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Jan 31, 2018
ACCA is an anime in which nothing ever comes to fruition. Plot points are introduced and dissolved with no ripple effect whatsoever; all of the show's potential goes completely wasted on sandwich bread and cigarettes.
CHARACTERS: 3/10
While many of the characters are likeable, almost all of them are flat and uninteresting, including the protagonist, Jean.
The most interesting characters in the story are Jean's best friend Nino and one of the five chief officers of ACCA, Lilium. These are the two characters with the most thought put into their backstories and intentions.
Jean himself is the most boring character in the show. He doesn't seem to have any
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goals or ambitions. He doesn't seem to have any drive or emotion. He's completely deadpan the entire time, at most cracking a smirk or raising an eyebrow.
STORY: 6/10
Do not be fooled: this is not an anime filled with political intrigue like all of the descriptions say. This is an anime about baked goods and cigarettes and I can't explain that any further without veering into spoilers.
The first seven episodes each spend time setting up dominoes only to knock them down the very same episode and then never address them again. If you only watch the first three episodes of the series, I will tell you now that you will never again hear of the serial arson plotline even though it goes completely unresolved. The same happens for every single interesting plot point that gets put forward. You spend 18 minutes excited to see how things all come together, then in the last 3 minutes before the end credits, Jean stumbles through, everything falls apart, no consequences are felt, and nothing changes. This is the cycle until Episode 8, when things finally pick up.
The plot twist at the end of Episode 7 is where things get really interesting, even if you picked up on all the hints and saw it coming. Unfortunately, Episodes 8-11 are the only episodes worth watching, as Episode 12 completely shirks all of the buildup from the previous episodes and tries to tie everything up in a neat little bow. It's rushed. It makes no sense. Nothing gets resolved. Almost nothing is different from the beginning of the series from the end.
The score is 6/10 exclusively because Episodes 8-11 are excellent. Episodes 1-7 and 12 are a boring slog that focuses too much of their time in bakeries and not enough time addressing any of the actual issues Jean is meant to be investigating. If I were to give a score based on those episodes alone, I would give this section a 1/10.
SOUND: 7/10:
ACCA's soundtrack isn't bad. You get some funky beats here and there, which can be fun if you're listening for them; otherwise, the music seems to fade too far into the background to notice. The OP track is a blast, and the ED is very pretty. The voice acting in the series is good, but nothing particularly notable.
ART: 8/10
The only reason that I didn't score the art for ACCA a perfect 10 is because there are some clear corners that were cut in order to afford to make it as beautiful as it is. The show is almost like a painting come to life. The colours and linework are brilliant, and the lighting is always perfect. There are so many gorgeous shots littered throughout this anime, it's a wonder anyone manages to talk about anything else when it comes to this show. Annoyingly, most of the budget shows in the final episode, where every other shot shows characters without faces, even in close-up shots.
It pains me to score such a beautiful anime so low, but aesthetic is all ACCA brings to the table.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Nov 1, 2017
Overall Rating: 9/10
Death Parade tells a brilliant, moving story of the value of human life and the unpredictability of human emotions. Don't let the OP trick you; this is not a happy anime. It is dark and heartbreaking, but absolutely worth the pain.
It starts off mostly episodic to introduce the viewer to the world and the circumstances, but then settles into a more character-focused story in the second half. The show follows Decim, an Arbiter who judges the souls of the dead, two by two, and condemns them to the Void or grants them another life through reincarnation. The judgment is carried out by
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way of games that force the dead to recall their lives, to remember the circumstances of their deaths, and to force out the "darkness" within them so that they may be properly judged. Alongside Decim is the soul of a girl whose memories were lost in the bureaucratic shuffle, unable to be put back together for her to be judged; she is allowed to stand in for three months - the duration of the judgment period - as Decim's assistant, to allow him time to understand her and make his judgment without having access to her memories.
Story: 9/10
As described above, the story follows Decim and the soul of a girl who cannot be properly judged in the usual manner. Together, the two of them deal with the parade of souls that comes walking through Decim's bar, propagating the games that will result in the verdict of heaven or hell for the individuals. Of course, a human being involved in the tribunals is highly unusual, and so Decim begins to question the methods the Arbiters use to come to their conclusions.
