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Sep 20, 2015
Shimoneta is Summer 2015's most prominent ecchi comedy series and has finally concluded its first season. It is very difficult to write an objective review of something as subjective as an ecchi comedy but in the case of Shimoneta it has an advantage that others do not; It has absolutely no plot.
Let's begin; It's a sex-comedy show established as being about a group of Naughty Terrorists that want to spread sex education in a world that suppresses all sexuality similar to what feminism wants to do in the real world but I digress. A totalitarian government exists and does not let people draw or say
...
things that could be construed as lewd, because of this, people are wildly ignorant about sex and that's where SOX comes in.
The show is episodic (somewhat) and is about missions undertaken by the members of SOX, it sounds a lot more exciting than it actually is... it is , in reality, a basic framework and backdrop for the real meat and potatoes which is, telling as many dirty jokes as possible. In this reviewer's humble opinion, they don't work, they're forced and are unfunny.
The two main characters are Kajou Akame (Female lead) and Tanukichi Okuma (Male lead), both are serviceable , if a bit boring... but their actions do have a lot of energy and when they interact it can lead to funny situations. That being said, the situations are often hit-or-miss, mostly miss. But what I can tell you about a comedy anime other than, I didn't find it funny? well, the leads are average at best and most of the supporting cast is weak but.... it has two characters in it which absolutely stole the show.
That is, Anna Nikishinomiya and Fuwa Hyouka.
Telling you about these characters would be a disservice to them , partially spoiling their charm, but let me tell you that the creators of this show knew that the leads were a bit dull and threw in these two to fill in the quota of comedy, it works, at least for me.
Honestly this is the worst review I have written. There is no story, there is no character development, there is very little in the form of artwork other than the basics so I can't critique it as I would a normal show. All I can tell you is, I would have rated this *VERY* low if not for those two members of the supporting cast I mentioned. They are unique, they are new, they are interesting, the things they do are so mind-jarringly strange that it is truly a treat when they show up.
If you are looking for sex, this show has none, no actual sex ever takes place.
If you are looking for fast-paced, sexually suggestive comedy, this will have it.
If you are looking for an intricate plot and character development, this does NOT have it.
If you are looking for a diverse, unique, interesting cast of characters, this does NOT have it.
If you want to see a woman trick a man into eating cookies made with her love juice, this is the show for you.
I enjoyed it, it only just barely.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Sep 17, 2015
Akame Ga Kill is an anime that both revels in it's flaws and attempts to overlook them. It is a nearly perfect definition of "Adequate" and you could not find a better candidate to fill the title. I will give a quick spoiler free review before getting into any of the details;
Akame Ga Kill is a dark fantasy anime which delves into political intrigue, corruption, grey morality scale and attrition of forces through interminable conflict. Basically, it's quite gritty for the chipper art style it boasts, making for a discordant juxtaposition... it works quite well to highlight the injustice and oppression that is played out
...
for the viewer.
The story is about an armed branch of a rebel group called "Night Raid" that engages in assassination, subterfuge and political dissent against a totalitarian and extremely corrupt government. It disrobes its story effectively and pulls no punches when it comes to showing the brutality of the conflict, showing both sides having terrible losses, ending with a fairly satisfactory climax but an atrocious coda. The music is very appealing for the scenarios and the plot moves at blazing speed (Almost too quick to follow at times) but it is intended to move quick, to show how violence sweeps everything with it.
If you like dark fantasy, action and don't care too much about plot holes, you will enjoy this.
It is both deep and light , appealing to both sides of the spectrum.
Now let's get into spoilers;
ART:
Although the manga it is based on is far more brutal than the anime, the anime still doesn't hold back, showing people that have been tortured, mutilated and actively killed in a variety of ways. The detail is stunning and visceral, but a lot of the times, the art is quite bland... but I suspect this is intentional to give the viewer a shock when the violence is shown in all of its glory.
Some of the architecture is also very impressive, when you see the detail and design of medieval hallways, castles and homing areas, you get a real sense of a flow, development and vibrancy in the world. Again, the art is skimped on very often, but when it works it really works.
