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Pokemon the Origin retells the story of the actual generation 1 Pokemon games and is in no way connected to the long running cat-ash-trophe.

The art and sound a massivle improved over the long running TV-show.
The battles are very fluent and dynamic, animations are not reused and Pokemon don't shout out their own name all the time and instead grunt, bark and howl.
So both, Art and Sound get a solid 8.
Both are executed very well.

The story is slightly altered from the original games, but follows the script for the most part.
Since this is a 4-episode adaption of a fairly long RPG-campaign only very few scenes are ... fully shown in detail, but those moments are indeed the most memorable from the game.
While the story of the games in itself is a fairly basic one this doesn't change in this adaptation.
While the story had to be shortened, the writer did a great job in deciding what to keep, and what to only to quickly reference.
All in all they did a fair job in working with what they got,
thus the story gets a solid score of 6.

The main charackters, Red and Green are slightly altered from the game to adapt to the new medium, gladfully so, since a mute main charackter whould be rather boring to watch.
Also, Red and Green interact more often as well as over longer periodes of time, which polishes their charackters up to a more modern standard.
The simlistic charackters from the game were updated and the writer did a good job in doing so.
The charackters score a very solid 7.
Changes are super effective!

I enjoyed the OVA very much.
X/Y are the first Pokemon games i will play since my silver edition.
Since i'm kind of excited about those games, this might have improved the enjoyment even more, raising it up to 9.

Overall the OVA is a very good adaption of a game i loved in my childhood.

If you were, at any point, interested in any Pokemon-generation, this OVA has a good chance to be fun to watch.

It respects it's source material and is basically what i wanted when i tuned in on the Pokemon TV series, when i was a child.

It took 15 years, but the games finally got a show, which was worth watching.

The setting:
So, the animes setting is in the not so far future.
And for some reasons japan got attacked by foreign countries
and now loads of foreign military is stationed in japan.
After the war, that took place in japan, lot's of japanese
people are forced to live in rundown parts of the cities.
And war is not fought with tanks anymore, but with giant robots.

Our maincharacter is a normal student, who gets involved in the battle
of a terrorist group, just because he wanted to help.
... The main character meets a girl in strange clothes at a crashed truck
and they decide to flee, but ofcourse the military chases them down.
And a gun is pointed at the main character.
He's certain to die, but then some strange background popps in
and the girl grants the MC the power to kill all the Soldiers near him.
A power which is reffered to, as the "power of the kings".

The MC then helps the terrorists to do the usual terroriststuff, like
fighting the military out of a ghetto, freeing a person whos charged of
murder, public anouncing of the terroristgroup, now with a fancy name,
declaring that they are actually the good guys.

After terrorising the enemy gobverment, they move on to a big showdown in
some other dimension, fighting some god-thingy.


While i really liked the first season so much, i even bought the DVD,
the second was much weaker, in my opinion, but if you are a fan of
sigtly more intelligent military/mecha-shows, then Code Crown is
just right for you... i mean Geass Guilty... i mean...
Which plot was i just summarising?


Yeah, i'm pretty sure you all have already heard of the jokes, that
Guilty Crown is basically a copy of Code Geass and yes,
GC is not only a ripoff of CG, but also a very shameless ripoff.
Even to the point of giving the MC's iconic power the same name,
'The Power of the Kings'.

GC is basically a kick in the teeth for everyone who worked on CG.
GC is basically just copying most parts and adding some stolen ideas
from other series. It's like one of these movies, which are only made
out of clips of several other movies and then voiced over so it
becomes an other plot.
But don't get me wrong, i'm not against "borrowing" ideas,
i think good stolen is better, then bad selfmade.

Unfortunatly, in Episode 12 of GC the shit hits the fan.
The meachafan in this case was me, and it hit me right into the mouth,
so it left a very bitter taste.
In episode 12 GC starts to become "original".
It suddenly adds so many things to te plot, it's becoming a total
clusterfuck of ideas.
Not good ideas, but badly stolen ideas smashed together and only
holding up through brute force.

Episode 12 suddenly adds incest, some sort of crazy demonqueen, amnesia,
greek gods, steroid abuse and god knows what else.
Everything sewed together by bad and formost lazy writing.

Yep, that's my opinion.
And of course i took the time to write, where my thoughts came from,
so enjoy my look at Guilty Crown!



