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Sengoku Basara is an action-historical anime based on the action game "Sengoku Basara". The story revolves around Warring States period in ancient Japan, with warlords and generals fighting for power and territory. For those who prefer to watch an action-dedicated anime which doesn't have any fillers, Sengoku Basara might be suited to your preferences.



Story: 610.
The entire story focuses on dominance and territorial war. The plot is very simple and straightforward. All episodes are filled with ground-breaking battles with generals as the main center of the battle.

The second season (Sengoku Basara 2) offers more depth in story aspects than the first one, but there are still ... some common flaws to both. An example of this would be the running gags, which are a bit too repetitive (and lost its quality in the process) when used too often in the series. The battles are also a bit too influenced by the presence of the strong generals (a.k.a the playable characters in the game version of this anime). Because of that reason alone, common soldiers seems to only serves as a decorative aspect of war (sometimes they could only watch their general fighting the enemy general when the enemy soldiers are there, right besides them). In the end, if a general alone could annihilate hundreds of people in one attack, who needs soldiers?

Still though, the soldiers proves to be a decent addition; at least it is very cool for the main characters to be able to wreck an entire army formation alone, with typhoon attacks or with earth-shattering slashes.
The entire battle concept reminds us of games such as Dynasty Warriors and, of course, Sengoku Basara. Watching the anime even felt like watching the game itself.




Art: 9/10.
The characters are very well-drawn and detailed even to the armors and weapons. Background is simply superb, including the buildings and natural structures. The entire series looks vibrant and rich in color.

The battle scenes are also drawn well, and expressions are very vivid. The characters are easily distinguished with their respective army theme colors.




Sound: 7/10.
The character voices are really suited to the characters' personalities. Although some voices sounds a bit exaggerated to the point of annoyance, some others are very natural and well-voiced.

The background music isn't very memorable. The only one noticeable would be the orchestral music used for cool situations. The OP and ED songs are decent though, it is very suited for a historical shounen-anime such as this one.



Character: 8/10.
There are so many characters in this anime and it is a bit necessary to memorize some important names to understand what's going on in the dialogues.

There are only little character development in this anime, but with so many types of personalities and characters in the series, it could be easily tolerated. The anime tends to emphasize currently available characteristics, rather than applying character developments (which is pointless if the character himself aren't very remarkable to begin with).

Regarding the quality of character interactions in this anime, the main focus to the characters' quality would be their attachment to their respective leaders. Throughout the series there are very few cases of romance. Most of the intimate interactions in the anime are those between a ruler and his personal adviser/general. As for the main characters, the two shares a strong bond of rivalry from the start of the series.



Enjoyment: 7/10.
The main enjoyment to this series are watching the action itself. The battles are very cool to watch, and interaction between characters are variable and interesting. The end of every episode always sparks a sense of curiosity on how the war turned out in the end.




Overall: 7/10. ( Good )

+ Ground-breaking actions
+ Beautiful graphic and character designs
+ Many weapon and skill variations to look forward to

-/+ Exaggerated human power
-/+ Very few female characters compared to the quantity of male characters
-/+ Simple storyline, no need to think too much

- Too many names and terms to remember even in the beginning
- Might confuse people who's not familiar with Japanese history
- Soldiers as only an addition to the war, not the main factor.

Fate/Stay Night has always been one of my favorite anime series up to date simply because of its unique storyline and good usage of myths and action elements. However, for those who haven't watch the original Fate/Stay Night series, I don't recommend Fate/Stay Night TV Reproduction.

From my point of view, Fate/Stay Night TV Reproduction was meant to be only a brief nostalgia material to millions of Fate/Stay Night fans out there. The whole 24 episodes worth of a story compacted into only a pair of 1 hour episodes? Of course it seems like a forced attempt on a series re-animation to make money.

The truth ... is, there was so many scene deletions in this reproduction that the storyline itself lost its charm and plot development. Sometimes, the scene loops far away out of the blue, leaving us in a state of confusion on what happened a moment before. For a moment the setting takes place in a house, but after a few seconds everything changed into the end of a supposed-to-be-good fight with another powerful servant. These kinds of loops really wasn't a pleasant experience, even to fans.

Putting the plot aside, the animation has improved so much than before (of course), and the musics are as good as ever. The characters suffered from lack of development (probably because of the loops), but they're still amazing and fun to watch. At least for me, it was very nostalgic to see those characters in action, although within a whole different kind of animation and angles.

In short, Fate/Stay Night TV reproduction could be a relieve for those who missed to re-watch the original series, but didn't have the time to. But really, this one is not suitable for those who never watch the original one. Too much details missing.

In the beginning, Angel Beats was only a time-filler for me when waiting for download process of another popular series (for some reasons, Angel Beats has smaller file size than the other anime I supposed to watch, therefore it is much faster to download). But as I watch every episode of Angel Beats, I found something beyond my expectations for this anime.

Angel Beats managed to impress me with its own sense of comfort.

Firstly, somehow the whole concept of the anime seems like an RPG (Role Playing Game). It is set in a purgatory afterlife world, which resembles a boarding school. Except for our main characters, ... the students are described as NPC (Non-Playable Characters) which looks like normal students, but in reality they're just AIs (Artificial Intelligence) set to make the entire school looks normal from the outside. In the world, anyone can't die and will recover from any mortal wounds. Anyone could make any item with dirt as long as they remember the form from their past lives. Besides the concept, the music and interface also feels like RPG. It really puts our mind into the world of fantasy, while still maintaining its reality aspects through its characters.