CHARACTER and PLOT:
This is the bread and butter of the show (obviously), the plot moves extremely fast as our main character 'Tatsumi' is semi-forcefully recruited into Night Raid after encountering them within the first episode. Let it be clear that this show contains ZERO plot armor. Conflicts are established very early as being bloody (Read: Characters are killed)... and they do not forget about this. Characters can be slain at a moments notice and no one is safe.
This makes the plot have a certain urgency to it, alongside the feeling that the main characters could truly lose. This is a very good thing as it makes us wonder how each conflict will turn out, especially when the antagonists are shown to be very competent and powerful (Ex: Esdeath is depicted as being insurmountably powerful), but this is where the problem comes in, there are a lot of plot holes that make characters act completely out of character and throw away a lot of the good-will established in the series.
In one scenario you might have a character, for absolutely no reason, decide to take on the entire Night Raid forces by himself, isolated from the rest of his forces... another scenario has a character making an established suicidal act and then surviving for no better reason than "The plot says this character will not die". It makes no sense and these plot holes mount up into one very irritating pile towards the end.
The political intrigue and governmental corruption is not dealt with, the anime unfortunately outpaced the manga and instead they had to make due with what they had, meaning we have a rushed ending where things are solved out of nowhere. It is especially jarring when you realize that they abandoned the official story and started their own as multiple key-scenes are directly contradicting of each other (Ex: Najenda meeting Esdeath during an assassination meeting (This should result in the murder of Najenda) and then in the next episode they act as if it never happened). Another plot hole is a character has a "Trump card" that will be fatal upon third use... this character uses it three times and does not die. I know it sounds like a minor nitpick but it is not, they establish rules and then directly violate these rules, it makes for a frustrating watch.
As a quick aside;
Most of the characters are well developed with very well defined personalities, except for one.
The titular "Akame" character was very poorly developed and a complete quality vaccuum.
Where you have extremely vibrant and interesting characters like Esdeath and Chelsea, Akame just comes off as a complete Mary-Sue with no real defining characteristics, motivations or desires. This was a major drawback as we're expected to root for Akame but she simply does not meet us half-way by being an interesting character.
Her fighting style is boring.
Her design is boring.
Her dialogue is boring.
Her backstory is boring.
The show would have been better off without her, but that is minor in the grand scheme of things.
ENJOYMENT:
All of that being said, it is a very enjoyable show, precisely because it eschews the plot armor that is so common in these types of series. Again, characters can and will die in these scenarios. No character is safe. This makes each fight feel tense and exciting. Add to this the sections with intense gore, high action and character development and you have a strong combination of elements.
OVERALL:
It is not a good anime. It has huge amount of plot holes and a tendency to abandon major sub-plots due to outpacing the source material.... however, it has enough action, variety, gore and intrigue to keep it interesting for the full episode series.
Add a point if you have a high tolerance for plot holes, character inconsistency and rushed endings.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Sep 3, 2015
Corpse Party: Tortured Souls is an anime/ova series that I had stumbled unto almost through sheer 'luck' so I went in with absolutely zero idea of what I was about to watch... and judging from some of the other reviews, this was a bad thing. Let me explain with story;
STORY AND CHARACTER:
The setup is that a group of high school characters and a couple of extras, are accidentally teleported into a pocket dimension. That's as far as I can go without giving spoilers. The progression of the plot is very haphazard and scattershot. There is essentially no plot here, it is just sequences going one
...
after another with no rhyme or reason. The decisions characters make, are completely irrelevant because none of these characters are established and thus, we have no expectations from them aside from what little we can surmise.
No. The story is just a backdrop for the events that take place. There is no story, there are no characters. No one is setup or established to subvert or match our expectations.
ART:
This is where the anime shines. The entire point of this series is to show off it's extremely brutal, gruesome and inflinching art. Characters will literally be ripped apart in plain view; characters that would otherwise be "Immune" or "Protected" are tortured to death in graphic detail. It truly has no pity or forgiveness. The detail upon which certain characters are just massacred is almost breathtaking. From torn flesh, to blood, to entrails being spewed, to a characters face being ripped apart from the inside, it's all lovingly rendered for the viewer to ingest.