Unfortunately, this is not the only story running through the series. I say unfortunately because this is the only story they had enough time to properly tell, and all the rest of the exposition about the other Arbiters, the world they live in, and the circumstances surrounding all of it falls to the wayside and ends up feeling unfinished. This is one series that I wish had been given 24 episodes, as that would've allowed them plenty of time to tell the story of Decim and his assistant as well as expound upon the world the Arbiters inhabit and everything else that was touched on, but never satisfyingly concluded.
That being said, the main plot is magnificently written - the finale brought me to tears, which does not happen often - and even the episodic format of the first few episodes does not feel cheap like episodic shows sometimes can. Every episode tells you something about the main characters, and that's part of what makes this show so well written and entertaining.
Art: 10/10
This show is stunningly beautiful. The animation is incredible and the way all the shots are lit always feels supernatural, whether dark or hopeful and the background art often looks like you'd see it hanging in a museum somewhere. The character designs are interesting and unique, and yet they all feel as if they belong in this world together and they don't stick out like a sore thumb against the painterly environments. And, of course, we've all seen the iconic OP, so that's about as fabulous and tonally dissonant as it possibly could be.
Sound: 9/10
The soundtrack for this anime fits perfectly. Lots of strings, some haunting vocals, nothing too showy outside the OP; they tend to stick to the same handful of themes throughout, from what I could tell, and it works. The voice acting is phenomenal; every character sounds very natural and, although much of the speech has a matter-of-fact tone about it (for reasons that become clearer as the story progresses), the moments of drama and emotion are fantastically acted. Even the characters who only appear once are voiced perfectly.
Character: 8/10
Unfortunately, this is the weakest part of the show, in my opinion. The show would have been much better without as many characters as it has, because there simply wasn't enough time to give all of the supporting cast as much attention and exposition as they deserve. Everything and everyone in this show is highly intriguing, so the fact that we only get glimpses into the minds and goings on of the supporting cast only serves to cheapen the depth with which the one-off characters are written and the slow-burn exposition of the main protagonists when it should be enriching the world around them instead.
It can be difficult to judge the character writing when only one of the main characters is human, but the approach taken by Death Parade's writers is very skilled and seamless. We are surrounded by human emotion by virtue of the souls being judged, so it doesn't feel lacking when the Arbiters, who are not human, do not react the way you might expect, or push things in a direction you might not expect. It actually kind of acts as a way to trick your brain into thinking of the Arbiters as more human than they actually are, so when they do not act out of emotion it may come as a surprise. The juxtaposition is really expertly crafted and works as a highly effective tool to progress the core narrative.
Enjoyment: 10/10
This is where my personal rating for the show comes. I know it's not perfect. I know that it bit off more than it could chew in terms of world building. But I don't care. I loved every second of the show after the first episode (the first ep is a lot more brutal than I had expected, but from ep. 2 onward it is much easier and more enjoyable to watch), and there are not many anime that I can say have moved me to tears; this one managed it at least twice. I really loved this show and I wish it would've gotten 24 episodes to be able to properly tell the story.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Oct 29, 2017
Overall Rating: 6/10
サクラダリセット, or Sagrada Reset, is a perfect example of an excellent idea with very poor execution. The story follows a group of middle-to-high-school-age students who live in the fictional town of Sagrada, Japan, where about 50% of the town's population has special abilities. The abilities can range from something as simple as having a perfect photographic memory to something as incredible as temporary matter displacement or localized time travel. The show has some really thrilling moments, but overall these are bogged down in heavy dialog, poorly written characters, and a story full of plot holes that moves at a snail's pace, intercut
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with hilariously out-of-place KitKat commercials. Gotta get that #spon, right?
The biggest redeeming quality of this anime, in my opinion, is that it acts as a great supplement to your studies if you are learning Japanese. There is tons of dialogue to listen to, a few moments of interesting Japanese wordplay, and the lead female protagonist even speaks entirely in the polite register for the vast majority of the series. If you're learning Japanese and you would like a show to watch to help you with your aural comprehension, this is a pretty good one if you can keep up with how quickly they tend to speak.
Story: 7/10
In spite of myself, I quite enjoyed the story and the world that was built throughout the series. The story follows Asai Kei (浅井恵) and Haruki Misora (春樹美空) as they work together to make their town a better place using their combined abilities to turn back time and prevent small tragedies from occurring. Along the way, they unravel a sinister plot by a member of the Bureau, an organization dedicated to overseeing the abilities within Sagrada and ensuring that the dangerous ones remain in check. It's sort of like a slice of life turned mystery drama. It deals with themes of identity, compassion, righteousness, and some weird ones that are tough to summarize into a single word (such as whether a clone is close enough to the original to replace the original should the original die).