The characters:

Shu Ouma:
Talking about the characters is quite difficult in this case, because
the people in this anime have no character, for the most part,
aside from one exeption, which i will address later.

As i already told you, the exeption will be spoken of later, so the
MC follows the rule of having no character.
At the beginning he's the just a coward, whose only problem is, that
he gets in his own way, over and over again.
He get's in his own way, then he learns his lesson, then makes another
obvious mistake, learns his new lesson and changes from coward to hero,
step by step.

Ironically, the best description i have for him, is 'void', the name
of the weapons he pulls out of other people.
I'll go into detail with the Voidpower later, since there is quite a lot i have to write about it.

In Episode 12 it's suddenly reveald, that he suffers from amesia.
Well, he doesn't exacly suffer, since he just doesn't seem to care.
There is at least a whole year missing from his memory, but he never asked
what happend there.
This is especially strange, considering the fact, that the memoryloss covers the
lost christmas incident.
Did he never ask himself, where he was at that point?
Did they not talk in school about such a big event so he could realise,
that his memory is missing?
Speaking of not caring about anything, why was he shocked, when he realised,
where his mother worked?
Did he never ask her?
Especially if she's sometimes away for days?
Is this even legal, to let his underageed kid home alone?
At least here in germany it isn't... did nobody look out for Shu?
And I'm pretty sure, that's something everybody was asked by a teacher in Kindergarten
or elementary school, 'What do your mommy and daddy do?'
And did he never realise, that he has no father?
Why is that topic never brought up?
Those are massive plotholes.
Did the MC never question his unusual livestyle?
There are just so many questions...
Did the writer really think we whouldn't notice that?
If so, i'll take that as an insult.

Fact is, this kind of amnesia often serves as a cheap way to built up tension.
The writer tells you,
"There happend something, stay tuned for it's stunning revelation"
It's just their way of admitting, they arn't able to built up tension with the
stuff happening RIGHT NOW, they have to foreshadow.
That way, the audience can ignore that nothing interesting is happening right now,
and just wait for the final showdown.



Inori:
Just as the maincharackter, she basically has no charackter.
She's just doing what she's told, and looking cute in her skimpy and
absolutly not battleready outfits.
And from time to time, she's acts as the MacGuffin to advance the plot,
when the writer couldn't think of anything better.
Oh, and she's a famous songstress... which is kinda stupid, when she's
part of a terroristgroup, which has to stay undetected at first.
Also, there is actually no reason for her to be a songstress.
Well, aside from two things,
1) To have her be famous, in order to rebuild the scene, when Suzaku
enters the classroom. Since was famous by that point too, because
of his trial.
2) Make musicvideos where she puts on even more skimpy outfits.

I already wrote, that she's basically nothing but a Macguffin.
Since it was already foreshadowed, that the Void a person has,
can change, this will mean, that, in the final battle, Inoris heart will
suddenly change and shu will pull his ultimante weapon out of his a...
I mean, out of her chest.
Lazy writing in it's finest...

Oh, by the way, she looks like Shus sister, so he only helped her at the beginning,
because he had the hots for his sister... our hero ladies & gentlemen...
Isn't the love between siblings a wonderfull thing?
A little sticky and a little sweaty... i suddenly feel ill...
Seriously, that's probably the first idea, which wasn't stolen from Code Geass
and this makes me feel like i want to throw up...
Great writing...



Gai Tsutsugami:
The supposed to be badass character is named Gai.
His first entrance made with a guitar played in the background,
flashlights everywhere, beating up some thugs, who want to rob our
MC, because he's an idiot and ran into a ghetto, without keeping in mind,
that it's probably not safe for a kid at night, when he's carrying an
expensice looking ROBOT!!!!
As i already said, Gai is the badass character but because being just badass
whould be boring, so the writer added the plottwist, that he's actually ill
and will die eventually.
Oh and by the way, he's just as old as Shu...
Yeah, i know, i don't know what he took in order to grow up that much faster,
than Shubut,.... who am i kidding?
I'm sure it's just bad writing again.
Oh, and he knows Shu and his "beloved" sister since their childhood.
Gai was washed up to the beach, where Shu and his sister were playing.
They met during the year, that's missing in Shu's memory.
So it was the fate of Shu and Gai to meet again, right?
On the other side, it could be just lazy writing again,
since this is just a very easy way, to establish a connection between
two characters, who never met before.
Still, if you think about it, since the audience did not experience
the growth of their bond, it still means nothing and is, yet again, instulting
it's audience since the writer thinks the audience is not intelligent enough
to realise obvious plot holes.



