- Last OnlineJun 23, 2017 11:38 AM
- GenderMale
- BirthdayJan 1, 1995
- LocationSingapore
- JoinedJan 24, 2014
No friend yet.
RSS Feeds
|
![]()
Sep 20, 2014
What makes a series great? Different people have different opinions regarding this matter. Is it the story? Is it the characters? Or is it just good as a whole?
Mirai Nikki or other people may know it as, Future Diary unfortunately falls under the category where the characters were good, the storytelling excellent but once you stop and look at it as a whole, it falls short of something. However as a stern warning to people whom are weak against violence or bloodshed, this is not the anime for you. Don't think that this would just be your typical normal comedy-romance series because it's nothing of
...
the sort.
The story follows the lives of Yukiteru Amano, a rather cowardly (I will touch on this later) recluse who doesn't have anything to do other than recording down events happening around him inside his cellphone's diary. It so happens that he has an imaginary friend called Deus Ex Machina which is apparently the God of Time and Space. Deus then tell him that he had prepared a game for him, a game of survival where the last remaining survivor would be able to inherit his powers and title as the God of Time and Space because he, the current God of Time and Space, is dying. He's indeed 'God' *insert sarcasm*
Unable to escape from this survival game which he is dragged into, Deus gathered 11 other 'players' to join him in this little survival game of his by giving them 'future diaries' which gives the user powers of looking into the future depending on what kind of a diary it is. The diaries ranged from our main character's random events diaries(because like I said earlier, he has a habit of recording random stuffs) to escape diaries (it tells you route that you can escape to) to even a freaking Yukiteru diary(yes, it is not a typo but I will touch on that later).
Like I said before, our main character is RATHER cowardly (note the emphasis and yes he's worse than Shinji from Evagalion). After obtaining his power he immediately saw on his future diary that he was going to die as he immediately panicked. Then enters the highlight and what makes the series so much more entertaining - Yuno. If you have lurked around the internet for a while, there's no way you haven't heard of her. You know , that pink headed girl that always seem to have a psychotic look on her face? Yes, that's her.
Without spoiling too much, Yuno saves Yuki from his impending doom and managed to get rid of one of the twelve players. Oh remember I said about the Yukiteru diary? Yuno has that diary which predicts what our main character does. Wanna know why her diary does that? Well, take Juvia from Fairy Tail, Mikasa from Shingeki no Kyojin, Overly attached girlfriend from 9GAG and Lucy from Elfen Lied and combine all of them together and you end up with Yuno - an obsessive psychotic stalker which is a badass who won't let anyone touch her beloved. (yes I refrained from using Higurashi in those references).
In other words, she's obsessively in love with our main character because of an incident in the past. However, because of that defeat, our beloved God of Time and Space(no really I should really use Deus but I still can't fathom how can he die) decides to make the game harder for Yuki by telling the rest of the players that our main character is in the lead and is the one most likely to win, shifting all of their attention to him. And of course, being the cowardly protagonist he is, he succumbs to the pressure but our Yuno definitely won't let anyone touch him and that's where the story is going.
The Battle Royale concept is implemented in this show rather awkwardly in my opinion as the enemies would come one by one against Yukiteru which I find rather convenient as if they had teamed up. There's no way Yuno can protect him against all of them. However, there's no bullshit in that concept like plot armour which I personally hate. Oh did I mention that if your diary gets destroyed, you would die as well? " People die when they are killed" , yes thanks Shirou for the quote. So if you get killed or your diaries get destroyed, you disappear from the face of the Earth. Yes I'm looking at you Fairy Tail.
However, that was not the actual story of the show but rather -- the premise in my opinion. The storytelling of Yuno's backstory as bits after bits of the mystery behind her gets revealed along as the series progresses. I found myself immersed with her rather than the show's premise itself as each episode ends with me wanting to know what the hell is she. For a moment, she can be sweet and gentle like your average school girl and suddenly her attitude can change in a blink of an eye to that of a psychotic killer. It's the mystery that she's shrouded in which makes the show so much more entertaining.
As for the art, I don't really have any complains regarding the animation but there's nothing remarkable which I may want to add. However, this series has one of the best openings I have ever seen with stunning visuals in the OP1 along with a fitting song to go along with the dark theme of the series. The soundtrack - there's plenty of tracks which stood out and I can still remember them although I have finished with this anime for almost a year and the themes fit the scene nicely.
The voice acting, if I had to nitpick then choose one that has done the best job, Yuno's voice actor. I have heard both the dub and the sub and I would have to say that the sub takes the cake. Although the voice actor is inexperienced from what I can gather from the wiki, she does an excellent job of portraying Yuno to the extent like I think no one can replace Jun Fukuyama as Lelouch and Mamoru Miyano as Yagami Light. I simply can't think of anyone else that can do a better job at portraying a psychotic yet sweet girl.
