A series about go? Can that be made interesting? For 75 Episodes???
Well, it definately can.
To be honest, I was a little sceptical, as a friend recommended me this series. But this scepticism dropped drastically. Watching the first episode I thought to myself, oh, it's that kind of anime. See one and you'veseen them all, so to speak. But the further I watched on, the more I got sucked intothe story, and I realized, thet it goes beyond the clichés.
Let's start from the beginning. The main character Hikaru is in one way a very typical main character, being sometimes overconfident, nonchalant, sometimes mean and disrespectful to
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Jun 20, 2017
Dennou Boukenki Webdiver
(Anime)
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Not Recommended
Repetitive anime which falls flat in the "big" climax.
To be honest, I watched this series only because I was doing it for a friend of mine, who was really fond of this anime and I just wanted to understand why. And actually starting with the first episode I didn't know what to make of it. The story is actually very basic, even for anime standards. It's the typical good vs evil story in which a lot of good characters being manipulated become evil and had to be rescued. OK, so much for that. Starting the first episode, you get a feeling of a formula, which is ... being kept throughout all the 52 episodes. Every now and then you get an episode which tries something new and yet it falls back into the same formula. Our heroes usually encounter some dilemma which is tied to the evil doing of one of the manipulated web knights. Our heroes have to web dive and face the web knight or whatever evil entity they have to encounter and destroy it. This is of course a formula which is present in a lot of anime of that sort. Yet it brings nothing new, nothing fresh. Of course it's very creative to see how those web knights influence diver land and yet it's just for the time until they go back to magical gate. The ending falls very flat. The repetitiveness reaches a ludricrous level. It was just painful because the ending drags awfully which makes it really hard to watch to many episodes in quick succession. It was just boring. The artwork is quite minimal. The settings in the real world are actually quite nice but as soon as you go to magical gate it's just uninventive and boring. The greatest problem with it is the CGI they used for these purposes. The fights don't look very impressive. At the time the anime was made you could already produce impressiv CG but they used it in a way that probably even a forth grader could have done it. Some of this scenery reminds me of a dreadful film called "Food Fight". If you don't know what I mean, try to watch it, the essence being try. They could have at least make the backrounds a little more colourful or diverse. But it looks more like sombody puked on the screen and they tried to animate around it. And I know, it's a money issue here, but they animated the openings without using obvious CGI. Why couldn't they at least represent it a little bit in the episodes, I'm not asking much, but to see the climax of the episode done with such a lack of care, for me this is just incomprehensible. But as I said, whenever we're not in magical gate, the artwork is fine. It's not much but decent. The characters are also quite basic. But what did you expect. All I'm talking about is a very average story, so it would be quite absurd to have more than standard cliché characters. The lead Kento is generally nice, has the heart in the right place and has above all a clear motivation. This is already quite extraordinary, because he wants to save his brother and starts his journey with purpose instead of just being tossed into the situation and having to deal with what's coming. He is also not the clichéed character who is either the perfect omnipotent overhuman nor the doofus who just runs staight ahead into danger but through bravery and dumb luck is victorious in the end. He is, well, normal in some sense which makes him stand out a little. The rest of the characters on the other hand... hm... were there other characters, at least among the humans? OK that's very harsh, but whatever is left of side characters there is not much to talk about. Most of the series they were expendable. There are a few that actually happen to appear more frequently like Aoi. She is, well the girl, but with hacking abilities, so that's, um... well, that's kind of that. And even this trait is being forgotten throughout the series. Then we have the rival, who is also quite... just that, the rival. Not very outstanding, not very interesting, next. Of course we have his french friend Jean-Jacques. And to be honest, I see hints of a bromance here and there, just slightly, but it's definately there. We just don't spend enough time with them to explore it, so it's just vague, quite like the character. Traits, well, does he have any, and a personality? I'm not sure if anyone has a distinct personality of his own except for the main charakter. The other characters have kind of the task to give exposition and/ or moral support. But you don't really know anything about them. You have a huge line up of supporting roles and none of them is explored, none. Talk about a missed opportunity. The web knights are also pretty basic. They have no personality. The design of some of them is pretty cool. An especially cool point of them is, that they are vehicles to be turned into giant fighting robots. But the obvious CG is also quite distracting here. The bad guys, well, they are even more basic, they are evil. Why?. Just because! OK, the overturned web knights have an explanation of just being evil. They are being manipulated. But the buildup of the main antagonist Deleteloss is so huge (for this series standard) that I expected more. There is not much rhyme or reason. It's just a standard out of the ordinary boring antagonist. The music is actually one of the high points of this anime. It has nothing that sticks very much but the tunes have a nice beat to them. They are nice to listen to, even though they don't really represent the suspense and the overall feeling, this series is trying to convey. To sum it all up: I watched this anime even though it was draging very much. I couldn't do binge watching with this anime but yet I could watch it. So if you like average repetitive stories with just a minimal amount of care in producing, writing and animating it, this is your anime. If you're looking for a little more effort and diversity, you should probably skip this one.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Jun 19, 2017
