Toradora! started out as a light-hearted slice-of-life anime with good comedic moments and turned into a darker dramatic slice-of-life anime with good comedic moments. That is to say, even though the tone in the series turned much more serious sometime after episode 17, it did its best to retain the original comedic feel. The show did a good job of telling the story and showing us how the characters grew. Read the rest of this entry »
Sora wo Miageru Shoujo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai (aka Munto TV) had a lot of things going for it. A stellar soundtrack, some of the best visuals I’ve seen from a TV series, and a reputable studio behind it. Unfortunately everything else sorta fell apart. There was a potential for this anime to have a great emotional story, but it probably was impossible to execute due to the show length. A part of me wants to believe that this show got axed halfway through production, because then I could understand what went wrong. But for now, the story was nonsensical and tended to contradict itself.
But again, as I mentioned before, there really was a lot going for this show. The soundtrack really gave this grand, epic feel to this anime and I almost felt like I was watching a movie to be honest. The visuals and high production quality seemed to back this up. I mentioned this back in episode 8, watching Munto really made me feel like I was watching a Disney movie. In fact, the only other anime I watched that had such memorable music and visuals was Eureka Seven, and I honestly feel that Munto was really similar in that sense, just lacking the story and characters to back up the visuals.
In the end, Sora wo Miageru Shoujo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai is an anime that didn’t end up embracing its full potential.
FINAL RATING: 7/10
_tekky99
It’s not very often that I can say this, but with Clannad ending, it closes a major chapter in my anime life. When I first saw Clannad, I was fresh on the anime scene and it was one of the first series that I actively kept up with. I loved the first season because it introduced a large number of likable characters, it had some great comedy, while keeping a drama heart
But if the first season was good, the second season took it to another level. Once the after story began, Clannad ended up showing such incredible heart. It was rare to see something like that from any media. When Tomoya was in pain, I was too. When Tomoya was happy, so was I. Episode 16 to 22 were nothing short of brilliant, and I was ready to consider Clannad as one of my all-time favorite animes…
But wait… the really good episodes only make up a little over a quarter of the show. While, yes, the entire series were leading up to the final quarter, there were some rather weak parts to this season. Yukine’s arc lacked depth, and some of the early After Story episodes tended to drag a little. So overall, the show wasn’t perfect, and stuff could’ve been done to make it better.
This leads me to my final point. Would I recommend this show? Hell yes. Clannad is a heart wrenching story that can drive the most resilient viewers to tears. It accomplishes this by introducing great characters, developing them over 30+ episode, and then introduce incredibly realistic conflicts and issues that really hits close to home.
FINAL RATING: 9.5/10
_tekky99
Who would’ve thought, that after my scathing review of the first episode of Asu no Yoichi, I would end up watching and completing it. I actually contemplated just watching 3 episodes and then dropping the show just to keep with my trend; however, I ended up enjoying it for what it is.
So let me establish one thing first… there is a lot of things that fail in this anime. The plotline, the developments, the villains, all of them are nonsensical. Heck, this show even lacks character developments. So why the heck did I enjoy this? First off, it’s actually funny at times. After episode 2 i found myself laughing a few times during each episode. However, more importantly, besides the comedy, the show has likable characters (Note, that they start off likable and stay likable, overall they’re all static, hence no character developments). All the characters have a unique charm about them. As such, I did end up caring about them.
Overall, Asu no Yoichi was a fun show. It brought nothing new to table and was strictly formula, but it managed to succeed within in the confines of that formula. If someone were bored and were in the mood of some, any comedy, I wouldn’t mind recommending this.
FINAL RATING: 7/10
_tekky99
Back when the fall season was starting, I was really excited about this series. The first episode seemed to introduce some great characters and the potential for some good action. The second episode seemed to continue this trend with an awesome fight scene that was reminiscent of Shakugan no Shana. Alas, episode 2 is where this show peaked. The show soon became muddled in constant exposition and underdeveloped side characters. The main character, Touma, never got more development then the first arc gave him, and Index… haha, for a series named after her, she seemed awfully like a comic relief character.
I said it in the beginning, and in fact I still believe this: Index has a lot of potential. It can easily evolve into an epic story of magic vs. science with Touma caught in the middle. In fact, we started to see the seeds of this story take bloom… IN THE FINAL FREAKIN EPISODE!!! But here, I can’t blame the animators for this. The original light novel apparently spends a lot of time introducing side characters only to have them disappear by the end of a volume.
Anyway, I’ll admit, I liked the last arc. It was well paced, exciting, and most importantly, it established an overarching plotline; something all the other arcs were missing. As for the arcs themselves, some went on too long (exposition arc), others were too short (Last Order arc), some were good but w/ flaws (Clone War arc), and some were just bad (Angel Falls anyone?). All in all, the series was good enough to keep my interest and I didn’t drop it. Would I recommend it? That’s a hard one. I suspect that the show would be much better if watched in one sitting rather than week by week as I did.
FINAL RATING: 7/10
_tekky99
btw, If you’ve read my Railgun manga review, you should know that I’m quite excited for the Railgun anime, despite how Index turned out.