I don't think I have to emphasis any more on the character department unless you would want to read me ranting on how much I hate Yukiteru and how much I love Yuno if you haven't figure out from the text above. Of course, there are several other characters which were developed pretty well and most of them did not feel bland at all. Some may find Yuno rather annoying but in my opinion, she carries the show much like the two examples which I have used earlier - Lelouch and Yagami Light (well, in Light's case, him and L). You would want to see her achieve her goal because she's really endearing.
I truly enjoyed this series as one of the most nerve wrecking and emotionally attaching series (mainly Yuno. Yuno is love Yuno is life). However, this series is not without flaws. Enough of me pandering about singing high praises of this show because after I simmered down at the ending (yes I know the ending because I continued on from the manga). I looked back and thought - " wow , this show has quite a lot of plot holes ". Things that I have never really stopped and think about started emerging in my head, putting down the series although I have thought it was one of the very best.
Like why did Deus make this game in the first place? Why would you want someone that murders 11 people to be the God of Time and Space? Wouldn't you want to entrust the title and power to someone more worthwhile by testing their leadership skills instead of pitting them in a battle to the death ? Also, because the series deals with time in general(future). There were several plotholes about time paradox which I shall not address here to prevent spoilers but those whom had watched the series should know.
To conclude, Future Diary/Mirai Nikki is a worthwhile watch in my opinion despite it's flaws and I truly enjoyed the series. Come to think of it, I didn't think of the flaws when I was watching it was probably mainly because of the fast pacing of the story and I was too absorbed into the episodes which is a merit in itself. Although I may contradict myself here, I highly recommend this series even to the weak-hearted because Yuno is one of the best written characters and it's a shame not to watch it because of other flaws.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
What did you think of this review?
Nice
 0
Love it
 0
Funny
 0
Confusing
 0
Well-written
 0
Creative
 0Show all
![]()
Sep 20, 2014
*heaves a sigh*
Where do I start with this review? I do not have any idea and I would dread reviewing this as much as forcing myself to watch this 12 episodes of cringe-worthy recycled anime.
I have always been dubious of action and ecchi genres being lumped together because in my opinion, I would not be able to focus on the action if there's panties shots or exposed breasts every few seconds on the screen which is much reflected in most of the anime having these two genres together. I believe that there's a fine line between focusing on the action or focusing on the ecchi
...
portion (no homo).
Dakara Boku wa , H ga Dekinai (copy pasted because I'm much more familiar with the english title) is your standard generic anime. Our main character which I can't even remember the name because most or otherwise all of the characters in this series being bland as a 2D cardboard, chanced upon a death god named Lisara whom -- ahh fuck this. Let's just make it simple - guy meets girl , girl starts to hate the guy but requires his help in order to accomplish her goal. That's it.
The story basically revolves around Lisara battling against monsters in the same old recycled fashion until probably episode 8? It literally went down like -
1) encounters monster , Lisara change to her demon suit or whatever it's called
2) she loses and for some reason loses her clothes every time (convenient fanservice almost equivalent that of queen's blade)
3) main character comes and provide eropower to Lisara
4) Lisara powers up
5) ???
6) Profit
There, I summarized the first 8 episodes for you in 6 lines. Oh and did I forget to mention? The main character provides energy to Lisara by the power of ero! How original. No, this is not doused with sarcasm because the only series that I can remember doing this is probably Highschool DxD ( oh how we love Issei and his oppais)
The story then finally breaks free from this recycled over and over loop which I would call it the 'Bleach loop' after episode 8. However, by then all my interest in this show have already been depleted by the horrendous past 8 episodes that I literally had to force myself to watch the remaining 4 episodes which starts to get a little more interesting than watching weed grow.
The art is most likely the taking point of this show as bright colors and flashly effects were used and the character designs are marvellous. The soundtrack was good but nothing too memorable, voice acting wise was generic as well. Talking about the character designs, brings me to my next point - the characters.
.. (I can't even remember their names except for Lisara because she was probably the only one with actual personality). But the cast consist of our usual ecchi protagonist who is a pervert, a big-boobed character which happens to be his childhood friend and offers nothing but fanservice almost identical to Orihime. A loli whose tits are for some reason censored unlike the rest of the cast and Lisara ( did I miss anyone else? ).
As for Lisara's character, at first glance, she's almost as flat as the other characters. No I'm not referring to her tits which is probably the main highlight of the show - tits. But as the series progresses and her interactions with the generic main character reveals that she is much more than a walking flesh of fanservice because she has a reason to stick with the MC until she accomplishes her goal.
