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Aug 4, 2019
Okaa-san Online is the kind of trash that needs to be unilaterally criticized and dumped in an incinerator. Even with the dozens of isekai shows popping up every year nowadays, this anime goes on a new level of being uninspired. And to cover up how bad and lazily written the show is it pretends to be a "parody" of isekai shows. KonoSuba is a proper parody. This anime is not.
The MC is an utterly shallow character devoid of any personality as is the rest of the cast. There is no real driving plot to the show other than the dickbag MC needing to get along
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better with his mom to escape the game world. There is no lore or world build whatsoever, again, in the guise that this anime is a "parody." The soundtrack and animation are as generic as any low budget show.
Really, the only people who are going to derive some enjoyment from this anime is the mom. She's probably the only reason people start this show. And if you enjoy the cliche sexy doting okaa-san character, then by all means watch the show. Watch her whore herself out as a slime melts her clothes, her son accidentally falls on her and accidentally molests her like a harem MC, and as she makes incestuous remarks (But not really incest XDDDDD).
I just hope one day anime shows won't go by relying on one gimmick and be utterly lazy in all other aspects of what a quality show should be.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Dec 23, 2017
Yakushoku Distopiary is... interesting to say the least. It presents a fantasy "video game" world where every person is assigned a class. Anywhere from being a "gunner" to a "cook" to a "puppet master," and how everyone living in the world must contribute to keep this world going. Like any fantasy game world demon lords are brought in to the world and heroes must be created in order to stop them. The dream of a lot of of fantasy game lovers had in some point. Except that the in this world it presents a much more dark and grittier presentation of how such a systematic
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world would be and how such a world would become oppressive to people who are not the "heroes." People are manipulated and the heroes of the story are willing to toy with their allies to achieve victory.
Distiopiary subverts the typical video game hero and for the first few chapters it becomes a huge hook driving you to read further. But as the gritty gore, dark comedy, and continual death of characters goes on it quickly turns tedious. At some point it just becomes edgy for the sake of being edgy where chapters are dedicated to seeing random NPCs slaughtered.
Perhaps that's what the author of the manga intended. That as you start to grow more desensitized to all the violence and gore, you become like the "heroes" or "watchers" in this manga. Whichever the case the manga ends abruptly and it's pretty clear the author was running out of idea to continue the series on. At the very least the abrupt ending is done better than most other series and keeps the central theme of the manga intact.
But by the end of the manga you can't help but feel that there just could have been more to this series. It feels unsatisfying and incomplete.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Sep 16, 2017
Re:Creators is the type of wasted potential that advertises itself as a really cool show about characters from different genre of anime interacting/fighting then throws it away by trying to tell some clever-meta joke story about how characters inside the anime are anime characters in the show. The trailer in one part shows a mix of characters interacting with one another backed by soft music that seems to indicate friendships being formed by these other-dimensional characters, and then advertises giant mechas, some pegagus knight, and katana-wielding warriors all battling one another backed by the music of Sawano Hiroyuki. You never get to see any of
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the exhilarating fights you wanted.
There are a few things that Re:Creators does well. In particular it shows a reasonable way how anime/game/LN characters would react if they came to the real world. The idea that your existence was but an entertainment piece for a bunch of humans who really don't have any amazing powers, nor do they have anything resembling gods as one would think of their creators. There is a well-rounded cast of characters that deal with the situation by trying to get back to their own world, some that try to fix their own story for the better, others who don't give a shit and are in for the ride. Something I thoroughly enjoyed was the idea of a magical girl from a kid's anime coming to the real world, then having to deal with the fact that all the tropes and cliches associated with her world doesn't apply to the real world. Her powers hurt people, her enemies don't simply get defeated and turn to her friends, and there are lots and lots of bad people. You're in reality now kid.
