Category: Finished Series: Adventure/Fantasy/Science Fiction

Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya 3rei – 04

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya 3rei

Well after a decisive defeat after assaulting the enemy headquarters, Illya and her newly united crew decide to hang around the school. The main bulk of the episode was dedicated to a fight between Chloe and Illya while other parts were mainly the characters clarifying the situation. The main reason behind the fight was Chloe being sick of Illya’s wishy washy attitude and wanting to beat into her the point that the dissonance she is feeling is exactly what Miyu felt at the beginning of the series. Though truthfully I don’t think their anything wrong with Illya wanting to vent her frustration about the situation. For the most part this fight was a motivation beating from Chloe to get Illya to kick herself into gear. Considering the level of effectiveness it might be beneficial for her to pop out of this series and go into another to give a certain someone this season a nice ass kicking so they get their stuff together. I find the reasons for the fight to be a bit flimsy but I rather like the fight itself as it was a great parallel to the main series. The beginning of the fight had Illya install the lancer card and it mirrored the first fight of Fate/stay night were Lancer fought against Archer at the school. The final blow was a nice homage to the fight between Saber and Archer in Hollow Ataraxia as well.

I really disagree with Chloes claim about excalibur being the strongest noble phantasm. My guess is that she mean it more in a metaphor matter but I might as well debunk this as I really hate this whole “Saber is the strongest class” nonsense. Excalibur does have a high level of power but in exchange it requires a huge amount of mana, has a long preparation time and when taken in the context of the holy grail war, is highly unsuited to the battle. In a war which secrecy is a priority, a giant flashy laser beam which lets everyone know who you are is a truly terrible weapon. In terms of power Gate of Babylon, Unlimited Bladeworks and Ionioi Hetairoi beat it easily. Even if we take it as meaning the most powerful sword, It’s nothing compared to Gilgamesh’s Ea. Even Gae Blog is a arguably a more powerful weapon than excalibur seeing as it’s a one shot kill. But well the power levels in the nasuverse are screwed to high heaven. You can debate it to kingdom come and there are many who do.

Of course I can’t avoid talking about what else happened after that can I? This is the reason why I said toned down, as opposed to removed when talking about the fanservice in this season. Fanservice is still there but it’s just not quite a prevalent, yet Sliver Link decided that a three panel shot of Kuro “refiling” mana needed more attention. I guess we can say goodbye to this getting a english dub, not that it had much chance of one seeing as season 2 is still undubbed. Nor is it all that disappointing considering the quality of the first seasons dub which wasn’t that bad but not ideal. Considering the west apprehension towards Lolita fanservice I say a scene with two underage girl heavily making out might make them fear being accused of selling pedofile porn if they decided to publish it. Can’t say I blame them and bloody hell Chloe this is why I don’t like you. There is some value in the theory that she is the personality of the original Illya and the current Illya is a personality that formed after her memories were wiped. But until that story element bears fruit, Chloe is the character who just amps up the Lolita fanservice.

Otherwise this episode had some Other nice little bits. Gilgamesh remains awesome and I like to think that Chloe wearing glasses while explaining things was a reference to Rin, who also sometimes has a tendency of putting on glasses when teaching Shirou magic. That aspect of the original Fate may even be a callback further to Ciel from Tsukihime who had a section of the game where she would teach players about how they went wrong on game choices and what to do to fix it. Really you can find tons of little details like this within the series. Tanaka’s stubbornness with wanting to wear a gym uniform which is the exact thing that Illya wears during the Tiger dojo segments of Fate/Stay Night. Even the fact that Illya’s transformation clothes while installing Saber are that of Saber Lily and Lilys in anime have a common association with…nevermind.(I also mentioned this before in my Fate/Unlimited Bladeworks reviews but Saber Lilys suggested backstory is that she is a saber that was seduced away from Shirou by Caster. So there’s that too.) I have said this before but this is a series mainly for Fate fans, in the same way the Danganronpa animes this season are for Danganronpa fans. Without a certain degree of familiarity with the main franchise they lose a lot in appeal.

