Shigofumi review

 Shigofumi

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.

The events that happen in Shigofumi seem strange and random at first. There are some episodic stories within the main story that only come to the surface from halfway throughout the series. This series with super-natural elements doesn’t shy away from social taboos like bullying or several forms of abuse. The series has some heavy elements in it which left me feel touched and empty. All though the ending wasn’t as spectacular as it could have been, the series left me impressed overall.

Animation: 6
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.

Audio: 7
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.

Character development: 7.5
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.

Of course in the main plot, the main character develops a lot. At first the Fumika seems kind of emotionless, but nothing is further from the truth. Fumika develops in an unexpected way that surprised me very much. It was a twist I haven’t seen before in past series I have watched.

As mentioned Fumikas development was done brilliant, however the other side characters that do remain throughout the main story don’t develop nearly as much. There are some minor standard issues but nothing really spectacular comparing to Fumika. This is bit of a shame since now the side characters feel like nothing more then that.

Overall: 7
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.

April 3, 2008 :: Drama, Reviews, Super-natural :: No Comments »