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Jan 31, 2018
For any fan of the recent Anime Devilman Crybaby and wondered if you should give this OVA a try, this review is for you. At this point, you’ve probably seen a couple “Devilman dub is gold” or “Devilman dub is a treasure.” The sheer quirkiness of some of the dialogue has made these videos become incredibly popular. After it being brought to your attention, you might wonder is Devilman: Tanjou-hen worth watching?
Story (5/10)
The story of Devilman: Tanjou-hen (also known as Devilman: The Birth) is much the same of the devilman you already know. Akira, young weak boy meets up with his good friend Ryo. Ryo
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tells him about the existence of devils, turns him into devilman. We all know this basic plot, it’s the premise of Devilman Crybaby, but it’s the summary of Devilman: Tanjou-hen. In Crybaby, there was plenty of time to go beyond the basic premise and tell the story, Tanjou-hen on the other hand seems to act more of a prequel. Of course, it is important to note that Tanjou-hen has a sequel, but rating it on it’s own values shows that the plot is shallow.
Furthermore, the entire OVA, save for the last fifteen minutes, serves as buildup for the OVA, but never managing to go further than the premise. The pacing of the OVA suffers because of this fact, too long when there is no action and right when the OVA gets to a part with high intensity it ends.
Speaking of the pacing, there are some real weird moments of Akira and Ryo just standing and staring at each other. Not an intense mid battle stare, just standing there. There came a point where it became uncomfortable as a viewer as it seemed that the stare passed the ten second mark, which is an awful long time to stare.
Of course, the story that it does include is well done and enjoyable. The story does not gain praise nor scorn. It’s mediocre at best.
TLDR: Not much to speak of on the story, the premise of Devilman is what you get and no further. Pacing issues.
Art (7/10)
It’s always hard for an old anime to age well, and especially looking in the retrospective it is easy to be critical of art. That being said, I will try my best to put bias aside and give a fair review.
The art for this OVA was good. The landscapes at the beginning are nice, albeit run of the mill. I think where the art shines through is when the characters faces are drawn. There are some very quirky lines in Tanjou-hen and the visuals accompany it. While I’m sure that people will say that the lines are bad, and therefore so are the visuals, it is important to remember: regardless of what you thought of the lines the art did a good job representing it. One of the notable, yet unimportant, characters of the show was the goofy gangster. His movements and facial expressions mimicked how his character was weird and mocking. Even Akira’s facial expressions were very good in more comedic moments. The monsters were creative and interesting. What I think took away some of the points that the art earned was again the weird stare downs. When flashing between two characters faces with no change in expression, it is hard to get new information.
TLDR: Nice art for the time, landscape was run of the mill, but the characters motions and facial expressions shined through. But again the weird stare downs were a problem for me.
Sound (6/10)
There were few times when I actually noticed the sound/music in the OVA, but that wasn’t a bad thing. It fit the show well, but it didn’t hold any particular impact for me. There were moments that I would hear soft creepy music playing in the OVA (there is a lot of that type of music) and would think, that’s nice. It didn’t distract me from the show, but it definitely added to the experience, even if in a minor way.
TLDR: It was Fine.
Character (7/10)
The characters of Devilman are iconic, and while Tenjou-hen misses some of the nuances that might have been there in another adaptation, it still nails these fun characters on the surface. Akira is still weak and Ryo is still an asshole, but each has a bit of humor attached to them. Akira’s desire to escape situations, disbelief, and awkwardness that lead to the comedy in his actions and reactions. For Ryo, it’s his dry nature and sarcasm that carries the moedy.
TLDR: No nuance, but fun characterization with humor.
Enjoyment (8/10)
I truly think that enjoyment is the most important category for this show in particular, especially if you are tempted to watch this show after watching a youtube video or two on the dub. I personally watched the dub, because of the youtube videos I watched as well as that was the method that was most accessible to me. I think watching this is a bit similar to Ghost Stories as there is no genuine reason why it's good, but you enjoy it nonetheless and you can’t say the dub isn’t entertaining. If you’re willing to watch a whole fifty minutes worth of an OVA to catch ever nugget of gold in the dub, to listen to every single casually dropped curse word, then this OVA is for you. If after watching a single youtube video, you think had enough of Tanjou-hen, then I wouldn’t go on to watch the entire OVA.
