Story:

I haven't read the manga, so I didn't have any ... expectations when I started to watch this. The story took me by surprise! It was enjoyable and reminded me of some old japanese folk stories. I would compare the feeling to watching Mushishi, except that Dororo has lots of action going on and less monster lore thrown around.

The first half of the series has a gripping storyline, with a lot of character development. The episodes' storylines could span 2-3 episodes. After that the series gets a bit loose, and I can't help but feel the episodes have a filler feeling to them. They also change to the one-episode-per-storyline format, which didn't do good for the pacing.

The last episode ties things up hastily but is okay. The ending development could have started a bit sooner, so the pacing would've worked better.

Art:

I'm actually pleased that this anime stayed black and white. The colored pilot doesn't have the same eerie feeling. I also like it that they made Hyakkimaru look older than in the pilot. The animation is okay, though there are some wonky parts here and there. As an animator, I can forgive them.

Sound:

I really liked the music in this series (though the opening theme is too catchy :D). If you like biwa, you'll like it too. The music reminded me of Ninja Scroll, which is my favorite. The sound design is old fashioned, and I recognized some nostalgic sound effects that were a norm even in the 80's.

Sometimes the growling sounds were more funny than threatening, and I would've liked more variety in female voices.

Characters:

The first half of the show is a bit more focused on Hyakkimaru, and the last half on Dororo. It's not too black and white, but I would've liked the story to be more evenly divided between the two. I liked how Nota (the dog) also had important moments in the plot, and wasn't there only to look cute.

The series has a wide cast of secondary characters, of which some are more memorable than others. But I liked it how they were easily distinguishable from each other; a trait that isn't that well handled in more recent anime.

Enjoyment:

As mentioned before, the plot was great in the first half, but lost it grip in the second half. I did watch the whole series during a few days, so I guess it was gripping enough.

Overall:

If you like wandering samurais, yokai and old school kids' anime, this is for you. This is like a children's version of Ninja Scroll and Mushishi put together. I'd say you could watch the first 13 episodes and skip the rest to the final one, without missing anything important in between.

Vie Durant is not really an animation, but a slideshow for an audiobook. Since it has short episodes, it's an okay way to kill time while doing something else, if you can understand japanese (I couldn't find subtitled episodes online).

The story wasn't anything marvellous, but it wasn't bad either. The plot was quite predictable, and I think the series might have been less detached if there were less characters. The characters didn't have time to develop very far, and many of them were left shallow. The characters were stereotypical, too. If you want your characters to be more memorable, don't name them as letters from ... alphabet!

Art itself wasn't that bad, characters were decently well drawn. The character design was quite old fashioned, and the designer seemed to have a thing for j-rockers. The background art wasn't memorable, which is a shame. The art focused mostly on the characters, anyway. The only bits of animation that I remember, were ripples of water, and the butterfly blood scene.

The audio was pleasant to listen, and they had paid attention to the sfx, which was nice. The stereotypical character voice acting was sometimes distracting, though.

This wasn't bad, but the lack of animation and outstanding characters makes this forgettable.

I watched maybe half of this show's episodes many years ago, and left it be. Now I finally got to watch the series again, this time finishing it. I haven't seen the other adaptations yet, nor the manga.

The anime's mood is well built, as the magical and mysterious air is in every episode. It's almost calming, in a way. For the mood alone I could watch this series again. I don't think this anime is for those who like to see a lot of action, since I'd say this is quite slow paced.

What I didn't like about the series, is that so many of the ... characters looked too similar. Especially the small boy in episode three. He seemed to come up time and again elsewhere as the same-looking but different character. Most of the characters were not very memorable, apart from their problems. There isn't much depth to the characters' personalities, as we don't really get to know any of them. Maybe it's intentional, as the plot is so heavily centered on mushi and their behavior. Besides, introducing a new set of characters and problems in every episode isn't an easy thing to do. It would be interesting to see how this has been handled in the manga.

Another very memorable thing for me was the music. It really stood out, and added to the eerie mood. Overall, I enjoyed Mushishi very much.

Before watching this anime, you should be familiar with the history of Shinsengumi and its figures. Otherwise the plot might be a bit confusing and fast.

I don't know much about Hijikata's life, but I could follow the OVA quite well. The plot progressed fast, but not too fast. The info texts between the events were very useful, especially with time skips.

The art style was okay, when considering the length (and probably short budget). The animation worked, though I think the overall style is a bit too simplistic. I did like the fact that the characters were clearly distinguishable, and especially Souji's facial expressions worked well.

I ... would have liked to see this in more detail, with more time, and with more emphasis on the characters and their thoughts. As a sketch of Hijikata's life this works, but it could have had more time to let us know the characters.

I like to read violent seinen manga, but sometimes I want to read something light-hearted for a change, so I turn to shoujo. Thus, this review is from someone who doesn't usually read that much shoujo, so it has affected this review and scoring.

I chose to read Red River solely because of the ancient Turkey setting. I wanted to read something that was based on an ancient, middle-eastern culture, and Red River just happened to pop up. I was pleasantly surprised that the setting included ancient Egypt as well, because it fascinates me.

I didn't really expect much from the story, since my experience of shoujo ... plots are mostly centered around love triangles, but I was surprised about the depth of Red River. I didn't expect so many characters to die, and the twists of the power struggles and politics caught me off guard. In that sense, Red River is more than just a romantic story.

