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Watchout ! Review made by French guy ! I will try to be objective.... Yeah, wish me good luck.

Here's some existential dilemma. It's easy to create a more or less good constructed review about a bad anime. I made some review about what I tought was more that ordinary or a waste, but never about an anime I love. Why ? Because it's hard. It's hard because you can't just review something you love, you have to analyse it, savor it, and here isn't the place. Make a review about something that is good for ourself is too difficult, because saying it's good or a ... masterpiece is just like saying something you can always say. So, that was my existentiel trouble, thanks for reading !

No seriously... Kaiba. Well, oh damn good lord, here we go. This is a f**king brillant piece of art. Maybe a little less than Tatami Galaxy from the same director, but sure is that Kaiba is a troubling and brillant sci-fi work. It's so fresh that the air seem beautiful, everywhere, after you have seen this. But after a while, everything seem the cripple itself, because, the joy of Kaiba disapear when you know that other original masterpiece like this are more than rare. Well, let's really begin shall we ?

Art :

Childish, clear, colorful, accurate, original and it's liked a monk that you can't judge by his clothes. Kaiba is a cyberpunk sci-fi anime, and it doesn't look like it. It don't have the typycal design of cyborg limb, the character look strange and everything have strange proportion. It's not scribbled-like as Tatami Galaxy or Kemonozume/Mind Game, it's more easy to watch, but more disturbing. Some will like, other will not. It's a question of what kind of artistic feel people are searching. Useless to say that I love it. Everything in the world of Kaiba have a fresh design that is always good to see like some new discovery you make when you are a child. It's a risk-taking artstyle and it's perfect for what it's trying to be.

Sound :

Here is another distorbing thing. The music and sound-design of Kaiba don't follow what you will habitually see in a sci-fi cyberpunk anime. It seems more light-hearted. Just watch the opening and you will understand. With the childish art-design, the soundtrack complete what Kaiba is even before the story/character. And that's because it automatically create a distinguished universe. Just by listening the soundtrack, it's possible to imagine what the art-design could be, and that's something important. A masterpiece can't be a masterpiece just by beeing good. Weel, yeah... it can. But, it's not the same thing.....oh well.
Here is a little flaw though. There isn't many prominent piece of music in Kaiba. Every each and one of them have something special. But, they aren't perfectly presented everytime. Well yeah, it is in reallity....But, let's say that the soundtrack lost itself without the anime....here's why my 9 out of a 10.... Yeah, it's just to say that it can't be THAT perfect. What is a masterpiece without fault ? Hmmmm.

Character :

It could have been 10, but at the end, Kaiba make a horrible mistake, but it's due to the 13 format episode anime...maybe.
Every character in Kaiba has a personnality. Not just every important... noooo, every single one ! At the first episode, it's the best time to see this when Kaiba (lead character) see some people trying to find the memory of a member of their family. Every member is presented in a fast laps of time and it's more than enough to understand the entire universe of the anime. The first half of the anime, before the real story begin, is like this, and it's the better part. Subtle cliché and a good use of theme, original personnality, intense emotion, there is everything to make a perfect cast !
Here is the problem, the second half of Kaiba, where the story begin... It's not that the quality drop. It's just that the story is less interesting that the first half world building episodes. So, the character seem less "fresh". Their evolution is more predictable and déjà-vu. It's all good thing. But it's just "good, very good" thing. The developpment seems rushed out and the evolution of the psychology was more to show a moral for the character, more than a real evolution, and it's a little frustrating. That's why a 8. Easy, put 10 for the first part, and 8 for the second. But the change is so intense, that it's an important fault.

Story :

And so, the story. Same thing than the character : first half perfect, more than excellent second part, but feel rushed, what is a little disturbing, in the bad sens of the way, mainly for the three last episodes. The anime seem sto remind itself, in the middle, that it had a story to tell. Some revelation are just beautiful and a piece of art, but other are déjà-vu and typical none-predictable thing. But here's the thing : Kaiba had a story to tell, yes, but before this, it had a universe and philosophical theme to develop. And THAT, is what really put Kaiba as a masterpiece with the art and soudtrack. There is some deep metaphore that will take many time to develop in our head. The anime don't want to just tell a story. It want to show something, and then, want that everybody try to develop these thing for themselves. It's a way of creating a story, more than a fault. Still, the last episodes are rushed and the final scene really need some thinking, because the story itself is not suffcient to explain it.
Oh yeah, there is some intense and oneiric emotions too !

