- Last OnlineFeb 1, 1:36 AM
- JoinedAug 21, 2007
RSS Feeds
|
![]()
Dec 31, 2008
This series is incredibly hard to interpret.
Story: to start, the basic story is Junichi engaged to Yuuhi Katagiri, but Yuuhi refuses to acknowledge the engagement that her father has arranged and so she stays with Junichi before finalizing a decision...unfortunately, before moving in, she didn't have quite the pleasant experience meeting him...The first episode already was bland and it didn't really get interesting until we saw Junichi's sister, Minato, implicitly become Yuuhi's rival in Junichi's love. That is where it got interesting...so there was a hint of incest relationship, which was a start for this series, but was eventually poorly executed. Things are
...
often resolved too quickly in the series as if by magic. Making each following episode very unappealing to look forward to as the show would continue to shift focus. Eventually Minato is chosen by Junichi but it was far too rushed with too many unexplained pieces of the plot in the final episode. One after the other new things came out like Junichi as a subject, File X, etc...none of which was actually revealed earlier on in the series except in dull comedic scenarios. All in all there was a story but it was poorly paced and executed. 4/10
Art: Very noticeable poor animation quality, especially in the last episode where characters laughing looked like a bunch of bobble heads and possibly much more throughout the series that I don't remember or even want to remember. The artwork was only mediocre. Even worse in the last episode during the whole subconscious scenario and "shadow of Junichi." 3/10
Sound: One of the only redeeming points of this series was its seiyuu cast. What more could you possibly ask for than Aya Hirano, Rie Tanaka, Rie Kugimiya, and many more of the like all in one show? Music, as expected was nicely done as a result. 7/10
Character: If anything, there was no character development...at most we only got a bit of Junichi's past in the final episode. Everyone else essentially played as side characters. There was one episode with Tsukasa getting some nice plot development, but other than her, even Minato and Yuuhi who were the two lead female protagonists didn't get much background, and I won't get started on Karen, Mitsuki, and Nagomi. 3/10
Enjoyment: This was suppose to be one of my highly anticipated shows this fall after being postponed from the horrendous summer 2008. However, it clearly became one of the worse in fall 2008 and if anything one of the worst series in anime history for school-life romance series. 3/10
Overall: This series was not good at all. It had an amazing seiyuu cast and that was really about it. I don't understand how anything could fail so hard with such an amazing cast. If your old enough or simply daring enough, go play the ero-game...it's much more worth your time. I only hope now the OVA will live up to its promise of a different story, let alone a much more compelling one. This is not worth anyone's time watching despite the cast. In a sense this show is like bad mouthing the seiyuus behind the scenes. It had potential of being a satisfactory series around episode 9 or 10, but conflicts were simply rushed to be resolved leaving nothing really interesting for the final episode to work with much without having to rush the series to finish on a conclusive note... 4/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
What did you think of this review?
Nice
 0
Love it
 0
Funny
 0
Confusing
 0
Well-written
 0
Creative
 0Show all
![]()
Nov 23, 2008
Where to start....So it's been essentially 4 years since the last Macross installment and a 12 year time skip since the prequel of this series: Macross Dynamite 7.
Story: After the Deculture Special during Christmas in 2007, I was rather impressed with the series alone with just that one episode, especially with the introduction of another member of the Nome family. However, it was almost obvious from not only the deculture episode, but the first few episodes of this series that it was going to turn into a love triangle series...a big no-no since it began to carry too much of the weight of the
...
plot and we really didn't get much of a thorough development of the plot. Results were almost like magic for the most part, especially with Sheryl's case in episode 25 when she is magically cured from the V-Type Infection and no other explanation followed of how Ranka helped her. To some extent, it almost came to the point of Gundam Seed Destiny, but I'm glad it didn't cross the line. Had the series not wasted on a few episodes of love triangle, they could have gone far more in depth with the cases of the Vajra, Sheryl's past, and Ranka's past. Character development was weak for this show, and had they used those episodes to emphasize on these, it would have aided in both the score of the story and character. This is almost a failure in comparison with Macross Zero, but when compared to the prequel: Macross 7 and Dynamite 7, this is an epic piece of work.