Annoying Nerd-Girl:
Well... to be honest, i can't remember her name and it's way much to
much work to look it up.
She has no character, no purpose aside from being fapmaterial for lolicons.
She does nothing but dressing up in a skintights rubbersuit with nekomimi
or Maid-outfits.
Even during operations she's totally useless.
Well, on the bright side, she's fully aware of this.
So she doesn't get in the way and instead plays Dance Central...



Ayase Shinomiya:
As i mentioned earlier, there is an exeption to the no-character rule.
Ayase is a really interesting character.
Almost to good, for this kind of show... i guess you can drop the 'almost'...
However, she's paralysed, but she's not the typical wheelchair-girl
you get in anime. She exepts her circumstances but that doesn't mean,
she let's other people push her around.
Even though she can't keep up with the other footsoldiers,
she knows what she is capable of and she's very proud in what she can do,
and that's piloting a huge robot and kick the MC's ass(pluspoint) even
without her meacha.

Handicapped people in TV are a rarity, especially in anime.
And when there are any, they are often portraied as extremely helpless
and dependent, like Nunnaly from Code Geass. She did basically nothing
on her own.
I worked some years ago with handicapped people and most of them tried not
to show their hanicap and others drowned in self-pity.
Only a few were really OK with their handicap and just make the best out of it.
I think showing a fictional character who is able to do her best could show
people that do can still do something, if you are aware of want you can still do.

And a in a mecha show, this is not to much to ask for.
Paralised people can drive cars, so why not pilot a robot?

But why the rubbersuit for her, too?
OK, fanservice, but if you think about it, it's really stupid.
For one, this thing serves no purpose since she's not actually in the field.
So it has no protective value.
And just think of how hard it has to be to get in and out of that thing,
especially for her?



The three Goons:
Yeah, the three guys who are foorsoldiers for the Undertakers,
that white haired guy, the big guy and the Tamaki ripoff...
I don't think any of these even have names, just as they don't have characters
or real roles in the operations, so let's just skip them.



Shu's schoolmates:
Voiddispenser, nothing more, nothing less.

Speaking of the Voidpower...

Yeah... one of the biggest flaws of this show, the iconic void powers.



The Voidpower:
First things first, void means, there is nothing.
So if there is a sword, a giant flower, or a fridge, there is no "void",
there IS something!!! So this power already fails at it's name.
Great start...

Second, in true Code Geass fashion, Shu has to have eyecontact with the person,
he draws the void from. At least at first. Some episodes later he explains,
he has problems with keeping eyecontact... *nocomment*
So Shu is told, that he doesn't have to hold eyecontact,
his victim just has to think that they are looking into each others eyes,
which is stupid.
I Code Geass it made sense, in a certain way.
Lelouch had to look into his opponents eyes in order to give basically controll
his opponents soul. You know, the eyes are the windows to the soul.
Lelouch looks into the other persons souls, taps into it and gives it a direct order.
This whould also make sense in Guilty Crown, but no, Shu has to stand in his own way,
again, and somebody has to help him. This is mainly, because the writer has no sense
for character development, so he has to take every slight chance he gets to
make someone into some sort of mentor-character and thus form a bond with Shu.
So Shu has at least some reason to fight on for the terrorists.
And if i remember correctly, he doesn't even try to make eyecontact in later episodes,
so that whole thing was pointless.

As you might see by now, the mainproblem of the voidpower is,
it's ignoring it's own rules.
I personally like weapons, which are unique er character,
like the Pactio cards in Mahou Sensei Negima,
the Volt weapons in Freezing,
the Fragments in Needless,
the unique machas in Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari
or the different Geasses in Code Geass
and the list goes on and on.
This is a very simple trick to open up to a large variety of differnent
situations.
But these things always have to follow rules.
Somethings that was done greatly in COde Geass, you watched the maincharacter
actually studying his power in order to use it effectivly.