But beyond that Re:Creators falls short. At some point in the anime it turns in to some meta-story about how the humans of the world have to accept and love the stories of the Creations for the heroes of the show to win and gain new powers. By that it is of course trying to be cute by saying the anime itself needs YOUR approval to succeed and it eggs on about that for way too long. All of the fights you were hoping to get are all droned out by characters talking way too much and explaining the current events of the story. At some point it even makes fun of the character that was supposedly the main heroine from the first episode and trailers, Selesia, as having been useless throughout show. Frankly none of it is clever or funny as the writers of the show like to think. It's the poorest form of lampshading trying to cover up bad writing.
By far the worst thing about the show is the main character Souta, a spineless, useless, and utterly boring character with the personality of a cardboard box. Every time he is on screen he either the background explainer of new Creations showing up or whining about he is a failure of a person. He is the type of character that makes you beg for him to shut up so you can actually see the viewpoints of the other far more interesting characters. I would say Souta killed half my enjoyment every time the anime tried to pretend he was important and integral to the story.
In the end Re:Creators is a very mediocre show. It should have stuck to what it was advertising rather than trying so hard to be clever with meta. By the time the “epic” battle near the end is reached I was far too passed caring for the characters. A dumb show with cool characters fighting is better than a show that tries to be deep but has no idea how to be deep. And no, I don't care how good Sawano's music is; it doesn't save the show.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Sep 6, 2017
The original Kantai Collection anime was a mess, even to the point that the studio that created it admitted it was not their greatest work and that their sales did not meet the criteria they had hoped. I frankly did not have the movie on my priority despite being one of the biggest fans of the game thinking it would have been mundane as the anime. I am happy to say after watching it, the movie is good and an enjoyable watch for fans.
Most of the faults of the anime in that it was slow, had inconsistent tones, a failure to advance a story/setting, and
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a horrid use of CGI and lack of effort in battles is addressed in the movie. The plot and goal of the movie is addressed very early on in the film; the ocean water around Ironbottom Sound is starting to turn red and a mysterious voice centered around it indicates Abyssals will quickly destroyed life unless stopped. The first hour of the film does a fantastic job of developing the main characters and providing service with the addition of numerous fan-favorite characters from the game, all the while advancing the story and getting to the eventual battle sequence in a reasonable amount of time.
The writers actually grew some balls for the movie. The relationship between the Kanmusus and Abyssals are established in the movie and the film puts in to cement certain fan theories. This is a huge step up from the anime where it seemed none of the writers wanted to place concrete lore in fear of fan reaction.
The battle sequences are by far the most enjoyable parts of the movie. Rather than relying on that horrid CGI and lazily way the battles were drawn in the anime, all of the scenes are hand drawn and crafted in beautiful fashion. You actually see the girls dodging and zipping along the waters to avoid shots. You see the girls using searchlights in night battles to confirm targets and draw in fire for the other allies to move to safety. Because of how swift the battles look, it actually feels like there is a palpable danger to the fights. And there is a lovely dogfight between the fairy fighters and enemy planes.
With all of that said there are of course certain faults to the movie. While it finally does create a plot and establishes lore/setting, most of it is pretty cliche and cheesy. The story sadly does not give any real interesting perspective or things to think about that have not been done many times already.
One of my big personal gripes was how much the film sucked off Fubuki. Despite doing very little in the movie and the film focusing more on Mutsuki's development, it still presents Fubuki as the most special girl of the entire fleet on the level of Madoka Kaname. It rather irks me that the petty girl who was jealous of Yuudachi getting a remodel and was moping around because she didn't participate in a few battles in the anime is apparently the biggest hero of the film.
But it in the end the film was very crafted well. There should not be a single reason why a fan of the game would not at least enjoy parts of the movie. And yes, I compare the film to a lot to the anime. Because I know there are fans out there who hated the anime as I did and I want them to give the film a shot. If there ever is a season 2, hopefully the production quality (Probably not) is kept and the writers continue to establish the plot/lore without pitter pattering in fear of fan reaction.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Apr 3, 2016
Boring. No other word encompasses the entirety of Grimgar than this word, a show that is incredibly slow, full of dull characters, lacks any interesting world or mechanical exploration, and brings up nothing new in the MMORPG anime genre. It's quite unfortunate as the trailers and first impressions of the anime advertised the opposite.
