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May 12, 2021
Man is inherently empty, and so the only way to judge them is by the meaning they give themselves'.
Pandora Hearts is a dark psychological fantasy with great themes hampered by occasional improper use of the characters it has.
The story follows Oz, a royal in a kingdom reminiscent of ye olde England, who is at his coming of age ceremony. Unfortunately he's targeted and attacked, his only crime being his very birth. He's dropped into something called "The Abyss", where he meets a girl named Alice who forms a contract with him, empowering them both, with the cost of the strain to Oz getting more
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severe as he uses said power. Alice is amnesiac and Oz agrees to help her gain her memories. What follows is an exploration of the inherent tragedy of the past and the effect it has on those in the present.
Character wise the series has a wide reaching cast of unique characters, although I feel not all of them are used effectively. Alice is more plot device by the end of the story than a full fleshed out character in her own right, and other characters feel a bit redundant when others could've filled their roles better. When the series gets it's character moments right though it all resonates, with main character Oz being the highlight.
A child who hides himself from everyone else, his nonchalant attitude being a mask designed to protect the people around him that just ends up doing more harm to them than the world ever could. His struggle to essentially once again become human being the encapsulation of one of the major themes of the series.
The art of the series is fantastic, a gothic fairy tale brought to life with expressive art and great shading and playing with the format when necessary.
Overall an uneven but fascinating series about the emptiness of men, the sins they lead to, and the regret that drives them ever onward.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Aug 12, 2017
Fantastic Dialogue and moments hidden in a trashy Harem show.
This show confuses me. It presents itself as your stereotypical Harem and it does a fine job at that I guess, but certain episodes and moments prove that it could've been so much more. And that's where my frustration comes in. If every episode was like the Romantic story of episode 12 or the surprisingly insightful dialogue of episode 15 then this show could have easily gotten a 9 or maybe even a 10. But unfortunately outside of those few moments it's just a harem show with a somewhat unique supernatural twist. It's entertaining, with it's
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identifiable characters with fun quirks and dialogue but those moments of greatness that I mentioned earlier keep me from completely getting sucked into the trashy harem aspects because the show proves it could be so much better.
The shows biggest weakness is it's inability to decide if it wants to be a legitimately insightful show with fascinating dialogue or a harem show that appeals to Loli-cons. I'm sure a lot of people actually like this dissonance, but for me personally it just stops me from completely enjoying either aspect of the show.
Araragi is a legitimately fascinating (if sometimes reprehensible) exploration of the typical harem protagonist. You know, the one who helps every girl in his path and all the girls like him as a result. They don't do too much with him all things considered but they do enough to make him stand out more than a character of his archetype usually would.
Senjogahara is best girl, anyone who disagrees clearly has no taste. Much like Araragi she's a pretty stereotypical archetype, the Tsundere. But she's different enough to stand out a bit when compared to others. Also episode 12, that's all I'm gonna say.
Hanekawa is great too, especially since she opens the door for a lot of interesting discussions and explorations of Araragi's character in the last few episodes.
Like I said, there's a lot of good stuff hidden in this show. It's just a shame I have to get through the trashy lolicon scenes in order to get to them.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jul 23, 2016
Comics+Anime=All of my yes!
I'm not just an anime fan, I also love superheroes. The Capes, the Colorful (and sometimes not so colorful) costumes, the sometimes nonsensical even when they're trying to be serious plotlines, the dumb no kill rules, I love it all. And as a DC fan who was massively disappointed by Batman V Superman all I can say is that this series helped get the taste of that failure out of my mouth. Let's dive into the story before this becomes a Batman V Superman rant.
Story: Welcome to a world where 80% of the population have special abilities called quirks. These can be
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anything from fire manipulation to being able to grow as large as a building. But not everyone wants to use their powers for good. So what do you do? You make Superhero-ing (I know that's not a word) a legitimate business. Enter Midoriya, a quirkless kid who wants to become a hero in order to follow in the footsteps of his idol All Might. All Might is the greatest hero ever and is a self appointed "Symbol of Peace". However Midoriya's dreams get shot down at every turn, his classmates laugh at him and even his mother doesn't really give him any encouragement. That is until one day Midoriya runs into All Might. Even All Might tells Midoriya to give up on being a hero at first, until he witnesses Midoriya running head first into a battle showcasing that he has a heart of a hero. All Might then decides to train Midoriya so he can get accepted into the most prestigious Hero school.
Joining Midoriya on his quest to become the greatest hero ever are:
All Might: The symbol of peace is a great guy. He's basically Superman, even his theme sounds suspiciously similar to the Donner Superman theme. He's a great guy who's always smiling to inspire hope in others, even when he himself is in a terrible situation.