Guilty Crown doesn't have specific rules stated out
and the vague defined rules that it has, are broken,
for example, in episode 11 Shu draws out a pair of scissors, which are able to cut
somebodys string of life. OK, nice idea.
Some missiles are shot at Shu. He swings the scissors and the missiles explode.
OK, here it gets strange.
1. He wasn't actually using the scissors, so he isn't cutting anything.
If this works, the next question is, to what extend does it work?
Can he just wave it and everyone and everything within several kilometers dies?
The anime Shingetsutan Tsukihime shows how this kind of power and it's rules
are handled propperly.
The maincharacter in that show also has the power to see the lifestring and
then cut it, destroying his target immediatly.
The difference is, in Shingetsutan Tsukihime Shiki has to close in on his target,
in order to acutally touch it AND he has to cut exacly the lifestring in order to
succeed. Shiki has to follow these rules in order to win his fight.
Shu's enemy just dissapears without being an actual threat.

2. Why is he able to run up a straight wall?
Did he just kill gravity with his scissors?


To summ it up:
The Voidweapons are nothing but a Deaus Ex Machina.
It doesn't follow any rules, it's just an "iwin"-button for the maincharacter.
Up until episode 12 ther was absolutly NOTHING that could withstand Shu's firepower.
With Irinos void alone he whould have been able to destroy nearly any foe.
That's also something, this show lacks, ther is up til now, no proper villian.
Simply nobody can match Shu.


So, to my final verdict:
Story: 1/10
It's just pathetic.
The writing is lazy, the plot is boring.
And you through the plothole, you can drive a truck, blindfolded.

Art: 6/10
The first two episodes have rather good art, but later the overall lazyness
drops in and you realise, that the first two episodes were just to catch the
audiences attention.
I doesn't get horrible, but it stays mediocre.

Sound: 7/10
This is basically the best about this show.
I have read, that many people like the opening and ending of this anime,
and while it's not my personal taste, i'm still able to see, why they like it.

Character: 2/10
1 pluspoint catched by Ayase.
Nothing more to say, moving on!

Enjoyment: 1/10
There was really nothing i really enjoyed about Guilty Crown.
Maybe if they had reduced the cast, so for example Ayase had more screentime,
but not even she can rescue at least on additional point.


Overall: 3,4/10
All in all, this anime is just poor.


For me, personally, this was the worst anime of 2011, while i have to add,
havn't seen everything last year.
But to be honest, if there was something even worse i hope i will never find out.


For those who still watch this show, i hope it gets better, so you are able
to enjoy it to the end.


Thanks for reading my whole review.
I hope you enjoyed it.

In regard of Puella Magi Madoka Magicka, there are two kinds of people.
On the one hand you have these, who love the show, on the other you have the people who despise this show for being
totally overrated and not as unique, as it claims to be.

I´m one of the former kind. I have never seen any mahou-shoujo-show comparable to this.
To be honest i havn´t seen many mahou-shoujo-shows at all.
When i was little i watched Sailor Moon and i tried some other, like Cardcaptor Sakura and right now i´m watching
Magical Girl Nanoha and some other.

I still think Puella Magicka is much darker, then any of the ... former named.
Also Puella Magi's story has much more twists, actually at least one per episode.

But let's get some structure in this review.


Story:

Puella Magi Madoka Magicka starts off like any other mahou-shoujo-show.
One or a small groupe of school girls get drawn into a fight with a magical monster (they are called witches in this show).
She is/ they are saved by an other magical girl or the mascot of the show.
The other magical girl/mascot explains the concept and the rules of the show to the school girl(s) and the audience.
The school girl(s) decide to help the other magical girl/mascot to fight monsters
and collect MacGuffins (named griefseeds in this show).

The first three episodes are totally sterotypical for the mahou-shoujo-genré, but after these the show shows it'S true
colours. Very, very dark colours to be precise.

Of course there are dark and sad moments in other mahou-shoujo-shows as well, but the major difference is, in other shows
the characters are able to recover from these mental blows.
In Puealla Magi Madoka Magicka this is not the case.
The girls get pushed over the limit what they are able to endure.
Several of the girls just can't take it any more and thier mind snaps.

The pressure on the characters gets even higher, because in this show the greif seed is actually no MacGuffin,
it serves the purpose to restore the magical energy of the girls which is needed after becoming a magical girl, not
only to fight on, but to survive.

So the girls are forced to ensure a steady supply of grief seeds even if this means to snatch an other girls prey.


Characters:

The maincharacter, Madoka, is the stereotypical innocent ultimate-magical-girl messiah.
She only cares for others and acts so sweet, your teeth will start to hurt, just by looking at her.