~AidanAK47~

Thunderbolt Fantasy – 03

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Thunderbolt Fantasy

With this episode we basically get an idea where the show will head for the rest of the series and I pretty much enjoy the direction they taking so far. Of course it makes sense that in order to get past those obstacles, the band needs to ally with others who are most suitable for the jobs, even if it happens to be a female demon who practiced necromancy, oops. Well I certainly don’t want anything to do with the demon in my group but I have an impression that she has been frightening people so that they would just leave her be herself. From what I see in the opening intro the other guy (I presume to be the guy who has that Soul magical blah blah blah Flute) looks even more peculiar. Lin Xue Ya proved again to be the mastermind who really plan everything ahead and it would be boring and cliche if he were the master sorcerer, so I hope the show avoids that. But he seems so confident to deal with the demon Xing Hai here, so I guessing Xing Hai has deep appreciation for him, just like Shou Yun Xiao the archer. I like the fact that this series acknowledges that not all demons are necessarily evil, which would add a little bit of context to our demon lady next episode. I also like the whimsical reverse-gender role of her “cutting off parts of 100 beautiful men to make a perfect living doll”, it’s just fantastic when you try to imagine her doing that.

The most interesting bit is of course the three obstacles the cast have to overcome. Well, setting up the Seven Sin Tower in the borderline of human and demon realms is a nice touch, because the show can dwell into dark magic and devil territories. I can see the clash of light and dark arts between the girl Dan Fei and the demon Xing Hai, and I hope they can explore that tension a bit in coming episodes. The three obstacles: The Village of the Dead, The Valley of the Doll, Labyrinth of Darkness; are not at all unique, instead we have encounter some of these before in other anime, but for this one I have high hope that Gen Urobuchi could make those materials interesting.

For a wuxia-action show, this episode in particular surely takes its time, as the first two-third of this episode was dominated by these characters talking to each other. But when the action kicks in, it sure looks wonderful and fun. I have said it before but there is certain charm of practical effects in puppetry that we can’t see in animation, like the body-exploding last episode. With this episode it was head-chopping. But the action is not even the highlights of this episode, it is the dialogues that maintain the campy sense that so entertaining to watch. There are many silly moments like when our main character Shang Bu Huan frustrated of the idea of him tagging along with the group, but get slightly annoyed when those characters proceed to introduce themselves and ignoring him (“Quit trying to move this conversation without me”); or when Dan Fei confronts him on the importance of protecting the legendary swords, instead our main character just ranting about the very idea of putting your own lives to protect the swords (which actually a very valid argument); or even the two most silly guys of the show Juan Can Yun and Shang Bu Huan talk about picking up girl and accuse each other of being pervert. Those moments create a weird chemistry between the cast but I hugely enjoy them that way. Like a puppetry show, these characters are just there to perform their larger-than-life roles, but they perform it so goddamn well that I have no complain whatsoever.

~SuperMario~

Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya 3rei – 03

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya 3rei

Plenty of action this week as we have faceoffs between Beatrice and Illya with Gil and Angelica firing legendary weapons back and forth. I wish there was a bit more fight animation here as while it was the same in the manga, it’s still a shame to have the scene cut away just when the combatants start to fight. True, they shouldn’t blow the budget just yet but the fights in this episode were essentially two people talking and just when they are about to fight the scene cuts over to the other fight where the combatants have just stopped fighting. Still I can’t say there were not great moments in this episode. For one Gilgamesh getting angry at Angelica for using Enkidu, the chain named after his closest friend. I have no idea why but having Gilgamesh say Mongrel just fills my heart with glee. Funny thing is that I think it only became a signature of him when the Fate/Zero dub came out as before it was regularly translated as bastard or lowlife.