Ochaco Uraraka: A nice girl and one of Midoriya's class mates, she has the ability to make things float.
Tenya lida: Another one of Midoriya's classmates, he's all about rules and such. He's the flash, he can run fast.
Katsuki Bakugo: This guy's an asshole. He was Midoriya's friend (Sort of...he was still an asshole when he was a kid) in the past but their friendship slowly deteriorated as time went on. Now Bakugo just bullies Midioriya for fun. He has the ability to form explosions in his palms.
The Animation is fantastic...not much more to say. It's Bones, it'd be weird if I said anything else.
The soundtrack is also fantastic. The three standouts being "The Day" by Porno Graffiti (Don't laugh!), "You say run", and "Hero A".
The show isn't the most original but it does a fine job with what it has, though I will admit that the first three episodes are slow. After that though the show is a ride on the hype train all the way through, especially the last three episodes. The characters (outside of Midoriya and All Might) aren't the most fleshed out by this point either but you have to remember that we're going straight Shonen up in this bitch, so we still have like 100 more episodes to flesh these guys out.
Overall it's a great series that doesn't exactly do anything new but makes what it has work.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jul 23, 2016
A highly polarizing masterpiece.
As evidenced by that first line...I love this show. I've given it a ten, it's on my favorites list, it's my second favorite anime of all time, hell as partially ashamed as I am to admit it I've even written (some not very good) fanfiction about the damn series. It's obvious that I have a deep appreciation of this series, but it's not a series for everyone. So I'm going to present the show to you, warts and all. If I can convince you to give it a try then great, but if not then the review is still doing it's job.
Let's
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start with the plot: The year is 2015, back in 2001 there was an incident called "Second Impact" which killed a good chunk of the population and made the southern hemisphere completely unlivable. The rest of the world was still effected though, the sea levels rose and the world was perpetually stuck in the summer season. If that wasn't enough there are also giant monsters called "Angels" that occasionally pop up. Only the organization called Nerv has a way to fight them. A 14 year old boy named Shinji is called to Tokyo 3 by his Father (the leader of Nerv) and is told to pilot a giant robot called an Evangelion. This isn't your typical giant robot story though, this is a show all about it's characters. So let's talk about them.
Shinji Ikari: He's well...a bit of a whiny little bitch. But that's the point though, it's a realistic reaction to being told to pilot a giant robot you've never seen in your life, fight the terrifying monster, and save the world. He suffers from something the show calls the "Hedgehog's Dilemma" which means he refuses to get emotionally close to anyone for fear of being hurt. This stems from the fact that the father kind of abandoned him right after the death of Shinji's mother, keep in mind that Shinji was four years old at the time.
Rei Ayanami: One of Shinji's fellow Eva pilots. She's completely emotionless, she's very close to Gendo (Shinji's father) though. There's more to talk about when it comes to Rei but that's all spoiler territory. Long story short if you know who Yuki Nagato is then you have a basic idea of what Rei's like.
Asuka Langley Soryu: Yes, she is an anime character that has a middle name. That like never happens. With hair almost as fiery as her personality this red headed vixen is another fellow Eva pilot. What makes her unique is that she actually enjoys piloting, Rei doesn't have any special feelings about it and Shinji is straight up terrified but Asuka revels in the fact that she's an eva pilot. She also has a superiority complex and is a bit of a bitch, being overbearing and what not to everyone around her. However her ego is almost directly connected to her ability to pilot an Eva, so when the notion that she's the best pilot is challenged...well it's not pretty.
The last character I'll be talking about is Misato Katsuragi: She's the one in charge of the Eva's missions and the pilots. However when she's not on the job she's not very responsible, this purple haired beauty spends as much time drinking as she does planning the next mission. She's not exactly lady-like either, passing most of the chores like cleaning and cooking to Shinji since she isn't all that great at doing either.
Your enjoyment of the show hinges on whether or not you can become invested in these characters, even when they're not the most likeable. If you can then congratulations, you've just discovered a great character study about a cast of interesting and flawed characters. If not then you just discovered 26 episodes of whining.
This show has to have interesting characters because it ain't winning any awards for animation. Evangelion was notorious for it's tight budget, especially when they were hit with a budget cut near the end of the shows run. The fights look pretty damn great for 90's anime standards but everything else...eh. That's not to say it looks bad, because it doesn't. But just know that the show tries to keep animation to a minimum at times. With characters tending to cover their mouths so they didn't have to animate lip flaps and the fact that on three separate occasions the show just ceases to animate. In three different scenes the show will just stop and show a still frame for like a minute. The last time it does this in episode 24 it actually works and enhances the drama of the scene. The other two times just look out of place. Like I said earlier though when the show does use it's limited budget to the best of it's ability and the fight scenes are creative and well animated.
