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Dec 18, 2016
Let us be honest here, Legend of Galactic Heroes is that mythical anime that you have seen get almost nothing but perfect scores, but you were always afraid to try.
I grew up on shows that got your blood pumping and emotions rolling like Dragon Ball Z, Gundam Wing, Yu Yu Hakusho, and Outlaw Star. This particular anime seemed to be the exact opposite of what I usually enjoy . I had heard that this "Legend of Galactic Heroes" had entirely too many episodes, that all of its characters were pretentious windbags, it had a dearth of real action scenes, and
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all of its fans were elitist scumbags who would tell ridicule you from their ivory towers and tell you , you had no true taste for quality anime if you never tried or didn't enjoy their precious "LoGH." Hell, in the first episode there is a wave of unfamiliar characters all with hard to pronounce names scrolling across you screen serves to simply disorient and turn off many an anime fan before they could give the anime an earnest shot. Well against all odds in the Fall of 2015 I undertook the task of watching this show, and I was honestly surprised to find an incredible story that was well worth the journey.
Legend of Galactic Heroes is essentially a Space Opera , a tale that primarily follows two young men from two opposing sides in a galactic war, the intelligent and brash young Reinhard von Lohengramm of the Galactic Empire and the more laid back, older philosophical genius Yang Wenli of the Free Planet Alliance . The Galactic Empire is rooted in tradition and is ruled by noble families , and the FPA is an open democracy that elects its officials. The story of the anime spans some years of time in their universe, as these two individuals rise in the ranks of the military and political regimes of their respective societies. Although the story revolves around the war between the two states, the show is more about the various characters on both sides. Outside of a few climatic battles, the focus is not the action between sides , but primarily on how Yang and Reinhardt use their ideologies to try to change and better their respective societies, and showing the various events that occur on their journey to attain power and influence. However its by no means some cakewalk for Yang and Reinhard, as both characters lose things and people dear to them in the chaos of war. The first act of the series is incredibly riveting and mostly about familiarizing you with both sides and building up to the the main conflict, as you see both characters deal with the horrible corruption of their societies and slowly break away from their old lives and relationships. The middle act is more about resolving the main war conflict and the final act is more about the what happens in the aftermath of the main conflict. I am overjoyed to say that the cliche anime trope of "plot armor" doesn't exist in this series, this is mainly about a war so naturally a good number of characters from both sides die, even some of the most prominent and well developed characters aren't safe just because they are important to the story.
Despite them being the most important characters, this is not a show that is just about Yang, Reinhardt , and friends. There are a lot of episodes that go into fleshing out other characters, showing the lives of the general populace and how they are affected by war, and also giving backstory/history lessons to let you be more informed about the universe and setting of the anime.
This story is far from the morally simple heroes tales that you may have encountered before. Sure both Yang and Reinhard have the best of intentions, but they are far from perfect or flawless. Both have to make huge choices and both make some horrible mistakes that they have to deal with. Reinhard may be righteous and kind , but he's also prone to fits of irrational anger and tends to ruminate about endlessly about the past. Yang might always want to do the best for his fellow man but his incisiveness and unwillingness to be a leader undermine the best of his intentions. Similarly, neither the FPA nor the Empire are inherently good or evil. There are conniving politicians and power hungry noble families , but there are well intentioned people on both sides, and people caught between . In fact, the anime constantly tries to entice you to always think did Yang or Reinhard really make the right choice, is their philosophy truly right? Sometimes an ideal may seem great but is it really worth it to follow your beliefs so far that so many millions of people have to die as a result of you achieving them? Are you really willing to become a villain or a tyrant in the eyes of the people in order to achieve the ideal world? Do you have to sacrifice everything you love to achieve peace? Lots of these questions come up and are even debated among characters.
I believe Legend of Galactic Heroes' greatest strength is the fact that it has such a huge roster of characters, but a number of them get fleshed out very well and the show really makes you care about them and root for them. Many of Reinhard's generals and advisors are very interesting, all of them have their own very unique personalities and reasons for following Reinhard, with Mittenmeyer and Reunthal being two of the most interesting characters in the entire anime. So too are Yang's friends in the FPA, having more of a close knit family type of relationship . Whether they are just having a good time together or debating philosophical issues or matters of state, almost every conversation in Legend of Galactic Heroes is very interesting . In addition to the characters that are close to the main heroes, I also loved the the conniving villains, scheming politicians, opportunist businessmen, fanatic cultists, and other interesting characters that pop up in the anime all have their own stories and mini arcs.
There aren't any amazing love stories that particularly involve either Yang or Reinhard, but I found that there were some really great episodes that focused on various other characters that really tugged at the heart strings. But on the whole I think Legend of Galactic Heroes was more about showing the us the bonds and friendships of people from both sides.
I mentioned this is not a series that is focused on action, but there are a few very grand scale ship battles and even a number of hand to hand combat scenes. As silly as it may sound, there are also knife fights and sword/axe fights between men in space suits , even if the explanation for them isn't so strange. I personally really enjoyed these scenes, although the ship battles are much less about the lasers and explosions like a Star Wars, but its more about the chess game between enemy commanders of positioning ships and resources properly in order to win the battles.
