- Last OnlineJun 27, 2009 3:21 AM
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- BirthdayDec 1, 1991
- LocationUK
- JoinedApr 30, 2008
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Jun 8, 2009
So a short series featuring a sort of adult orientated Power Rangers & the kind of storyline you'd expect from WildStorm Comics. Yep, it's as fucking awesome as it sounds.
So the story? What little there is (or I could understand, at least) was well...simple. There because it was the only way to push to the next fight scene without seeming like it had no substance at all. But pointless story is only there to waste time and make more money. So good on them for not including that! But if you came to this series (or movies depending on how you look at
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it) expecting an amazing story then you're an idiot. However the devices it used were pretty cool. Setting up what would make an amazing universe if they ever decided to make more episodes (which they probably won't). However I did feel towards the end that they kinda confused themselves with their own story and decided to make stuff up to fill in the gaps. "Isn't that what all storywriters do?!" you ask. No, a storywriter is meant to work on a coherent flow, not just adding things that they deem necessary to make their mess make sense at the end. It just shows a lack of care or effort. I think much like their unregulated use of the time of the show they created, they didn't regulate their own time creating this either.
Art? I actually wasn't a big fan of any of the CGI Sequences in this which is what I presume was the main spectacle and selling point for this (I don't know). It showed it's age and I found it slightly hard to follow. The complexity of the designs they created however was jaw dropping. The drawn animation though I thought was absolutely fantastic. Everything just screamed high budget long time dedication. It felt cartoony and realistic at the same time and the speed and flow made the non CGI fights the best in the whole thing for me. Too many animes come out lately with cut corners in the animation or terrible animation in general. If I wanted to see rushed still images I'd read WSJ. It's nice to see something actually caring for it's animation, it IS anime. Such contrast to it's story...
Sound? As always with me I never really have much to say here. I watched this in Japanese with Subs and as ever the Japanese and their voice acting is pure perfection. The music was subtly in the background but helped set the mood at the right moments. So I suppose perfection here then? (I give nothing a straight 10.)
Characters? I felt considering the length of this (about 3 hours) some characters were in it too much and some not enough. They were trying to cram too much in, but I still think they could have given everything decent amounts of screen time if they just regulated stuff better. About 3/4 of the first movie was wasted on small unimportant Machine Demons that seemed to be there to show off Karas and the CGI they made to animate him but they didn't really need to waste THAT much time on it, the fights weren't particularly epic. Karas was so much stronger than them the fights ended in basically one flamboyant attack. Although that flamboyant stuff was epic in itself. THEN they finally started moving onto the key, powerful characters (right at the END of the first movie annoyingly) and sadly it was pretty much left undisclosed what happened to most of them. If I knew more episodes to come I wouldn't be so harsh about this. But I think they were wasted.
Enjoyment? MASSIVE! Even though this review possibly seemed quite negative I really did love this. I didn't know one on one fights in a city setting could be so grand!
So overall? The CGI is a little weak now what 6 - 7 years have passed since the first 3 episodes were made (or the first movie, depending on how you look at it). But it's still pretty damn cool all the same, just a little hard to follow. The story is pretty much non existent and a lot of the cool characters are wasted. So really I should hate this, but in all honesty I still had so much fun & it being only 6 episodes meant nothing dragged. It was just epic and GAR after more epic and GAR! But I gave it this score simply because the flaws can't just be ignored because it was fun. But on enjoyment and fun alone this would get a 9 in my books.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Mar 25, 2009
I wasn't going to watch this, I can't remember why, but then one day I did...for some reason...and I'm so glad I did!
I don't think there really is much story...I mean it's like a generic friend story and one friend goes to the dark side and then the light side has to bite the bullet and defeat the dark side and defeat their friend, ya know, Naruto like crap. Queue a shit load of build up trying to make the relationship between the two characters seem more believable and to try and make their final showdown more epic. Not that this series needs its
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fights to be anymore epic, though.
The animation is incredible, it drops a little but never greatly or enough to ruin the show. And the art in the manga is VERY bad so it was nice to see how nice looking this was, with fluid fights (something else the manga lacked). Everything just looked plain awesome. Plus it was nice to see such random weapons, Irons and Suitcases for example (both of which were surprisingly badass). Plus Yomi is just plain beautiful, I think I'm in love.
I never really know what to say for sound, yeah the soundtracks great, yeah the voice work is great. Pretty much sums it up.
The characters are quite bland, you have a pervert, a gay pervert, a coward, twins, sisters etc etc nothing really pushes the boundaries but all the characters are likeable or funny or hot or use a technique or weapon that makes them badass. You forget how bland they are when they're kicking ass and taking names.