The music is also just ok. The OP "A Cruel Angel's Thesis" is the catchiest damn theme and the remixes of "Fly me to the moon" make great endings but the ost used in the show itself is...fine. Nothing wrong with it, but the ost of the Rebuild movies blow this Soundtrack out of the water.
My conclusion is exactly what I said all the way at the beginning of the review, it's a highly polarizing masterpiece. If you can get into the show then you'll most likely love it, if you're turned off by the characters then you'll most likely hate it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jul 22, 2016
One man's lone crusade to solve the murder that haunted him his whole life.
Alright that somewhat cheesy description aside Boku dake ga Inai Machi or as I'm going to refer to it from now on Erased is about Satoru Fujinuma. He's a pretty normal guy, except for the fact that he occasionally goes back in time. At seemingly random times he's sent back 1 to 5 minutes back in time, usually to solve some sort of accident about to occur. He names this ability Revival. Outside of that though he really is a normal guy, his dream to become a manga artist hasn't really been
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working out so he has to work as a pizza delivery guy to pay the bills. It's an ok life, nothing too terrible. That is until his mother is murdered and his "Revival" ability sends him back to his grade school days so he can find the killer, who just so happens to also be the guy who kidnapped one of Satoru's classmates when he was a kid.
Joining Satoru on this murder mystery are: Kayo Hinazuki: The Girl who gets kidnapped, even before the kidnapping her life kinda sucked. Having an abusive mother will do that, she acts emotionless and mature in order to hide her pain.
Sachiko Fujinuma: Saturo's mother, she has a keen eye and is almost all-knowing when it comes to her son and his mood.
Airi Katagiri: An optimistic Highschool student and Satoru's co-worker in the present.
and Gaku Yashiro: One of Satoru's teachers and the closest thing Satoru has to a father figure.
The show focuses on Satoru and his quest to protect Kayo, unfortunately that plotline is wrapped up in episode 9 and the last few episodes while not terrible just aren't as good. The pacing kinda takes a hit since well the main plotline was about Satoru and Kayo. This is made worse by the fact that the murderer is pretty obvious.
The Animation and Sound are fine, no worse than any other anime.
It's a show that's good, would've been great if it didn't stumble at the finish line. I gave the show an 8 but honestly it's probably closer to a 7.5
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jul 21, 2016
This show really didn't have the right be this good.
I'm sure a lot of you guys reading this right now are a lot like I was when I first heard of this show, thinking things like: "What is this, little girls piloting tanks? This has to be some stupid loli show, surely the person who recommended this to me was just trolling." But I'm here to tell you that despite the shows questionable premise it's actually pretty good, not a masterpiece but a lot better than you would be lead to believe.
Let's start with the story, which is pretty simple. In this world Tank
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battling is a sport called Tankery. Miho Nishizumi is part of the Nishizumi family, which runs a prestigious tankery school however due to an incident prior to the events of the show she no longer wants to participate in tankery and goes so far as to pick a school which doesn't have tankery as an elective. Everything works out well, she even makes some friends despite her shy personality. That is until the student council announces that they're bringing tankery back as an elective and that they're forcing Miho to participate due to the fact that for some reason they need to win the next tankery tournament and Miho is the only person in school with prior experience in the sport.
Joining Miho are her friends Saori Takebe: The cliche girly girl who is friendly with everyone and who calls herself a "love expert"...despite the fact that she doesn't a boyfriend herself. and Hana Isuzu: A girl with a calm demeanor who practices flower arranging. Before eventually being joined by Yukari Akiyama: A girl who is completely obsessed with tanks and hasn't exactly had much of a social life because of that. and my personal favorite Mako Reizei, who's entire character arc revolves around the fact that she's too tired to give a shit and is only participating in tankery because she'll fail school if she doesn't.
There's also a pretty large cast of side characters but outside of the student council barely any of them get any real depth or development. However this doesn't stop the english dub from casting some pretty big name (for anime standards anyway) Voice actors to play some of them, the two biggest examples being Tiffany Grant of Evangelion fame and Monica Rial (Who is best known for being Mae Chang in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and Index in a Certain Magical Index).
Surprisingly enough the show actually focuses a lot more on the tank stuff than it does slice of life or fanservice (In fact there are only two scenes that could even qualify as fanservice and even then they're really tame.) elements. And the tank battles themselves are pretty damn impressive, the time when the tanks are CG while noticeable doesn't clash with the 2d animation at all and the maneuvers and tactics while unrealistic (I assume, I don't know much about tanks) especially as the series goes on are extremely fun to watch and make the battles thrilling.