The music of the series is mostly good, you won't get any hard rock or crazy stuff here, its mostly classical inspired themes like you would expect for an anime like "Legend of Galactic Heroes." The openings and endings were all great emotional themes , with my favorite being the 2nd opening "I am Waiting for You" which is incredible in my opinion and almost perfectly captures the spirit of the anime. The faster paced openings usually show scenes involving the Galactic Empire and the Endings are usually more relaxing or slower songs that focus on the Free Planet Alliance. The animation is a little harder to evaluate, being that this anime was produced in the 80s and 90s and was made over such a huge swath of time. I personally didn't have any problems with it , but there really wasn't much the visually stood out to me either.
LoGH for all of its greatness, is not a perfect anime as some might claim. Probably its greatest weakness is how long winded and verbose it can be at some times, with characters debating amognst themselves for minutes or even an episode at a time can get pretty damn dry. And sometimes the plot could feel like it was moving at a snails pace, especially in the final act of the story where the main conflict turned out to be pretty underwhelming compared to the previous two acts. I will also say that there is a marked lack of important female characters in the show, the jokes of LoGH being a "sausage fest" have some factual basis , especially on the Empire side it could get tiring with the constant testosterone filled board rooms and war consuls .
All in all, a great anime. One that admittedly requires a lot of patience and personally I found that it can not be marathoned as you are sometimes inundated with so much information you really have to wait a while for it to sink in before you move on with the story.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Dec 18, 2016
Ghost in the Shell TV Series Review
I started watching anime as a kid with the main purpose to escape reality and entertain myself, and I grew to learn that many of these "anime" include some sort of mashup of cute magical girls, giant robots, ki blasts, time travel, high school, and boredom. Dont get me wrong I watched some great anime that involved all of these themes, but at 25 years of age I had gotten to a point where I wanted to watch something a little more grounded in reality and not so much focused on teenagers saving
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the world from impending doom. This lead me to hunt down the all time, mature classic animes, and I stumbled upon the gem that is Ghost in the Shell, one of those series that seem to always be mentioned in the same breath as the lofty seemingly untouchable anime legends such as Cowboy Bebop, Legend of Galactic Heroes, Black Lagoon, Berserk, Death Note, Monster. I entered into watching this anime with a hefty degree of skepticism as I always have going into anything that is so hyped to high hell, but I'm glad l managed to find an anime that thrived in telling believable and interesting stories that you could actually see happening in the next century or so.
Ghost in the Shell takes places in a futuristic version of our world where there have been two more World Wars, technology has advanced an alarming rate to the point where many humans have cyberized brains that can seamlessly connect with eachother.Many have prostethic limbs or even entire artificial bodies with their consciousness still intact inside of them. The anime mainly follows a small team of special agents in Japan called "Section 9," who are basically a SWAT-like team of security specialists who also have extensive military experience, they are often called upon by higher ups in this futuristic Japan to quickly resolve national crises and instances of cyber crime. The show primarily focuses on the character Major Kusanagi. Many of the episodes are stand alone but there are two different main plot threads that have episodes dedicated solely to them. I wont go into extensive detail to keep this review spoiler from, but I will say that the mainline plots are fairly interesting but I believe the Individual Eleven plot from the 2nd Gig was a lot more entertaining. What impressed me the most about this series though is that alot of the stand alone episodes were great, either they fleshed out various Section 9 members or they approached very interesting topics that addressed morality and philosophical issues that arise in a society where technology and the human consciousness/soul are so tightly intertwined. There's a lot of variety between these sort of episodes that really serve to humanize the main cast of characters and show them doing more normal cases and interacting with everyday citizens instead of deftly maneuvering between high profile political figures and life or death situations that characterize the main plot-line episodes more.
Even though the world and story are great in the show , possibly Ghost in the Shell's greatest strength is its characters. Every character in section 9 is a badass in their own way, but its always fun seeing how they work together in different situations and listen to their commentary with eachother throughout it all. The Major and Batou are particularly great characters who get a lot of development who I both loved by the end of the series. The character I liked the most was Togusa though, who seemed the most human out of all of them, somewhat of the emotional hothead but had more of an everyman view and oftentimes found himself in some of the most gutwrenching moments in the show.
I will say though, that there is a lot of political talk that goes on in the show and it could get very dry at times. The world setting is very interesting but it doesn't get explained in much detail how the world came to be in its current state until sometime into the 2nd Gig, and even then its still touched on fairly lightly. The show has its emotional moments, but for the most part it is very businesslike just like Section 9 so I suppose some can find that very boring, but that pretty much comes with the territory in most episodic anime . Ghost in the Shell isn't a show that focuses on action , but there are some great set pieces in the anime that were a blast to watch.
The artwork is pretty good for a show that ran in the early 2000s and the music is decent. I loved the first opening song and animation. The English Dub for this show is off the charts great and parallels series like Cowboy Bebop for impeccable English voice acting. Every character's voice seems to fit their character personalities and appearances quite well.
Overall I thought it was a great show to watch, and I'm sort of ashamed I never watched it all the way through when I had first noticed it airing really late at night when I was a kid. But then maybe I wouldn't have been able to appreciate it as much as I can now.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Feb 24, 2016
Hunter x Hunter 2011 is an anime that is beloved by many, its a small miracle that it took me so long to watch it since I really enjoyed Yu Yu Hakusho , a famous prior work by the same author. I will say that I didn't think Hunter x Hunter was an amazing show, even though I do think that overall it was solidly enjoyable.
