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Scavenge. Slay. Survive.

This is what Sword Art Online should have been about. It should have been an anime that was a pure MMORPG in anime form, as it was made out to be. What did we get instead? 55% slice of life, 25% romance, 10% action, 10% plot. SAO is quite possibly the most overrated and overhyped anime I've ever come across in my anime years. SAO is highly regarded by its fans as one of the best Light Novels ever, better than Fate/Zero, Monogatari series, Haruhi series, Kara no Kyoukai, Welcome to the NHK and Baccano for a few examples. Granted, I haven't read ... any of these works, but for some peculiar reason, I have an extremely hard time believing this. Why? Well, this will probably get me some flame for being biased, but because the anime is bad. Really bad. Now, some might say that it's because the adaptation of the anime is bad compared to the Novel, but I pretty much say bull. Even if that is the case, it still doesn't change the fact story is extremly generic and so far has nothing I couldn't get from watching .Hack//SIGN. If I don't like the plot and characters in the anime, I most certainately won't like them in the novel.

But enough with that... What exactly is it that makes me dislike this series so much that I would call it the most overrated and overhyped anime I've yet to come across? Let's begin.

Animation: "The animation is fantastic and incredibly smooth every single scene! It looks absolutely beautiful!"

False. While I can agree that the animation is very good looking, it's not as beautiful and gorgeous as most people make it out to be. The setting is just another generic fantasy-like setting you've already seen before in oh so many anime before SAO. The artstyle is also very unfitting. What do I mean? Let me explain very short and simple - The anime is supposed to be serious and dark (keyword being supposed) yet the artstyle makes this world look like a fairy tale due to the bright colors and round character designs. And animation wise, as in movement, looks exactly like every other anime out there. The movements are just as stiff and movement-less as the anime next to it. The only times the animation is better than your average anime is when there's a fight going on, though the choreography in these fights are pretty boring. It's mostly just rushing towards the enemy and slashing away. They could've made the fights so much more enjoyable and interesting if they put more focus on making the fights more tactical and strategy heavy.

The only thing I could give props for, creativly wise, is how sometimes we see from the player's POV. While this was nice the first time, this starts to get very repetitive as you get to see it in every episode and the fisheye style starts to annoy you more and more. Fortunately, this disappears about halfway and we never have to see it again. But wait... That was the only creative thing they did, and now it's gone. I don't know if I should complain or be happy.

Even the less popular Ao no Exorcist which was also animated by A-1 Pictures was better animated than SAO in my opinion, even during the daily life events, and that one wasn't either extremly well animated. But that anime had much more interesting fights and looked a bit more flashy. Though that's to be expected seeing as that was a Shounen and this is a Seinen. Oh who am I kidding, SAO's obviously a Shounen.

Sound: "The OST was composed by Kajiura Yuki! Instant awesomeness!"

Wrong. While I do love Kajiura Yuki, whom has done some amazing works in some earlier titles (most notably Kara no Kyoukai), this is definitely one of her weakest works yet. The soundtrack is so far lifeless and generic and has nothing special going on with it. For being an anime about an MMORPG, I sure as hell am not getting an MMO feeling while watching this anime. The soundtrack is so generic that I could take the entire OST and put it over any other fantasy anime, and no matter how great the anime is, I would still get the same generic feeling as I get while watching SAO. It does have some nice tracks and the OST can grow on you, but as I just said, this is definitely one of her weakest works and doesn't even come close to her works in anime such as Kara no Kyoukai, Madoka Magica and the previously mentioned .Hack//SIGN.

Voice cast wise, it's very mediocre. The voice cast is very bad at getting me entranced in the dialogues since it sounds like they are always reading straight from a script. Only some characters have proved the different, however, those characters were mostly just side characters that disappear as soon as they are introduced. It also doesn't help that all female characters speak in a typical cute way, further detracting the fact that this anime is supposed to be serious.

Sound effect wise, it's good. It has everything you would expect from an anime that has a video game theme. Swords colliding, objects disappearing, slain enemies and menu sounds.

Story: "The story just keeps getting better and better!"

