Back to gyro2death's Profile gyro2death's Profile

TL;DR- Show is good, look at the ranking/ratings. Lots of blind love and hate for being popular, some hate justified over the excessive Ecchi fanservice involving Loli's, but overall a great show. Read on if you want to know how it stacks up in full.

Art-10:
Let's start with what you'll notice first, this beautiful art. While some might not like it (initially I didn't), I found it grew on me and really highlights the shows fantasy aspect. Character design is quite refreshing to me despite the generic 2 body types (Busty or Loli), I really like the use of vibrant colors with Jibril they do such ... an amazing job of the innocent to evil transition that every time it makes me smile. Animation wise this is Madhouse and they don't disappoint, if you hate CG you might find this annoying but they really did such an amazing job particularly with the games. All in all this art ranks up in the best of the best to me.

Story-10:
Where to start, you should know the basics, two super genius gamers get summoned to another world. I won't spoil the specifics of why (you'll find out quickly), but it really is refreshing compared to the normal reason heroes from another world get summoned. The rules of the world are also of particular note, making all conflicts resolved through games, and forbidding more or less most forms of crime. With all this setup I really thought NGNL wouldn't be able to keep up with its premise but honestly they do a great job keeping the world developing into this amazing place as we learn more about it. The games are fantastic, and keep trying to 1-up each other to the point where I really feel they'll have to run out of something more amazing to play eventually. All in all the story of NGNL is intriguing, to the point where I went to read all of the LN that has been translated, which gets a 10/10 from me.

Sound-10:
Often overlooked but the sound design of this show is AMAZING! Not joking probably the best in recent memory. They do such a good job of blending the scenes and sound together to make everything more memorable. I haven't yet got the OST to play yet but the music is extremely fitting and all the effects are spot on. I'm not a native speaker so I can't really comment on the VA but they all do a great job for me. The opening and ending songs are both great (though the OP is the standout), but just the song alone wouldn't make the intro so amazing, instead its the visuals and how it fits in when they play it (they have the usual clip before the OP). It always manages to fit in and never feels jarring like hearing Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei's OP start up in a way that just ruins the mood (I like the song don't get me wrong but when it plays it doesn't transition smoothly).

Character-9:
Honestly this is gonna be hit or miss with most. Personally I love them all, I think that they decided to abandon Steph, as they were setting her up to be developed out of a comic relief character but ended up deciding they wanted to keep here there sadly. Jibril is of course my favorite if you couldn't tell, a God-Slaying angelic scholar...seriously how am I to resist. She's also quite the two face being both angelic and demonic in equal measures. The main leads are a mixed bag, while I like Shiro and think she's quite fun, no real development of her other than portraying off her skills has been done. Sora on the other hand has the most amazing moment when he shows his true character late in the season, show just who he really is and managing to prove that genius and insanity run hand in hand for sure. Overall docking this section for the poor use of Steph and Shiro's lack of development or growth but even while I say this they're still top notch character compared to most shows.

Enjoyment-10:
I've watched each episode twice, once by myself and once with my wife. I've also read the LN and am going through them a second time as we speak. The world here is vast and intriguing and the plot is equal measures serious and comedy. The only thing that could dampen your enjoyment of this show is a distaste of Ecchi and fanservice (including Lolicons) which this show has in spades (toned down from the LN). The fact that this show is nearly in the top 20 anime of all time while being Ecchi is a massive testament to how enjoyable it is, as ecchi shows have a rough rode since a fair amount are put off by it (particularly the loli girls). This show however unlike the many others does not fall pray to the fanservice first and instead uses it as juxtaposition to snap you from being serious after a game back into the more comedic atmosphere. While I won't deny the show could certainly be argued to stand on its own without the fanservice it would be a massive departure from the LN to remove it completely and I for one enjoyed how they handled it.

First off this show is terrifyingly under-rated. However I understand why, the fanservice is pretty over the top and in the first 3 episodes they have several momentum breaking fanservice scenes for no good reason. These scenes are so bad I might have dropped this anime had I not read a review advising to stick with it and that it got better, I hope that others will do the same as well.

Story: 8.5

First off this story seems a little shallow with the "Don't accidentally date your sister!" plot device seeming like it won't get much done. However the story decides to throw twists in pretty ... constantly, doing a good job to keep you on your toes and doubting what you know. The liberal use of fanservice aside they actually create a desirable main lead and a reason for these girls to be interested in him. For a harem they also take the interesting route of starting him off with 2 romantic interests and then expand the cast, however by the end of the anime there are only 3 real competitors so it hardly feels like a normal harem, and that's a great thing. This anime is a Mystery Harem in the order, never letting go the fact he can't figure out his sister yet keeping it interesting by throwing in new characters and motivations. The MC gets in a load of stereotypical ecchi harem situations but unlike most actually has reasons to be in them. A good example of this is when the female cast believes he is 'gay' and decide to try to straighten him out through seduction. It gives us several scenes that you would typically see in an ecchi anime but actually bothers to make up a logical and fun reason to have it, and for that I thank this anime. Also tangent here, the MC in this can actually dance, I couldn't even of another Harem where the MC could dance well, this sadly is ruined a bit by the fanservice they smash in during this time however.

