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Feb 23, 2025
Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust is a bloody tale beautifully crafted by the hand of the expert Yoshiaki Kawajiri. To accompany the brutal violence that usually accompanies this author (Ninja Scroll, Wicked City), there is an unusual but not unwelcome romanticism. Vampire Hunter D: Bloodust is the peak of gothic and noir Japanese animation. A tale of violence and love, where there is no real winner or even a hero.
Plot: 8/10 - The story is about D, half vampire half human, a bounty hunter, whose fame precedes him. In a world where vampires are close to extinction after years of war, the young Charlotte is kidnapped
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by the vampire Meyer Link. The young woman's father will entrust D with the task of bringing his daughter home, dead or alive. Along with the dhampir, there will also be the Markus Brothers, a ruthless group of vampire hunters. The plot is simple but it works really well. Meyer Link and Charlotte's doomed love story is heartbreaking and engaging.
Characters: 9/10 - D is an excellent protagonist with a badass look and endless charisma. His life was doomed from the start, in fact, as a dhampir he doesn't belong to the human world, nor to the vampire world and is therefore forced to be a bounty hunter. His internal struggle is constant between his two parts, the human one and the vampire one. Leila has a nice backstory and the Markus Brothers have all great looks. Meyer Link and Charlotte's love story works as well as it does because of the two characters that Link and Charlotte actually are. Their love is doomed from the get go yet is pure and geniune. Charlotte gave up everything to spend her life with the man she loves. Link truly loves Charlotte and he's not even willing to bite her as he doesn't want to force the love of his life to spend the rest of his life in the darkness. He looks like the classic evil, arrogant vampire but he's actually sweet and good-hearted. As I said, there are no heroes and no bad guys. D doesn't want another child like him to be condemned to be a dhampir, Leila despises vampires for ruining his life but still shows mercy towards the end, Charlotte's family believes their daughter has been kidnapped and orders D and the Markus Brothers to bring her home. The Markus Brothers are, perhaps, the true villains here. Crude and greedy, they are bandits who don't care about anything except money alongisde Carmilla who, despite the short screentime, is a good villain. Evil to her core, she is willing to deceive anyone just to become young and beautiful again.
Animation: 10/10 - Just pefect. Perfect. Immaculate vibes. Great tones and awesome visuals. The fight scenes are amazing too. The world build was superb and the general atmosphere was chilling throughout the whole thing.
Soundtrack: 8/10 - Great soundtrack as well. Always the right song at the right time with a couple of hits I'd actually put in my phone playlist.
Overall enjoyment: 10/10 - Romeo + Juliet if it was gothic and had lots of blood and monsters in it. I just described the perfect film. A must-watch for every anime watcher in my eyes. An all-time classic.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Feb 19, 2025
Not the best anime in terms of story or characters but definitely one of the best anime ever in terms of action scenes, which were some of the most entertaining and engaging I've ever seen. Some of the cleanest vibes I've ever felt watching a movie. Pure fun.
Plot: 6/10 - The plot is pretty simple, nothing too complicated. It's about a ronin named Jubei who, wandering around a poor Japan torn apart by civil wars, finds himself having to face the eight demons of Kimon, led by Genma, a man Jubei thought he had killed. Helping him on his mission will be the ninja Kagero
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and the government spy Dakuan. The plot, as mentioned, is simple. Jubei goes from one opponent to another as if he were in the levels of a video game, until he gets to the final boss, Genma. The love story with Kagero is not bad even if not very developed.
Characters: 7/10 - Jubei is one of the baddest characters I've ever seen. He's a great protagonist. Kagero was a good love interest, who proved to be useful in the action scenes and with an interesting backstory. Genma, although not very developed, was a good villain. All the other demons of Kimon, despite the little space, leave their mark because they are all different from each other, with different abilities but with one thing in common: coolness.
Animation: 10/10 - Just flawless. Perfect. Fantastic fight scenes, among the best I've ever seen. The landscape is very well built, it perfectly matches the dark tones of the film. I also loved the rendering of the characters' faces: their emotions shone through even just simply thanks to their gaze.
Soundtrack: 7/10 - Every song fitted the scene nicely. Jubei's theme was wonderful.
