Back to KyotoKycco's Profile KyotoKycco's Profile

I thought this was a fine continuation of Log Horizon, even if not up to standards with the previous season. There was a crew of new interesting characters that they added that weren't hard to keep track at all.Following the story wasn't difficult at all despite the perspectives switching constantly.

The new people all had distinct personalities that differentiated them from the rest, while those that weren't really explored in the first season had their backgrounds and character fleshed out. The story was interesting enough to keep me watching BUT the whole season felt like a way to transition the story rather than real major plot ... development. The whole season had little progress in the actual story, but I believe things will be quicker in season 3 with the setting laid out.

One of log horizon's main attractions was it's setting in an mmo world. It did an adequate job in capturing the feel of MMORPGS with the backdrop feeling very natural, and it's plot smoothly connecting with it, while not forcing it into the environment.

The art and sound are up to par with the previous season so take that with what you will.

So all in all, this season was a slight disappointment, but given how high the standards were set, it's still very watchable.

Akame ga Kill!

Easy to digest, buuuuuut overrated

Akame ga Kill could have been so much more but it only delivered half of it. Now don't get me wrong, there's at least some good to it. Personally I enjoyed it myself, but it failed to give me a lasting impact that other animes do.

The animation is better than average and did its purpose. The characters' voices and facial expressions were pretty good and I thoroughly enjoyed them. The OPs were forgettable, although that doesn't matter much to me.

One of Akame ga Kill's strengths is story is incredibly easy to follow. There's hardly a time where I got ... confused, and after returning to the anime a week or so after, I caught up on the episodes rather quickly, without watching through any of the recaps. This "strength" however, limits what Akame ga Kill could have been.

You would think that in an anime involving assassins would have creative ways for the characters to carry out their missions to make the story more complex; whether it involve espionage or trickery. How disappointed I was when I compared the synopsis's description to the actual way they carried it out. Instead of making clever plans and playing mind games like I would expect from a group of assassins, they just brute force their way into killing someone using their Imperial Relics. No cleverness, no deceit, just barreling down through opponents after opponents to get to the desired target.

One of the things drilled onto the show was that as assassins, they are ti expect to have to kill anyone to get to their desired goal. A very "ends justify the means" type of motto. Yet ALL of the kills that the Night Raid commits were ENTIRELY justifiable. There were no morally questionable killings that had happened at all. Not one. Every antagonist that died had dirt on their history, which isn't in line with what the characters say in the first few episodes that there will be a time when they will be retributed for their sins. Because there weren't any innocent people dying. This makes it a rather one sided anime, where we just agree with everything the protagonist has done.

Another problem with the story was the whole concept of the Imperial Relics. The uses of the Imperial Relics were way too one dimensional. I was never wowed by any of the usages of the relics. There was no training involved to discover "new techniques" for any of them. There was no synergy in what is supposed to be a team of assassins, other than that one part with lubbock and leone. This just decreases the awesome factor as every single one of the new abilities you encounter are just described as hidden abilities, with no previous hints at them or the characters learning about something new from their experiences fighting prior opponents.

Not a lot of animes portray many of the characters in line with the protagonist killed. Akame ga Kill tries to be unique with the cutthroat attitude of "this is what we signed up for," but the lack of character development restricts this. I'm sure you've already read this from the other reviews so I'll make this short. It sucks when most of the character development is done right before they get killed through the usage of flashbacks. In fact it becomes such a pattern, that you can nearly predict who will survive and who will die, just based on their personality or goals.

Character development in general just fell short. I would say none of the characters went through any meaningful transformations. Tatsumi still stayed the stalwart, icon of justice. Akame, the one whose name is the title, had no sizable character development either. Her background was too developed for that to happen, all we got to see were flashbacks detailing the way she is, barring the times where she showed emotion she had for Tatsumi and co. This could have been remedied with a more complex set of antagonists, where the characters are forced to make tough decisions (i.e. having to leave a friend behind, killing someone innoncent to advance their goal).

Akame ga Kill tries to have a bit of humor intertwined with the dark theme, but it just doesn't fit. In the first few, there's a bit of humor here and there, but when the death tolls start climbing, the humor stops, which makes AgK a confused anime. It does ok on the humor department and ok on the serious department as well.