Most people know the general plot by now, but basically we get to follow Gon and some friends he makes early in the show , on various adventures with a loosely connected plot thread of Gon idealizing his father
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Ging and wanting to find him.
It's difficult to state my opinion about this anime without saying some things about the individual arcs within the anime in particular, because I feel like some of them are much better than the others.
I will say that I was pretty pissed with the beginning of Hunter x Hunter, mostly with the series' first arc, the Hunter exam. I did not like Gon as the happy go lucky character who gets his ass beat more often than not. I found most of the arc to be very generic shonen stuff and the pacing was not great in my opinion, it almost made me stop watching the series to be honest. Some other arcs like the Heaven's Arena, Greed Island, Zoldyk Family, I enjoyed a little more than the first arc but I still thought they were overall fairly mediocre and generic, minus the Hisoka fight, nen discovery in Heaven's Arena and a surprisingly fun and interesting sports match in Greed Island.
I think I was finally able to witness the true potential of Hunter x Hunter within the Yorknew City and Chimera Ant arcs. The Yorknew Ark had a much darker , serious, and more interesting tone than the previous ones in the series, it also had some interesting plot developments and great interactions between the main cast of characters and the Phantom Troupe members. The Chimera Ant arc I think was the best , it had a number of very interesting characters , emotional stories, political intrigue , events that made me question morality and human nature, and the most riveting plot by far. I still think it was quite flawed though due to it being so long, the battles in the last half of the arc are way too long taking multiple episodes to conclude.
One of the main disappointments that I had with this show was Gon. It may just be a matter of personal preference but I ended up hating how happy and carefree he was through much of the anime. At no point in the anime did I think he was a particularly interesting character and he didn't do much to make me care about him other than having that terribly cheesy drive to give everything his all and never give up. I also thought that there was a lot of wasted potential on the character of Leorio, he is the oldest of the main characters, has a very cool character design reminiscent of Vash the Stampede from Trigun, but for whatever reason the author chooses to relegate him to be the joke character or simply absent for much of the series.
I think in multiple arcs Hunter x Hunter anime had a problem with pacing. Some examples are the running in the Hunter Exam, too many training episodes, and a few fights taking way too long to resolve themselves.
The good thing about Hunter x Hunter was that I found a decent number of characters that I did enjoy quite a bit. Some of the standouts were Hisoka, many of the Phantom Troupe members, Kurapika, Killua, Ging, Mereum, Netero, Kite, various members of the Zoldyck family, and some of the more interesting Chimera Ant figures like the Koala guy and Colt. Pretty much any scene with Hisoka in it was entertaining as hell, even if his real underlying motives were somewhat shallow in my opinion. Killua is an especially awesome character who always kicks ass, is very analytical and smart, but also quite compassionate about his friends and family as well.
The last arc of the anime was fairly dry for the most part in my opinion, but I did for whatever reason really enjoy one very emotional and well done plotline between a certain character and someone he cares about a lot.
I was impressed with the animation quality , artwork, and sound for the anime which I thought were all well done. The openings and endings were pretty catchy for the most part, the animation is usually slick and crisp, and I like the author's character designs of a lot of different characters like Kite, Hisoka, Meruem, Kiillua, and post Nen-training Kurapika.
Overall I think Hunter x Hunter was worth watching. But I don't believe that it was consistently great like a lot of other people seem to believe. It has a couple of standout arcs, some admittedly good entertaining characters, but beyond that I feel like this show did not do enough to make me consider it as one of the best ones I have watched. I think my rating and evaluation of the show would be totally different if I were just judging the Yorknew and Chimera arcs but I try to take everything into consideration when I review any anime or manga. I believe if there were more of of a continuous , engrossing plot instead of almost unrelated arcs of varying quality this show could have been much better in my opinion.
As a side note, it's sad that the current state of the manga is so deplorable with long hiatuses taken by the author, especially given this newest arc seems pretty interesting to me .
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Feb 24, 2016
This show is a tale of two halves . The first half started off god awfully slow, there was a lot of cheesy comedy and pretty much no threat of death or any good narratives . I don't think first half was bad per say, but just really generic for the most part .
Show gets a hell of a lot better near the mid point of the series, during the Earth arc . I really enjoyed pretty much all the Earth episodes, it really seemed to reflect the brutality of war quite well and we get some interesting stories about how different people are effected
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by the war. It almost feels like a totally different series than the rest of the anime .
When the crew left earth , and the show started gravitating towards its conclusion, it was still decent but not the same level quality of the earth episodes by any means. The fights were pretty well done, but I found most of the events that happened were just predictable and couldn't get that invested into the last battles because I wasn't that interested in the characters to begin with .
The main cast of the show, the kids from Shangri-la, were sub-par for the most part. I didn't find a single one of them to be particularly interesting. They do quite a bit of arguing in general and walk into their fair share of traps and bad choices, but then again they are mostly middle school aged teenagers so I can't be that hard on them I guess. If I had to pick one I liked the most it would have been Roux, since she kicks more ass than all the other kids and usually was the voice of reason when not arguing with Elle. I will say that the one thing I liked about the main character of ZZ Judau is that he is much less whiny and not anywhere near as angsty as either of the first two gundam protagonists Amuro or Kamile. Judau is a lot more carefree but I think he is also a more simple and less interesting character as well.
I thought the artwork and animation were okay for this show, nothing special. The two opening songs I thought were really good and catchy tunes .