About the art - well, it's your typical shoujo. But the artist has clearly taken the time to look up the references, because the outfits and architecture were well planned and detailed. I also liked how the characters were quite easy to tell apart from each other, because the cast is so large.

I have a bit mixed feelings about the characters. I did like them, even the protagonist, but I guess there weren't any character that was my favourite. They all had their good and bad qualities (which is good), and some characters had more screen-time while others fell to the role of forgettable background-characters. At some point towards the last third of the manga, I started to lose interest in following the events of the main couple and wanted to see more of the side-characters' affairs. But, the manga ended before I could get too bored, so I guess it was alright then. The main character was a bit Mary-Sue, but it didn't get to the point of irritating too much.

Overall I enjoyed the story very much. I suppose some who look forward to read about romance might find the politics and the warfare tiring, but I welcomed the change.

A bit of advice: Even though this manga isn't as violent as I'm used to reading, it still has scenes bordering rape, torture and other unsettling topics which might not suit the faint-hearted.

I'm a fan of Basilisk, and since this is from the same creator, I thought I'd give this manga a shot. Let me warn you though; this manga contains lots of abuse and nudity, so I wouldn't recommend it to people who can't stand such themes.

I didn't have high expectations regarding the art style, because I remember being put off by Basilisk's art in the manga version. The use of photographs and the somehow overly photoshopped feel of the art wasn't to my liking (with Basilisk), but this manga was a pleasant surprise.

I think the artist's style had developed during the making of Basilisk, ... so the use of photographs was more subtle and thus less noticeable for me. Overall, the drawing style has evolved. It's a shame though that almost all the female characters suffer from the same face syndrome. As the plot is heavily centered around women, the similar character designs made it hard to distinguish the ladies. But, it doesn't matter, because it wasn't really neccessary to make them distinguishable, because the plot didn't really require that. Which is a shame, I think.

The same face syndrome seeped its way to the characteristics of the female cast. The only ones I can remember and distinguish are Ofue (the tomboy), Tenjuuin (leader of the nunnery) and Oyura. The first two I can distinguish by the style, but the last one only by her manners. The other women are just copies of each other, except maybe for Otone, but only through the special role she has. I think there are too many characters introduced in this manga that they could get enough screen time to be memorable, and the similar faces don't help at all. That might be the reason why the creator needed to write the characters' names several times beside the characters, so as to remind the readers who they were.

Unsurprisingly for those who have read Basilisk, the male cast doesn't suffer from the same face syndrome at all. I have never been sure if I should admire or detest the vile character design the creator uses on males in his mangas. But, even though the men can be distinguished, their characters are quite bland, be it the bad spearmen or the good monks. It seems to me that all the effort in character design has been poured into Juubei, Takuan and the big bad guys. All the others seem to be lacking in motives and goals, and they are remembered only by their techniques.

Despite the shortcomings of the character design, I enjoyed the characters that had more polished personalities. Also the plot was quite enjoyable with Juubei's tricks against the villains, though there were a few boring phases too. The plot did grip me well enough to make me read this in one sitting, so something was done right. If this had had less characters (or merged a few together), it might have made the plot more focused. Even though I liked Basilisk for its darkness and hopelessness, the brighter touch of Yagyu Ninja Scrolls didn't make me regret reading this.

As a fan of violent and tragic stories, I expected maybe a bit too much from this manga. On paper, Rainbow seemed to be on par with the type of manga I read and liked (like Shamo, Sidooh), but it turned out to be less believable.

The manga focuses first on the lives of youngsters in a juvenile prison, and later on how they cope with the hardships of the outside world. What confused me first was the way that the manga "switched" the main character, but as it went on, I got used to it. I think the manga is supposed to be read from ... all the main characters' perspectives than just one's. This approach gives you plenty of time to get to know the characters individually, which I liked.

I assume the manga is based on a true story, since the commentaries make it appear so. However, the story, or rather the characters don't make it believable. The difference between the good and evil is just way too black and white. At first it was interesting to read about the cruel ward Ishihara, but later on his wrath became unrealistic. It might have been somewhat believable, had not the other villains used the same pattern. Thus, every time the manga introduced a new villain, you'd know he/she was a copy of Ishihara or Sasaki. Even the way they were drawn left you no doubt of it. I did like the development for a while, but when the villains' obsession over hurting the main characters went overboard, I lost my interest.

The good characters were supposed to be criminals, which should have made them "grey", but they were way too "white". Their crimes were just something they did for living, and the manga didn't really make use of the contrast of the characters' way of life and their righteousness. I think it would have brought more depth to the story if there had been moral dilemmas for the characters regarding their deeds. Now they made me think of "bad guys try to live like good guys, except that they were already good guys". If the intention was to make "good guys who get all the shit all the time", it turned out too shallow. Despite the hardships, the characters would not change that much, and by change I mean mentally. If you get abused, it should have an effect on you, no matter how cheerful and strong willed you are.

The camaraderie between the characters is the strong point of this manga. I actually liked to read the more relaxed phases the characters had, and how they would take care of some minor problems they encountered. The way they felt bad about hiding stuff from each other, and helping each other get over it was great. Also the differences between the characters was a good thing, from outside to the inside.

If the manga had had a more realistic approach to the difference between the good and the bad, and how the hardships affected the characters, it might have worked for me.