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Sep 30, 2019
Are you tired of vampires?
Are you tired of short story arcs with expectable endings?
Are you tired of comrade Yukina saying: "Nyet, senpai, this is our fight!"?
Are you tired of teenage boy biting schoolgirls‘ necks?
Are you tired of Strike the Blood?
...
If you answered "no" or "nah" until now, then congrats, please proceed to enjoy more pantyshots (and more) of our cute sword shaman, war dancer and the rest of the fourth primogenitor’s harem.
Strike the Blood III is exactly the same as its prequels, expect nothing less, nothing more. My guess is, that if you‘re considering to watch STB III you‘re already familiar with the franchise and know the way things go.
Just like previous "seasons" it brings us supernatural story balancing among harem,ecchi,action and vampires. Some people like it that way, some people don’t.
In terms of plot, there are no changes, Kojou and his comrades must save the island (sometimes even the world – to make it more dramatic) from villains who just want to destroy everything and kill everybody, because they have nothing better to do. As always, the battle is decided within a few eps and then the new arc begins. Sometimes they also add a bit of a drama into the arc, like when a certain character is about to die or disappear or something (not gonna spoil who), but then something "unexpected" and *cough * *cough* "totally not plot armor related" happens and the person is saved.
What to say about the characters? We can expect old friends and bunch of new villains. We will also reveal several secrets of some already known characters that might be surprising.What comes as no surprise, though, is the fact, that Yukina won’t miss a single opportunity to utter her indispensable quote of appropriating her senpai’s fight.
In conclusion, if you are not a fan, this season won’t make you one, but if you like the series, STB III won’t disappoint you. It’s not meant to be rewached 7 times in a row, but it’s fine for a single run. Its ballance of action/comedy/ecchi in rather simple and straightforward show will make you forget about your daily struggle for those 24 mins each episode has.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Aug 30, 2019
Ever wondered how unfair it is that certain series recieves hype they don’t deserve? Ever wondered why bad shows recieve tons of sequels and why people like them? Yes, I have as well... Well in Koutetsujou no Kabaneri‘s case, I had to do the oposite. Why there’s almost no hype for it? Why the hell people compare this with Attack on Titan and thus giving it low score? Why there’s no proper sequel for it?
Well, I still don’t have the answers for my first two questions (even though I have some sort of idea) but now my third question got answered with the third Koutetsujou
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no Kabaneri movie. So, Let’s take a look at it, shall we?
Setting,theme
Post-apocalyptic steampunk stories are really rare thing in the world of anime. Putting aside my possible bias for steampunk (I used to be into it in my early teens and I still kinda am) it‘s a welcomed breath of fresh air. Even though the story about humanity being on the verge of extinction thanks to ,,zombies“ is something we have seen thousand times before (especially in western media), this steampunk thing makes it remarkable. And the giant trains, don’t forget the giant trains!
Story
The story takes place after the events of the series. And no, compared to the series, this one is not rushed at all. It revolves around a battle of a certain town and nearby castle. Of course, both of our protagonists will have to face enemies among both undead and humans (again).
Characters
We will see good old Koutetsujou crew, along with some new faces consisting mostly of crews from other trains, soldiers and workers. Also new villain appears. And finally,finally the relationship between Ikoma and Mumei has some space to develop slightly (not gonna run into details tho, don’t wanna spoil it). Other characters(beside the main villain) sadly show little to no development at all.
Visuals and sound
It’s made by Wit Studio, so expect same kind of artstyle as Attack on Titan and epic action fight sequences. The fighting scenes are just sight to see. The CGI used here is on non-Berserk 2016 level (so it’s good). And in terms of sound? Well, nothing negative to point out here.
Overall
Don’t worry, it’s not rushed like the series, it’s packed with action while giving us some space for Ikoma x Mumei relationship development. We get to see a brand new city and a new type of opponent. And we get more of those steel monsters wandering the rails while crushing tons of undead. There’s only one negative thing I’ve found: It’s too damn short!!!