Nope. Well, to give it credit, it did have a solid first episode and a nice premise. People are playing a Virtual video game which they cannot escape untill they defeat the final boss. And if they are killed in the game, they won't respawn, instead they die in real life aswell! That's pretty interesting. Just a damn shame that it all went down the toilet the further down the anime went with the story. For some reason, A-1 Pictures decided to animate the side stories in episodes 3-8 which severely slowed down the pace to the point where the anime got even more boring that fillers in Shounen anime! That's not very good storytelling if you ask me! I see no reason why they couldn't have just released these episodes on the BD/DVD volumes, as this would make the anime extremely more tolerable and have a much better pace. But, does it get better when the main plot starts again? Yes, but only for a short while (short while=one episode.) After this short while, the story gets boring and makes you care less about anything. This is supposed to be a battle for survival, so why the hell is the story not showing us this gruesome world where people die in real life if they are killed in the game? Instead, it focuses on the bad romance between Kirito and his ever growing harem, which we'll get to in the character section.

Speaking of the romance, if you ask me, this is what the anime is about. Not the plot, you know the whole being stuck inside a game premise, but instead the romance of our main characters. And while I do say that this is about being stuck inside an MMORPG and the objective is about escaping, this only counts for the first 14 episodes. After those episodes, SAO goes over to a very boring and very cliché damsel in distress story.

And how can I forget that SAO resorts to miracles for both of its two arcs' endings. Asspull miracles at that, since these things are never properly explained, or not explained at all.

Character: "The characters are so believable! They are so full of life and relatable!"

I'm sorry, but I'm afraid that is incorrect. For starters, Kirito, out main protagonist is supposed to made out as a shut-in gamer Otaku. Someone who is antisocial, in so many words. So since he is just that, it's obvious that he would play as a Solo Player since he prefers to be left alone. Right? Then tell me, why the hell is he going around helping and saving more people than I can count if he's supposed to be a Solo Player? Kirito was written as a Solo Player for the first 8 episodes, and yet he helps people out during ALL of these episodes! This is a 100% contridiction to how he was claimed to be and act. But hey, we need some romance in this survival story, right? So let's throw in multiple girls whom are all after Kirito's virtual penis. The only reason why Kirito is helping out mainly females is because he's just looking for someone to bone. He finally gets one girl who is willing to give up her virtual virginity to Kirito, Asuna. Well then, Kirito finally has a girl he can have some sweet romance with. Nope. The romance between Kirito and Asuna is one of the worst written romances I've come across in an action anime. They spend so little time actually together were they would show off romantic feelings to each other that it's impossible to believe that they actually love each other. They are the typical Tsundere-Shy guy combo that you always see nowadays. And don't get me started about what happens after the first half. Oh boy, that's when things go from bad to worse.

The character development is barely there, mainly because these characters change personality more often than Aizen trolls somebody in Bleach. But what about the side character? Well... They're barely even there! SAO introduces a lot of characters during the first half of the series, but 75% (random percentage) of all those either never appear again (until maybe a brief cameo in the last episode) or appear way too little. They focus so much on the main characters that you start to forget that the series even introduced more characters. Not good, yo. When you create characters you need to split up the development and screen time of side characters and main characters at a good ratio. Sure, the focus should be on the main characters, but it's also important to not forget about the side characters, as they can be a good way to develop the main characters.

Value: "Best Light Novel ever!"

If this is what people would claim to be the best Light Novel of all frakking time, then I don't know what the hell people in their right mind are thinking. Because based on the anime, AND from what I've heard happens next, I see no reason why you would call it that since the novel seems to just keep going in circles and brings nothing new. If that is what people call A-Class writing, then I guess Kubo Tite is one of the best writers of all time.

And all the hate the series gets, this is your fault to blame. You, as in the ones who hyped this anime to be the most amazing thing ever produced. When you hype something as much as this one, you're risking damaging its overall appeal due to leading people into thinking that it's gonna be a masterpiece, only to be left extremely disappointed.

Enjoyment: "Best Anime ever!"

This could have been one of the top anime of 2012, but ended up as one of the worst of the bunch because of bad directing and awful storytelling. If the series had focused more on the actual premise, this couldn've been a bit more interesting - however - the bad decision to put the side stories among the main episodes, the poorly written romance and the incredibly cliché plot (especially in its second half) makes SAO one hell of a drag to watch. It had its few moments, such as an interesting first episode, and a pretty okay episode 10. But the majority of the anime is nothing more than wish fullfillment and fan catering, appealing only to MMORPG players, teenagers and otaku.

Best anime ever my ass.

