Karin review
Story: 7
I normally dislike vampire stories. Sure, I don’t have a problem with a series that happen to have a vampire in it, however I wouldn’t normally watch an anime where it all involves around these creatures of the night. Yet, when I read the synopsis of this series, I got curious and decided to watch it.
I normally dislike anime that has blood. However if there is blood it is animated in an almost cute way. For example flower shaped blood. Even though it is unrealistic, I really liked it because in this way I can handle blood.
Further the animation is nothing really special; it is the kind you normally encounter in a romance anime. Backgrounds aren’t really detailed, but characters have more details and most were aimed to look cute. Some characters look slightly odd but there is always a reason behind it. Extra details were laid in the different costumes characters wear. A thing that did draw extra attention was the last episode which was fully drawn in a grey and red palette.
The first thing that stands out is the classical vampire sounds that are used as a comical note in this anime. I find this very well done and it made me laugh on several occasions. The voice acting is done splendid. Karin’s father Henry has this really amusing voice and Winners voice has a bad American accent which fit his character well. All other voices are also fitting so the series scores high marks here. The opening theme is a catchy upbeat song. The ending song is somewhat mellower. Both aren’t outstanding however I have heard far worse.
There are a lot of characters in Karin. At first it starts out with her, most of her family, best friend and Usui Kenta, the male lead of the anime. First the anime focuses of Karins daily life and how she gets along with this unusual situations she gets involved in and Usui Kenta who discovers Karin’s secret. It shows the weird family structure and their way of caring for Karin.
This anime made me warm up towards vampires, and I enjoyed watching it. Even though there are some points of annoyance as well. It isn’t the most outstanding anime out there but if you want to see something lighthearted about vampires then this is a good pick, even if you normally aren’t into the vampire genre much, I would still recommend you try it out.
Episode Review: Mnemosyne 01 (warning: contains spoilers)
Uniflame recommended this series to me because she thought it might be something I like. Reading the synopsis about it, I agreed, but having seen the first episode I am not so sure anymore, since it has a lot of elements I usually don’t like; still, my curiosity is stirred, so I might give it another go when I get my hands on the second episode.
The story introduces main character Rin, a private investigator of some sorts with a reputation to boot it seems. In the opening scene she’s chased by an assassin and killed, yet she wakes up in her bed the next morning as if it were just a dream.
Here her job is introduced, along with her assistant Mimi, who looks like she’s 12 but downs vodka as well as her employer. Of course with alcohol involved these’s a good excuse for some touchiness throughout the episode to fan-service the perverts, but nothing too out of bounds.
While completing a job – finding a lost fat cat – Rin stumbles across a young man named Maeno who is about to be beaten up. She rescues him and learns he has an odd case of amnesia.
Rin decides to help him find his missing memories and their trail – a trail of violence, extortion and a few dead bodies, mind you – leads them to a pharmaceutical company with mob connections.
When attempting to sneak inside, it turns out Rin’s butt (-lol) proves to be too much of an obstacle to bypass some infrared beams, and the two are arrested, introducing this episode’s villain: the pharmaceutical director with a preference for Lolita dresses outside office hours and the bizarre fetish of gaining pleasure from attaching vast amounts of piercings. Add a random female-female french kiss and we have a torture scene that could’ve been taken straight out of a kinky hentai flic.
But all’s well that ends well; Rin proves to be able to revive after dying, using this talent to unleash some zombies upon the unsuspecting director, and free Maeno. And guess what, the fat cat is found too!
Tsubasa Chronicle : The movie (Princess of the Birdcage Kingdom)
Story: 7,5
The CLAMP studio has already been around for quite a while and produced a good variety of different mangas and, additionally, anime shows, most of which became little gems of their own. An item which has been seen several times before in CLAMP shows has been the re-use of characters: some characters can make a new appearance in a different series, either as the same character or as a completely different personality who has nothing in common with the original, except for appearance.