Overall enjoyment: 9/10 - Just a boatload of fun. Some of the wildest fight scenes, lots of blood and some naked girls. It doesn't get any better than this. Not everything needs to be filled with subplots and extra compiled story acrs, twists and characters. Movies as simple and well made as this one are rare nowadays. Sometimes the simplest stuff is the best stuff.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jun 24, 2024
This is one of the most controversial animes ever created and has even been banned in several countries. I've decided to watch it due to its fame of being disgusting and horrible due to the amount rape, violence and body horror present within the anime. And man, was I disappointed. Don't get me wrong I wasn't expecting much from a technical standpoint, I knew the movie kinda sucked in that sense but, at least, I was expecting to get horrified by looking at it and, instead, nothing. There were a couple of scenes which were a little hard to watch but even the parts who
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were considered most disturbing just didn't draw almost any reaction in me. Maybe it's me being desensitized as I've seen plenty of stuff or maybe it was because these weren't real people and it was just an animation, a rather bad one too.
The story follows Midori, a girl who sells flowers, who's an orphans. She encounters a man early on in the movie who gives her, his address. However when the girl gets there she realized she had been fooled into joining a circus full of freaks. And the perfomers of the circus started to abuse her on a daily basis and she literally get put through hell for quite some time. She seems to have find some hope when Wonder Misamatsu, a chinese magician, falls in love with her and the two seem to be ready to leave the cicrus to live a happy live together but things don't go as planned. There isn't much to say here, the plot is meh. You can tell the focus wasn't on telling a good story or creating a good plot but shock the viewers due to the most disturbing scenes. However, I'm not going to lie, in the end I felt a bit sorry for Midori. No spoilers but it was actually quite sad to see her at the end, knowing what she had been through and knowing she was so close from escaping this sad reality. It's obvious that the movie's philosofy finds its roots into a clear pessism and nichilism where life just sucks and nothing good will ever happen to you.
The characters are meh too. You feel sorry for Midori because she hasn't done anything to earn any of the things she gets put through in the movie but she doesn't really have a personality. She just wants to leave that place and you feel really sorry for her but that's it. The other characters didn't do much either. Each of them only had a few scenes so noone of them were able to be memorable altough they had some cool characters designs, especially the guy with no arms. However I liked how Misamatsu, a clearly evil person, was the only person who could've been able to bring Midori out of all that hell. Therefore the only way for Midori to find a way out was to fell in love with a monster which is really sad.
The animation is not good. I know that the creator of the movie, Hiroshi Harada, created this whole film by himself but it's not an excuse for how sloppy and bad the animation was. It's just bad, really bad at times. And I guess it's one of the main reason why the movie just didn't draw almost any reactions in me. I'd like to mention how bad was the voice acting too. The sound sucked (maybe has something to do with the bootleg version of the movie I've seen online but I don't know) and the voice actors probably didn't have any expierence too as they also weren't very good.
If this movie disturbed you and you hated it because of it, then I guess the movie did its job as I don't see no other real reason to bring this movie up other than because there's a lot of messed up shit. There's somewhat of a philosofy regarding nihilism but it's not much. So if it disturbed you, it did its job. However it didn't disturbe me. At all. I explained why in the precedent paragraphs so I won't explain it again however it failed its main job so to me this was just bad. Maybe there's a secret meaning that I don't understand but senseless violence can't draw any reaction in me if it's done simply to shock me. I need to be invested in the plot or in the characters for getting shocked even despite the bad animation but I wasn't. So this movie failed, for me.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Jun 22, 2024
This anime had a lot of hype being attached to its name, even before getting released. Now I've seen it and was it a masterpiece like everyone says? No, not at all. But it's definitely a fun anime that I highly recommed you despite having some issues. If you're looking for deep, serious animes with good characters and an innovative and complex plot, get out of here. I red that somebody called this "fast-food anime" which I agree to. It's fast-paced show to watch when you're bored, way better than some of the stuff that comes nowdays but the fect remains. However when you're hungry
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and in a hurry sometimes a fast-food can save your day. So even a "fast-food anime" can be good.
The plot was a bit of a disappointment. Let me explain: after a great start (the two first epidodes) the show takes an uxepected turn as it becomes more like SAO (which I'm not a big fan of) and more generally every fantasy anime that came out in the last two years or so with this "videogame" type of setting with a display, abilites, levels, power-ups, ecc... It's definitely better than your standard fantasy/adventure anime but I was kinda left high and dry after the show took this turn. But honestly sometimes it's good to turn off your brain for a bit and have some fun by watching some "senseless" stuff like this. And this, with its great fight scenes and animation, makes all the other fantasy animes pale in comparison. In the end, a plot that we've already seen before but that's way more entertaining that the rest of the products on the market out there.
