- Last OnlineDec 26, 2017 1:05 AM
- Location750
- JoinedDec 21, 2015
No friend yet.
RSS Feeds
|
![]()
Jun 6, 2016
Overall Rating: 10
Story: 9
Characters: 9
Development: 10
Pacing: 10
WARNING: DO NOT WATCH THE ANIME, THE ANIME ENDS PREMATURELY AND YOU WON'T GET THE SAME EXPERIENCE.
...
Genres: Psychological Thriller (differs among sites), Gaslamp Fantasy, Mystery, Adventure, Shounen
Synopsis:
As the story starts off seeming somewhat typically, we are thrown into the light-hearted introduction of Pandora Hearts which takes place in a setting somewhat reminiscent to the Victorian-Era. Oz Vessalius, the next-of-kin as heir to the Vessalius house, one of the 4 Great Dukedoms alongside the Nightrays, Rainsworths and Barmas, is seen picking on his timid servant, Gilbert, not long before his rite of passage in which he will be introduced into society.
However, this calm before the storm is quickly blown away as during the Rite of Passage, Gilbert suddenly attacked Oz with a sword, and cloaked figures appear and banish Oz into the Abyss, the setting of a fairy tale that was supposedly told to keep kids from misbehaving. They declared that the sin Oz was committing was his very existence.
As we are thrown into the story we learn that the Abyss is home to denizens called Chains, and one such chain is the B-Rabbit, Blood Stained Black Rabbit, Alice, with whom he must make a contract in order for them both to escape the Abyss. It isn't long until the two are backed into the corner by the eccentric Xerxes Break into assisting the organization known as Pandora in obtaining the Core of the Abyss. Oz and Alice agree, so that Alice can recover her fragmented memories in the process.
Review:
Do not let the Shounen genre and some somewhat familiar themes such as Alice's amnesia deter you from reading this manga, for, as the plot develops over time at an amazing pace you'll come to find why I gave the manga such high marks. In fact, the iffy introduction and the somewhat familiar themes are the only reasons I gave this manga's story and characters 1 point short of perfection. However, over time these familiar themes are shown to be handled with such care and are presented so interestingly and amazingly, which is why it was ONLY 1 point short of perfection.
I, at first, was planning on dropping this manga, though the setting itself made me feel somewhat hopeful that this series would evolve into something more. We see so commonly modern, medieval or futuristic settings, or some odd hybrid of any or all of the three -- and in all 3, it is so tiring for every series to take place in a high school setting. The fact that Jun Mochizuki, the author of Pandora Hearts, thought to put the series in a less common setting interested me greatly.
And right I was. You may find yourself hooked about 6-10 chapters in when the psychological themes of this manga begins to become more prominent when its finally shown that his series shies away from letting anything be irrelevant, and it makes everything relevant in such a great way. And its at this moment that the manga will start doing what it does best: Making you feel like it, like many shounen, has already presented all necessary world building information, and that the plot will revolve around that, while its mystery themes leave you with questions that also make you doubt the former feeling, interesting you to find out what more developments will take place, and though I don't wish to ruin the surprise, it is better to tell you that its definitely the former. You must never underestimate the world or the plot, as you can be sure there will always be more information that'll be incredibly relevant that only makes the plot all the richer.
This series will gradually develop into a more complex, beautifully tragic story with an immersive world and amazing characters. Another one of this series' strong points is its pacing and development speed, and the characters, some of which may start off seeming typical, will develop into characters who'll make you feel sorrow for some of them, and how each of their personality traits and actions taken by those personalities have story-relevant reasons behind them and the interesting motives behind each character's motives.
This series is greatly recommended to any fan of manga, especially mystery and fantasy manga. Despite the scarce fight scenes, the series presents an amazing story with great pacing, great development and is beautifully tragic. The series melds together its somewhat odd mix of genres in an interesting, incredibly way and puts them in a setting within an incredibly immersive world. Do not drop this manga early on, as you will be missing out. I recommend reading 10-25 chapters, as its introduction is somewhat iffy, but later develops into something greater, though it'd be better for everyone to just read it through to the end.