The Tsubasa Chronicle series takes that aspect one step further, by re-using every CLAMP character in existence, several times over: the series is based on the concept of the existence of many different world in different realities, each with their own theme. The same people can exist in different worlds, and yet while they may look the same, their characters might be as opposite as day and night.
The plot of the Tsubasa Chronicle in a nutshell: the princess Sakura (originally from Card Captor Sakura) is lured into ancient ruins and loses all her memories as a result, which are scattered across different worlds and dimensions. Determined to win them back, thus saving her life, her childhood friend and potential lover Saiyoran journeys with her to the Dimensional Witch because it’s believed she can help him. She gives him the ability to travel between worlds (in the form of the cute creature Mokona), but in exchange Sakura will never be able to remember their past together. Saiyoran agrees and sets off on this journey, together with two others, Fai and Kurogane, both who have their own reasons to travel across worlds.
After a whole season of traveling, finding feathers, and bonding between main characters, the movie is a logical continuation of that; in reality, the Tsubasa movie is little more than a lengthy, drawn out episode, and that’s also its main flaw: there’s a story to be told, and in this case that story would take more than one episode, yet at the same time the movie is short, and trying to cram as much of that story into as little time as possible. The result is that some things aren’t explained that well, or rushed through, and it may leave the viewer confused sometimes.
Graphics: 8,5
After seeing the first season of Tsubasa Chronicle, this ‘movie’ came as a bit of a surprise. A different studio was responsible for this production, and it was notable in a subtle change of animation and redesign of characters, both in outfit and appearance. Fortunately, none of this seems to disrupt the flow of the movie in any way, apart from taking a moment to get used to.
However the movie is fast paced, leaving no room for filler scenes or long (boring) dialogues, mixing said dialogues with camera changes, rather than using a lot of stills. There’s plenty of action, yet it isn’t all about action, and this movie creates a fine balance of that.
Audio: 8,5
A good soundtrack can either make or break an anime series, and where Tsubasa Chronicle is concerned the soundtrack serves only to strengthen the anime, with soft calm tones during quieter scenes, romantic melody where romance is required, and wild, upbeat orchestral tracks to intensify the action scenes. The only real shame is that, though the Tsubasa movie introduces some new tracks, some of the old ones are also re-used, even after a whole season of it all.
Characters: 8
With every new episode (or in this case, a “movie”) it’s always a surprise what kind of characters will be introduced; of course there are the main characters, who travel between worlds, along with both good guys (the Dimensional Witch) and bad guys (Fei Wong Reed) who watch and influence them from the sideline, but in every world characters from different series and previous worlds are re-used and it’s always a matter of finding out whether or not they are good, bad, have hidden agendas, dark pasts, etc.
This ‘movie’ brings back some old characters in new roles –or similar roles, since Tomoya has been a princess in several worlds already- but also introduces some new faces, which are a welcome sight.
There isn’t much room for character development since most characters are too busy rushing back and forth either carrying out evil schemes or preventing them, but there is a glimpse of the love relationship which is about to blossom (again) between Saiyoran and Sakura, though this movie by itself does not indulge further into it, leaving that story to be told another time.
Overall: 8
As I already mentioned, the title “movie” isn’t totally fitting of this Tsubasa Chronicle installement, and while it does influence the overall quality of this title a bit, it’s still a worthwhile movie to watch. It’s still recommended you watch season 1 of the series first though, since pretty much everything in this movie has references back to it, and you won’t have much of a clue about what’s going on if you don’t. But Tsubasa fans will agree that it’s a good… episode.
Final Fantasy Unlimited
Story: 7
I’ve been a long time fan of the Final Fantasy franchise, a series of roleplaying games in a fantasy setting, and perhaps one of the most famous roleplaying games out there. Of course which such a popular item, it would be only a matter of time before Final Fantasy would move beyond a game franchise, and so it did, with an anime OAV based on Final Fantasy V, and a valiant effort of introducing Final Fantasy to a broader, worldwide audience with a feature (computer animated) film. The anime failed hopelessly, and the movie had only moderate success. Having seen both these attempts, I was somewhat skeptical about Final Fantasy Unlimited, and worried that it would indeed turn out to be another fluke.