Character-wise the show only cares about its main character as the other characters basically don't even exist. The main character is JinWoo Sung, a weak boy who, after escaping death and being awakened, manages to develop many abilities that make him incredibly strong. Of course we are in the presence of an overpowered main character but, unlike the majority of todays animes, he earns his strenght by suffering and surviving despite all odds. His growth was homogeneous, not forced and very well developed despite the anime being only 12 episodes long. The other characters didn't have too much space therefore they weren't able to leave a huge impact and were all empty. But Jinwoo is a great main character who's able to carry the show on his back and make it really fun to watch. His backstory is good as it makes feel sorry for him and his growth, as I said, was great all throughout the anime. To some degreee I found some similarities to Shinici from Parasyte: The Maxim. They both seem to have lost their humanities at one point, Shinici due to Migi and Jinwoo due to "the system".
The animation is probably the anime's biggest strenght as there were some of the smoothest and most fluid combat scenes that I've ever seen. Soundtrack-wise the show deliveres on that aspect too. The music during the fight scenes were always right so they made some of the fight scenes ever more epic than they already were and the opening theme is excellent too.
Not a perfect anime (it has many flaws) and it's definitely not the anime of the year but, overall, I quite enjoyed it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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May 10, 2024
This was a tough watch at first as the show starts slowly and the first episodes are difficult to understand or follow but this is because the show does not spoon-feed you with every type of information but, with its atypical narration, creates anticipation with a great crescendo that in the last episodes reaches its peak. It is an anime full of details, difficult to grasp immediately but rewarding in its discovery. Definitely a particular anime and not for everyone, but a nice breath of fresh air from a narrative and visual point of view.
The story follows Ichise, an underground boxer, moving inside Lux, an
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underground city created by men to imprison the impure, where there are multiple power struggles between various gangs. We also follow the stories of Onishi, leader of one of these gangs, Ran, an oracle girl who predicts the future, and many others. The complex and atypical narrative but rich in meaning and symbolism provides the viewer with a lot of material, almost too much but which doesn't leave a bad taste in the mouth. The pacing is slow, very slow especially in the first few episodes. But, as mentioned, it is rewarding in its discovery. Thought-provoking and philosophical the story combines cyber-punk elements such as the union of machines and men or the end of humanity with questions about the meaning and importance of life that place it in the narrow circle of animes who have managed to talk about this in an impeccable way, like the various Monster or Serial Experiments Lain. This is an anime where we witness a clear example of nihilism where nothing makes sense, nothing is important and there is no profound meaning to life, or at least, this is my personal take-away from the anime.
From the point of view of the characters, the latter are strangely compelling. Very realistic and profound despite the dialogues being minimal. Ichise is an excellent protagonist and I loved his constant search for a reason or purpose while repeatedly finding himself just one of many pieces in mosaics that were too much bigger than him. I also loved Yoshii and his descent into desperation (which we only really realize towards the end, a clear example of the slow but rewarding narrative) which leads him to commit a series of crimes.
The animation is of a good standard and I absolutely loved the dark and depressing tones often assumed by the anime which make the experience complete and immersive. The soundtrack is another great point in favor of the anime. In some cases it gave goosebumps.
A clearly experimental anime, difficult to follow and understand and not for everyone but worth giving a chance. You either stay on top and don't even scratch the surface or you sink to very deep depths and you let yourself carry away from a little gem, a hidden masterpiece of animation.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Mar 18, 2024
Having decided to watch this anime out of pure boredom, I didn't know what to expect. God, what a beautiful discovery. Black Jack turned out to be a fantastic surprise, a dark and dark series full of melancholy with an incredible protagonist. The plot of the episodes varies from episode to episode, as the latter are self-contained.
The story features Black Jack as the protagonist, a disbarred and unlicensed doctor who wanders the world in search of patients ready to spend crazy amounts of money to be treated. A fairly simple plot that develops with self-contained episodes. All different but with the common thread of our
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protagonist. The stories told in the episodes are all very interesting and well told, except for a couple, namely the first which I found a little too messed up and the eighth, definitely too strange. The rest of the episodes are iconic.