Grimgar's story is the same as the other “trapped in an MMO” plotline that follows. A number of people are brought to the world of Grimgar with no memories of their previous lives and they are brought forward to become adventures to survive. The story promptly ends there as Grimgar then focuses
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on a party of characters, how they interact with one another, and how they cope with their sudden thrust in to hunting monsters to make a living. Unlike other shows that try to focus on a plot, game mechanics, and the world, Grimgar instead chooses to focus on the main characters and how the harshness of being thrown in to something you have no knowledge about.
The idea is fine. There is no problem with the direction that Grimgar attempts to go. The reason why the focus falls apart is because the characters are excruciatingly plain and boring. The main characters have no defining personalities. They lack any depth to their characters. Even halfway in to the show I can barely explain a character to someone who asks me about main cast.
“Hey, can you tell me about that mage girl?”
“Err... Well, she's kind of shy. And uhh... Umm... Her name is Shihoru.”
“Okay, what about the the large guy with the big sword?”
“He's a warrior. He uhh... doesn't talk much. And I guess he likes to carve wood.”
“Well this is lousy. What about the MC? You should be able to tell me something about him right?”
“Err... He... Uhhh... is the MC. Yeah.”
The characters of this show are like white paint drying on a wall. Even as tragedies befall them and they cry to show some semblance of emotion, you end up not caring for them nor do you really empathize. When they speak the dialogue that follows is a jumble of generic interactions. Even Ranta, the character that is suppose to be the loud high-energy guy with his perverted jokes and shouts ends up just being another obnoxious character you can't care for. The few words or tropes you can ascribe to them, and the few character development they go through are marked by cliches. I could go to a local coffee shop and listen in on to two people and their conversation would be more interesting than this show.
The core problem of Grimgar is that it fails in what it tries and forgets about everything else. The story abruptly ends in the first episode, the skill system and game mechanics are only ever briefly mentioned, the characters never go out of the town they reside in and fight goblins for half of the show. The only praise that I can give Grimgar is the first party encounter against a goblin where the fight is executed well and manages to convey the difficulty of trying to kill a living being just to steal its loot. After that the show takes a beeline in to snoozesfill.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jan 5, 2016
Owari no Seraph is a lot like Attack on Titan. Almost to the point that it feels like the show was trying to be Attack on Titan, and perhaps this was what the producers were going for (Though you can't blame the original author who started the series before Titan hit mass popularity). That is; Owari no Seraph a messy anime that's chaotic, a plot that zips around like a cat on meth, leaves a lot of questions unanswered, has too many characters trying to be developed that it leaves all the characters only half-developed, and too many shounen tropes being blown out of proportion.
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But it manages to be successful and has a decent fanbase (At least in Japan) by playing on over-the-top edgy themes of humanity survival against monsters, stylish looking characters butting heads with one another, and political machinations being put everywhere.
It's a huge convoluted mess. Humans fighting for survival against vampires who want to use them as livestock, people making pacts with demons to gain power, rampaging monsters called Horsemen of the Apocalypse who slaughter things for unexplained reasons, mass genetic experimentation, biblical terms being thrown everywhere, angels descending down to punish everyone, and throughout it all everyone betraying one another to pursue their own agenda. All of this in one huge ball of mess and even after 24 episodes nothing is really answered or explained. The closing episode in fact can be described as an incoherent stack of legos a kid decided to make and chuck across the room where all the characters and plot crashes in a heaping mess.
Despite this Owari no Seraph can be a decent show to watch if you don't take it seriously. If you're the type of person who needs things explained and you take anime seriously, you will hate this show. But for someone who wants to watch a Saturday cartoon on a boring weekend with "cool" and "stylish" characters shouting bombastic lines and trying to kill each other in a shounen mess, then Owari no Seraph is entertaining and even fun. It has decent animation and fights, there's quite a few clever jokes that can be funny, and a lot of the characters are likable even if they come off half-baked. You can't deny that the character designs are eye-catching, like the Demon Army in their imperial military uniform and pretty looking vampires in cape coats. It has orchestral music to go along with its edgy themes of apocalyptic world end.
