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Jun 28, 2014
I found this anime highly enjoyable, and looked forward to it every week. However, while it was still in early airing, (2 or 3 weeks), I decided to check out Broccoli's other anime - Uta no Prince Sama - to pass the time while I was waiting for more Kami episodes. Unfortunately, seeing as they are both produced by Broccoli, and I watched them at the same time, I find it impossible not to compare the two of them. And while I feel UtaPri has struck a winning formula and became one of my favourites, Kamigami has not.
I still liked Kamigami. I found it amusing
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and endearing. But it didn't have me giggling and squealing in the way that you want a reverse harem to.
STORY - 6
There's a certain factor about reverse harems - you can't have them feel forced. If the plot feels like all that's happened is that a massive amount of guys have been herded into a situation where they have to be around the girl all the time, things just become awkward. The very first episode of Kamigami has a paused still of every love interest with masses of sparkles and flowers all around them. It's as blatant as blatant can be that these are the characters we - the fangirls - are intended to project our affections onto. And the story is one girl being forced to teach these characters the meaning of human love - or else Earth and every other world will be destroyed. I don't know about you, but I like to see my characters fall in love naturally, gradually - it feels more fulfilling that way. But in Kamigami, it happens almost instantaneously. No shipping, no eager will-they-won't-they feeling. Just. Bam. Pretty much from episode 1. And the ending sequence just makes me feel so awkward, too. All the characters lying half naked on beds. If that isn't a blatant attempt to make the fangirls drool, nothing is.
ART - 8
The character design is certainly very good. Broccoli has a way with that. The other studios trying to create reverse harems should take a page out of their book when doing character design. It really is a vital factor in these types of shows :P The costumes and magic transformations are pretty cool too.
SOUND - 9
Good old elements garden! They shall never fail us! They wrote scores of amazing, catchy songs for UtaPri, and they take the OP, ED and character songs of Kamigami in their stride. I love hearing voice actors sing, and they are all very good at it.
CHARACTER - 7
I'm the nerdy kind of girl that has actually chosen to study classical mythology and Ancient Greek in school. And so I couldn't help but cringe a couple times at the butchered backstory lore of the characters. Especially Apollon and Cassandra. Kusanagi was strong as a lead, and that's a bonus - but despite all of Broccoli's attempts, I didn't find myself a waifu from the cast. Balder was too batshit crazy, Loki looked like Grell Sutcliff, and although I liked Hades and Apollon, I just couldn't get excited about them.
ENJOYMENT - 8
This anime is a very fun one to watch. It made me laugh frequently, and it had fanservice aplenty. I always love seeing magical spells and battles, and this had quite a lot of that. There were lots of little gags and light hearted humour, and I was never bored with it. Always looked forward to it every week.
OVERALL - 7
A fun little reverse harem that is well worth your time to watch, but if you've seen Utapri, you might well end up being a little disappointed. Don't expect anything serious, and just have fun, because Kamigami is lots and lots of fun!
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jun 21, 2014
A series of short clips featuring the enigmatic Wooser. Good for a few laughs, and a nice way to kill time. No plot, just many eccentric situations tossed together. Worth watching as a way to kill time. Plus it's pretty hilarious to hear Mamoru saying all the ridiculous, perverted Wooser stuff
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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May 3, 2014
Believe it or not, I didn't start watching this show because of the reverse harem aspect - although that is something I have no objections to ;). The reason I started watching this is because I've always been fascinated by the music industry in Japan - especially by the concept of whole schools made for mass-producing boybands for teenage girls like myself to drool over. Being a successful musician only partially involves being good at singing - there's dancing, character, style, almost a new personality you have to adopt to be an idol of the public.
Anyway, so yes I watched this because I was interested
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in the manufacturing process behind jpop bands, but I'll get on to reviewing the damn thing now. Before I say anything else though, I will say that if you're a straight guy, you should really turn tail and run because you will gain absolutely nothing from watching Utapri.