Overall, I would highly recommend against watching this anime unless you prefer those animes with needless amounts of fanservice and fanservice sprinkled on top and one which may require to turn your brain off while watching. It's not worth grinding through the first eight episodes for a barely decent plot. While some may say that there's humour within the first eight episodes to keep the viewer entertained, I cannot stress enough the amount of recycled plotlines that even the funniest joke of all can become dull.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Jan 26, 2014
Comparing it to its predecessor , R+V Season I , this series has far much more to offer that would leave the readers drooling for more of this series as it took a far more serious approach than it did in the first season.
Story : 8/10
A human being friends with monsters is not an original plot in any sense and I could probably hand pick out several other titles with almost the same plot lines with ease but that was in the first season where everything had started. This second season's storyline is pretty generic at the start where Tsukune and his harem continues their
...
daily lives in school until the series took a darker approach to the story by introducing Fairy Tale which is not to be confused with Fairy Tail(manga). The readers are given more back stories of the main characters , notably Mizore and Moka as the story got even darker and darker. It evolved from a comedy-romance-slapstick kind of series into a very serious one once Moka's rosario seal broke and had to be repaired and ever since then , the series had sky rocketed up in my chart because the writing had been splendid all the way since then.
Also , one could possibly see what life lessons the author is trying to imply through some of the arcs such as Moka's stepmother which had been introduced this season that ' Jealousy Kills ' and the sorts. Compared to Season 1 , this series' storyline could easily put it to shame.
Art : 10/10
I would very rarely give full marks for this section but the art in the series is extremely beautiful and well drawn. One could easily see that the author's drawings had transcended itself ever since the start of season one as each character are drawn majestically and low-quality drawings are very sparse. Emotions are well-conveyed through the character's facial expressions and one could easily discern what is happening with the neat drawings unlike some mangas where you would have no idea what that panel is for. This is definitely the most well drawn manga if not second , that I have ever seen as it's definitely comparable to the likes of Bleach and Gantz. No , scratch that. It's definitely better than Bleach in terms of art.
Character : 8/10
There are even more characters introduced in this season and most of the characters are given a back story which also includes the main cast as well as we get a lot more development on Tsukune's romantic interests. Also , the series also reuses some of its old characters back from season 1 which is the problem that some manga face whereby they completely about their own characters after a long span of time and it was definitely heart warming to see Sun-sempai again. We also do see the characters bond closer and closer to each other especially with Kurumu and Tsukune along with Tsukune and Moka.
Enjoyment : 8/10
Although with all the praise , this series had been a thrill of a ride. It's a roller-coaster with its highs and lows. With the addition of the Dark Lords, more powers are introduced and I would have to proclaim this : Mugen Jigentou is badass as fuck. At least compared to DBZ-type of powers , I would definitely prefer it as it's definitely cooler than just explosions in my book. Originality and doing something new is definitely one of the things that would score high in my book and the powers is definitely one that had me going.
However , I do have to lament on some of the things which sadly dropped the score from a perfect 10 to a 8. One of such things was Moka's death. I believed that was the most hyped up scene in the entire series and honestly , my heart was pounding so badly that I craved for the next chapter that would be released next month. All of the scenes were beautifully drawn and their kiss was definitely the exceptionally beautiful one and the next chapter was also as good with Tsukune breaking off his holy seal just to inject blood to save Moka. At that point , my crave for the next chapter was so high that all I did each day was to check whether there were any updates , and I was not the only one. R+V forums were flooded and all of my friends whom followed the series was also suffering the same syndrome that I had , but then came the downfall.
Don't get me wrong but I would preferred it if Moka had died. Even if she were to be revived , it was okay with me so long that Tsukune went berserk or died in her place at the very least because the climax was so well done in both chapters that would leave the fans hanging for more but the next chapter killed all of the excitement and hype that it had successfully built up because of a convenient power up which I shall refer to Fairy Tail's (yes , I'm talking about Hiiro Mashima's manga) plot *coughcough* , I meant nakama armour.
Literally the chapter was about all of Tsukune friends joining hands and 'conveying' instructions about how to control the Shinso power so that Tsukune and Moka could power up in time to kill Alucard. I was like ' wat ' throughout the entire chapter. How would they know how to control the Shinso's blood inside their body? This is what I'd call by a convenient plothole which is big enough to render a near perfect series to 'meh'. And both of them 'revived' and literally One-Punch Manned Alucard , the supposed strongest vampire in history. Sorry , that just killed the series for me but I would still give it an 8 for all the chapters before that and especially the two build up chapters.
Overall : 7/10
Its really sad to give this piece of a masterpiece such a low grade when it deserved better but it had to be done with the asspull done with the previous 2 chapters. But still , I would recommend this series for those who have not started but you would probably be as disappointed as I was by the two asspull chapters.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Jan 26, 2014
One-Punch Man is just like what the title sounds - A main character who can literally one punch kill everything. Now , what's the fun about an overpowered BALD main character who can defeat gargantuan monsters and meteorites in just a punch ? Everything. One-Punch Man is a series that deviates from the general shounen rule of : New enemy comes out and destroys the main character , leading the main character to train and power up and repeat. This makes it utterly fresh to the eyes and this is not a manga to be taken seriously because of it and the sheer idiocy of
...
this made the enjoyment so much better than its peers.
