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Ah yes, Dragon Ball Z, this really takes me back. This series used to be everywhere, there were DBZ lunchboxes, DBZ toys, DBZ VHS sets,& DBZ video games. Well nowadays, it feeds off mostly on video games now, some good(like the Budokai and Tenkaichi series, Burst Limit,& dbz legends), many bad(like Final Bout, Sagas,& Raging Blast). It is widely considered a milestone in anime fandom as it is one of the backthroughs in spreading the art form, along with Pokemon, Akira,& Sailor Moon. It is also(along with the original) inspired many to become artists(including me).

I'll try my best to make this review seem as unbiased ... as possible.

Story- It's not the deepest or well-developed plot in the world, but it does have a plot let I mind you, although looking back it does have it's flaws. The story does move pretty slow but not as exaggarately slow as many make it out to be, the filler isn't completely pointless as it does give us more insight to the plot in some places than the manga though it created several errors like Vegeta's knowledge of Planet Vegeta's demise. Anyways DBZ's storytelling isn't like most anime out there(although it does gets repetitive at times), as it enthesis on action like no other,& the show follows a unqiuely-told yet easy to follow good vs. evil plotline, we see how the Z-warriors rise and fall as heroes, we feel for how they struggles to keep to protect the ones they love from evil,& with enough training and teamwork(moreso the earlier sagas), there no limits to what they achive, so the story is character-driven, but despite all that, I felt some things could have been changed, the Buu Saga is pretty much the only saga that we could have leaved without, & it could have atleast have Gohan being the hero in that saga. The series should have ended at the Frieza or Cell saga as they had great endings as oppossed to the Buu Saga(as much as I enjoyed it) which had a horrible ending.

Art and Animation- DBZ overall looks very good for it's age, the art style and animation is vibrant and colorful, & the characters have the unqiue and well-detailed designs that we were familiar with from the original Dragon Ball(although the style changes through the series and characters become leaner and more muscular). It may recylcle animation frames a lot and sometimes it appears cheap. Overwise, good job, here.

Sound- If you've only seen the dub, you'll be surpised for how they handled the series here, Goku and all the male members of his family are voiced by one person,& it's a female(Masako Nozawa). Most U.S. DBZ fans don't seem to like this version because they feel the voices "don't fit well" , but it takes time to get used to and once you have, you'll realize the voices do fit the characters well, for example, Ryō Horikawa's voice really brings out Vegeta's arrogant and royal personality. The soundtrack also gets my praise because it is composed by a live orchestra and the majority of the vocal music is performed by Hironobu Kageyama . It gets a 9 instead of a 10 because the music is more fitting for the original Dragon Ball and some of the dialogue is unnecessery.

Characters- DBZ has one of the most likable cast in anime history, they may not be as complex as characters from Evangelion and such, but the series is filled with so many memorable characters like Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Goten, Piccolo, Tien, the list goes on. The characters are also really nicely-developed, over the course of the years, the character go throw very subtle changes, they grow up without us noticing it, like how Vegeta's transition from evil to good,& Gohan's from being a wimply little nerd to a seasoned fighter much like his father, the filler also helps to develope the characters. As for the villains, while Vegeta was great as a villain, Frieza was the best since he was very complex,& Impefect Cell is also up there because I liked his sneaky and satistic demeanor.

Enjoyment- Yes I know it isn't the best but it's still one of my favorites, I enjoyed the accompany of a new villain each saga, with some of the best fight scenes in anime history such as Goku vs. Vegeta, Goku and Piccolo vs. Raditz, Goku vs. Ginyu, Goku vs. Android 19, Goku vs. Cell, Gohan vs. Cell, Goku vs. Vegeta(the rematch), Majin Buu vs. Evil Buu,& Vegito vs. Super Buu(Gohan Absorbed), although I'd admit I felt some annoyance to the fight scenes that lasted too long(I.E. Goku vs. Frieza). One thing I like about is that it doesn't take itself to seriously, DBZ also offers handfull of entertaining non-action episodes that also help in keeping the story from getting boring, like the driver test episode, which is the arguably the most memoriable piece of filler in the entire series. DBZ may not have as much humor as the original Dragon Ball, but it still was a lot of humor.