I will admit that Illya just so happening to pull out Ruby from a stack of mystical items out of pure chance was a cheap coincidence. But it’s nice that she finally figured out how to install the cards and now we can see Illya cosplay as heroic spirits. Though she says she learned it from Chloe, though how she remembers when she installed archer and how Chloe knew how to do it is still a bit of a mystery. Bah! It’s the nasuverse. Here it follows the logic of who cares as long as it’s cool. If a gym uniform girl can take a direct hit of lightning from the hammer of the gods then who am I to question validity? Speaking of which that seemed odd even to the characters themselves. Tanaka has proven herself to be a strange anomaly as she seems by all accounts to be invincible. She’s clearly not from that world and can’t seem to remember anything besides her mission to destroy the Ainsworths. Considering the world’s current state and it likely being mainly the Ainsworths fault, I say the chances of Tanaka being a counter Guardian sent by the world is high. Despite her being for the most part comic relief, I prefer her to those classmates of Illya as at least she plays a role in the overall plot and isn’t an existence whose only purpose is the pad out the length. Plus she can be genuinely funny at points but maybe that’s because I relate her and illya’s relationship to Taiga and Illya from the Tiger Dojo. Actually in the manga I was certain that Tanaka was a younger version of Taiga due to not seeing her hair colour. If you dye her hair blond she would bare a striking resemblance.

It may be an odd thing to say but I am rather glad that Prisma Illya’s magical girl transformations are much more reserved than that of usual magical girl anime. A particular awkward thing about watching Nanoha is how the transformation sequences go a bit too far with the nudity. I am sure lolicons rejoice but for me it just makes me fear someone walking in and having a huge misunderstanding about my preferences. Illya may be technically eighteen(I assume she is in this spinoff too considering Shirou’s age.) but she certainly doesn’t look it and I have no interest whatsoever. This is why the heavy fanservice aspects of Zwei were particularly awkward for me. It’s a bit like Bayonetta for me, the thing itself is trying to make her as physically appealing as possible but I just am not into that so it just leaves me blank faced and uncomfortable. Well uncomfortable in Prisma’s case; Bayonetta I more just find somewhat amusing. Looks like Bazzett and Chloe are joining in next episode and I hope Chloe is bringing more than just lesbian lolita antics.

~AidanAK47~

Neon Genesis Evangelion – 01

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Neon Genesis Evangelion

Truth be told, I’ve never seen any of the EVA franchise, and it’s not normal since EVA is a must for any anime viewer. I don’t really know the reason why I keep myself from watching it, maybe both because mecha is not my favorite genre, and the hype of EVA is just overwhelming that I just don’t want to be any part of it. Asking any anime fan, especially from Western culture, “what series they think is the best” or “what is the first series they saw that got them into anime”, Neon Genesis Evangelion and Cowboy Bebop would likely to appear on people’s lips (I’m guilty of the second, with Cowboy Bebop). With that said, better be late than never. Since psgels himself never actually covered the original show or even rated it, I think this is a good opportunity for me to give EVA a retrospective review (not much of a retrospective really, since this show is new to me), at the same time give readers who already burnt out from new anime something they can chew on every week. Again, and I really stress it this time, I write this because I want to, but if you rather prefer me not to review shows in the past, all you need is shout out in the comment and we will take it into our consideration.

Now looking at this first episode, it struck me hard how desperate and pathetic team human is. The first episode wastes no time to show us the high stakes situation here with all the chaos and the ruined city caused by the Angels. The Angels, moreover, are overpowered beings with their own intelligence to boost. Our human’s ace card, N-2 mine – which mostly destroyed our own buildings and almost the whole city, couldn’t bring the Angel down. The whole situation got so desperate that they had to force a child, who never actual pilot anything before, to control Eva. It is also a bold choice to show us the very first image of Rei, when she was a TOTAL MESS.

Shinji and his father’s relationship is of course the real meat of this first episode. The way Shinji always looks for the recognition from his father, and the way Gendo uses his son with no emotional attachment whatsoever aren’t the most comfortable things to witness, to say the least. Calling him down so he had to pilot the damn thing when he’s clearly not ready, and then about to dismiss him when he back out? Ways to go Gendo! As far as I can see, this cold relationship hits directly to the insecurity of Shinji, and honestly his passive behaviors, while believable, could be a pain to watch later on.

