Back to Rootz's Profile Rootz's Profile

This is the type of show for those who want to watch history crossovers ("what if King Arthur fought William Wallace?" sort of thing). I am one of those, or was.
I got to say, Drifters was one of the moderatly anticipated shows of this season. But it could only go so far to prove those expectations true.

--Plot--
The background plot is a clichéed "person from our world in someone else's one". The difference being, all those guys are famous bigwigs over here, all of them got their name in history, and they come from different historical times. So it could be a Western-samurai-WWII with lasers genre ... (okay, without lasers, for the time being). It is pretty chaotic by itself, and lots of fun, but could be more well developed. But, as it seems they are going to produce a new season, there is still hope. 6

--Art--
It sucks. I can only imagine that they did this on purpose to be this bad. But purposely or not, it still sucks. Looks like some 5 year-old's drawing (okay, good enough for a fiver). The battles get a bit better, but not that much to save this from a 5.

--Sound--
The OP and ED were captivating, I found myself singing the OP when I was unaware of it. The characters had amazing voice actors, which were emotional when they needed to (which means, almost all the time). Honorable mention to a new language created. It is a shame that the art could not hold a candle to these actors. 8

--Characters--
They are emotional. Very. Most of the time this show is a screaming hell of people trying to be understood by the loudest-is-best rule. That aside, I found myself really liking the characters, be it good or bad guys. They express emotions, are a tad bit crazy and love to pick a fight. Whatelse could we expect from a crazy show? 8

--Enjoymeny--
This could be a much better show, if not for the shallow plot (which can get better) and the crappy animation (which won't get better). I found myself expecting the show every week, hoping for it to start. Seeing the art got me a bit sad but, even so, this is yet a good show. 7

--Overall--
It gets a new season. As my expectations for the show were a bit high, and failed, this review may get a little biased towards my initial opinion of the show. But it is a good anime for all that matters. If you can deny the animation, this will be lots of fun. If you, like me, cannot, it is still fun.

Whenever I watch fantasy genre based in our common world, I wonder if the ones that make it will tip the scales to fantasy, giving us a more upredictable plot, or if they'll merge fantasy to our setting so that it flows as something commonplace.

Izetta did the first, and did it pretty badly as all viewers knew how it was going to end from the 5th episode, at least.
--Story--
The story is as follows: look into WW2 in wikipedia, change the country names and their form of government, insert magic into it. Done deal! The last part, that could be the game-changing...change, simply took a subpar ... role for our cute girls to tell the story.
--Art--
The art could get two ratings: the battles should get an 8, as they are really well drawn (or CG'ed, sometimes), but not outstanding. The static scenes, where characters simply stand and talk, should be a 4. Sometimes their dialogues was done with their mouths shut, which is an accomplishment by itself, but not yet acceptable in our current animations. Everything else but these two are pretty fair, thus the 6.
--Sound--
The anime sounds are good. We are talking about full-scale war with magic. Swords swinging around, explosions, cries and shouts, machiney working, tanks, boats, fighters, everything is well done. It felt to me that the timing between animation and sound was a bit unstable, but I don't know who to blame. A memorable commendation for VA Hayami Saori, who did a really good job as Finé. Her speeches were really well done.
--Characters--
It is nice to see Izetta and Finé relationship throughout the show. They really grow as characters, and their friendship is really beautiful. Everyone else is simply weird, their motivations are unclear, and they lack development over the show. Besides, we see in this anime another horrid example of "victor's story": I simply don't know why they make Germanians ruthless monsters that eats children (well...they didin't eat them this time), while the Allied Forces are Hope and Peace saviors. I'll live through the day when normal people will stand at both sides of the war.
--Enjoyment--
Sometimes I wondered why I kept watching this show. I had to make a big effort to go forward and look for the next episode. Maybe because I love fantasy, but I can't recommend this to anyone but those I dislike.
--Overall--
Bad fantasy. Clichéed story, unbalanced art, bad character development and alas, clichéed characters everywhere. But the protagonists were fine and the sound was enjoyable. I would say stay away from it, especially if you like the fantasy genre.

Everyone wanted to be an astronaut someday, that must be the reason they are so praised in our hero-lacking world.

In SB we don't have the super powered hero, a beautiful damsel in distress or whatever stereotype we may find in all shows we have nowadays. We have people, complete pessimists, total optimists, worrywart ones and let-it-go ones as well. Each one sometimes strong, sometimes weak. That's what makes SB really appealing as an slice-of-life, its characters.

STORY: Someone famous in our world history said once: "I have a dream". Someday, whether we were kids or gramps, we all could answer this quote with "Yeah, me too, ... I wanna be an astronaut!!!". When a kid, Nanba Mutta wanted to be one, but society had other plans for him and, watching his dream gets farther away while his little brother, Hibito, gets closer to be the first Japanese to step in the moon. His own brother helps Mutta get closer to his dream, and with lots of sweat and tears, Mutta gets accepted into NASA.