Serpah of the End is Attack on Titan that didn't hit massive popularity in the west. If it had the budget that Attack on Titan held and had a stronger beginning rather a slow and dull one it probably could have become the next big hit. Objectively though, Owari no Seraph is average and has a lot of problems trying to stay organized. It's a show you watch if you're bored and if you like themes of world end, humanity's survival, and fantasy shounen.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Dec 27, 2015
It seems that all the anime companies and their mothers decided to go for the “harem fantasy magic school” theme for the Fall season of 2015. It's actually ridiculous how similar a lot of the shows have been and I can only hope future seasons won't be like this. Taimadou Gakuen 35 Shiken Shoutai is another branch of the fantasy magic shows, and while it uses the harem genre to drag in viewers, it's clear it wants to be more like A Certain Magical Index where the fantasy world and characters make up a large chunk of interest. Unlike Index however, Taimadou completely fails in
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developing the world, characters, and interactions and what it ends up being is a haphazard mess of gibberish.
The anime follows a squad of misfits in a witch-hunting school. The world is terrorized by magic that usually does more harm than good. Takeru Kusanagi is a special snowflake MC and leader of the misfits squad. He uses a katana rather than guns, usually spouting some edgy sword attack (Kusangi Style: Dragon Strike) when he defeats his enemies, which ends ups just being a generic sword swing with name emphasis only there to sound cool. Luckily for the MC his entire squad is filled with cute girls.
I have no idea if the source material is crap or Silver Link decided to butcher it in their poor adaptation. Regardless, the anime quickly rushes past character and villain arcs in a 2-episode formula. The formula is as follows: a female character has her troubles with the past in the first episode, the second episode follows with the MC winning the female over by swinging his sword around in his robo-samurai armor and swearing he will carry “half of her burden”. Every few minutes there will be world building attempts where side-characters attempt to act mysterious by spouting random magic mumbo jumbo (Arthur Pendragon resurrected, philosophers stone, the Esper organization, the Alchemists whatever) in the looming background. The result at the end of each arc is a jumbled mess of a show with half-baked details and gibberish. It seems clear the writer wanted this to be something like Nasuverse or Index, but the anime’s poor portrayal doesn’t make up half of the respective latter worlds.
It's quite unfortunate because the character themselves have great designs and endearing personalities. They however can’t get beyond general interest in to deep and meaningful characters win because their arcs are horribly rushed. A lot of the side characters too are likeable but they are quickly forgotten and left in the dust once a specific arc starring them ends. There are also some pretty grim moments from children zombies to clone genocides which would have left a pretty dark impression on the world build, but they are censored and delivered so poorly with the harem hijinks that they feel awkward.
The production values are lazy and boring. The animation in fights feel incredibly generic where the MC is swinging his sword left and fight and not an ounce of effort was placed in choreography. I found myself dozing off in the moments that should have had my attention glued to the screen. It's hard to think a robotic-samurai destroying monsters and dueling other robot smaurai with a katana could be boring, but Silver Link manages to achieve that with this lazy production. The music is forgettable and dull.
In the end Taimadou can be thought of as “what if A Certain Magical Index” failed. Imagine if A Certain Magical Index was cut to 12 episodes and each arc had to be rushed in the short time the developers had. The only positive thing I can say about Taimadou is that it has a great cast of female characters, but even they end up being disappointing with their improperly developed character arcs. Taimadou is a show that will be forgotten once Fall 2015 is over and it is a clear example that trying to jump in on what the current popular bandwagon is does not work.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Mar 26, 2015
When the anime for Kantai Collection was announced and a trailer was released, a milestone was placed for a million fans already set in place. While most were happy and excited for the adaption of the most popular casual game in Japan, people who were already familiar with anime and the tropes associated with the media were worried. This was because the production company was a relatively unknown studio, the art was vastly different from the pixiv artists that make the original character pictures, the ever infamous CGI was going to be used, and with all things that attempt to cater to too many people,
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artistic liberties were likely to be protracted for a generic anime. Unfortunately, generic is exactly what Kantai Collection is and even as an original fan of the game who went in with little expectations I felt disappointed.
