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The first time I watched the PV for the new Berserk anime, I immediately knew that it was going be terrible. A Berserk adaptation buy a no name studio by a staff with zero experience with the subject, there was nearly zero percent chance that this adaptation will be any good. However, in my mind, I thought this can be a show I can be worked up about it and kill time during this excruciatingly bland summer season. So I sat down expecting a terrible show to get angry at. However, it was so bad, so utterly garbage that I couldn't get worked about it. ... I feel more pity and misery towards the show rather than that of anger and rage. And I can only imagine how hardcore Berserk fans feel about this completely irredeemable show.

To get the obvious out of the way, the anime in animated in CG and it looks terrible. Unless you are Marty McFly traveling through time or a person who think Reboots is the pinnacle of CG animation, that CG is obviously sub par. All the character models looks awkward and unnatural. They all look like those human models in early 2000s games where video game developers haven't seen to get the gist of how a human model should look like. The fame rate for this show is so low. It looks like it's running at 15 frames per second as if this is some cheap TV stop motion movie. And what with the weird line shading over everything? I guess it is there to make it look more like the manga. But it just makes the show fall even deeper into the uncanny valley.

Many anime fans think that a fully CG anime is an inherently bad idea. However, that is not true. I know that Japan can make a fully CG anime look good (checkout Appleseed or Avent Children). However, the problem I see with these new 3D anime like Sidonia and Berserk 2016 is they are using CG as a cheaper alternative to 2D animation. CG can look good, but it requires a lot of money and time. This show and all the CG anime in the same vein have none of these traits and that's why these shows looks terrible in comparison to 2D anime.

Plus, the directing doesn't help hid the crummy animation. There are many panning and rotation shots that doesn't fit the anime. Many basic film making techniques like color theory are completely ignored. A lot of shots are complete overkill and unnecessary making many scenes nearly incomprehensible.

The music is also terrible. Remember the bizarre yet engaging Susumu soundtrack of the 1997 anime, with amazing tracks like "Forces"? This show have none of that. None of the tracks are memorable or fitting. There are many metal tracks that do not fit the tone or atmosphere of Berserk. And did a 5 year old craft the sound effects? The sound design is piss poor. The most obvious example is the sound effect for the Dragon-slayer. The Dragon-slayer tearing through soldiers and Apostates should be bad ass. However, the sound effect they gave it sounds like someone hit a stop sign with a shovel. It sounds dumb and out of place.

The most offensive aspect of this anime is how it handles the story and characters of Berserk. While the animation and sound makes me want to bash my head in the wall, but I could forgive Berserk 2016 if it was a faithful adaption. But no such luck, and the story and characters are completely neutered.

While I have mixed feeling about the Black Swordsman and Conviction arc of Berserk, they do have there good points. However, the anime fail to capture any of these highlights. The Black Swordsman arc is completely glossed over to quickly in the first episode to get to the Conviction arc. And even that is complete rush though at a break neck speed since there are only 11 episode to depict it. Because of the rushed pacing, all the characters feel like caricatures of there manga counter parts. Important details and backdrops to characters are completely dropped, making many of the characters feel empty.

Also this anime cut out many parts from the manga. I can understand to a degree why studios cut out parts from the source material such as time constants. For example, the original 1997 series cut out the skull knight even though he is important in the manga. Even though I was disappointed they cut him out, I can understand why decided to cut him out. That series was completely focused on the Golden Age arc and he was not need in that arc.

But in contrast, the arcs and story beats that the 2016 series takes out are necessary for the arc they are adapting. The Rosina arc and the Post Eclipse arc are completely excluded from this series even though they are important to understand post Eclipse Guts. And characters and parts from later volumes are included in this series for no reason. For example, Isidro appears in the bar scenes in the first episode though he shouldn't appear until several volumes later.