Story : 5/10
The story is pretty linear. One-Punch Man basically revolves around a boy named Saitama who defends cities after cities from evil overbearing monsters aiming for world domination and the sorts. He literally one punches everything and everything would be solved , but this was the problem. He was too overpowered that he had already lost the motivation to fight any more because everything just ends in one punch. But that was not the case forever since the readers are shown his past where he was not yet BALD and looked like an eggplant head , showing that he was actually weak even before the series started and had trained for years just to achieve his power today.
But even so , after defending so many cities , he remained unknown as a hero and a fellow hero , upon seeing his retarded power begged to be his disciple and both of them took on the tests to become official heroes. The storyline is basically like that , sweet and simple with Saitama trying to achieve his well-deserved S-ranked Hero class. There are hardly any plot twists or any sub plots other than this simple storyline which made the storyline suffer just a little bit.
Art : 7/10
One glance at Saitama and you would be wondering , ' What the hell am I watching ? '. It's simply because Saitama is a character that looked as though an elementary school kid could draw easily because of his simple design that could even put One Piece's characters to shame. However, the author had shown that he had purposefully did that to Saitama's character design and it's evident that he could draw masterful pieces of art if you'd compare the other characters , especially the bosses of each arc. The amount of details spent on each bosses are exceptional as they looked as though they were ripped out from Gantz , which is renowned for its high quality drawings that looked realistic compared to its peers.
Character : 4/10
Each character are given a set of personalities but this is really where the series is lacking. Although there are several characters introduced throughout the series , one could not help but think that these characters were merely introduced just so that they can hype up the arc's boss - in other words , flaunting of it's power before Saitama one punches it like usual. So far of most characters that had been introduced , most of them fall under this category sadly to say and Saitama's disciple , Genos , which is arguably the series' second main character is not spared from this.
However with that said, not all characters are just fodder-type material as although Genos fall under the category as stated above , he was given ample character development and serve well as the secondary character because Saitama is usually absent until he decides to show up just to deliver the final blow and the humour of Genos taking the credit because of the civilians watching their fight is overused , yet it's still funny to see Saitama being irked and pissed about it.
Enjoyment : 9/10
This is where the series truly shines because it's original and gives the readers a break from the usual shounen power ups as stated in the introductory paragraph. The story is predictable and yes , Saitama would just one hit everything but it's extremely enjoyable to see him being distressed about his own power. And the back story given of why Saitama lost all of his hair and became a bald eggplant was hilarious and his superbly simple design would probably paint a smile on one's face. The series is clichéd beyond hope but for some reason , the readers are able to enjoy it and it's something that cannot be described through words but rather only could be explained by reading it.
Overall : 7/10
I originally wanted to give this series a 6 out of 10 but I simply had to add one point because of the sheer enjoyment I had through reading it. I would definitely recommend this series to people who are tired of seeing convenient power ups from other popular shounen series because the concept of an overpowered main protagonist that is distressed because of his own power is fresh.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Jan 24, 2014
Writing a review of my favourite anime of all time without being biased is going to be hard but here goes.
Disclaimer : All of this are my personal opinion and is not intended to offend anyone by any means.
Story : 9/10
The story itself is pretty basic but some of the characters' intentions are left unknown until the future episodes such as why Lelouch wanted to overthrow the Britannia Empire. But basically, the story revolves around the life of Lelouch Lamperouge or some may know him as Lelouch Vi Britannia for his real name. Like Death Note , both series have a genius protagonist that thinks
...
that the current world is corrupted and needed salvation.
One main difference between the two masterpieces would be that Lelouch does not want to be god like Yagami Light. But rather , he just wants to overthrow the Britannia Empire , or in other words , oppose his father for abandoning him and his sister when their mother were brutally killed in front of their eyes , causing his sister , Nunally , to be blind and crippled.
As such , he opposes his father and attempts to overthrow the empire by becoming a terrorist. But it did not start off that well as he was just an original student with a genius intellect which some may argue to be comparable to Yagami Light. Out of pure coincidence , he got into a sticky situation where he got involved with the Japanese terrorists. Oh did I forget to mention ? The Britannia Empire had conquered most of the countries and renamed them which is the main reason why the terrorists are.. well.. committing terrorism.
Back to where I was , he chanced upon a girl named C.C and in the face of death , the girl granted him a mysterious power called the geass. The power he was granted was the power of absolute obedience and anyone whom have direct eye contact with him would fall under his power and do his commands.
