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A very peculiar creature is living among us, elusive for so many years due to its ability to perfectly imitate a human being. First discovered by SankakuHead in 2013, but his findings are in a language known only to few, but thanks to the hard work of cryptologists at Dogakobo they have provided us with SankakuHead's findings in a format we can make sense of and I am writing this report after going through their findings.

Though without a botanical name as yet, but persons around it refer to the creature as 'Umaru', so we shall refer to it as such within the course of this ... report.

At first glance the Umaru seems to be a casual and playful creature, it is largely lethargic in nature and enjoys to indulge itself in as much frivolities as it can. Its preferred natural habitat is a suburban apartment with dimmed lightning at low temperatures, it spends most of its time consuming human entertainment such as Television, Video games and the Internet, its main diet though mostly consists of barbecued foods and chilled drinks, however we have witnessed it consuming fruits and vegetables but it shows a strong adverseness to it and only consumes it when forced or as a last resort when starvation kicks in. The Umaru is capable of becoming dangerous however when not allowed its usual diet, environment or entertainment, throwing tantrums and wailing at most occasions.

The most interesting thing about the Umaru though is its ability to camouflage so perfectly whenever it leaves its habitat and ventures into human society, we have no idea how its capable of doing this but when it does it takes on the form of the perfect human being; smart, beautiful and quite flawless in every aspect of its activities. This has led it to be awed and adored by most in society but heads will surely be turned if and whenever its nature in its own habitat is exposed to them.

Despite its somewhat selfish and secluded lifestyle it still has a couple of close human companions which it interacts with. It has a blood brother which it lives with by the name of Taihei, but as far as we can tell from investigation he seems to be human, but being a blood relative of the Umaru that section of the investigation is marked as inconclusive at this point. Taihei does most of the housework due to the Umaru's lethargic nature, he is well aware of all its characteristics but expresses no serious alarm about it, he does constantly try to lecture and reform the Umaru to the right way but at this point to no success. They express a fondness and affection for each other as siblings, but her usual anecdotes are a constant nuisance to him and we on the investigation team found their interactions amusing and a times heart warming to see.

Dogakobo's interpretation of the Umaru and its surroundings is very lovely to look at indeed, though simplistic and not in too much detail it still carries a nice mix of color tones that is very lovely to look at. There are no overly excessive motions but constant motion even in small bouts is present to always make sure things never seem dull.

In conclusion there is still much we don't know about this creature and its environment, but from the little that we have seen here it is apparent that it is a charming, playful and a times boisterous, and its many antics and characteristics have often left us laughing or at least left us with a smile on our face and we're sure will be pleasing to many.

You won’t be blamed if you come into redial with a bit of hesitation, whether you enjoyed or hated the original series, the fashion in which it concluded didn’t leave much in terms of stones unturned that viewers might be too curious to unearth. Redial however could leave you pleasantly surprised.

Redial takes place in the 3rd world following the end of the series. A girl named Gasai Yuno experiences a sense of Déjà vu from most things around her and faintly recalls fragmented memories that she doesn’t know of and someone whose face she can’t seem to remember, Kingdom Hearts-esque stuff. There is an amicable ... paradigm shift in redial, gone are the future diaries and plot twists, redial take a more subtle approach and focuses on the characters. Redial takes most of the characters from the original and realizes them in very interesting fashion.

Most characters in the original were yes, a bit over the top a times, but one thing it did very well is memorability, the characters were crazy and just over the top enough that most would not be forgetting them anytime soon. Redial embraces this heritage so well and uses it to weave a very interesting side story. Redial shines the most when showing us what became of them, the various situations and sometimes friendly or goofy personalities to some of the more serious characters is sure to leave most people with a smile on their face. The writers of redial were of course aware of some of the writing issues in the original and it was a bit funny here to see them make several parodical remarks about it throughout the show.

Whether you enjoyed or hated the original, redial gives a cute and interesting look at some of the more subtle moments the original wasn’t able to realize, it’s a nice short side story that’ll certainly leave all parties satisfied.

Haruhisa’s retelling of China’s warring state times is now in full swing, the first season came off as vastly impressive and the second was expected to do nothing but hit new heights.

The biggest talking point of the 2nd season would without a doubt be the art. If you were worried coming off from the mostly CG first season then you can put your worries to rest. It would seem that at the start of the first season, producers had very little expectations for Kingdom and its budget was kept low, but with the advent of soaring Manga sales and anime popularity, they decided to spare ... a few extra change to the second season. It should be noted that the second season consists of almost completely new character designs from the ground up as the story kick starts at about 365 days after the end of season one and the new designs perfectly complements the aging of most characters. The CG whilst still present is kept to a bare minimum and traditional 2D art is extensively adopted. The 2D art is most of the times great but there are still a handful of moments where inconsistencies are obvious. The atmosphere remains striking and dazzling as in the first and vastly improved lighting and shading makes Kingdom a time look like something Ufotable might have done. The 2D art is great and all but it did come along with its own set of luggage when it comes to matters on a battlefield. The CG in the first season is mostly disliked by fans but it’s still apparent that it brought a sense of intensity and thrill that is lacking in the second, various encounters that could have been animated well using CG is instead replaced by still 2D art, while not a recurring event the fact that we could still have had movement if the CG was involved brings down the tone a bit.