I found it both repulsive and fascinating. This is the draw of the series, this is the one thing it has going for it; from a fairly psychological and intriguing first episode, it completely goes off the rails in the 2 - 4 episodes where the writers cannot wait to find a new messed up way to dismember or otherwise disembowel the characters in their show.
This series is not for the faint of heart or the squeamish, I can safely say I have never seen a more gruesome gorefest than this... and I've seen a lot of gory media.
ENJOYMENT:
I found enjoyment in the first episode from the despair of the characters trapped in an isolated area, it is wildly different in tone and execution as episodes 2 through 4. So the first episode had that going for it... the rest had unflinching, brutal gore to an extreme degree. This is what I enjoyed.
OVERALL:
Since it's a short series, I can very confidently state that I recommend this to absolutely everyone that is even remotely interested in horror, gore and violence. It is short enough that even if you don't like it, it will be over very quickly and you will have treated yourself to one of the most extreme helpings of the genre.
To summarize;
If you like deep and complex stories, this is not for you.
If you like well developed and interesting characters, this is not for you.
If you are weak or frail of mind, this is not for you.
If you like gore, absolutely watch this.
If you like horror, absolutely watch this, you cannot miss this.
That is all.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Aug 27, 2015
This is an anime that has made a lot of waves and, I'm not going to lie, I had avoided it like the plague but I am glad that I finally picked it up.
STORY:
There is very little to say here, the core premise of the story is the relationship between the main character and his sister (The Titular "Imouto"). Their gradual transition from pretty much hating each other to , still hating each other but in a cute way is the entirety of the story. The characters, setting and even the activities are just a vehicle for the Brother/Sister interactions.
That is all
...
there is to the story, however this is not an anime that relies on story for engagement and I will elaborate in the next point.
CHARACTERS:
This is where both, the best part of the series and the worst part of the series comes into play. I am going to make a strange comparison but please bare with me I am going somewhere with this;
There is an anime called Mirai Nikki (Future Diary) and it is one of the most clichéd, stock-character, stock-plot, stock-action anime I have ever seen. It rips off from other media wholesale (Ex: A survival tournament held by an inscrutable entity, engaged by slightly superpowered characters face off to the death until there can be only one , in order to get a prize... sound familiar? it's highlander, though lots of media rips off highlander (COUGH Rozen Maiden COUGH)) and the action is very plodding, many of the action scenes are perfunctory at best (Ex: Wolf "fight" is a prime example of a lame action scene with almost zero suspense involved).
Almost all of the cast is completely forgettable given how terribly underdeveloped they are, they have poor interactions at the best of times and what little they have consistents of simple anime stereotypes (Hey, here's the jock character saying something Jock-esque, here's the Tsundere character saying something Tsundere ish, here is the older badass businessman pulling strings, etc.). The main character is unforgivably stupid and poorly written (Goes from a complete pansy to gunning down people in almost no time flat). But, the plot and almost all of the lacklusters characters were bolstered greatly by a single uniting thread; Gasai Yuno.
Gasai Yuno is the original 'Queen of Yandere' , her presence, her actions and her backstory (Mystery) form the only unique and engaging thread in the entire anime. She singlehandedly makes this anime go from pure trash to , pure trash thats entertaining. But is a single character enough to make it a good anime? in my opinion, no.
And this is where the parallel begins;
In Oreimo; The main character Kyousuke is actually pretty well written (For the most part), the supporting cast is extremely well written as well, with surprisingly complex motivations and development... especially for this genre, making them both deep and endearing (In my opinion). The setting is mundane but belies the reality of societal pressures and isolation of Japan, again, in my opinion it does this very well, showing the difficulty that the Japanese have when it comes to relating to each other.
If I had to grade only the main character and the supporting cast (Goth loli, crazy otaku girl, insecure model type, hilariously inappropriate grandparents, etc.) I would not hesitate to give this a 9 or maybe even a 10, but it has the REVERSE problem that Mirai Nikki had. One single character drags down the entire show... Kirino, the Imouto, is one of the worst characters, I have ever seen in any media. She absolutely anchors any scene she's in with her ultra tsun-tsun behavior and just completely intolerable, unjustified hostility.