Art 6.5:

The arts not bad, but the animation is rather weak, the intro is utterly guilty of this feeling like its shot at half frame rate, I checked 3 different sources to see if this was an error but its really is just bad. It feels like they might have done the intro after making the whole rest of the anime. The show itself uses a lot of still shots with pan and zooming. The characters are drawn well enough (though the breast size seems to be whatever is convenient for the scene...) to be quite likable, but when comes to backgrounds and animations they're bellow average.

Sound 8:

The sound design of the anime is quite fitting, its not impressive like some anime (Fate/NGNL) which sweeps you off your feet but I never felt the lack of it or mixed feelings like I've gotten in shows like Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei. The voice actors do solid jobs so I have no complaints, only sad there are no standout tracks that make me have to go look them up (Date-A-Live) on the spot.

Characters 9:

How can I give a 9 to such generic characters? Honestly its because they act like they're supposed to. The cast are pretty stereotypical character models for harem females for the most part but they act like it. They are over the top and do stupid things but doing so in character makes them much more likable, I wouldn't mind if they were more complex characters. However that's what gets you a 10 in my scores, so despite the fact that I really liked them I had to dock them a point for not having too much to them. I will say this is the first time I've been interested in 3 female leads in a harem. Normally only one will stand out, two at best but possibly because they don't dig too deep with them they're all fun and I don't harbor strong feelings towards the one I want to win like normal.

Overall/ Enjoyment 8:

I rate animes off my enjoyment of the world. I'm a bit different from others in that I like the world created to be intriguing enough to want me to learn more about it. This anime made me go check the wiki for info about it after I finished, that automatically gets an 8 from me as I wanted to learn more about. Sadly very little of the manga is translated and none of the light novel, however the twists keep coming from what of the wiki I read. This series really suprised me, while I wouldn't call this a masterpeice it was well worth my time and its a shame so many will give up on it after reading these reviews

A quite unforgettable anime, to say much would spoil this anime. The plot starts off with us in the afterlife, and the action starts right after the show starts. It keeps story mysterious the whole time, never really cracking the world wide open for us to experience.

Where this show gets things right is by somehow having a deep world, yet also having a strong character centric cast. Most anime pick one or the other, which Angel Beats could have but didn't. This let get lost in a world where both characters and the world itself seemed alive. And that's what kept me till the end.

To be honest not sure if this deserves a 10, but I'm giving it one anyways because like Air Gear, Kaze no Stigma, and SAO the main character is both strong and smart....which is shockingly rare and worth trying to push to the top. Onto the review:

Overall 10/10-
While not finished yet the story and setting is a perfect example of world building. You throw charters that we can relate to into an unfamiliar setting and then as they learn about the world so do we. It also skips the ramp up that plagues most action anime as well as having to have the MC beaten ... to death each time before he can beat the next guy.

This world is truly interesting and the challenges (games) adds a very nice twist, with them we have constant access to different types of battles that can't always be solved through straight force. This is good because the MC is so over-powered that if all he needed to do was beat someone this would get quite boring. The restriction added in give a great challenge to the cast without needing them to be stupid or oblivious to their own powers as you typically see in other shows. I think this aspect of the story is what I like so much, the characters always need to be on top performance because the challenge can restrict them, therefore they don't have to act like idiots to make things a challenge for them.

Wow, so I've never had a anime be so good for 20 episodes, then completely crash and burn as hard as the last 4 episodes did for me. I actually quit watching at episode 23 out of revolt at what was happening. The last episode is just a mockery of the whole series in my opinion and for nothing, it ends just as you would expect if the last 4 episodes didn't exist.

This to me is raising the stakes for the sense of drama, and the cost of everything else. It's a terrible way of handling a series and wrecks what otherwise was a ... great series overall for me. I really did enjoy it before the last 4 episodes, to the point of which it might have been the best handling of vampire romance I had seen.

I took the time to write my first review simply as a warning. It was a great series that crashed and burned amongst the hardest I've ever seen. And in the end for nothing, it accomplished nothing that wouldn't have happened if they had not tried to artificially raise the stakes by making all the character simultaneously become incompetent, idiotic, and pathetic all at the same time.