To sum it up, Berserk 2016 is a tragedy. There is nothing redeemable about this show. The animation is terrible, the sound is terrible, the writing is terrible, everything is simply terrible! It feels like I am looking into an infinity of terrible. I couldn't even push myself to finish watching this show, and considering that I sat through Akame ga Kill and GATE, that is saying something. I only got to episode 6 so I don't know how they handle the remaining part of the Conviction arc. And honestly, I don't really care. There is nothing that the series can do to redeem itself to me. So whether you are a Berserk fan or not, the only advice I can give you is to avoid this show at all cost. If you want get into Berserk, either watch the 1997 series or read the manga.

Whenever a certain product becomes popular among the masses, it is guaranteed to have imitators trying to off its success. So when Attack on Titan became mainstream, imitators started popping up. One of these shows is Owari no Seraph or Seraph of the End in English.

Right off the bat, the world makes zero sense. In the first episode, a virus kills basically everyone except people 13 years of age. And why everyone 13 and under survives this super virus that wiped out most of the human in like a day? Here’s the biggest problem with Seraph when it comes to its narrative, it never answers ... why things happen. When it comes to any story, there are five important questions to ask: What happened? Who was there? Why did it happen? When did it happens? Where did it happen? Now if you were to why stuff happen to Seraph, you will soon realize how many things happen just because. Why is people thirteen year and younger unaffected by the virus? Why were the vampires in hiding all this time? Where are there demons? Why some of the adults survive the super virus that killed nearly everyone in an hour? None of these questions are answered and the only reasoning behind these events are to move the plot in the direction the writer wants it to go.

Even if you were to over the very flimsy plotting, there isn’t much to the show. The plot is a hogpog mess of ideas. There’s high schools, teenagers with giant weapons, a prophesy, vampires taking over the world, etcetera. Being unoriginal isn’t inherently a bad thing, but the show doesn’t do anything new or interesting with the ideas they had. Because of this, the show fails to have its own identity.

As for the characters, they are by far the worst part of this show. They all reek of “shonen” and are completely void of development. The main lead ( Yuuichirou Hyakuya ) is an obnoxious, hot headed git. All he ever talks about is how he wants to kill all them vampires or how he doesn’t need any friends. It is impossible to get behind him since he doesn’t have any relatable aspects except raw anger.

As for the other characters, they are pretty forgettable. Most of them consists of overused archetypes. To give an example, the MC team consists of a blond, twintails tsundere, a wimp, a male rival, and Mary Sue. The only character I liked was Shinoa. Even though she is a Mary Sue, her sarcastic attitude make her more bearable, especially in comparison to Eren Jager 2.0.

In the animation department, the show fails to impress. The character designs are quite generic and it doesn’t help that the 2D character designs poorly blend in with the water colored backgrounds. Also, the military uniforms that everyone wears look stupid. The uniforms for the Japanese Imperial Demon Army are black and lined with neon green as if they was Tron and the vampires wear black and white 18th century military uniforms. As for the action, it is quite underwhelming. All the action in this season consists of only small skirmishes that don’t have the impact or choreography to make them memorable.

Despite being composed by Hiroyuki Sawano, someone who has a rather good track, the soundtrack for Seraph is rather lacking. Most of the anime consists of silence. And when I listened to the soundtrack separately, I was all like “ where the hell all this music went to?” It is basically the opposite problem that Aldnoah Zero. In Aldnoah, the soundtrack was overused so that it became repetitive and to take away from any impact the series might of had. In Seraph’s case, the music was used too sparingly that it makes the show feel empty.

I can’t really recommend Seraph even as a stupid time waster. I won’t fulfill anyone in terms of writing or aesthetics. I would say give this show a pass since it’s not worth your time.

As for alternative shows, try out Attack on Titan or Blue Gender. Even though both shows eventually become train wrecks, they do the “ humanity is on the brink of extinction” far better that Seraph. If you want to see some cool vampire action, try out Hellsing (preferably Ultimate) or Blood the Last Vampire since they have better action and writing.