Her character is nearly a black hole of entertainment. Where a little bit (Or even a lot) of tsun tsun (Cold, aggressive, hostile behavior) for a tsundere character is acceptable, this character goes so far beyond tsun tsun that she's just completely unreasonable and for me, draws away from the rest of the excellent cast. She is not tsundere, she's just a psychotic teenage girl with a major princess complex.
She becomes violent very quickly and unjustifiably so.
She treats her friends and family like trash
She acts very entitled to everyone's attention and even worship.
The worst part about this is, she gradually infects the other characters to tolerate and even worship her abuse. This is not endearing, this is not charming, this is disappointing because she actively sucks the "good" out of the rest of the cast.
But as I said, everything else, literally everything else worked wonderfully, in my opinion. One of my favorite episodes was an episode where the main character stays away from the Kirino Imouto and it was the best written, funniest and balanced episode, with touches of romance, slap-stick and situational comedy. It worked really well which is tremendously disappointing because it showed what could have been.
I know that I did not talk about the Art or the Sound, but that is because the female lead Kirino completely eclipses almost every other aspect of the show. Again, it is the reverse effect of Gasai Yuno; Gasai Yuno carried Mirai Nikki from bad to mediocre. Kousaka Kirino anchors Oreimo down from excellent to average at best. I can honestly say, I have never wanted to love an anime more than this one, but the cancer that is Kirino made it impossible for me to enjoy it on any level beyond "I can tolerate this".
I find very little to recommend here;
If you like romance, this is not for you.
If you like ecchi, this is not for you, despite the subject matter (You'll know what I mean) there is actually very little real ecchi here. There are doses here and there but few and far between.
If you like comedy... what can I tell you, I found the supporting cast funny but Kirino scenes overshadow the fantastic supporting cast.
That is all.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Aug 22, 2015
I don't think it would be an exaggeration when I say Tokyo Ghoul is one of the more recently hyped anime series but I did not go in with any expectations, rather I went in with an open mind and zero knowledge of the story or characters. That being said, it probably would have been better if I had researched before watching and I will explain later.
STORY:
This starts off as a very well executed, extremely well paced story of transition, isolation and adaptation. It builds very well off of the character's plight and pathos, going from a well established life that include friendships and goals
...
into an unknown life where the future seems vague and uncertain for our protagonist and even the supporting characters.
Up until that point, which is only the first few episodes, I was honestly ready to give this a 9 or even a 10, the direction is excellent, the pacing is perfect and even the characters are well defined through actions more than through dialogue. This is very high quality stuff, but it seems that as soon as the setup is complete, the writers did not know what to do with the story because it collapses in on itself very quickly and we get a rehash of pretty much any modern vampire story. And make no mistake, this is a vampire story.
But I digress, the issue comes when after the first few episodes, the pacing completely falls flat, dragging for about half the series and then jumping into hyper drive in the last few episodes rather than gradually pacing the events as a good series would do. It culminates in one of the most anti climactic 'endings' I've seen for an anime series and I understand that there are more series after this one (Tokyo Ghoul root a follows I believe) but I am judging this one on its own merit rather than on the merit of the future episodes.
The story is incomplete, the characters begin as very relatable , understandable and even a bit mysterious but the series blows its load from being so excited that they become mockish cartoon cut-outs of what they started out as being.
As always, that is the best non-spoiler review I can give for the story.
ART:
The art was serviceable. I found some of the establishing shots and a couple of the fight sequences to be absolutely beautiful, but for the most part the color palette is very drab and unfocused. I understand that the point was to take us from a bright cheerful world into a darker, unfocused world, I get it, I really do.... but in doing and focusing so intensely on setting the mood, they completely forget to draw us in through the artwork the way they did in the beginning of the series.
Again it's as if they had a fantastic idea for a series but once they finished the setup, they had no idea what to do or how to do it.