TLDR: The quotes from this show make it so enjoyable
Overall (7/10)
The OVA was something good and incredibly enjoyable for me, but was nothing spectacular. If you are wanting to watch the OVA in a serious fashion, I don’t particularly recommend it since that is not the part of it I enjoyed the most. If you are looking for laughable moments in an otherwise serious series and don’t mind spending 50 minutes to further immerse yourself in the world of Devilman and some of the memes behind it, then go for it, the OVA is for you.
TLDR: If you’re in for a fun time, go for it. Don’t expect anything too serious or phenomenal.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Sep 27, 2017
No Spoilers, TLDR at the end of each section
Story (4/10)
Classroom of the Elite follows students of Class D, also known as the misfits and inferior student, as they struggle in the school and try to become Class A. Specifically, it follow the seemingly uninterested protagonist Ayanokouji Kiyotaka. The premise is amazing and I was expecting a serious, drama filled, version of Baka to Test. Instead, at episode seven the series completely changes. The first six episodes take place in a school setting with school problems. Even in the case of Sakura Airi’s problem, although it's not directly school related, the way the school functions and
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is set up plays an important part in how the issue is dealt with.
Episode seven is when there is a clear tone shift, from serious school drama you get lighthearted fanservice. While it was not what fans signed up for, it okay to have one filler episode, even if it is a twelve episode series. The problem with the pool episode was that the fanservice it accomplished would be provided in the following episodes. The students go to a cruise, and then an island, and the cruise presents time for bathing suit shenanigans. The pool episode was a waste of precious time that this series need. From episode eight onwards, the series focuses on one arc of the characters on the cruise and island. Some may argue that the five episodes used for this important arc were too few, but I would say that if they had paced themselves better the problem would be less severe. For the first part of this arc, you have the characters wandering around, doing nothing much in particular, at least nothing important to the plot. When the series finally seems to be aware of the fact that is is ending, it rushes through the second part, leaving it a jumbled mess. It becomes plainly incoherent. The last episode manages to wrap things up rather well considering the mess it followed. While it was by no means excellent, the last episode closed plot holes and baited viewers to a season two. My main issue with the episode was that it had too little time to accomplish everything it was after, rushing took away possible enjoyability of the story, and that it assumed that the viewers were dumb. Points that were made clear to the viewer just by watching the show were hammered into us like it was a revelation. It is hard to say exactly how without spoilers, but I’ll give you my best comparison. It acted as if it revealed the who committed the murder in a mystery while it actually was saying Light is actually Kira. It treats information we already know as a mystery.
TLDR; Premise was great, after episode six the story changed and it got worse.
Art (10/10)
The art in this show was amazing. Hands down, I got to give credit where it is due. The characters were incredibly easy to distinguish from one another. While the female character have mostly the same face structure, their eyes and expressions differ greatly. The males had more variety of facial structure as well as similar amounts of differences in their eyes and expressions. There were interesting design choices made for some characters, such as Sudou Ken, which allowed an escape from the usual character designs. The antagonistic characters would win my design award, they were completely different from each other and I wasn’t able to off the top of my head call out ten other characters that look like them.
Not only was the character design good, but the actual animation of characters and their motions. Ex. Kushida’s face. Enough said. The eyes in this series were incredibly expressive, sometimes just a look could tell you exactly what a character was thinking. The only character that this didn’t seem to apply to was Ayanokouji, which was done on purpose. Even with characters such as him, the series was able to convey his personality through the way he walked and stood. Overall, the series did a good job on its characters.
Of course, a series isn’t only made up of character art. The overall environment in the series well well drawn and visually appealing.
TLDR; I loved the art, characters unique, backgrounds nice.
Sound 10/10
The music used in the anime was really nice, it completed the scenes without distracting. Relied a lot on simple sounding piano music.
The voice actors in the series were quite good, all of them got into their characters perfectly. I would give my props to Ayanokouji and Kushida. Ayanokouji’s voice actor nailed the flat tone bored voice without making it boring to us. The lines that were executed sarcastically were also done with great timing and inflection. Kushida’s voice actor did a good transition between two different voices.
TLDR; great music, great voice acting
Character (5/10)
The characters, like their appearances, were quite unique. The basis of each character made you want to learn more about them, or let you identify them immediately. At the beginning of the series you see the foundation for the slow build in character development. You want to figure out what is behind Ayanokouji’s boredom as well as why he’s so strangely op, you want to know what is up with Horikita and her brother, about why Kushida acts the way she does, even the minor characters are so interesting that you want to learn about them. Unfortunately, like the story, any hope for good character development goes away at episode seven. Some characters at later episodes receive pushed developments that are so fake the character would be better off without them. Ayanokouji as well, the series tries to do a big reveal, but it really falls flat.