Double Zeta really is missing that "oomph" factor that that the two previous series had , I think it was missing really good interesting or charismatic characters, and missing outside of the Earth episodes much of a gripping plot to really keep you invested .
Something I particularly didn't like towards the end of the series is all the newtype ghosts and too many characters have newtype abilities , it kind of ruins the novelty of newtypes when so many characters are all able to sense telepathic messages.
There is even an important reveal made near the end of the anime that made me question what really was the significance of ZZ Gundam in the overall time line of the Universal Century . I don't want to say what the reveal was in fear of spoilers but damn it pissed me off .
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Feb 16, 2016
Battle Royale is an intense death game manga that was thrilling from start to finish. This genre has by my time of finishing the manga in 2015 , become very popular due to works like the Hunger Games, Gantz, BTOOM! , Deadman Wonderland , Danganronpa, and many others. Except I think Battle Royale is the most well executed of any of those works I've approached.
In Battle Royale we follow an entire class of high school students who live in a kind of alternate world Japan where Japan is ruled by an overbearing dystopian communist regime who chooses one class of middle schoolers each
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year to participate in a death game in their setting of choice. The manga does a very good job in introducing these characters well in the first few chapters and you are just along for the ride like they are in what seems like a run of the mill middle school graduation trip. Then suddenly they find themselves in a schoolroom after getting gassed on the bus, and the journey starts in such an absolutely jarring fashion that I thought really sets the tone for the rest of the manga. The characters are issued a good variety of weapons to start the game, although I personally thought the fact that there were a few too many guns made it a little more predictable. There is all sorts of violence, blood, and sexual material which I thought was great and really does well to add to the realism to the manga, but at the same time prevents it from having a shot at getting adapted into an anime sadly. The manga mainly follows a trio of main protagonists but it also spends a lot of time on other characters.
The best aspect of this manga in my opinion is how fleshed out almost all the students in the middle school class are. You get very detailed backgrounds on a lot of characters so you actually care about what happens to them during the manga. The author never lets you forget that this isn't just some cobbled together group of people who don't know each other like many other death game works; in Battle Royale we follow a close knit group of kids many of whom care about the other students in one way or another. And their past relations with each other are often times a factor in life or death situations. You have characters that range from a seedy girl who uses feminine wiles to trick her opponents to death, karate masters, mob boss, idealists, realists, crazy psychopaths, amazing intellectuals, idiots, conniving narcissists, weak willed gullible people, they are all here I promise you. There is such a wide variety of different character personalities in this manga that you will more than likely find some one to start rooting for. What I found most striking is that a number of the characters are so very intelligent and its really fun to see how they navigate through different situations where one tiny oversight can get them killed. Even characters you think are simple to begin with show different sides to their personalities in different situations which was cool.
This manga goes to show you that this death game affects all the characters in very different ways. You get to see most of the kids who would be normally well functioning people in society , when they get thrown to the wolves they can become totally different people. The manga shows really well how huge of a factor fear and paranoia are, they can cause absolutely disastrous situations. It even shows you how the smallest misinterpretation in a pressure cooker of a situation can lead to death in a matter of seconds.
I thought that the main protagonist Shuuya Nanahara got on my nerves when I first started the manga. He's pretty much what you would call the ultimate idealist/ most optimistic guy in the whole manga which I found irritating as many of the other students actually adapted to the situation, Shuuya would continually make very boneheaded moves and could have died on many occasions thanks to his horribly stupid actions. He shows progress later in the manga but was still overall irritating to me.
I think what makes Shuuya much better is the second member of his three man team , the shotgun toting bad-ass Kawada Shougo. Shougo is a character that is probably the most well fleshed out and rational in the entire manga and almost any scene with him in it is a breath of fresh air , its great. And you are constantly guessing what his true motivations are for the whole damn manga which is another masterstroke by the author. He has great chemistry with Shuuya and the other member of their trio, Noriko. I think Shougo is one of the key characters that make this manga exceptional , some others being Mimura and Sugimura that you can't help but to root for once their backgrounds are fleshed out.
I thought the art was pretty good through the manga. The set pieces that are drawn are very enticing and suck you in to the moment. We get everything from some crazy ass gun fights, to martial arts matches, high speed car chases, bomb situations, battles of wits, wrestling, knife fights, I was surprised at how well these sequences were done.
I won't talk about the details of the plot considering much of the enjoyment you get from the manga will probably come from the unexpected events that occur.
The manga is not without its faults even though it does so many things well. Strangely enough my main grievance, besides my gripes with the mc Shuuya, with this manga only concerns one particular character. I won't elaborate that much in fear of spoilers, but damn did he practically almost single handedly ruin the ultra realistic elements of this manga , he has so many asspull moments that he infuriated me on multiple occasions. This is one great misstep by the author that if he handled this character better I think I raise my score of this manga a total 1 point. Don't let him discourage you from completing the manga, as I think the positives outway his negative element.
The good thing about this manga is it's only 119 chapters , so you can read in only a few days , well I'm a slow reader so it took me a couple weeks. I recommend this manga to anyone who is a fan of the death game genre .
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Feb 15, 2016
Characters 8
Story 7
Music 10
Artwork: 9
Raw enjoyment (AKA: Kneejerk Anime Rating): 8
Total Overall: 8.4/10
Overall Rating: 8/10
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Overall, very enjoyable show. I’d definitely recommend it to people that haven’t watched it before. I won’t go so far as to say it was a masterpiece; Overall , it was very good with some great moments/aspects sprinkled in to make it worth the watch.