The second season although highly anticipated strangely suffered from poor composition. The first season that spanned 38 episodes contained 3 almost evenly length arcs with almost perfect pacing. The second season however had 2 short arcs at the beginning and end with one longer dragged on arc in the middle. Most problems in this season could have been eliminated by simply reducing the episode count to accommodate the length of the story, but someone unfortunately wanted to spend as much time on air as possible. This middle arc is by no means boring but the fact that it drags in a few places affected Kingdom in many ways; Strategy that played such an important role in the first season comes a times too far apart from each other as the present one replays for a few episodes quickly losing impact, and most importantly Xin’s development in general just seemed to come at baby steps a times. What’s more apparent is that there are certain moments where several episodes will contain no noteworthy event happening but then all of a sudden the next episode would be packed full of so much content you won’t know where to begin analyzing, this leads to the question as to why episodes like this might not have been more evenly spaced out to accommodate the slower pace of the show. The slow pacing wasn’t all evil as it featured a little more in depth look at character associations, it was nothing too impressive but at least it was something positive to take from the experience.

By far the biggest and most impressive introduction to the second season of Kingdom is the intra-country politics; the battlefield in Kingdom is now being fought on 2 fronts. The governments in Kingdom adopt a feudalistic civic, meaning an individual need not swear fealty to the King alone and could also gather and own assets such as resources and troops which the throne had no jurisdiction over. This of course does not mean the King serves as nothing more than a puppet but it means that individuals in control of massive assets in the court may have bigger influence in the structuring of the Government than the King himself. What this means for Kingdom is a constant power struggle to enlist allies in the court, it may sound boring in description but the exchanges, secrets, deceptions and alliances can sometimes put the events transpiring on the battlefield to shame. Fans of Zheng who taught he would have almost no role to play in the second season since he had claimed control of the throne in season one can be at ease as he takes center stage in this aspect of the show. The politics is a much needed breadth of fresh air for the show with its only disappointment being that it didn’t feature as many times as one would have liked.

We find ourselves in an age of anime where main characters are mostly found annoying and disliked by most fans, however the case for Kingdom has always been the opposite. Most Kingdom fans enjoy seeing Xin and his development is no doubt one of the shows’ pinnacle moments, however scars of this started to show in the first season and in the second are almost laid bare to all. Kingdom relies too much on Xin. Xin is the MC and is expected to be the main driving force of the show, but what this has incidentally caused is that when the series decides to take a different turn by removing Xin from the story for a little while, it immediately becomes apparent that the show has lost its potency, the supporting characters are just not strong enough to move the story along and their development most of the time takes a back sit or is overshadowed by Xin. Xin is still one of the most interesting MCs in anime and it is because of this that when he is absent on screen for too long, Kingdom falters.

In comparison to the first season, the supporting cast of the second is absolutely outstanding. The introduction of Wang Ben and Meng Tian, two fellow aspiring great generals like Xin added new meat to the story by letting us witness Xin grow around others of the same rank. Xin’s weaknesses are plain to the eye when he compares himself to the two and their continuous rivalry to render achievements as well as seeing their relationship grow is a joy to watch. Kingdom also continues to do a great job in personifying not just Xin’s allies but enemies as well. Enemies unlike most anime are well presented as actual people with hopes, dreams and ambitions with steadfast determination to see them through, their contrasting personalities and exchanges in the story displays how good use of characters really pays off.

Kingdom’s second season starts very strong and ends very strong but some parts in the middle were a cause for concern, the new stylized 2D art will be a joy for most but inadvertently had limitations in its application. The saying goes “Third time’s the charm”, a third coming is still unannounced, but if it can provide the intensity of the first season and retain the aesthetics of the second, then very little will stop it from being a masterpiece.

On the surface Arpeggio has a few detractors but if you allow people to finish airing their subjective complaints about how CG never blends well with anime, the harem genre is overused and how they don’t want to be made to remember complicated words like Super gravity Cannon and Klein’s field, you’ll find that Arpeggio has a decent story, a setting with rich possibilities heavily untapped by the anime world, interesting characters and an all but obvious moral lesson at the end.

