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Jan 29, 2021
Without a shadow of doubt, Turn A Gundam, despite some flaws in the story, is my favourite show among Gundam, possibly even among all anime I've seen.
What makes this show stand out significantly among Gundams is probably how light hearted this show is, even when compared to the later Reconquista in G. Instead of fighting continuously and keep on commenting how bad war is, this story is very light on the fighting aspect and doesn't comment so much on the horror of war, but the sides' opinion of the conflict.
Instead of a gloomy atmosphere, with Loran Cehack, an all around peaceful and gentle but
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capable MC as the lead, the story doesn't decent into the general despair or edginess Gundam usually ran with. The overall lightheartedness and the soft, colourful style used in Turn A Gundam, plus a plot with less edgy elements, makes Turn A a very relaxing and entertaining show to enjoy.
While Syd Mead's design in this show is often contended whenever if it's astounding or terrible (except the Turn X and Sumo which are, in all aspects, very well designed and nothing short of amazing), the unusual and wildly different style nevertheless meshes well with this show and meshes very well with the fairy-tale like theme it is going with, despite the highly futuristic style of Syd Mead.
Animation is overall smooth with very little to no failures or inconsistencies throughout the show, and the fights in between are very well drawn despite being so little in quantity.
As Turn A Gundam doesn't really contain too much elements nor background information from previous Gundam series, the show is a very good entry for people who've never watched Gundam before.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Apr 10, 2018
To be completely honest, I am not quite sure why people are praising this show all over the place. It basically shows the mentality of people being simple followers and follow whoever is the loudest in the bunch, to the point of actually arguing if EVA is real robot when things like Earth Defense Corp, being way more realistic than even some recent real robot shows, is still considered a super robot show.
Story: 4 - Decent at best
The start is your very average super robot show, with the robot fighting against dangerious, Armageddon-bringing monsters called as Angels, but with the element of the robot
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(the EVA) has a very tight time fuse and somehow can go berserk and be extremely dangerous. Nothing extremely problematic here. Angels appearing and their different appearances and strengths are interesting but still super robot nonetheless.
The later part of the show however quickly turned into a derailing train that is nothing short of being a complete mind rape. This mind rape isn't just for the characters but to even the audiences in the most appalling way at that time, and I seriously wonder if people are saying this show is a masterpiece solely because it gives out free mind rapes that other shows don't with a way-beyond necessarily morbid way, of what we'd refer as "Dark, (seemingly) Deep, Cruel" - Being under a heavy and dark tone, containing content that is seemingly deep (even if it is complete garbage), and cruel to both the characters and the audience.
This show is written on a chapter-on-chapter basis, ie. literally almost just before their air date one by one. While I'll give that the show still maintains a degree of consistency, the story development really isn't good, if at all.
Art: 10 - Outstanding
I'll give it this one, simply because even in current standards, EVA's design is both innovative and quite awesome looking, while the artwork itself in the show isn't bad at all due to the budget it once had. Yes, Rebuild has much better art style, but that is when digital ink and much better 3D, along with an even larger budget is a thing.
Sound: 7 - Good
Nothing too much to say here. The berserk music when EVA is going berserk, and A Cruel Angel's Thesis, as much as I disliked this show, will still linger around in my brain for a long while because of it's wackiness.
Character: 4 - Decent
Shinji is the protagonist, and unlike most kid pilots in other shows (except, Zeorymer?) he is much more whiny and an introvert which is quite new even in its age. And we all know Asuka Soryuu and Rei Ayanami being one of the more known figures in anime history, the former being a tsundere that gave birth to a lot of tsundere-ish characters afterwards, and the latter as the quiet and mysterious girl.
But that is pretty much what they are, really. In the following chapters, there isn't a lot of (at least, not positively) things that happened to anybody in the show, things are kept circling around, and they really never got off from it aside from pretty much literally losing their minds in the whole story development. Shinji is still whiny even after the end and nothing has changed for him nor himself, to the point that I am like "JUST SHUT THE HELL UP AND GO GET A GODDAMNED LIFE SHINJI". It's almost whenever Shinji (and Asuka, for that matter) has a moment to redeem themselves and save their poor souls, something MUST come over and kick over the sandcastle and everything is back to square one with no progress, if not just worse than it was before. Maybe this is what the writer had in mind - just screw everything over because of his depression, but I don't really see how "good" this show is just because it threw everybody in this whirlpool of doom.