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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May 7, 2019
At the first sight, this may look like another story full of raping and fighting, but if we give it a chance, we will see, that it is kinda interesting ,,alternative history“ manga.
But first things first. Let’s briefly introduce the story. The story is about a young Bohemian girl called Sarka, who got her village burned down and now seeks for revenge. She joins Hussite rebels who fight Catholics (the village was destroyed by their forces) and becomes one of the most iconic character of Hussite rebellion. Btw knowing a few things about Hussite Wars is an advantage here, but not necessity, you can
...
still enjoy the plot, but you might miss some references.
The story is a mix of reality and fiction. The author took old Czech folk tale (,,Divci Valka“- Maidens War - Otome Sensou) and mixed its characters with real events and characters. Let’s start by pointing out what is real what is not. The story takes place in Kingdom of Bohemia, which is a real place (today’s Czech Republic) and it is based on Hussite Wars, which was a real event (if you happen to know Kingdom Come: Deliverance, this takes place about 16 years after the game’s events). All the places mentioned here are real (even though some of them might not be accurately described). The weapons are also real, especially ,,pistala“ (where do you think the word ,,pistol“ came from?), the choir about „soldiers of god“ is also real, it is said, that Hussites used it to scare their enemies (too bad they didn’t know about Justin Bieber). And the strategy of placing war wagons in circles is also real strategy used by Hussites.
A few words about the characters.
Sarka (Šárka) [Shaaarka] has the same name as a heroine from previously mentioned folk tale. So she is fictional. Even though she is just a fragile countryside girl, she is incredibly strong inside. She had to witness how crusaders burned down her village,killed her boyfriend, killed her best friends and so on... Her personality changes through the story, at the end she changes from innocent maiden who only supports fighters by singing choirs to soldier who does not hesitate to kill
Jan Zizka (Jan Žižka) is Hussite general who is skilled fighter, prodigy strategist, and despite his age very vital. He is a real person who happened to be the first Hussite leader. He finds Sarka after her village got destroyed and recruits her. She becomes one of his most trusted soldiers.
Vlasta is Zizka‘s highest and most trusted officer (she is also in relationship with Zizka, but it’s not specified whether they are married or not). She is a tough fighter, who is ready to fulfill any of Zizka’s orders.
Sir Wilhelm von Schwartz is a German knight and loyal crusader. Even though he came to Bohemia to erase the Hussites, he still believes in chivalry and saves Sarka’s life even though they are enemies. As far as I know, he doesn’t have any historical counterpart.
A few words about cities/places
As I said before, the cities and places mentioned here are real. Some drawings are kinda accurate (like Church of Our Lady before Týn), sadly Prague Astronomical Clock is drawn in it’s very early stage excluding some of its features it has today.
A few words about fights
Fights are believable and thrilling, author is not scared of killing main characters so your favourite character’s life can be over in any second. So many „main“ characters died in fight or because of illness.
A few words about clothes
I am not medieval fashion expert, but the clothes looked like it could be worn back then. (except for that kinda steampunkish diving suit used while besieging Vysehrad castle).
A few words about gore/violence/rape
Yes, all of this is included here, because that’s how it used to be, and your „reeeeeeeeee“ won’t change a thing. Deal with it.
No seriously, if you got offended by Goblin Slayer for one single rape scene, this will probably give you heart attack, so I would recommend you to skip this.
A few closing words
This is kinda interesting ,,what if“ scenario from Hussite Wars era. It’s not a bad thing to jump from medieval fantasy worlds to real medieval world from time to time, but in that case we shouldn’t change reality as much as they did here. But I really liked all the Hussite Wars references, there’s plenty of them. Anyways if you like medieval stories and you have a thing for real world setting, this might be for you. Also, if you played Kingdom Come, go read this, but don’t expect this to be that realistic. And once more, knowing a few things about Hussite Wars is an advantage here, but not necessity, you can still enjoy the plot, but you might miss some references.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Mar 4, 2019
,,Hey let’s put bunch of girls into japanese WWII plane’s cockpits and make them fight some air pirates!“
This is how you can describe the plot in one sentence. But saying just this won’t be really fair, so let’s take a closer look.
