Back to MistyBlue's Profile MistyBlue's Profile

Intro to the Review: (skip 2 paragraphs to get into the review)
After reading some of the reviews for this anime, I am somewhat surprised that many express the same thoughts: "this anime was generic as heck, but I still love the darn anime and give it an 8 or higher!"

For me, this anime should not receive anything higher than a 6 because it does not bring anything new to the table of overused concepts and cliches. Most, if not all anime, share some of the same concepts, but exceptionally good ones bring a twist to them that make it enjoyable. For this anime, not ... so much. However, I think those who like the anime might be due to the guy in the butterfly mask (in the anime cover picture), known as Papillon or Chouno in the anime. For more info on that, gloss over to my Character and Art portion. In the review below, I'll explain why this anime is "mediocre" and not "very good".

Story:
It's pretty much like Bleach. Mysterious girl meets boy who saves her...girl gives guy immense power and later you get to meet the organization that she works for. What's different in this anime is that the organization is not as established as the one in Bleach. Instead of meeting a few of them little by little, you meet chunks of them in an episode, giving you time to barely care about them. You barely know about it and the rest of its members until more than halfway through the anime. And then there's the Kakugane (what every alchemist warrior in this show has) that has the ability to transform into a powerful weapon. What is so annoying about this is how the kakugane makes so much BS in the show and yet it is given the least explanation and care about it. But of course, how is our main protagonist going to power up if we can't add some random superpowers along the way? The comedy was stale, the fight scenes were somewhat boring, and there was less and less suspense as the show progressed.

Sound:
The first ED was the main reason why I wanted to watch this series. The song had a beautiful and sad melody to it and it felt poignant to me. This music didn't fit in with 95% of the anime, which was mainly filled with corny jokes, generic fight scenes, and nakama moments. The second ED and OP were cheesy, so it went with the anime. The OST in the anime is pretty much your typical shounen fight scene music.

Art:
The animation was consistent throughout the show; not noteworthy, but not poorly done a majority of the time. The setting in the beginning of the anime is in a generic school scene. What does make this anime memorable to most who have seen this anime would be the character design, most notably Papillon. Shown in the poster of this page, he is not your typical antagonist (at least in the fashion sense). His flamboyant attire is the only thing he's got going in terms of "uniqueness" and it overshadows the rest of the characters.

Character:
Speaking of characters, let's start off with Papillion since that's what the show ever cares about (he even has the entire second ED to himself). At first, I thought he'd have a major impact in the story, but he's just there ...to be there in all of his bizarre glory. I swear that whoever made this story up made a character as flamboyant as he was just to hide the fact that the story is lackluster and offers nothing new in the shounen category. If you have seen HxH, he might remind you of Hisoka, an antagonist of a story whom several anime watchers might like because of his eccentric attitude, attire, personality, and strength. To me, Papillon gave me the feeling of, "Oh, it's you again" (kinda like Team Rocket) every time he appeared on the screen. I just feel like he is more like a moth than a butterfly...always flying over your head, making sure you don't forget about him. His personality and reason for going against the MC is so lame that sometimes you think the author just threw on a butterfly suit on him just to make him more appealing as a villain. If you pay attention enough, he'll say hypocrite whenever he appears.

All you need to know about the MC, Muto, is that he is the perfect mold of a shounen character: he's got the hair, the "I gotta save the world without getting anyone killed" catchphrase, the power to overpower anyone that overpowered him before in less than a month, and the ability to easily overcome life and death situations every time. You can't hate this guy as the MC, right? Right? One thing I do like about him is that he doesn't have a sad past like the common shounen character.

Then there's Tokiko, the blue-haired girl with a scar across her face. She's a stern and serious girl, but she's also very caring inside. I do give her credit though for being able to hold up in most of the fights she's been in, despite the fact that Muto has been doing the heavy lifting a majority of the anime. That's pretty much it about her. The rest of the characters felt so generic, forgettable, and disposable, that you get expected responses from Tokiko and Muto and you probably won't remember their names while watching the show. Like I said before, a chunk of characters get shoved in one episode and over a span of some episodes, making you go "meh" every time they show up on the screen. There's really nothing exciting about the characters.

Enjoyment:
What was there to enjoy in this anime? The characters were boring and annoying, the comedy was cheesy and short-lived, and the battle animation was sub par. Just because it adhered to the typical shounen genre with the flashy battle scenes and added in some weird characters that didn't really belong in this show, I didn't enjoy it at all. It didn't excite me enough to want to continue to the next episode.

Overall, the story, it's characters, and the art didn't captivate me. Things that annoyed me the most were the lack of good storytelling, disposable side characters who waste precious screentime and an ordinary MC who preaches the same thing, and convenient power ups that feel like a cheat to a game.

At first, I was skeptical about this anime. It received mixed ratings. Some were 9, while others were 4. The ones who rated this anime to be low were mostly those that kept comparing it to Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica. Critique the show, not compare! It's not a perfect anime, but it doesn't mean it cannot be enjoyable.

Story: The first episode took me by surprise,with me thinking that it escalated pretty quickly with very little background to the story. It made me prepare myself for the upcoming episodes, as there were more grim. The tarot cards were a cool component of this anime; I ... just wished that they described them in more detail, especially with the cards that the 4 girls have. They don't really explain the organization that they work for either.. The battle scenes were nice, they show struggle through pain and blood. Towards the end, I felt like the story sidetracked from there.

Art: The physical appearance of the girls bothered me at first. They're skinny as twigs and some have pretty big breasts for their age. They magically grow long, bushy hair and go from kawaii-eyes to serious, bad-ass eyes. All of the older people look scary to me. The battle scene backgrounds are plain, but at least the battle moves were pretty cool and somewhat unique. The daemonias look creepy and gross, and some of them, I was not sure why they look like that, based on why they suffered.

Sound: The opening and ending are nice. You hear a lot of screaming in this anime, mostly screams of fear or battle cries. They set the mood pretty well as a potential daemonia appears with ominous music.

Character: I feel the category for this anime was the reason why the viewers rated it low. The fortune tellers that Akari knew seemed somewhat irrelevant; the transvestite and big-breasted lady didn't have to exist. I thought the main antagonist was the sidekick, because he was following orders from someone else. What was the point of this!? When he reveals his intentions at the every end, I thought it was a bit silly. The cat and raven are useless talking messengers. Luna annoyed me the most, being overly attached to Akari. The past between her and her sister was cloudy. Basically, most of the characters had cloudy backgrounds; besides Ginka and Seira. I feel like some didn't fulfill their roles either.

Enjoyment: Although it may seem like I'm contradicting myself while negatively criticizing this anime and giving it a high score, I still like it. It could have been something better, but it just lacked things like depth. Despite missing some important components, I still enjoyed it to the point where I wanted to keep watching the next episode. I came to like most characters, enjoyed the battle scenes, and feel for the girls, as they experienced hardships together.

Give the first few episodes a try and see what you think.