Personally, I try to avoid movies based on pre-existing series. Usually they come off as fanservice and do not further the main series in any way. And when said movie has tied into the main series, it is often very rushed and poorly structured(I’m looking at you Gundam 00). Sadly, the Psycho Pass movie is no exception. .

First off, this is a stand alone side story. It says that it’s a sequel to Psycho Pass 2, but that is pretty much a lie. The is basically zero connection the second season and most of the movie takes place outside of Japan. None of the characters ... other than Akane and Kogami makes a meaningful appearance in the movie. I guess the movie wants to stay away from the nonsense in the god awful Psycho Pass 2. The bad thing though, is that this basically makes the movie filler. Now, I wouldn’t actually mind this that much if the movie was good. But alas, it was not.

First and foremost, the thing rushed as all hell. The movie has approximately enough content to cover an entire season, but all of it is crammed into less than two hours. Everything goes by so fast that it becomes hard to care about anything that's happened. Characters come and go at a blink of an eye, ideas are dropped at a tip of a hat, and there is no theme that last long enough to matter. However, I don’t necessarily think the movie would be any better with a longer run time since the plot is contrive as the US tax system.

The plot for the Psycho Pass Movie is completely illogical and downright stupid. The entire point this movie trying to push the point that the Sybil system is actually a good system. This seems really obtuse and stupid, especially considering this is consider this movie technically take place after season two, where Sybil kills people for no reason. In this movie, Sybil killed thousands of innocent people, allows an army of megalomaniacs to oppress millions, replaces politicians with robots, and still expects the viewer to believe it is all done for the good of humanity. What a fucking joke. And they even throw in the dictatorial government in Cambodia to simply make Sybil look good in comparison. Gen, a slight smaller piece shit is still a piece of shit. And for the love of god, Akane somehow still believe that she can change the system from the inside. Really Akane? That is like trying to passing a bill through Congress, it will never happen.

None of the characters ever matter in this movie. All the villains suffer from “James Bond Syndrome” where they let the main characters live for no reason, explain their plan to them, and then finally proceed to kill them. As for the villains, they are just there for the sake of being cool. None of the villains ever come off interesting of meaningful. The army dudes are are just a bunch of one dimensional psychopaths and all the mercenaries that appear later in the film are just there to either look cool or to throw out pseudo intellectual quotes as if this was GITS Innocence.

Even the main characters don’t do much. Akane and Kougami are just passive observers who are just dragged along a series of events that they have no control over. And the part that pisses me off the most is that no one learn anything at the end. All the characters remain the same as if nothing ever happened. Akane is still a stoic observer, Kougami is still a bishonen rebel, and Sybil is still a bunch of hypocritical jerks. Everything remain at the status quo as if nothing ever happened.

If you want an action movie, I think this would satisfy you. It is very well polished and technically proficient and there is an abundant amount of big, blockbuster action scenes. However, if you want anything more that a dumb, action bust them up, you won’t find it here. All this movie really amounts to is an over the top gore fest that have no idea what it's doing.

What is worse, a show that aims high and fail or a show that doesn’t and succeed. Personally, I think the latter is more acceptable. I feel this way since a show doesn’t aim high doesn’t give me false expectations. Shows that do aim high, but fail to deliver just leave me angry and frustrated, such in the case with Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet.

The first episode set up something that could've been genuinely interesting. It yet another fish of water story, this time it’s in the distant future with a mecha pilot from the Galactic Alliance named Ledo, gets stranded on a floating ... boat city called Gargantia ( thus the title name ) on a water covered earth and have to learn to get along with the indigenous population.

While this is far from an original idea, it leaves itself open to many different ideas and concepts to explore. But sadly it squandered any potential it had in favor favor of fanservice, filler, shock factor, and deus ex machinas.