When the anime started in our own world (
Unfortunately a quick pace isn’t always kept as the story progresses; fortunately the story lacks fillers, but especially in the beginning there are some “monster of the day” episodes, and later on several episodes are spent on the good guys escaping a complex enemy puzzle which offers them many challenges.
On the other hand, the final episodes feel a bit rushed and could’ve drawn out a bit more, but this is no surprise, given the series was supposed to last for about 52 episodes, but was reduced to 26 due to poor ratings in Japan.
Because of this a continuation of this series is probably out of the picture as well, which is a pity, because while some import issues are concluded at the end of the show, there are quite a few loose ends that need to be wrapped up, and could fill at least another season.
Graphics: 7.5
Character design has always played an important part in the Final Fantasy games, especially the later ones, with characters which can either look completely human, yet with odd spiky hairdo’s, or completely beyond that, odd creatures and mad villains. The anime is no exception, with a generous host of different characters and designs; standing out most in this aspect are perhaps the “Summoned Beasts”, creatures conjured forth by Kaze’s Demon Gun, and the special bullets it’s equipped with: each of these creatures is computer animated, though some of these Summons still lack some detail.
As I stated earlier, Final Fantasy Unlimited was initially planned to last 52 episodes, to be aired on Japanese, even though this was cut back later; still, a lot of episodes means a lot of screentime and thus a lot of animation, and that usually means certain tricks are used to cut back on costs. A well known method is the use of stills, especially when dialogue is used, ie. By focusing on a certain bodypart which doesn’t move when talking (eyes) or by showing an image of a landscape; FFU is guilty of this one, though not by extremes. Another method is by re-using key animations, and FFU does this richly: Summon animations are re-used, and when Kaze powers his Demon Gun, the same method is shown (in one episode even at least four times!). Pity, because it tends to get annoying…
The action sequences are good though, and they make up for a lot where graphics are concerned.
Audio: 8
One of the better aspects of pretty much every Final Fantasy game out there has been the beautiful orchestral soundtrack which carries each game, a soundtrack with some familiar tracks which return with every new game, yet also always renewing itself with a brand new soundtrack. The Final Fantasy Unlimited anime is no different from that, carrying a fairly large soundtrack of different themes, personal themes, battle music, cute innocent themes – enough to set a certain atmosphere for every major scene.
Characters: 7
As I already mentioned earlier the characters in FFU are as diverse as some of the characters in the game series, and no doubt the artists have enjoyed that little bit of freedom. Some characters are fairly stereotypical: the powerful villain warrior, the seductive femme fatale villain, the genius Cid (in most final fantasy games there is a character named Cid, who usually takes on this role). However there is also room for some unexpected roles, for instance the evil Count, main villain of the show, takes the appearance of a seven year old boy.
Unfortunately that’s about all there is for most characters, they tend to stick to their clichés with no major character development. Sure, the grouchy loner becomes a bit more… socially acceptable, the innocent children become a bit more independent, and some of the villains turn out to be more than meets the eye, but don’t expect any major developments like you see in some of the games (then again, in some of the games the characters stick to their pre-determined clichés as well.. )
Overall: 7.5
Final Fantasy was a fun anime to watch. Fans of the games will not be disappointed when it comes to reference material from a good host of Final Fantasy games, however might find the storyline a bit lacking in the end. Still, it has enough action, comedy and stuff going on to keep you entertained for the full 26 episodes.
Rozen Maiden Traumed Review
Story: 8
This anime is a sequel to Rozen Maiden and I recommend you watch that one first, if you haven’t done so, or else it will be easy to get lost plot wise.
Rozen Maiden Traumed picks things up where Rozen Maiden left them so it is easy to follow along if you have seen the first series, unless it has been a while, like me.