The characters are excellent: Black Jack is an exceptional protagonist. The recurring secondary characters are few but those are good too. The protagonist characters, however, of the individual episodes are all very interesting with different stories each time and which touch on very different and profound themes, such as mental illnesses or love.
I found the animation very enjoyable, despite the year of production. The art style and atmosphere are spot on with dark tones and episodes, especially the ones where Jack is alone, really dark. The soundtrack is very successful, with an excellent theme song and the right songs always at the right time.
Truly recommended, even for those who understand nothing about medicine like me because, although there is attention from that point of view, the episodes focus more on the plot itself rather than on the "medical" scenes. The episodes that flow quickly despite the 50 minute duration. Excellent anime.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Mar 17, 2024
This movie isn't for everyone; personally, in fact, I consider it the anti-film. In the sense that it is a dull, pessimistic, slow film that most would define as boring. The protagonists are apathetic and do nothing to change their situation within the film. Furthermore, every key moment, every twist or revelation is greeted coldly. Plus, the action scenes, especially for a war film, are very few. Essentially the anti-film. But that couldn't further from the truth. This is not the anti-film, this is the film. An absolutely incredible experience that will take your breath away and leave you speechless.
The story is about the Kildren,
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these boys created artificially and incapable of dying or aging who are sent to a battlefield to fight a "fake" war between two multinationals. War that takes place in a world of peace but whose aim is precisely to maintain peace and not to make man forget the horrors of war as well as to entertain them. In essence, the Kildren are cannon fodder sent to die and somehow resurrected only to be killed again and again and again... A sad and dark plot, very philosophical and profound. Narrated in a masterful way with ideas such as making each plot twist arrive in the most anti-climatic way possible, absolutely brilliant.
The characters are all expressionless, emotionless, unaware of the truth about their existence and they don't make you feel the slightest apathy for them as they are simple puppets built and manipulated by the strongest. Yuichi, the protagonist, is the exact opposite of a protagonist. Instead of fighting to find out who he is or where he comes from, he simply exists. He exists and is a puppet like the others. Only in the ending does he try to redeem himself with an extreme gesture and this leaves a glimmer of light which, in my opinion, is destroyed by the true ending in the post-credit scene. The characters, however, work. Their apathy and unawareness mixes perfectly with the sad and dark tones of the film. They involved me much more than many other characters in many other anime where, in theory, the characters are the strong point.
The animation is absolutely brilliant, visually it's one of the most satisfying experiences I've ever seen. A perfect use of CGI with the animations of the flying combats which are the flagship of an incredible technical sector. The tones and atmospheres are muted, making everything even more unique. Oshii does a masterful job of directing with some excellent ideas, such as using the subjective view for some scenes during the flying combats. The soundtrack is wonderful with the absolutely perfect main theme which, with its sweet tones, clashes with the atmosphere of the film but which, in reality, hides a lot of melancholy.
Must-watch for any fan of animated films, I can't believe there's so little talk about it. Do yourself a favor and watch one of the most atypical yet brilliant works ever.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Feb 27, 2024
Satoshi Kon has done it again. After the wonderful Perfect Blue, he gives me another incredibly strange experience. Strange in the best sense of the word. This Paranoia Agent, like Perfect Blue, has a fairly normal incipit: Sagi, a young graphic designer, is attacked by a boy armed with a baseball bat. Later many other people are attacked and two detectives, Ikari and Maniwa, are tasked with finding the culprit. Simple, right? Well from here, everything starts to go to pieces. And Satoshi Kon does it again. It combines fact and fiction, reality and fantasy in an experience very similar to a psychedelic trip. A
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story, like Perfect Blue, which begins normally but which, as the episodes progress, takes us on an introspective journey into Japanese civilization and into the minds of the protagonists, creating a truly special experience.