CHARACTER:
As stated earlier, I found the characters to be interesting, unique, mysterious and well defined... at first. But then their actions completely defy all logic. Characters that are established as being untrustworthy or antagonists to the main cast are suddenly taking actions that contradict their previous development. It's just very poorly written and the characters have no consistency whatsoever after their initial setup. Again they are done very well at first and then after the story collapses, it just becomes a bunch of nonsense.
But worst of all;
There is absolutely no consistency with the internal logic of the character strength. One character can get stabbed a good 40 times through the series (You'll know what I mean when you see it) and they'll be fine... whereas other characters are cut once and they're down for the count. I would guess that it has to do with weak points such as a part of the body or head... or perhaps even a special weapon that works against the Ghouls, but this is never established at all. It just so happens that some characters can randomly take, nearly insurmountable levels of punishment, whereas other characters cannot.
There is absolutely no consistency. This completely made me lose interest in most of the characters because I realized that whether a character dies or not is entirely at the mercy of the writers; I know this is true for all series but at least other series establish some rules that the writers must follow, here they're just blatantly making it up as they go along. It's terribly written.
ENJOYMENT:
I adored the first few episodes and if I had to review just those, I would not hesitate to give it a 10, but as the story, characters and even the art got worse as the series went along, I can only tell you that if you are like me and expect a good story to stay good, you will be disappointed. Your enjoyment will melt away with each episode.
OVERALL:
It earns a lot of points in my book for the first episodes. After that it just isn't any good. I would not recommend this, nor will I watch the next series. It lost its nerve and threw away the magnificent levels of quality it set out to achieve.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Aug 19, 2015
"Is it wrong to try to pick up girls in a dungeon?" or Danmachi (For short) is a new anime that follows the trail of Sword Art Online and Log Horizon as a brand new series that takes on the "MMORPG anime" with a few unique twists. How unique? just barely at all actually.
STORY:
This anime does not have a real story. The plot hinges entirely on one thing; "I am the protagonist and I want to get stronger", that's it. It is absolutely the most clichéd thing you could possibly imagine. However, a cliché exists because of a trend, and a trend is formed because
...
it works. In this case we have a terribly mediocre story that serves as the backdrop for the events of the series which allow for character interactions (We'll get to that), world-building, action and comedy.
A simple meal well prepared can be very enjoyable, even if it is unimpressive. That is my best non-spoiler summary for the story.
ART:
Much has been made of the waves created by Goddess Hestia and her breast-ribbon, but I will not lie, I did not even notice it until I finished watching the series and read someone's review where they could not stop talking about it... I thought the art was serviceable , although I had a few SAO flashbacks, primarily in a couple of the supporting female characters. But these are minor qualms, the overall style and establishing shots of the city and deep levels of the dungeon are beautifully drawn with great detail and (occasionally) intense imagination.
However, as with the rest of the anime, it reaches far but only hits the mark a few times, though in my opinion these few times are enough to raise it above mediocrity. The worst one can say about the art is that it is not unique enough. It is however, memorable.
CHARACTER:
And here we reach the core of the series, there are two main characters in this anime; Goddess Hestia and Bell Cranel. They are both very stereotypical and clichéd characters to the absolute maximum. Bell Cranel is the typical shounen lead with massive sex appeal to the female characters, extreme drive to "Get stronger!" and an absolute pure heart, basically a straight arrow with no edge to him whatsoever. Goddess Hestia is the typical female lead that fawns over Bell but gets ignored.
Individually they are awful characters... but what really saves it is that they have fantastic chemistry. This is what we call an emergent property in that the result is something greater than the sum of its parts. Hestia and Bell are an adorable couple with a very believable friendship. In a world with goddesses, demons, monsters and magic, the chemistry between the two main leads grounds us in a very human element; The emotional support and mutual belief that these have for each other.
The friendly support characters include a Sword Princess (Ain Valley-naniga), a very small pseudo-furry girl and an ill-included late game addition, a blacksmith. Of these three main support characters, two are extremely poorly developed and one has a surprisingly decent arc. They do their job in that they fill the background of what is entirely Bell and Hestia's story. Nothing more nothing less.