Positives:

+ Unique good vs. evil plotline

+ Good Art and Animation for the time

+ Good voice-acting

+ Excellent fight scenes

+ Great music

+ Likable and well-defined characters

+ Good humor

Negatives:

- Horrible ending to the series

- Pace can be taxing


Final Verdict:


It may not be the best of the best, I don't feel it should even be a candidate. Despite all the glaring flaws stated, I highly recommend it.

Earlier I wrote a review on Naruto, but I deleted it because I felt I didn't go into much detail, now I will review Naruto in broader detail than before.

Masashi Kishimoto is one of the many artists to be inspired by highly popular manga/anime series Dragon Ball, like the other two of the "Big Three"; Bleach and One Piece. Dragon Ball is one of the most influental anime series ever created, a story of a boy named Son Goku who wants to be strong and be there for his friends while defeating the baddies with peserverance, courage,& a sufficent amount of training, simple yet ... incredibly groundbreak. So here, I'll compare Naruto to Dragon Ball.

Story- Naruto follows a very similar formula of those of Dragon Ball Z(as well the same pacing), though one thing should be known, the concept isn't very original: "A pucky, young boy who longs to become the best ninja there is by becoming the next Hokage, & doing their job better than they've ever dreamed to". That concept has been used so many times on a Shonen, so Naruto is another coming-of-age anime,& the biggest question, does it deliever? You bet, it may not be too out-of-the-box or defining, but it does give us good settings,& nice built-up though it has many pointless flashbacks, it balances in the themes of friendship, trust, batrial, vengenase,& never giving up very well, like the way Team 7 worked together and truimphed through their missions was something to behold.....but all that takes a backseat after Sasuke disbands from the squad and the series no longer feels like the very entertaining coming-of-age series we used to know but became more like a shallow and boring sob-story.

Art and Animation- Nothing to brag about here, the character designs are poorly-drawn, have poor palleting, there's so many errors(but hey, atleast Naruto looks cool),& they're very generic, but it's quite different for the manga as it looks infinitly better,& back on topic: The animation is very choppy, one moment it's fluid but in another it's cheap(compare Naruto vs. Kiba(cheap) to Lee vs. Gaara(fluid)) , it's not the same to say for Dragon Ball as it was well-animated for it's time period although some scenes in there looked cheap. The Opening and Ending sequences look fantastic though.

Sound- Top-notch here, top-notch. The voice-actings fit the character's personality very well, DUB AND SUB, but one character's voice-actor I'd like to complain about and that's Sasuke's, the guys who voice him are atleast in their 30's, when Sasuke is 12-years old, Junko Takeuchi(who voices Naruto Uzumaki in the Japanese version ) might have been more fitting for his 12-year old body than Noriaki Sugiyama,& the dialogue is unnatural at times. Othere than that, I applaud the performance. As for the soundtrack, it's one of the best I've ever heard in an anime, they enhance the events,& really fit the atmosphere of the show, really worthy of importing. This is one category Naruto handles better than Dragon Ball.

Characters- Well not being as likable or well-defined as Dragon Ball characters, they are still very-well developed(for the most parts), the characterization is handled much like Dragon Ball as they grow physically and mentally. Though a lot of people find them annoying, I don't mind most of them really but I don't agree they're one of the deepest and most well-characterized. One character I feel is complete waste and shouldn't be around is Sakura Haruno, she's the Krillin of Naruto but not as memorial, although she does vouch to be more helpful but she does not fullfill that prophecy untill Shippuden,& she's generally extremely annoying,& she's unbearable to look at. The characters are your typical Shonen archetypes: Naruto is the hyper-active kid yearning to be the best of the best, Sasuke is a rival of Naruto,& Sakura....she's a b!tch and doesn't do much more than lust for the rival.

Enjoyable- I'm not gonna lie, I really did enjoy this series, granted it's not even close to being one of the best animes out there, I don't think it's even a candidant for it. The first 100 or so episode are amazing, it has amazing fight choreography, atlmost on par with what you've seen with DBZ, but the rest...not so much, that's where all the fun stops, I'll admit the comedy filler episodes were a breath of fresh air but still.