With that said, she's the only stereotype in this show.
The others characters seem to be stereotypical at first, but when the story moves on it is shown,
that the other characters have multible layers of personality.
These deeper layers often happen to be quite nasty character traits.
Many characters in this show are rather selfish and the word friendship often is not enough to
calm them down.

The most obvious example is this shows cute mascot character, Kyuubey.
He's the stereotypical cute and polite and always wants to help the girls.
But while the show moves on you realise, all these good traits are just a facade, used to get the girls trust him.
He's actually extremly cold hearted. He understands nearly nothing of human values.
Just enough to use it to manipulate the girls.
From a specific point onwards, he's just extremely creepy.
This impression is even stronger because of his paradoxial appearence.


Art:

You have to differentiate between two art-styles.
The first is the real-world-style. In this style everything looks quite normal and the backgrounds are
pretty much like every other anime now a days.
The characters look rather plain compared to other anime these days.
This might be a matter of taste, but i really like this.
It makes the characters in this show much more recognizable in direct comparsions with other anime.

The second style is the witch-world-style.
To fight the witches in this series the girls have to enter special dimensions,
which where made by the witches.
These worlds look very surreal.
Also they are wastly different from each other.
Each witch-world features a special and unique design.
This goes for the witches as well.
Their appearences vary from giant half-demon/half-robot monsters to little plushies.


Soundtrack:

The soundtrack is simply awesome.

There is nothing special about the intro-song.
It's quite interchangable witch every other intro from mahou-schoujo-shows.

But the outro-song is a totally different case.
It reminds me of the early songs of nightwish.
It's hard beats und the dark overall tune goes quite well, with the dark story, which this show tells.

An other fact, which makes the outro even more memorizable is, it´s quite rare.
Only six out of twelve episode actually end with this outro.
The other six episodes use the two minutes to let the charcters reflect what just happend, or for foreshadowing
of the next big plot twist while the credits are shown over these scenes.

The music within the episodes is also better than average.
In the all days live you get very calming music, like flute tunes.
Or no music at all, so it doesn't distract you from the pichtures you see, or the conversation you hear.

The battle music has quite the variety.
Depending in the level of danger the music differs from J-Pop over orchestral to symphonic metal.

conclusion:

This will be tough...
Either the Puella Magi fans or haters will stone me to death...
But please keep in mind, that this last part are my personal thoughts, so you don´t have to agree with me.
It's just a matter of taste.

So, what do i think about Puella Magi?


Is Puella Magi really this unique?

I still think, it's just as unique as it claims to be.
Yes, there are other magical girl shows, which are rather dark,
but non the the shows I have seen takes it as far as Puella Magi Madoka Magicka.


Is this show a real masterpiece?

Animé is a form of art and art is always a matter of personal taste.
It's impossible to create something, that is the ultimate form of art and everybody loves it.
With that said, Puella Magi Madoka Magicka claimed the title of being my favourite animé.
So, from my point of view, i whouldn´t mind if somebody calls it a masterpiece.

In fact, the magical girl genré is as far as you can get away from my favourite genré, mecha.
(At least if you ignore Magic Knight Rayearth, which actually is a magical girl meacha show...)
And still, Puella Magi managed not only to catch my attention, but to hold it.
I've rewatched my personal favourite episodes, as well as the whole series several time and it
still manages to entertain me.
So, there just has to be something special about this show.


Will you like this show, too?

Of course, i cannot look into your head, so i won't guarantee anything,
but if you like either dark plots, non-stereotypical characters or the magical girl shows,
then there's a good chance you will like this show, too.

But keep in mind, if you try this show, watch at least the first four episodes before you make up your mind.
If you stop watching earlier you won't notice the real concept behind this show.


Overall I give this show a 10/10.
Yes, i'm fully aware, there are some problems with this animé,
for example the inconsistence of Homuras magic in the first episode.

But these are minor problems compared to the join, this show brought me.
So i'm totally willing to overlook these glitches.

Basically you can sum up AIR in two words, magic and drama.

But let´s get to the details.