Digimon Adventure 02
(Anime)
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Recommended
Let's start with the elephant in the room: What did they do to Mimi's hair. Seriously, first she looks like a christmas tree, then she looks like she fell asleep in a hair dryer. Sry, but that was a little to much for my taste. OK, now that that's out of the way, let's start the review:
To be honest, every time I watched it, I could never really decide on what to make of this season. Twice I thought I never even finished. The shifts in tone and story make it almost seem like two separate seasons. But let's start with the first half: The Ken ... story arc was always one of my favourite story arcs. It shows how human some people can be even under the most inhumane circumstances and how manipulation and despair can drive people into near insanity. I really favour Ken in the first half, because he is actually an antagonist with purpose. In flashbacks you see, that he didn't start of as an antagonist but as a nice young boy with a huge premise. He fell because his despair took over and started to control his actions. This is, what made him so fascinating in comparison to the antagonists of the first season. They were purely meant to be evil, Ken on the other hand has a reason for his behaviour. It would be even stronger, if they would have explored it more. But for what it is, it's pretty strong. The second half of the series we sadly return to the regular Digi-formula. Bad guy is bad and does bad guy things, and for what reason, well, because. At least this is what you get until the end, were the truth behind his actions is revealed. You don't get behind it unless you have hindsight from watching the season before. The shift in tone is so drastic, that I thought I didn't even finish watching the season,... twice. When I started rewatching, I never could even tell what happend in the second half. When I reached the halfpoint I usually think, oh, that seems familiar until I realize, that I actually did finish the season. It actually is so forgettable, that you almost overlook, that it contains a very strong story, i.e. the story of Black Wargreymon. It is one of the strong points of this season, because you see and feel the dilemma that enshrouds this poor soul. And it gets even better, when you see all this search for rhym or reason and purpous being discussed with Agumon. But yet it could have been analyzed more, but we had a basic good vs evil story to shoot so what the heck. The climax also couldn't be more sentimental and clichéed. I don't want to spoiler to much so I keep it very basic, but it is a little to much even for my taste. And then the ending: After Adventure 01 seeing those charaters all grown up, all those connections build, those deep and affectionate friendships... Actuallly, it would have been better, if they wouldn't have shown anything instead of what was shown. A lot of people had problems with this ending, because a lot of outcomes were really unexpected and undesired. Sry, but why build up those deep feelings and bondings when they go nowhere, At least not in the way, everybody wants them to go? Those last 5 minutes, they didn't ruin only the second season but the whole adventure arc in total. After raging about the story I could start raging about the characters. Let's start with the well drawn characters,... um... well, oh yeah, the characters from the original series. But actually, it's more of a nostalgic value that is present rather than really interesting characters. It's nice to see how they are doing now after the timespan of 3 years. But actually all the strong points of these characters have been reduced to mere shadows. I mean of course, there are new characters to show and develope, and those characters are, well, how do I say this, mediocre at best. They seem to be cardboard cutouts from the characters of the first season. You've seen those characters, those characteristics, those motives and those backstories. Davies represents Tai and Matt, Yolei represents Sora and Mimi, Cody represents Issy and Joey, T.K. and Kari are, well not really T.K. and Kari. Kari became the boring clichéed, well, girl, I guess and T.K. became kind of grown up, but in a kind of way that's kind of out of charakter. OK let's say Davis and T.K. are quite interesting characters, they overtook the places of Tai and Matt. Davis is very heart warming and sympathetic. And yet his design, well, in my opinion from Tai to Davis it's a downgrade, but that's just my opinion. I like fancy hair desing more than the basic buzz cut. Nevertheless he is hartwarming and generally nice, sometimes stupid but has his heart in the right place. The only thing I find really enoying is his exaggerated affaction for Kari. You always saw Kari and T.K. have a special bond and he never really fitted into this scheme. I'd rather not go into more detail with Kari and T.K. if I want to avoid rage mode. T.K. on the other hand seems to be more rational and less emotional. He has his moments but he grew up te become very calculating and quite contradicting to his character of adventure 01. You could argue, that the events of 01 made him that way and yet it's still a little out of place. He still seems a little boring, because he is so basic and chichéed, even though he is one of the interesting characters of the series. The best character has to be Ken. He has the most interesting backstory and he has a lot of screen time to flash out his inner struggle and his misunderstanding of the Digimon and the worlds both digital and real. He still keeps your interest and