Anyone reading this must be thinking "ok, another shounen-like anime". You might be right, but as I said, this is not your stereotypical anime, this is one of a kind. What makes this unique is the fidelity it shows...the real life. Mutta is skilled, but skill don't get you anywhere if you are not putting your all into it. He's a pessimist, and almost always look into what he done with bad eyes, while always looking to other ones as "people more apt than me". But he doesn't give up, he keeps trying to get closer to his ideal, the moon (or Mars, as he said in the beginning). If there is any bad thing I can say to the story is that it is slow paced, but all long-term animes are like this. I don't know if the anime follows the manga, for the story sometimes really stops, gives the "filler looks" into it. But most of it is well told, and it couldn't finish in a better spot for a sequel, that I'm looking forward to.

ART: Not that much can be said about art, except that a well drawn anime episode cost tons of money, a 24 eps series cost TONS of money. 99 eps? The only thing I can say is that it was well done when it should be, but lacked when it could, flawless in its own flawed way, beautiful huh? But I can give some good points for the opening and ending sequences, mostly all of them were quite well drawn.

SOUND: The openings were awesome, I had some doubts about the show when I first looked into it, but that "Feel so mooooon" cast all doubts aside. That was the first time I cried watching an Op (remember that I have a dream stuff? It got me in that spot). If the first Op was awesome, the others that came after weren't any way worse, they did a great job keeping the "I wanna go to the moon" feels, and the ending sequences also gave the vibe of what this anime would be. Not a show for space zealots with lots of space stuff, but for real people fans that like real people stuff (nothing against space zealots, please keep your asteroids in your belts).

SB must be quite hard for a seiyuu, 99 eps for starters, and all characters had
quite the screen time. If it couldn't get harder, SB had humor, drama, sadness, happiness, anger and everything else. Anyone can scream stuff like a shounen anime, but a sad whisper, that "I'm really happy for you" that makes you think that he's really happy, or that well done laugh, are for the greatest seiyuus. Honorable mention to Hiroaki Hinata, Mutta's seiyuu. I can't remember a show where the MC had so many humor fluctuation.

CHARACTER: I never, EVER, rooted for someone as much as I did for Mutta, and for the other characters in a lesser extent. I cried lots because of him (damn you Hiroaki this is embarrassing!) and for other characters, sometimes.

But at the same time there were times that I really felt that some characters flashbacks were only for filling the 24 minutes, sometimes quite useless, and I had the feeling that half of the episode was stupid flashbacks that got in the way more than it helped. Again, I don't know if the anime followed the manga, if they really had to fill in stuff as to let the manga get farther in the story, or even if those flashbacks were in the manga (I doubt it) as usually as in the anime. I get the feeling that SB could be made into a 40 or 50 eps show.

ENJOYMENT: Hell yeah I did, this show got me hooked up for 2 years (though I really wanted to quit 2 times in the middle of it, for the aforementioned reasons), but it is not the kind of anime that makes you crazy for a rewatch (well, there are 99 eps after all), since it have its good and bad parts in the seasons. Good and bad parts apart, it was quite a nice rollercoaster.

OVERALL: 8/10, took some points out of the art and the slow paced story, the rest is great as it is! You should definitely watch it!!! I hope you like this review.

"KyoAni can make an anime end either as a masterpiece or a complete failure"

I can't remember where I heard this, but I can't explain my feelings for KnK better than this short phrase. A "dark fantasy" led by the director Ishidate Taichi and animated by one of the best companies, at least animation-wise. But they tend to make mistakes in the end, and they did, or not... I'll try to explain.

The ending was amazing, if KnK had been a 2-cour serie, or a movie. Somehow, they tried to wrap things like there is no tomorrow (well, there is no tomorrow), and failed, specially with the ... inter-characters development. Mirai loves Akkey and vice-versa, but it completely lacks the drama that good animes have like: If you're going to keep your feelings to yourself until the bitter end, then finish with a bang!!!. Sometimes the story simply lost itself, if the arcs had been made as separate OVA's, it would not change anything, since that they didn't need each other to keep the story moving (except the first and the last one, I mean, characters have to be introduced somehow). But even if there was no link between the arcs, it was quite fun to watch, the characters were fun, the animation was really well done, the songs were amazing (another "thumbs up" for Kyoani - they sure know how to insert songs in the middle of the show -). I enjoyed a lot, but I was expecting a lot more, given the staff that made it.
Finally, I had great fun watching it, and I hope for a 2nd season, since the plot had so many holes in it.

Let's cut the chase, and go to what really matters:

Story: one of the most curious plot I've seen in my anime watching life. A rock headed realist with the power to select the new ruler of Hell. A meatheaded demon and his companions/rivals wanting to be selected as the new ruler of Hell. A Victorian England set. Angels in the middle of it. Wait...what? That was my first good impression, the setting was good, the time was good (personal opinion, I love the Ol' England times) and, well, I didn't got disappointed. The plot was amazing, even though sometimes it was quite slow-paced (again, personal ... opinion, I could live without some "filler-esque" episodes). The episodes were hilarious, or dramatic, but even so they didn't fled the main theme of it, the Hellking must be chosen, and a certain human needs to do it. Amazing, but I can't give full points because I hate slow paced animes, and this was a case of it.