Not that characters must have a happy ending with positive development, but there isn't any sort of growth or actual development - the so-called development by some hardcore fans, unless I am particularly numb, isn't very impressive, if at all.
Practically nothing has been achieved in the end of Evangelion to the point that I'd actually consider the original TV series' 25 and 26 a better conclusion than the End of Evangelion. But the original ending also is very off from the flow of the anime itself so I can't say it is a good ending either.
Enjoyment: 7 - Good
The fights in the anime are fair, as well as their fluidity and the approach they used to defeat angels, but really the last few episodes are not very enjoyable to me to say the least. Probably it's because of Anno's own psychological problem it's basically dropping bridges on the characters in the later runs that feels......excessive.
Overall: 5 - Mediocre
It's surely a watchable show for its age, but being a nationwide masterpiece is puzzling to me owning to its to-be-absolutely-frank horrendous storyboard. It isn't nearly as innovative as Gundam or Battleship Yamato, and is excessively dark to a point where it's not depressing, but absurdly confusing to watch.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Oct 18, 2017
Let me get this straight, Kemono Friends is painfully bad in quality, the storyboard is also painfully simple and predictable because of its "For children" nature.
Why does such a sloppily-made CGI anime it suddenly exploded in Japan, then?
1. Animal Girls (known as Friends).
First off, Japanese really loves turning all sorts of stuff into girls (Gijinka), as just loved watching them as much. Ranging from young, cute girls (such as the Sand Cat, Otter), to teen girls (such as the protagonist Serval, her Manga exclusive friend Caracal, the two foxes), and older, stronger figures (the Grey Wolf, Lion, Moose). Especially dog/cat girls, the Japanese absolutely loved
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this stuff.
This became a strong basis for Kemono friends to start with - I mean come on, some of us are perverts and are just here for the cute girls, aren't we?
Because of the nature of the show and the game it's based off, except most felines that wore a white tank-top with a bow tie on their neck, and a dress that matches their real-life patterns and fur colour (with Lion and the game-only Tiger being exceptions), the Friends featured usually wears school uniform-like "fur" - their understanding of clothes as they don't even know they are detachable instead of stuck onto their skin, that matches their colouring and their age, which just makes them even more beloved by the Japanese. This also prevented them from being extra revealing, unlike the meta where girls are super booby and sexy and/or wear something that can barely be called as clothes, unless they are conditioned so, such as the Otter who wore full-body swimsuits instead because she is accustomed to water. (Probably with the exception of Emperor Penguin, but she's a penguin, afterall......)
2. Serval, along with her friendship with Kaban-chan, and some other small details that REALLY suited Japanese's taste on the whole.
We all wanted a cute girl that is energetic, ever-trusting, sees everything you do as if it is something incredible, brainlessly dumb yet brave like a never-ending sunshine, don't we (at least for the Japs, again)? Partnering her with a shy, powerless but smart girl, and you get one hell of a moe combo.
Fun-fact: One of the reasons why Kemono Friends exploded is its cute OP. Not only it is voiced by a few good VAs and has a very good, lightheartly melody, it's about "Welcome to Japari Park anytime!","No need to pretend, feel free to be here!", which is EXACTLY why the Japanese are pretty insane - They always have to maintain polite even when they wanted to throw punches into someone's face, heavily staged-society where you need to be 100% obedient, pressuring lives, etc., and Kemono Friends' apocalyptic yet paradise-like world where problematic people are gone, while only animal girls that always welcomed your arrival is just what they needed in such a crapsack world of theirs.
Because of the very different culture between the East and the West, it is understandable why it is kinda crazy in Japan and sometimes China, it doesn't work very well in the West especially when the things of interest is very different.