And now for my own enjoyment; where's that anime adaptation of Chapter 16.5?

http://i48.tinypic.com/2v8041y.jpg

Note: This review is a copy of my own review I posted on AniDB under the name Mortsyn.

School Rumble was one of my first 5 or so comedy animes I watched, and it is still is one of the best! I've been thinking very often to maybe start reading the manga from where Ni Gakki (season 2) ends to where San Gakki (season 3 consisting of 2 OVA episodes) ends just to get some more of it. But yet I still pray for the day when a full season 3 will come. But nontheless, let's start with this review!

Animation: Nothing special here. Just what you ... would expect from a random high school anime... Only with much, much more facial distortion! Some of the faces in this show are hilarious, but unfortunately it looks too simplistic in my taste with nothing to really please my eyes with. This art style does however start to grow on you and you start to appreciate it for what it is, even if you would have wanted something more out of it.

Sound: Even though there aren't very many songs in its OST, they are thankfully very memorable! There are alot of variety in the songs style which is always a good thing. From laidback, to comedic, to sad, to happy. The opening was sung by Horie Yui (Featuring Unscandal) and is called Scramble. And to be honest... It might be my favourite opening to any comedy anime ever! I just love it! The ending is saddly not as memorable; Onna no Ko Otoko no Ko sung by Ogura Yuuko might actually be one of my least favourite endings to any comedy anime ever! The voice cast in School Rumble does a solid performance and brings a lot of emotions to the characters who they are voicing. Oh and let's not forget the legendary song School Rumble 4 Ever!

Story: Seeing how this is a slapstick comedy anime, you know that you aren't gonna get a great story. It's basically about a guy who loves one girl who loves another boy. Let's just say that... Things don't always go the way these characters want them to. But even so the main story still manages to entertain you enough to wanna make you keep on watching.

Character: Ah yes, now this is where School Rumble really shines! The cast in School Rumble may be one of the best casts in any anime I've ever seen! You got the goofy girl Tenma, the weirdo Karasuma, the spanish wrestler Lala, the pervert Imadori, the mysterious Akira, the ojou Sawachika and the list goes on and on... But there is one certain character that steals the entire show. You who have seen the show know exactly who I'm talking about! I'm of course talking about the man, the legend, the myth, the one and only: Harima Kenji! How can you not love this guy! The guy is as manly as you can be! Now, every character develops very nicely during the show, and no one can disagree with me that School Rumble may have one of the best character developments in any comedy anime. But Harima takes the price himself! Never have I seen a character go through so many changes both physically and mentally! Watching Harima is the same thing as watching a small child grow into a man!

Enjoyment: This anime will entertain you in more ways than one. It will make you laugh your lungs out, while at the same time manage to sympathise with the characters. I never once got bored while watching this anime and that is saying a lot!

With all the fun gags and the development of all characters, School Rumble is an anime I would say is perfect to rewatch! How could you even get bored with this hilarious anime?!

So all in all, School Rumble is an anime you should definitely watch if you want a fun anime that's got excellent character development and always manages to deliver! Watch it now!

Note: This review is a copy of my own review I posted on AniDB under the name Mortsyn.

Welcome to the N.H.K is a really unique anime in the fact that it tries more to tell an otaku how your life really is, instead of trying to give otakus what they wanna see. And is that a bad thing? No way, José! This anime wants to tell you to fix your life straight and not to be a NEET and/or otaku for your entire life, because it brings you nothing but sadness in the long run.

Animation: NHK never really impressed me with its animation style, but ... the character designs and the main character's dreams were very nicely done and put together. Even though it never really impressed me, I can't disclose the fact that it had really solid body movements on the characters. However, in some episodes (very few, maybe 2-3) you could clearly see that the animation style was completely different. Think of it sorta like K-On!'s style of animation, you know, like fast, blury and waterish kind of movements. And even though I don't hate that art style, I did think that it felt sorta out-of-place in a show like this.