Art: sometimes the show budget is godlike, and the art sucks, sometimes the budget is low, veeery low, and the art is crazily good. This time, I can say, the budget is low, and the art sucks. Repeated scenes! At this time and day! Nothing leaves such a bad impression as the art, and it was terrible. The opening and ending art were good, maybe that's what lifted up the rating, because I was willing to give it a 4. Nothing more to say, watch it and take your own conclusions.

Sound: I already told my opinion about the OP and ED arts, let's talk about music. The songs were great. For me, the anime sound is quite hard to give it an opinion, since I'm not someone that keeps listening to the insert songs. But the sound is something that can raise a good anime to a higher class, and that is what I think that happened here. The art sucks, ok, I said it, but the sound was very good, well done and it fit the "classic Victorian theme" of the anime and the dramatic scenes got awesome insert songs. Good, good.

Character: that is were the show gets it done. An anime that is not comedy per se, but something in the middle of drama, action and comedy made me laugh it out loud a lot of times. The devils x realist relationship was awesomely well done, and the secondary characters were captivating. Specially the big guys of Hell. The plot was unique, and the protagonists and their counterparts were unique as well. Nothing could get any better (though I really wanted to see God, what a pity), and for that, 10 for you William and Dantalion.

Enjoyment: I don't know what to say here except that I liked it, the plot was unique, the setting was unique (have I told you guys that I love the Victorian theme?), the art was the bad part, but the characters compensate this loss with their awesomeness. Good, that is what I say.

Overall, I recommend it, with one advice. If you, like me, takes art into A LOT of consideration while picking a show, please, give it a try, it is a good show and it was quite the surprise of the season for me. But be warned, the art sucks. Hope you all like it. See you.

Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic had all of the right stuff to be great...
...But it wasn't (yet!).
It might be right to say that the first season of the anime was more like a prologue than a real anime. Lots of information to relay and little story to tell.

Story: the story get some bad points at the most important part of the plot, the climax. It was not well done, with lots of information dragging through 3-4 episodes (those last 2 arcs were really disappointing to me, that had high expectations for this show).

Art: What can I say about the art...the budget didn't help? I mean, ... when they wanted to, it was an epic animation, the drawings were perfect and the art flow was very well made. But this "perfect" animation in some episodes had its bill payed with the killing of other episodes, that were kind of...sloppy.

Sound: I can say that the sound is the most personal opinion I have here. When talking about sound, we think about the OP and ED, but this time what got me was the background music. I always liked this Arabian Nights music and it is simply beautiful to hear it. Love it (but the OP and ED got some points off it, truly bad).

Character: I think that here is where Magi shines. Alladin, Alibaba and Morgiana had one of the best character development of the year (and I can't wait what will happen on the next season). Adding it with Ugo, the princes and princesses all around...Everyone had the spotlight at themselves at some point.

Enjoyment: Well, I enjoyed. Even with the animation and pace issues, I admit that I expected every single chapter anxiously, and that is only found in good animes

Overall: If Magi had been a 1-cour show, it would be rushed, with 2-cour it was slow paced. I can say that, even though my rating was quite poor, I'm going to watch the 2nd season for sure (praying that they get some better budget for animation, so it can be even better).

If I had to be fair to the greatness of this serie, I had to drop the rate of all the animes I've rated until now by 2 points or more.

First, this is not an action show, though it have tons of beatifully done action sequences. This is the story of a man who believed in his ideals and fought for them, but no just him. This is the story of 7 Servants (counting the 1st season) and their troubled, weird, incredible masters, in a way that you can't really choose a villain or a good guy, but you choose the way of thinking that ... better suits your own.

The story is amazing, well done, beautiful. If I have to choose a word to describe it it would be...Type-Moon-ish. Lots of drama, psychological issues and depressive as well as funny moments. The story is well paced and gets you sitting in the edge of the chair, waiting for the next episode.
The art, probably the best part of the show. Imagine a show that, when the quality drops, it comes from "godly awesome" to "oh my god, this film is sooo good". Not too much to say for people like us, that like to watch animes, but a word for the directors: WATCH THIS to learn how to make a good animation!
The sound is mine personal opinion. It's amazing, and has Kalafina! I love this group and almost anything they do, so I'm kind of biased to talk about sound.
The character of the show is well done, so much to like and dislike (based on your mind alone, I've choose my villain and hero, what about you?), they made a protagonist along the 2nd half of the show, but there still some people that think that this one or that one are better, just the individual opinion, that's what make this show so good.

Enjoyment? Silly question my friend, by the rates I think you can tell if I liked it. This show is in the top 3 of 11 out of 10 people. This is probably the best show I've ever seen in my life.
Sorry for the long post, but I had to make this review and try to show all my passion fot it. I hope I did.