Midori-tan's Profile - Reviews

Last OnlineDec 16, 2024 9:48 AM
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BirthdayOct 2
LocationWith Sumeragi goddess
JoinedFeb 10, 2008

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Jan 20, 2014

Aku no Hana (Anime) add

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Aku no Hana, or Flowers of Evil is quite the controversial anime. It can be viewed as a love story, a love triangle even. Or, a phycological journey that the main male character goes through from start to finish. Our protagonist is an introverted guy. He is shy, awkward, and spends his time reading books. He has a little crush on his class mate, Saeki. Yet he never got the courage to confess his feelings for her, especially that she is the main topic of the guys in his class. However our introverted guy’s life is changed forever when he finds Saeki’s gym clothes after ... school one day.

Aku no Hana combines the complexities of romance, with psychology. The gym uniform becomes the biggest component in our protagonist’s journey to Saeki’s heart while trying to conceal the fact that he is the one who has her gym uniform. His very own shyness and fear lead him to befriend the class’ outcast student. A girl with no friends, one who does not respect anyone. With these elements: A crush, a stolen gym uniform, a witness who uses her knowledge to blackmail the guy, and you have the whole that is Aku no Hana. This nature complex of the show, the psychological nature of the events and the behavior the characters display has not appealed to many.

It is dark in nature, the mood of the anime is reflected in colors; the sky is always grey in color. It reflects what is going trough with our guy, Kasuga Takai. He is quite, and miserable most of the time; engaging with inner monologues to try and reason with himself. However none of his monologues has lead him anywhere, nor did they provide him with answers. He seeks salvation and a way to redeem himself.

The three main characters in this anime are the min component of the show. Introverted shy Kasuga. Beautiful, soft-spoken Saeki, and the trouble maker, Nakamura. Having all three combined together spells trouble. Having found Saeki’s gym uniform and found out by Nakamura was the beginning of Kasuga’s plight. He is a coward, hesitant, and a defeatist. He cannot voice his thoughts or even be assertive about them. He is easily goaded by Nakamura who uses him as she pleases, he is the perfect prey for her to toy with. Saeki is quite oblivious to what is happening; all she knows is that Kasuga likes her and that is it.

The characters are what makes this show. They are the driving force that gets everything moving. The focus is only on those three; it is all that is needed to get the plot moving. Their actions and interactions makes up the greatest part of the anime. The characters represent extremes: good/innocence and evil, and the one tossed in between. Nakamura lies at the evil/experience end, with Saeki on the other good/innocence end. Kasuga is in between them, he is somewhat of an innocent inexperienced guy, who has to experience things he is not very comfortable with, yet he has no choice in the matter.
It is similar to life’s experience; what we go through pushes is to make stands we might not be comfortable with, yet we have to do them anyways. Those three are a representation of life, how everyone starts off as an innocent inexperienced person, and as they grow and go through different phases of life they become more knowledgeable and sometimes downright evil. It is that experience that shapes us an make us who we are.

What really sets the mood for this anime, and also adds to it’s theme is the art. Aku no Hana is quite realistic; the mundane everyday life of school kids. Getting involved in deviant actions and the psychological spiral Kasuga goes through. He is a miserable boy, that’s for sure. He rarely, if ever, smiles. The art reflects his persona very well. The atmosphere is dark, the sky is always grey, and everything is not so colorful despite it being colored. The colors are sort of dull, they are just there, but they don’t shine or stand out. They just blend into the background and the overall grey-ness of the sky.
Decadence of human spirit is seen through the colors and buildings as well. They are old, broken down, decayed, and rusty. Baudelaire is mentioned throughout, his very own Les Fleurs du mal (Flowers of Evil) is what moves the plot, not to mention the title of the anime. Baudelaire’s Flowers of Evil poetry depicts decadence and eroticism, which is what this anime is about. The art plays out these two themes, by the background colors and the designs of the buildings and roads. Decadence is seen clearly in the buildings and signs, the colors nearly gone due to their age and rust.

