Wednesday, 24 December 2014

Mini Anime Review - Akame Ga Kill

One of the hypest new anime of 2014, leaving a great impact on the viewers for it's graphic violence and interesting plot, all couples with classic tropes and character types found in the majority of modern anime tropes.


All I can say is it is a must watch, it captures things I love about Gurren, the bits of SAO I like and many other anime I've seen and thus is an incredibly enjoyable watch, so go watch it now!!
Rating - 
Looks - 4.2/5
Sound -4.1/5
Plot - 3.7/5
Characters - 4/5
Overall - 16/20

Saturday, 15 November 2014

Mini Disney Review - Frozen

This film's almost unstoppable fan-base seems to treat it as the best thing Disney has ever created, and treating those who prefer older titles as fools. Personally, the plot is nothing special, has loads of poor points and the titular frozen world is rather bland.

At points it feels the plot is just an advert break for the next money printing song, and it is bland as hell. A good musical's songs progress the plot and don't waste the watcher's time, like that of "Make A Man Out Of You" from Mulan, but these songs take up minutes mainly progressing characters with little plot movement. Even in Tarzan where the music was really distanced from the characters the plot advanced in leaps and bounds.

Thinking of Mulan this film doesn't even do that good a job on it's feminist aspects, the thing it had used to draw so much hype; Anna is a silly girl who is seen to fall in love at the drop of a hat, from the very first man she spends time with to the second, and Elsa isn't seen to do much of any use in the plot apart from triggering the snowpocalypse when she is seen to be a freak, something that she could have stayed and debated for more than in few minutes. The men in the film are either evil or disgusting savages, I wonder if they are trying to say something; the so called twist could be seen a mile away, almost as if the only way for a main character to choose the poor love interest over the rich one is to make rich guy evil and poor guy the simple honest lover.

<--Rich                       Poor-->





They attempt to parody their past works, by avoiding some tropes as "Love at first sight", but then they run the joke into the ground very quickly, and then ruin it entirely by just making the second man she meets her true love instead.

For some unexplained reason Elsa has random ice powers; and instead of dealing with them lovingly her parents erase her sister's memories and lock her in her room for years. and the way the get rid of those memories is even weirder, they go to see dumb unexplained rock trolls.They look fucking appalling to be frank.

What the hell are they? Why do these guys have magic? Why are these guys allowed to use their magic to go round helping people if Elsa is forced to stay in her room? If they can remove the magic from her sister why can't they remove it from Elsa? And if they state that fear and emotion would be negative to the powers, why would any adult feel that locking her away from everyone forever would help her if she has to be queen later and meet everyone in the whole kingdom?


Oh we get two dumb sidekicks this time, three
if you include our dumb love interest Kristoff. The snowman's debut is marred by an awful song, that goes even further to break the pacing. At least the reindeer doesn't talk.

The animation feels generic in their new CG artstyle, being less visually interesting than Tangled due to the similarity of their characters making it feel less original. The snow physics are great, being one of the points they picked upon during their promotional campaign, however the film being mainly blue ice and white snow can make it a little dull on the eyes, with only a few colourful scenes after the opening.

Rating - 
Looks - 2.7/5
Sound -2/5
Plot - 1.3/5
Characters - 1.5/5
Overall - 7.5/20


Thursday, 6 November 2014

Mini Anime Review - Sword Art Online II (Calibur Arc)

This tiny boring mini story was incredibly dull and forgettable, it lacked danger, it was visually bland and had annoying character actions also.
The party was so big there was little need for Kirito; yet they still act like he has done something amazing when he does a simple sword skill. Sinon is yet again best-girl, and Klein is yet again best main character.

The new intro is nice, but doesn't feel very SAO-like.

Yet again they manage to mess up everything that started well with a return to ALO, they really need to just hurry to the next MMO in the series and forget fairy incest land for good.


Rating - 
Looks - 2.2/5
Sound -3.7/5
Plot - 1.8/5
Characters - 1.5/5
Overall - 9.2/20

Thursday, 23 October 2014

Mini Anime Review - Sword Art Online II (Arc One)

The long anticipated return to the SAO/Accel World universe, SAO II takes place 5 months after arc two and goes a long way in an attempt to fix the problems of the previous series; with a single romance interest yet again, this time found in new girl Sinon, but being written as a strong confident woman who don't need no man, much like Asuna. However she is given an awesome back story that makes her far more interesting than every other character in Sword Art to this date.