So what does Akame Ga Kill try to be? Maybe a catch-all, which is what keeps this Anime afloat. The combination of fanservice, standard comedy, and action makes it a great anime to recommend to beginners. Much like Guilty Crown, this is a great one to start off on if you're new to this media. Unfortunately with the lack of depth, that may be all it is. Shallow, but still enjoyable.

Asura claims to take us within the depths of human nature, but does it really? Asura tries to explore multiple concepts about human nature such as nature vs. nurture, human greed, despair, what people do backed in a corner, but unfortunatley falls VERY short of delivering a moral lesson. There's too much ambiguity involved to ever create a meaningful message, as everyone Asura kills is NOT justified. Even in the end it is very hard to sympathize or forgive Asura for his candid killing since I could relate to the opposing characters and the actions. There's no real life message to this story, which you ... kind of expect for shows/movies with this type of dark theme.

There are many plot holes that are present in Asura such as why did the monk leave Asura to himself when he was clearly not rehabillitated, how did he survive as a baby, etc.

That being said, the atmosphere that Asura creates with its amazing art style keeps it afloat to make it enjoyable. Death and decay is displayed very well with the 3D artwork highlighting corpses, disembodied limbs, blood, crows, and the like. Not only that, but the pleasant backdrop of green rice fields contrasts the overall dark feeling of the whole movie which creates a forboding feeling of tragedy.

The supporting characters are memorable enough, such as the badass monk that makes the scene twice as intense or the kind yet steadfast Wasaka willing to stand tall to her morales.

The movie was entertaining enough to keep me watching, and I was glad that I watched it in the end.

Hey guys, this is my first review here for incidentally the first anime I've watched ever.

After expanding my anime tastes somewhat, I've rewatched this one in order to keep my perceptions up to date with the other anime I've watched. Also be warned there are SPOILERS to highlight the flaws. So let's begin.

What is wrong with Guirty Crown:
The Story:
A virus outbreak dubbed "the Lost Christmas" creates momentary chaos until GHQ, the government, contained it. Ouma Shu, the main character of the story is accidentally involved in a terrorist group to overthrow the government. In the first episode, Ouma Shu is granted a power to ... extract life forces to turn them into a weapon or whatever by Inori who is a singer of a popular group.

Unfortunately on a macro sense, the story hardly involves any of the pain or misery the civilians would face and focuses on the emotions of Shu the most. Never once did the story ever shift focus from Shu to someone else like Gai or Inori. This also creates a very distinct lack of character development even including the protagonist, as Shu seems to only change sporadically with no build up or momentum (an example when he goes power hungry after like one episode).

The anime focuses on such small things that it gets irritable at times, like flashbacks from childhood friends where the big picture on such a big premise should get more attention. And even when it DOES focus on the information that actually matters, all of it is such bullcrap that I couldn't suspend my disbelief without going "all right I guess i'll just look it up afterwards."

Shu is a knucklehead with little regard for the people around him. Without paying attention to the consequences of his actions, like researching his fucking power for god's sake, he unnecessarily endangers everyone. He isn't even shown to be angry when his friend betrayed him in order to show that sequence where he forgives his friend to be meaningful.

Gai is shown to be the absolute pinnacle of good and righteousness, showing no faults in his character making him an incredibly one dimensional character. He only gets majorly changed through a major plot hole (spooky crystal magics revived him from death), and even then he is a stagnant character.

Inori is a lifeless doll, that only develops one emotion and that only develops one emotion; affection for Shu. No real personality, and therefore not interesting. All she really is, is the poster-lady for Guilty Crown.

And with that the main characters are pretty much described in a few paragraphs. The other characters are near forgetful and not unique.

What is good:
The art is very beautiful and the combat sequences are incredibly captivating with the transforming sequence being great eye candy (as well as Inori). Animation is general is very good.

The original sound track is possibly one of the best one out of all the animes out there, which is comparable to GiTS soundtrack imo, and captures the current emotion of the scene very effectively, and is maybe the only reason that this anime is even memorable.

So would I recommend this anime based on the fact that the animation and soundtrack are really top notch even though the story is mediocre? No, there's way better animes with just as good animation and soundtrack with a better story. It's cool to watch if you have nothing to do.