Enjoyement :

Oh. 10 ? Yeah, 10. Kaiba is an anime to feel and to think about. It's not just about a story, but it's about ideas and this is what this work so marveluous. I can't say that Kaiba don't have flaw. But I can't really say that these flaws are bad. A think that a real "perfect" masterpiece would be more mainstream thant original. In the way that, flaw are a necessity to lead to thought. Without flaw, the mistery behind a piece of art is less. So, how can we say that something is a masterpiece or not ? Well, it some debateable philosophy. But, things seem always more oustanding when frustrating. Kaiba achieve to creat an interesting balance between these two extreme. I suppose it's about what the creators wanted to create, the epoch when this is created, and about the perception the we, ourselves, have. I don't think saying that Kaiba is a masterpiece is really subjective. But I do think that saying it's perfect and the best thing in the world is subjective. I don't think seeing Kaiba as something that have to be perfect is a good idea. Kaiba meant to be savour like something with nuance that just want to show that it exist.

A subjective overall indeed, but a 10 out of 10. But, I give a 8 out of a 10 for trying being more objective, but it's according to want you want to find in it. Can't deny that Kaiba is an outstanding work. But, this note is different form an 8 for other anime. It's an 8 about that Kaiba didn't achieve perfectly what it was trying to do. It's not an 8 that can be compared to ohter anime though.

Thank for reading, I hope my english was comprenhensible ! show less

Review made by a french speaker, I hope it's okay !

How do I have to watch something ? It's the most existential question that I could ask to myself, because, I will never find an answer.

Here, we can see this movie in three way : for it's beauty, for it's story/originality or for it's staging. If you watch juste for the beauty of the movie and the little existence of the plot line, well, this movie is fabulous ! If you watch for the staging, it's okay, near perfect. If you watch for some uniqueness, originality or story....well, better watch ... for the beauty of the sceneries...

Story :

Plote hole, stupidity, cliche, cliche and one panty shot somewhere in the forest. The idea is something déjà-vu, but is always interesting. By how the two protagonist try to live with each other, that was fantastic. But, the movie is in three part : 1. Slice of life comedy 2. Beginning of the story, interesting, but cliche use of ideas. 3. Well shit.

The beginning promises many interesting things like politics or religion/mythology criticism, but nothing got really detailed like every other work of Makoto Shinkai (I'm looking at you The Place Promised In Our Early Days). Urgh ! That trap that promises intersting things for nothing always got me ! Well, if you are okay with deja-vu story, again and again, I think it's possible to like it. One thing is sure, the staging is beautiful and some ideas have the merit to exist, nothing less, nothing more

Animation:

Eveyrthin is top notch, perfect, beautiful, in every sens of the word. Really, not many thing to say. If I could, I would say that there is not enough of onirism, what is shaping every work of Makoto (principally the snow and the metal). Here, everything is just beautiful, there is not really something unique, and that's pretty sad knowing the director.

Sound :

Nothing exceptionnal, nothing original, nothing bad, so well, it's okay. The voice acting is pretty good. One complaint is the four singing song in the entire movie that seems more like a big advertising for some album than a piece of the movie. It's wearisome. But everything else is really good.

Characters :

One thing that I hate in every movie of Makoto is how every character are the same. The protagonist are always clones of some cliche and the women are always stupid for some cuteness... Place Promised was just monstruous ! Here, the author tried to work with the two protagonist at the same time, and that was a pretty good idea. But, well, cliche still here. Why change when everybody love this ? It's simple and efficient. But, it's BAD !

Overall :

A good and bad movie. If you are searching for some entertainment, well it's near perfect and I understand the hype for it. If you are searching for some romance... well, it's okay, I guess ? Go watch 5 Centimeters insted (cliche too, but better feeling, more unique because of the winter). If you are searching for something not just good, but original, you will want to cry. This is hard to give a grade, because it's one of this popular thing that is neither bad, good or between the two. It's perfect for entertainment and fast romance emotion. But for some second tought, this movie is really bad. Nothing unique. I had a good time watching it and I liked it, but, oh well. It's sad, because, it's soooo beautiful !

Beware ! English review made by french guy !

So, Orange is a good anime and a shitty one at the same time. Let me explain briefly : Orange is what we could call a "feel train". The only purpose of it, it's to make you feeeeeeeel some emotions and make you feeeeeeel the characters. Nothing less, nothing more. It's just this. So, for one who enjoy as hell these types of animes, go for it...I suppose ?

Story:

The premise is simple : a new guy come to school and makes new friend. But, the main heroine, Naho, receive a letter from her futur self that explain ... that she has to save the new guy, Kakeru.

First : It's talking about suicide. Second : Wtf time traveling ? Third : The moralisation of this anime is really strange.

So, during these 13 episodes, Naho and her friend try to be friend with Kakeru, making him happy so that he don't take his life. It's simple, touching and could be really intersting in the character development. But, oh well...

Animation :

Really good design, drawing and animation. But, some episodes, like 9, seem to have a low budget and there are many many many wrongs things, like derp face. The anime is beautiful, but have many errors.

