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Mar 8, 2014
Baccano is the quintessential mafia anime. It's such a perfect portrayal of the Hollywood's vision of the mafia era that you'd be forgiven for thinking Narita co-authored it with an American. Baccano, like it's name (meaning "ruckus" in Italian) implies, is a loud but indirect romp through the prohibition era united states. Just be ready for all the gore.
the artwork is beautiful, and fits the atmosphere perfectly while adding realism. Character designs are very realistic looking yet each one is unique. For better or for worse Baccano also has some of the most detailed depictions of gore that I've seen in an anime
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of it's type. It's not that they go out of their way to drench the screen in blood (cough Hellsing cough), but rather that they refuse to pull any punches when it comes to depicting death. Want to know what a human arm looks like as it's being ground to a pulp on moving railroad tracks? Apparently Bacanno thought you did! All joking aside, the realistic depictions of violence add a lot of weight to the fight scenes.
Story-wise, Baccano has an unconventional take on storytelling. The story is framed as two investigators looking into the events surrounding a government coverup of an incident that occurred on board the transcontinental train "the Flying Pussyfoot" (yes, it's really called that. And you will be hearing it allot). As such, the story tends to jump around from year to year as they dig up new facts, dealing with three key plot arcs that occur in each year. It gets confusing first, but as the show goes on you begin to form timeline in your head without even intending to.
The Characters are great, though some of them could have been fleshed out a bit more. But when you divide screen time by that many characters, certain sacrifices have to be made.
The audio is great. Swing and jazz form the bulk of the soundtrack, with turbulent violins and fiddles used where saxophone wouldn't fit properly. The voice acting in the sub is passable, but you are truly missing out if you don't watch the dub, which is perhaps one of the best dubs I have ever seen.
Baccano is a blast, and its less than 20 episodes. You are missing out if you don't watch this series.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Mar 8, 2014
Durarara is an interesting take on the urban fantasy genre, and was one of the best anime series to come out of its respective season. The subs great, so is the dub. The only thing that left me disappointing was that this series is obviously a "commercial" of sorts for the series of light novels.... light novels that will almost certainty never be officially translated.
The art in Durarara is some of the crispest I've ever seen. Every scene was crafted with 1080p in mind, and you will be missing out if you don't at least watch it in 780p. The aesthetic where unimportant-to-the-plot characters
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appear as grey silhouettes allowed the animators to portray Ikebukuro as bustling as it actually is without dumping their entire budget into crowd animation or relying on tacky still-frames. The sights and sounds of the city are perfectly recreated, from humid subway stations to cramped restaurants and dark alleys. It makes you understand how city dwellers fall in love with their cities.
The story in Durarara is a web of intersecting plots, plans, grudges, and coincidences. It's a character centric story, and the episodes are just as likely to deal with foiling a kidnappings, investigating a corrupt biomedical group, or breaking up a gang war as they are to deal with everyday things such as a visit by obnoxious in laws or sibling relations. It's an interesting mix, as there is quite a bit of drama and action, but there are slice of life elements as the series reminds us that these people's lives do no revolve around the central conflict every waking hour. The downside, due to the fact that the anime is based on an ongoing light novel series, is that many loose threads are left hanging during the last episode. the plot arc in the second season, dealing with an entity known as "Saika", starts out scary but winds up falling face first into every item on the yandere cliche checklist. While it is not enough to scuff the great overall story of Izaya VS pretty-much-everyone, the use of those cliches did put a damper on what was otherwise a very original tale.
As stated before, characters are Durarara's strong point, and it has a ton of them. It's almost too much of a good thing, as there's not enough screen time to divide amongst the two-dozen-plus fully fleshed out characters. While Celty may be the main character, Durarara treats nearly everyone's story as equally important. Unlike Narita's preceding work to be adapted to anime, "Baccano!", Durarara only jumps from character to character, instead of jumping from year to year AND character to character like the former.
Musically Durarara has a solid soundtrack with quite a few memorable pieces. While there are some mishaps (such as the violin piece that's supposed to play during heartwarming scenes but instead invokes an aura of cheesiness) the overall quality of the soundtrack overshadows it's flaws. The jazz pieces are especially great, capturing the atmosphere of a city at night perfectly.
