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- BirthdayMay 18, 1990
- LocationBrazil
- JoinedJun 25, 2008
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Sep 18, 2008
Sekirei has a very obvious harem premise, so caution is required by those who usually dislike this type of anime: 108 creatures, mostly female, spread all over town are to be either willingly or unwillingly "winged" by human masters through the exchange of bodily fluids, most commonly through a kiss, and engage in a battle royale to decide which pair will win and "ascend together unto heaven".
Story:
The plot is linear and simple, a few mysteries are contained as to the identities and motivations of some characters, as well as the true nature of the Sekirei Plan. An interesting aspect of it is the high degree
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of faithfulness to the manga it's derived from, to the point of the viewer, by the end of the series, be able to pick up the subsequent manga volume and read it without major issues.
Art:
The art doesn't manage to impress, but the quality is very consistent throughout, and it's very hard to perceive poorly made moments due to low budget. The battle animations and choreography are, however, better than one would expect from a series of this scope, and it also gives fans who come in from the manga interesting details on each Sekirei's powers.
Sound:
The intro and outro songs fit the mood of the content, the background music is good but not outstanding. On the other hand, voice acting is a very catching aspect of it, with a couple higher profile actresses(namely Marina Inoue and Paku Romi, both usually typecast for bold female and young male roles). Since most of the comedy comes from the interaction of the main cast with itself, thiswas a central part of the production which was not overlooked.
Character:
As a typical harem series, most of the humor is derived from the eccentric and fixed personalities of the main characters, and most of the character development focuses on the protagonist, and is quite a small amount. Most of the Sekirei only change their reactions significantly shortly after and during the process of being winged, and remain unchanged after that.
Overall:
Sekirei is a good series, with a sufficiently fast pace that will keep most people hooked. It's leaving a lot of fans with hopes for future seasons, even though I personally find the possibility to be unlikely. It offers a small twist to the harem genre having the combat aspects and multiple masters with small harems of their own, and has been likened to Pokemon by many. In the end, a fitting work for it's short run of 12 episodes.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jul 20, 2008
*Review completely rewritten at series' completion (10/4/2008)*
'Allison & Lillia', based off the light novel series 'Allison' and 'Lillia & Treize', introduce a new characteristic in it's plot, presenting four main characters on consecutive generations within a same family, cleanly separated by a time skip exactly at the mid of it's duration (halfway through the 13th episode of the 26).
Story
Other than the time skip, the story is divided into various isolated small arcs with almost no relation to each other, the only persisting part of the plot is the developing love relationship between the main characters, developing which mostly consists of said characters gathering the necessary
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strength to confess their love and finally fulfill their romance.
Art
The art beautifully portrays the technological setting of the show(around 1930, in-between world wars). The european architecture and flora, the clothing used by the characters, along with the suave painting style and colors used, contribute to successfully give the viewer the cold and warm sensations of the environment the characters are in. The animations however have some flaws, and the the actions of characters in crucial moments are very badly planned, and many inconsistencies can be observed without difficulty.
Sound
The theme songs fit the mood of the rest of the show perfectly, with a calming and flowing opening filled with wind instruments, that is coupled with shots of the characters in cold or aerial environments mostly blue in color, and a heartwarming ending with a "memory" motif, with string instruments played over reddish or sepia backgrounds. The background music is specially good during action shots, adding to the feeling of adventure of the scene, and is also very good at the more calm moments of the show.
Characters
The main characters are the focus of the entire show, since they are the only permanent part of it. Their personalities, however, change very little throughout the episodes themselves, with a big change to the characters of the first half during the time skip. Their actions are motivated mostly by their strong sense of justice and selflessness, specially on the male cast, in a very cliched romantic-hero fashion, which leads them to be somewhat shallow and predictable. As such, some of the supporting cast's and villains' backgrond story and motivations are more interesting than those of the main characters.
In the end, this was a refreshing series, one that I would personally recommend to anyone searching for a calm and social story. I still stand against attempts of marathoning through it all at once though, since most people would be finding their appreciation of the anime hindered by slow pacing and uneventfulless of single episodes.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jul 7, 2008
Dennou Coil is an anime that portrays the overlapping of a virtual world and reality, but focuses mostly on children and how their lives and relationships are affected by it.
Story: 10
The series present a very intriguing plot, with secrets being revealed little-by-little, without blatant verbal explanations by the characters like those sometimes found in other sci-fi anime. Each episode starts with the main character mentioning some sort of rumor or urban-legend related to that specific episode, bringing up more how mysterious the actual functioning of the virtual world is, and how important are those rumors spread among children themselves in order to solve those mysteries.
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The plot darkens and speeds up around the second half of the anime, but the first half is nowhere near boring or overly "happy".
Art:9
The virtual realm has a very interesting design. Mixing with the real world in the background, artifacts such as old version incompatibilities, dennou terminals and encodes seem realistic and functional.