As such , Lelouch began to challenge the Britannia Empire with his new-found power while keeping his identity a secret , thus the alias and the mask of Zero. All for the sake of revenge and to create a world where his sister could live happily and safely without fearing for their lives.
Art : 9/10
Taking into account that this is a fairly old anime that originated from the 2006 , the animation quality is great with cool mechas and unique character designs. Many people would probably dislike the character design at the start but trust me , it will grow on you. There's nothing much to add on except that the animation for the mecha battles are really well done and fanservice is not abundant here. (Karen)
Sound : 8/10
Hate to say it but the soundtracks are not exactly great. There are some scenes that simply does fit with the soundtracks and it had me going ,'wtf?' most of the time. However despite that, I have to commend Jun Fukuyama for voicing Lelouch. He have done an excellent job of being his seiyuu and I definitely do not believe anyone else could have done the job better.
One notable scene would be where he started laughing maniacally upon finding out that the pilot piloting the dreaded Lancelot that had hindered his plans countless of times was actually his childhood friend , Suzaku.
As for the openings and endings , some are definitely catchy and I will give props to that , especially the first opening Colours which I thought was really well done.
Character : 10/10
Like I said before, Lelouch is often compared to Yagami Light because of their similarities. However , I believe that Lelouch is a better character than Light because of the character developments he had throughout the series instead of just having a god complex like Light. Unlike Light , Lelouch would actually stop and think about his actions and the consequences such as when he found out that he had accidentally killed one of his classmate's (whom happened to have a huge crush on him) father while fighting with the Britannia army.
He did not know of the consequences of his actions and that had served as a good wake up call for him after he had involved an innocent party and he almost wanted to quit the Order of Black Knights which he had formed with the Japanese terrorists because of it. He then hardened his resolve to fight Britannia once more so that he would not waste the blood that he had already spilled in what he had thought was a game of chess all along.
The second main character , Suzaku , was a disappointment sadly. However , he offered another perspective to the series as Lelouch wanted to change the Britannia system by overthrowing it whereas Suzaku wanted to change it from within and this led to both of them slogging it out despite not knowing of their identities until much later in the series.
Like Lelouch , Suzaku is a complex character however , it does not justify for his hypocritical ways and don't even get me started on his insane physique. He's probably the only character except for Nina that I really wanted to kill throughout the series because their character was that hateful and I guess I can give the story writers credits for that.
The other characters are also developed splendidly as well other than the two main male casts. Honourable mentions would be Shirley and C.C. Sorry Kallen's fans , I find her to be slightly superficial and that her character development was barely there.
Enjoyment : 10/10
As you start off the series , there are quite a lot of complex things such as Sakuradite that you would have no idea what it is about and why Lelouch would behave that way until further on the series where it's explained. As the series progresses , one would normally get excited and cheer for Lelouch despite what he's doing is morally wrong since he's committing terrorism but it's hard to not get drawn into his pace and his genius plans which he refers as real time strategy.
Every episode was pretty well-paced as well with enough character development to go around and considering that this is only season 1 , questions would be left unanswered as more characters would be introduced in season 2.
This show is capable of pulling in the audience and letting them be in the shoes of each character as emotions are depicted really well and without doubt , Lelouch is one of the most realistic characters that I have ever seen in any manga and anime because of his emotional conflicts along with the character development which I had already covered earlier. I find it hard not to sympathize and root for him , which is why this series is such a masterpiece.
And to add on to it , there are three main romantic interests which are C.C , Shirley and Kallen. For those people whom like to see a little romance here and there , pick your ship! Thank god Lelouch isn't as dense as most main characters.
Overall : 10/10
I would give this series a perfect score because I feel that it deserved it for being able to engross the audience. Despite not being much of a mecha fan , I find myself wanting more and more of this series. To be exact , wanting more and more of Lelouch because the character is what lit up the flame of this show.
ALL HAIL LELOUCH!
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Jan 24, 2014
Unlike most of the fans that are crazy over Fairy Tail , I prefer to maintain neutral about it because I don't take the series seriously if the author does not. Do not read on if you will get pissed by criticism of this series because I will be harsh.
Disclaimer : All of this are my personal opinion and is not intended to offend anyone by any means.
Story : 5/10
If I have to compare the story to another series, I would probably have to compare it to something like Bleach - an endless repetition of storyline which starts off fresh then it starts to go
...
downhill. Why ? You may ask , the story simply revolves around an arc each with each fairy tail member and there's little to none plot progression of the main plot which is for the main protagonist , Natsu, to find his 'father' Igneel.
True that developing of the guild members are important which I would not argue that some of the stories were tear-wrecking. The main problem faced with the story was , the freaking plot armour. I would touch on that in the enjoyment section which would be arguably long because it sums up what I think of this series.
