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That said, this season's anime (summer of 2013) seems a bit lackluster to me, but that's just my opinion.
Pretty much. I think Log Horizon could be interesting, and there were one or two comedies which kinda caught my eye (believe it was the Dog x Scissors, and the one about the "absolute multi-choice disorder"). Other than those, I guess we'll just have to wait for september or whenever when the spring seasons 24 episode shows stop airing...
Watched the first episode of Watamote. Since I read the manga and all, I was curious to see what they were going to do with it.
The OP is a bit surprising, and kinda unfitting in my opinion (although visually, I think it's pretty cool looking), but well, I really don't care about OPs and EDs. The music in general is alright, nothing spectacular. The art style is interesting and I like it. It's a bit like the classic art you see in every anime, but with some oddities and particularities here and there. As for the VAs, the main character has a voice that fits her well, and her VA does a good job at protraying her I feel. On top of that, the main character's brother has the same VA as the MC of Hyouka, which is awesome, cause he's probably my favorite male VA.
All in all, I'd say if they keep doing things like that, I think it will be a good series.
So just finished KokoroCo, and HOLY SHIT was this good?!
Kokoro Connect 9/10
NOTE: This review includes the 4 “Michi Random” episodes.
“What defines humans... Defines us? Nobody will notice a change on the inside if you look the same on the outside.”
What happens your desires and thoughts are no longer simply your own, but are also shared with your closest friends? How will it affect your friendship when you uncontrollably make a move on the guy your friend likes, or even if you find out a dark secret that your friends kept from you? These are all questions (among many others) which KokoroCo tries to bring to light. In a way, you could say this is as much a SOL-series, as it is a psychological test.
Story: (8 / 10) The basic plot is very simple, to be honest. A group of friends encounter, and have to deal with, a multitude of different phenomena which in different ways reveal their deepest desires and secrets to the other people in the group. However, it’s the rather interesting way these phenomena are presented, executed, and dealt with which makes this show very interesting.
Even though most of it can be pretty sad or depressing in ways, they’ve done a good job in throwing in some comedic scenes, without making it feel like they’re going out of their way just to be funny, so it all flows really well, which I thought was nice. I find it hard to actually talk more about the story, without really going into specific events and more detail, and unfortunately that would spoil the experience for you a bit.
Length-wise, I think 17 (counting the specials) episodes were just perfect, and the sort of open ending both offers adequate closure and sets up for a good chance to read the remaining 7 books, I’d assume (unless there’s a lot of difference between the anime and the first 4 novels).
Art: (9 / 10) The art was certainly very well done. (Like others, it seems) I was actually reminded of KyoAni’s sort of “special” art style, but to my surprise, they weren’t involved at all. Even so, all the characters were very well drawn (even the side-characters), and animation was nice and smooth. There are a lot of emotional scenes present, and whether a character was expressing happiness, sadness or anger, it was always done in such a way that it didn’t feel “overdone”, or “off” in any way, which of course is a big plus.
Another thing I would like to point out is fanservice. Now, I’ve gotten pretty used to seeing a fair share of fanservice in anime, even (or especially) in the ones revolving around a bunch of highschool friends. But to my surprise, there really isn’t much of that to find anywhere here. There are maybe 3 or 4 very short scenes like these, and I found it very nice that they didn’t try to break up the emotions with random boob-shots.
Sound: (8 / 10) Of course, in a show so focused on the emotional changes of our characters, good voice acting will be needed to really be able to bring the (very well done) writing to life, in a smooth and relatable way. To be honest, I really believe the voice actors all managed to do this. They all fit their respective characters very well, and to be able to display so many emotions throughout a rather short time, really takes a bit of effort. The one who stood out to me the most, however, was easily Nagase Iori. How she was able to both represent this happy, childish girl, as well as the cold, darker side of Iori we get to see was truly well done.
As for the music; The background music did a good job at accompanying the writing, but it never really tried to overtake any other aspect, which was nice, and even if I personally didn’t really care for the opening theme all too much, I think it shows the happy, hoping side of the group in a nice way.
Characters: (9 / 10) Now this is where things get really good. In short, the characters are all very well written and synergizes rather well with each other. At a first glance, most of the characters appear quite innocent and “playful” (for lack of better words), except for maybe Inaba, who acts as the stern leader of the group. However, as the story goes on, darker sides are revealed, and as we find out more about each characters backstories, you learn that they’re not quite as innocent and/or happy as they’d like you to think, and this is all what makes you care and feel for the characters.
Obviously, a show about being forced to reveal your darkest secrets wouldn’t be very interesting if said secrets were all kinda “meh”, would it? Thankfully, all of the characters (save for one, I guess) have rather good backstories, and this also contributes a lot to character development. As they struggle to overcome their past problems/traumas, they actually develop as characters, and synergise with the other characters in new ways, which again brings up a lot of new scenarios.
Enjoyment: (9 / 10) To be honest, I’m usually not able to marathon shows if I’m watching them by myself (as I easily get distracted in between episodes), and in that case, it usually takes me a while to finish a series, because I don’t necessarily always feel like watching anime at that moment. However, there are exceptions to this, and KokoroCo is definitely one of those. Even if I didn’t marathon all the 17 episodes in one go, I certainly got through this a lot faster than many other series, because I kept feeling like I wanted more of the characters, and wanted to see what would happen next etc.
All in all, it’s rather bittersweet, but I think this was very close to being one of my favorites.