The only real complaints I have about the show is that as mentioned earlier barely any of the side characters get anything resembling depth or development, they're just there to pilot tanks and the fact that if you're listening to the english dub you're really going to get sick of one musical track in particular.
Overall this show was a lot better than it really should've been considering the premise. I guess there's a reason that it got a movie.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jul 19, 2016
Casshern Sins feels like watching two different shows at once. I like the first half, not so hot on the second.
The First half is a very Samurai Jack-esque formula and for those of you who haven't seen Samurai Jack what I mean by that is a lone warrior (in this case Casshern) thrown into a world he doesn't fully understand (because he has amnesia in this instance) while meeting interesting one-off characters every episode. It's less about the story itself and about exploring this world and the different ways everyone deals with what is basically the robot apocalypse (and the world is already pretty messed
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up to begin with). My favorite episode is probably episode 2, which is about a community of robots that decide to peacefully accept their death until...well obviously I'm not gonna spoil it but it gives great insight into the tragedy of our main character: Casshern.
Casshern is an interesting character, at the beginning of the series we learn that he's an amnesiac robot. The only three things he knows for sure is that A: He is the one who caused the ruin (that robot apocalypse I talked about earlier) B: His name is Casshern. And C: Most robots believe that if they kill and consume him that they'll then become immortal and able to withstand the ruin. As he ventures across the landscape his character arc revolves around him learning and coming to terms with the fact that he's a killing machine.
There's also a host of side characters including: Ringo: An optimistic little girl robot. Ohji: The Robot Engineer that watches over Ringo like a parent or guardian. Lyuze: A female robot who vows revenge against Casshern since he apparently caused her sister's death. Friender: Just an awesome robot dog. He's the Rush to Casshern's Megaman, that's all you need to know.
"So you like the formula that the show's using and there's a host of interesting side characters, so why did you say that you only liked half of the series?" I hear you cry. Well that's where the second half of the series comes in.
About halfway through the show the writers suddenly remembered that they had a plot and decided to focus on that, this is where the show falls apart. Not everything is explained and the things that are aren't explained well. The main premise of the show aka the fact that there's "The Ruin" that's killing robots is going on isn't even all that well explained. The Ruin is just...the robots rusting until their body parts and insides start deteriorating. And that sucks but...did that not happen before? Were these robots literally immortal before that? Never explained. And it's like this for most plot points, it's vaguely explained but never really delved into, especially when it comes to the Luna situation. Why did killing her specifically make the ruin happen, what was special about her? (This isn't a spoiler by the way.) Why can Friender withstand the ruin? This isn't a spoiler or a reveal, he can just do that...deal with it.
Both the Animation and Sound Design are great, the actions scenes are pretty damn smooth. But I've never been all that critical of Animation or Sound design anyway so don't take my word on that part.
Despite I this I still think the show is overall worth it. The first half more often than not makes up for the lackluster second half, with it's interesting one-off characters and self contained stories about people's unique reactions when confronted with an inevitable death. It's just a shame that most of the intrigue of the first half is wasted so badly.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jul 15, 2016
Gang wars+the Supernatural+Chat Rooms=Durarara!!
It sounds like a clusterfuck, and at times it is. But it's an enjoyable clusterfuck. In episode one we're introduced to our main characters Makato and Masaomi, through them we're given a brief introduction of the living breathing world of Ikebukuro. I said earlier that Makado and Masaomi are the main characters but that's not one hundred percent accurate. This show has more of a rotating cast, as the series goes on you'll come to know a wide group of characters and their inner circles. You'll learn about the mysterious "Headless Rider" and the back alley doctor that they live with,
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you'll about a shy girl that befriends Makado and Masaomi, you'll learn about a small group of friends who are involved in a color(less) gang called the "Dollars", you'll learn about a man with unnatural strength and endurance, and you'll learn about an information broker who plays puppet master to all the other characters in the series.
This is both the shows best and worst aspect. The cast of characters is large and each of them are interesting enough but since there are so many characters and the show tries to give each of them equal screen time like it's determined to not have any characters be anything less than a main character the show as a whole suffers. There's only so much you can do when there are five different groups running around Ikebukuro doing things that are only tangentially related to each other are fighting for screen time it's kind of hard to let your characters or story grow. It's not that the creators handle this poorly...but it's a herculean task and the writers just miss the mark. But on the flipside these characters are fun to watch and I thought their personalities were enough to carry the slightly lackluster story.
The animation was great, but I'm usually not very critical of visuals so as long as there isn't too much re-used footage. Similarly I thought the sound design was fine but I'm usually not too critical of it anyway.
Overall it's a decent series that sacrifices story for a larger cast.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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