For those unfamiliar with the series, Kantai Collection (Or Kancolle short) is an online game about ship girls that take their designs based on World War 2 Japanese naval war vessels. Destroyers, battleships, aircraft carriers, you name it. Heavily reliant on moe and the popular concept of girls with war machines (Like Strike Witches and Girls und Panzer), it has become arguably the most popular game in Japan and even parts of Asia not only for otakus but for the casual people as well. The girls fight monstrous demons that rise from the ocean... And well, that's about it for the plot and setting. Not much information on the world is really given and the different sources like the manga and light novels are not official.
This is perhaps the biggest problem with the Kancolle anime. Perhaps in order to stay faithful to the game, no real world exploration, setting, or story is set in place. It isn't exaggeration to say the plot of Kancolle is literally just naval fleet girls fighting against monsters with added slice of life in the mix. There is no explanation for how the girls “inherit” the souls of World War 2 ships, no exposition on the current state of the world, no details on what humanity is doing and why they have to rely on the girls, no details on how the Abyssals work. The show blatantly just puts out “it's just how it is” and ends the plotline there. And sadly all of this lacking information makes the Kancolle anime feel that it is devoid of substance and leaves many questions unanswered not only for the fans of the original game but for newcomers as well.
This may have not been so bad if the presentation of the show was well done (As sometimes leaving the audience to their imaginations can be entertaining) but the show simply isn’t. It starts off with the inexperienced girl Fubuki who joins a naval base and slowly pushes herself to become better and be accepted as a regular fleet girl. She makes comrades, goes through training montages, and becomes one of the top fleet girls through hard work and determination. Sound familiar already? It should be as this type of story has been done an exuberant amount times before in anime (especially shounen) and any other type of media really. The plot and script follows a terribly formulaic procedure that is it almost insultingly lazy. And sadly as the episodes drag on they become more and more predictable for any anime veteran that has seen the tired recycled tropes that Kancolle constantly uses.
With respect to spoilers, there is a particular early episode in the series that attempts a terrible gimmick to grab the interest of the audience (You will know when you see it). It is perhaps one of the worst written, predictable, and incredibly asinine things to have been done in anime and even the most hardcore fans are likely to be put off by it. Sadly, most of the episodes fail to improve where a chunk of the time is spent on low-tier generic dialogue, fan joke “inside” comedy memes, and then a few terrible build-up of melodrama that’s more cringey than B- movies.
I do by no means hate slice of life, Kancolle just does a terrible job at it as it is filled with a main cast of girls who are uninteresting, boring, and unappealing, arguably even for the fans of the game, and the interactions they have with one another are incredibly bland. When the girls aren’t spouting lines from the online game, they are droning on endlessly about the food they just ate, how nice looking someone’s room is, or regurgitating repeatedly and unnecessarily about the mission they are undertaking. The writing feels as though the script maker and director wanted to waste time and fulfill their 20-minute-a-episode quota rather than try to make enjoyable interactions. The main cast is dull, the side characters are dull, the script is dull, and the anime constantly reuses the same jokes over and over again as cumbersome service to the game fans. The sad part is that the anime should be a platform to better develop the girls from the game and give a wider outlook to the depth of characters, but you would find more characterization and details in to personalities looking at a fleet girl’s Wikipedia page than the entirety of this anime.
In regards to other production values, the battles are all done in CGI which for the most part look fairly fine and is actually done well, at least when you can ignore the awkward looking faces and the strangely placed transition between drawn scenes and CGI that happen from time to time. When the girls are fighting the CGI is acceptable, but tends to look horrible when the girls are talking and out of the battle transitions. Those who detest CGI in their anime best stay away. While the first few episodes are interesting to see exactly how the water-skating fleet girls fight, especially the first episode that shows a beautiful amount of details and work, the future battles are sadly not the same. Do not be misled by the first episode’s battle; past the opening episode the battles become mundane with generic looking enemies and lazily-made shooting sequences that fail to make full potential naval warfare can have.