Sound:

Good voice acting like all anime, normal sound design, and really good music. Nothing to say here.

Characters :

Here's the fun. They are all cliché, but, the catharsis is awesome ! The interactions between them is really well done and maybe is over the normal in the world of anime. So, these cliché becomes instantly forgettable. The problem is in the development and the complexity of the characters... The anime just try to make Kakeru alive and forget about the emotion of every other of his friends. So everyone is normal and are able to fully help to 100% Kakeru. In real life, good luck to take 100% of your time for someone who need help. And the anime forget that. Everybody has their own problem and so, everybody has difficulty to understand each other. The anime don't show this. It show friends who are able to forget about themselves to try understanding an other friend with important problems (Kakeru). For Kakeru, this show how hard it's to take someone out of his negative thinking once he is on that, but fail to show how hard and incomprehnsible other people can be about this. Everything is fine, everyone is able to understand each other, what a beautiful and naive utopia.

Oh, yeah, don't mind the 8 out of a 10. I think 4 would be more precise. I put 8 just, and only just, for Hagita, who is the best four eyed waifu ever !|

Verdict :

So, is Orange a good anime ? In term of feel, yes, but nothing incredible. Some overdramatical anime like Clannad are able to show some intersting development with a good level of feeeeeeling. In term of deepness, no. And that only fact is because of the time travel shitty thing (seriously A-1, stop with time travel anime like Erased....it's not good for mental health). Well, yeah. Basicly, what Orange is trying to show is how important it is to be close and talk to our friends. How it is important to be loved and how someone who disgust himself can hurt the ones he loves and be stubbord in his self-confident. The problem is, the time travel here is showing a little breeze of dream about everyone who would want to save an ancient friend or wathever by going back in time. Well, it could have been, farely, the same thing without time travel, so in every way, Orange is to simple and try to be good by touching hard subject that everyone want to talk about, but are unable to, and that's ugly. The anime is showing how hard it is to help someone, but here, Naho KNOW what will happen. Basically, the anime say : "if you don't know how someone feel, well, you can do nothing for this someone". And it add : "It's impossible to know how someone feel, unless you have access to some unbeliveble knowledge". In other word, the anime don't show how hard it is to understand someone in need, because Naho know what will happen. The anime is just here to feed the utopia everyone want : be able to understand and help eachothers, without having to make reals efforts... And that's really sad, because all the message of the anime, all the reason of the anime, is because of time travel and transform what could have been an intersting dilemma of how to help someone (in fact, it would have been the same....), in some feel train drama that have no other purpose that to make poeple believe they can make a difference without to much trouble... Orange is an insult to people in need.

English review made by French speaker !

Zegapain. It's really hard for me to describe this anime. I will try to make my review by criteria :

Stroy:

The story talk about a group of young poeple, who is battling against "evil" robot. We don't know what are these robots. I can't say much without spoiling. It's, in fact, a cliché mecha story. All of it is very predictable, and all the characters and the death too. It's really sad. The ending is good, but not really awesome in it's utilisation. But why did I put an 8 to ... the story ? Because of it's philosophy and it's universe. Zegapain, even if it has a really annoying shonen universe (hero caracter always yelling...), it has a beautifull, unique and captivating philosophy about why are we human, want to leave. The question are really interesting and many are originals. Too, there is a good utilisation of the characters, and their evolution are well made. That's the only reason why the story is so good. Not for its passing or its utilisation, but for its ideas.

Characters :

The caracters are well made, but not really brillant like the idea of the universe of the story. The anime have a strong shonen type, and it's, for me, horrible. There is the principal characther, strong like iron, who can do anything and will never try to give up. The little children friend of the hero who is secretly loving him, the other girl who is too loving the hero who is just yelling, the too strong and badass character and everything like this. BUT. The caracther are well made. Personnaly, I hate shounen type, so it's hard to love these caracthers, but their utilisations are quit intersting. The link between the hero and its childhood friend is very brilliant and well made. All characters have a surprising story, more or less original. But, all is very good. That is why I put a 7. The characters are not bad, they are juste based on cliché and are very shonen.

Art :

Beautiful art-design, but the CGI animation is meh and not realy intersting in these borings actions scenes

Conclusion :

So, if you want an intersting sci-fi anime that is talking about what is reality and the place of the human in this, this is for you. But, the philosophy is only good if the viewer want to ask himself these questions. The anime wont really try to answer them, and that is a good thing, the show don't want to make yourself think in a way, it is trying to give you idea for that you could creat your own thought on this. And if you like action, well passed, little romance and shounen anime, this is for you. If you don't like shounen, maybe you will find this good, or maybe not. But if you want to watch a mature anime, with mature caracthers and without to many cliché, this is really not for you.

A must see for sci-fi or mecha anime fan.