Somehow, someway I feel that 12 episodes was too many, the way they did the intro and outro had way to much overlap (one episode was basically one of the episodes from the beginning with new bits pushed in the gaps), it could have been broken down into half the episodes, same with the flashback within the flashback that took up most of the series and moved way to slowly, I think their could have been other ways to build up the relationship between Kagura and Yomi and it be enjoyable for us at the same time. This could have easily been 3 - 4 episodes shorter in my book and it woulda made it more enjoyable, you got long, slow boring flashback episodes that didn't really seem to fight juxtaposed with incredible action sequences which did fit. I just wish they wouldn't keep taking their foot off the gas pedal. I feel almost that my time was wasted, there seems to be no plans for a sequel and instead of creating a sorta tied up prequel it was more like an intro into the manga, like a really long advert, I think they coulda done more with the episodes, had their own side story that started at episode one and ended at episode twelve.
Overall there needs to be more anime like this, the action was incredible, the story was nothing new but it was the Ga-Rei quirks which made it more than just a generic shounen. Sacred Beasts, Irons, Suitcases, twists and turns and characters that actually get their asses handed to them or died. Storywise it followed all the generic shounen patterns but it completely turned it on its head and it should be remembered for that.
If Bleach was seinen it'd be kinda like this...
I have to make something clear for someone who didn't understand this review. What I liked about this series wasn't so much the content but what the series....stood for.
It took a rather generic shounen story and turned it on it's head. It was dark and bloody and crazy and shounen is aimed for boys whose balls ain't dropped yet. So for that I take my hat off. Too many shounens limit themselves because of what they're but every now and then a series goes "FUCK YOU JUMP!" and does whatever the hell it wants. So yeah the inner flashback was pretty shit. But sometimes it's not just about the content.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Dec 12, 2008
I'm impressed with this more than possibly any anime I have ever seen. They did so much with just three episodes. This was short, even for something like a film. And yet they filled it with story & action & twists & drama & it's just so amazing. More anime should be like this!
Considering the short amount of anime the story was quite impressive. IE there was one. Little stories building up a living breathing world & a story not without a few twists along the way. Some felt a little forced or rushed. But what do you expect from something so short? You'll
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however be pleasantly surprised. Maybe I just set my standards to low?
The art's really good too. Amazing designs on the Molds & on the enemies & the tech & just about everything really. It was a shame that the weapons only really amounted to flame throwers & yet looked a lot like gatling guns or mech weapons... And we didn't see more Mold's or more specials (one didn't even have a name!) but it all still looked good, just shame there wasn't more. But what do you expect?
And the enemies, Jesus, they go from creepy to plain fucked up, really amazing work & detail.
The characters are maybe the weakest aspect. I would say, what do you expect? But for what is here, the story is damn good, why can't the characters be too? Although the designs are interesting it ultimately amounted to a series of anime archetypes in a line. Meh.
Now for the amount of anime here, I would whole heartedly recommend this. You will probably set your standards quite low, all for the better! The art is damn fucking awesome. The details are just wow. And the story will probably really surprise you too. A lot happens. It's a rollercoaster of a journey & much like a rollercoaster it's over in a blink of an eye. But hell, that short amount of time will be some of the most fun you'll ever have in your life. Same goes for this!
It's like a brilliant mixture of D.Gray-Man, FMA & Fallout. SO. MUCH. WIN. Go, watch, NOW.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Nov 4, 2008
This review will be harsh. But I literally just watched the last episode & the ending was so crap I hated everything I liked about this. After watching all those long, confusing episodes to find that the fight is still going on is like racing an Ironman & being slapped in the face at the end.
Fuck you guys.
You didn't even give closure for half the characters. It felt like a prologue.
The story is disjointed & confusing. A fucking mess. Seriously I couldn't even begin to explain how bad it is. From what I understand a boy's Dad gets killed by the badguys for
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some reason. So then he becomes a robots partner because the robot represents the people who sacrificed themselves for him...or something. This makes the boy & the robot justice fighters in a plot about pollution. With a few twists along the way. I mean the story isn't just rubbish. It's confusing too. AWESOME.
It uses odd formats, often in X-Files fashion where something will happen leaving you asking WTF & then it will decide to explain a few episodes later with either a flashback or some kind of twist. But it really doesn't work. It often just confuses things worse & I see no point in it at all. It provides no dramatic effect. It just makes more work for them. I mean in a few places it worked really well. But it failed a lot more often than it worked... If you're going to introduce something, just explain it at the same time. I'm not thick, but having a sense of order to your anime should be expected.