The art itself is mediocre at best and fans may notice a rather drop in quality of their favorite girls (Which may not be entirely blamed on the production company as the online game pictures use various different pixiv artists). There is a number of musical scores within the anime that are soundly produced and pleasing to the ears, and some of the pieces do well to convey the emotions of a scene where the bad script of Kancolle fail. There is a plethora of good voice actors like Nao Touyama and Yuka Iguchi as those who are familiar with the game may know. Unfortunately, the musical ensemble and voices are the best praise this show can receive.
Overall, Kantai Collection is everything that is to be expected for good or bad. It's a below average generic show with mediocre writing mostly due to the fact that the producers and director of the show have to cater to an existing fanbas. It is a show that refuses, or is forced not to break out of the mold for any bit of artistic integrity and originality. There are a number of definite fanservice that only the game fans may appreciate; but they are so awkwardly placed within the frame of the anime they feel asinine rather than anything clever and certainly fail to aid new people to the franchise understand Kancolle. With gimmicky writing and no sound source to draw from besides the game which already lacks information on the setting, Kantai Collection simply cannot pass that line to be exceptional or anything ground breaking. It's not a show that I could recommend to someone who isn't a fan of the game or for those that have already watched a lot of anime and can easily predict how the show will proceed. For those who are fans I can only say keep your standards low and expect the expected.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Dec 22, 2013
Consider that Walkure Romanze is an adaptation of a visual novel, a hentai one no less, it becomes easy to dismiss the show as another poorly done cash grab in the harem genre. It's like that not too many people even gave the show a try because of this premise and background it comes with. However, Walkure Romanze isn't bad by any means and an actual enjoyable show with a decent budget placed to make it.
The show centers around Winford Academy, a school where knights come to joust in a semi-modern, renaissance-esque world. The main character is Mizuno Takahiro, a man currently working as a
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squire. A number of female knights want him as their squire for an upcoming joust tournament and the series begins from there as he begins to interact with these women and the harem genre starts to tune in.
The good part about Romanze is that it manages to explore the females well and makes them their own characters rather than just an addition to the MC's harem. Many harems have a problem with focusing too much on the MC and throwing the females around him as just another additional side character that wants to get in his pants. Instead, Romanze focuses on the struggles, the motivations, and the past of the female characters in a respectable way to make them well-written characters. They each have their own unique reason for jousting and begin to grow as knights as the show plays on. All of the main girls get their respectable character development and time, something that is typically not easily done in a 12-episode anime; especially one from a visual novel where each girls have their own routes for their story. The only problem here is that it takes a few episodes and around mid-way to the show to get to these character developments, while the early episodes are more fanservice and comedy.
With that said, Walkure Romanze comes off to be a mixed bag. Gratuitous fanservice goes around around the show; from a horse grabbing a female's undergarments to the MC doing the typical harem hijinks of accidentally grabbing a woman's breasts. From time to time, Romanze pulls off some funny and actual clever jokes that are certain to get a laugh or two. At other times, there is light drama focusing on the jousting aspects while at other times the show focuses on exploring the world. Jousting is lightly explored to get the general idea of it but does not go in-depth with the old sport. Romanze attempts to do everything in a single season of a show, for good or bad depending on just what a person wants from watching this. A person who comes just wanting massive fanservice might be disappointed, as well as another person who wanted a drama. I for one believe a delicate balance is achieved.
All around, the production values of the show are well done and one can see that the staff put a reasonable amount of effort in to making an enjoyable show. The art is fantastic and gorgeous, showing the beauty of the world Romanze with vibrant backgrounds of a renaissance city. Animation is fluid. The music scores are enjoyable to listen to and also fit well with the renaissance-theme of the show.
Walkure Romanze isn't a deep and top anime by any means. It's simply slightly above average; with a decent plot, characters, and fanservice aside good production values. It's more than what you can say about the typical harem cash cows that come out these days.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Oct 4, 2013
Fans of the original Symphogear show likely have come to the conclusion that Symphogear is a fun, but extremely mediocre show that can’t be taken seriously. While it had great music and moments of heart pounding action, it also had some quality issues from a low budget, a string of horrendous writing, and poor character development, all coined together in what looked like haphazard direction.