The point where I knew this anime was going suck really hard was when Amy asked Ledo help deal with some pirates to later to condemn him for killing the pirates. Amy is all like “ you shouldn’t kill people” for no real reason. First off, it’s Amy’s fault that she never specifies what she wanted Ledo to do. Ledo clearly explained before hand that he is warmonger society and that he was raised specifically for war. What did she expect Ledo to do if she never elaborate on what she want? And this “ we value all life “ BS is completely contradicted because in the very same episode, the people of Gargantia who were attacked by pirates were using machine guns to kill pirates.

It doesn’t stop there. In the next episode, the higher ups of Gargantia ask Ledo to help fend off the main pirate fleet, but not to kill any of the pirates. Then the people of Gargantia proceed ………... to kill the pirates. Seriously, this one of the most backward society ever. Why would they let Ledo pacify the pirates? It’s not like they are holding some moral high ground since they hold no qualms shooting at the pirates. And it would only benefit them if they had Ledo pacify the pirates since his mecha is the strongest thing on the planet. The only reason they do this is just because the plot said so. And if this isn’t a sign of bad writing, I don’t know what is.

And the show proceeds to go up it own ass. It really tries to convince its viewers that is moving and emotional, but it just comes off as manipulative and soulless. In the last third, the show does a 180 tonal shift and throws out a bunch of Shyamalan twist just make the viewer go “ OMG, I TOTALLY DIDN’T SEE THAT COMING!!” I was burying my face in my hands because I couldn’t give a fuck. The show done nothing to make me care about the characters. And it doesn’t help the fact that the twists are totally clique and can be seen coming from a mile away. Hell, they even use “ it was human all along” twist that is used in almost everything.

And as if it couldn’t get any worse, the show throws in evil counterparts for the main characters. Now there’s an EVIL Ledo, an EVIL Chamber, and an EVIL Gargantia. Then stuff happens, someone shoots a nuke at the evil Gargantia, Chamber pulls a deux ex machina out of his databanks, and the show just seemingly ends with almost nothing resolved.

As for the characters, I have nothing much to say about them. Other than Ledo, everyone seems to either serve as a plot devices or set pieces. The only other “character” might actually be Ledo’s mech Chamber. Yeah, out of the dozen or so characters, there are only two that might actually be considered “characters”.

If you couldn’t tell before, I don’t recommend this anime. If you want an anime with an interesting world or a soothing atmosphere go watch Haibane Renmei or Shinsekai Yori. If you want a good sci fi story that handles multiple themes go watch Ergo Proxy, Lain, or Zegapain. Seriously, just avoid this show at all costs.

SDF Macross is anime of epic proportions. It’s a story of war, of love, of adventure, and a dozen different concepts. But the biggest feat is that all these concepts actually blend these concepts in a way that actually work. While this sound fairly simple to do, it is not as easy as it sounds. Many anime try do this, but fail because of lackluster execution or lack of time. A good example of this would be Charlotte, where it tried to bite off more than can chew and put no effort in trying to blend its concept together in a natural way.

One element that ... makes SDFM work is it great story and strong characters. It is an anime about mankind finding an abandon giant alien spaceship and rebuilding the ship that they rename the SDF-1 Macross. But things go arise and aliens hunting the ship, a war monging civilization of green giants called the Zentradi, choose this moment to investigate, and war breaks out between the two sides. And to make matters worse, the Macross, its crew, and 70,000 civilians get teleported to the outer rims of the solar system. So under Zentradi pursuit, the Macross and the people aboard it have to fight their way home.

A big part of the series is how different groups of people clashing and coming to understand with each other whether is alien vs human, soldier vs civilian, or even man vs woman. But the thing to tie all these groups of people together is culture. For example, the humans on earth and in the Macross are in fear of the Zentradi, believing is some desperate fight against an all powerful force. However, the Zentradi are deliberately holding back because they want to recover the Macross intact to recover the lost technology that its hold and are curious of the actions of the Macross human crew. Later in the series, the humans learn that the Zentradi clear they have no concept of a life beyond warfare, and the contact with the Macross has a powerful and divisive effect on them. Seeing the Zentradi trying to understand or adapt to human life is some of the most interesting and endearing parts of the show. It’s something Macross keeps coming back to, the idea that is there is more to life than fighting.