For 7 years the Fleet of Fog, an armada of highly advance naval vessels have taken over earthly waters, with every attempt to reclaim ... back the waters by humanity crushed. Chihaya Gunzou is a student at a naval academy who one day is approached by a girl named Iona who introduces herself as a member of the Fog. The first episode isn’t kind to those looking for a subtle introduction as it is packed full of content, the series sense of immediacy may overwhelm some as in only the first episode it entails storyline, introductions, info dumps and even flash backs, all this equals to the series greatest weakness, its length, which I’ll talk about later. Chihaya Gunzou’s fleet is tasked with delivering a new weapon to America soon after with the Fog in his path leading to naval confrontations. The series can also be praised for its sound sense of tactical warfare as the battles take a balanced approach between stratagem and action orientation, the chemistry of Gunzo and his crewmates also deserve praise as everybody is well aware of their objectives and every line a character speaks out deserves just cause and not just for the sake of a seiyuu getting lines, however this is only in combat.

The fleet of the Fog being all AIs have a set of logical reasoning they follow called the Admiralty code, which a few of the fog members later on start to question, the series takes a very nice new dimension when this new plot element comes into play that suddenly give these formerly one dimensional characters a lot of depth, all of a sudden characters who one might think were nothing more than opponents the main cast might hurdle over, suddenly are given meaning and purpose, and the storyline sees a vast change mostly for the better. Although some people might complain about the existence of the mental models, the way the battleships take human form, keep in mind that without this the members of the fog would be nothing more than your casual unknown evil group trying to take over the world, their presentation to the physical gives Arpeggio much room to express itself as something much more than a simple war story, the mental model may seem to translate to a light hearted and subtle theme but Arpeggio is quite serious and even takes darker routes towards its conclusion, but as to why the fog members decided to all pick up female archetypes is still something up for debate.

A lot of Arpeggio’s issues can be traced back to its length, 12 episodes was not enough for it to truly present itself, the result of this is several holes in explanations and lack of enough back story to keep the series standing firm. A very obvious element that the series should definitely have covered was the origins of the fog, because as it stands “sudden appearance” is not enough a reason to justify their existence, but as its source material is still ongoing, this might be something we can willingly forgive. The presentation of the fog can also be considered underwhelming, a regiment vast enough to conquer all of earth’s waters should at least number in the ten thousands’, the anime does very little to reflect the fog as the dominant force it should be and unfortunately only concentrates on 9 members, larger numbers would have gone a long way in stating the anime’s intent as something to be taken very seriously.

The only thing to say about the art style is, CG and cute girls were made for each other, haters be damned. As opposed to most CG you see in anime these days, Arpeggio boasts some extremely high quality rendering, the coloring blends well and they hit the brightness level just perfectly and that’s not even counting in the outstanding character designs. The CG actually compliments the world of Arpeggio so well that it’s honestly hard to imagine the series without it. Also given the ease CG gives animators they rightfully ‘flexed their muscles’, colorful sceneries, radical movements and flamboyant naval combats are all present and executed fluidly. The opening theme ‘Savior of Song’ by Nano is nothing short of sublime, an absolutely riveting and exciting high beat Pop-rock that highly deserves more than one viewing an episode, the part with character montages striking the most interest. The ending ‘Blue Field’ by Trident is an ever so alluring slow and somber beat that melded well with the slow animation of its sequence.

The approach the author did in characterization here was actually presenting characters with several diverse personalities, enough personalities that viewers would undoubtedly find a favorite quite easily. The MC Chihaya Gunzou really impresses when in his Command Center, even though you hold no military knowledge watching the way he assesses situations and gives out orders accordingly with commanding presence makes the naval battles so much more interesting, his leadership skills and tactical know how are one of Arpeggio’s brightest aspects, however outside of his CC he’s kind of a dud. Iona on the other hand has very little to give to the viewer, from start to finish all she does is receive, process and carry out her captain’s orders, her apathic nature although going perfectly with the nature of the series still made her hard to like and the show of ‘will’ she performs at the end did very little to refute her. The real joy however you’ll find are with the different Girls of the Fog, AI or not, how they chose to present themselves was both alluring and dazzling and their interactions are a joy to watch, most of this will stem from your initial knowledge of how strict the workings of the fog is but seeing how their characters change really brings a great sense of joy for them.

The vast possibilities Arpeggio could have produced or explored if it wasn’t rushed are nearly endless, however Arpeggio should not be viewed as a simple tale of Man Vs. Machine as it incorporates so much more, it is a battle to find out and discovers one true self and meaning of existence, searching for answers to the all-important questions, how coexistence is an important value and Sentient is more than enough of a reason for us all to live together in peace.

Anime shorts are quickly becoming a new trend in the industry, and while quite a few people see them as nothing more than annoyances and most times space consuming drivel, it really isn’t the case, as they more than in one way help to promote the industry. They can be viewed as akin to indie developers, there are a lot of animation studios in japan but not all of them have the manpower or prowess to continuously dish out 24 minute episodes for 12 weeks. Shorts give a chance for the smaller studios to make a name for themselves using very limited resources, and just ... as ‘The Walking Dead’, an indie game, won the 2012 VGA, some smaller companies are capable of producing something special.