The plot is simple but then starts to take a lot of twists until it becomes almost unthinkable. Where we can't distinguish reality from fiction. Each episode is not self-contained, but rather, in each episode a story is told about a different character whose underlying theme is Shounen Bat, the boy armed with a baseball bat. There are many criticisms of modern society: the high standards of the society that wants you as a sort of perfect puppet and that follows a path already written by inhibiting your true feelings, as in the case of Harumi's story. People's morality is called into question, as with Hirukawa. A policeman who, due to debts with the mafia, is forced to become a thief. The common thread that binds the characters is this sense of precariousness, where everyone is close to hitting rock bottom, and when they do, Shounen Bat is there waiting for them. But does Shounen Bat exist or is it just the result of paranoia? Is Shounen Bat really an elementary school boy who goes around hitting people with a bat or is it just a way for people to escape their mediocre existences? And if it exists, in this last described form, who created it? These and many are the questions and themes covered by the anime. Truly incredible.
The characters are incredible, they all have great characterization and their stories are incredible. My favorite is definitely Maniwa: I absolutely loved the evolution it undergoes in the series. From a novice policeman, reduced almost to an extra to the only one who did not fall victim to a sort of mass hysteria that hit the city and, consequently, the only person who can fix things. I also found Detective Ikari to be a great character.
The animation style and the background are of excellent quality and enrich the mystery of the plot, as in Perfect Blue.
Paranoia Agent is a great anime, which does not reach the peaks of greatness of Perfect Blue also made by Kon, but which still offers a truly unique and unrepeatable experience.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Feb 26, 2024
One of the most hilarious anime I've ever seen. The story is about Souichi Negishi, a boy living in Tokyo and the leader of a heavy metal band called Detroit Metal City (DMC). The boy, in the group, plays Johaness Krauser II, a sort of demon who kills and rapes anyone. This character, however, clashes with Negishi's true personality, that is, a shy and kind boy, with a passion for pop music. Negishi will therefore have to try to live while maintaining a constant balance between his two lives. Needless to say, because of this, some totally crazy situations will be created. The dark humor
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of the series and his eccentricity make it an absolute must-watch with over the top and nonsensical situations that always manage to raise a smile.
The story is quite easy to understand and in the episodes we see Negishi's daily life, between his commitments as Krauser II and his private life where he tries to make his crush fall in love with her. In each episode, two different stories are usually told and each episode is self-contained.
The characters are excellent, Negishi is an excellent protagonist and even the secondary characters are incredibly fun.
I really liked the animation, different style from what I'm used to but still nice to see.
An anime not for everyone but which, for obvious reasons, should not be taken seriously and indeed the anime itself is aware of being a parody of the metal world with the total exasperation of concepts such as: "All metal singers are Satanists" or things like that. The humor is brilliant and the gags within it all work. Furthermore, it also lasts very little, just 12 episodes of around 14 minutes each. In short, Detroit Metal City is an experience that you will rarely have to relive and which, therefore, I recommend to everyone.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Feb 19, 2024
An incredibly beautiful anime that, unfortunately, I hear very little about. Rainbow takes us to a defeated and destroyed Japan after World War II where a group of young men, in order to survive, commit a series of crimes that will land them in a reformatory, where they will experience hell but in the end they will be able to get out and to make a new life despite the adversities that a group of young delinquents may encounter in everyday life. Put like this, Rainbow's story may seem trivial, but I assure you, that couldn't be further from the truth. Indeed, it is much
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more than the few lines that I wrote. It's a story of revenge, love, brotherhood where you try to look for the good even in the places where you least expect it and you try to survive in a ruthless and disgusting world.
The plot, essentially, is divided into two parts: the first where our protagonists live in a reformatory and try to survive the abuses of Ishihara, a corrupt and sadistic guard, and the director of the facility, the pedophile, Doctor Sasaki, with the hope of meeting again once they leave and making their dreams come true. The second, however, shows the life of the protagonists once they leave the reformatory and how the traumas and teachings of the past return and how they are trying to start a new life. A simple but perfectly narrated plot that teaches many values.
The characters are all excellent: the 7 boys at the center of the events are all extremely appreciable characters with excellent characterizations and fantastic background stories. The secondary characters are also excellent. Personally my favorites are Sakuragi and Joe. But even the villains are no exception: Ishihara and Sasaki are two wonderful villains, rotten and evil to the core, truly easy to hate. And, in particular, I appreciated the narrative arc completed by Ishihara: from a sadistic and corrupt guard to a crazy, drug-addicted man who isn't even worth killing.
I found the animation to be of excellent quality as well as the soundtrack. I particularly liked the opening theme.
An amine that I hear too little about and that should be taken more into consideration when we talk about the greatest anime of the last 15-20 years. A true hidden gem.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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