3. Anti-meta storyboards that somehow worked, and the effort put into the story despite its very limited budget.
Sometimes, instead of killing everybody, with the remaining goes totally bonkers, the world threw into absolute chaos, all we need is just something we can truly love endearingly without screwing everyone's brain over with some over-the-top philosophy. (I'm looking at you Evangelion and all those chouuni animes out there)
We had enough stuff in our real life that we'd absolutely wanted to just go "screw everyone", and while we can't deny some of the more serious toned story such as Gundam are so well-written and awesome, we already had more than enough to bear in our lives and the least we wanted is someone you loved is slapped into a bloody mess (which is the reason why there is almost an outrage when something bad happened to Kaban-chan during late story), but wanted some cute girls doing some cute stuff instead.
Japanese' tough, cramped society life, in fact, helps more than enough in terms of this - Not everyone wanted to put a load of stress by seeing others die painfully, and some are already sick of the booby bounces and maid dresses other animes are providing. Because of the extremely bad CGI, the lack of obvious fan-servicing actually avoided this is a fabulous manner.
The story is painfully normal for a children's story, but you will find some small details that make people wonder quite a bit, which is the main reason why Kemono Friends suddenly exploded in popularity, as well as showing how much small-but-noticable details are put despite the poor budget the anime is given with. For people who don't know about its background, before Kemono Friends exploded in Japan, someone who watched the anime somehow analyzed the out-of-pace ED of the Anime, and found out that the seemingly random photos are in fact pictures of real-life abandoned theme parks. Given that this story is based on a place called Japari Park, people are like, what the absolute hell? Which caused it to gain massive popularity afterwards.
There are also numerous small details that many have created theories to try and explain everything, or just otherwise are unexpected and gives more flavor to the story. For example, Serval's famous pendulum swing which became a meme is in fact what a real-life serval cat does to compensate the lack of 3D vision, and much more.
4. It's somehow so addicting to watch.
http://images.sgcafe.net/2017/04/b40.jpg
<Above image sums what's now with my mind.
Really, once you get with it, this anime really gets into your head and you don't really know why. And no, I am not high on drugs.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Aug 26, 2017
This is one of those children Anime that, despite its "for children" tag, is actually pretty fascinating and can get surprisingly dark to some point of the story. Compared to the precentors, WARS clearly have its storyboard more well-written and is made more serious, and has a better grasp at its speed.
Story: 8 out of 10
Although the very usual school-life settings otherwise, the story is made such that apart from the daily schoolings, the students, which are professional LBX players or engineers, have to participate in a grand war where LBX are used instead of humans to conquer a "flag", which when successfully conquered, the
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area related will be given to the LBX's country from the flag's original owner. Should an LBX be knocked out (shown with the generic blue flash), the player is considered incapacitated but not dead,
however they will be considered as killed in action and will be kicked out from the school should the LBX be obliterated instead (outright exploding), hence the students must be aware of their condition and not get reckless.
Because it's a children Anime but the producers decided to make LBX more than just some dangerous toy, they successfully filled in the hole such that the LBX be used more seriously and their full power can be demonstrated safely, while creating a war-like atmosphere without having people actually dying and injured badly, AND making them more relatable to children.
Despite the childish nature of the Anime, the show does make the story settings plausible by describing the harshness of this virtual battle field, and how things will turn out should a player be KIA, as if it is a true war.
The storytelling doesn't feel rushed (except during the later chapters), things are logical and the cliffhangers are pretty well done, which is something lacked in the older Danball Senki series.
However things turned super serious when the main antagonists are introduced and showed their true intent - from this point on, the story feels nothing like a children Anime, but more like an adult Anime under the Inazuma 11 coat. Bodies appear, people WILL die, and children which are barely more than 12 is threatened and psychologically tortured. I mean, wow Level 5 what are you smoking? Not like this is bad (if it is even bad in the first place), but seriously? You introduced such hard crap into a children Anime where nobody saw it coming at all?
Art: 8 out of 10
Most people wondered that if the production group of Inazuma 11 has merged with Danball Senki, causing the massive changes in character art styles, due to their cartoon-ish hairstyles and faces. Arata is especially always joking referred as the protagonist from Inazuma 11 Go (which, interestingly, is introduced into the 3DS game as an additional character). This is probably the only downside of the anime as it is meant to be serious instead of being goofy and over-the-top like Inazuma.