One of the rules of writing is never to use a single word several times in your work in relation to its length, so I hope you’ll forgive me as I’m going to use the word ‘adorable’ several times in this review.

This 4-Koma adaptation follows the lives of 3 high school girls; Saki, Kanaka and Ayuko. At first glance Aiura doesn’t seem to have much going for it, the 3 lead girls are indeed adorable in both design and personality but it looks like something that can get old pretty quickly, delve a little bit more into this show and you’ll find that…..it’s actually more than enough.

‘Slice of life’ from the name itself we know entails something inspired from everyday life but most of these shows use a ‘dream approach’, inserting characters in situations where very few normal folks actually get to experience, but Aiura is surprisingly something that is seriously rooted in real life, the sheer relatable scenarios and interactions between characters give it an extremely natural, casual and life like feel that makes it a times seem like a reality show shot with hidden cameras. The jokes and antics are also extremely adorable and heart-warming but unfortunately I can’t claim if it’s something that will be up everybody’s alley, luckily enough the length of the show ensures that 2 episodes (~6 minutes w/o OP/ED) is more than enough for you to decide if it’s something you want to continue.

As far as production values go, the show performed well above average than most of its other anime short counterparts, a lot of resources were put into character designs resulting in an art style that more close to adorable than moe. Animation was also surprisingly something that wasn’t cut back on, characters are always in motion but the over budgeting of some scenes may result in characters performing rather over extravagant movements. As a lot of effort was put into the design of characters and animations, it’s no surprise that everything else was sub-par; in particular the design of the environments and landscape was unfortunately quirky and poor.

A HELL of a lot of praise has to be given to the seiyuus, they really bought the girls alive despite all three making their debuts in this show, they are really prospective star seiyuus that we will hope to hear more from in the future, I will be lying if I said I didn’t have a nosebleed a couple of times, in short, the seiyuus were adorable. The animation and series of montages shown from the OP is something extremely unique and memorable as it features several alluring designs of doting crabs and Steve Jobs striking several gestures and poses of world domination, not to mention the several adorable chibi designs of the girls.

Despite the very natural feel of the show and main characters, the supporting characters kind of brought the show down a bit, most of them had quite farfetched personalities, from a teacher that dresses as a student to one that gives very a little damn about what she says and how she acts around her students, it all adds up to the shows biggest backdrop, it hardly has any serious moments. This may sound like a strange thing coming from a comedy show but the show is over excessive in its use of gags and jokes and rarely ever shifts to a serious tone for even a second.

The interaction between the girls is prime example of the phrase ‘fun to watch’; when all three are on screen the show truly sparkles, a lot of kudos has to be given to the writers for coming up with a script that flows so seamlessly and natural from line to line. Kanaka’s gags and pranks are a joy, with Saki and Ayuko’s response even more of a heart warmer. However it’s not always perfect in tinsel town; Kanaka’s baka personality isn’t always solemn as always intended, Saki’s cold attitude seems a bit antagonistic a times and Ayuko seems from time to time a bit out of place in the group, making up for a cast of slightly weak characters.

However,

In my opinion, the characters are purposely flawed, another impressive note the writers have managed to introduce is how one character is able more times than often, to balance or cover for another’s weakness, usually in one person’s response to another’s show of weakness. The result of this is an almost complete concealment of an individual character’s flaw and a further improvement to characterization than if the character already started out without any flaws at all.

The first sentence of the ED reads: “They were pointless conversations, but they were fun the nonetheless”, this more than explains the whole ethic of the show, a directionless tale of everyday life driven by a very interesting cast of characters, slice of life has never been so Adorable.

Given the recent popularity of the horror survival genre in games and live action in the west, it’s a bit surprising that the east hasn’t shown too much keen in this rich genre, needless to say there will be some oddballs such as Iwahara Yuji who try to give it a go, and he achieved this with a few shocking results.

With a cure yet to be discovered, the disease Medusa scourges through the human race, leaving only suffering, sorrow and ultimately death in its wake. It is in such a world that Kasumi finds herself in, and with the disease already plaguing her, it’s only ... a matter of time before it catches up with her. Hope however comes her way when she is among the lucky 160 patients diagnosed with the disease to undergo an experiment, they will be put into cryostasis where they will remain until a cure for the disease is found and they eventually get healed. However when the patients do awake they find their surroundings in ruin, covered in thorns and overrun with monsters unknown to the human race. Inevitably what ensues is a struggle to survive and to find out what happened to the world in the time they were in deep sleep.