Kirito is also a lady-man now, for unjustified reasons. 
This series manages to fix a lot of problems that SAO Arc 2 had; it actual;y shows Kirito having mental issues relating to playing an MMO again, it returns the element of threat, it removes the creepy romance aspects (Sinon and Kirito being much more flirty but less romantic, playing better seeing as he has a girlfriend), it also makes Kirito a fair bit more likable. 
He acts like a total dick at points, which makes his character more likable somehow, rather than the perfect harem king of the previous season. While this is sudden in the anime he is shown to be more like this in the manga, yet another thing the anime missed out that was a good point. He even goes as far as to introduce his new romance to the other other harem members in the final episode, where he shows her off and basically makes his own girlfriend jealous. 
The animation is great throughout, as is the soundtrack, and apart from a few main character invincibility moments from Kirito the show is far more interesting that Arc two and arguably Arc one of the original series.There is also a black Avatar Aang at one point for some reason.
Rating - 
Looks - 4.2/5
Sound -4.5/5
Plot - 3.2/5
Characters - 3/5
Overall - 14.9/20

Mini Anime Review - .Hack//Sign

The Classic trapped in an MMO anime; watching it after seeing such series as Log Horizon or SAO tackle the subject creates an appreciation for the quality of this story type.



It has strong animation, while not being as breathtaking as some moments from newer anime it is consistently good through out. It's story is fairly focused, maintaining viewer interest; however there are some cases of bad filler in the center of this 28 episode series, for example the protagonist attempting to take care of a pig for 3 days and failing miserably. 

The Music is very pleasing, if not a bit repetitive at times, the voices are also well performed with no real annoyances springing to mind after having finished the series.

The characters, while not the most interesting ever, are very well used to support the plot and the protagonist in their issues. It was also pleasing to see a disabled character being a strong major character through out, as well as a love interest ( later to be revealed as a homosexual love interest, +10 points for diversity).

Overall a very fun anime, of all the MMO anime I have seen it has presented the least offensive flaws; while it may not have the amazing highs that moments of Sword Art has, it's lowest points are miles above it.

Rating - 
Looks - 3.9/5
Sound -3.6/5
Plot - 4.1/5
Characters - 2.9/5
Overall - 14.5/20

Monday, 25 August 2014

Mini Anime Review - Persona 4 The Animation


This awesome anime is a close retelling of the video game Persona 4's plot, fully voiced by the same cast as the game, with some pleasing tweaks and changes to make this a somewhat new experience.

Taking place in the small town of Inaba where several murders have occurred, the protagonist Yu and his friends attempt to save potential victims and solve the case. 


However they are being killed in super natural ways, with each being forced into a dimension inside their television sets, where their emotions take the form of monsters that should you reject will turn and kill them. 

The main team each eventually accept their shadows and as a result this allows them to use them in battle, being thence known as a Persona.

Yu's depiction is very very good, as despite making him fairly quiet, as he is in the game, they give him many scenes where his dry humor is used to great effect. The rest of the group are very fleshed out, especially during the meeting of their personas, where we gain real insight as to their motives.

The characters are truly the high point of the show.



Between the dark visions in the television world and the murder investigation the show has a lot of amusing slice of life scenes that lighten up the show, keeping it from becoming stale.




The animation is of a very high level, and all the music is great, just as in the video games themselves, with both of the openings being very good, the second being my particular stand out.





Rating - 
Looks -3.9/5
Sound -4.1/5
Plot - 3.5/5
Characters 4.5/5
Overall - 16/20

Friday, 22 August 2014

Mini Cartoon Review - Avatar Legend Of Korra: Book 3 Change

As another amazing season of Korra comes to an end I feel the need to do a small review of it. Korra is the avatar following Aang for those who don't know, and whilst her three books have been a fair bit darker than the original cartoon they have their silly moments which can sometimes clash harshly with the desired tone.


This book is much more similar to the original as Team Avatar are moving around the earth nation in search of air benders, a long dead nation that the events of season two has been brought back in the form of countless non-benders becoming controllers of the air.


Rather than a third water based villain the newest evil comes in the form of the Red Lotus cult, a group not too dissimilar to Team Avatar, comprising of a bender of each element, as well as two sub bending specialists a Lava and Combustion bender. They are very lethal and use their power to achieve many of their goals, overpowering nearly every obstacle and their leader Zaheer even air bending the air out of the lungs of the Earth Queen herself till death.




The old gang return, and with Korra now carrying Aang's old glider and Bolin picking new earth bending techniques  they are more powerful than before. Sadly due to the tentacle monster destroying all of Korra's past lives in season two she can no longer ask older avatars for guidance. Mako is less important in this arc, however its not annoying as he is still a useful fighter.


Most of the humor comes from Bolin and Bumi, and this is a highlight of the show, being well written and seemingly less of a distraction than some in the previous two books.