Art : 6/10
The art is pleasing to the eyes but one could not help but notice the similarities between Fairy Tail and One Piece. Lucy X Nami , Gildarts X Shanks ? One would have to think whether Fairy Tail is a rip off of One Piece which it isn't fortunately. According to the author , he says that he's inspired by the creator of Dragonball which was the same case as Eiichiro Oda , the creator of One Piece which may explain the similar art style.
Other than the artstyles , the fights are drawn pretty neatly and one could easily discern what's happening. But the main highlight of it's art is probably the fanservice that everyone seems to love. Don't get me wrong , I like it too but there's a limit to everything and Fairy Tail is stepping over it's boundaries with the fanservice.
I will just take Lucy as an example. She started off as a mage trainee that can use keys to summon up creatures from the horoscope. Great! That's pretty darn original I would say , then three hundred chapters later. Her only use ? Fanservice , dang girl! Yeah. She's literally useless aside from showing ass and tits. Sorry Lucy fanboys and girls. It's the truth. She had been reduced to this state over a span of hundreds of chapters. Don't even get me started on what happened to Erza in the recent arc.
Character : 6/10
This is the thing that I like about Fairy Tail. The cast is huge and each character are given personalities and a backstory. What else could you ask for , right ? Oh , it would be a shame if none of these characters don't/barely get any screentime :(
Perhaps it's because that the cast is too huge that Hiiro Mashima cannot cover all of them , but most of the characters are literally transparent as glass , only to offer one liners here and there to prove of their existence. Meanwhile , focusing on the already over-developed characters like Gray and such. Don't get me wrong but I do know that they are the main cast of Fairy Tail but I honestly think that there should be times for other character to shine instead of the five (Natsu,Erza,Lucy(tits),Gajeel and Gray). I do appreciate the tiny bits of Elfman and Laxus , and of course the bad ass Mirajane.
Maybe Hiiro does know of this problem and he comes up with cover arts to 'introduce' and explain each character which is a good point and I applaud him for doing so. Well done.
Enjoyment : 4/10
*sigh*
This is going to be a very lengthy rant but do bear with me. I enjoyed the first half of the manga like really. I do remember my experience of reading almost 200 chapters in about 3 days or so. But afterwards , it just goes downhill. It looked as though as the author had stopped putting in effort in the story any more but rather , he's just doing it for the sake of doing it. The plot armour of the cast gets thicker and thicker as each arc pass and Natsu would get a ridiculous DBZ power-up each time he's faced with an opponent that's stronger than him.
Here's a scenario to explain :
Natsu encounters A.
A flats him easily.
Fairy Tail confronts A.
Fairy Tail loses.
Because of nakama power , Natsu wins.
This gets repetitive after awhile and Erza's convenient new armour that fit with the antagonist's power each arc doesn't help much as well. I would have gave it a higher rating if it was just that. At most it would had became a 6/10 but in the recent arcs , I seriously wanted to fly to Japan to check whether Hiiro is on drugs while drawing.
The first dragon excluding acnologia that we come across (future rogue) revealed its power and guess what. After all the hype , his power is to rid humans of clothes. Convenient way to put in more fanservice right ? And.. Lucy(tits) happens to be there and yay! More tits! *rub off nosebleed*
This is one of the main problems with the current Fairy Tail. It's action used to weigh more than its fanservice but now , it seems as though the role is reversed. Another example would be the most recent arc where Erza and Mirajane are confined. I think I do not need to elaborate about them but I would definitely hate to see Erza , one of the strongest female mage , to become like Lucy. I'm done ranting about the fanservice part.
Another problem with the current series like I said before, is that Hiiro appears to no longer take the series seriously any longer. In the most recent arc (again. Notice how none of the old arcs have such flaws) , Afro-Happy. That was supposed to be an explosion that could probably erase off the entire town right ? Oh cool , what better way to downplay the new strong antagonist power by having a flying cat get rid of the explosion by 'sacrificing himself' ? Oh yeah , to make it even better. Let's not kill the cat too , because the explosion is meant to destroy buildings , not fucking cats. Let's just give him a new hairdo.
/end sarcasm exe.
You know what I mean ? *sigh*
Overall : 5/10
This used to be a great series and the series of event that led it's downfall to a train wreck was definitely unfortunate. I can only hope that Hiiro would start to take his manga seriously again and write some good stuff and not the current Service Tail.
I do apologise if I have offended any of you in this post because I'm really disappointed of witnessing a great series falling into ruins.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Jan 24, 2014
Shingeki no Kyojin , probably the most hyped up series of 2013 and I will have to agree that it's worth the hype. For those whom managed to avoid spoilers and have not watch it yet , oh what are the chances.. Watch it. Yes, trust me, it's worth it. I will try not to include too many spoilers but it's sort of hard to do so when reviewing one of the greatest anime series of all times ( at least in my books it is).
Disclaimer : All of this are my personal opinion and is not intended to offend anyone by any means.