Sound: It was a long time since I last watched this anime, so I can't really remember much of the soundtrack (which is of course NOT a good thing, since OST's are something that should stick with you 'till the end). But as for the openings and endings, they will stick with me for life. The opening was preformed by Round Table featuring Nino and is called Puzzle and is still to this date one of my favourite intros ever. I just love the trumpet in the song! And then it disappears in the second opening preformed by the same band and the name of the song is the same, only with the added sentence (Extra Hot Mix)... Extra hot... Yeah right... Removing the trumpet and replacing it with a generic guitar tune was one of the biggest mistakes they ever did in this anime sound wise. The first ending was preformed by Kitsutaka Fumihiko and Ootsuki Kenji and is called Odoru Akachan Ningen. What can I say? Just listen to it! How can you not love it?! The second ending was sung by Makino Yui (who voiced Misaki in the show, might I add) and is called Modokashii Sekai no Ue de, and saddly, it was not in any way memorable... But hey! Atleast we still have Mysterious Purupuru Pururin!! As for the voice acting, solid performance all the way through by everyone.

Story: Alright, the story is about Satou Tatsuhiro who is a hikikomori who later reunites with his high school junior Yamazaki Kaoru, and the two decides to make an eroge! Now, it may sound like a boring ass story, but it later evolves into something much different, for better or worse... Satou's life starts to change after he meets Nakahara Misaki and, as with Yamazaki, reunites with his high school senior Kashiwa Hitomi. Both whom will change is life forever. But as far as the story development goes, I thought it was one of the best story in any anime in this department. Untill that fateful episode 14. This is where the story took a massive turn, and in my opinion, I got disappointed... HARD! It did however get better by the end.

Character: NHK did not have that huge of a cast, and mostly contained a bunch of side-characters. But the actual main characters were some of the best! How can you not love Misaki with her cuteness and her relationship with Satou, how can you not love Yamazaki with his nerdyness, and how the hell can you not love Satou for just being Satou?! All of them were really entertaining in their own special way which made this anime more enjoying than what it would have been, if these characters weren't in it. Oh, and don't forget Pururin!

Enjoyment: This is definitely the kind of anime that will entertain you because it gives you so much. It gives you comedy, drama, romance, thrills and much, much more. And even though some parts of the show were really boring (hint: mmorpg) it did not fail to deliver when it was being serious.

This isn't really the kind of anime that I think I will rewatch that soon in the future, but it did have something to it that makes you wanna watch it again. For me, I would definitely say that the main reason to rewatch this anime is because of the characters. But if I do, I might actually go with the manga instead, probably because it features a different ending and a bunch of other elements that did not appear in the anime, same goes with the novel.

All in all, Welcome to the N.H.K is a really good anime that everyone who watches a ton of anime should watch. It should give you a bigger insight of your own life and what you do, aswell as how it affects those around you. So NHK is an anime, even though it has its fair share of flaws, that I would definitely recommend to anyone and everyone!

Note: This review is a copy of my own review I posted on AniDB under the name Mortsyn.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni is one of the most watched animes of all time (based on statistics using a few anime list related sites), and it shows why. Higurashi is one of the most exciting yet confusing animes I have ever watched. Based on the popular Visual Novel series with the same name by 07th Expansion, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni brings you possibly one of the best, if not THE best horror anime series ever.

Art & Animation: This is probably my only real complaint about Higurashi. ... It's not bad, but at times the animation can look a little bit off. But compared to the artwork of the game, I can't really complain... The thing is that sometimes it can look a little bit stale and you can see that this anime wasn't made on that big of a budget. It can feel like some details are missing or that the surrounding area is a little bit empty at times (but what do I expect from a village, really?). You practically never see anyone around the city unless it's a major event going on in the city or when the main characters are in school. Another thing that is actually both a good thing aswell as a bad thing is the colouring. The thing is that most of the time the colours are very grayish or are practically missing a tint completely, whilst this is of course a bad thing since it doesn't bring a lot of life in this world it is undeniably also one of the strong points as it brings much more atmosphere to the village and the horror feeling. And the gore is always enjoyable to watch!

Sound: Higurashi has without a doubt one of the best soundtracks ever. It ranges from cherry slice-of-life music to really creepy and scary tunes that sends chills down your spine more times than you can count. Just try to listen to its soundtrack on a rainy, cold, dark night. It will creep the life out of you. The opening was sung by Shimamiya Eiko and is called- like the anime itself, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni and it brings this show to life. The first time you hear it you will think "Holy shit. My mind is ready for this". It truly is one of the best openings to any anime I have heard and it continues to amaze me everytime I listen to it. The ending was sung by Ooshima Hiroyuki and its name is Why, or Why Not. Altough not as amazing as the intro is still fits the setting of Higurashi very well. Even though the engrish is horrible...