Fortunately, Symphogear G fixes these problems while maintaining the original feeling of bravado from the first season, and it can even be considered, dare say, a great show.
The increase in production and quality can be seen from the very first
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episode of Symphogear G. It opens with a fluid battle scene, then as reminiscent of the first season, throws one of the most explosive and amazing looking concerts akin to the ones you can see in AKB0048. Unlike the first season that seemed to have blown all their budget in the first episode then used chump change to gear the rest of the show, the animation for Symhpogear G does not take a sudden drop in quality and stays consistent for the most part, save for moments here and there.
In addition, Yoko Hikasa, Ai Kayano, and Tomokazu Sugita, all talented and well-known voice actors come to play an additional role in the show. Especially with the addition of Hikasa and Kayano who contribute songs to Symphogear G along with the previous returning main cast (Aoi Yuuki, Nana Mizuki, Ayahi Takagaki), the show presents a powerful amount of song pieced together with well-orchestrated music. Fans should be returning to this season for some wonderful music; and Symphogear G very much over over leaps expectations. The only unfortunate part is that while there are great pieces of music in the show, there is only really one concert scene in the entire show. Though visually and audibly orgasmic it may have been, there's a feeling of disappointment that other songs did not receive the same treatment.
The writing and characters becomes the biggest improvement in Symphogear G. This season takes three months after the first one, where the main cast learns not every problem has been solved from their previous encounters and now face a new terrorist organization that can also use Symphogears. The plot is actually built from the very ground up and manages to reveal the story along the way for viewers to speculate on how events unfold, unlike the first season that seemed to make plot devices up as the show went up and felt like nonsense at the very end. Symphogear G seems to have learned that plot twists are endearing devices to hook viewers up to the show, and it does quite a lot of it this time around that will want viewers to move on to the next episode as quickly as possible. Some of the twists are somewhat obvious and easy to figure out, but nevertheless they succeed in giving the proper emotional impact needed to move on with the show.
What really shines are the characters in this season. With the melodramatic infighting between the main characters of the first season out of the way, Hibiki, Tsubasa, and Chris finally form what looks like a real team. Their interactions and relationship development are vastly improved, and the first few slice-of-life aspects at the start give a real endearing feeling. The new antagonists of the show; a crazed madman voiced by Sugita and can control the Noise, an elderly commanding woman, and three Symphogear users, are also given much screen time during the show. During their time, much of their character and motivations begin to change and develop as they attempt to fulfill their plans which have questionable morals. Strangely, they are actually given so much focus that the antagonists themselves begin to feel like the heroes. Apart from the crazy madman voiced by Sugita, whose main appeals seems to being insane and making over-dramatic expressions (Which Sugita really does well actually) to entertain the views, the other members of the terrorist organization have so much of their own internal struggles that the viewer may end up wanting to support them in the end. Coupled with their own character songs which are equally enjoyable to listen to as the songs of the main cast, it becomes very difficult to not like the antagonists. Not many shows can achieve well-written villains that manage to gain the sympathy of the audience, but Symphogear G manages to just this. The obvious problem with this however is that fans coming from the original show may feel like the main cast do not get enough attention. Strictly speaking, this is not true as the main heroes, especially Hibiki, are given their proper development and own internal struggles. However, there may be some fans who feel the main focus should be on the protagonists rather than a shared one with the antagonists, and miss the slice-of-life aspects of the show that are gone after the first few episodes at the start.
In conclusion; Symphogear G fixes many problems from the original show while maintaining the silly quirks from the first season (Such as Hibiki punching a train in to a group of enemy Noise) that fans enjoyed. It comes with a bigger budget and actually presents its own original story that will keep the viewer going. Certain fans may feel it loses appeal because the slice-of-life aspect is toned down, but Symphogear G definitely will find a warmer reception with the overall audience.
Sadly, the original show may have already lost a chunk of the audience that was interested in it. Those who finished the first season, were disappointed by it, and are wondering whether to watch G or not should definitely give it a shot.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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