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Revenge is the name of the game – and that’s what Gankutsuou is all about. Gankutsuou is based on the 19th-century book ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ by Alexandre Dumas, who also wrote the book ‘The Three Musketeers’. The title of the show, which means The King of the Cavern, is the original name of the book when it first was published in Japan in 1905. The intermingling of the 19th-century elements from the original of things such as horses still being used to pull carriages, which are really cars, with elements of a space-faring future for with the use of space ships to travel ... to and from the moon this helps create the unique world of Gankutsou.

If you watched Cartoon Network growing up, you most likely have seen Chowder, which has this unique art style that’s called Unmoving Plaid. In Chowder, they used this technique on character’s clothes; but Gankutsuou uses it on most things in the show, from the hair to the flowers. This helped create very unique character designs, ranging from different skin to tones to using the Unmoving Plaid to create outfits that are unique and embody the character’s personality. The Unmoving Plaid was a welcome addition because it helps break up the usual art style you see in anime and offer a breath of fresh air.

Scenes involving characters traveling through Paris, the city felt empty because there were no bystanders walking the streets. The director Mahiro Maeda complained that it was unpleasant to work on the shows art because of the complexity and uniqueness of it. It’s understandable why they didn’t have background characters because they just didn’t have the time or it wasn’t a high priority. One background that caught my eye was the wallpaper in Danglars’ house because he is a character that loves money, so it’s a nice addition to see his wallpaper have money signs to reflect his greed.

I previously did a review on Studio Gonzo’s first anime, Blue Submarine No. 6 (1998), which I had pointed out that the CGI was awful, so I’m happy to say that the CGI in Gankutsuou was woven so well into each scene, it was either hard to notice it or it just blended into the scene that it didn’t draw attention and distract from the show. They used CGI to create environments and ships that are unparalleled in anime.

The show had unusual art, so it’s only natural for the music to follow suit. The intro and ending songs were composed and performed by Franco-English musician Jean-Jacques Burnel, and some of the music in the show uses a mix of music from 19th-century French composers, which is a great nod to the source material by trying to use as much french related material as possible. The music in the show also used some futuristic-sounding instrumentals for appropriate scenes revolving around things such as space-traveling. While the 19th-century music was used in times involving things inspired by the 19th-century, such as the being in the opera house, which is the main source of entertainment in this world. This helps immerse you into different scenes involving elements that were either futuristic or old school. Coming back to the intro song mentioned earlier, the piano instrumental in it was fabulous and really stuck out as being really unique for anime openers, but the words (which were sung in English) left much to be desired. But eventually, I found myself singing along since it ended up growing on me as I became invested in the story. While the OST sounded great, none of it was memorable enough for me to remember outside of the intro song, which you hear for 24 episodes straight.

The gimmick that Gankutsuou does really well is the mystery involved in the show. The end of every episode leaves with a cliff-hanger that wasn’t very predictable, and a ton of questions the audience will want to be answered. Integrate the gimmick with great pacing, and you have a story that does a great job of creating questions for the viewers, and then later on answering some while still leaving more questions behind. The pacing was also done very well, so the audience always has a feeling of fulfillment and curiosity at the right times until the end. The conclusion of the show gets wrapped up in a nice little bow and will leave most with a sense of satisfaction since there are no loose ends.

The show is told from the perspective of Albert de Morcerf. Albert is the type of main character that follows his heart even if logic tells him he shouldn’t. This can make him an annoying protagonist at certain points, but they are believable responses if you take into account that Albert is a 14-year-old boy who is still trying to figure out who he is and what he wants from life. Albert does mature thanks to his best friend Franz d’Epinay who is a real ride-or-die for Albert. Franz goes above in beyond for Albert that is certain to make the audience resonant with him more.

The show makes sure you dislike the bad guys because they don’t have much depth to them. This makes it harder for the viewers to sympathize with and make them more relatable. If the villains had been fleshed out more it would make the things more ambiguous and would make it more likely for the audience to sympathize with them.

Characters that did get a lot of screen time and were not villains had layers to them that made them easily relatable, which makes it easier to get emotionally attached to a character. The show had a lot of characters, so not everyone got screen time to be fleshed out, which was unfortunate because some side characters will leave you wanting to know more about them.