The animation ranges from ok - mediocre - bad. The animations are fine. But this is really showing its age. Often the art is either ugly or cheap looking. Like the animators were trying their hardest to do the least amount of work & skipped or rushed certain parts.
The characters are amazing. The use of them isn't. Characters are thrown in at random times. And can die within five minutes of appearing. Big characters to. And then randomly turn up again slightly later with a few bandages & then they fight some more. Some didn't even have bandages. They just turned up again completely fine. And some of them weren't even tied up by the end of it. It was just as messy as everything else. They had more characters than they could handle clearly. I mean some didn't even do anything if I remember correctly, but they were big main characters in the universe at least. I mean what was the point of them?
I've never seen anything else from the GR franchise, so I was actually like o_O When suddenly they're flying around & firing off energy attacks like some kind of cheap DBZ. Off the handle & unexpected. But AWESOME.
But with the sheer number of characters the powers just seemed to get crapper & crapper towards the end. Synchronized drums? Laaaaaame.
The story died ages ago & now we have synchronized drums? Talk about running out of steam.
Although I wouldn't say I hated this anime. This anime frustrated me in so many ways. But I don't deny that this was epic, intense, GAR & in places quite moving. I cheered along to the fights, beamed when certain people did the resurrection act & even cried in certain places. YUP! I cried. Shame so many characters have no closure at all....and that fucking ending. I feel like I've been given a piece of anime in the middle of something larger. Terrible.
I wouldn't recommend it to be honest. It's long & the ending & the terrible use of characters just takes away anything that was worth watching in this to be honest.
Blah.
Notice how I keep saying. THE ENDING WAS TERRIBLE.
Well that's because...
THE ENDING WAS TERRIBLE.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Oct 16, 2008
I do believe I watched this once before, last year I think. Small fragments of memories of this still remain floating about in my head, but I decided to watch this again.
Storywise, this film lost me completely. I got to the point where their past is explained on the train. Then understood nothing after that. It was like there were bits missing from the film. That was how confusing it was. For me at least. I mean, I do have to point that out because there's always one who will disagree.
And I may sound odd in saying this & you may disagree, but
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I felt that for a heavily action orientated film it was actually pretty story led, from the very beginning there is mystery & our 'heroes' trying to discover the truth. Very loose, but story has a surprisingly big part in this film when you'd except it to take the backseat. So really, it should have been better & easier to follow.
Actually the animation, it's just not that good. I'm sorry, but it isn't. It's fun & quirky, bright & vibrant. Exactly what it says on the tin & works brilliantly to emphasise the over the topness of the film, however as it got towards the end & people seemed to be made of guns or swords it became so unclear it was ridiculous. Just a big blurry mass of bullets or grey things which I think were swords. Which is only made worse because at the beginning, the animation is so incredibly slick & clear. And it's just amazing animated, you wouldn't believe some of the animations unless you see it for yourself. The work & care felt sloppier as the film went on.
I'm not even sure if it was, but I could have sworn Retro's voice actor was Ussop & as odd as this may sound this was almost the thing that ruined the character for me. Because every time he spoke I thought of Ussop & a badass with a TV on his head isn't badass when voiced by the same dude as that coward with the slingshot.
The characters are often disgusting, but they are still amazing. I found it amusing Retro is the only really cool looking male good character since all the others are so darn ugly or down right freaky. And Pandy is really quite attractive in my personal opinion, but the other women...no thanks.
But really there isn't anything to write home about it just seems they tried to make them as ugly & disgusting as possible. Except Three-Six & Three-Seven, who are pure badass.
But seriously, you could say even the ugly ones are good in themselves simply because it's so incredibly creative.
So I have established the story is to hard to follow & so is the animation. But did I enjoy this? FUCK YEAH. There was so much GAR & it kept seeming to remind me of TTGL for some reason. The crazy art, in the crazy world, with the crazy characters. Retro & Pandy with their pure badassery & of course Three-Six & Three-Seven. It's just badass from start to finish, it's pure insane fun. It won't really make sense why, but you'll love it. Much like roller coaster.
So even thought it seems surprisingly story lead for an action film, don't bother watching this for the story unless you want to be lost & disappointed. It is however totally worth it for the badass fight scenes & to see Pandy in her pants!
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Sep 7, 2008
The second Bleach movie! Will it be better than the rather dreadful first one? Which had romance down to a T & nothing else.
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Nope.
Seems not.