Sound:7
The intro and outro songs fit well with the overall theme and pace of the anime, the background music is good and has a varied selection, but doesn't manage to impress.
Voice acting is solid and has a couple big names in the cast, the actors portray their characters beautifully, but the dialogues themselves don't offer much of a challenge in order for them to stand out very much.
Character:9
The main characters have very interesting back stories, personalities and goals. Those are often revealed slowly throughout the series along with the plot, and it is fun to watch how they juggle school, family, friends and other duties along with the investigations for the mysteries involving the glasses industry and the virtual world.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jun 26, 2008
*Review completely rewritten as of 11/06/08*
Real Drive is a sci-fi series that deals with the impacts of the dependence on the Internet(the Meta Real Network, in the setting) on society, other than focusing on the effects on single individuals.
Set in 2061, it seems to expect a slower evolution of human technology then we see on other similar works. The story mostly occurs on an artificial island that is itself built as the pinnacle of the present technology, but most of it's design and features are not something one would be surprised to find on an high-tech experimental facility today.
The plot starts very slowly, with single
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episodes depicting the life of the protagonists on the island and interesting events that occur to them mostly on their jobs, as all are somehow connected to a role of maintaining and developing the island. As the series progresses, comparisons between the Metal and the ocean become more numerous and relevant, and the story starts revolving around the environmental impacts of the island as it reaches it's final stage of completion, and on the development of the main characters, as well as a small focus on the philosophy of human-like AIs.
The art is simply astounding, the feeling of connection with nature, specially the sea, is a primary concern, which translates into simple designs for buildings and virtual interfaces (as opposed to heavy designs cluttered with pseudo-scientific artifacts as is common in sci-fi), and an amazingly consistent color palette. For example, it's quite rare to find a frame without a single blue hued pixel in it. Another notable part of the art is the "chubby" character design, specially for females, very uncommon in anime, it is most likely linked to the author's view on the future of the ideal female body, as a consequence of the current fattening tendency of the human populace.
The background music is rare, and in most scenes it's present it's hardly noticeable, which, however, fits the mood of the show. The intro and outro songs, on the other hand, are very aggressive and enticing, specially when coupled with their respective video clips. The voice acting is very good, with special merit to the gynoid character Holon and lookalikes, which contributes the most to the believability of the technological setting, along with the audio filter used for voice communications done within the Metal, that at the same time does not hinder the comprehension of the voices and is very easily identifiable by the spectator.
Finally, the characters are very well designed, each has it's own clearly defined goals which they are constantly developing towards, through either physical or mental training, self-prompted personality changes or even built up life experiences that give birth to epiphanies.
Overall, Real Drive is a refreshing take on the genre, approaching even present day situations with characters' struggles and themes such as environment protection. The slow start, however, hinders some of it's true potential and blows away some viewers, myself included, but the show shines at full force towards it's climaxing end, and, while not really present plot-wise, all previews episodes are part of the build up that leads to it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jun 26, 2008
My first review or this site, and here on I plan to write reviews mostly to series that I feel are being unjustifiably bashed in previous reviews by other members.
Mnemosyne has been noticeably losing viewers as the numerous fanservice dedicated scenes become more evident, but since fanservice has become a staple in recent anime mostly due to commercial reasons, it is pointless to dislike a series based heavily on the amount and harshness of those.
One of the strongest points of the series is the interesting portrayal of immortal beings and the evolution of society and technology throughout the multiple decade time-skips between each episode, the
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aging of mortal characters and their long but passing relationship with the main characters. Compared to most other anime that do have long-living characters in their host, Mnemosyne presents a much more realistic and accurate view on the aspect, arguably comparable to that of the western classical RPG Vampire: The Masquerade.
The antagonists, while not presenting many, if any, noticeable original characteristics not seen in other works, manage to stay mysterious to the end, with very little of their motives, personalities and goals being apparent to the viewer, as well as their natures and origins, resulting in interesting but often small revelations occurring in every episode, successfully enticing the mind of the public.
The protagonists, as immortals, largely resist changes in personality and habits, and, as previously mentioned, maintain interesting relationships with the supporting cast, aware that those are fragile just as the lives of innumerous beings they have watched fade away throughout the ages, but also not treating them as disposable or of low value. Both are shown as having a substantial amount of knowledge, and as preserving the memories of those who were important to them. The main character's fighting ability is not as great as one would expect, but is overally consistent, without noticeable bursts of martial geniousness or inexplicable failures on sure-win situations.
In the end, Mnemosyne can be viewed as a like-it-or-hate-it series, as it's merits are notable, it also requires a lot from the viewer to be appreciated, specially on the western side of the globe, due to it's heavy graphics and plot. It might also become a vanguard work, opening more space for future similar anime to bloom.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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