Story - 7
Although I really liked the setting, there was quite a lot of angsting to be done. I could tell that it didn't have an amazing or overly intellectual plot while I was watching it. I know for a fact that it won't win any prizes for screenwriting. But, for once, I found that I didn't actually care that much. It was so much fun to watch, the somewhat underdeveloped story didn't matter at all.
Art - 8
Lots of flowery, sparkly, shiny, starry shoujo goodness. Need more be said? If you wanna make a reverse harem, you wanna make sure that those guys are damn fine looking. There's nothing worse than a harem filled with ugly creatures! Utapri has most certainly ticked that box.
Sound - 10
Here's where I start to really, really, really like Utapri... I'm listening to the soundtrack now, and I will be for a long, long time. It is perhaps - no, certainly - the catchiest damn anime soundtrack ever. It's an anime ALL ABOUT MAKING CATCHY SONGS. And catchy songs it has. Better than some actual jpop groups. Every guy gets their own song, and they're all pretty talented. If you don't believe me, just look up the main Maji Love 1000% song.
Character - 9
Usually the failing of harems is to drop down into stereotypes. Although there are some hints of those in the characters, they are only vague, and all the characters get about an episode or so of development (which is a lot for something only 13 eps long). Haruka is quite emotive, but not in a way that makes her annoying - emotive in a way that makes the audience feel sympathy and emote right along with her.
Furthermore, the guys are all *cough* very attractive. With *cough* attractive qualities. I like all of them so much that I don't want to see Haruka reject them! They have some quite unique personalities that you wouldn't see in another harem. Schizophrenia is a quality I never expected to see in a romane interest like that.
But even though all the guys get some good character development, Tokiya is the clear stand-out. Much of the plot revolves around his past and struggles. I would bet good money that Haruka will choose him eventually. (And I don't blame her just look at him honestly)
Enjoyment - 9
It's difficult for a harem that takes itself seriously not to feel awkward and forced. (I'm looking at you, Kanigami no Asobi). But Utapri does this very successfully. There's so much fun to be had watching it, from drooling, to singing along with the songs, to laughing at the hijinks, to shouting at the screen 'GODDAMN ICHINOSE JUST KISS HER ALREADY'. Really I just loved every second I spent watching it.
Overall - 9
Uta no Prince Sama is an absolute blast to watch. There's a kind of enjoyment that only a harem can create. So far on my list, Utapri is second only in its genre to Ouran.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Apr 12, 2014
This truly was a series of ups and downs, and I'm very conflicted about how to give it a proper review.
It suffered so badly from lack of substance in terms of plot. It had so much potential to be a 9 or even a 10, but due the lack of meaning/threat behind every battle, I ended up not feeling any suspense or desire to know what happened next. I loved the themes, and the characters, and the ideas, but I don't believe they were executed well in different scenarios.
STORY - 5
There was pretty much no interlinking story throughout all these episodes. Well, there was a
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shred of it that loosely put events together. But there were so many themes they introduced and didn't follow through on that could have made the story SO MUCH BETTER. They could have had a full out battle with the Vatican, they could have actually followed through on Seras' desire/resistance to become a Nosferatu and join Alucard, they could have gone into Alucard's creation and backstory (they hinted he was the original Dracula in the final episode, but nothing more was revealed). They could have done so much, but instead they decided to waste their time having average fights with enemies that got about 5 minutes of screen time.
I think my favourite episode was episode 10, where we get to see Integra's past. That one episode had more plot in it than the rest of the series put together.
ART - 6
It was okay. I mean, it was from 2001 and a low budget production, so I can forgive it. I mean, I enjoy pretty graphics and all, but unless it's SnK, I don't really think that art affects my enjoyment of an anime all that much. The art in Hellsing does have a particular gritty feel to it that works well with the overall theme of the anime.
SOUND - 10
Good God, now this is where the review starts to get positive.