One of the points that will really draw readers in is the whole mystery in the experience, this holds true not only for the reader but for the characters as well; not knowing what may lie in wait around the corner really creates that edge of the seat experience. Of course survival isn’t the only objective, they have to also discover what in the world is going on, which prompts them to look for clues and make those all important discoveries, most of which provide some very startling and interesting plot twists, it’s a nice form of storytelling in which both the characters and reader have the world open up around them, be it in a subtle or explosive manner. Dialogue and pacing are also on the positive side of things, you will rarely want to skip panels or quickly skim through as almost every conversation holds strong bearing to the story, be it how they choose to progress or brainstorming on some ill-fated secret they come upon.

Of course not everything goes according to plan, the monsters that roam the area are plentiful, each more fearsome and bloodthirsty than the last, when their paths cross, it leads the characters to some very tense encounters, sometimes characters are lucky enough to escape by the thin of a hair, but the opposite is also quite on the realistic side. Another nice note is that running maybe the primary, but is not always the only survival option, as most times the characters will have to scan their environments and use it to their advantage, this though isn’t as easy as it sounds as a few of the other monsters employ other means apart from sharp teeth to kill! Monsters are of course not the only thing to fear, the characters are all infected with the virus which is quickly spreading throughout their bodies, so its presumably both a race of survival and time. Equipment such as weapons, food and first aid are quite scarce to come upon, this prompts the characters to make smart usage of their limited resources and always have to stay on high alert, couple all these things together and you find that this is a manga that rarely has any dull moments.

A lot of detail was worked into the surrounding to really give it that post apocalypse feel, the thorns that run almost all through the facility really states to bare how long the place may have been deserted which is further emphasized with the abundant depictions of destruction all around. Character designs had a great depth to it but maybe a bit lacking in some areas but with the effort put into other areas this quickly becomes an afterthought. A large amount of praise has to be given to the paneling, the word lazy did not in any way cross the artist’s mind, you may find yourself surprised at how well the panels are well detailed and information moves almost fluidly from one section to the next, if not for the manga being in white and black, it can in more ways than one be mistaken for an anime.

In comparison to the story, the characters fell a bit short of expectations, while they all had a single objective, their personalities were nothing to get people charmed. Shizuku is an introvert and always wished she could be like her more open extroverted twin sister, her guilt over being chosen for the experiment instead of her sister often overwhelms her and threatens to throw her to lose her sanity, the frequent flashbacks to their time together is something that really could have featured a little less often. Marco Owen however is a computer hacker who after a short time in prison has come out as a macho ‘man of action’, his knowledge as a geek coupled with his new physical prowess makes him easily the most interesting character in the group. The remaining characters while are never forgotten and do make reasonable addition to the plot never come off as interesting enough to talk about.

However where the characters in my opinion more than redeem themselves is how they interact with their environment and each other. These people are all strangers to one another, given their current situations they have no choice but to cooperate if they intend to have any hope to come out of this alive, now being human you can tell that it will never always be flowers and roses. While they all move together as a unit, more often than not for some it’s a chance to use others as a shield to protect themselves, topics such as leadership of the group and what action to take next often lead to disputes or even a times fist fights, alliances are formed, betrayals are wrought and conspiracy is something that always seems to be in the air.

Take the survival horror genre that is so popular in the west and Europe and add in the more superior storytelling of the east and you have you a roller coaster ride that never stops. It’s a read that the seeds continue to sprout right from the first chapter and all the way to its grim conclusion. Placing so much emphasis on not just surviving but very detailed aspects of how this takes place coupled with some very interesting plot twists really shows what captivates most people about survival horror.

For almost 3 decades, the world of ‘The legend of Zelda’ has continued to astound us with not only great gameplay mechanics but with a setting so immersive and well thought out that to this day remains to be a pioneer figure in the video games industry. We are all aware of the hugely impounding popularity of the games, but how does the manga installment of skyward sword fair up to its game counterpart?

Unfortunately that last statement doesn’t hold, there is little comparison between this one shot and its game counterpart. Unlike the other mangas of Zelda that are a retelling of the games’ story, ... this one shot tells a completely different story, it’s an expansion of the games’ prologue, telling the tale of the Goddess Hylia and her fight against the demon lord that threatens to obtain the triforce and throw Hylia into darkness. Key elements of the games and references are sprinkled throughout but the thing about this one shot is that it brings a lot more questions to the table than it cared to answer. This one shot not only serves as the games’ prequel but following the chronology of the universe, is currently the genesis tale of the Zelda world, and as such has quite the large pair of boots to fill.

The Goddess Hylia wielding the master sword is in search of a worthy person who can wield the sacred blade, she chooses a young hylian knight named Link, from there on things get…..weird. The length is immediately seen as the biggest problem and this is apparent all through as events unfold with such tumbling velocity that readers may not have a chance to catch a breath. More than once, plot devices are abruptly introduced without reason or meaning, while these events carry a bit of norm to any Zelda enthusiast, as a standalone title, the manner in which they are introduced is poor. The dialect the author chose to use for this may come off as a bit cheesy to some people.