Positives:

+ Decent story

+ Stunning Opening and Ending Sequences

+ Top-notch voice-acting

+ Top-notch music

+ Well-defined Characters

+ Easy to get into

+ Cool Fight Scenes

Negatives:

- Overall weak Art and Animation

- Not original

- Filler Episodes

- Overabundant Flash-back scenes

- Sakura Haruno



Final Verdict:

Without the filler episodes, it may have gotten an 8 or 9, but the series is perfect if you wanna get into anime as it's not hard to follow. And if you like Shonens(primarly action-packed ones like DBZ and Yu Yu Hakusho), defintely watch it. Trust me, you won't be disappointed. :)

After watching this OVA, I had to write a review on it. But it's HARD to describe in adequate words on how mind-rottingly bad it is. And suprising, I have a lot to say about it. I thought Eiken was bad, but THIS snatches the Turky Award out of Eiken's hands.

Let's just talk about this anime's reason to exist: It was made as an OVA tie-in to help make some sims dating video game of the same name, was it successful? Beats me, because it was only released in Japan, but among anime fandom around the world, the OVA is notorious for having next to ... no redeeming factors..thus given it's ranking of being so bad it's good.

Story- There are four words to describe the story: very flimsy and uninspired. You're just thrown into the story without any introduction to what's going on, ok there is..but it isn't very clear,& being that the OVA is a short 20 minutes, not only does it leave too little time for you develope any form of care or interest in the story, it tackles on too much for it's length or an OVA in general, WAYYY TOO MUCH thus leaving many unresolving points. Like for example, the Takeru character was forced to wear a suit of armor to fight off the Ancients by his father in a flashback scene, which is perhaps to be highly dangerous, but the story never bothers to show the struggles Takeru goes through wearing the armor as the story progresses.Should I say shock value?

Art and Animation- It's bland, lifeless, and choppy, the character models are incredibly generic, whenever I see them, I get a "Haven't I seen this before?" feeling, not only is it generic as ****, it's also very fugly and static, the characters show next to no emotion,& they more look like it's fan art rather than something from a professional company...wait stratch that, fan art looks better. The CG and Sci-Fi effects only makes it look worse. The animation and frames are horrible, they are often skipped, they move like a slideshow,& the angles are very confusing in many instances, like the first and the final fights, the monster constantly grabbing the girls out of nowhere. The characters are incredibly stiff, atleast in Musashi, the characters actually moved whereas this OVA relies so heavily on still-shots, the characters look like dolls. Some of the most obscurely animated and drawn anime shows from the 80's look more presentable.

Sound- This is the absolute WORST aspect of this OVA, the seyiuus sound like they don't give a ****, I can do a better job than they can,& I'm not exactly what you call a professional, but I'm sure a heck more pro than these third-rate seyiuus in this OVA are. The ancients sound like guys in constumes, not to mention looking like it,& the SFX.... very very dated, they sound like they were ripped out of a bad video game. The music is also taken from classic musicial pieces from WAYYYYY back then, they are also out of place and sound their age, but don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against the pioneer music composers, but please Idea Factory, this thing isn't even ten years old and you can't make it sound it's age.

Characters- This OVA has one of the most unoriginal and shallow cast in anime history, the characters have no backstory, developement, or depth whatsoever, I'll describe them all in one sentence: Three girl who use guns and are part of an orgaanization with their knight and shining armor(who is the main protagonist of the story) Takeru who is force to wear a suit of armor. This review might get taken down because I have just spoiled the OVA for you. Sad thing is, there is NO unique characteristics the distinguish one character from another, not to mention they are all morons, case in point: The headshot scene(which is arguably the most memorable scene in the entire OVA).

Enjoyment- It doesn't even qualify as being so bad it's good, it's so bad it's a gigantic mountain of steaming bull****. It takes itself too seriously for me to enjoy, there is a lot of headache-enducingly stupid scenes like the hospital scene. As much as I suffered through watching it, waiting for this trite to end , it felt like it lasted for hours,& after watching this, it became a mistake I will forever regret, being pinned down to the ground by a Gorilla, being punched to a bloody pulp,& having my arm cut off is less painful than watching a minute of this OVA. I mean the fight choreography is terrible, the attack moves are lame, the characters often just stand around like idiots and take their beatings like b*tches from the ancients, they may shoot at them sometimes but they are too stupid to defend themselves but somehow they won, anyways it's not entertaining, it's boring and unimaginative,& don't get me started with the nonsensical climax.



Final Verdict:

This anime sucks. I wouldn't recommend this OVA to ANYONE. Unless you want to put an end to your life and need a motivator, there is no reason to even watch it,& you're probably wondering why I haven't said anything positive about it, it's because there is nothing good about it to say, it's true, no joke, no bias. It's completely pointless.