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Jan 6, 2022
I wish I could give this a 10.
It's masterfully directed in visual and audio aspects. They managed to make a distinction between real and virtual not just by using colours - they changed soundscape, framing of the shots, animation and many things more. Virtual world is not just shown differently - viewer feels the distinction.
And even brushing differences between world aside - overall scene composition is marvellous. They easily envoke emotions with visuals alone and find great ways at conveying a large amount of information in a fast way.
I just can't stop being amazed at visual and audio direction.
The story is quite simple, but
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heartfeltly delivered. I got tear eyed at the final song.
Now for the reasons why it's not a 10 as I wished it to be - the virtual world itself.
While it's beautifully realised - there is no logic. Not with how you enter it and what happens outside while you are inside, or that there are for some reason fistfights inside and it somehow works. You can carp at it's design at every angle and discover more and more faults.
I wish there at least weren't any fights. Saving grace is how rare they happen (two or three short ones). Antagonist during those fights is nothing to write home about either. He's boring in every aspect; some of which were obviously intentional, but boring nonetheless. His overall unimportance mitigates that a bit, thankfully.
If you look past virtual's world lack of logic - you'll find a heartfelt story told with astonishing directorial mastery. I wish it was a 10.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Aug 16, 2016
Reminded me a lot of Bakuman with a choice of rivalries instead of enemies (with an exception of Karaage arc. They made the head of the rival shop way too cartoonishly evil, which takes away from experience), and mostly succeeding in it. But, unlike Bakuman, it doesn't possess any character development. In Bukuman our mains and rivals constantly evolved not just as artists, but as human beings. They changed and carried viewer with them. Nothing of such is present in Souma. Characters evolve as cooks, but remain the same as when they were first introduced.
Scenes with over sexualizing food did not add anything except, well
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ecchi. At first they were funny (Megumi in honey) but after repeating way too many times they mostly annoyed. The show used better ways to describe experiences from food, i.e. - when Erina was first introduced her descriptions were actually interesting and understandable.
The art in Souma is nice, except that it suffers from a common anime disease of using spandex instead of real clothes (i.e. - breasts are always accentuated as if there were special pockets for them in the clothing, even for the gap in between).
The main way Souma wins the viewer is it's theme - food. Absolutely everyone can relate to that, even those who don't cook themselves would find the process enthralling. The theme and mostly realistic approach to the process (as a person with basic skills of cooking for himself can judge, I felt that only in Election arc there was some magic involved) with explanations is the main strength of the show.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Aug 20, 2015
They took the darkest arc in Rurouni Kenshin, took out all the jokes that author put in there to soften it a little bit and honed all the dark points so that they gleamed with crimson colour on the edge of the blade.
Animation fidelity is outstanding. It made me to look back at how rarely I see such quality.
A rare occasion when an adaptation exceeds the source material.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jul 20, 2015
This is the most terrifying anime I have ever seen. The last time I've felt something like this was when I first read H. P. Lovecraft.
The terror comes not from vast amount of gore or violence on the screen - because there's almost none. There's violence, but it's all behind the frame, we never see even a single disfigured human body. The terror comes from a pure concepts that this anime explores.
Story:
It's a thriller, it grips you and tightens it's hands around you. You feel horrible, but keep watching and it only lets go at
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the very end. It's been a long time since I've seen such a good crafted story, with the right hints planted for you to figure out things before they unfold before you, yet with mysteries so clever, that there's a very small of you succeeding.
Art:
I would understand if someone doesn't likes it. It's not "unique" it's just that they used flat colors for everything. No shading, no gradient. And I liked it. It looks surrealistic, but it doesn't throw you off at first like Katanagatari or Kaiba did.
Sound:
The tunes kick in the right time and deliver the right kind of emotional push for the given situations. Enhances the story in every way.
Character:
It's always hard for me with characters, usually I end up hating them for doing something obviously stupid and not seeing the situation clearly, or by being too perfect, or some other reason. It's rare that I find characters appealing for what they are in the story, rather for what they are. Characters felt good, I don't know what I can add without spoilers.
Enjoyment:
Enjoyment... There was a lot of it, but at the same time - there was none. I felt terrible. The terror of what's going to happen, the pain in the chest from the sorrow after realising what actually happened. I couldn't say I enjoyed watching it. I definitely liked it, but it was not enjoyment that I felt in the process.
Overall it was the best "horror" anime I've ever watched. This was a pure terror. And although it already says "Rating: R - 17+ (violence & profanity)", I want to clear up something. There's little to nothing violence on the screen. You never see more than a blood. There is some violence to animals, but very little. And neither is there profanity in any way.
Yet this anime is not for children. It's too dark and terrifying for them. And for people who don't like seeing gore - don't worry, you're not going to, it's there, but not on the screen.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jun 25, 2015
What is a human being? It's a collaboration of memories. Memories of yourself and memories of how others see you. When you destroy or change either of the aspects - the whole being changes.
Kaiba is a story about memories, about memories that were lost, memories that were changed. About how good and bad memories are of equal importance.
Humans strive to find a way to forget. Forget all the bad memories and leave the goods ones. But if we forget, doesn't it makes us less of what we are? Without bad experience we wouldn't be the same person.
The world of Kaiba is one of dystopia. The
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poverty strikes harshly against the wealthiness. In this world the memories can be moved around. Deleted, copied, sold and bought. As well as bodies that lost all their memories. The rich ones may live forever by storing their memories in an expensive chip and moving it between bodies, while the poor ones either sell their memories or bodies for a hope of better tomorrow.
The art style is... strange, to say the least. It's a minimalistic caricature in every aspects, from the character design to the world. It took me six episodes to finally get a grip on it and understand small aspects.
The sound is great, the melodies are lovely and they kick in just in the right time to get you pumped or to crush your heart.
This anime has no mercy. On several occasions it crushed my souls with how ruthless it is. There's no forgiveness. It took me by my heart and didn't let go until the last credits passed.
It's one of the six titles out of almost three hundred watched that received a score of 10 from me. I always try very hard to evaluate the experience I gained with each title and the very last condition after getting a 9 is to have an ending that I liked. This one managed it, to my happiness.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Mar 9, 2015
One of the few animes that actually managed to make me care about characters and to burst in tears when something horrible was about to happen.
It manages to contain an excellent slice of life style while delivering the highest levels of despair at occasions.
Character development trough the plot is outstanding.
Remember when ISS was almost hit by debris in 2012? Or satellite collision in 2009?
There's no "epicness", no space races or über machines. There's no sound in space either. Our characters face what space has really to offer - cancer, leukemia, osteoporosis, hypoxia, mental disorders.
Our characters work as debris haulers, the problem, that is actually going
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to arise in our future. They try to prevent accidents with debris collision, to stop Kessler effect.
It's full of historical references regarding cosmonautics.
I liked it because it has lovable characters, who actually develop as the plot goes. I liked it because it's realistic as it can be. I liked it because it managed to make me care about those characters. I liked because there's no enemy. I liked it because the ending is satisfactory.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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