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So, I have been trying to broaden my anime horizons, and in the process I found Dai-Gaurd. Overall I view this show as a 7 but don't take the score at face value. The show has been around for over 20 years after all and in all honesty, after watching it I don't know why more people haven't seen it.

On the surface, this show is primarily about a kid named Akagi and his 2 friends Aoyama, and Momoi who pilot the mecha Dai-Gaurd and prevent Tokyo from being attacked by Heterodyne.

This show is so much more than that ... though. It has a monster of the week feel for over half of the series, but as the series goes on we learn more about what it truly means to fight. You see the fight isn't just happening against the monsters. There is a fight between Dai-Gaurd and the military, and the fight against our past.

This show is more than just the pilots of team Dai-Guard. What makes this show awesome is the entire ensemble of characters. The creators of this series put a lot of time into developing the background characters. There is such a large variety of characters here that I can't name them all, but here are a few. We have a sweet, but eccentric scientist in Rika, a gruff military man with a heart of gold named Shirota, and the rest of 21st Century Defense Security, who are all normal everyday office workers that are just as much a part of the fight as everyone else.

In team Dai-Guard you come for the Mecha fights, but you leave with a family.

This OVA episode was either going to be great or just run of the mill bad. It really took a risk with Sun-chan, but in the end he developed into a compelling and well rounded character.
Secondly, this had a lot more twists and turns than I expected. It wasn't predictable and for that I am grateful.
It wasn't straight forward in the slightest and in the end isn't that what OreSuki is all about?
It puts a bow on a series that had some ups and downs and in the end I am glad that I stuck with it. ... I am grateful that this series got to tell a complete story

Ping Pong the Animation is a hard anime to sell. Especially if you aren't into the sport of ping pong in the 1st place. That being said, the first 3 to 4 episodes were incredibly boring because the main charachters were dragging the plot around. One, due to his lack of emotion and the other due to too much emotion. The first half is hard to enjoy

The 2nd half of the anime is where it truly shines. In the second half you can see some good, not great charachter development. The story becomes more believable, the charachters true motivations come ... to light, and it makes everything feel justified. The second half of this series is easy to enjoy, makes you want to root for everyone, and pumps you up as a viewer.

I don't really have a comment about the art because it was consistent throughout. That being said, I'll give the animation staff props for giving us as viewers a unique art style that really fits this anime better than any that it normally would. So, props to that.

The music in this series is almost forgettable. The OP and ED aren't memorable to me at all. The one caveate that I have in regards to the music is the tune that keeps being hummed through out the series. I believe it was called "The Heroes Song." The Heroes song is a delightful, and simplistic piece that gives you as a viewer hope for better days, just like a hero would.

All of that being said. If this series was 2 separate seasons I would have been able to give it a better rating. The reason why I say that is because, the pacing threw me off on the entire series. The first 4 or 5 episodes take place in the span of a year, but then next thing you know episodes 6-11 take place over the course of the 2nd year. If the writers could have made the series a pair of 6 episode runs, I believe it would have been to the benefit of all the viewers.

What is Absolute Duo? It is a story about charachters who lay their souls bair. So, the strong part of the series should have been the charachters and their motivations, and desires.

Unfortunately this anime never capitalizes on that, The writers had many intriguing back stories for their charachters, but didn't provide any sort of closure for any of them. The story itself opened many plotlines, but in the end focused more on jiggle physics instead of charachter development.

Ultimately thats what make this anime dissapointing. It could have been much more than just a harem series, with unneccesary amounts ... of ecchi. If the series had put the same work into charachter development that they did into juggle physics, the series could have been top notch.

On to the voice acting - I am a person that prefers dubs over subs most of the time, but in the case of Absolute Duo the sub was far superior. The Japanese VA's gave the charachters depth and emotion, whereas the English VA's felt pretty flat in comparison. The English VA's take away the charachters depth and charachter development.

Music - A big reason why I enjoy this series was because of the music. The OP is in my top 10, if not top 5 in the harem/ecchi genre. The OP pumps you up, and the EDs are kinda forgettable, but they also mark the changes in the story arcs. That is something that I find admirable overall. The background music throughout the series really shines in the battle scenes, and keeps you engaged in the story when the voice acting or art does not.

Animation - I enjoyed the art style of this show. The charachters were each unique and distinguishable from each other and all of them had a certain charm to their design. Unfortunately, the series could not capitalize on the designs. The art was anything, but fluid. The movements were awkward, disjointed, and unnatural. (Plus there was way too much attention put into the jiggle of each charachters breasts as they moved. It felt like the director put all of the animation budget into the battle scenes. The battke scenes were easily the best animated portion of the series, but they couldn't cover up how poor the rest of the animation really was.

All of that being said - I really did enjoy this series for the potential that it gave. The first 3 episodes hinted at something grand, and the rest of the series just couldn't compare. If you want to watch a fun series with some minor charachter development, and fun battle sequences then you can watch Absolute Duo.