The visuals are as good as ever, making it one of the best looking cartoons around, and the soundtrack is very emotional and helps make much of the action feel more realistic and intense.

Overall a massive recommendation, and personally it is the most enjoyable of the Korra seasons so far.

Rating - 
Looks -4.6/5
Sound -4.4/5
Plot - 4.3/5
Characters 4.2/5
Overall - 17.5/20

Thursday, 14 August 2014

Mini Anime Review - Death Note

It's good, not really my thing

Rating - 
Looks - 4.05/5
Sound -4.95/5
Plot - 3.97/5
Characters -4.03 /5
Overall - 17/20

Friday, 8 August 2014

Mini Anime Review - Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood

My all time highest held anime is a constant battle between Gurren Lagaan and this piece of art, that is Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood; finally I think I have made my choice. Taking place in the state of Amestris in an amazing world where the magical skill of alchemy, a scientific art based upon the ideal of equivalent exchange, is used by many military powerhouses, and all serve the Führer King Bradly. This is a world of monsters, science, robot prosthetic limbs and conspiracy.

Our story follows the life of the young Elric brothers, and their never ending series of misfortunes and strife caused by alchemy and the betrayal of those around them. 

After the death of their mother the boys attempted to revive her using alchemy, a taboo for all who know the craft. This attempt showed both the secrets of alchemy, however the God of Truth in exchange takes Alphonse's entire body and Ed's leg. In order to prevent Al's death, Ed sacrifices his arm to bind Al to a suit of armor eternally. 


The titular Full Metal Alchemist is the older of the two brothers, Edward. He is a headstrong, hot headed young man and is easily annoyed, especially when making reference to his short height. However over the 64 episodes we know him the foolishness almost entirely goes with amazing speed. You never find him annoying, In my opinion, as you tend to always see his point of view, and he never acts selfishly, even when the selfish option may regain his missing limbs.

His younger brother Alphonse is still searching for a way to return to his body, however does not complain too much, which makes this anime's characters stand out, none are very bitchy; bad shit happens to every character at some point, and they just get on with it.  His growth as a person is massive in the later half of the show, and this allows you to truly appreciate his terrible life in this state.

There are no characters in this master piece that annoy you, from the adorable May Chang, to the bombastic Armstrong family, everyone bounces well off each other and you feel true emotions with the situations they face each and every episode.
My particular stand-outs are the wonderful Major Hughes and Ling Yao, for their excellent character designs, development and great voice acting.

This shows visuals are stunning, it's openings are amazing (apart from 2 which is average) and i have never spent so much time on a single anime listening to the soundtrack. The first opening may be my favorite anime opening of all time. 

Both the English dub and the Japanese are stellar, however I personally prefer the English version, due to the cast being near spotless.



Rating - 
Looks - 5/5
Sound -4.5/5
Plot - 5/5
Characters - 5/5
Overall - 19.5/20

Saturday, 2 August 2014

Mini Anime Review - Sword Art Online (Arc Two)

Now for the fun. The massive stain on the SAO series that is arc 2.This arc takes place in the sequel to SAO Named ALfheim Online, where Kirito has discovered that Asuna's character had been taken after the end of arc 1, as opposed to reawakening in her body like the others. Exactly how she was kept in I don't know, I understand the new owner of the system wants her to stay inside but how did he actually trap her in the first place? Oh well the plot is too important for details we must move on!
Now you may ask why would anyone ever go into another video game after being trapped in one for an entire year? Keep asking yourself as it still isn't addressed in this show, maybe kids just love reopening massive mental scars and throwing themselves in harms way. 

Of course you could say he is driven by love and that allowed him to overcome his fear ... but even at the end of the season they keep playing. In fact even more Ex-SAO survivors join in the "fun" of immersing themselves in an MMO they know a madman had influence over .... because remember how fun it was last time? 
Anyway this world is less grounded, and contains magic and fairy folk in, to mix things up a bit, as well as bringing a very nasty garish colour scheme which seems to give each race a colour and beat you round the head with it till you remember which race is which.

And this massive division between each race is more annoying than interesting, the division of land makes Kirito's journey feel like a pain as the land is all owned by enemies, rather than the world of Sword Art where it felt truly open to explore. 

This arc also has no feelings of fear or concern for the characters, as it is a basic video game, with re-spawn points and player killing being fine, this leads to the fights in AFO being very forgettable, as the only cost was a few more hours of flying. However watching a few more hours of this arc is a fate worse than death so maybe it is even more tense for the viewer than arc one.