Gankutsuou was a wonderful ride that I am glad I took a chance on. The anime did such a swell job of creating an atmosphere of mystery and revenge and merged with the art, makes it an anime that will be hard to forget. The combination of the 19th century and the far-flung future were blended so masterfully and interwoven into each other. If you are looking for a good, medium lengthened anime to sit down and just watch for an enjoyable story, well, this might be the one for you.

It’s uncommon in the world of anime to find shows that run less than 10 episode seasons, and that is most likely due to the fact that it’s hard to tell a good story with fewer episodes. Blue Submarine took on that challenge by only having four episodes for its series. With only four episodes, did Blue Submarine achieve something few anime can pull off? Let's find out.

Since there are a limited amount of episodes, Blue Submarine has no choice but to be fast-paced; which I think they handle very well. Blue Submarine was unique and the premise is something that you’d be hard-pressed to ... find a copy of. Sadly, the story was just too simple and left viewers wanting a little more in return from spending their time watching the show. The show’s concept was unfortunately too ambitious and needed perhaps a standard 12 episode season in order to fully flesh out concepts such as the fish mutants Dr. Zorndyke created.

The story being bareboned meant that the characters would have to have uplifted the show. The main character Hayami had decent development that’s nothing unique, a standard emo protagonist. Hayami has a major regret and he learns to overcome it, which was nice to see, but Mutio, his sidekick, never grew as a character herself. She never changed and just stayed the loud-mouthed sidekick the whole time. The best character in the show was the villain, Dr. Zorndyke. While he didn’t have much screen time, his motivation for why he flooded the earth was something I really related to since I practice Taoism. One of Taoism’s beliefs is that there is no difference between animals and men, we are all animals. Dr. Zorndyke flooded the earth because he was tired of seeing the way humans treated the planet, such as pollution. This made him a character I will never forget.

Blue Submarine Six was one of the pioneers in anime to use CGI, and it shows. The show didn’t age well at all; the CGI looks like Playstation 2 graphics. The worst part is that they tried to use CGI whenever possible, which made the scenes unwatchable and hard to get through. This is a shame, because the actual art style is pretty to look at, but it was drowned out by the constant use of the CGI. The show had a balance of 90% CGI and 10% standard art. The voice acting, on the other hand, was really good for a dub in the early 2000’s. I found some of the tracks in the show were actually good, and it helped add to the dark and helpless emotions in scenes.

Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy my time watching this show. It was a struggle to get through it, and there weren’t even that many episodes to get through. If you are looking for a dystopian future-themed anime to watch, this isn’t the show for you.

Story: 5/10
Art: 1/10
Sound: 7/10
Character: 4/10
Enjoyment: 1/10
Overall: 2/10

The world is on lockdown and you can’t leave the house so, what better way to spend that time than watching anime! I decided to switch things up and go back and watch older anime so that I could find any hidden gems. While browsing through the app RetroCrush, the first anime that caught my eye was an Original Video Animation (OVA) called Iria: Zeriam The Animation (1994) which was made to be a prequel for the live-action movie Zeriam (1991). The show is a short watch as it’s only six episodes but, is it worth your time to watch during this quarantine?

The narrative ... is a simple premise of a bounty hunter chasing a supposedly “indestructible” monster. It’s nice that the show had a simple premise because of the limited run time which made sure that every episode had impact and purpose. The world-building was it’s the strongest point and made the show interesting; they dropped hints of how the world operates through dialogue and visual clues that weren’t emphasized. Also, the first few episodes of the show did a good job of pacing and not trying to overload the viewer with a bunch of exposition.

Unfortunately, during the last half of the series the limited run time worked against it because it felt like the show wanted to reveal more of itself to the viewers but it had to quickly wrap up for the finale. So you can probably predict that there may have been some things that viewers would’ve liked to see or questions that they might’ve had that will never get answered because there were too few episodes.

Visually, the show was gorgeous and really stands up to the test of time. The colors in the show were vibrant and helped bring the world to life. The character designs were very original and felt very unique to this show. The suits had Batman-like compartments that characters could pull little gadgets, while that is a little ex Machina, it still was an interesting thing to see. Also, the gadgets looked great with having a less traditional look to them but were used in the manner they were designed to do so it didn’t take away from the show in any way.
Additionally, the backdrops in the show were really great. The show teases you with the wonders of what else could be out there to see in this universe.
The version of Iria that I watched was dubbed and with this show being made in a time where anime was very niche, it’s to be expected that the voice acting quality would not be to par to today’s standards. With that knowledge, the voice acting was still subpar. Almost, everyone in the show sounded like emotionless robots. That really took away from the show making you wish the characters would hurry up and shut up. The music in certain parts also failed because they tried to really hone in on the Sci-Fi elements by making experimental music that would really fit into the genre. The end result was that music was so different that it failed to draw on emotions in order to enhance a scene.