If you‘re familiar with an old videogame called Crimson Skies, and you like it, then there’s a huge chance, that you will like this as well. Airships used instead of carriers? Air pirates? Dogfights? Yes everything is here, just like in CS. But unlike in CS, this show is not from pirate’s point of view, but from the other side instead. You will follow
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a small female mercenary squadron called ,,Kotobuki Squadron“ on their adventures. So much for the plot, most of the screen time is reserved for dogfights anyways. Now let’s move to technical aspects, shall we?
Art and Visuals
This is something questionable. We have impressive CGI plane models and animations, with the same attention to details,that we can find in GuP (no doubt since both shows have the same director). However, and this is probably the biggest problem of the show, unlike GuP, which uses traditional animation for characters, Kotobuki uses CGI not just for the machines, but also for people. Especially for the main characters. And that’s the problem. With this amount of CGI characters used, the show feels more like a cutscene from Bandai Namco game, than anime. They should’ve sticked to use CGI only for vehicles, where it works really great, for example that unforgettable engine starting sequence in the first episode, that was just pleasure to watch.To make it simple, the vehicle visuals and animations are stunning, but the decision to use CGI for characters makes the overall visuals kinda odd.
Sounds and Music
OP is great, it resembles the atmosphere of sandy wasteland in alternative 1930s-1940s (which is most likely, when and where the show takes place, judging by the usage of WWII airplanes).In terms of sounds, I like them, especially gunshots and engine sounds.
Characters
There’s not much to say, we have almost no backstory nor character development (but we sometimes get some hints about character's past, and
we also know, that there is a one girl who loves pancakes). The Kotobuki Squadron consists of 6 girls, however the only remarkable one so far is Kirie (the one who loves pancakes). But this show is mostly about planes and dogfights, so let’s overlook the lack of character development.
Overall
If you are a fan of doghfights and WWII airplanes, then go for it. If not, well then try it, if you can bare with CGI characters and small/no character development you will be rewarded by amazing air battle scenes. As a someone who has dozens of hours on games like IL-2 Sturmovik or Crimson Skies, and likes WWII stuff in general, I can only say it deserves 9/10, because of the way they presented the dogfights and airplanes, which are the main aspect of the show after all.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Aug 27, 2018
I swear, if this existed back in my days, I would pay more attention in my biology classes...
This Is how you can summarize this show in one sentence...
Hataraku Saibou reminds me of an old French animated series (Once Upon a Time... Life) that I used to watch as a kid, which had basically the same premise, to describe body functions through anthropomorphized organs and cells.
It has some informational value yet it doesn’t lack funny scenes. There’s also some sort of story, as this show follows daily lives of a few cells (cells are represented as humans, while human body itself is represented as a
...
world). And then we have viruses and bacteria which have shape of monsters or something that looks like some sort of Pokémon on crack.
Maybe it’s the feeling of nostalgia or simply curiosity that made me start watching this… Either way I don’t regret it, as I find this show really enjoyable.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Aug 27, 2018
It’s not a complex story, unexpected plot-twists or character development which makes this show ingenious. No It’s something slightly different. Let me describe it.
Well this might be long-track run but I want to make sure everybody understands why this show deserves 10/10 score.
First of all I have a feeling that most of the people who gave this anime bad score, dropped it or marked is as ,,cancer“ simply aren’t the target audience. So before we move to describing what is the anime about it would be good idea to describe WHO IS THIS ANIME FOR.
