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I will keep this brief and to the point. Unfortunately I only managed to make it to episode four so bear that in mind while reading my review. The most glaring issue I had with this anime is the pacing. From the get-go, the series attempts to depict the story as with other stories; having an event that occurs in the future end it getting shown in the first episode.

Now, this is a tool often used in stories which I am fine with if it is done properly. This anime did it in an appalling manner to where I was nearly turned-off from the first ... episode. The purpose of telling a story in such a way is to bring up question and intrigue the audience. This anime made the mistake of throwing in too many names and pieces of information that normally we would know later in the series. It felt like series that you jumped into the 100th episode and are completely baffled (not in a good way).

The animation was what kept me going with the slight hint of some sort of hope. Unfortunately, the pacing continued to where it felt like scenes were missing and dialogue felt off. A major contention I had with the series was the lack of proper transitions within the scenes which leads to losing all interest. I had hoped it might turn into something alright but I just could not bear waiting any longer.

The pacing for the second season is a bit odd. It has its moments where things speed up and then it slows back down. I felt that although I did enjoy the story, the way it went about being portrayed was a bit off. I will not discuss spoilers here but one issue I have is how the ending felt rather convoluted and not thoroughly explained. There were moments where something occurred and I had to think to myself, what did I just see?

Aside from the pacing, there were moments that were not necessary. Thinking about it now, often enough there were scenes where there ... was no point to them at all. Could have removed them and it would not affect the series at all. They were the type of scenes that occurred and you have to ask yourself, what was the point of it and why did it seemingly just move on without any transition.

With all that said, I did enjoy the series. The anime did have its share of annoying characters but the ones that I liked left an impression on me. For the most part, the characters did not feel two-dimensional and had some depth to them. Rider is still my favorite spirit; his personality makes him all the more awesome and his words carry weight. Whereas spirits likes Saber felt incredibly annoying and the purposefully portrayal of her to make her seem naive was rather spot on.

As a prequel to the series, I think it did a good job of giving us a back-story as the the events that took place in the past. I do recommend the series and I am glad to have finally finished it.

For myself, I see this anime as being broken up into two diverse series. The first series (first half of the anime), I found it to be incredibly disappointing. I had high expectations for it with the seemingly high emphasis on scenery and the inclusion of Yuki Kajiura whom I had hoped would make an amazing track for the series. Unfortunately, the music was few and lacking throughout the series. I cannot remember a single track from the entire anime (which is quite sad). What baffled me most is the lack of fight scenes with quality in the anime (first part of anime). The anime ... seemingly had a relatively good budget and yet the music was not in rhythm of the fights or the fights themselves were just bland. Prior to watching the second half of the anime, I was scoring the anime just 3 since it was such a letdown.

After finally I convinced myself to watch the rest and surprisingly it was an improvement. The music was still lacking but the fight scenes improved quite a bit. The characters were less annoying and I felt interested in finishing it. Which is why I was able to raise my score after finishing the anime. With that said, the anime still has a number of problems.

The characters had zero depth to them. It was as if the series was designed for those with ADD because after being introduced to a character, we would see them again at most, one more time. I had forgotten most of the characters by the end of the anime, no substance to them at all.

The whole "game" aspect of the anime felt forced and unnecessary. The whole point of items being somewhat important were thrown out the window. Throughout the series, it felt like there was a quota for mmorpg references and they had to reach it during each episode. Oh, let us mention something about the flying timer and make it seem important... it ends up being pretty much completely ignored afterwards and to some degree, seems like the idea was actually removed.

In the second part of the anime, it turned quite dark. Now, I am all for dark and troubling moments. But there were moments that were pretty much "rape rape rape" which detracted from any enjoyment that I was originally having. There was no rhyme or reason for it, just felt forced (like the game genre).

All-in-all, the anime felt rushed. Be it the fault of the developers or the manga, I do not know. Whomever is to blame really dropped the ball. At no point did I feel invested in any of the characters beyond that of the main ones. The anime's story for the most part felt like it was moving along slowly but everything as a whole felt rushed. And in the end, the whole point of it being in in a game just pointless.

It is the unfortunate case that I found this movie to be a dreadful bore. My biggest gripe with this movie is the sheer number of cliches. It felt as if the screenwriters compiled a list of common cliches used in anime, and used them all. It made the movie too predictable and laughable at best. There were moments when I joked with my friend that X would happen (jokingly), thinking it would never happen, and it actually did.

The movie had difficulties focusing on the main characters; we were introduced to a variety of characters that came off as being important, but than never appeared ... again. The reasoning behind the choices made do not seem realistic b any stretch of the imagination, and the fact that someone whom had no real experience flying, only flew in a simulator, and could barely be trusted. Was given such an important mission is just baffling to me.

For anyone who watched Jurassic Park should at least be able to recall the meme or joke on how such a large dinosaur (T-Rex), can just sneak up on people without them noticing. Well, this movie seems to add that same ideology in some how being able to consistently hide massive ships and always know exactly where to be.

If not for all the sheer number of cliches, the really poor decisions made (that come off as unrealistic), and plot-holes with irrelevant characters, this could have been a better movie. Sadly, that is not the case so I cannot give it a better review.

This movie was very difficult to enjoy. The depths of the movie is masked under abysmal editing and quality of this film. I do understand that this movie has a lot of depth to it. There are topics such as fate, love, and existence which are to be questioned. But the mark of a good film is not merely what is portrayed, but how it is portrayed.

I love movies that make you think. Especially ones that make you question and look introspectively at your own life. This movie had the potential for it, but it failed miserably.

Characters: The characters in this film are ... quite bland. Although there is a sense that they are meant to be cold. They showed a lot of characters that seemed extremely out of place. Showing them for the sake of showing them; while leaving out any relation to the story of their role. Many felt extremely two-dimensional; I find it surprising that the dog seemed more interesting and more fulfilling as a character than some of the main characters. It seems almost rushed (which is hard to believe that I am saying that), the characters are thrown in to where you do not even feel any attachments to them.

Art/Sound: The animation is very difficult to grasp for this movie. The fight scenes were amazing, beautifully done and a lot of attention to detail. Even the sound of them taking off thrilled me. There were moments where I thought it looked amazing. For example, when they were strolling through town during the night. The general feel was quite nice. The problem I have was the animation of the characters. I do get that there was an artistic design to them. That is not my gripe with the animation. The problem I have are the moments where no one moves. There are many moments where the character would stand there, nothing movie. It was as if I was looking at a screen shot.

I remember thinking to myself; when someone is not speaking, they are not moving. Even moments when someone is talking, there is only animation for the mouth while nothing else moves. There was a portion where we were looking at one character for approximately 6 seconds of nothing moving, just listening to the music. Now, the music I did like which goes with the sound. Although not many songs, they were quite nicely done with some they were nice and calming.

Story: The story has quite a few problems with it. As I mentioned in my earlier post, there is meant to be a lot of depth with this movie. The problem is that, the movie did a poor job of illustrating that point. The depth of a movie is only strong if the actual movie compliments it, which was not the case here. It felt like I was watching two movies, and one just so happens has a more deeper meaning to it. Overall, I think it could have done quite a lot better. The silent moments needed so much more work to them. It is like differentiating between a nice quiet moment and an awkward moment. The film is riddled with moments where the silence just felt awkward, almost as if they were forcing depth to something that which is not there.