Now remember the tonne of 1 episode love interests in arc one? Did you hate the new girls distracting you from the plot? Then Fear No More! This arc we take away all the one episode romances ...... and make one big long even more pointless love interest, if you hate 5 girls distracting him for a second then you will love our single busty distraction much more! 

AND TO MAKE THIS FORCED LOVE TRIANGLE BETTER .... IT'S HIS SISTER! Wait isn't that bad? Oh no don't worry, she only thinks she is his sister ..... does that make her worse or him? Oh well.

So if the incest put you off the arc, don't worry Asuna gets a lot more of an active role this time! Oh wait ... she is locked away in the castle waiting for Mario to save her, sorry I mean Kirito. And that isn't a metaphor, she literally gets locked in a fucking bird cage. Does she escape I hear you ask? does she show any of her bad ass  fighting skills from the first arc?



Well ... she does escape. And then gets assaulted sexually  by tentacle slugs. Yeah. That happened.

BACK TO KIRITO


Mary Stu comes back with double the BS power, this time he is just a basic character and still over powers every guy he meets, for no raisin! This arc he decided to be Cloud Strife and borrowed the buster sword. I will admit, I did enjoy the way he wrecks a guy with a knife in real life towards the end, and shockingly he isn't the worst part of this arc. However the bullshit love triangle takes away a lot of the genuinely fun parts of the show.

I do enjoy the reunion, and it is pleasing to see Kirito show some actual positive emotions, to someone other than the arc one loli or anyone in the harem.

The soundtrack of this show is not as good as Arc one, and looks a lot worse than Arc one, all in all avoid it entirely. Yui comes back though, so i can still give 0.5 for characters.


Rating - 
Looks - 3/5
Sound -3/5
Plot - 0.5/5
Characters - 0.5/5
Overall - 7/20

Mini Anime Review - Sword Art Online (Arc One)

SAO, many people's favorite anime, and many people's 100% worst anime of all time. This divide in opinion is often due to the differing quality and story between the first two Arcs of the first series; episodes 1-14 taking place in the titular Sword Art Online VRMMORPG, and then moving on to the ALfheim Online for the remainder of the season. 


Arc 1 is often seen very highly in the anime community, taking place within an escapeless MMO where you die in real life if you should fall in the game, due to the tense situations and deaths of countless players/people as the episodes progress. In true video game fashion the way to win is to travel from level one (the bottom of this wedding cake world) all the way to the Ruby Palace on level 100 to get home, -insert Wizard of Oz reference here-.

As you would imagine in a death game there are both friendly folk to assist our main star Kirito along the way, as well as bloodthirsty goons (many of which not accepting that the game had even started actually killing people).
Our main star Kirito is undeniably a Mary Stu, one of the biggest ever to be seen in anime; from his massive unintentional harem of every girl he spends more than 2 minutes talking to (one which has the least hostility in compared to shows actually based around harems), and his godlike control of the game world around him.
Sidenote; at least in the Arc it is ALMOST tolerable, as most of his power comes from his near game breaking quest abuse grinding and his advanced knowledge of the game from the Beta gameplay he partook in.

This near cheating level of "skill"(for want of a better word) earns him the in game name of "Beater".

Despite his solo experience of the game for the most part there are a number of recurring characters through out, from his day one friend Klein (right), whom he meets a fair few times after their initial separation, and more importantly his love interest Asuna(left). Asuna is a cause of much controversy in the series, but as this is strictly covering arc 1 many flaws aren't present. 
She is a strong, confident female character who has little need for Kirito in terms of fights, even going on to save him multiple times. However after a certain point she becomes somewhat distracted by her love for Kirito and, despite remaining cool in battle can be a little annoyingly emotional outside it, massively contrasts against Kirito's near disability when it comes to showing or taking romantic expressions. 


There is a small cast of female semi-love interests who each have an episode to themselves, but on the whole fade into redundancy. The only other character of note is Kirito and Asuna's adopted daughter, a glitch in the SAO system in the body of a small girl. Easily the most likable of any cast member (other than Klein of course), due to her ability to be a cute small child, without ever seeming annoying, at least from my perspective. Her introduction also brings about a very pleasing Mother and Father development in Kirito's romance development; while I do not like the fact the romance is here in this series i appreciate that it is done a lot less painfully than many actual romance shows.

Despite the shows very very strong beginning, I find, the plot becomes a little clogged, partly due to massive time skips at points and over focusing on some time periods, and partly due to the massive out of ass turn-a-rounds Kirito manages to pull time and time again. 
However I have two major MAJOR problems with arc one. WHY THE F*** DID THIS EVEN HAPPEN?! AND WHY WAS THAT RANDOM REVIVAL THING A LOST PLOT POINT?!