This manga does fairly well in the art department, it looks good, pencil lines are nicely done and expressions on the faces are well depicted. Attention was also given to little details, be it the traditional clothing on link or the design on loftwings, and the demons are covered with a nice silhouette which really brought out their evidently nasty intentions.

If you’re only accustomed to Link’s grunts and shouts in the game, his characterization here may come off as unusual. Link is first introduced to us as the hero of the land who was falsely accused and locked up for 4 years, but released after evidence proving his innocence surfaced. Despite this incident which would have called for harbored feelings of aggravation which would in turn, turn to lust for retribution, didn’t pull through as Link here is presented as a patriot who gives all for blood and country despite whatever squabbles may have occurred in the past, this however didn’t satisfy the writers as they went further enough to introduce the ‘nakama’ tone into the mix of all this, and Link’s dialect didn’t help to alleviate his ailing image.

Average hours of gameplay for Zelda games: 40 hours, average length of Manga: 11 chapters. With these stats it’s easy to see that reproducing a new story from such a complex tale with a one-shot was a doomed endeavor from the get-go, however despite this one-shot’s shortcomings, diehard fans know that in whatever shape or form it comes in, any addition to the lore of the franchise opens up vast number of paths from which future installments can be built from.

“Reviews for the Unreviewed”.

(RU-bu)

Vampires; Unfortunately writers have not been kind to our sharp toothed and blood thirsty friends, as they are constantly subject to antagonism, animosity, resentment and moral bias in most franchises that they appear in, Blood soul is no exception.

Naoyuki Fujisawa’s manga takes place in a world where both humans and demons exist, with the humans living in constant fear of the demons, to their salvation comes the Van Hellsing church, an order who prioritizes its main job as the ‘purification’ of demons with the ambition of one day creating an all human world. Our protagonist here is Red, a fallen vampire lord out for blood ... after losing his powers several years ago.

Despite its attempt to be something new, bloodsoul unfortunately ends up bringing nothing new to the table, it in fact took several chapters from the ‘how to make a manga story’ textbook. We have our protagonist who has a unique or special ability with revenge as his main motive, all brawn no brain, and even makes use of a sword (fang) as his weapon in an age where machinery is highly developed. His personality is rash as expected and most enemies serve as nothing more than gore fests.

The art is also fairly generic along with the character design, nothing really much to add. The panels however were nicely detailed; combat was extremely easy to follow as each panel immediately followed the next action seamlessly. Despite its short length it still managed to show a little background on the protagonist but this was only as to show his reason for revenge which goes without saying as it is the story’s driving force.

If 6 episodes is a small length for an anime then you can only imagine what 6 chapters of a manga can be interpreted as. Given the short length though it really could have aimed higher, the poor story and characterization becomes its biggest letdowns along the way with the author going for gore as a fail-safe plan to draw attention. Ultimately it isn’t a complete waste of time but the cliché atmosphere makes it something that can easily be forgotten but given its short length it serves as a decent quick read on the bus coming home from work.

(Reviewed for the club "Reviews for the unreviewed")

"War educates the senses, calls into action the will, perfects the physical constitution, brings men into such swift and close collision in critical moments that man measures man." – Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1882.

Yasuhisa Hara’s Manga takes place in the warring state period of China, as the country is divided into seven smaller nations, each trying to conquer the other. It follows a young war orphan named Xin from the Country Qin, who one day on his way returning to his village with his best friend witnesses a battle between two armies, inspired by the spectacle before him, he vows to one day become one of ... the greatest Generals alive. The first arc of the show serves as an introduction to the warring times, demonstrating the harshness of living in such times and the brutal power struggles. At this time Xin meets the young king Ying Zheng and after offering his assistance and proving himself, gets drafted into the army and given a chance to turn his ambitions into reality.

Kingdom showcases some extremely large scale military battles and for the most part does an outstanding job in capturing the atmosphere on a battlefield. Kingdom doesn’t always revolve around the fighting, but on the different strategies the Generals implement to try to gain the upper hand over an opponent. The strategies remain diverse and differ depending on the general and may change at a moment’s notice depending on the situation on ground, showing that adaptation is an important factor. While it does contain an abundance of strategies, it does well in the fact of not overwhelming us with too much of it, the ‘brain vs. brawn’ argument is also laid bare and the series hints at reading the flow of battle, anticipating what your opponent will do and knowing the right strategy to apply always wins the day.

Kingdom also demonstrates that a battle is never a one man mission, it requires co-operation between several squads and sub-squadrons given different tasks to carry out that ensure victory. Our protagonist, Xin, is indeed powerful when compared to a normal soldier, but the series carefully makes sure not to depict him as over-powerful, and it never tries to make the mistake of making him take center stage in a battle, as of course an overpowered MC from the get-go would indeed be boring. At every battle Xin’s squad is given a particular task to perform on the battlefield, this task may mildly or adversely affect the whole state of the battle and after which he withdraws to a supporting role as other squads and different part of the army take the center stage. In the rare cases Kingdom does shy away from the battlefield it deals with simple character interactions or matters of Diplomacy and state.