Iria herself wasn’t the most interesting character you will find in anime but that still makes for an enjoyable watch. She is your stereotypical good guy that believes in treating all humans as humans. The rest of the supporting cast wasn’t really that memorable, to be honest, but that is another fault of having a limited run time where you can’t flesh out every character. Now, the character of Zeiram wasn’t anything unique just like it’s protagonist counterpart. Zeiram is presented as an indestructible killing machine...that likes to kill. That’s it and that’s honestly all the show needed from it.

Overall, the show was an enjoyable experience and it left wanting more. I felt the universe of Iria was really original and had a lot to offer if it was given a chance to be a full 12+ episode season. As it stands, I wouldn’t rewatch but I would recommend it to those that haven’t seen it. There aren’t that many episodes and during these crazy Covid-19 times we have nothing but time, so I implore everyone to give it a watch.

Story: 7/10
Art: 9/10
Sound: 5/10
Character: 6/10
Enjoyment: 7/10
Overall: 6/10

The world is on lockdown and you can’t leave the house so, what better way to spend that time than watching anime! I decided to switch things up and go back and watch older anime so that I could find any hidden gems. While browsing through the app RetroCrush, the first anime that caught my eye was an Original Video Animation (OVA) called Iria: Zeriam The Animation (1994) which was made to be a prequel for the live-action movie Zeriam (1991). The show is a short watch as it’s only six episodes but, is it worth your time to watch during this quarantine?

The narrative ... is a simple premise of a bounty hunter chasing a supposedly “indestructible” monster. It’s nice that the show had a simple premise because of the limited run time which made sure that every episode had impact and purpose. The world-building was it’s the strongest point and made the show interesting; they dropped hints of how the world operates through dialogue and visual clues that weren’t emphasized. Also, the first few episodes of the show did a good job of pacing and not trying to overload the viewer with a bunch of exposition.

Unfortunately, during the last half of the series the limited run time worked against it because it felt like the show wanted to reveal more of itself to the viewers but it had to quickly wrap up for the finale. So you can probably predict that there may have been some things that viewers would’ve liked to see or questions that they might’ve had that will never get answered because there were too few episodes.

Visually, the show was gorgeous and really stands up to the test of time. The colors in the show were vibrant and helped bring the world to life. The character designs were very original and felt very unique to this show. The suits had Batman-like compartments that characters could pull little gadgets, while that is a little ex Machina, it still was an interesting thing to see. Also, the gadgets looked great with having a less traditional look to them but were used in the manner they were designed to do so it didn’t take away from the show in any way.

Additionally, the backdrops in the show were really great. The show teases you with the wonders of what else could be out there to see in this universe.
The version of Iria that I watched was dubbed and with this show being made in a time where anime was very niche, it’s to be expected that the voice acting quality would not be to par to today’s standards. With that knowledge, the voice acting was still subpar. Almost, everyone in the show sounded like emotionless robots. That really took away from the show making you wish the characters would hurry up and shut up. The music in certain parts also failed because they tried to really hone in on the Sci-Fi elements by making experimental music that would really fit into the genre. The end result was that music was so different that it failed to draw on emotions in order to enhance a scene.

Iria herself wasn’t the most interesting character you will find in anime but that still makes for an enjoyable watch. She is your stereotypical good guy that believes in treating all humans as humans. The rest of the supporting cast wasn’t really that memorable, to be honest, but that is another fault of having a limited run time where you can’t flesh out every character. Now, the character of Zeiram wasn’t anything unique just like it’s protagonist counterpart. Zeiram is presented as an indestructible killing machine...that likes to kill. That’s it and that’s honestly all the show needed from it.

Overall, the show was an enjoyable experience and it left wanting more. I felt the universe of Iria was really original and had a lot to offer if it was given a chance to be a full 12+ episode season. As it stands, I wouldn’t rewatch but I would recommend it to those that haven’t seen it. There aren’t that many episodes and during these crazy Covid-19 times we have nothing but time, so I implore everyone to give it a watch.

