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Mar 26, 2023
The best is part is when Kil... Uh, Kaina whips out the GBE... I mean, Bark Cutter and mamoru's Cibo... errr, Liliha so hard and Sanak... I mean Amelothé is like "wowie!"
AND IT WAS TOHA HEAVY INDUSTRIES ALL ALONG!!!
BUT WHO WAS MAP? ? ?
Really looking forward to a second season, in which we'll find out whether or not anyone has them Net Terminal... *checks notes* uhhh, Giant Tree Genes. The only thing lacking here is a character who dies but gets their consciousness bound to a biomechanical porta-potty.
Not the most unique story but I love how this is less grimdark and more wholesome than other
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Nihei productions. Kaina is the best himbo.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Aug 14, 2019
I was excited to pick APOSIMZ up. Is it worth the read? Yes and no. I'm a big fan of BLAME! but Nihei's more recent works have been quite disappointing, despite the settings and concepts being very intriguing time after time.
That sentence probably summarizes all of Nihei's works – unique and exciting concepts, but time after time, I find myself thinking about how the storytelling itself could have been so much better. APOSIMZ, or Ningyou no Kuni, is not an exception. It reminds me more of a grittier version of the high-school drama that is Knights of Sidonia, instead of the doomed, vast and apocryphal
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world of BLAME!. While the latter sparks an enormous interest towards the world Nihei has created, the former always failed to do that for me. As far as I know, Nihei himself has apparently dissed or disowned his earlier works, which is a shame since there are quite a few good things about them that he could explore.
Nihei's drawing style for APOSIMZ is light and fragile, and that's what I've really liked about it. A wasteland covered in indecipherable materials, bio-mass akin to some kind of dust, ice, snow... A lot of things in existence in the world of APOSIMZ are things of legends and traditions passed down for generations for so long their workings or mechanics have been rendered unknown. Tribalism has emerged since the downfall of whatever existed before the wandering groups of the cold Surface.
Some of the things strike a resemblance to Berserk, Nausicaä or even Made in Abyss. In the unique world Nihei has created, they feel disappointingly unoriginal. It would have worked out quite nicely if they were clear homages to the works Nihei has found inspiring. I can't say I enjoyed reading the dialogue, as most of it is frankly quite boring. It's monotonous to the point I started to question whether the numerous characters have a personality of their own at all. It feels like all of the characters are simply copies of one another, mere cannon-fodder for gore.
In short, Ningyou no Kuni features biomechanical samurai armor-battles, battle droids in gothic lolita -esque outfits, gore and a little bit of fanservice. It's a biopunk re-telling of BLAME!, where Etherow is Killy and Titania is Cibo, filling the tropes of Marty Stu and Ms. Exposition, respectively.
It would seem that Nihei is searching for a synthesis of a gritty apocalyptic world and the contemporary Japanese society, but so far the amalgamation that is APOSIMZ feels rushed and not original enough. Disappointingly so, since I always keep an eye on Nihei's new works, waiting for a polished masterpiece he is more than capable of creating.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jul 29, 2019
Gaiarth is an interesting mish-mash of a lot of things that were "cool" in the 80's and 90's. With a little bit more attention given to the characters and the story itself, it could have risen to the status of being an unforgettable anime.
Gaiarth mixes sci-fi and fantasy genres, featuring individuals jacked into machines, data hidden in city-sized cyberstructures, but also magic spells, (mech)armor and swords, elves and the like. The setting isn't half bad. Gaiarth could be described as a quirky blend with visual/storyline traces of Appleseed, Bubblegum Crisis, Final Fantasy, Star Wars, Conan the Barbarian/He-Man, Highlander, Heavy Metal and Neuromancer, to name a
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few. Hell, the movie Knights (1993) is probably a near facsimile of Gaiarth. With power metal blaring in the background during the time of action, what's there not to like?
Personally I enjoyed the animation quality, which isn't spectacular for an early 90's OVA series, but enjoyable nevertheless. Characters were expressive and the action scenes worked out quite well. The wardroid designs look cool as heck! Soundtrack gets a bit repetitive, but is by all means not that bad.
All this may make this OVA series sound better than it actually is. The story is actually well-paced, but leaves a lot to be desired for. In the first episode there are many mysteries waiting to be solved, but the last two episodes never really manage to unravel them in an enjoyable manner. The character interactions and lines get repetitive and shallow, never reaching the full potential of what they could have been: interesting love/hate relationships, realizations of what it means to be human rather than a machine, how should the world go on after experiencing a near-apocalypse in the grip of inevitable war...