I felt like I grew attached the the crew characters stories and loved their interactions with each other. Its difficult to describe more, other than that (at least in the dub version I watched) their interactions with each other flow extremely well every scene they're in. I liked the fact that Spike meets so many different kinds of people throughout the anime.
I think this anime’s best points were its variety in terms of episodes, and also its excellent atmospheres and ESPECIALLY the great musical scores and how they were incorporated with specific animated sequences. The sheer amount of varied characters, personality wise and appearance wise, was especially cool.
The “main" story-line was only a few episodes, the story there was pretty interesting and fun to watch but honestly nothing revolutionary. Same with the episodes that focused on the background of the crew members. The other mini stories presented were usually pretty fun and/or quite interesting to watch but sometimes weren’t that enticing.
My favorite episode was probably Ballad of Fallen Angels, I liked it more than Jupiter Jazz 1 and 2, and I think it just ever so slightly edges out The Real Folk Blues 1 and 2. Other than that I really like the VCR tape episode for its unexpected very well executed ending minutes.
I liked the fact that this show had silly episodes where you could just kick back and enjoy the antics that the crew got themselves into, and at the same time having those serious episodes sprinkled in that really hit home in a good way. Even in some of the silly episodes it was really cool to see some things that have deeper meaning, or you find elements in them that hit you in the feels.
The most glaring negative aspect of this anime that some of the episodes seemed to be rather boring to me. But these were generally few and far between. Well that and what I mentioned before, the main plot isn't super exciting. I'll also say that the main character's backgrounds are really not explored to a very satisfying level, its not that the characters don't feel fleshed out in the show, it's just that I would have really appreciated more in depth back story about all of them to make me care about them more.
Ultimately , Cowboy Bebop is a damn good, solidly enjoyable, and unique experience that I think every anime fan really should have on their watched list.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Feb 15, 2016
For the whole Haruhi series, I just had a general feeling while watching this anime that not much really happened. I feel like there isn't much that's special about it. Sure I may get a few chuckles out of some silly situations the characters get themselves into and I enjoy some of Kyon's dialogues, but beside those things the show just feels like a very typical high school life/comedy show despite the reputation that it has garnered from fans over the years. The show tries to make an interesting twist on the daily lives of high schoolers by having a few of the main cast
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characters posses interesting abilities and mostly hinted at backgrounds, but I feel like they are not fleshed out well enough for me to really care that much about them. Neither are their abilities/powers themselves explored that much either, which was a let down to me. I often found myself feeling listless or bored when this show settles into its usual dry formula of : haruhi gets them into some situation to ease her boredom, she picked on mikuru for the umpteenth time, kozumi offers his crackpot theory, kyon makes snarky comment/ wisecrack joke/complains about situation/fantasizes about mikuru.
For the 2nd season in particular, it was almost completely dominated by the endless 8 arc and the movie/school festival arc (the sigh arc), and neither really stood out to me besides two moments in the movie arc. I thought the first season had a lot more variety in things that happened and I feel was a bit better but is still plagued by many of the same problems the 2nd season has.
The artwork and music were really nice in my opinion, for both seasons. I really enjoyed the openings and endings, and the animation was fluid and very nice to look at for the whole show.
The two high points I mentioned of this second season that really came out of nowhere . I can't talk about them much because I want to avoid spoiling them . Lets just say that there was an excellent performance at one point, and at another point for a very brief period a certain character gets a very well deserved verbal dressing down , even though this is sadly diluted very shortly afterwards when the accuser starts to feel sorry for the accused.
The only character in Haruhi season 2 that really stands out to me, again like the first season, is Kyon because you actually get to hear some of his inner thoughts , sort of like you would from a character of a visual novel which is a nice, and they were usually either chuckle worthy and/or had very good points about what was going on at that moment in the anime.
The most important character of the show, Haruhi, annoyed the living daylights out of me in both seasons because she seems to bully the other club members around all the time and she doesn't even have anything special about her personality other than that she's very aggressive and likes to keep doing things to keep her from being bored. The other club members are fairly boring and don't have much to them that keep me interested in them. Koizumi offers some interesting theories about haruhi but he otherwise feels like a very typical non nonchalant "nice guy" character. Mikurku is always the easily flustered damsel in distress that was never interesting to me even with that scenario they tried to work for her in the beginning of season 2. Like I said before they all had some serious potential with their abilities to make the show a lot more interesting but this was not the case, other than possibly Nagato with her interesting abilities but this was shown a lot better in season 1.
I'm not going to rant about the endless 8 because there's plenty of opinions about this already and its a well known phenomenon in the world of anime. I'll just say that I watched every second of them, and they weren't as bad as I originally expected. But this series of episodes could have easily been reduced to 2 episodes, or 4 episodes maximum and still got the same point across without the totally unnecessary level of repetition the viewer is put through.
So overall this anime felt very "average" to me. I never really thought that any of it was particularly bad besides the fact that the endless 8 went on so long, but almost none of the show stands out much either so maybe that in of itself is problem for this show. After watching it I will currently say that I would not recommend this anime based on my subjective opinion anyway. Some people say even though the anime isn't great the movie is awesome, but I disagree. I don't believe it's worth it to watch this series (if you don't enjoy it like me), just to get to that movie.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Feb 15, 2016
Mobile Suit Gundam 0080 War in the Pocket is if nothing else very different from any other gundam show I have watched. It is about how a young boy named Alfred and the nuetral space colony he lives on get dragged into a war situation , but this OVA is more about the characters than it is about the poltics or action.