The musical score is absolutely phenomenal. I've never really heard anything in that style, and I loved it. The mixture of rock and honkey-tonk piano was just so effective in creating an atmosphere of suspense that the art and story just weren't able to carry out. Usually I don't so much as notice the music in my anime, but here it was outstanding enough for me to go and download the OST right now.
CHARACTER - 9
The three lead characters were amazing, antiheroic badasses. I especially loved Sir Integra - it's not often that a woman gets portrayed in such an unflattering, stern way in anime. As I said before, hearing about how she came to be head of the Hellsing Organisation was the highlight of the show for me.
Seras had a very deep personal conflict to deal with, as well as progressive development throughout the show. Alucard is probably anime's slickest, grittiest, most violent smooth talking psycho and you really can't help but love him.
ENJOYMENT - 7
It was all because of these three characters. The bad guys had absolutely no development behind them and they were all very one dimensional, straight evil, and stupid. Most of all, stupid. There really wasn't any worthy adversary for Alucard. That's why the fights weren't that cool - because you never thought there was any chance Alucard could be defeated.
OVERALL - 7
I'd heard great things about Hellsing, but I think they were probably referring to Hellsing Ultimate. I figure this series is just about worth your time to watch. Just about. There are some very cool moments in it that will grasp your attention, but first you'll have to wade through the waves of squeaky voiced annoying bad guys who are just cringeworthy to watch.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Apr 11, 2014
I'm more than just a mass effect fan. I'm a massive mass effect fan! I've probably played the trilogy through about 6 times by now. Time well spent.
I saw this quite a while ago, but I will do my best to give my impressions.
When this was going to come out, I was very excited about it! I get excited about any mass effect related news. I remember seeing all the synopses on the wiki, and the trailers, and getting quite hyped. After all, in Mass Effect 3, when we suddenly see Vega on the Normandy, we think 'who the hell is he'? And I'm glad
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this movie came along to answer our questions - even though his backstory was explained in an okay way during the game.
That said, he's probably the last ME character I'd choose to make a movie about. If this was a move 100% about Garrus or Wrex, I would probably have been so biased I'd give it 10/10 on everything.
Story - 8
Okay, onto the review of the actual movie. I think that anyone who is not a mass effect fan would have difficulty understanding all the story and the significance of the collector threat. But Bioware is known for being particularly talented with narrative, and I think that they did do well to vary the kinds of action that went on, as well as not making it feel too dumb with fights for the sake of fights. What really got me was the choice Vega has to make at the end. It's why Bioware called the movie "Paragon Lost," because what he does is most certainly a renegade move. I like a bit of grey morality in my movies, and this is something that Bioware can sometimes do very effectively, such as in the end of the movie. I always play as a Renegade, and I'm glad to see Bioware turning renegade themselves.
Art - 6
Having seen a lot of anime, I can't exactly say the art is brilliant. It's not bad. But seeing the 3D Vega translated into 2D was somewhat offputting. The explosions are average. The character design isn't particularly attractive, nor is it ugly. I mean, it would be wrong if they turned Vega into a bishonen, so I'm not complaining.
Sound 8
The music isn't anything memorable, especially compared to the glorious ME3 and ME2 scores which will always remain on my ipod. But the voice acting, on the other hand, is very good. I don't really like watching anime in English, but the VA's did a really good job. This is probably because Bioware called in Funimation, who, in my opinion, do the best dubbing of any studio. Plus they got Vic Mignoga to be in it, which automatically makes me think higher of it. Think I recognised J Michael Tatum, too. They managed to make english language anime actually sound somewhat cool.
Character 8
Bioware is good at characters when they really put their mind to it, but I think that in the space of 1hr30 they don't have the time or resources to flesh out any new characters so much. If it were a Bioware game, I would give it 10/10 on character. This perhaps suffered from having too many characters, such as there wasn't time to make them all good. A lot of the squad played on stereotypes and didn't really break from them. The Krogan acted like any Krogan ever.
