Here are some anime reviews!

I be back!

So, I've finished my fourth and final year of uni but it's still not over yet. But at least now I have the time to do the stuff I haven't been able to for the past 2 or 3 months. Like updating this blog.

So, the spring 2010 anime has finished their run and it's now the start of the summer anime season. Here are my two cents on some recently concluded anime that I have seen through to the end, and one movie.



Arakawa Under the Bridge

I just decided to watch this because I read it was the ridiculous humour kind. Just watch it for the funnies. It was ok in the beginning but I found it funnier in the later episodes. The intoduction of some of the characters were quite annoying for at least two episodes per annoying character but it's not as bad as what I have to put up with (such as extreme unloving violent tsundere's as main characters that would appear in every episode) in some other anime. Thankfully there's none of this business.

It's about a guy whose family policy is to not be indebted to anyone. That led him to live under a bridge to repay his debt to his saviour (a girl who is a resident of the under-bridge) by becoming her boyfriend. You may come to like some of the residents of the under-bridge riverbed, and you may also come to sympathise with one or two of them. Anyway, all of them have their own quirks (or retardations) which can lead to funny incidents. In the end I enjoyed the anime because I needed something that would make me laugh, if only a bit.


Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou

I like the premise of this anime, where you get a villain as the protagonist. It's about a guy (with a terrible name of Sai Akuto) who finds out that he's destined to be a demon lord. While he tries to avoid being one, he would eventually succumb to his destiny. Its story had the potential to be very interesting, but it was spoiled by the ecchi and fanservice that's shoved into your face in each episode. Of course there would be no fanservice if the main character wasn't surrounded by a harem of girls. But I sat through all that because of the hope that it would deliver a good story/plot. There was promise when Akuto unflinchingly twists and breaks the limbs of his bullies, but it all went downhill at the episode where a giant sea cucumber attacks a city. Beyond that I had no expectation but I felt I might as well watch till the end just to see how it turned out.

It left me puzzled. In the end I didn't quite understand what the heck had happened. Everything went so fast with very quick and brief explanations that I did not get to comprehend the motives of the villain. The story was messed up. In the end, nothing has changed for Sai Akuto. In the end, this is just another ecchi fan-service mindless anime. You would not miss anything by not watching this, save for a few unique things. If you want to see boobs and other disturbing ecchi stuff you may watch the uncensored versions (which were the only ones available in avi format).

Yes, I watched the uncensored versions. -_-


Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

It was a long road. Since the conclusion of the first anime series of Fullmetal Alchemist I had hoped to one day see the awesome parts of the manga that didn't get animated... get animated. Generally I still preferred the manga because the new anime series left out a lot of the humour that I enjoyed in the manga. But it was a satisfying ending. Much better than the ending of the first series because everyone is together and not forever separated between parallel worlds.

If you haven't watched Brotherhood, I would suggest watching the first anime series from the beginning up to the part where Greed gets captured, and then watch Brotherhood from the beginning again to filter out the irregularities. The first part of Brotherhood was paced too quickly so the emotional parts did not deliver the message/feeling effectively. And Lust's appearence felt too short. The first anime series should do that nicely. Then it's off to the good part where the anime follows the storyline of the manga, which made more sense in my opinion (and was made of more awesome 8D). The homunculi were actually artificial humans, which is sort of close to the original definition of homunculus. And Olivier Mira Armstrong is an awesome woman. Fullmetal Alchemist is probably the only anime/manga series that had many strong, independent and admirable women. It's good to show that women are not always weak, and that they can stand up to trouble.

Still, good things must come to an end. The last few episodes seemed a bit too fast-paced and my only complaint of the ending was that ****Spoiler alert!! Spoiler alert!!!**** The scene between Ed and Truth was done too quickly and the overwhelming effect of Ed's sacrifice was lost..>:( *****End spoiler**** Ahhh... nevertheless I was satisfied. Just wished I could see more of their adventures. ;_;


Tales of Vesperia: First Strike

I don't know why but I've always been very interested in some Tales of series' anime versions even though I've never played the games. This includes Tales of Symphonia, Tales of the Abyss and Tales of Vesperia. And the character designs for those games were done by Kousuke Fujishima. I'm probably biased but I like his character designs.

Soooooo anyway, this movie is a prequel to the game so I don't know much about any recurring characters except for Yuri and Flynn (and maybe Estellise and Rita Mordio). But I found it nice that it focused on teamwork, cooperation and responsibility. And that not everything goes well or according to plan. That there are dangers in a fantasy world that can actually kill you if you are not careful. And the captain was a nice and good man.

Dammit I wish a PS3 english version of the game would come out. >_<

In other news, I managed to get a copy of Tales of the Abyss. Finally my first Tales game!!


Tokyo Magnitude 8.0

I know it's not that new but I had decided to watch it last month. It's a view on how Japan would be like when a 8.0 magnitude earthquake hits Tokyo and it follows the journey of a pair of siblings and a single mother trying to get back to their homes. The character designs take a bit of getting used to.

In the beginning I found the older sibling Mirai to be soooo emo with the world that whenever misfortune befalls her I would smile and think to myself "Yeah, you deserve it!! >8D" or "In your face!! >8D". But the younger sibling Yuuki is cute. And he's got the adorable little brother voice XD.

I found the story ok but it also shows what happens to other people during a great disaster. Near the end of the series it gets pretty sad, and the last episode really made me cry until my "hanamizu" is also flowing >.<". So sad TAT.... Actually I already knew what happens in the end due to spoilers in a screenshot but it's still so sad to see it >A<...

Dammit...


So, I guess that's about some of the anime that I've finished. I'm looking forward to the Nurarihyon no Mago anime but I've read some bad reviews of the first episode... ;_;