I think I enjoyed War in the Pocket mostly because I believe this is the first UC gundam that just follows either normal people or grunt soldiers for the most part. There is much less of a focus on crazy newtype powers
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that were dominating previous UC gundam shows, or overly dramatic political plotlines .
Its quite interesting that we get to see part of the One Year War conflict through the eyes of a child in a neutral colony. Alfred was cute but difficult to watch through a lot of the OVA because you could tell how blissfully ignorant he was of the horrors of war until he actually experienced them for himself.
Through Alfred's interractions with the his school friends, his parents, the special forces squad of Zeon soldiers, a rookie Zeon pilot Bernard, and a beautiful Federation test pilot who looks over Alfred in Christina, this OVA was really great at showing the human side of all the characters. Most UC gundam shows make Zeon soldiers look like stereotypical space nazis but War in the Pocket makes many of the Zeon special forces team to be sympathetic especially Bernard in particular. You can see Bernard progress his relationship with Alfred very gradually and naturally and you get a very good sense of the bond they share. Its a great dynamic between them.
Alfred's bond with Christina is a little less explored but is still potrayed very well. You can see how much she cares about Al even through the first two episodes little hints that show she is watching over him were a nice touch. I also like the fact that she has her own explained beliefs and how she manages to be a really good mecha pilot without being a newtype.
The OVA is also great at gradually progressing through a shift in overall tone of the series from the first episodes being very happy go lucky and just gradually you are exposed to harsh realties of war through Al's perspective.
As good as the character interractions were, I still think the few action scenes were really well done. I liked how War in the Pocket actually make mobile suits seem more like the gigantic lumbering machines that they are. A lot of it is just the viewer approaching mobile suits from a child's (Alfred's) perspective. I thought it was interesting that he seems to view them more like cool toys early in the anime, but as time goes on and especially nearing and at the climax of the show, Alfred actually seems to realize just how awe inspiring and incredibly scary these war machines that bring death so easily actually are.
As much glowing praise as I have heaped onto War in the Pocket, its most certainly not without its flaws. Through the first few episodes I thought Al was really hard to watch him making horrible descisions against common sense even for a boy his age time and again , I thought in reality he could have easily got himself killed on numerous occasions. Also, with only 6 episodes there's not really an incredible plot to grip you . A criticism a lot of people have that I don't personally, is that the OVA starts really slowly and only gets good about halfway through. My opinion is that that slowness was used to good purpose in gradually settling you into Al's colony and seeing him maintain and build bonds with people. If they rushed that then the later events wouldn't be as meaningful in my opinon. I guess you could also say that many other gundam shows have more engrossing mobile suit battles, which I agree with but that was never the focus of this OVA to begin with.
All in all this is a great show. It tells a touching story about war in a much less in-your-face manner that many other mecha or gundam shows do. It even left me with some meaningful messages. One : you really don't know how cruel war is until you experience it firsthand. Two : for the most part, the soldiers on either side of many conflicts can be eerily simular to one another and are often nowhere near evil dehumanized "enemy" that their government brainwashes them to believe they are. Three : WitP shows you how fragile human life is in modern wars where we use weapons that can very easily snuff it out in a matter of seconds.
As an important note for War in the Pocket : you don't even need to watch the previous UC gundams to understand or enjoy War in the Pocket, but I think you'll enjoy it more if you watch 0079 at least to understand the conflict between Zeon and the Federation better. The other UC shows that aired before War in the Pocket are all chronologically after WitP so you don't need to watch those unless you're an avid gundam or mecha fan like myself.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jul 21, 2013
Put quite simply, this is the best anime I've ever watched to date. This is one of only two anime I've given a perfect 10/10 score, and there are multiple well-grounded reasons for that.
This anime revolves around a very intelligent 17 year old student named Lelouch who decides to rebel against the tyrannical empire of Britannia that is hell-bent on world domination and the subjugation of the people within its boundaries. From episode one you are deposited in a world full of political chaos and intriguing mysteries. This anime is very easy for most people to get into because it is so different from many
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anime that exist. In Code Geass, we are presented with a protagonist that primarily uses his intelligence to outwit and win battles against his enemies, while in most anime people have grown used to dim-witted protagonists that win through sheer muscle and strength. Although Lelouch does gain a somewhat overpowered advantage over his opponents, it only works because he is able to use it so creatively and masterfully. Also, the sheer SCOPE of this anime glues the watcher to his/her seat, as this anime involves a GLOBAL struggle. This anime is a very nice mix of a drama, political thriller, school-life, mecha-action, with some romance, philosophy, and psychological elements here and there as well.
This series is so good because it has strengths in a variety of different areas. Often times I will find myself enjoying an anime to a certain degree because I like one or two aspects of it while not enjoying other parts of the series as much. Code Geass is one of the exceptions in the anime I have watched in terms of it excelling in many different categories, thus leading to my enjoyment of the series.
