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- JoinedMar 28, 2012
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Jun 1, 2015
After watching about five seconds of this anime, it becomes apparent that either the animation budget is literally the lowest of all time and if they drew any better they'd have to start selling their organs to fund it, or the creators spent a lot of money making it look like that was the case. Other aspects of the anime are similarly awful although it might take a little bit longer to figure that out. That being said, it has a humorous tone and the awfulness is tongue in cheek so if you're into really really terrible things you might enjoy this a little (although
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probably not for 26 episodes)
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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May 11, 2015
The concept of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni is one that seems interesting: we are able to watch a small town murder as a mysterious festival approaches in multiple timelines, each one with variations in events that bring us closer and closer to really understanding what happened. This premise seems to suggest it would be interesting to anybody who enjoys horror, psychological, or detective anime, allowing the watcher to appreciate the nuances of a scenario from a variety of perspectives.
Ideally, anyways. Higurashi is a messy anime because although the premise is very good, the art is boring, the individual stories that make up the anime
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as a whole are mildly unnerving (at first) or ridiculous (later), and the characters are generic not in the sense they are traditional anime archetypes, but in the sense they literally have no personalities beyond what the plot itself demands. The premise, strong as it may be, is doing all the work here.
There is nothing interesting to say about the art beyond that it is extraordinarily bland. It doesn't look particularly bad, it doesn't look particularly good, it's just sort of there.
The characters provide the structure for Higurashi. By rearranging them, their pasts, their relationships to each other, or the actions they take in a given arc, the narrative is shifted. As the building blocks for much of the story present in Higurashi, one would expect them to have fairly distinct personalities. Unfortunately, most are so generic it would be difficult to even describe them in any meaningful way. Higurashi falls into the trap of assuming giving somebody a tragic past serves to characterize them; this is particularly untrue here, where the "past" seems to be a tool that can be changed depending on what arc of Higurashi's storyline we're in. The characters seem to spend 90 percent of their time having no personality characteristics whatsoever and the other 10 percent murdering people with shovels.
However, it is really the story that fails Higurashi. But while the story shows promise in the beginning, as it reveals more of itself it suggests that what is actually going on in Higurashi is far less interesting than we had been to led to believe. It is "satisfying" in the sense that we now understand what had happened, but it's deeply unsatisfying in the sense that it makes you wonder if you would have watched the anime had you known already. I will try to avoid spoilers here, but there is a satisfying eerieness to Higurashi at first as revelations come and characters go from good to bad for unknown reasons. The problem comes when we see the results of those revelations and the eventual explanations for them. The tone of the series does not match the explanation created for the premise of the series, and the explanation itself seems silly in the light of earlier episodes.
Overall, I would say this anime is slightly above average because of the strength of its premise, but the ultimate lack of substance in the story and the characters severely detracts from its watchability.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Mar 1, 2015
Saikyou Densetsu Kurosawa is an offbeat seinen comedy about a 44 year old construction worker with no family, no friends, no girlfriend, and basically no prospects. It touches on a lot of themes that will be familiar to many people, and brings a maturity and thematic depth to a classic shonen formula.
Story: 6/10
The story itself is fairly straightforward and inspiring, following Kurosawa as he seeks to become more accomplished in the eyes of others. The storytelling is funny and smart, and the story has some thematic depth as well. The main issue comes from the fact that, like many shonen manga, it follows a general
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plot structure of the hero getting his ass kicked, recovering, and then coming back stronger than before. That would be fine, except in Kurosawa's case these recovery periods are long multi-chapter stretches of him wallowing in his own misery. The writing is sharp and pretty often witty, but the manga is not philosophical enough or entertaining enough to be able to sustain momentum through these periods, and they drag. If you're willing to put up with that, the manga is very enjoyable, but it's something that should be warned about.
Art: 7/10
It's nothing special, but it's effective and unique and funny and gets the job done. The slapstick moments and shots of Kurosawa off his ass drunk are particularly funny.
Character: 6/10
Kurosawa himself is a likeable character, pitiful but sort of admirable in the way he continually strives in the face of failure, and amusing. That being said, he isn't a strong enough character to retain the reader's interest through long chapters of miserable internal monologues that are essentially the same throughout the entire manga. The character's growth is essentially the same repeated pattern through each arc, like Ash from Pikachu ditching all his Pokemon at the end of each season. This makes reading the manga kind of like watching the Endless 8 season of Haruhi after a while, and weighs down Kurosawa's own strengths.
Enjoyment: 8/10
Although the story is burdened by overlong pauses between action and internal monologues not justified by their depth, it is a lot of fun watching Kurosawa screw himself over during absurd schemes to gain his the respect of his peers, and the story is funny and the characters likeable if you can forget about the fact you've read this scene a couple times before.
Overall: 7/10
Nothing exceptional, but if you're into shonen and want something a little more mature, or are looking for an uplifting story with an especially pathetic character going through a journey of growth, you might want to check it out.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Nov 26, 2012
A one-volume horror story about a group suicide that goes wrong in the strangest way possible.
Story: The story itself is very bizarre and grotesque, based around a group of suicidal adults who find portals to another world filled with a new kind of stone, beautiful and extremely valuable. How far will they go to exploit this new stone? The story questions the depths of human greed and selfishness using this bizarre premise.
Art: Ito's people are easily distinguishable, with expressions that are cliche but understandable. Where the art really shines is in its depictions of the frequently-grotesque portals and the more horrific aspects of this manga.
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These are lovingly drawn with incredible amounts of detail and are the high points of this manga.
Character: The characters are for the most part selfish and unrelatable besides the protaganist, but they're also well developed. In the end, they become jaded and bitter, apathetic about virtually everything, and their downfall is well plotted.
Enjoyment: The bizarre plot and the wonderful art make this a very enjoyable read, despite being generally a superficial story with mostly flat characters.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Nov 26, 2012
Junji Ito is certainly one of the masters of horror, but here he seems to slip. Most of the stories in this collection are... not scary, to put it bluntly, even as shockers. Ito is certainly a master of suspense but the concepts here are too predictable and at times bizarre to be considered traditionally scary.
The best stories here are The Bridge and The Conversation Room, although they aren't as good as his other stories. Although the art here makes it worth checking out if you're already a Junji Ito fan, overall this doesn't have much to offer as a collection.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Oct 29, 2012
A psychological thriller, Old Boy deftly addresses concepts of isolation and vengeance while managing to, for the most part, carry suspense. It definitely has strengths, in particular the characterizations which are interesting and for the most part realized. It explores the psyche of both the protaganist and the villain, both outliers from most of society, in a way that is compelling, and makes both of them relatable and sympathetic. Where this manga suffers, though, is the pacing and the story. While the concept is certainly interesting, in the end it feels almost anticlimatic: the buildup is there to be unleashed, with diverse elements being unraveled
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as with any good suspense manga, but in the end it comes down to almost nothing. Many of the threads lead nowhere and are genuinely pointless, and this manga feels bloated for it, with plotlines that seem to be there only to make the story longer. The intensity of the game becomes compromised about halfway through the manga, and from there it becomes a bore, with new characters and ideas being added for reasons that are ultimately fruitless.
Overall, this manga had a lot of promise with its concept, but the execution and the climax are unfullfilling and didn't live up to their potential.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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