is the only thing to pull you through the transition episodes between the two story arcs. Yet as soon as this is over, the interest value decreases pretty much, wich is a shame, cause he started of with a lot of promise. The Digimon are, well, without true characteristics, except of course for Black Wargreymon. He actually still keeps your interest high when the other part of the story falls flat. But I talked about him already, so no need to repeat myself. The other Digimon, except for Wormon, are, how do I phrase it, just there. Wormon is very passionate and shows his deep affections for Ken. He is the reason he snaps out of his rage so he shows purpous. The antagonists... basic. Nothing special, rather boring. But I already talked about it as well. One point that sticks out and is always a favourite part of each series is of course the music. The songs are all memorable. Once you started watching a seasons, good luck getting those songs out of your head. Wada Kouji really had a good feeling of what sticks and what describes the mood and set up of a Digimon series. To sum it all up now, I can say, it's basic, but still enjoyable. It doesn't stick to long except for these songs. The story is mediocre but that's for Digimon standards so the standards are pretty high. The characters are here and there enjoyable but on the whole quite forgettable. And the ending kind of ruins it all, for the set up expectations that everybody wanted to see and hoped to become true where not fulfilled at all. Yet it was nice to see the characters from the first season you learned to love all grown up. So my final conclusion would be, that I definately recommend this season yet keep your expectaions low to avoid disappointment.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Mar 31, 2017
Digimon Adventure
(Anime)
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Recommended
Just nostalgia or really one of the best anime series of all time?
Admitting when I started rewatching the show again after I've seen it as a teenager I already new the outcome. Just the feeling of watching it got my heart to beat in the rythm of each and every episode. What drives the series though is not the overall story which is fine but lacks ingenuity here and there. The story is quite basic: heros are on a journey, a henchman or evil digimon appears, some main charakter digimon digivolves, victory, the end. This is how I'd say 80 percent of the episodes go. ... So from that point of view it'd just like any other monster training anime. But were it differs is the characters. The depth of each and every character, may it be main or even some of the minor characters is so great that it really sucks you in. I must admit though, the lead character Taichi Yagami starts to get interesting only at about Episode 20. Before that he's your typical main hero who charges in before making a plan and apart from taht goofs around most of the time. But after Episode 20 we see he's vulnerable which makes him a very strong character. Allmost all of the other chacters have a destinct history and you want them to go through that struggle and come out victorious. You see them grow with each and every episode. They're likable, deep, well designed, funny, dramatic, enjoyable. It is what makes the series go. The digimon partners had for what I thought allmost no character but rewatching the series I realized, that that's not entirely true. They have a lot of character and in many situation help their partner pull through the struggle. The villains on the other hand are pretty basic. They are destinct and some of them are really funny but still there is not much of a quality behind being evil. You don't know where they came from and why they are evil and want to kill and destroy. But still they are enjoyable enough that you are into the battle against them and want our heros to be victorious. But this is the compromise you make, because this series isn't about the villains. The stage belongs to the main characters. The animation style shows, it's still an experimental series in a way, that the following series got a way higher budget and so forth have a better more elaborate animation. You have a lot of sloppy animations, best example being Whamon. When it moves it looks like one animation of fin movement and then a still which is being moved across the screen. But yet the animation is still pretty impressive. The source material of great artist and director Mamoru Hosoda really shows. He was not involved in the series but made the pilot movie which was shown in theatres, and it really shows. One last word about the music: outstanding. OK, maybe a couple of words. Of course I'm talking about the japanese version. I grew up with the german dub and the most ingenious move was to take the japanese music with the english names of digimon and people. With this we had more memorable names and the unbelievable music of the japanese original. If you haven't heard any of it check it out. You won't be disappointed. The songs are legendary. I remember even as a child I was singing the opening whenever the series was on. And now as an adult it hasn't changed one bit. Some of the insert songs can be a little sentimental but over all it was very good music. To sum it up, digimon is not only a great series. It's an experience which brings you deeper than any other series of that content before. People might think it's a cheap Pokémon knockoff and it's not. It's way better because it's not just based on a nintendo game so everything it had to do was throwing in some Pokémon and some battles to get people hyped. It had to gain it's own fan base and it had to compete at least in germany with the most successful anime at that time. And with this premise it did the best it could to not just pull people in but also exceed the Pokémon anime by far. All in all would I watch the series again, totally, would I recommend it, absolutely. My summary: One of the best series ever made not only for this genre but one of the best ever made period.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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