The LBX designs are, however, very well-done, as they were designed with "actual war machines/soldiers" in mind, instead of being just for recreational use. such as the DC series (the GM equivalent) and the Russian soldiers (Gunthers, in technoabble). All LBX that have two eyes are given visible "eyes" in order to make them more intimidating and show they meant buisness.
Although arguably the successor of Dot Phasor, Dot Blastrizer and the big bad's LBX returned to the Super-Robot like state of Danball Senki W (even though they are nowhere nearly as broken as O-Legion - that thing literally ripped right through a navy fleet and suffered absolutely no damage from a ton of missiles), most of the cast maintained their status as a real-robot resembling machine, and all look as cool as hell.
The background is basically what you'd expect from a typical Japanese Anime that doesn't lack funding.
A large amount of the female cast has pretty large breasts, even students. I mean, they aren't even 15 years old, aren't they...?
Sound: 9 out of 10
The music blends in very well with the generally light-hearted school life, yet they also did work with the more serious, military-like atmosphere. Even during the later parts when the storyboard suddenly goes super dark the composers managed to get it real nice and in place.
The OPs made by Little Blue boX, Mugen Myself (My infinity) and Eternal, suits both atmospheres really well - during the light hearted stages of the story, the music is a happy, cheerful song describing the life in school, but when things get more serious, Eternal kicks in and sounds so tough and dank instead, signifying things from now on will no longer be simple and innocent as it originally seemed to be.
Characters: 6 out of 10
This is probably the weaker side of WARS. The characters are sorta cliche, but they still work well in a children's Anime.
Arata is a typical hot-headed leader who doesn't think before he does things or picks the (seemingly) less logical way to deal with trouble. However, he is actually smarter than he looked like, and later as he discovered a new ability hidden within himself, he faltered and is confused due to both the beneficial and harmful effects this ability can bring onto him, and yet he decided to tough it out in order to protect his team.
Hikaru and Haruki (these two's names are basically just a re-spell of their Romanji...) are both cooler and logical, with the former being afraid of being surpassed by the seemingly just-lucky Arata and suffered a PTSD midways, while the latter is the big daddy of the team and will fiercely protect his teammates in order not to lose them. Sadly, these characters are not described throughout enough, as most of the time is focused on Arata instead of their development, and Hikaru's development is pretty rushed.
Yuno, despite being the true female protagonist, suffered similar problems as the former two supporting cast, as she barely had any screen time, similar to Marina Ismail from Gundam 00 where she had nearly no importance in the story despite being the protagonist.
The bad guys, surprisingly are more well-described and sometimes can be outright terrifying, containing elements that shouldn't be in a kid's show.
Enjoyment: 10 out of 10
Who doesn't love a through-out war between robots and see how they bash against each other in a more realistic way (covering fire, melee battling), and see how the protagonists go NT-D and rip through a whole supposedly threateningly powerful fleet single-handily? Level 5 seemed to be more aware of the battling scenes and decided to make it more plausible and interesting to watch at, not only they received an animation bump, they also have better staging and screening.
Overall: 9 out of 10
Recommended? Yes
This show is one of the lost gems that sunk into the vast amount of Animes because of its "for children" tag. If you are a huge fan of robots, you'd gotta watch this, even though the art style might be too childish for you.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Aug 26, 2017
G Gundam is well known not solely because of being the only Super Robot series in the franchise, but because how ridiculous the story and designs (both bad and good ways) are.
While some bish-bashed the show for being not serious at all compared to the other ones, I would say that's pointless because this story is making a serious show out of a nonsensical story which is so overly serious that it is so godamned fun.
Story: 6 out of 10
Being a Super Robot Anime, you cannot expect some really serious-toned storyboard - It's basically some regular shonen stuff mixed with martial arts that are over-the-top
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ridiculous and inhuman to start with (say, how the hell do you do the Shoku Hao Denindan where you can spin your whole body and launch like a missile without your head spinning in the process?), you can turn super-saiyan and become golden in colour, a super robot fight to decide who can control the Earth and the colonies...... If you are that kind of people that can't stand bullcrap then it probably isn't a good idea to watch this, but if you simply don't care or doesn't mind then welp.