Story? The little bit of story that there is, is confusing as possible. Mainly because some things just make no sense at all. I can't tell you what those things are, for they are spoilers. But trust me, it does the fantastic Bleach fashion of raising random things & never explaining, just pushes them to the back of the pile. Hell a guy has a fox head for fucks sake.
Art = Terrible. Why has everyone been drawn either
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cod eyed, boss eyed or cross eyed? And why do some of the fights look like they were done in flash? This is meant to be a bleach movie, it looks like something made by fans. (If it was, good work).
Well Bleach has a great music & cast anyway, so you can expect good things from the sound. However some of the writing & lines these people had to say were so cheesy it looked like they stole some of the material from the He-Man cartoon (original one).
The characters are good in Bleach. All your favourites are here & a few new characters. None of the new ones should really WOW but they certainly aren't bad, passable.
The fights are what Bleach is all about right? The fights are crazy, fast-paced & intense. Yup, they are thrill rides in a way only Bleach can do, brilliant. Plus it's nice to see some of the lesser characters getting a few moments, such as Hisagi & his kido & Ikkaku & his bankai. Even if it's really out of character him doing that in front of anyone other than Yumi.
Don't watch this film for the story, or the new characters. But this film is totally worth it for the fights. And the fights are what Bleach is all about.
Even if the assault on the castle looks like a final level from DMC (enemies & all)...
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Aug 31, 2008
Is it possible for this show to live up to the hype its been given? So so very nearly. Nothing can be perfect. But this should be almost better than anyone could hope for. Certainly was for me.
If you strip away the outer coating the story is nothing special really. It's just a nobody (surprise surprise, a kid) going from no one to someone on a journey that will be filled with epic moments & the making of new friends, be them enemies once or not. Where have we heard this before? I wonder.
So there isn't anything that makes the story special? Well yeah,
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I suppose there is. But it's not the story itself, but what this show fills the story with. I can't stand anime with crap stories, however the story isn't really important here when you have all these amazing characters & events happening, as long as the story means they keep coming. It doesn't matter how bad it is.
The art seems to often switch from style to style, sketchy, angular, cartoony, realistic (in an anime sense) & ultimately I didn't think it worked all that well. It just often comes off cheap looking somehow. And the battles, they are often incredibly unclear, everything moves so fast (I'm not sure if this is on purpose or not) & just becomes this sort of crazy blur. Or once again, loads of coloured lines & balls of orange for explosions. It's like they took the same image & changed one thing & the background & used it for the whole anime. I suppose the saving grace is the designs of everything. No matter how unclear, you can't deny that everything this anime does screams cool, while pointing it's finger up at the sky & one leg placed on a raised object.
Sound. As amazing powerful as it is at first, you soon find it quite annoying, that basically every male character shouts rather than talks. I mean the lines start to become less epic when once again they are shouting them at the top of their lungs to some kind of funky coloured background. The voice actor cast is however, a good one. Even if you keep expecting Viral to shout bankai. I especially loved Kamina's voice (Japanese) this warm, strong voice, which is recognisable straight away & will fill you with warmth & joy everytime you hear it. Wow that was cheesy. In terms of music, this has arguably the best soundtrack in an anime ever & they use the music perfectly. Except maybe the 'Roh roh, fight da powah!" stuff...
The characters in this are simply perfect, whether it comes to personality or design. And I suppose it is hard for me to explain why with such a large cast without spoiling. But I want you to, if you haven't already, watch this anime & find out for yourself. Even characters who initially annoy you at first will end up doing something which gives them a place in your heart. Trust me on this. If nothing else I have written so far.
Enjoyment. It will vary. The first 3 episodes are pure pleasure, but then it's rather dire from episode 4 (it almost feels like filler) until at least episode 8 where it picks up again then it becomes a rather stretched out slog of samey battles & a bit rubbish. Unless you're easily entertained. And attempting to avoid spoilers, to your dismay you will soon find out after that, that everything you watched was pointless. Then it takes more time for some reason & finally the end comes around & the brilliance pierces the heavens with it's drill. And I think that is possibly the one fault with TTGL. You can't get enough, but yet, at the same time, there is to much. Things are dragged out way to much, random things happen, which merely tack something onto the certain scene to make it last longer. Not really twists, more like they hadn't enough materiel to make the series as long as planned but refused to admit it.
So overall. I don't look back on this in any other way than joy. What an amazing thrill ride of pleasure this anime has been. I am thankful for all the times it made me cheer, smile, cry, laugh or simply scream at how cool it was. But it isn't without faults. There is a little to much man & way to much ambition to call this perfect, or to truly live up to the hype. It is however, one of the best things you'll ever watch at this length.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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