Story :
...
7/10
The story is basic and follows a linear storyline of.. Wait , I guess the series title pretty much said it all. Yes , it's that simple. I will just do a TLDR in order not to spoil. The main protagonist - Eren Jaeger vows to destroy all the titans after a fateful incident that happened when he was young which changed his life completely and because of that , he enlisted in the military in order to fight these supernatural beings known as the Titans in which humanity had lost against for the past ??? years. The story pretty much revolve around that with some twists here and there.
Art : 9/10
The art style is comparable to One Piece's , not in terms of simplicity but rather, it's uniqueness. Each character are outlined beautifully to make them stand out from the beautifully drawn landscape and all the minor details were beautifully drawn out , combined with excellent animation. It also refrained from censoring too much which is unconventional compared to other series who likes to tone down the violence and gore (with the exception of Berserk I guess ?)
The characters' expressions are very well-depicted in the art style and you could really feel what they're feeling at times which had me bawling at episode 22. (again , no spoilers) For those whom had seen this series , you probably know what I'm referring to.
The animation itself is praise-worthy , however. I only have one tiny bit of irritation which is why the heck does these terrifying man-eating titans have to look like.. retards. This is the reason that refrained me from giving it full marks. And PS : the 3D maneuver gear looks bad ass as hell.
Sound :
Oh yes , this is definitely the key highlight to this show. For people like me who is simply an orchestra-music-junkie , THIS IS THE SHOW FOR YOU. YES , NOTE THE EMPHASIS. I have to really bow down to the composer for composing such great soundtracks for a great series. Shingeki no Kyojin would never be the same without these soundtracks and because of the soundtracks , I like the anime much more than the manga which is really rare.
Most of the soundtracks are mediocre or above average but a few really stands out from the rest as excellent soundtracks. Maybe it's just me because I really like orchestra music but trust me , it really do sound awesome and makes the scene so much more dramatic and epic. Honourable mentions are Vogel im Kafig (duh).
What makes it even more amazing is the way the soundtracks sync with the scene as though they created the scene before composing the perfect music to go with it instead of the other way around. Shingeki no Kyojin definitely has the BEST soundtracks I have ever heard , and yes it's even better than B13A from bleach.
The openings and endings.. Well.. The first opening had me hooked right in the FIRST episode. Yes , it's that catchy and the CGI is awesome. I'm not a big fan of the second opening though which is the main problem with most animes that they have to switch out the awesome opening with a normal-mehhish one. The endings are above average.
As for voice acting..
The honourable mention : Eren Jaeger. Bam! No surprises here.
For those who keep tracks of which seiyuu is doing which character in which animes, you would have known that Eren's seiyuu , Yuki Kaji, almost voices other characters but the difference is that, those characters are barely as serious as Eren and are most of the time, goofy.
Yes , compare Eren with Hyoudou Issei from Highschool DxD. You would already know and Yuki Kaji still did an excellent job voicing Eren. You will know why when you hear his voice acting especially when he needed to depict anger and rage.
Character : 8/10
Shingeki no Kyojin have a huge cast of characters which sadly , most of them either being transparent in the anime series (which they would play a part in the upcoming season 2) or wind up DEAD. Yes , dead. All I can say without spoiling is that , DO NOT LIKE ANY CHARACTER. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. The series is notorious for killing off it's characters for character development or plot progression which is the reason I highly advise you not to play favouritism and like any characters , for they might end up dying in the next episode.
The character development is there and you can see as the series progress. One honourable mention would be Armin whom started off as a wimp that could do nothing but cry and after the timeskip , he's still the same old crybaby. He then matures into the squad's essential tactician.
Enjoyment : 9/10
I have enjoyed this series very much , with much credits to the soundtracks and beautiful animations but I have to say. Like most animes , the pacing is a problem as some episodes' pacing is really.. You would probably want to knock your head on a wall because it's slow compared to other episodes. However , most of the episodes are pretty well-paced save for a few.
This series definitely deserves it's hype.
Overall : 9/10
Taking into account that this series is only season one and there are many things still left unanswered , I would have to give this series a 9/10. I'm just that much of a sucker for it's soundtrack.
For each review that I do , I would usually compare the series to it's manga/anime counterpart and for Shingeki no Kyojin , no doubt that the anime far surpasses the manga. I would advise people to wait for the season 2 instead of continuing from the manga. Not because the manga is bad or anything but I definitely think that this anime's season 2 deserves the wait.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Jan 24, 2014
Before I start reviewing this series , I would like to just say one thing. The anime does the manga LITTLE TO NO justice. In this review , I would be comparing the anime to its manga counterpart. How should I put it ? The closest words that I can find to describe this anime is probably , horribly-paced.
Disclaimer : All of this are my personal opinion and is not intended to offend anyone by any means.