Art:
An American robot that wears a hockey mask, yields its American football shoulder pads and expels its protection chestplate to become a (visually) muscular boxer, and yields a handgun like a cowboy, A Holland Gundam that has a rotating fan on its chest and is basically like a windmill, and a German Robot that looks like a German military officer in WWI somehow performs ninjatsu, and a Sphnix that has a giant Gundam face in place of the human face as it rose. Right.
The characters in the show are just as stereotyped as the Gundams (except probably Schwartz Bruder which is a German ninja), so ridiculous to the point that it's clearly the general image of a certain nation's people, yet so funny that you can't stop giggling at its ridiculousness. Not necessarily a bad thing, as why so serious if the whole storyboard already decided to be not serious at all?
To increase the goofy and fun of the show, the colouring is the good ol' 80's bright and vivid instead of the same gloomy style used in the 90's. This is a reminiscent of the 80's hot-blooded animes to make the scene more hammy that it is.
Sound: 7 out of 10
The OPs (Fly in the Sky and Trust You Forever) are both catchy, and despite the difference in tones, they still work really well with the show.
The BGMs, although they aren't something extremely top-notched, worked and are easily memorised, especially Shining Finger and My Heart is Clear and Serene because you will expect the villain to have their asses kicked really hard by Shining/God(Burning) Finger.
In addition, to emphasis how much Hong Kong martial arts movies influenced the film (which basically actually transformed into something totally irrelevant), several songs have their cantonese counterparts, such as Hoshikuzu no Requiem (Stardust's Requiem).
Character: 7 out of 10
Although it's an extremely generic shonen anime, the characters are well structured according to their own genre, have their own personalities instead of being one-dimensioned, and are all hot-blooded as hell.
The downside is there aren't much stoic persons (or at least logical ones) due to the genre, and Rain doesn't have a really large role in the story despite she should be the hero's girlfriend.
Enjoyment: 10 out of 10
THIS HAND OF MINE IS BURNING RED! IT'S LOUD ROAR IS TELLING ME TO DEFEAT YOU! BURNING FINGER!!!
Seriously, despite most of the sentences are outright stupid, the VAs from both Japanese and English still managed to pull out a straight face, thereby remaining the over-the-top serious hot-bloodness of the show worked so well, even there isn't much content you will still get your emotion flowing because of all that yelling and ridiculous stuff.
See how a person runs faster than a car, uses his cloth to disassemble a Mobile Suit, kicking a whole building straight towards the sky despite being injured, spinning his body without his head spinning, that's the Undefeated of the East for you. Yes, it's that ridiculous, but you can't stop having a big grin on your face even you already saw that coming.
Overall: 8 out of 10
Recommended? Yes
Forget anything related to logic in your head, because G Gundam is a huge throbbing middle shining finger to that in the face. It basically is a representation how illogical stuff can be fun and addicting to watch at.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Aug 26, 2017
Similar to other Mushiking anime/movie titles, they have the same purpose of selling game cards. However, unlike The Inhabitants of the Forest, this one is an outright beetle card fight containing some sort of training elements.
Story: 6 out of 10
The story is a basic "I won a battle, but later i got curbstomped by someone much stronger, I go train and beat him (in this case, a her) and we became good friends" type of Shonen story. Do not even expect some really deep character development because of the purpose of this movie and its background story really doesn't warrant that at all (and given
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the movie isn't much longer than 1 hour, anyway...)
This story is almost a direct remake of the GBA game with the same title, have the same characters except the art style is slightly tweaked except with updated beetles (at that time). Because it is a movie, in order to make it more enjoyable to watch with, get over with the fact that nothing is sensible in both reality and gameplay-wise.
Art: 9 out of 10
Because this is a movie, the animation is fluid and natural, and due to the excessive amount of 3D animation used (mainly for beetle fights), unlike Forest where the beetles are totally out of place, the 3D beetles felt more natural in a gaming based story background.