Story: 7/10
Art: 9/10
Sound: 5/10
Character: 6/10
Enjoyment: 7/10
Overall: 6/10

The idea of a place where you don’t grow up into an adult world sounds like heaven to most children. That’s why Disney’s Peter Pan and his adventures in Neverland became so popular to both kids and adults who enjoyed the fictional story of the hero Peter Pan as well as the other protagonist Wendy Darling and her brothers. CloverWorks’ Japanese manga turned anime series “The Promised Neverland” took this concept and put their own dark twist on it. The Promised Land television series adaptation premiered this past January to March of 2019.

STORY 10/10

The Promised Neverland started great and got better as the debut season ... premiered. While not going into too much detail, every piece of the show from the visual artistry to the audio production did a good job working together to add more weight in each second of run time. The show opens with what you would expect in a show that has “Neverland” in the title: Happiness. There seems to be nothing, but good times in this orphanage house with a surprising amount of land. That illusion is quickly short-lived as the main characters Emma, the typical happy shonen protagonist, and Norman, an intelligent and caring child, find out that all is not what it seems. The show does a fantastic job of giving just enough information to keep you interested while still remaining a total mystery. It’s very parallel to show both gruesome and violence. The fact that you only see what the kids see and it doesn’t build much on the world around them gives you enough clues that make you want to learn more. By the end, the show didn’t bother to give viewers answers to many of the questions one might have had asked. The show’s intentions I believe wasn’t to answer lingering questions, in turn, it was something I didn’t find myself bothered by. With it all said and done, I felt satisfied with how the season ended.

ART 10/10

The art in the series is very unique. With it being different, not everyone will have the same opinion on this I’m sure. For me, the slightly, deformed look of the characters threw me off at first, but after a while, I found myself enjoying the art style of the original character designer, Posuka Demizu. Her art really helped emphasize the moods of the characters...whether that be from happiness to pure terror. The visuals also really helped immerse me into their world. I was on the edge of my seat when the characters themselves were figuratively on the edge of their seat.

Since the animation was unique to the series, it made scenes with a lot of fast moment, such as running through the forest, look really good. Another observation was that every character all looked very different from one another. The main characters look really fit them all in terms of presentation. From Emma’s bright, orange hair, which fit her happy personality, to Ray’s Black hair matching his Sasuke like demeanor. While the computer-generated imagery (CGI) looked good, it showed up in the last seconds of the show. This didn’t make much sense to me since that was the scene that would take the least amount of effort to draw out animation-wise.

SOUND 10/10

CloverWorks studio hit it out of the park with their voice acting selections. I didn’t feel myself being taken out of the immersion of the story by bad voice acting. Mariya Ise, who has worked in shows such as Fairy Tail and Code Geass, was slightly better than her peers for her portrayal of Ray, as I felt that it was a match made in heaven. I enjoyed the selection of “Touch Off” by UVERworld, as it helped set the mood for the show and was overall a good song in general. Especially in the tense moments, the background songs helped enrich the mood of the scenes. In particular, I found myself sweating with my heart beating fast along with the characters in those tight situations.

CHARACTER 10/10

Every character that had a decent amount of screen time felt alive. The three main characters, Ray, Norman and, Emma, besides being drastically different in terms of looks, all were different in personality. Norman stands out as the character I enjoyed the most because of the way he logically thought and definitely cemented himself as a character that I won't easily forget. While the main characters had their personal strengths and weakness, the character that shined the brightest was the caretaker of the kids: The Mom. Their humanization was something that by the end of the 12th episode, I found myself empathizing with them.

ENJOYMENT 10/10

The Promised Neverland is a show I think everyone can enjoy. This show has replayability based on the characters alone and being able to see their growth was fantastic. The show could be easily compared to the abstract strategy game of “Go” with both sides attacking and counter-attacking. I think this show might even make into other peoples’ top 10 animes of all-time. As of right now, it is one of the top shows from this past winter 2019 season.

OVERALL 10/10

The Promised Neverland hits every point just right. I felt fully immersed in the story. I was in that house with the kids trying to make sure we worked towards solving the problem. This show told its story very well and made it enjoyable to watch. Every single episode was fantastic and got better as time went on.