TLDR; Characters were promising, but development went to shit along with the story
Enjoyment (7/10)
The series started off really strong, and I was really enjoying it for half the season. The second half of the season was much weaker, and in terms of quality it suffered. Despite that, I kept watching the show. Some enjoyment was still there, but significantly less.
TLDR; Beginning was really enjoyable, second half not really, but I still kept watching it so points for that.
Overall (6/10)
I came to this show with high expectations, I thought that it would be my favorite of this season. While the show started off great, the decline in story, character development, and enjoyment from episode seven on really affected my perspective. The decline in in story and character might be due to difficulty dealing with the arc, which is why I had wished they hadn’t put in a filler episode. If there was a season 2, I would watch it, but I would also hope they would learn from their mistakes of season one and I would have lower expectations.
TLDR; Great potential, failed execution
Mean Score: 7
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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May 1, 2017
Some Spoilers (seventh not given away)
I didn't finish Rokka - Braves of the six flowers- the season it aired. No, it was a long time after it that I finally finished, incredibly excited to finish a show I used to hype so much. But the show did not follow up on its beginning, rather it went downhill, rather quickly. Due in part to being a light novel adaptation that was squeezed into twelve episodes, the content that viewers expected to receive wasn't there. The whole battle with the demon king? Nonexistent. What seemed to be a couple of episodes stuck in a temple turned
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out to be the entire series, which turned out to be quite boring. After the initial excitement of the battles and worry about Adlet, the episodes became somewhat predictable and followed the same pattern. Suspicion, fight, repeat. Really I would have even excused it if for the last episode they finally moved on, but until the last couple minutes they were stuck within the barrier. The relationship between Adlet and Flamie really caught me off guard since Adlet never expressed any real interest in her. All the sudden he loved her, and then they became the power duo. I think that they could have written their relationship to be well established with Adlet clearly showing to the audience that he liked Flamie. The production quality of the show went to shit, at some parts I even laughed. They set the bar high only to drop it towards the end, visuals of Adlet seem to scream parody anime that doesn't try to be good. Stills filled every shot of the scene, the detail no where to be found. As if those problems weren't enough, in the final episode in the final minutes they decide to introduce a new character. If that sounds ridiculous, you're right. There is no logical reason to introduce a character that late. In show that spent its whole air time finding the seventh, it ruins any gratification of knowing who was the outsider if you just say, "one of them maybe the outsider still." The wrap up of the show was honestly disappointing, but I have to be honest the first couple of episodes was enjoyable. We were introduced to characters that were unique from each other and initially had good animation, there was a clear goal in sight and the path the show was taking was clear. Unfortunately the characters were not all shown off, many of them getting hardly any screen time, the animation went to shit, the goal was never met or even started really, and the show went off its rails taking its clear find the seventh and defeat the demon kind path to we really nothing since there is another seventh. Honestly I wish I could say it was good, but at best I can say it was average and even then I would be lying to myself. It was bad. It was disappointing. The second half really ruined any good parts he first half had.
By the way, want a resolution to this series? Hah, funny. There is no continuation, so at the end of the shitty cliffhanger, you're left there forever. Have fun.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Jun 19, 2016
There is a TL;DR at the end. Just a little intro to my review, I have to say I really enjoyed this series. I was not expecting much from it since it was original content and nothing had been said about it before. I think that as an anime series it did a great job and was also completely different from everything else we have been seeing for the past few season. Also if you are a little lazy you can just read the Overall.
Story: The story is about 30 men and women, some younger and some older, who go to an unmarked village to
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escape reality. It's very vague. And the show likes to keep it's entire story vague. For the mystery genre it works quite well since we are always second guessing ourselves and trying to play detective, but it also does have some faults. Until the very last episodes you don't have a clue what is going on, at least not for sure. And as you desperately search for answers you get more questions. While this can be also a strong point, it retains a sense of mystery to everything, I think that it to many viewers can be a weakness. People may not understand what is going on in terms of plot so they just label it as bad and move on. While I think that the bigger story of what happens in this village is quite good, I think that it would have been better if it could have been a 13 or 24 episode series as I feel that it needed more time to bring the story justice. That being said most of the characters had their own stories. In many episodes you see glimpses to the past that show how they got to this point and why they ran away. I wish that we could have seen it with more characters and I think that it being a longer series would have helped with that.