There are some new characters introduced and some old ones re-introduces. With a complete set of Rozen Maiden dolls continuing the
Like Rozen Maiden, the animation of the dolls is very cute and sometimes wicked. The dolls are animated like their personalities, for example; pink for Hina-Ichigo, the childlike hyper active doll. The costumes of the dolls are detailed which adds to their unique designs. The action scenes are fluent and intense, like they should be. The designs of the human characters on the other hand are plain and simple; I think this is done to lay the accent on the beauty of the dolls. Shading is done well. There is nothing really to complain about here.
The voice acting of this show is simply brilliant. There wasn’t one moment where I thought things were off. They have chosen the voice actors well for each character and this makes it a really intense watch since the actors managed to get the emotions of the dolls across in such a splendid way.
The scenes are accompanied with beautiful orchestral music, to stress the situation the characters are in. The only think I really disliked was the opening theme of the series. It really doesn’t do the series any justice. The ending theme on the other hand is very beautiful and I wouldn’t mind listening to it on its own.
It’s clear that each doll has its own personality. From quiet to hyper active from smart to mischievous, it is all there. It makes it fun to see all the dolls interact with each other. The interaction between the cuter dolls and the more wicked dolls is interesting. All dolls have their own motives for competing or not competing in the
As the situation gets tenser in the last few episodes the dolls change and some unexpected events happen, this makes them develop in certain ways as they have to make choices.
This series delivers a mix of comedy, sadness, action and cuteness all in one and manages to combine this with a deep and heart touching story. I think this anime will be liked by a broad audience but I strongly recommend watching Rozen Maiden first.
As for people who have already done so: This is a sequel you must watch since it really will add something to your Rozen Maiden experience.
Nanatsuiro Drops review
Story: 8
Nanatsuiro Drops is the example how a simple story can make you all warm and fuzzy inside. Endearing, cute and innocent are keywords here. The story isn’t deep, not unique, yet it has something that simply works. You can probably best compare it to Card Captor Sakura, it has the same combination of a magical girl on a mission on one hand and a story of first love on the other. While with Card Captor Sakura the magic aspect was their main focus, with Nanatsuiro Drops both aspects are more in balance. This series is also aimed at a slightly more adult audience since there is some minor fanservice present.
With a cute and endearing story like this series, a matching drawing style is a must. Bright colors, sparkles, extravagant magical girl uniforms and big eyed kawaii looking characters are the key to meet this required style. Yet it is not over the top to make it more realistic. The romance part is accompanied with lot of blushes to state the innocence of this first love and the inexperience of the characters.
Backgrounds are very detailed and also the use of shading and lights add to the atmosphere of the series. All in all the animation really made my watch more enjoyable. I know I’m biased because I really like this kind of drawing style, therefore I might have scored the animation higher then someone else, yet in my opinion it is well deserved.
All though the audio isn’t bad, it is the weakest point of the anime. The voice acting is ok, but nothing really special. A funny part is that Haru does have a different voice in his human and sheep form. The only real point of annoyance is the voice of a classmate of Sumomo and Haru, it’s very high and it kind of felt like unnatural.
As for music and sound effects: there is plenty. Orchestral music is accompanying various scenes throughout the anime, like magical battles but also conversations. The start theme is a light hearted upbeat song which fits perfectly with the series. The ending song I didn’t find that appealing though.
All though the characters are a bit stereotypical as we could expect from this genre, but I found them very loveable. Because they bring their feelings are genuine, I was able to feel with them every step of their journey. Sumomo, the female lead, started out as a very insecure but cheerful girl. On the other hand she is a crybaby and that is why she is easily mistaken for being weak. However nothing is more further from the truth then that. She has to overcome a lot of hardships during the series, especially near the end, and she turns out to be a lot stronger then everyone would have expected.
Yes this is another magical girl series and therefore it might not be for everyone, nevertheless its one of the better ones out there. Due to the length the series is perfect for a boring afternoon. It will bring you a mix of magical girl, innocent romance, friendship and hardships without being too predictable. In combination with its cute animation and great character development I find it a great watch and I really enjoyed myself.