Story : 7/10
In regards to the storyline , I'm generally okay with it as unlike the other two popular shounen series like Bleach and Naruto , One Piece has
...
little fillers (don't even get me started on Naruto please). And the anime follows the manga almost strictly in terms of storyline. I would have given it a higher mark if not for the animators screwing up the Hody VS Luffy fight. It made Luffy look superbly WEAK.
Art : 2/10
One Piece is generally infamous for it's simplicity in its drawing and many people simply cannot get used to this , often irked by it compared to other animes/manga with great character designs and such. However , since the anime follows the manga , I will not fault the anime for this.
However, what's really nerve-wrecking is that the animation and drawing is shit. Pardon me but yes. Just one look at the Sabaody Archipelago arc almost gave me cancer literally. I guess that's what happens when all the senior animators are dispatched to work on the movie and the juniors are free to do with the anime. I could still list a bunch of arcs with simply horrible animations that looked as though the animators wanted to be just be done with it and that's all. (Fishman arc for example ; biggest let down of 2013 after all the finishers looked like shit) Other than that, hardly any animation in this series is worth-noticing.
Sound : 6/10
The soundtracks are generic and the only ones that really stands out from the rest is probably The Very Very Very Strongest and Luffy's Fierce Attack and maybe Giant Stronghold Takeoff. But just these three tracks itself is not able to carry such a long anime and it gets seriously repetitive after awhile.
As for the openings and endings, sorry to say but I'm not a fan of any except for Share The World. I would have given it somewhere along 3/10 if not for the voice actors.
The voice actors themselves. All I can say is , hats off to them. Let's start with the notable mentions.
Luffy - Godlike contagious laughter and epic speech (very very very rarely). Job well done for voicing the goofy Luffy and I wouldn't be able to find anyone else that could possibly do a better job than Mayumi Tanaka. All I hope is that the voice actor lives to voice the remaining of the series (not cursing but she's getting old and the series still have a long way to go)
Zoro - Needless to say , epic speech , epic speech everywhere. There's something about his voice that makes almost everything he says so much more epic than any other character would. " I got on the wrong ship. -_+ ". Probably the only character that can make something that silly sound cool. Legit.
Usopp/Sogeking - Do I even have to elaborate? This guy is freaking hilarious along with a contagious laughter and his awful screaming. And oh , the most memorable scene ? Arabasta and Enies Lobby speech about Luffy. Nuff said. Sogekinguuuu!!
Chopper - This is a honourable mention because I cried at his past. No joke and his voice actor who happens to be the same seiyuu for pikachu did an extraordinary job voicing him especially during drum island. You could feel the sheer emotions coming out from her voice when Chopper starts to cry.
Brook - YOHOHOHOHOHOHO!
The rest of the characters were pretty average or nothing note-worthy. (Buggy is an exception to this though). This is the reason why the sound gets a 6/10 instead of a 3/10.
Character : 8/10
Like the manga series, each character are given a single arc to tell their past and such. After that , each character slowly gets developed and there are evident character development. One notable example would be Zoro who told Luffy when they first met that if Luffy were to do anything to hinder him from becoming the world's strongest swordsman , he would kill him. However as time passed , Zoro began to respect Luffy as the captain and would even lay down his life for him if needed (when against Kuma).
Each character is also diverse and unlike other anime series that have a huge cast , all the characters are not just a vase as they contribute to the series greatly as well instead of just giving one liners just to show their 'presence'.
Enjoyment : 3/10
The enjoyment of this anime , sadly to say , does not live up to the story and character because of the crappy art that really put me off. But that's not the worst thing , it's the pacing that killed this anime. Toei strictly abided by it's ground rule that an One Piece episode must follow exactly one manga chapter which probably caused this downfall of a great series.
Although the manga is well-paced, with the author taking seldom breaks because of his family and health issues, the anime did no justice to it because of the ridiculously slow pacing. And because of the pacing , the Whitebeard war that was absolutely amazing in the manga turned out like shit in the anime. The art was pretty decent there but the pacing.. oh god. I think I heard Luffy screaming Ace's name for over thirty episodes and a part of me simply just died.
If only if the anime could pick up the pacing and do probably something like 1.5chapters/episode, or maybe improve on it by adding additional dialogues for each character which I definitely would not mind instead of showing characters running around doing nothing or FLASHBACKS. That would be great. Don't get me started on the censorship please.
Overall : 3/10
It's a shame that I would have to give this great series such a low grade but as things stand. It's not worthy of any higher marks in my personal opinion. Unless the anime can do something about the horrible pacing , this is the final score I would give this series.
And yes, I'm heavily biased against the anime because it simply does not live up to the manga like most animes. For those that have not check the manga out , do it and you would probably find better enjoyment than wasting twenty minutes each week just staring at characters running about doing literally nothing and the plot progress like a snail.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
|