Sound: 8 out of 10
Nothing felt super good that warrants a 10 out of 10, but it worked well with the hot-blooded theme of the movie.
Character: 6 out of 10
Due to the hot-blooded shonen background story of the movie (plus the fact that this is made for children, of all things), the characters are typical, bland and doesn't stand out from other movies. But again, this can't really be helped because it's a kid's move that lasted not a lot more than 1 hour.
Enjoyment: 10 out of 10
Story and characters aside, the battles are extremely well done (disregard the disregard of physics, of course, cuz who cares about physics?), and everything extremely detailed. That's japanese animation for you.
Overall: 7 out of 10
Recommended? -Not really
This Anime is made to promote Mushiking which is pretty much a dead game (although the Japanese happened to reboot the game in the form of Shin Mushiking with very different mechanics and regards even less to reality while resembles more of Dinosaur King). Because it doesn't have a fascinating storyboard unlike the Inhabitants of the Forest, unless you were once a big fan of Mushiking, there isn't much point of watching this movie anymore.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Aug 25, 2017
Ah, Mushiking The legend of the Forest inhabitants, this is one of the shows that you'd wish the main fighting element actually doesn't exist at all.
Do not get me wrong - Mushiking is one of the best, if not the best show for children, for its well-written storyboard and its simple yet fascinating music, especially because it's a show for selling the Mushiking card game in 2005 and yet the director decided to play some crazy stuff with it. But the beetle element in the story is kinda off and doesn't match with the story very well, for example Mushiking itself seems to be a
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sort of Deus Ex Machima to get around with the big bad's own beetle and allow them to go forward. It's almost like The Big-O! where Rogers can summon the Big O anywhere from nowhere.
Story: 8 out of 10
As a children's Anime, what makes this anime really great is that the directors are not afraid of throwing something over-leagued, such as what is life about, how people view death itself, a legend-like story about life doesn't belong to this world and they must return to where they should be VS. people should live on regardless what lies beyond, which is pretty deep even for adults, despite this is supposedly for children aged less than 12. The deaths starting from extremely early on is like saying "Who told you that I am writing a children's story? SCREW YOU BOI!" and gave them the finger in the face.
Obviously, the deaths were censored (in the form of transforming into balls of light, and of course no blood at all), but you will find the deaths neither pointless nor dull. Instead it really touches the deepest part of your heart. You feel sad, sorrowful, and actually cry for the ones (including the beetles) who've deceased, and those who have to witness their death. The trick behind this is they never make it overdramatic (unlike how almost everyone is being crushed into a tin can and see how people cry like babies in Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans). The writer decided that deaths shouldn't be iron-blooded (pun intended) or flattering - its low-toned style does the work even better. And he/she is so goddamned right.
It's rare for a show to discuss death and alive, the joy of being alive and new life is born, and how should people face their lives, instead of giving up and allowing oneself to lose it, but not in the usual cliche and overly dramatic way, never mind the target audience wouldn't really comprehend the complexity of the show. The writer isn't lazy about the description of the environment and the humans (inhabitants of the forest) - Some work hard to feed themselves and maintain the condition of the forest, while some, who believed that they will transcend and live in a place where they can live happily forever as they die, gave up caring about the forest and allow it to wither and slowly die out; Some can calmly take as their beloved ones transcend into light, and there is a father who couldn't take the death of his children and created a dummy in his place, as if it is a description of our world to the fullest in the form of a fairy tale. Unlike the usual children Anime, and sadly, some of the current Anime for teenagers, it doesn't say anything right off the bat in the face - it is calm and well hidden in the story, and yet you won't miss the hidden message within it, something even current storyboards made by modern writers lacked.
The whole poetry-like atmosphere helped very well about the topic and you can easily sense the relaxing, yet the sometimes sorrowful atmosphere of characters.
The bad point about the story is, since it is made for the Mushiking card game, they make 3D beetles fighting each other, and because of the children Anime nature, there must be at least 1 fight in the story, which throws off the beat of the story and messed the flow up. Clearly, the beetle element isn't a part of the original planning.