In case you wonder what i am referring to, the Divine Stone of Returning Soulm, which Kirito wastes a whole episode trying to gain, only to find he can't use it to bring back his lover/guildmate, ending with it being given to Klein, which makes you think "Maybe it will come back to be used at the very end! Maybe it is important later". No. In the show we never see this again. So why bother showing us them getting it?!  The episode's one defining lesson is "Even the revival items can't bring back the dead", which is a totally pointless lesson, as only a total retard could think that an in game item could un-fry their brain in real life. Maybe the year Kirito spends out of school had a much worse effect than we thought.

Eventually the "team" escape after Kirito 110% "Mary Stu"s his victory, and so their life of VR torture is over, they can move on with their lives, and i am sure after the life scarring experience they have had with video games they will never go to back to VRMMORPGs again anytime in the future ........... ANYWAY! This show has amazing visuals and a great sound track, one worth looking into even if you are not a fan of the show itself, just for tracks like "Crossing Fields".



Rating - 
Looks - 4.5/5
Sound -4.1/5
Plot - 2.9/5
Characters - 1.5/5
Overall - 13/20








Wednesday, 30 July 2014

Mini Review - Kill La Kill

This show is godly. It is very very similar to Gurren Lagaan, same teams, but with woman struggling through adversary rather than men proving their manliness. It is an experience that must be watched to feel a connection to.



The plot begins as the main character Ryuko Matoi attempts to find her fathers killer, but quickly gets away from that point after the first section.

Her character is rather dull but the interesting and hilarious side characters out shine her dullness and save the show


I can't explain why I love this show so much, its really F****** good. JUST WATCH IT!

Rating - 
Looks - 4.5/5
Sound -4.9/5
Plot - 3.1/5
Characters - 3/5
Overall - 15.5/20

Tuesday, 29 July 2014

Mini Anime Review - Gurren Lagaan

SPOILER WARNING:
This Show is art. The zenith of manly anime.

Spoilers End Here.

 Like wow, I didn't know how bad ass anime could be until I saw this. The characters are some of the best ever, the story is simple yet not dull ( at least simple in arc 1, arc 2 is very different) and the animation is beautiful.


The story follows the headstrong leader Kamina and the timid Simon's departure from their underground village, to the dangerous surface world, run by the cruel Beastmen in their Mecha suits. Busty red head Yoko joins the crew as their sniper and as such the trinity is formed!
Seeing humanity mistreated Kamina decides to defeat the Beastmen King and end the oppression over earth, armed with their own gunmen, the small Lagaan and the larger Gurren, both being able to brotherly combine to form the titular Gurren Lagaan. Fairly quickly they gain support and after many plot twists and hard fights humanity is a united force, with many more men inspired by Kamina taking up their own gunmen and joining in the good fight.


Simon the Digger

Initially rather cowardly, and you may find him a poor main character compared to Kamina, but he struggles through all the strife they face, and becomes one of the strongest characters in anime to this date


Kamina
The manliest man to be a man, he takes on mechs with a sword, and then takes those defeated mechs and builds a mech! Everything he says is basically a quote and he will be one of the best leaders for ages to come 

Rating - 
Looks - 4/5
Sound -5/5
Plot - 4.1/5
Characters - 4.9/5
Overall - 19/20

Mini Anime Reviews - Sakura Trick

The other week I decided to watch a fairly hyped up yuri anime called Sakura Trick; a romance series set in a high school, mainly focusing on the couple of Haruka Takayama and
Yuu Sonoda.

Now despite this shows very pretty animation and incredibly catchy opening song there is one thing that makes me hate this show: Haruka. 

Where as in episode one their initial kiss is sweet and romantic Haruka becomes a love crazed addict, and each episode deviously begs and pressures Yuu into carrying on where they left off. Her desperation shows through her near idiotic reasons to make Yuu kiss her, such as claiming she can kiss away the fear she feels during the late night episode. Now some point out that eventually Yuu begins to act first, but surely it isn't great that she has been forced into it so many times she grows to enjoy it, that thinking makes their romance a little creepy.

Now there are other characters in the show, claiming the focus of a few episodes, but most aren't too outstanding for me. there were elements of humor, but most of the jokes i found to be just so-so and didn't interest me enough.

If you like Yuri anime you probably will like this on principle, however I would say to people looking for a deep love story or even an interesting slice of life show to look elsewhere

Rating - 

  • Looks - 3/5
  • Sound - 2.7/5
  • Plot - 2/5
  • Characters - 1.3/5
  • Overall - 9/20