The cast is comprised of strong but understandable characters. We have Hikaru Ichijo, how is a brash kid who learns to be a man, Minmay, who grows from a girl, to an idol, to a heroine, and Misa Hayase, who is a hard ass commander who learns becomes a caring friend. All the characters have strong character interactions with each other. You’ll watch even the second tier characters grow, mature, and die throughout of the series.

Is Macross a perfect show, not by a long shot. On technical level, it haven’t age very well. There is a lot of still frames and awkward scenes. And the series kinda lossses its energy after the humans defeat the Zendari and the series of event that happened afterwards is rather unnecessary.

Despite it shortcomings, SDF Macross is a series that I would recommend to almost anyone. It is an extremely well made show and people will most likely find something they like about the show, whether it is the romance, war drama, action, mecha, etcetera.

Just simply looking at the synopsis of this anime makes me want to doze off. There isn’t not a single thing that I found remotely interesting or original in this anime. High schools, teenagers with superpowers, overused slapstick humor, all the typical shit plague most anime nowadays. And it doesn’t help that it is also written by Jun Maeda, a writer whose work always are far more concerned with manipulation the viewers emotions even when it doesn’t make any logical sense. But since I didn’t have anything good to do with my time, I decided to watch this anime despite being put off at first. ... Now thirteen episodes later, what do I think of it now? Well to put it simply, this show was one of the worst experience with anime I had all year.

To be blunt, the story of Charlotte is messy and stupid. For the first half of the show, the show is just another slice of life nonsense. To make myself clear, I have nothing against slice of life shows, but this one completely devoid of any charm or wit. None of the humor is particularly funny, since most of it comprised of overused gags and slapstick. Nothing occurs plot wise since all the characters do is dicking around playing baseball, go camping, and help other superpower teens. And you know what? If that was all the show was, I would just discarded as another forgettable rom com and would even bother to write this review. But atlas, Charlotte takes a sudden tone shift and becomes almost an entirely different show. Without spoiling much, the writer tries to make the series far more dramatic and serious. But since there was almost zero effort put in to make the viewers care about the characters or story, everything comes off more comically stupid rather that emotionally touching. The thing becomes unfocused mess with one of the most erratic and inconsistent tone I have seen. It alternates between comedy, moe, sad, intense, and boring at a whim as if this was written by Hideo Kojima. And it doesn’t help that the show rushes so much plot at end it becomes ridiculous. Then the show end on a grand whimper, resolving everything with plot conveniences and deus ex machinas,

As for the characters, they are flat and shallow as you can get. There are far too many characters for a twelve episode series, and it doesn’t help that the show does very little to make the viewer care for the characters. Instead of trying to flesh the existing characters so the viewer can get to care about them, the show just waste its time on comedy and constantly introducing new characters. Honestly, I can only remember the characters for whatever superpower they have instead of any characteristics or traits. The only character I remember was Yuu because he is just basically a copy of lelouch vi britannia.

Even the animation and soundtrack fail to stick out from the norm. While PA works shows generally look polished and crisp, but this is one looks mediocre at best. The character designs are bland and the only thing about the animation that does stick out were the detailed backgrounds. And even those were wasted on a dull and uninteresting setting.

Charlotte is a show that tried to be everything. It tried to be a comedy, it tried to be a thriller, it tried to be a tear jerk, and tried to be sci fi. Yet it doesn't focus on any of those aspects and fail to accomplish anything. Charlotte fails to be funny, it fails to have memorable or relatable characters, it fails to have an interesting or coherent world, and it fails make any sense whatsoever. It felt if Jun Maeda wanted to jam a dozen concept in the show instead of being focusing on anything. Half of the show was is the character dicking around, and when the show decided to get an actual plot, the show was almost over. In the end, this show broken beyond repair and should be avoided at all cost.