Art: 8 out of 10
The artwork, despite it's not the usual 3A-classed anime nor heavily funded, is still very well-made, because the artists clearly knew what they are doing. Because of the poetic and fairy-tale like background of the story, they decided to make the characters look as simple as possible, which blended very well and never become out of shape with the atmosphere. The cute, simplistic linework of the protagonists not only helped the construction of this fantasy world and make them more likeable, it also makes the antagonists, which are drawn with more details stand out better, combind with their strange, out-of-place armor and skin colour.
What's slightly disturbing is that the female cast is wearing too sexy clothings, though, such as Chalk, I mean really, a jumpsuit that is super sexually suggestive?
Pamu is really cute.
Sound: 9 out of 10
Similar to the artwork side, the composers made well use of pianos and other instruments, such as the harp. Under the light-hearted smoothing and yet touching music, even sometimes the music tracks are recycled they just never seem out of pace just because how well they blend in with the environment.
The OP Ikite koso (I am alive here and now, in English) sung by a group called Kiroro, is especially tugging one's heart strings. It starts out by asking a chidren's parents how joyful they are when their child is born and what the world looked like, and cycled around being alive on this world and how life stems as they are now alive on Earth, just like how everything in this anime circled around being alive, and discover what it meant to be alive.
It's one of the perfect examples where you don't need to dump a huge amount of cash for the best composers (like Gundam Seed Destiny), but you just need to know what will make things work the best.
Sadly, most of the EDs are extraordinarily weird. Except Hikaru Stage (The stage of light) which still sounds coherent with the theme of the anime, the rest sounds overly upbeat and simply doesn't work at all with the soothing atmosphere (although it's probably done intentionally to balance out the gloomy atmosphere of the Anime, I'd say the directors made a mistake with this one). God forbid the 2nd ED which is outright crap to start with some dudes wearing weird clothes and dancing less-than-childish dances. It's totally hideous to watch at.
Characters: 8 out of 10
Although Popo is the main character, it's Pamu the one that experienced the most amount of growth, from being a quiet, all-knowing and sometimes overly cold girl into a happy, friendly person, although Popo also grew massively as he went through all the incidents in his journey.
The only thing that is really buggy is Chibi king whose true identity and why is he here is sorta Deus Ex Machima and never well-explained, and the supporting cast are like bodyguards of Pamu that doesn't serve anything otherwise.
Popo is a likable character as he never complains much, although he does falter and feel confused by things around him (especially when he witnessed death), he did not just moan or stopped working, and instead of full-out relying on Mushiking against beetles, he also worked around with the circus cast against Adder's pawns, especially when he realised summoning Mushiking will suck out the life force of the forest nearby and kill it.
Enjoyment: 10 out of 10
Nothing to say much about it, since this show never feels boring or uninteresting to watch at. Even it's not the hot-blooded type of story, it can still hook up within you and makes you go further.
While beetle fights are the most out-of-point things in the story, since they are already the largest animal in the story, their huge size makes them ultra powerful, combined with the pretty nice battle animation, still makes them individually good to watch at.
Overall: 9 out of 10
The lost point is due to the weird Big-O-ish beetle summoning and for the love of god that Samba is really screwing things over.
Despite the huge debate whenever the Anime is good or not, the creator of Gundam G-Reconguista and the Gundam franchise, Tomino Yoshiyuki said my favourite sentence as Reconguista is aired in Japan: "Children don't have to understand the anime itself throughout - they only need to "sense" it and remember something." Although Reconguista itself is sorta controversal as it is deemed way too difficult to understand even for adults, Mushiking is the one that successfully achieved the said sentence, as it still lingers within my mind and I finally understood as I grew older. It might not be extremely hardcore or something highly awe-inspiring, but it sure makes people, especially children at that age, remember the story tightly and firmly.
If you somehow can find a copy of this anime that is more than a decade (as of 2017) old, you gotta watch it and you will love it. Disregard the weird beetle element, and you got one hell of a great anime that even grown-ups should have a check of this. Childish? Sure thing, but this deceiving coat contains a really deep story that will never be outdated despite it being decades old.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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