Anyway, if you're up for a neat little trip through magic cyber-spells, power metal and high-fantasy cyberpunk, I do recommend checking out the first episode (and leaving it at that).
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jul 4, 2019
THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS.
I must say I didn't understand NGE the first time I saw it. I was maybe 15 years old, and NGE was an anime scheduled for a late-night spot. No matter how much I wanted to understand this intriguing anime, I simply didn't. I re-watched the series a bit later, and to my great frustration, I could only grasp some of what was really going on – failing to grasp the bigger picture. In my opinion, such an experience is the reason why NGE has gained so much interest and yet so much hate. You may love it like I did,
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feeling you just watched something spectacular, but still feel like something was amiss, that something was lacking, and it feels really frustrating. NGE doesn't open itself easily: It needs to be pried open. Like a damaged entry plug.
Neon Genesis Evangelion both is and isn't a mecha anime. Or rather, it would be more appropriate to say it's a mecha-themed anime—about dealing with depression. The alternative title of NGE could be "How I Had a Major Depressive Disorder and Had to Pilot My Dad's So-Called Robot".
The reasons that make NGE so frustrating and confusing are varied. Miss a single piece of dialogue and you'll miss lots of implications. Witness the ambiguous, undefined motives and relationships between the characters. Insults and rants are simply left hanging in the air. Terrifyingly rapid or slow-paced cuts combined with psychedelic visions and accusatory flashing statements. In the end, nothing seems to be resolved. Nothing seems to make sense. And yet, that's a glimpse to what depression looks and feels like. It's also what life is like; the present is unexpected, the past unresolved and the future very much uncertain. In real life, dramatic structures don't exist and everything is ambivalent.
The entire series seems to function as a backdrop for illustrating the feelings behind a personal crisis and the resulting depression: the hopelessness, the rumination, the uncertainty, the yearning of being accepted, the lack of direction or energy. Essentially it's a story of personal growth and finding one's place in this world. I didn't understand NGE until I had gone through severe depression and was healing from it. Does one have to be depressed in order to understand and appreciate NGE? I don't think so, but I do believe it's best enjoyed if you're dealing with challenges in your personal life. For Shinji, the challenge is to get into that damn robot. Despite the more or less abrasive actions and attitudes of the characters depicted in the series, NGE may function as a certain kind comfort: you're not the only one battling and overcoming your inner demons. And what are those? Whatever you carry inside you, be it childhood trauma or something else.
The premise and setting of NGE are excellent. The so-called wrap-up of episodes 25 and 26 explains what happens to our depressed protagonist, but the ending of the series does not really give a solid conclusion of what happened to the world. Which is a shame, since the setting is really quite interesting in the context of science fiction. But hey, that's why we have EoE and all that other stuff. Hahah!
For an anime produced for the TV in the 90's, the art and animation are great. The backgrounds are often painterly and atmospheric, the palette shifting between serene and gritty. Designs for characters, EVAs and machines are especially wonderful to look at, and sometimes quite intricate. The more experimental and abstract scenes are delightful. Sure, one can achieve a lot more with today's CG, but the difference makes NGE look sleek, even sophisticated.
NGE might not be perfect, and it may not be for everyone. However, it's hard to come by an anime that'd be more intriguing and self-reflexive. It may not be the series what Anno really wanted it to be, but it fills a certain kind of role in the history of anime. That's why I'lll always keep recommending NGE.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Sep 26, 2017
This anime was visible in my video recommendations for a while, and with a newfound affinity for older anime I finally decided to pick it up!
I haven't watched war-related anime much, and my expectations were quite low. I only knew this production was based on a manga, that there is another version of the series that has never been translated into English, and that this OVA was cut for a western release. I must say it does end quite abruptly and absurdly.
The plot progresses quite smoothly and quickly, but not too hastily. Details concerning warfare, politics and technical details seemed accurate enough. However, when it
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is time to contemplate the essence of war, Silent Service fails to deliver. Character development is nonexistent. A lot of things are conveniently explained through the Japanese culture's traditional, ingrained views on honour. It also wants to criticize the USA for acting as a "world police", but doesn't really offer much insight into why this is a good or a bad thing, other than countries and cultures having the right to arm themselves in return. Sometimes the role and motives of Japan and USA start to shift, merge or switch places, but whether or not this was intentional in the narrative, I couldn't tell.
The duration of this OVA was approximately 90 minutes, and it was a reasonably interesting glimpse into 90's animation as well as the attitudes towards nuclear technology and world politics in the 1980s.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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