The emotions the show throws at you are also immense, battles get so tense it may literally have some people at the edge of their seats and just writhing in agony at the prospects of what may happen next, more so when characters find themselves in a seemingly hopeless situation. Survival is of course the main objective but the soldiers also display a sense of chivalry about them, in the sense of even when greatly outnumbering an opponent, once their commander is killed, they usually withdraw. The pacing remains almost flawless all through, never dragging on but also not moving too fast for audiences to lose sight of it. The script is also very well written, while not too simplistic or psychological, characters engage in smart dialogue that doesn’t seem redundant and is always straight to the point never beating around the bush. Even those pre-battle speeches a commander gives, serves as more than just a morale booster.

3DCGI has always looked wonderful in games and full CG animations, why? Because these forms of animations have always been aimed at making the art of the show look as close to real life as possible. However, when incorporated in anime, which takes its pride in being different from real life, it’s a completely different story. Its plastic appearance and mechanical motion has made a great number of anime that incorporate heavy use of CG to be assessed as mediocre.

Kingdom makes extensive use of CG animation, first of all the CG actually has varying qualities, there are times when it looks as terrible as it’s known but other times it’s truly a spectacle to behold. I find myself most frustrated with the quality of the CG at the start of the show, the quality of the first couple of episodes was quite poor and did nothing but chase away any potential viewers who might have wanted to stick with it to the end.

Once you get past the bad quality of the initial episodes, the animators reward us with some high quality CG that certainly impresses with some great choreographed action sequences. The studio also didn’t fail to take full advantage of the CG on the battlefield, the number of characters drawn on the screen was indeed much but they always made sure these characters moved independently for the most part and not the ‘Foosball table’ combat one may have anticipated. 360 degree camera rotations and different camera positions are also plentiful.

Despite the shows seemingly low production values, it had a number of very popular seiyuus, the likes of Fukuyama Jun and Morita Masakazu grace us with some very powerful performances, almost all the seiyuus left powerful impressions on their characters. The soundtracks in Kingdom mostly comprise of orchestral pieces and the sound director did a great job of adding the right track to suit a situation, be it a dramatic, comedic or tense moments. Kingdom also spans an OP and three ED songs.

Kingdom features one of the greatest character growths I have ever witnessed in any anime. Our protagonist Xin, not only grows physically in his strength and sword fighting skills but also grows mentally, when we first meet him, he is your everyday brute that solves all his problem with the throw of a punch or the swing of his sword but as he gains experience in battle he starts to use a bit of intellect to his duties. One can’t help but feel proud of the young lad who rose from obscurity when we see him gain accomplishments on the battlefield and one can’t help but do a victory dance every now and then when he succeeds with all the odds seemingly stacked against him. Even simple events like Xin receiving his first ever payment or him buying his first ever piece of armor are events that truly warm the heart.

The supporting characters also receive a decent slice of the pie, their personalities of most of them are unique and also at the same time enjoyable, the show has no shortage of standout characters and you may have a hard time picking a favorite. The majority of the female characters in the show in particular, although few and far in between, were all great, they never act weak, play the damsel in distress or used for profane fan service and actually are capable of single handedly dismantling a large number of their male counterparts. Despite the large number of cast, Kingdom does a great job in developing most of them in very enjoyable fashion whilst keeping the pacing near flawless, I was honestly shocked by the amount of content that went into 38 episodes and the show never beats around the bush with needless flashbacks and dragging themes but always stays precise and straight to the point.

Kingdom has indeed for me been a diamond in the rough, it had a lack luster opening but slowly grew into something impressive. The CG may bring it down a notch or two but it more than does enough to cover for it in with its vibrant story and great characters. The decision of the author to put character growth ahead of everything else has indeed proven a perfectly worked out formula. While the large, heart-wrenching and pulse-pounding battles will receive the most attention, we can’t deny that it was a show that attempted to impress in all departments.

To create a show with such a large world that almost accurately captures the principles and aesthetics of ancient warfare is indeed quite a feat, but to execute it with so very few flaws, absolutely boggles the mind.

Despite Moral Values which are supposedly instilled in all human beings, Violence and Lust are two sensations that will always be prevalent no matter how much of a saint you claim to be. Taking the violence route, deathmatches are activities that people enjoy watching to appease this sensation, however since this activity is not something that is practiced in a modern world anywhere, most shows like Mirai Nikki for example will try to involve some sort of supernatural event to give the story more depth. Therefore it was with great surprise when I stumbled upon btooom and discovered it threw away such ethics and ... presented itself as a genuine real-world deathmatch, but without this monumental backing, is it something to take seriously?