Message me if you have any questions or concerns

To get this quickly out of the way, I am judging Fate Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works (2014) as a stand alone work. I have not played the visual novel and I am not planning to play the visual novel anytime soon. I do not believe that I should have knowledge about the source material to, understand the adaptation. That like saying that I have to read the bible to truly understand the movie version of Noah. So if I didn't understand something from an adaptation that I would understand in the source material, then the adaptation fail to properly adapt the material properly. Now ... that I have gotten that out of the way, on with the review.

The Fate series generally revolve around a simple premise of seven mages who summon seven servants, who are reincarnations of legendary historic figures, to fight for them in a battle royal with the goal of obtaining the Holy Grail, which can grant the wielder any wish conceivable.

While the premise is fairly simple and kind of silly sounding when you think about it, with proper handling, it can work. While I have my gripes with Fate Zero, it served the series well and presented some interesting ideas and conflicts. So with good execution, this show can work. But unfortunately, Unlimited Blade Works execution is rather sub par and fail to do anything interesting with the material.

When I first start watching this show, I was under the pretense that this show was suppose to be like a battle royal, with each of the master trying to get the upper hand on each other. However, it instead feels more like a 3rd rate battle shonen than an actual death tournament. All the major events that transpire throughout the show always feels unbelievable forced and contrived. I think a big factor that comes into play is how the anime heavily relies on “plot convenience”. Plot convenience is a tool that a lazy writer would use to move a plot in the direction he/she want it to go without necessary making sense in the context of the story. This happens multiple of times over the course of UBW. At one point, the main villain Gilgamesh was ready to face off the main heroes Shirou. Rin, and Saber. But Gilgamesh decides not to fight them for absolutely no reason. The “plot convenience” makes the entire show feel forced and unnatural breaking any of the suspension of disbelief that the viewer might of had.

The anime try to gives some justification to these conveniences, but most of them come off as weak and silly at best. For example, Gilgamesh excuse for not kill the Shiroe and Rin is because of his extreme arrogance, That is like the most used excuse for why the main villain doesn't kill the main villain. And who really buys that argument? No one I know would be that stupidly arrogant to let an enemy go and think that it won't be any repercussions. And it doesn’t help that Gilgamesh level of arrogance is taken to such an extreme that he might as well been a James Bond villain.

Also, since this is a Type Moon adaption, there is a slew of magic terminology being used. Without any context of these terms, many of the plot twists fall flat on their face. I know the fans would excuse this by telling me “go read the visual novel”, and I would point them to the first paragraph I typed.

As for the characters, there isn’t actually that much to write about most of them. Most of the cast except for the Shiroe and Rin get very little in terms of characterization. Caster and Lancer, who have a fairly big roles in the story, only get a some flashback as the extent of their characterization. Some characters don’t even get this treatment. Rider, for example, was just there and ended up just to be killed off screen some randy. Archer, Saber, and Gilgamesh, though received more than the rest, characterization can be summed up in a few words.
So that would leave the two main characters, Tosaka Rin and Emiya Shirou.

Rin is suppose to the be primarily love interest and partner for Shirou. Bizarrely, she is the best character in the entire show. Yes, her motivations make no bloody sense ( i have no idea why she decides to help Shirou in the Holy Grail war since I am pretty sure she knows that she have to eventually turn on him since it is a death tournament ), but she has the most characterization out of the entire cast and actually change as a character ( though it is quite dragged out). And she is a character who actually takes an active role in the story. She isn’t necessarily a great character, or even a good one. But one thing I will admit I prefer Rin over mentally impaired Shirou Emiya.