WARNING: DO NOT WATCH THE ANIME, THE ANIME ENDS PREMATURELY AND YOU WON'T GET THE SAME EXPERIENCE.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
What did you think of this review?
Nice
 0
Love it
 0
Funny
 0
Confusing
 0
Well-written
 0
Creative
 0Show all
![]()
Dec 21, 2015
MOD EDIT: This review contains spoilers.
1.) Characters are either lame or shallow, or both.
Why?: Some lack motives, and what ones have motives are antagonists with admittedly cliche, lame, boring or ridiculous motives. I prefer antagonists you can empathize with, but honestly the only character who had a decent motive, predictable and overused as it may be, was Baby in GT. I can empathize with his motive at the least, because Saiyans took over his creator's (Tuffles) planet, Planet Plant.
Characters also don't do much planning before hand about what they're gonna do, and don't have a lot of plot or thoughts outside of: "Fight my enemy
...
or have others fight them first and then fight them myself in fits of rage."
I prefer it when antagonists have a good plan behind their fighting. What are you planning? What are you stalling for? What intelligent plot do you have behind your actions that we can't possibly understand? But honestly, its predictable, as DBZ's come down to a science (will discuss in my next point).
Similarly, Dragon Ball Z's characters are far too predictable. Goku's evil brother shows up, punches him, tells him he's his evil brother and Goku had a mission to do. Then he kidnaps his son and will hold him in ransom unless Goku destroys Earth.
2.) Repetitive plot is repetitive is repetitive is repetitive is repetitive but not relevant.
Why?: Honestly, I have found maybe 3 variations of the same plot device used throughout the series, the only ones that were relatively interesting in the slightest being Cell Saga and maybe Baby.
However, each one is so similar to the other, it's gotten unbearably predictable.
Not only that, but Dragon Ball has no overarching plot whose conclusion its all leading up to. Dragon Ball is a.... Sub-Plot starts, sub-plot ends with minimal connections to that one in the next sub-plot anime.
Additionally, the ONLY suspense I found throughout the entire series was when Goku was going to be LATE for a fight, because Goku was a character with strength that is glaringly superior to other characters, it came down to him and Vegeta (perhaps Gohan) being the only ones who can actually fight the enemy. And honestly, since DBZ holds true to its formulated, admittedly repetitive plot, I knew that Goku would show up and kill the antagonist.
3.) Versatility in powers? What's that?
This is staying short and sweet. With just a low amount of exceptions, Dragon Ball powers are incredibly repetitive. Characters with some imitation of a martial art, ungodly strength and speed, and some form of energy blasts, be it through technology(Androids) or life force (all other beings Ki). And when they need an enemy to be much stronger, what do they do? Slap the same gimmick onto antagonists two sagas one after another.
Kinda lame, if you ask me... With no real versatility (variation) in powers, save a small amount of exceptions, it gets kinda lame. Instead of seeing how the protagonist uses their own exclusive powers to counter some stronger/more useful power in combat, it comes down to "Who moves faster, punches harder and blasts more powerfully" with minimal need for tactics. This is ESPECIALLY the case when fighting enemies like Buu and Cell who've got one thing going for them in particular: Dat regeneration tho.
And the source of regeneration is interesting, right? Like, using a clever combination of lesser powers to give themselves something akin to regeneration? Some array and line up of some sort of items?
And how is the regeneration solved? Clever use of items or powers to somehow stop the regeneration? Plans to somehow use their powers cleverly to get rid of the items or make the regeneration meaningless?
Nah. BLAST STRONGER with a new technique, which is almost always hardly any different from his other techniques, but larger, stronger and takes longer to prepare.
In all honestly, the ONLY enjoyments in the anime's series I ever got from watching it is the barely entertaining fight scenes and the decent music tracks. This anime is not worth your time and please do not waste it watching this anime. There are plenty of other, definitely superior anime of similar genres. I recommend you go watch them instead of this.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
|