A huge reason why the series blew me away was the characters. As mentioned before, Lelouch is a ridiculously smart young man who pulls crazy stunts off to obtain victory. Lelouch, as well as most of the other characters in the series, is a dynamic character that changes over the series according to the fluctuating circumstances caused by his rebellion. We as watchers get to experience the elation, the sadness, the hatred, and many other emotions that Lelouch experiences on his wild journey in the anime. As the series progresses and we find out more about Lelouch's connections with Britannia and about his connections to other characters, we find that Lelouch is an amazing anime character.
The anime also provided a master stroke in terms of creating a perfect foil character for Lelouch in Suzaku Kururugi. Lelouch can be characterized as the master manipulator who prefers to let his careful plans lead him to victory, and has a very flexible/intellectual view on morality while Suzaku has a much more confrontational personality and has more of a black and white view on morality. The relationship of these two characters is very complicated and changes constantly as the series goes on, and its very fun to watch these dynamic fluctuations. In a sense, their relationship with each-other serves as a microcosm of the entire series in the sense that they represent the two main opposing sides of the series, although their motivations and allegiances change as the series progresses.
As for the other characters, many of them have widely varying personalities along with having believable reasons and back stories that contribute to their actions during the anime. It's very fun to see how Lelouch interacts with various characters in different ways. The depth of many of these characters is absolutely amazing. Allegiances change, friendships are broken, formed, broken again, a good friend can become the most vicious of enemies, your lover can turn his/her back on you at any moment! The anime also does a very good job in showing how these characters react emotionally to traumatic or life-changing events, it makes it very easy for the watcher to care for the characters. The personalities of many of the characters in Code Geass are eventually so fleshed out that you are absolutely devastated if something happens to a character you loved, or you are absolutely elated when some scumbag actually gets what he/she deserves.
This anime does have supernatural and science-fiction oriented elements, but these do not detract from the enjoyment of the story. The most notable element, besides the "advantage" I will not spoil in this review, would be the gigantic mechs called "knightmare frames" that are used in the anime by many characters. Honestly, I just viewed them as what they truly are in the series: tools that are used by groups of people to achieve their goals. In a general sense, you could look at it as people using the currently available technology of their times to achieve their means to an end.. I personally enjoyed the variety in different mechs with their different abilities/functions. If you don't like mecha-focused series like many Gundam series, that's fine, but it shouldn't be a reason for skipping this series. As for the "advantage" that Lelouch has over his opponents, this by no means provides Lelouch an easy and quick path to victory. Lelouch encounters many other characters who's intellects, technology, and powers/abilities rival that of his own, and Lelouch is often times reduced to simply having to think his way out of situations in order to survive them. Despite the elements mentioned above, this series is very realistic in terms of the consequences of Lelouch's and other people's actions. This is not your typical shonen anime where everyone survives in the end except the bad guys: People from various sides and perspectives die in this anime. People are psychologically traumatized in this anime. People's lives are dramatically changed in this anime. No one is invulnerable, no one is safe! Once you learn this early on in the series, you are always on edge when something big happens because you know the consequences could be extraordinarily dire.
Perhaps the element of the series that kept my attention the most was the absolute unpredictability of how events would unfold in the anime, as Code Geass has many twists and turns that always keep you guessing. Lelouch gets put into so many crazy situations, and many of the outcomes may not even be what you expect from an anime these days. Even when I re-watched the show two years later I was STILL surprised at some of the things that happened, that's how crazy some of the turns of events are! And these events will be so significant that you will almost certainly have a strong reaction to them because they are done so well. I usually don't react very much while watching anime besides maybe laughing sometimes, but with Code Geass I clapped and yelled my approval at some events, loudly cursed and denounced other events, and actually cried (not kidding) in two very sad moments in the anime because I had become so attached to the characters that died.
Code Geass is also a great anime because it includes much questioning of philosophy and morality embedded into its story and characters. The actions of the characters make you really question what truly is right and wrong, what is good and evil, where the dividing lines between these categories should actually fall, and makes you question just how much bad should be done to achieve an ultimately good end. The series makes the watcher approach uncomfortable topics like racism and segregation , and forces you to reconcile with the issues as you watch people struggle as a result of these issues. People that have finished the series constantly debate whether or not this or that should have been done, what was so in so's true motivation, were they right? etc.. etc..
Last but not least, animation and visuals. The animation as absolutely gorgeous if you watch this show in 720 or 1080p (recommended in 1080 with a good LED screen to get full enjoyment of the series's visuals). The art style is colorful but tastefully so and not "cartoon-ish." The character designs are from the renown CLAMP studio, so they are absolutely top notch. The only qualm I really had with them is that the body proportions could seem a bit weird at times (some characters seem to have strangely long limbs, but this is not terribly noticeable). Everything from the environments, the mechs, the people, and the action scenes are animated superbly and with a painstaking attention to detail throughout most of the animation. The opening and ending songs are beautiful visually. The CLAMP studio even incorporates original colored drawings of Code Geass characters in the ending songs, which is nice.
The audio of this anime is probably the absolute best I've ever approached in any anime I've watched, no contest. There are so many different songs and themes to go with various scenes/circumstances, and they all fit very well. There is such a wide variety of songs that I never felt like any one got overused or got old. The opening and ending songs are amazing, and they sort of reflect the dynamics of the series itself. Some openings and endings songs are very lighthearted and cheerful, while others are energetic and dramatic, while still others are dark and mysterious sounding. The first opening and ending really capture your attention, among others. I loved the fact that the first ending was dark and mysterious, and the second ending was so lighthearted and fun! I watched the series twice, the first time in the English Dub and the second time in the original Japanese. In my opinion, the English voices are good, especially with the renown and experienced Johnny Young Bosch voicing Lelouch very well. HOWEVER, the Japanese original is better in my opinion. In particular the character of Zero and the Charles Zi Britannia are absolutely phenomenal in Japanese as they have very unique voices, but much of their auditory impact is lost upon the English version.