Story 7/10:
The anime starts with Yukito Kunisaki. Yukito is a traveler... well, more of a bum.
He travels from town to town. He owns money by performing a trick he learned from his mother.
He sits down at the side of the road and tries to get attention of children passing by.
Then he let´s a doll make some moves, without touching it or using strings.
So basically he´s using magic.
... Also i think he´s using magic to not get catched by the police.
Well, it might be just me, but i whould instantly call the cops if i saw a guy like him, who wants
to show a special "trick" to some little children...

However, Yukito gets to a small village.
There he mets several girls.
They all happen to have serious problems.
Mostly psychological problems, or serious family issues.
Yukito gets involved with the girls and starts to help them.

The anime is divided in four story-arcs. Each one featuring Yukito and two to three people of the village.

Charakters 7/10:
Most of the charackters are stereo-types.
Some are more interesting, but, like i said, most are stereotypes.
For example, the innocent, naive and clumsy little girl, which acts so cute and
sweet that you´ll get toothache just by looking at her.
Or the very reliable older sister type.
Or the hyperactive little tomboyish girl.

The charackters featured in the, let´s call it "flashback", in episode
seven to nine are by far the most intersting charakters of the anime.

Art 8/10:
The art is quite good. The colors are bright.
Sometimes there are CGI-elements or whole scenes.
If you think about the year, AIR was made it doesn´t look to bad, but the CGI didn´t age well,
especially when you think about the fact, that the CGI-effects weren´t neccessary most of the time.

Enjoiment 9/10:
Well, AIR was simply made to make the audience feel sad.
And in this aspect it succeeds.
On the other hand, the comedic parts are quite predictable because of their sereotypical nature.
So, if you want to enjoy AIR, you have to watch it because you like drama.

To be honest, the first two arcs are actually quite boring.
But with the seventh episode the anime gets rolling.
First with the really interesting characters from episodes seven to nine, which i mentioned earlier
and the final arc, which is really something else.

Overall 7/10:
The problem of AIR is definitly the first half.
These two arcs are totally unneccassary and don´t add anything to the second half.
Just like the annoing charackters featured in them.

But if you are able to endure them you are rewarded
with a really strong second half and a great resolution of the final arc.

I want to clarify ne thing first, i read the manga, too.
In fact the manga is one of my favourites.

So this review is actually a compasion between manga and anime.

Elfen Lied is OK, if you just watch the anime and never even touch the manga.

It´s even OK, if you watch the anime and then read the manga.

But if you read the manga i recommend, that you ignore the anime, because you´ll totally be disapointed since there´s so much missing.
...

Story 3/10
Well, the story of the anime stops just after the first half of the mangas story.
With lot´s of things happening in the last third of the manga you actually just see around 30% of the whole plot. Because of this the anime, not the story it self got a 3/10.

Art/Sound 8/10 each
Art and sound both are quite good.
Music is fitting, animations are really nice to look at.

Characters 3/10
The anime stops, where the character development actually starts.
The little bit of the characters you see in the anime doesn´t nearly reach the depth of the manga.
Of course this is because of the story stopping at the beginning of the really good part.

Enjoyment 1/10
Because after the 13th episode just think, "What the... that´s it? No Vector Craft? No Anna? No apocalypse? Not even the Elfen Lied was sung?"

Overall 4/10
As standalone project the anime whould easily socre at 6 or 7, but because of the really good manga, the messed up anime gets ranked down.

All in all i think, the anime is just as overhyped as the manga is good.
And let me say one thing at the end:
The manga, is VERY good.

Story 10/10
It´s important to know, that Voices of a Distant Star is a only 25 minutes long anime.
This seems to be quite short, but to tell the truth, it´s plenty of time.
The 25 mins are very good used. The story has no fillers and nothing irrelevant is shown.
Even talking between the characters is kept to a total minimum, yet it´s enough.
Actually most of the talking are short messages, sent between the mobilphones of the two characters.
And it´s these messages, which make this anime really unique.
Since Mikako is flying away from earth the messages take longer to reach Noburo, whose still on earth.
But the really interesting ... part is always, after Mikako send a message, you seen Noburo when this message arrives, which is a long time after.
It´s basiclly the future you get to see.
After the audience sees Noburos reaction on the message you jump back through time and space to Kikako.

This makes the storytelling a bit hard to follow at first, but the result is just epic!

Art 9/10
The art really hit my taste and the mechas looked really cool.
Nothing much to say, it just looks beautyful.

Sound 9/10
The soundtrack is totally fitting in every scene.
That´s all there is to say.