Story: (8/10)
Art: Each of the characters in the series had their own unique look, so even if you didn't remember their name (although some of them were quite memorable such as Assbound, I mean Hyouketsu no Judgeness,) you will remember them by how they look. The setting was an abandoned village in the middle of a forest, so there was plenty of opportunity for beautiful artwork. In my opinion, they took it. The building had a great look that combined the old and abandoned with still usable. SOMEWHAT SPOILERS AHEAD: The "monsters" (because I don't want to spoil too much) also have a weird and interesting art style devoted to them. And yes scary. Some of them are just not as scary by nature, but one of them... I couldn't sleep after them. (Spoiler: It's the boob monster.) SOMEWHAT SPOILERS ENDED. Also a particular scene in with the starry sky was just done so beautifully, you could see each little star, and even though nighttime in the series is usually dark and dangerous, in this scene if was a serene setting that really let it become something touching.
Art: (9/10)
Sound: I think that both the opening and ending were very good songs that complimented the series, but that's not all the sounds that the anime had to offer. Throughout the series music was used, whether it be from the hippopotamus song to the gentle theme that reoccurs. In both cases I think that the music added to the series instead of distracting or taking away from it. I have to admit though sometime's when Koharun sings it seemed a little sudden, although it did have a very creepy vibe, I'll give it that.
Sound: (9/10)
Characters: This show has thirty characters. I repeat this show has thirty characters. Every single one of them has a personality. While other characters are introduced throughout the series, I'm focusing on just the thirty that come into the village. Many times there is an anime that has a couple main characters and then several supporting characters, the supporting characters are shoved to the side and receive no personality. Even if the amount of screen time for the characters can sometimes be small, each one of them has a different personality and way they act. Even in the background these characters remain consistent. That being said there is character development and growth. The most obvious one being Mitsumune, even though he still has that naivety and weakness to him, he becomes much more than that. I thought that he was a wimp at the beginning of the series but by the end he had my respect. The other characters have their moments as well, but I feel like too much details would give away spoilers.
Characters: (8/10)
Enjoyment: I'm giving this a ten for enjoyment, because I enjoyed this series so much. I came expecting a good series, but had no clue really what it would be. Horror mystery murder? I wasn't sure. This series made me want to find out though, I waited, not so patiently, to be able to watch each episode and each time I did I was rewarded with something that I loved and was curious about. I wish that the anime had more than twelve episodes for this reason, at first it developed very slowly, giving you things to question and to wonder about, but never giving you enough answers to be able to fully grasp what was actually happening. I think that was a strength of the show. If anyone checked out the reddit thread for Mayoiga you will see countless confused people making theories, believing the more implausible ones because the nature of this show says regular logic won't work. The show makes the viewer curious, want more, and really wonder what the show is about. I think that made the show great, and for me enjoyable.
Enjoyment: (10/10)
Overall: I liked this series so much, and while I don't know if I can really recommend this to others, if you happen upon this series and are curious about it I highly recommend it. If it were just up to my personal opinion I would have given it a 9/10, but I'm not. I'm doing this because I'm trying to see it a little more objectively than I just love it. There were definitely some flaws to the series, but I think they can be overlooked once you factor everything else in. Especially if you follow the Reddit thread I think this will be a good watch. While this show can be a miss with some people, I think a majority people if they just give it a chance and watch it all the way through would like it more than they think. With all the theories and second guessing, it was actually a mystery, despite the plot not being a traditional mystery. I'm one of the people who watched this show genuinely, although I am able to see from the eyes of those watching it as an unintentional comedy. It does have a WTF factor. Either way you watch it, I think Mayoiga is a series that can be easily enjoy and does a good job at what it does.
Overall: (8/10)
TL;DR: While Mayoiga is an anime which right now is highly contested as good vs. bad, I think that it completes it's duties as an anime and is very entertaining. While some consider it bad they have still watched the anime and been hooked, which makes me question if that just means it is good. It at times can be confusing or WTF inducing, but all the other factors of the show along with how addicting it is makes it a good show. Whether you are watching it as a joke or genuinely I believe you will be able to enjoy the series.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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