Melodrama?! in my Kannagi?!
Here is probably my 2nd finale review in which I’ll be diverging greatly from the general opinion of a show. Kannagi was rather hit or miss for me. After a lackluster first few episodes, I was ready to drop the series. However, episode 3 ended up being one of the funniest episodes I had seen in a while. It was enough for me to continue watching until the end. In fact these first 3 episodes should’ve been more a warning as to how the series would progress. Hilarious when trying to be funny, and fail when trying to be dramatic.
Essentially, the drama was overdone. Drama can work on comedies if used sparingly. Kannagi went for pure melodrama, in its dramatic moments. Making the series feel almost bipolar.
Episode 3 to 9 emphasized the comedy, and I thought this show hit its peak around that time. Sadly, the last 3 episodes returned to the drama that just wasn’t working early in the series. As such, the finale left me with a rather mixed feeling.
As such, my final rating reflects my mixed opinion, and it will probably be controversial for some of you.
FINAL RATING: 7/10
… wow…. this show really blew… Akane Iro ni Somaru Saka was a show that I had high hopes for when I was writing the fall preview. Let’s just say that this anime might’ve single handedly affected (for the worse) my outlook on future eroge/dating sim adaptations. If I were to list out all the things that went wrong in this anime, this review would be 10 pages long. So instead, I’ll just say what was good, and you can assume that anything that I didn’t mentioned, failed.
The only good things about Akane Iro ni Somaru Saka were the character designs and the voice acting. Character designs are usually good in most VN adaptation. As for voice acting, the voice acting was the only thing that met my expectations.
I will give credit though, on the whole this anime kept managing to fall under my ever lowering expectations as the show progressed. This was primarily due to the really random episodes between 3 and 10. This part screamed anime original material. Only episodes 10 and 11 gave the show signs of life w/ potentially good drama and romance (the one thing I was looking forward to in this series); but then episode 12 ruined it all w/ another random ass episode.
All in all, AkaSaka will probably rate as the worst visual novel adaptation that I’ve ever managed to complete.
FINAL RATING: 5/10
Whether or not if you liked ef – a tale of melodies, is really dependent on what you expected from this series before hand. If you expected another season w/ soaring emotional climaxes and portions that will take your breath away… prepare to be somewhat disappointed. However, if you expect answers to a lot of the lingering questions from ef – memories, then you’re just in luck.
Of all the questions answered, the most critical one was “Who is Yuuko?”. The answer was stunning, riveting, and very emotional. Simply put, her story is one of a tragic life turned happy thanks to a loved one. In spite of her tale cutting short, All the stories of ef revolve around her and Himura’s desire to share the happiness that they had felt. Her willingness to help Mizuki and his determination to create a new Otowa were their first attempts at this goal. The result is a finale that not only does the second season justice, but also the entire ef story.
Unfortunately the one story that COULD be compared to first season, didn’t live up to expectations. Perhaps it was because it was being overshadowed by Yuuko’s story, but in the end Kuze/Mizuki’s path ended up being a disappointment, by ef standards. Kuze spent a little too much time wallowing in self-pity without any noticeable improvements. When he does improve it seems that it happened because it was convenient for the ending. I never really saw the benefits of the Kuze/Mizuki relationship.
In my opinion, Mizuki ended up being a very likable female lead. Throughout the first season and most of the second, she is shown to be rather optimistic and having a bubbly personality. But when her past with Yuuko was revealed, it becomes evident that Mizuki is deeper then she looks.
Besides the story, nearly everything else remained the same. A sharp concentration on implications through creative artistry, a wonderful soundtrack that emphasizes key scenes, two stories that are relatively independent of each other, and of course a wonderfully animated and sung opening. So in those categories, ef – melodies gets a perfect 10 from me. But in terms of story, I’ll say something similar to what I said for Code Geass R2. For an anime, the story is wonderful, but for ef, it was a dissapointment… at least Kuze’s part.
After thinking rather hard, and managing to keep the fanboy in me out of the picture, I realize that ef – a tale of melodies just didn’t have the same magic as ef – a tale of memories. While together I’ll give the franchise as VERY strong 10 out of 10… as an individual season…
FINAL RATING: 9/10
Similar to how I did a pilot episode review for Summer 2008, the end of the season means the end of a lot of series. Instead of posting many posts about different series, I decided to incorporate them all to one post.
If you wish to comment, please comment on separate page I made for this entry. The blog entry itself, will be deleted frequently and reposted w/ new shows to keep it refreshed and bumped at the top.
Special A
This was a show that, for many people, started off poorly. A 7.4 early rating on MAL was a testament to this fact. I was one of those who loved the early episodes. Its off the wall exaggerated comedy was very refreshing and easy to watch. At the time I hadn’t read the manga so I didn’t really know where the story would go. Eventually, I did read the manga, and that may be why I never got annoyed of Hikari’s character. More importantly, it got me excited for what was to come. At the show’s midpoint, I was easily calling it the most underrated show of the spring season. However, soon the adaptation got more and more faithful to the manga, and public opinion started to increase around the time when Akira and Tadashi got the spotlight. Indeed in the manga, this is where the story shines, when the other couples started to get some attention. As for the finale itself, I had a problem with the way they portrayed Aoi… he isn’t that bad of a guy, hell he’s actually a good guy with sympathetic qualities. In a way, he’s kinda like Yahiro, makes himself out to be the enemy for the good of a certain someone. As with any anime of limited length, they didn’t have time to get to all the story elements, most prominent with a little character named Finn (although Finn did make a cameo in the final episode).