Overall, Durarara is an experience unlike anything else and worth checking out. It's a fun ride that's over far too soon.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Mar 8, 2014
It's been a long time since I enjoyed an anime as much as I enjoyed Gankutsuou. It will most likely be a long time before I enjoy an anime that much again. While it's not an entirely faithful retelling of the tale by Alexander Dumas, thats because the director wanted to tell a different message; about all the innocents the count would harm in his quest for revenge.
The story, while obviously not intending to be a direct adaption, is ironically one of the closest screen adaptions of the classic story to date. Despite taking place centuries from now, it still keeps the atmosphere of
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nobility era France, with all it's class warfare, sexism, and decadence fully intact. The sci-fi elements seem strange at first, but they add to the mood quite well. With the advent of plane travel, the full mapping of the world via satellite imaging, and the trend towards globalization, open seas and distant lands just don't hold the same mysticism they did back when Dumas wrote the original tale. By upping the ante, to replace distant lands with distant planets and open seas with open space, Gankutsuou takes a risky move that ultimately pays off.
The art direction is fascinating, and refreshing. At first it's hard to follow, almost headache inducing. But after the first few episodes you can't imagine the show being the same without it. Character designs (barring the textures) are subtle yet unique. Each design fits it's character like a glove. To elaborate on the art direction, there are no solid colors in Gankutusuou barring skin colors. Everything else is a texture, a texture that does not move even when it's characters do. It brings to mind the effect used by low budget 90s cartoons when they wanted to give someone a plaid shirt but couldn't be bothered to draw the lines over and over. Except in this case rather than appearing tacky, it's beautiful. Backgrounds are a mix of classical animation, photographs, low poly 3d models, and particle effects. The Paris Skyline in particular is wonderfully surreal, second only to the Count's Castle in terms of aesthetic appeal.
The soundtrack, composed by the songwriter for the french band "The Stranglers", fits every scene perfectly. The opening and ending themes fit the dual nature of the count extremely well (with the opening song a melancholic piano piece about shattered dreams and the ending a hate filled revenge themed rock piece).
The characters are just as interesting as they were in the original story, with some being far more fleshed out. Some changes were made, the most obvious changes being made to the Count himself (who now has a supernatural aspect) but overall they kept the essence of each character intact. The focus of main character has shifted from the count to Albert, which only increases the mysterious aura to anyone who has not yet read the original tale. Rather than being outright told his motivations, we must discover them slowly, the same way Albert must. Franz is now a key character, and perhaps one of the best written LGBT characters I've seen in an anime. His sexuality is not used as a punchline, and he is not a camp caricature or a manly inversion of a camp caricature. Even though he is bisexual, he is not portrayed as sexually obsessed, and it's obvious that he values romance over lust.
The anime was extremely enjoyable, and I found that once it really took off after about two episodes, I was completely hooked. I finished the entire show in about four days, and cursed myself for not watching it sooner.
Gankutsuou is a hidden gem, at least among the circles I frequent. I only discovered it's existence by looking up the name of the director behind Samurai 7. It's obscurity may be due in part to it's completely unconventional art style, but I urge everyone to give this show a try. Even if the art does not grow on you, everything else will.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Mar 8, 2014
Psycho pass is a rare gem, with excellent character design, great soundtrack, fascinating conflict, and deep plot.
The story is one of the strongest things about psycho pass. It's villains are all memorable in their own way, and even though Shogo leads the pack he does not overshadow any of the others. Character-wise Akane Tsunemori is one of the best female characters I've seen in an anime in a while. Rather than take the easy way out, Urobuchi crafted a truly original character. Her interactions with Kogami are one of the best parts of the already stellar plot. The other members of the squad are
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all very well fleshed out, and you'll find yourself becoming attached to these people whom society has written off as irredeemable sociopaths.
The art direction is great, with the dominators being one of the coolest anime guns I've ever seen. The models are intricately detailed, and the special effects when they are shot are equal parts satisfying and horrifying (exactly as they should be)
The audio direction is amazing, not much to say other than that.
Overall, an extremely enjoyable cyberpunk series and the kind of anime that comes only once every few years. Urobuchi has done it again.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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