Character 9/10
In this anime are only two characters.
This might seem to less, but since the whole story is centered around thier relationship it´s enough.
Mikakos personal developing is not much, because basiclly her story is just a few days long.
On the other hand Noburos development is seen through several years, because of the timejumps.

Enjoyment 10/10
I totally enjoyed this show.
Again, nothing to add here.

Overall 10/10
Voices of a Distant Star is really outstanding.
At first i was cautious because it seemed very short, but at the end, i just thought: "Wow..!"
The story might be nothing special, a classic lovestory which is tested by the circumstances, but the way of telling this story makes this anime a totally new and unique experience.

I personally recommend this anime to nearly everyone.

Additionally: even if it´s not your taste, since it´s only 25 minutes you didn´t lose much, right?

By far the worst Gundam series i´ve seen and i´ve seen most of em.

Of course now you´ll ask, why is that?
I´ll answer that in a second, but i´d like to start with the Pros of Gundam 00.


The overall style of the pictures where quite impressive.
The look of the Series massivly improved compared to SEED.
Somtimes even to beautyful. I´ll explain it later.

... In addition the Soundtrak is really good.


Now to the bitter part.
First the Gundams themselves.

The most Gundams are totally ugly.
In fact, the only Gundam witch is even uglier than the ones in this series might
be the mustache Gundam (some poeple might know which one i´m talking about).
For example the two Matrjoschka-Gundams... no further comments.
Or the GN-Archer... why can this thing combine which Arios?
It´s only used as a standalone-MS. It seems, that the only reasons why this thing can combine
witch a Gundam is, because it can´t fly on it´s own, so somebody has to carry it to the battlefield
and the second, the studio just wanted something to gattai! (...)
Or this one´s good, too. Gundam Dynames of the first Season:
Why does it have to move it´s Gundam-typical forhead decoration, when entering the sniping mode?
Why not remove the thing, or splitt it, so the camera can look through the two halves?

The grunt-Mobile suits are ugly as well.
Of course, since i´m a Zaku-Lover most MS are ugly, but OO S2 tops everything in this matter.
Even if the most ugly MS i´ve ever seen was from S1, the FLAG.

The fights are just as boring as the suits are ugly.
In S1 it all started with the Trans-Am-super-saiyajin-limitbreaker-gigadrill-whatever-thing.

Come on! Can you imagine how much a Gundam has to weigh?
There´s totally no way a Gundam like Exia can use Instant-Movement.
Thats not cool, thats just a poor excuse to draw some beautyful glowing mechs.

Or the anti-space-station-beam-saber of the 00...

The next thing is the whole Innvoator thing.
They talked about it the whole time, but was actually relevant for the story?
Not really. It whould be the same if i whould declare, that i´m an innovater.
The people whould look at me, with a strange expression, but the world whould spin on.
I think this whole story element was just brought in to have something,
like Coordinators or Newtypes, some indicater wich let´s the audience know:
"Hey, this person is special!"
But in the end, even if Setuna whould not be one, it had changed nothing,
compared to Amuro, whose complete live change because he´s a Newtype.

While we are at the persons:
An other thing that bothers me, are the characters.

-An heavy drinking strategist... yet no comment again...

-A pair of schizophrenic lovers...

(by the way, whould this be double-dating? or polygamy? or just stupid?)

-The sterotype ladykiller-sniper, even in a doublepack.

-And the classic masked villian... this one is my favourite!
Mister Bushido! What a name...
an american whose totally living up to a cliché samurai.

-And of course there´s the pink haired songstress-princess, like in Gundam SEED.
Well, she´s brunette this time and actually she´s quite unimportant,
since everybody lives much happier,
when there´s lot´s of war instead of peace negotiations...
This whole peace through war or terrorism... just like in 00
it´s a reason why i dislike Wing, but thats an other topic.

Summary
Story: 2/10
Art: 8/10
Sound: 8/10
Character: 1/10
Enjoyment: 2/10
Overall: 2/10
Well, accually Overall whould be a 3 or 4 if i had a good day.
But Sunrise showed often enough, that they can write very intense stories
and great character development.
But since they were just to lazy to come up with something really great
or even decend, 00 lost two additional point.

Well, i think that´s it.
These are most of the reasons why i think that Gundam 00 is not just
a hit in the face of everyone who loved the original Gundam series.