And the answer is pretty easy... WWII/MILITARY nerds. This show
...
was simply made by WWII enthusiasts for WWII enthusiasts. Of course, if you can’t tell the difference between Sherman and Tiger (and after watching this you probably will be able to) you can still enjoy the show... But remember that those WWII neets will enjoy the show six times more... Why is it like this?
Well as I said, there is one thing that makes this show glorious...
R E F E R E N C E S. This show is full of WWII/ military references and ,,inside jokes“. Some of them are so obvious that you will get them even if you didn’t pay attention in history class... Some of them are so well hidden that only consecrated people will understand. And I personally believe that I also missed some.
If you don’t want to know further reasons, then I can tell you this: It’s not for everyone but it does excellent job for its target audience.Maybe that’s why it’s still alive even several years after its release and there is another sequel airing...
One more thing before moving to describing the plot and stuff. Since this was my first anime, I can clearly confirm, that even if you are not into anime, you can still watch it, and maybe it will make you consider watching anime more and more (just like in my case, but as I heard from multiple people, I am not the only one who can call this ,,a gate to anime world“. Maybe it’s because it lacks typical ,,cringy or weird“ anime stuff like ,,white blank eyes“, running with hands behind and so on... I guess some hardcore otakus will refer this as a „con“, but I think this stuff is not suitable for this kind of anime anyways...
Fine... With that said, I can move on to describing the plot... Okay I will try to make this spoiler free but... Some minor spoilers might occur.
So what Is this show about?
The story takes place in a world where high school girls and women in general are allowed to participate in a sport (or techically martial art) called Sensha-do (the way of tank), in english translation often reffered as ,,Panzerfahren“ (tank driving). But I prefer calling it ,,tankery“. Only women can participate in this, and people believe, that this will make them good wives (no really who wouldn’t like his wife to be able to drive those steel monsters?)
It all takes place in a city called ,,Ooarai“, which is a real place btw, and many locations portrayed in anime could be found there actually. The main protagonist of the series, Miho Nishizumi just transfered to Ooarai girls‘ school. Even though she is from famous noble family that has a tradition in tankery, she came here because this school doesn‘t offer it. (name Nishizumi refers to WWII japanese tank ace 1st Lt. Kojiro Nishizumi , Voila! The first reference is here). However Ooarai school decided to start participating in tankery again. And Miho is forced to lead them. She also meets new friends (Yukari Akiyama, real WWII nerd who is basically alter ego of average GuP fan, Hana Isuzu who comes from noble family as well, yet her family is focused on ,,flower arranging“ instead of driving tanks, Saori Takebe who tries to get a boyfriend and tends to give love advice even though she has no experience, and Mako Reizei, inteligent but sleepy girl who has problems with attendance). The story follows Ooarai tankery team on its way to win 63rd National tournament, which is (as later discovered) nescessary to keep the school open. So much for the plot, now let’s take a look at those references more precisely:
Schools:
Each school in this anime represents one nation that participated in WWII or simply existed during that time and had some tanks. These schools are basically the most obvious references, not just school names but even insignias are made in a way everybody knows which country they represent. Also school uniforms are heavily inspired by actual army uniforms of those countries. And when I say heavily I mean heavily...
So far We have following schools:
Pravda - means ,,truth“ in russian, it‘s Soviet Union inspired school
St. Gloriana - such British inspired much Posh school
Saunders – Murica inspired school, fu*k yeah!
Anzio - named after a town in Italy,( The Battle of Anzio, I’m sure you know
what I’m talking about), yes this is an Italian inspired school
Kuromorimine (Schwarzwaldspitze or Black Forest Peak) is Ze German inspired school (and one of the strongest btw)
Ooarai - this school doesn’t represent any specific nation, it’s mixed. All tanks are divided among ,,teams“ each team is called after an animal and operates one tank. So far we have Ankou team (Miho and her friends) Hippo team (History club members) Rabbit team (1st graders) Turtle team (student council) and few others...