The pacing is strange and sometimes it seems like things happen in an unconventional order. That is mostly forgivable, as the show does revolve around time travel. Unfortunately, by the end of the series, you're left feeling like there are so many strings left untied, and the finale is extremely underwhelming. The group of students all, serendipitously, have abilities that seem to mesh perfectly together with each other to allow some pretty crazy things to happen later in the show, but it does seem a little too convenient at times. The thing that grated on me the most, however, was that there are many characters whose motivations are never explained, and the ones whose motivations are explained make little to no sense.
Art: 7/10
The art was the aspect of the show that gripped me first and got me to watch the first episode back when it aired in Spring 2016. It is a really beautiful show, even though it's lacking in terms of energy. The lighting and scenery is always gorgeous. The character designs are mostly pretty well done, with some fairly obvious references to other Manga/Anime (Michiru, for example, looks like she was pulled straight out of One Piece). My biggest complaint, though, is that the CG cars seem extremely out of place and awkward within the otherwise relatively traditional-feeling anime setting.
Sound: 5/10
The music for this show is fairly underwhelming. The first OP and ED theme for the show are both fairly bland. The second OP is much better, but the second ED theme is just... poorly structured and feels amateurish. The themes that play throughout the show tend to be simple dramatic piano pieces; they fit the show, but they don't really add much and could probably be swapped out with something else without changing the feel very much.
The voice acting is... dull, to put it lightly. This is not the fault of the seiyuu, but I think a problem with the direction and the overall tone of the show. Everyone is very matter of fact. Everyone talks quickly and drones on in a monotone. For certain characters, like Souma Sumire, this makes sense, but this is the case for every single character in the show. It feels depressive and lifeless.
Characters: 3/10
This is the biggest failing of Sagrada Reset. The only interesting thing about the characters is their abilities. It seems like they didn't even have any thought put into them beyond that. Haruki, the lead female, is literally a blank slate who does anything Kei asks without question. She could be swapped out with a first generation iPod Touch and the story would be essentially unchanged. Kei is very much a Mary Sue, as he somehow miraculously is able to outsmart and outpredict even the characters who have access to far more information, power, and insight than he ever could, and on top of it all he's wildly charismatic and can talk people into seeing things his way with relative ease. The supporting cast is far more interesting than the main duo, but they are barely touched upon outside of Souma Sumire.
The biggest faux pas here was the introduction of Oka Eri as an antagonist. She has zero motivation aside from that she wants to make Kei unhappy. They do not bother to explain anything beyond that, and when they do delve into her backstory, it doesn't result in any clearer understanding of why she hates Kei enough to go out of her way to screw him over. Then, after a few episodes, she's relegated to a background character who we barely ever see again.
Enjoyment: 6/10
All in all, I didn't hate this anime. I hated a lot of parts of this anime, but I still watched it all the way through. If you're studying Japanese and you want to watch a show with lots of dialogue and lots of different types of speech, then you'll probably enjoy this one in spite of its shortcomings. Just don't hold your breath for Haruki's character development.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Oct 18, 2017
FLCL is, to put it simply, a mess. But that's what makes it so incredible. The execution of this beautiful disaster of an anime is absolutely bar none. If you have never seen the show and you're thinking about diving in, prepare yourself for a rollercoaster ride because by the end of this show, you will have all kinds of whiplash.
STORY — 8/10 :
The story in FLCL takes a backseat to the other elements, but there certainly is a distinct plot. This is the story of a mysterious vespa-riding 19-year-old with pink hair, Haruhara Haruko, and her impact on the life of a 12-year-old
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boy, Naota (affectionately nicknamed Takkun), whom she physically, psychologically, and emotionally abuses as a means to her own ends. Naota, however, is convinced that everything that happens in his hometown is utterly bland and ordinary. If I could go further in depth without spoilers, I would, but the actual plot is very veiled throughout the show, as we're seeing the events through mostly Naota's eyes, but everything that is happening is a direct result of Haruko's attempts to reach her end goal.
This anime takes so many harsh left turns in tone that the genre is hard to pin down. It's sci-fi, a romance, a drama, a comedy, action, slice of life, and almost everything in between. One scene there'll be a mecha battle and the next will be a rapid-fire, pun-filled, multi-character exchange about what the fuck フリクリ means and the next will be a casual everyday school scene. It's like a car crash that you just can't look away from and you can never know what's coming next. The pacing is chaos and everyone involved, including the characters themselves, knows it.
