Lemon Angel Project Review
Story: 7.5
It has been a long time since I watched a series where music was a main part of the plot, so when I read the synopsis I decided I would watch it. This story has more to it then meets the eye. The first half concentrates on forming a new formation of the Lemon Angels. It will take the viewer through the auditions and rivalry. When the formation is formed the viewer gets to see what hardships a new band can get especially if there are some people out there to boycott the new formation on purpose. And there are even darker secrets untold.
Colorful is a keyword for this anime. The character designs are all to match the personality of the different band members and this concept works in this case. It’s like they kind of created the Spice girls in anime form, or at least it looks that way. The colors match and the costumes are cute. Further the animation wasn’t that spectacular. It is guilty of using stills and the backgrounds are all very basic. However the thing why it still deserves a 7 in my opinion is because of the dancing scenes. The animation there was fluent and synchronized and those were very fun to watch.
I always rate a series where the theme is focused on music more critical then I would normally do. I think that when you focus your plot around music in a series, you must be able to back it up with a more then decent soundtrack to make things appealing and realistic. This series has a lot of vocal tracks apart from the opening theme and ending song. The songs are typical J-pop ones which were meaningless to me at first. But the songs did grow on me because they matched the story well. However the soundtrack still isn’t as good as some others from the genre. Mostly the soundtracks of anime with the music theme are great to listen to on its own, but with this series this isn’t the case for me.
As stated before the new band members are selected on type. They have different characters that cause them to clash occasionally. The strong point of the series is the fact that each character has an episode that is dedicated to her. It contains things like background or personal issues, insecurities or scandals. It gives the characters more depth and it makes it easier to empathize or relate. Even though the characters are very stereotypical I did enjoy the way they interacted and grew from rivals to a close group of friends.
This anime is surely enjoyable. It has a decent story, an ok soundtrack and fun characters. In the whole it is an anime which is easy to get into and it is realistic. However there are better series in this genre therefore this anime with its current quality gets no further then decent.
Shigofumi review
Story: 8
Sometimes I just pick a random anime out of a list without looking up the info about it and I watch it without knowing its genre or anything else that is to know about anime nowadays. This sometimes results in finding an enjoyable series in a different genre I normally prefer. This was the case with Shigofumi, a series which I wouldn’t normally have watched if I had looked up the info beforehand, but I did now.
I was a tad disappointed by the animation of this series. Most characters have a simple design, a bit too simple to my opinion. They used mostly pale colors and several grey tones, like clothing you washed the wrong way. All though the movements were fluent, the overall impression felt a bit off. It is a pity that with such a great story the animation is of lesser quality.
The opening song is from Ali project and therefore it doesn’t really fit my tastes. Personally I like the mellow ending song far better. Of course there are orchestral tunes used to set the atmosphere in the series and they manage to capture this very well. The voice acting on the other hand was decent. The voices fit the characters and I especially liked the voice of the talking staff Kanaka.
There are a lot of characters in Shigofumi, however it only involves around a few of them. A lot of characters are only in 1 or a few episodes so after their story is over they won’t come back, this leaves little room for development, however you often see those characters at crossroads in their life. This makes it very interesting to follow the characters story.
Story wise this is one of the better animes out there therefore it is a pity that the makers didn’t pay so much attention to the other aspects of the anime, like animation. If they would have put a little more effort in, this would have been the best anime of its season, however now I can’t rate it higher then a seven, which is still a good watch but not as good as it could have been.
Episode review: Bus Gamer 1
Three guys with a total different background have one thing in common: They need a enormous amount of cash. They all react to the same ad which involves playing a game to earn this sum of money. To make this happen they have to form a team and co-operate. They have to steal a secret data disk from the other team or protect their own. This sounds easy enough, but as they will soon find out; every game that involves gambling is about taking risks. They have entered a world where everything goes, but will putting their lives on the line be worth it in the end?
H20 - Footprints in the sand review
Story: 6
Now this is a series that started out really promising. The first episode did contain a lot of fanservice however things were still interesting. The 2nd episode did contain a lot less fanservice and it still seemed promising so I decided to watch the anime further from then on. Well lets just say that this series kept amaze me. On moment the story was so touching and deep that I would think it could become one of the best anime of the season and the next moment everything was thrown overboard because a completely random episode was thrown in and I thought it would become a major flop. One thing is certain: with this anime you never knew what to expect. It could be that you were totally amazed and touched when an episode ended or you were left frustrated and confused.
The animation overall is cute. There are bright colors used most of the time and the nature backgrounds are really pretty. However there are some odd things in the animation as well. Some movements being a bit off, like Hayami’s hair moving in the wind still felt kind of static and unnatural. This is a pity because if they would have paid more attention to such details, the score would easily have been an eight because I did like the overall feel this anime has.
I actually quite like the opening theme of the series. It is catchy, yet not too happy or hyperactive. A lot of scenes are accompanied with suiting orchestral background music, which set the right mood. The voice acting is ok as well, all though some girls do have high pitched voices, the voice actors manage to lay a lot of emotion in the characters. Kudo’s for Harumi Sakurai who voiced Hayami. The ending theme is quite good as well, so nothing to complain about audio wise.
The character development faces the same issues as the story basically. In the beginning of the series the characters develop really well and the series mostly focuses on one character in an episode. This concept worked for the first half of the series, and then randomness kicks in. When you expect a character would develop a certain way, things turn around and things go in a total different direction. It is good to make some unexpected twists however these twists didn’t make sense at points and it looked like the makers just threw them in at random, making development forced, unbelievable and unreal. Especially in Hirose’s case his development felt rushed in the last episode, like they wanted him to end somewhere but didn’t have enough time to make it look natural.
This series starts out in a good way and the first half is really enjoyable to watch, however the series feels unnatural after that because of the many random twists and forced development stated earlier. The series could have been a brilliant one but turned out to be a flop due to the bad decisions of the creators.