Jatkosota - Finnish themed school
Selection University - uses american WWII, early post war tanks and british Centurion
Chi ha tan – Japanese themed school is great example how authors made fun out of themselves, this school is famous for charging towards enemies (clear reference) but unlike japanese soldiers those girls use tank guns instead of bayonets.
BC free – Baguette themed school
Maginot (Named after famous Maginot line),another Baguette
There are some other schools that haven’t appeared in the show but we can see them in spin-off mangas
Characters:
Some characters (especially overall commanders) are representations of stereotypes of countries their school represents. Even Their names are sometimes made from words or names those countries use. So we can see names like:
Katyusha - overall commander of Pravda, can’t say even a word in russian
Klara - Half-russian
Darjeeling – Named after a certain type of tea, she is the Leader of St.
Gloriana,very lady-like, always drinks tea and uses odd metaphores, (she is probably the most british character u can see in anime)
Kay - okay this is the commander of Saunders
Erika - blond girl with blue eyes(typical arian maid), named after flower ,, heather“ (yes ,,Erika“ is ,,Heather“),you really thought, they sing about some girl in that famous march song?
Mika – Finnish inspired character
Anchovy - often refers herself as ,,Duce“ (duke) just like Mussolini did, she is the leader of Anzio
Team Hippo (Ooarai crew that operates Stug III) contains ,,History club“ members, and each of them Is an expert on specific part of History. We have Erwin (kinda obvious), Caesar (Obvious as well) Saemonza (named after certain samurai warrior) and Oryou (some famous japanese woman)
Songs and OSTs:
Even though opening and ending themes are barely connected to WWII, authors decided to use famous march songs as a background music for action scenes.So you can hear re-recorded and pretty cool versions of Panzerlied, Erika, British Grenadies,Yuki no Shigun and other famous march/folk songs from 1940s. And here comes another big reference when girls from Pravda (Soviet themed school, if you forgot) sing ,,Katyusha“ while rolling forward in bunch of T-34s IS-2 and KV-2. This is probably one of the most memorable scenes.
Another memorable references:
While learning how to drive her tank Mako uses a book which looks just like Tigerfibel (German crew instruction manual made for panzer crews, those fiebels were less complicated than official manuals, they were illustrated kinda like comics and texts were made as ,,humorous“ poetry)
Battle against Pravda is located in snowy area (Girls from History club said, that it reminds them of Stalingrad, what about you?)
When Katyusha demands Ooarai's surrender, Momo(Ooarai’s student council vice-president) responds by saying "nuts". This is a reference to Anthony McAuliffe who in the Battle of the Bulge was encircled and demanded to surrender. In response he sent a note to the Germans with the solitary word "nuts".
The night before the Finals, the members of Rabbit team are seen watching "Kelly's Heroes".
Now I will also talk a little about animation and physics. Tanks are amazingly detailed, you can really see that authors payed so much attention modelling them. Please show me anime with better CGI tanks... Physics is however... Well even World of Tanks player would call it ,,arcade“ despite their detailed looks, tanks are moving incredibly fast, sometimes seems to have stronger armor then they should. And btw even though they use live ammo in the show, nobody gets hurt, when tank is „destroyed“, it simply raises white flag above and can’t participate in match anymore, however after small maintenance you can use it again in next match. But to be fair, some physical aspects are amazing (tracks physics is amazing for example, especially in Das Finale).
I know I know, this took longer than expected but I hope, that you now understand why does this show deserve 10/10. It’s not for everyone but it does excellent job in terms of its spirit: A great WWII-themed show but with cute girls.
Okay time to finish this. If you are into military or WWII (WWII especially) I don’t believe you haven’t watched it yet... If so, then wait no more, stop reading, close your web browser, LEGALLY OBTAIN a copy of it and watch it... If you didn’t like history classes this might not be your cup of Darjeeling tea... But you can give it a try anyways...
If you read it till here I am personally impressed and you have my respect.
PS. More references are further described on gup.wikia
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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