ART — 10/10:
Fooly Cooly is one of the most incredibly stylish anime I've ever seen. Now, my list of series watched isn't terribly long, but I've definitely watched some gorgeous shows. This is somehow traditional Japanese watercolour thrown into a blender with every anime trope you've ever seen and spit out onto a storyboard. You'll find reference after reference after reference to obscure and popular works alike. There are truly stunning shots back to back to back, yet almost never in the same style. A large part of the enjoyment of this series is trying to keep up with all the shifts in art/animation styles and tone.
Once you watch FLCL, you'll start realizing how so many contemporary anime were allowed to get away with goofy/stylized cutaways so easily. I don't know if FLCL originated this trope, and I doubt they did after realizing the show began airing in 2000, but they implemented it in such a unique, chaotic, beautiful, what-the-fuck-is-happening-right-now way that anything that came after it must have seemed so tame in comparison.
SOUND — 10/10:
Here's where it gets kind of weird (if you weren't convinced this show was completely bizarre by now). The show is filled to the brim with music. At some points, it's like you're watching a Gorillaz music video. The entire soundtrack was written and performed by an at-the-time relatively unknown Japanese indie rock band called The Pillows. Somehow this does not feel weird at all; it perfectly meshes with the stylistic choices of the animation without being nearly as chaotic. Sometimes the music is a little louder than you might expect an anime audio mix to allow for, but it's always genuinely good music playing, so it hardly matters. The Pillows did an incredible job scoring the show; this is an anime soundtrack that pretty much anyone can go and listen to at any time and still fully enjoy.
The voice actors were cast perfectly for their roles. Not a single character's voice seems disjointed. Well, except for Mamimi, who consistently sounds unamused and underwhelmed, even when screaming, but that feels like a deliberate, comedic choice. The fact that I didn't even think to mention the 声優 in this section, I think, speaks to the fact that the voice acting is impeccable.
CHARACTERS — 6/10:
This is where the series finds its grounding in reality. A lot of these characters are people we all know in real life. Naota's classmates are almost identical personalities to people I went to school with growing up. Naota's father is a despicable, perverted person. Naota's best friend, Mamimi, is just... drifting through life, obviously in love with Naota, though he doesn't seem to show any interest in her. Haruko is a bubbly, crazy, manipulative, abusive monster who instigates all the weirdness and chaos that makes up the show as a whole. And Naota himself is just trying to keep afloat amidst it all, deeply unhappy with his lot in life, feeling trapped in his hometown like so many of us do. There are more recurring characters that I'm certainly forgetting, but forgive me, as I've only watched once and it sometimes feels like you're watching 5 shows at once when you're watching an episode of FLCL.
I honestly believe that most of these characters are well written, but I have this section scored lower than the rest because I just don't find any of these characters to be likeable. Again, the execution of having these very realistic, normal characters dealing with the utter nonsense and chaos of the rest of the show's format and treating it as if nothing odd is happening is what makes the show work so well.
ENJOYMENT — 8/10:
I'm not going to lie. There were sections of this show that I just could not grasp. As someone who is not Japanese and who did not grow up speaking Japanese, there are a lot of Japanese-specific puns that this show uses that, when done in such rapid-fire style, could not be followed. After my first watch through, at the time of writing this review, I feel like I missed a lot. This show has extremely high rewatch value, in my opinion, because there's always going to be something new to focus on, something you hadn't noticed the previous time(s) around.
There were a few standout moments where the shift in tone was absolutely jarring. One moment you're watching Naota being emotionally traumatized and the next you're laughing at an exaggerated joke. And then you realize: shit, that was heavy — why is this suddenly a comedy again?
That being said, there was never a moment where I even considered dropping the show. I was constantly on the edge of my seat, eager to see what ridiculous thing they'd pull out of nowhere next. I was completely and utterly confused until near the end of the final episode, but trying to figure out what was going on while trying to keep up with the action onscreen was a big part of why I loved this show so much.
OVERALL — 8/10:
This show is hard to follow, especially if you're not Japanese. It's chaotic. It's funny. It's gut wrenching. It's heartbreaking. It's unnerving. It's spectacular. It's undeniably beautiful. It's certainly not for everybody, but give it a chance. It's six episodes, so you can easily sit down and watch it all in one go. There's a good chance you won't regret it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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