Story: The story of Higurashi is told using many different stories (even told by someone else's point of view) and is about Maebara Keiichi who moves to a village after an incident. In the village he meets 5 girls and befriends them like a typical harem anime. Those girls names are Furude Rika, Ryuugu Rena, Hojo Satoko and the twins Sonozaki Mion and Shion. While everything seems nice and dandy in the beginning it starts to develop into a really mysterious anime filled with, well, mysteries! Disappearances, deaths, epidemics and other things plague the village of Hinamizawa. Now this is where the anime goes confusing on quite the level I've never experienced before. First the story will go this way and after a major event has happend, the time will go back to somewhere where the anime has been before. And this seems to be one of the reasons why a lot of folks drop this anime. But these stories are all part of a puzzle much bigger than what this season will tell you (See Kai for the answer to this puzzle). The best story in Higurashi is by far the first one and is in my opinion one of the best arcs in any anime ever. It was a clear perfect 10 and drags you into the anime like nothing else before it. However, this is also where disappointment awaits, no story after this one was even close to being as suspensful as the first one, with some of them being only good and never great. But that first arc will never be bad no matter what, in fact I've rewatched those episodes 2-3 times.

Character: The characters are presented very well with Keiichi being a really good protagonist, Rena being really creepy, Mion being very entertaining, Shion being crazy, Rika being mysterious and Satoko being... >.< The other side characters are also very entertaining (favourite being Irie Kyousuke) but some gets worse as the show progress. I'm looking at you Ooishi Kuraudo. But something I thought was a little annoying was that there was barely any townfolk shown. As I said before, most people are seen in the school. This season does not really have a real villain but instead uses one or two villains for each arc. The main villain is saved for Kai.

Enjoyment: It's as simple as this: if you love gore and horror, this anime is a must! But the confusing story can be more than a little annoying the first time watching this.

This show has very high replay value. With the first arc being as good as it is and all of the gore it has, makes Higurashi a very fine show to rewatch that I would say is even better after you've finished the second season, Kai. Although the later arcs are not as good and well written as the first one, they too are very entertaining in some way or another.

All in all, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni is a great anime that should not be missed! Don't pass this one up no matter what.

Thanks for reading, take care and see ya next time!

Note: This review is a copy of my own review I posted on AniDB under the name Mortsyn.

5 Centimeters per Second or Byousoku 5 Centimeter is one of the most beautiful movie(s) I have ever seen! How can you not love it? It proves that you can make a really good thing out of a really simple plot!

Animation: Watch the first minute. Do I even have to say anything else? No really, do I?! That one minutes says much more than what I could ever say. It's just as they say, a picture speaks more than a thousand words. I really can't explain how incredible ... this movie looks, it is like this "If you look up Beautiful Animation in the dictionary, 5 Centimeters per Second is the thing that's gonna show up".

Sound: Solid performance by a lesser known voice cast. None of the seiyuu's have performed in a lot of different animes ('cept for one) that makes them famous. But even so they all still manages to deliver their lines extremely well. Oh and need I even say that the ending song One More Time, One More Chance by Yamazaki Masayoshi is maybe the best japanese song I have ever heard, EVER? I mean... Just wow... How can you not love it? The fact that it's actually a song from 1997 makes it even better, because it's a classic!

Story: The story is pretty much a love story split into 3 parts. Each part is about one male character and his relationship with 2 different girls during 3 different time periods. Now, the basic story and premise is very simple, but they somehow made it work extremely well. Don't really know how they managed to pull it off, but as long as they did I'm happy.

Character: You got three main characters; The main male lead Toono Takaki, his crush Shinohara Akari, and the girls who's got a crush on Takaki, Sumita Kanae. They are all very well developed and I see no reason how you could even dislike even one of them. The only really main problem in this department is that there are too few characters in the movie's progression. But that's really just a minor complaint that doesn't bring down the enjoyment one bit.

Enjoyment: Well, if you're finished reading this review, you should perfectly now know why this movie is just so goddamn entertaining and enjoying to watch. If not, then let me tell you it again: IT'S GODDAMN ENTERTAINING AND ENJOYING!

So all in all, if you want a really romantic anime with a simple yet deep plot, then this is the perfect anime to watch!