Shirou is one of the most repulsive character I have ever seen to date. He have some sort of complex where he put lives of people around above his own life. This isn’t bad on its own, but the anime take this complex to such a degree that it comes off as idiotic. He’s an annoying, bland , obnoxious character who is sadly the spotlight of the entire show. But the most frustrating part of his character is his idealism. At first, show seem to know where to take ideals. In the second season, Shirou fell under the criticism of Archer, who calls out on Shirou’s bullshit and try to convince Shirou to abandon his unreachable ideals and bring up convincing points like how contradictory his idealism is. Archer saids these exact words to Shirou "Fighting for others, but not yourself, is nothing but hypocrisy." And there is Gilgamesh who calls Shiroe a “fake”, since he claims tha Shirou inherit his ideals from his foster father Kiritsugu. For some time, the show actually look like its trying to make a point. Normally, one would expect Shirou to realize how naive his ideals are and gasp* actually abandon his ideals and develop as a character. Sadly, that was too good to be true. Instead he just have some random epiphany out of nowhere that some how his ideals are right despite all the evidence against his ideals. I guess the thought “ Just because you are correct doesn’t mean you are right.”
Unlimited Blade Works is mediocre show at best. It’s has a extremely linear plot and lackluster characters polished up with good animation and music. If you simply want to watch an anime for good animation and music and nothing else, I would recommend UBW. But if you are looking for more than that, I would urge you to look else where.

Naruto Review (warning: contain some spoilers)

I still remember the time I first encounter when it was airing back on cartoon network. I was 5 then and I had no idea what anime was at the time. When I first started watching naruto, it completely blew my 5 year old mind. It had everything I wanted as a 5 year old. Action, adventure, drama, demons, ninjas, Naruto had it all. However, I am no longe 5 years old. My tastes in anime/manga have considerably change over the years and my interests have dwindle over the past few 300 or so chapters. Now that the series have ... ended, I want to at least leave my final thoughts since this was a big part of my childhood.

Story

Naruto starts off big and epic, but become more cliched and contrived as it drags on. Here’s a brief overlook of the major arcs. If you want to know about any specifics, leave a comment on my profile page.

Wave Country: In this arc, we get to learn a bit more about our main characters. Its also the arc we learn about the basics of the Ninja Villages and how cruel the strong can be to the weak.It also featured Haku and Zabuza, 2 relatively interesting villains, who don’t ecome allies or recurring opponents, which is a nice change from the usual shonen anime. It also have some good drama and twists to keep you invested. Overall, a good arc. Score: 8

Chuunin exams: This arc introduce us to the secondary cast. It also shows us the secondary villages and how frail the peace is between them. There is also a conspiracy that threatens the village, which lead to a major character death. there’s are a lot of minor battles that don’t affect the plot that much, but does a good job of fleshing out the secondary characters. The only gist with this arc is that it drags on for a bit too long, but other than that, another good arc. Score: 7

Sasuke retrieval: In this arc, we get to know more about the Uchiha and their demise. Sasuke goes rogue and out protagonists try get him back. There are some interesting info concerning the Akatsuki, but other than that its pretty boring. This arc last too long for its own good. And the new villains, the Akatsuki, are not dealt with and the secondary villains, the 5 Sounds, weren’t very interesting villains. Rather dry in comparison with the previous arcs. Score: 5

After a 3 year timeskip…..

Garra Retrieval: In this arc, we are reintroduced to our characters, now older, as they go out to rescue an old rival. This arc did fleshed out the sand village a bit more. However, the plot drags on too long and there isn’t that much to talk about this arc. The objective is pretty much the same as the last arc and there aren’t any major deaths. Score: 5

Introduction to Sai: In this arc, they introduced a new character into Naruto’s Team named Sai. Nothing much happens in this arc and Sai is a pretty boring character. Score:3

Azuma Avenge: In this arc we get to see Naruto learning a new improved rasengan and an important character needs to be avenged. It was nice how they fleshed out Shikamaru and team 10. But other than that, not too much to say about this arc. Score: 6