Only two other factors are keeping this score up: 1) the announcement of a movie and 2) the tying together of most if not all the previous Macross series. The upcoming movie gives hope to the series from just ending as if it were a waste of time by focusing on the love triangle. Perhaps we will get something as tragic as the first Macross series or even Macross Zero with the movie? Macross being notorious for sad moments of important and likeable characters (ie Lynn Minmay, Sara Nome, etc...) may bring this series around and thus raises confidence that this series is not out of steam yet despite the relatively decent ending to the TV series. For the second factor, Macross fans will remember various bits and parts as well as the famous Lynn Minmay and Mao Nome who are showed and hinted at throughout many times during the series. Macross Zero and the first Macross series were heavily emphasized in this series and that really helped put everything in place for Macross fans. New viewers to the series may seem a bit confused as to some of the references and terminology, but the series does not completely alienate them as some explanation is provided making these viewers feel a bit more at ease. 8/10
Art and Animation: There's really nothing much to say here. Although tv rips were bad and made animation look like it was deteriorating as episodes went by, especially episode 25, after checking this show out on DVD/Blu-ray, animation was nearly flawless. You could almost see every bit of frame work involved in perfect the fight and concert scenes. It was absolutely beautiful to watch and the best part is that there's no strain on the eyes when watching :D Drawings were also a bit off at times, but that I'm sure will be fixed as more DVDs and Blu-Rays are released. 10/10
Sound: Does this really need to be commented on for this series? When you bring Yoko Kanno into the picture, you might as well just give a 10/10 immediately. She is the only anime music composer to have made top 3 in Oricon charts AFTER 1 WEEK of sales, and continues to remain as so with the addition of both Macross Frontier OSTs and soon a third OST this coming December. Her first work to do so was End of Evangelion and ever since then, no other series or artists have done the same for an anime production. In addition, the recruiting of May'n and Megumi Nakajima to sing as Sheryl Nome and Ranka Lee made it all the more better. This is something to really look forward to if the movie in the making contains even more of Kanno, Nakajima, and May'n's masterpieces. 10/10
Character: As stated earlier, character development as overall relatively weak. We got some insights on Sheryl's, Alto's, and Ranka's past, but it still feels lacking. All we got were bits of flashbacks with no real detail. The viewer is essentially being told to accept these things as if they did occur. With nothing bridging the time skip as well as the many references to previous Macross series, it really does not bring out the actual identity of these characters. One big example is Brera...If he was blown to bits by the Vajra, how did he survive even revived as a cyborg? Another is Mikhail/Michael; they made a huge deal out of his death in episode 20, and yet we didn't learn much about him except his deceased sister, which again we are suppose to take in as a fact with no further explanation. The series just doesn't do very well bringing out what viewers want to know about the characters. If anything, this series could have gone at least 30 episodes to really develop the characters and the love triangle rather than have wasted our time in 1997-98 with the 1 year, 49 episodes trash of Macross 7. Those additional episodes could have been well spent here. Length for this series would have been better if were around the length of the first Macross series: 36 episodes, which really brought out the meaning of Macross and its characters. 6/10
Enjoyment: All in all, this was a great watch. I looked forward to this series every time it had aired. The first couple episodes weren't great, but episode 7 onwards really hit the spot. Episodes 7, 15, 20-25 really nailed the series for me and more of those kind of episodes were needed in this series. Ranka was always enjoyable to watch and Sheryl always trying to act tough as well as her deeply emotional side was also great. Alto was really just a wimp except the last two episodes where he really stood out a bit. Ozma was badass and that really made numerous scenes even more enjoyable. The characters themselves made the series enjoyable regardless of lack of development and the announcement of a movie after the final episode made it even more exciting. 10/10
Overall: Considering how I gave Code Geass R2 a 9/10, I would have to give this series a 10/10. Why? Because it was better than Geass R2. Macross Frontier had been overshadowed by Geass R2 for more than half the air time, and what does Geass R2 do? It gives us a crappy result...again Sunrise fails at sequels. Geass R2 was the most anticipated series in Spring 2008 by most anime audiences and left Macross Frontier literally to rot. By Summer 2008, both series seem to begin to get their acts together. They were literally on par with each other, and from there, the curves go separate paths where Macross gets better and better with each episode while Geass R2 began to go down the drain. R2, ended okay but only after 5-10 episodes of pain, a completely supernatural and unbelievable/uneasy plot, and train-wreck anticipations. Macross Frontier on the other hand was relatively consistent to the end, holding a steady plot for the most part and giving at least a non-rushed ending, an awesome duet medley, and better yet the opportunity for further explanations for the series, or even a sequel! Geass R2 on the other hand is now left in the dust with the cliffhanger ending of wondering whether or not Lelouch is dead or not and something fans will never know. Therefore, Macross Frontier deserves better than for not only its underdog status, but also its lack of attention. 10/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Aug 7, 2008
Story:
The first two episodes caught my attention a decent bit, but after that it slowly died down. Episode 7 was the peak of the series where a decent cliffhanger was left and we finally got some action, but that slowly whittled away with episodes 8, 9, and 10 failing to advance the story. Only in the final episode, 13, do we begin to understand the purpose and direction of this series...a bit late don't you think? Nevertheless, the final episode shot up the story rating for me since it opens up the possibility of a second season where the story will hopefully
...