Sounds are very simple; there are no elaborated musical peaces to accompany heated dialogues. When two characters argue, the only sounds come from them, their yells and intakes of breath. The musical pieces are quite and they get higher in tone when intensity picked up in some situations. The sounds simplicity adds further to the theme; it serves as an extension to the characters (mainly Kasuga’s) thoughts and feelings. The low tones reflects his inner weakness and lack of motivation, and as they get higher we see how he becomes more determined and speaks up. The sounds serve their purpose, to further add to the overall atmosphere and the mental state of the characters.
The Ending theme is very innovative, and quite catchy.

Aku no Hana is not an anime many would love and enjoy. It provokes more questions than answers; the slow pacing, and the inner monologue of the main character provide the main component of the show. It deals with the self; how one views themselves and how they react when pulled out of their comfort zone. Would they try to adapt? Or would they snap?
Aku no Hana does not provide you with comfort; on the contrary. It pushes you out of your comfort zone, engages your senses, get on your nerves, and doesn’t give you the answers you seek. Not only for the viewers, but for the characters themselves. It pushes and pushes, until they snap, and when they do? Things start to get out of hand. This anime is thought provoking, keeps you guessing what is going to occur next. It shocks you, repulses you, and alienate you. It throws you in this vortex with no way out, from the minute is starts until the credits roll after the final episode.

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Nov 6, 2012

Rayca (Anime) add

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“Where I am...?”

In the 31st century only data exist. What is a better way to learn about human civilization than to send data back to our time to learn about human civilization? Rayca follows the journey of said data to out 21st century world, trying to grasp the concept of our daily life. This short OVA sheds light on our daily life, things we have taken for granted that we forgot the joy the bring us.

Rayca journeys through this daily life of ours, she moves from place to place, scene after scene, trying to experience human life and trying to enjoy all the good ... that it brings. Sure, life is not always fun and cheery, each individual have their own set of problems that they need to work on, yet amidst all of that, there lies the beauty of life. Rayca tries to experience the little things that we do on a daily basis, she observes the things we do and try to earn about it. She observes a train as it passes through the crossing, the fish as they are swimming about, cars moving quickly, a cat left alone in the middle of the city, a photo shoot, and an interview. Each of these little snippets brings a smile to Rayca’s lips as she is experiencing the best of humanity. Standing in the aquarium, watching the fish swim about, and perhaps reminiscing about that loss in the 31st century.

Actual people were hard to make out, they blended into the background making it difficult to distinguish them from their surroundings. Yet the mannequins were clearly made out and they stood out from the background. They looked more human than the actual humans, yet they were all the same; same height, shape, and color. In our world individuality is lost; we are all the same. We dress the same way, we wear our hair the same way, there is nothing that differentiate us from other people, we have became mannequins with no sense of the self. Only our shadows are the indication that we are still alive, and maybe one day we will work into gaining back our individuality. To become different, not blending into the backgrounds that it is near impossible to tell us apart.

Amidst the beauty of the world we live in, there is destruction. There are wars, and killings in human history since the dawn of time. Yet, even those sad and ugly incidents contribute the beauty of our world. It is a contradiction that helps in understanding our world, to learn about what we have and how to appreciate it.

Pictures are memories. Every picture captures a moment in life that brings either a smile or a frown when we look at it. It reminds us of past times, of what we have experienced and how we lived our life. Pictures are treasures; a link to the past.

The animation is pretty good. It is a blend of surreal drawings to a full CGI character. The backgrounds and city animation is stunning. Each environment is made out to look as close to reality as possible. Buildings, cars, trains, and zebra crossings are all things we see on daily basis. We have walked around the city at night, walked between houses in small neighborhoods, rode on the train, and interacted with each other at some point. Yet there is this one character that is in full CGI, very distinguishable from everything else, easy to make out. Clearly she is an outsider that does not belong here. A visitor, observing us in our own world. She is there, yet at the same time, she isn’t.