Pein Attack: This is where I think Naruto started to fall apart. The leader of the Akatsuki invades the Leaf and kills a bunch of people. Naruto beat villain and he resurrects everyone. Good job ruining all the drama for the entire arc. And also we learn that Naruto is the bloody messiha and that he will be humanity salvation. God damn it Naruto, this isn’t the bible. In the beginning, we were suppose to believe that Naruto got to where he is by his own strength, not some stupid prophecy. If Naruto remained a normal bloke and the people remain dead, this could of been a great finale. Guess I expected too much. Score: 4

Danzo Assassination: Sasuke finds out that some more people were involved of the killing of the Uchiha and set out kill people. Then he kills people….. thats it. Pretty much nothing else happens other than that. Score: 3

The 3rd ninja war: This is where Naruto completely fall apart. First of all, this ridiculously long war that drags out way too long. There are too many minor battles and flashbacks that don’t anything to the main plot. And the war doesn’t even feel like a war. It more like a bunch of skirmishes that are loosely tied together. And basically only one major character died in this huge war that lasted like 200 chapters. The villains for this arc are Obito, Madara, and Kagura. Obito is a lame villain and his motive basically boiled to him destroying the world because he got friendzoned. Mardara is a fun villain even though he is obviously one dimensional, he has enough camp to keep you entertained. Kagura is, though, a boring villain. He powers are pretty boring and lame. Teleporting portal holes in a universe where almost everyone can teleport? Really? Other dimensions? When did Naruto become Dr.Who? The conclusion is forced and pretty unnecessary if you think about it. Pretty bad arc. Score:2
Overall, story gets a 3.


Characters:

This manga has 2 main character. One of them is Naruto. He’s mostly your stereotypical shonen protagonist who “wants to be the best” and when he faces enemies, he throws out cheesy friendship speeches. At first I like him for his character motivation. He suppose to be an outcast and tries to gain acceptance from his peers, a motive anyone can relate to. But then halfway through, his character motive changed from being hokage to saving Sasuke, which makes less sense the more I think about how Naruto only knew him for a few weeks. And then he becomes the bloody messiah which is total BS. In the end, he degrade into another “chosen one” stereotype.

Sasuke is the other main character. He’s mostly a duck head, emo brute who like want to get to get revenge on his evil big brother and killing people…. a lot of people. At first it was ok since he had reasons for being dick he was since he did experience a mass genocide of his own clan by his own brother. But after a while it get quite tiresome and his character get stagnate after a while. And he is still being a bruting emo even after the war end and all the bad guys are dead. Sasuke, lay off all the revenge crap already and get a life.

The rest of the cast is a rather mixed bag. Some characters are really cool and interesting like Orochimaru, Jiraiya and Shikamaru. Others have almost complete rehashes of other characters like Sai and Obito. And others seems to have been victimised by the Piccolo effect and become mostly background characters (approximately half the secondary characters like .For the most part is mostly your standard shonen cast.

Artwork:

The artwork in Naruto is good to say the least. Its doesn’t have the attention to detail like Berserk, were every single detail can be seen, but its still good for a battle shonen. There is a lot of emphasis on making it look cool and unique, from the villages to the handsigns. The battles are nice and tactful since they implied basic tactics, well, for the most part. The problem mostly comes in the latter part in the series where try to make it look “flashy”. It degrade the battles into who could shoot the larger lazerbeam or bigger explosion.

Conclusion
Naruto is a shounen battle series that sometimes break the mold, but sadly falls apart like most other series. Its not a bad shonen by any extent, but it sure not a great one like many people claim.

Scores:
Story:3 ( starts out great but falls apart and become a total trainwreck)
Characters:5 ( mostly your typical shonen cast)
Art: 7( good but nothing impressive)
Enjoyment: 5 ( starts out loving it, but my interest diminished over time)
Score: 4/10
Recommendations:

FMA, Soul Eater, HxH, Rurouni Kenshin, Yu Yu Hakusho