begin to make sense and get interesting (as depicted by episode 13 ending credits). The ending of the series was clearly better than anything I had anticipated for this train-wreck series. As for what else that hinders the story rating, it's not "noob" friendly since from what I've seen, manga readers have thoroughly understood the series quite well despite all the chaos and mess whereas non-manga readers clearly do not: 7/10
Art:
It is most likely the raw quality, but the art didn't really stick out to me. There were also several shots where the characters looked ridiculously distorted from their original image throughout the series, so the artwork definetely was not top notch in this series nor did it seem like a priority (though this may change once DVDs are out): 3/10
Sound:
I like the ending theme. The op theme is also okay (not fantastic though). The rest of the music and bgms throughout the series was just average: 7/10.
Character:
With the constant removal/disappearence of several characters like Shinshu, Tsuruume, Ginshu, Kon, Shamon, and eventually Kuchiha (lack of dialogue in final episode), it's rather annoying. At one point it was dwelling on Kuchiha's character, but it then shifted rather suddenly to Toki's character and then leaving everyone in the dust. Episode 8 was noteworthy in particular where Kuchiha's past was all explained out of the blue. So character development was clearly not a strong point in this series: 4/10
Enjoyment:
As said before, I like the first two episodes, and episode 7 and 13, but for the most part it was rather boring as I had no clue what was going on. In addition, the story was moving far too slow for a 13 episode series, especially with no announcement of a second season at the moment: 4/10
Overall:
This series could have been much better in so many different ways: had it made better use of the episodes in between the series, or expanded it to a 26 episode series, or explained some of the terminology or point of story sooner, or organized the chronology of the series better. There are far too many weaknesses ins this series, so this is really just a mediocre/average series: 5/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Jul 3, 2008
I was a bit uneasy coming into Da Capo II Second Season. Da Capo II first season left a bad taste in my mouth with very little plot development and really unentertaining. Similarly Da Capo Second Season did the same. Nevertheless, I sat through the 13 weeks of the show and although it was a bit of a slow start at first, it really picked up half way through the series. The last few episodes really were emotional and by far the best Da Capo episodes in all 4 series.
Story: Slow start, but really developed afterwards. There were a
...
few plot holes though that I continued to remain unsatisfied with.
Art: wasn't great, but it may just be the raw and subber quality I was watching, but there was a huge difference in the last episode and thus I give it a 7 rather than a 5 since once I get my hands on the DVD version, it will be far better than what I was watching most of the time.
Music: in Da Capo II in general, music pieces were just spectacular and I'm still dazzled by it. The bgms were great when coming to the emotional points of the show.
Character: Not as much development, but really dwelled on Otome, Yume, and Yoshiyuki, which gave it the nice emotional touch when the plot really developed.
Enjoyment: Would have been great if more Nanaka was shown. I really was looking forward to her since her 50 year older grandmother was like the star of the first two seasons. Plust Nanaka is just as attractive, but really didn't get much screen time, so :P 9.
Overall: Probably the best Da Capo season out of all 4. Possibly on par with the first, but in general, it really had its high points compared to the rest and really stood out. Not as great or outstanding as some other series, but it's definetely worth watching and I'm glad I didn't really waste all those times watching the previous Da Capo series now.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
|