Perhaps, the sound is the best aspect of this short OVA. Sounds were taken from the surrounding environment. The sound of the train, the flutter of the birds, the camera’s shutter, and so on and so forth. Sounds are driven from our world. The music used during a number of scenes did much more than just providing sound. The music carried out dialogues, told a story of sad incidents, yet amidst the sadness there is always a ray of hope, that things are going to get better. There lies the beauty of our world, that no matter how grim things are, they are bound to turn around and good things will happen to those who wait.

Rayca is the only character featured in this OVA, she takes us through a journey in our own world. She shows us our world from a perspective we may have forgotten about. She tells us that this world we live in is a beautiful world. As she walks through the city and observe the little things, she smiles. Happy with what she sees around her, enjoying the life that we humans have. This character is a reminder that we should appreciate our world, that even the smallest of things is actually beautiful.

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Jan 7, 2011

Baldr Force Exe Resolution (Anime) add

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What differentiates the real world from the virtual world?

This short OVA discusses the concept of virtual world vs. real world. There is network and people can actually get ‘inside’ there networks and interact virtually. The story takes place when a young man is asked to join an organization called FLAK, which job is to dive in the network and attack the hackers who try to hack into FLAKs servers. This is only a portion of the story, the story is a lot more complex than this, there is revenge, friendships, and secrets waiting to be unraveled.

The animators did a good job with the character ... designs and backgrounds. The buildings were beautifully drawn, the interiors were very detailed and the slums looked real. There is nothing too fancy about the art; in this is what made it beautiful. But that is all; it was beautiful, not extraordinary. The characters, on the other hand, were averagely drawn, there was nothing new in the designs, but they were (well some of them) beautifully drawn. There were some details that were better than other things. The mechs and fighting scenes were done in a very good way, the mechs were designed beautifully and the fights were smooth and tens at the same time.

The music was one of the strong points of this OVA, from the quick beat of the fighting scenes, to the quite rhythm on the hills, to the sad tone of the music box, all of those made a good combination of sounds. The opening theme was actually very good, it fit with the futuristic theme of the OVA. The ending theme was beautiful, it gives a sense of melancholy which also fits with this OVA’s theme.

This OVA had various types of characters, we have the good people, the bad people, the victims, the culprits, the friends, the enemies, and so forth. Some characters were quite average, the types you would see in many series; but some were actually quite good, there were hidden pasts, tragedies that engulfed some of the characters. There was also a strong emotion that motivated the characters do some acts. Some were even ready to do some extreme things to reach their goals. The characters in this OVA were pretty good, there was some decent character development and some of them deserved the viewer’s sympathy.

This OVA is a good watch, actually, it’s more than a good watch. It might take some time to get used to, but once the viewer gets used to it one can see that this OVA has much more that it offered. One should look beyond what was shown to the viewers, one should try to understand the message the developers were trying to tell to us. Even in a futuristic world, even when the the real world and the virtual world are slowly mingling with each other, there is value of ‘real’ relationships, of real friendships.
Another point is, when people can freely dive into the network, if they were attacked by a virus or something their physical bodies in the real world would suffer as well. Are we humans ready for this? Are we willing to create a virtual world that is so real we might actually die in reality if we died virtually?

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Sep 12, 2009

Oniisama e... (Anime) add

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Oniisama e (Brother, Dear Brother) is about a girl named Nanako who enters high school and be selected as a member of the schools best community The Sorority, which makes other students hate, and try to get her out of there any way they can. Nanako writes letters to her older brother telling him about what is happening with her life. Not only that, but the story revolves around how Nanako gets to know and meet a lot of other people and learns about them and their lives.
This anime is an old anime; there is no CG what so ever, and nothing to be impressed ...

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Sep 10, 2009

Phantom The Animation (Anime) add

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Phantom The Animation is a short OVA about a young man, meeting an assassin while she was carrying out her job. Thus leading to the story of this OVA.
The story is short and simple; a young man is taken by an organization and being trained by their number one hit man ‘Phantom’. Despite being only three episodes long, the story was well delivered. It was straightforward, sweet, and action packed.

The animation is pretty good. The back grounds are well detailed; the action scenes are swift and smooth. However; the character design could use more work. It is not as detailed as the sceneries, which ...

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