So with the final MAL rating crossing 8.0, I can safely say that this show is no longer underrated. It’s an easy view that accessible to everyone and most people will feel good after viewing
RATING: 8/10
Zero no Tsukaima ~Princess no Rondo~
This was the show I was most excited for in the summer season. Probably because there wasn’t really anything else to look forward to. I wasn’t a huge fan of the 2nd season, though I really like it’s second half. Imagine how happy I was when the story kicked off w/ plot from episode 1. I was under the impression that this season would be ALL plot and romance developments. Unfortunately I celebrated too soon. While in previous seasons, the show would start of mediocre and end good, this season started good and ended poor. It got lost in the fanservice around episode 4. Not to say there weren’t some good parts, namely with the introduction of a Henrietta-Saito-Louise love triangle, and Louise finally somewhat trusting Saito.
Lastly the finale was one BIG non-ending, I’ll be very surprised if they didn’t make another season. I’ll watch a 4th season… but please oh PLEASE hire the old director.
Final verdict, better then season 2 but just barely
RATING: 7.5/10
Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu
I initially felt this show was gonna be a cross of Zero no Tsukaima and Lucky Star. With the Haruka being a cross of Konata and Louise. I was WAYY off. It ended up being better. Haruka embodied the stereotypical moe character throughout the series, and nearly everyone can like her. But the show’s real star was Yuuto. Completly atypical from the usual rom-com male lead. He isn’t perverted, stupid, or indecisive. He’s about as real as a male lead can be in animes. From the beginning his eye was always on Haruka, so any advancements from other characters where in vain.
As for the finale itself… GAH stupid eel!! My only real complaints with the show are that the initial pacing of the series was off, and that the character of Shiina wasn’t fleshed out enough.
Overall, rom-com fans will love this show.
RATING: 8/10
Macross Frontier
I have 3 letters to say in reference to that finale… W O W. That was probably the most epic finale i’ve ever seen, second only to Gurren Lagann. Before this episode I was contemplating giving Frontier an 8… now I have to stop myself from giving it a 10. The lead up episodes felt like the show as losing its focus, concentrated too much on the love triangle, and not enough on the music + mecha. Thankfully, this episode returned to that… in an explosive way.
So all in all, Macross Frontier was a romance, music, mecha anime made in honor of the 25th anniversary of the original Macross series. Having not seen the original series, I’m glad that the show isn’t very reliant on past events (except Macross Zero). The weakest aspect of the show was the love triangle, the writers didn’t put enough into it to make it matter. But that fault is easily overlooked by superb animation and amazing music. I think it was in episode 5 or 6 when Sheryl and Ranka sang together for the first time while Alto was fighting the Vajra that I realized that this show was going to be something special. And the final episode returned to that sheer awesomeness in such a way that it brought tears to my eyes.
This is a VERY strong contender against Soul Eater for best show of the spring season.
RATING: 9.5/10
Code Geass; Lelouch of the Rebellion R2
This was easily the most hyped anime of the spring season, and it had reason to be. After that huge cliffhanger, everyone was dying to know what happened. The answer itself was quite disappointing as no major changes happened as a result of it. The new character, Rolo, ended up being quite weak, and almost no one liked him.
SPOILER WARNINGS!!!!
But those are superficial problems, there were much more important, core problems with the second season. First and foremost, the writing took a nosedive. Plot twists were being written for the sake of having them in the show. Plot holes were popping up at an alarming rate. And of course… in the end, of all the main characters that were “killed off” only around 3 of them stayed dead. And other character that were killed off were killed off for the sake of removing them from the plot. Marianne is revealed to be alive… MAJOR REVELATION!!! except she’s killed one episode later. The Knight of One has a Geass… MAJOR REVELATION!!! He dies minutes after revealing it.
The other major problem was the show’s direction. All throughout season 1 and most of season 2, the show was building up to a final confrontation between Lelouch and Charles. Instead, that confrontation was underplayed and the show took a complete shift and made a side character, Schneizel, the final villain. That was my least favorite part of R2.
Now with all these problems that I’m point out, it might sound that I hated R2. Not true at all. In terms of anime, Code Geass R2 was very good. In terms of the first season, this season disappointed. When we look back on Code Geass we’re not gonna remember it for it’s great writing, instead it’ll be more about it’s entertainment factor, it’s large cast, and unpredictability. The finale itself, does the entire series justice and is worthy of the monumental SUNRISE project called Code Geass.
RATING: 8/10
(Now SUNRISE do us a favor, and DONT pull a SEED Destiny on this.)
Psychedelic SoulJam 