I could keep ranting about how good Code Geass is, but I will end my review here. Ultimately, this show is an absolute must watch for any anime fan. You should watch it just for the crazy unpredictable ride that you will go on as you progress through the series and for the amazingly awesome story, if for thing else!
*Note: If you watch the series, I'd advise you to not watch it on youtube, as that website is a breeding ground for spoilers!
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jul 21, 2013
Welcome to the NHK is a great anime.
It's basically about a 22- year old hikikomori (a person that perpetually shuts his/herself in and to be isolated from society) and NEET (not in Employment, Education, or Training) who loves all things manga, anime, and gal-games. He has been in a state of minimal interaction with the outside world for almost 4 years. However, a series of recent developments and chance occurrences in his life lead Satou to interact with a girl who becomes interested in his life,various people from his past, and other people he meets during the anime. Satou begins to
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struggle with trying to change his socially withdrawn lifestyle as these characters continually interact with him. This series in general reflects how Satou struggles with various social difficulties, and how he interacts with various people that come to influence his life, along with simply showing us the various intricacies of the life of a young Japanese man.
This anime excels at portraying the every day life of a social recluse. The anime does a very good job at reflecting how difficult it is for shut in people to re-integrate themselves into everyday life. One of the best strengths of this anime is that it is very easy for us to sympathize with Satou. He makes progress in being more sociable, he relapses, he gets sidetracked..at some points he is serious about his social progress, and some points he is not.. he gets get encouraged, discouraged..ect. In this sense, the anime reflects the very real notion that it isn't a direct and simple path to recovery for many different conditions and ailments that affect people in every day life. However, I realize it is improbable that everyone watching this series is a social recluse; to make up for that, Satou and other characters in this anime have various other problems and circumstances that most people in real life can relate to and its fun to watch how these characters work to resolve their issues. The anime isn't just about Satou dealing with his social problems though. In a larger sense, this anime is about life. I know that's a vague way to describe an anime, but there are so many different things that happen in this anime, different scenarios, problems, events, people, and other things it constantly keeps you entertained because of this. The anime shows Satou in situations where he is bored, stressed, angry, confused, silly, and so on in a majority of the episodes.
The anime is also great in the way it portrays character relationships. These relationships are fleshed out in a way that really gets you to care about the characters. Every person that comes into Satou's life has a unique personality and unique reasons why they interact with him. Satou's relationships with the two characters he interacts with the most are shown to constantly evolve over time in the series, and their conversations and interactions never stagnate or get old. Characters are shown to question the meaning and validity of their relationships to one another, people move into and out of Satou's life for various reasons, and so on...
Yet another reason why this is an excellent anime is that it masterfully blends various elements, like comedy, romance, suspense, and drama. There were moments where I felt very sad, yet there were other moments when I just laughed my ass off (this is especially true for many of the interactions between Satou and Yamazaki, one of the most well-done portrayals of a close friendship I've seen in any anime). Most of the time you define a show based on its concentration on one of these areas, but not so with NHK. By the time you've finished the series you will have gotten a good dose of all of these areas from multiple characters and story lines to the point where you will feel very satisfied. If I had to define this anime using a conventional term, I would say slice-of-life, but I use this term cautiously. Slice-of-life seems to imply to many anime fans a slow paced anime with an atmosphere of nonchalant silliness, along with non-consequential events. It's true that at times NHK can be slow paced and silly, but there are other times where it is extremely dramatic and exciting to watch, and the consequences of the actions of Satou and other people are real and dire.
This isn't the best looking anime in terms of visuals, but that's not really what is emphasized in the show. At some points we get very detailed environments such as Yamazaki's and Satou's rooms, and at other times were get sort of bland landscapes and not much environmental detail when Satou gets out of his apartment, although this is not to say that the art is terrible overall. It's okay, nothing that would make you cringe from the sight of it or stop you from watching the anime. The art in some cases is actually very creative and colorful in some episodes, especially when you get to see how Satou's thoughts and imagination are animated and mix with his settings in real life.
The audio is okay as well. The voice actors are great. I watched a vast majority of the series in the original Japanese with English sub, but the dub voices are good as well, ESPECIALLY YAMAZAKI's VOICE ACTOR! One of the rare occasions that I seem to have found an English voice that perfectly fits a character from an anime. Otherwise, noting extraordinary soundtrack wise. Although I give this anime points for having one of the most unique (both visually and auditory-wise) ending songs I've ever watched/listened to ( for the first season). It sort of reflects how ridiculous/funny Satou's imagination is.
I could tell you more, but it is my belief that my thoughts and opinions may be somewhat lost in an overly long and bombastic anime review. In summary, NHK is most certainty worth watching. I don't believe it's perfect by any means, but it is top-notch. If you want to immerse yourself in viewing the life of a social recluse, or if you just generally wish to watch the various nuances of the life of a young Japanese man, you should watch Welcome to the NHK!
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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