'Twas a while since I saw it, but thought I'd write up a review of my thoughts on Deadman Wonderland.
Deadman Wonderland 6/10
NOTE: The “pro-con” list at the bottom will be something new I’m trying out, and thus may not stick to if it’s deemed unnecessary or “bad”. Feedback is appreciated. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ “People fear death because they don’t ‘understand’ it, and we’re afraid of strangers because we don’t ‘know’ them. Not being able to understand the one you love… is the worst fear of all…”
I’m actually a big fan of battle royals, and after watching Btooom! I felt like I wanted more of the “psychological killing games”. I soon found (and still do, by the way) lots of people recommending Deadman Wonderland to MAL users who liked Btooom, saying they were both very similar in their concept, setup, and overall execution, and thus, I started watching Deadman Wonderland... Story: (6 / 10) Now, I’m unsure if it’s because I haven’t read the manga, or if the anime simply tries to make too many things happen at once, but the story could be really confusing at times, seemingly trying to focus on way too many elements of the story at once. At its core, Deadman Wonderland is about a boy who has everything taken away from him, receives a mysterious power and in imprisoned and forced to fight to survive, and eventually escape.
These are all good elements of a story (in my opinion), as long as they’re done in a somewhat good way. To me it felt like the story was (probably because of the many different focuses) sort of “sloppy”, not really explaining anything as they go along, and just simply moving way too fast.
The worst thing, however, is probably the fact that I’m either misunderstanding this completely, or there’s actually no real ending (no closure, not even a real showdown). So to me, the story just felt overall very meh, even if the concept was nice.
(To avoid spoilers, I won’t go into too much detail, but early on in the show, there’s a scene where some prisoners have to run a sort of lethal crash course, in order to win an antidote for a poison that keeps the prisoners in check, and honestly I think the series overall could’ve benefited from simply revolving around something like this (even though I know this is obviously based on the manga)).
Art: (7 / 10) Even though the story and execution might have been somewhat sub-par, the art really stood out. The art is beautiful, and the animation is smooth and very well done. Character is also pretty good, but something that bugged me was that the “branches of sin” felt somewhat... “underwhelming”, in terms of animation. Some of them actually looks a lot like each other, and overall it just feels like they could’ve been made in a much cooler, better looking way.
Sound: (7 / 10) Deadman wonderland admittedly has a pretty good cast of voice actors, who all (mostly) do a good job in portraying their respective characters. One obvious (would-be) selling point for me is the fact that one of the main characters, Shiro, is actually voiced by Hanazawa Kana, and I believe she did a good job in portraying the “innocent” side of Shiro. Other than her, I thought the voices were good enough, but really nothing amazing, and there were a few ones that just felt “stale”, if you will.
As for the music, an interesting thing that was pointed out to me is that Deadman Wonderland actually has the OST size of a 24 episode series. I’m not really known for paying very much attention to background music at all, unless it’s very prominent, and so I can’t really add much to this myself, as there wasn’t really any track that I felt stood out to me, or lingered with me afterwards. Granted, there were a couple of tracks which were made quite prominent, especially during some of the fighting scenes, but these all just kinda faded away as soon as that scene would finish. However, the way the OST sizes importance was explained to me, was that since this is only a 12 episode show, and it features so many songs, you never really hear the same song played more than maybe a couple of times, as each scene brings a new piece of music.
Characters: (6 / 10) I’m on the fence about whether this deserves a 7 or not, but ultimately I’ve decided to rate it 6, because of the fact that no characters really feel as fleshed out as I would like to. There’s basically no character development at all, and even with the added backstory scenes of some (albeit secondary) characters, most of the characters just feel like they’re there for the sake of being there...
A lot of characters feel very “mysterious”, as if they later wanted a big reveal of various twists and whatnot regarding said characters. Unfortunately, this never happens, and what we’re left with is an undeveloped, “mysterious” & unrelatable character. As an example of the character development, Ganta (the series main character) starts out as your typical “wimp”, who has just lost everything and thinks he’s worthless in every way. Now, in most shows with this type of character, he would usually develop into something more “badass” later on, overcoming his guilt/sorrow/angst or whatever’s holding him back, but this never happens in Deadman. Granted, there are individual scenes where he seemingly overcomes all this and moves on to becoming a new person, but then it ends and he’s still the same “wimp” as he was several episodes ago.
The worst part is probably that they introduce a lot of these “mysterious” characters, some which even only show up a couple of times, but we don’t find out anything about these characters, and it all makes the show very hard to get into.
Enjoyment: (5 / 10) Honestly, this show was a major letdown for me. It really does have a good concept, and very well done art, but all the things mentioned above (especially the story) makes it all fall apart, making for a not so pleasant viewing as you’d hope for. It had its cool moments, as well as some funny ones, (but even though it tries, it sort of lacks in the sadness department), and in the end it’s all just a mess.
Conclusion: If you like me, found this show as a recommendation after watching Btooom, or something similar, I’d advise you to either stay away completely, or at least go in not expecting something like what you were promised, because that’s certainly not what you’re going to get.
Pros: + Nice concept + Great soundtrack + Very well done artwork & animation + Hanazawa Kana ----------------------- Cons: - Messy story - Undeveloped characters - “Stale” fighting scenes (most of it is just talking to each other, but they never actually get anywhere) - Not as much variation in the “branches of sin” as there could’ve been