OVERALL:
Here is where I will probably blow your mind ... but not really because you already saw the overall score. This is a great anime, it is very simple, very clichéd and predictable like you would not imagine. But as I said in the beginning, a simple meal, well prepared can be a very enjoyable experience.
The action, when it really kicks into high gear, is fantastic. The animation is fluid during the major fight sequences and the soundtrack works beautifully in conjunction with the fight choreography (Ex: The Minotaur fight). The chemistry between leads is believable and fun, the pace of the story is brisk, and the drama is kept firmly at bay throughout barring a couple of establishing scenes which are very brief.
Basically it is a light, enjoyable, short anime that knows exactly what it is. Like eating ice cream along with a couple of strawberries, it looks good, it tastes good, and although you know there is very little substance to it, you will still find it enjoyable. It is not a substitute for a full course meal but it was not trying to be. I highly recommend this, but let it be made clear that this is not a substantive anime, it is fluff, it is popcorn, it is light. That is all.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Aug 19, 2015
This anime is one that I went in with mixed expectations. I had heard it was like Sword Art Online, which I found to be 'okay' , I was not a rabid hater nor a blind fanboy... but there parts of it I really liked and others I really disliked. Now when I started Log Horizon I did so with an open mind, not expecting a retread of SAO but also expecting at least some level of similitude and that might be the biggest mistake I made.
(Some very minor spoilers ahead, nothing big I promise)
STORY:
Here is the big problem with this series. It is paced
...
atrociously and sets up many subplots that don't seem to add up but that is a minor qualm. The main issue is that although it takes place in a world with dangerous beasts and hostile humans, there is absolutely nothing at stake. It is established very early on that there is no risk of permanent death as characters will just respawn in another part of the world, add to this there is easy access to food and shelter. This effectively de-claws any threat that can possibly occur which I thought was an interesting direction to take the story.
However, immediately after establishing this, there are several story arcs wherein a character needs to be rescued from danger completely contradict the established lore of the world. There is no danger, there are no stakes, fights are irrelevant. Now I understand that that's the point, but you cannot take away all danger and then tell us a character is in danger. That destroys the premise of the story, especially when said character is running away in terror (You'll know what I'm talking about if you watch the series).
The best part of SAO, especially early, was the fact that everything was dangerous. There was a very oppressive atmosphere and each action had weight. Here is completely the opposite, nothing matters and because of this, I found it very difficult to become invested in the story when there is nothing to risk, nothing to gain.
Another major problem is that the characters are already high level, again this is established very, very early so I am not spoiling anything. One of the major draws to an MMORPG is seeing how a character changes and grows, removing this aspect is neutering a huge draw to the concept. They wrote a completely flat and dull premise.
Sound:
I found the sound serviceable. The performances of the seiyuus were adequate, although I found Akatsuki's voice somewhat annoying but that is purely subjective.
Character:
And here is another major problem. An anime can have a weak or even no story, as long as the characters are strong and have good interaction. In this anime the characters are very generic and bland, the main character is a Wizard equivalent to Kirito, that is to say, a character with unusually high intelligence, designed to appeal to a demographic of individuals that fancy themselves intellectuals. But the character himself is little more than wish fulfillment, which in and of itself is not a bad thing but it is done very poorly. This character is worshiped by those that surround him right from the beginning of the series and this only increases.
The comedy interactions are very forced and the dramatic scenes come off as more comedic. They simply could not find a balance for Shiroe's over 9000 intellect, Akatsuki's strange roleplaying and Nao's bumbling. These characters are unable to carry this anime.
Overall:
Earlier I mentioned I had mixed expectations, that is because I had a bad experience with SAO and hoped for something to wash the taste from my mouth. Watching this anime left me with an entirely different bad taste in my mouth. I honestly wanted to like it at the beginning, but it slowly removed everything I wanted to see in favor of everything I didn't.
If you are a fan of MMORPGs, this anime is not for you.
If you are a fan of action, this anime is not for you.
If you are a fan of high fantasy and adventure, this anime is not for you.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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