For some reasons, I can't really describe the storyline here. First, as you watch the first episode you will come to understand the whole concept easily. Second, the concept itself would be the main highlight to the entire series. If I describe the storyline now, I would either be forced to lie to the readers or spoil the "truth" behind the world.

About the plot, in the beginning it was very playful and can't be taken very seriously (with jokes here and there). The beginning of the series is only a mere introductory though, with the later episodes becoming more and more rich in plot and intensity.
The last 4 episodes were especially inspirational. In the beginning I thought that episode 7 reveals most of the secrets, but then the series revealed more and more secrets to the point of unexpected turns of events. I was also surprised to the fact that the story and plot got so much deeper than it was in the beginning. It changed my total concept of Angel Beats. This anime is not as shallow as I thought it to be, instead the events are truly unpredictable. It concludes to one hell of an amazing ending which unfolds the final mystery of the anime.

From character aspects, In the beginning you will be confused with that many supporting characters. Some reviews mentioned the lack of originality of its characters, but from my point of view nowadays its very, very hard to create a totally original (but normal) character, unless he/she is designed to be very weird, eccentric or totally nuts (TK, one of the characters is very, very original because of those reasons. Take an example from characters of One Piece too, they're very original because they have their own weirdness and abnormalities).

Although I agree that some type of characters in Angel Beats lacks originality, that aspect is what made me feels like knowing them even before they had much dialogue in the series. Despite that, some characters managed to be original, not because of their personalities or looks, but from their story on their own past lives. As the series goes on, some of the characters will tell stories about their life before they died (which is usually very tragic or sad).

Well, in my opinion, the series should have been longer. With current ideas and many characters available, it should be no problem to make Angel Beats into a 20 or even 26-episode anime.

If I had to point out the minus side of this anime, I would criticize the length and development. It is kind of waste to see the concept (uncommon kind of purgatory and rules of it) developed only into a 13 episode anime. Supporting characters also lack personalities development compared to the main characters. The disappearance of characters lacks elegant animation, and the closing (final scene of ending) is a little bit too focused on main characters to the point that we as viewers yearns for more explanation on what happens to the whole SSS crews after the ending and how are they doing.

About Sound, there are many songs from the school band featured in the anime named "Girls Dead Monster", but I still enjoy the opening and ending songs (the opening song remix in episode 4 was especially epic). The animation quality is also very, very dynamic and enjoyable (not too soft, but still bright and beautiful). We could see that the animation staff didn't slack off at all. Those who always skip the opening song wouldn't notice, but as the story progresses (with the appearance of new characters and disappearance of the old ones) the opening and ending song animations would change according to the current casts available.

Watch Angel Beats. It is especially ideal for avid RPG gamers who also likes to watch anime with some romance qualities in it, but doesn't mean that it is not suitable to the others. For me, it was such a pleasant anime experience. Try it.

After reading some positive reviews on the internet, I decided to watch Kimi ni Todoke, thinking that the storyline may be similar to Nadeshiko Shichi Henge, which is very fun and entertaining. However, after watching the first episode I was disappointed by the fact that Kimi ni Todoke holds totally different story than Nadeshiko Shichi Henge. For a moment I thought that it was way too girly for me to watch (of course, it's a shoujo but some shoujo really does attract male audience these days), and the animation looks a bit uncommon (not the characters ,but the colorful painted background which seems surreal at ... first).

So, despite the fact that I am not suited for this anime, I continued to the 2nd and 3rd episode anyway out of curiosity on what this anime had to offer.

And before I realized it, I couldn't bring myself to stop watching this anime...!
Kimi ni Todoke really changed my view on shoujo romance.

The heroine, Kuronuma Sawako is the most kind-hearted, soft-mannered heroine you'll ever see in the entire anime universe. Not because she is stunningly beautiful, not because she is wealthy, not because she is very popular in school either. The fact is, she is an ordinary high school girl who lives in a very normal environment.
What makes her special is her personality. She is the type that would never wish for someone else's misery. Being a hard-working student, family-loving daughter, and caring friend, none of us would dislike her. Her true happiness is to be useful to her friends and family. Even her motto is "Do a good deed everyday". Despite that, she is not a typical weak kind of girl you usually see in another shoujo anime. At times she can stand for herself without depending on anyone. And she will never, ever tell a lie even if it's to save her own skin. She will cheer her friends at times of need, and will cry for someone else's sadness.

On the other hand, our male main character is Kazehaya Shouta, the most popular guy in school. He is very lively and willing to talk to anyone, though deep inside he is quite soft, shy, and hard to understand. From the outside, he may looks very cheerful and happy, but even himself has his own weaknesses and flaws which is very normal for a human to have.

There is no one in this anime which is too perfect or too evil by all means. They're all normal humans, each with their own flaws and emotions, which is interesting because it often allows us to reflect ourselves in them.

For the story, contrary to what most people say about this anime, It is NOT a typical shoujo romance story about popular guy who falls for the unpopular heroine at first sight. Yes, those elements do appear inside this anime, but in totally different pace. Unlike other fairy-tale like stories, Kimi ni Todoke is not in a rush. It seems rather slow, but it isn't. When you start to think that an episode seems too slow (some people states that the winter episodes seems rather mellow, just like what a winter should be), try to review what has happened in that episode. You will realize that there's already much information flowing through your head without you realizing it.

Yes, Kimi ni Todoke isn't as typical and slow as they say.
Its seems as it is saying to us, "Love is not a rush. Just take it slow and enjoy the bitter-sweet moments of love".