Sakamoto Ryouta is an unemployed 22 year old who spends most of his time alone at home playing the popular online game btooom, which is an online MMO where players use bombs to battle each other. With his skill he has risen to the status of one of the 10 best players in the world. However, one day he awakens to find himself on an island and later on discovers the island is a real world representation of his popular btooom game, with playing the game in real life his only chance of escape. On the surface, the story of btooom seems a bit…silly, attempts at indulging a friend will have them questioning the very concept of the show, ‘a deathmatch using bombs’ isn’t something that is assured to strike a fancy with most people, however if you should give the show a chance you’ll soon discover it falls under the ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ category.

The rules, mechanics and strategies in btooom unlike the story are actually very well thought of. Firstly we have different types of bombs, the series encourages the use of strategies and an impressive aspect is how a player has to choose his strategy depending on what type of bomb they possess, players have to switch between stealth, guerrilla or trap tactics and even sometimes deception, and most times choosing the right tactic may be the difference between life and death. Players also have surgically attached to their hand a sonar system that when used gives them the ability to detect other players over a certain distance, an impressive fact about this is that you can only detect a moving player, a motionless player will not be detected by the sonar but in turn the player who uses this ability will be detected by other players within its range, motion or motionless. This places the heavy burden of decision making and also brings forth the idea of taking a gamble in order to survive, so players ultimately have to decide whether an action is worth it or not before taking it, a great deal of rationalism is required.

As mentioned earlier, btooom’s choice of presenting itself in a modern world setting with a slight emphasis on the reality that it is an event that could take place in real life may be its undoing. The series gives us a weak excuse as to how and why they ended up on this island and when viewed from a different angle it won’t be wrong to view the story as a weak idea of giving us a reason to watch people kill each other. However if you were to overlook the weak story introduction, btooom has some interesting concepts.

In order to leave the island however, a player must gather 8 chips surgically attached to each player and can only be removed when a player dies. This revelation ultimately encourages alliances but the real interesting question the story poses on the players here is; who do you trust? We all know that humans are quick to betray and go for the easy way out and this aspect of the show although not playing too big of a role as it should have, didn’t disappoint. The show introduces the players to us as everyday individuals but it showed very little of the psychological strain brought about by their situation. It did indeed showcase this initially but the characters seem to accept the reality of their situation too quickly and move on while any normal person might breakdown from the experience.

The art style used in btooom is very good indeed, as expected of powerhouse studio madhouse, the art is very dark as expected to depict the nature of the show and the quality hardly drops for even a second. Character design is also done very well with art style similar to shows like deathnote, all the characters look wonderful and through the art one can already spell out any future intentions a character may harbor. Animation was also quite decent; those of you who will slow motion play an explosion of a bomb will be impressed at the reality of the visuals. The most important factor in the animation aspect of the show is the timings of the bomb, being a manga adaptation, we only see a bomb thrown in one panel and exploding the next but in the anime, timing is an essential issue and it wasn’t something that was slacked on. However there are times when the countdown is slower than usual thereby giving our protagonists the chance to make some last second escapes, a deux ex machine from the animators. The blast range of the explosions also seemed to be disproportional a times, as a bomb of the same type will cover a large blast range in one scene but a smaller one in another.

Nano sings the OP theme titled ‘no pain, no game’, an upbeat j-pop song that went well with the mood of the show. The ED entitled ‘Aozora (blue sky)’ by May’n is a slow paced j-pop song that seemed out of place for a show that showcases people trying to end each others lives. Sound effects especially that of the explosions were done well with seemingly tiny variations between the type of bomb used, the sound of the sonar in particular I found to be quite resourceful.

The characters in the show seemed to lack depth, the series was unable to instill in its viewers a reason to care about them even when thrown in dire situations, it did try to show us a bit of their past but it was mostly an afterthought that did very little to explain why and how they behave in the present. Our protagonist, Ryouta is your average shut-in who believes the whole world is as is viewed on the internet. As such when thrown into this situation he still holds this strong sense to do right and also easily has faith in others and quick to trust, although this quality of his may tend to be a slight annoyance as he puts his faith in people who obviously wish to cause him harm. Himiko, our female protagonist was introduced to us as a school girl with a dark past, the series went a bit overboard to demonstrate to us the harshness of the island as himiko is more than once subject to lustful intentions of some male players in the game and some female viewers may find themselves unhappy with this addition.

Although it had a somewhat weak story telling initially we can’t deny it has a sense of originality and despite its adopted antics from a few video game mechanics it still manage to feel fresh. If you’re looking for a deathmatch anime, there are better choices but btooom is definitely amongst one of the decent ones. In my opinion though, btooom may have been released for the wrong media type, it is indeed a decent anime but with a few improving of storytelling concepts and certain mechanics, just as depicted in the anime, btooom would have made a wonderful video game.