Enjoyment 7
Without having references to collectors, Krogan, Asari and Turians, I would probably see this like any generic sci fi anime. Without having played the games, I wouldn't be able to pick out anything particularly unique about it. There's nothing that leaves you on the edge of your seat. Nothing groundbreaking. I would say that you would only possibly enjoy this if you've played the games. I think it would be quite a waste of time to watch it without having the interest from the games.
Overall 7 - I'd call this decent. It is an additional part of the mass effect world, and therefore it is worth watching any day. But it could have been a hell of a lot better if Bioware had decided to go out of their comfort zone and introduce some new themes, rather than just following the backstory Vega explains to us on the Normandy to the letter. It is by no means essential. If you'd rather go and watch the 5 minute scene from ME3 that Vega has explaining all this to Shepard, you will get exactly the same information than if you watch the entire movie.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Apr 8, 2014
Warning: long, affectionate rant ahead about my favourite series. And when I say rant, I really mean rant.
This is the series that got me addicted to anime. Previously, my otaku friend had been persuading me to watch all the ones she liked, Bleach, Naruto, Fairy Tail and none of them really clicked for me. Within seconds of starting up Magi, however, I was absolutely in love with it.
I'm someone who is a massive, uber fantasy nerd. Game of Thrones is only the beginning, I probably have 100s of fantasy books on my shelves. My favourite kind of fantasy books are the ones with masses of
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wizards and epic quests and heroes and epic sword fights. That sounds pretty shallow, but it's true.
There are two types of fantasy books: High fantasy and low fantasy. Low fantasy is usually the kind that links back to the modern world. The kind of fantasy where the protagonist goes to school in the day and fights monsters at night. But high fantasy is set in a world with completely different kingdoms, entire civilizations invented by the author. The kind of setting that can have one wizard destroy an entire invading army, dragons guarding piles of treasure, and brutal wars between seven different kingdoms at once.
Magi is a high fantasy, which is a rare trait in anime indeed. (This is basically the psychology behind why I started liking it so much relative to other anime and now I sort of realise that most likely no one cares but I'll get onto better content soon).
Basically this show is some epic fantasy stuff. The protagonists don't go to school, they go to war. If you even remotely like Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones (or any other book in that genre ever), magi is the right show to watch. There are a few other high fantasy anime (berserk, claymore) but I think magi has the best setting and characters.
*ahem* So now onto the actual reasons it's amazing as an anime.
THE BATTLES.
Usually in an anime when the main characters are totally OP (the main Magi, Aladdin is basically God when it comes to magic), things start to get boring fight after fight. But in Magi, everyone is completely OP. They've all got such badass djinn equips and flashy abilities. What happens when one Magi, with the ability to destroy the entire world, fights another Magi, with the same potential? Massive destruction and sandstorms the size of countries, that's what. I guarantee you'll be squealing in awe when you finally see Sinbad's full djin equip XD
THE CHARACTERS.
Usually when I'm watching a show, I end up resenting one or more of the main characters. This is often something to do with shipping and my OTPs. This is not the case with Magi. There's not a single annoying character. The bad guys all have purpose and are very slick and cool (looking at you Judal). Aladdin is just a total lad, Morgiana the toughest (and cutest) girl you'll ever see, and Alibaba is the happy-go-lucky adorable little pervert you've gotta love. Magi spends a lot of time on developing its characters, but it never distracts you from the action.
THE WORLD.
Who loves grey morality? I do! And there's a lot of it in Magi. You're left not knowing who or what to support. Magnostadt vs. Leam in season 2 just gets ridiculous! The world in Magi can be a very harsh place when it wants to be - it's not just a typical bright eyed save the world shonen.
THE HUMOR.
God, is Magi funny. I value humor very highly in my enjoyment of a series. You'll be cracking up in every spare moment. It can get more hilarious than some straight out comedies which makes watching it just that much more fun. Serious anime can be good, but comedies are great.
All in all, Magi is one hell of an adventure. It's a shonen with a bloody training arc and many of the stereotypes. But out of the 40 or so anime I've watched, it's still my favourite. I hope it goes on for a mother-load of series and becomes a massive hit.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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