From the technical side, as far as the look and feel of EVA go, I’d say that I pretty enjoy it. The chaos settings and destruction motifs (falling buildings, bombing, even the destruction of characters themselves) really give you clear idea what this show is going for. The characters do not appear to be real or deep yet, but still are functional enough for this first episode. If there is one thing that doesn’t really translate well to me, it’s the character designs, they look kinda bland and exactly what you expect from the 90s anime show (in other words, dated). But well I’m never much of a fan of the 90s character designs (with only Cowboy Bebop for me still stood well after all this time, but even in that regards Faye’s big boobs turn me off every now and then). The visual looks great, there are many of shots that visually frame how Shinji struggling with the decision, especially the part where he stands in front of the Unit 01, his will-be partner, or more correctly, a part of himself in the future.

Alrighty, that’s it for now. I will try to get the second episode in couple of days so that we can catch this up with the new anime’s current week. Let us know what you think about the EVA series and if you still remember anything from the first episode. It must have been a long time since you guys last watched it, right?

~SuperMario~

Berserk(2016) – 03

by AidanAK47, posted in Berserk(2016), Currently Watching:

Forgive me for the delay on this particular post but I must admit that in light of Berserks quality my interest in covering it has somewhat declined. I know that for every episode to come I will have to dance around the elephant in the room but this series isn’t making that easy for me. As when coming close to enjoying the show I am constantly pulled out of it. My experience of watching Berserk is essentially a game of denial as I try to pretend the ugly visuals don’t exist. Perhaps I should find it cathartic as Berserk is a series which by its very nature is ugly. The things that make Berserk stand out as a series is it’s pure unapologetic brutality. Rape, gore, death of children and every uncomfortable theme you can think of is par for the course for Berserk. It is very much a pulp fantasy work and likely one of the finest in manga history. Plenty have tried to imitate but few have matched it’s glory. A true Berserk anime should be quite nightmarish considering the creatures that could have walked out of a Clive Barker novel, however the anime looks to be nightmarish for entirely different reasons.

Todays episode bring in some anime original content and if hearsay is to be believed, this was written by the mangaka of Berserk himself, Kentaro Miura. However when examining the content itself I must question what was the need for it. My original thoughts were that Miura was supplanting the less TV friendly aspects of the series by adding in different content. However the dark aspects are still here so I wonder why the change was needed. In the manga Gut fought a bunch of demon dogs till dawn and Farnese was nearly raped by a possessed horse. In this anime the exact same thing happened but instead we have the addition of a mansion and a encounter with a demon apostle. The encounter doesn’t add much of anything besides confirm that Guts is after revenge. It reminds me of a point in the manga where out of nowhere Miura decided to dedicate two chapters to a flashback with Gut’s meeting a fairy. The story itself was good but it’s reasoning and overall presence in the plot is utterly insignificant. It came at a time when Miura needed to get a move on and push the story to a climax but instead he decided to put in a filler story. This feels much the same, the fight against this dog demon is rather entertaining but when you plan to cover over sixty 30 page chapters in a single cour I think you don’t have time to waste on events that put the main plot on standstill.

However what really bugs me is that they adapted events of the manga and made them lesser. In particular there is a line Guts says about the demons reminding him of how he felt when he started all this. In the anime Gut’s just throws out this line upon meeting the apostle and it doesn’t have the same impact. In the manga Gut’s sees the horse about to rape Farnese and is suddenly reminded of Griffins rape of Caska. Which cause him to be filled with rage and say that line. It was a pretty powerful line and it just confuses me as to why they would keep the horse attempted rape and yet move the line to a different scene. What’s also puzzling is the sound design where they essentially decided that everything Guts hits with his sword will make a clang sound. I understand the idea of emphasising that his sword is more a huge hunk of metal instead of a blade but it really doesn’t make sense to have a sword clang when he’s cutting transparent beings or dogs made of flesh and bone.

It becomes quite distracting once you notice it. There is also the matter of Farnese’s non existence nipples. It’s likely something to be fixed in the blu-ray releases but I find it funny the priorities censorship has. Apparently the depiction of female’s nipples is out of the question yet showing a scene of forced Bestiality is apparently fine? I mean sure you darkened the scene but you still show her getting clearly molested by that horse. What is the point of censorship when it doesn’t censor the most damning aspect? This is the kind of thing that leads to weird fetishes forming. Where the story goes from now is a good question, Farnese has gone through an ordeal which has shaken her faith and put her in a rather compromised position. In particularly her rather kinky possession which lead her to nearly kill Guts while asking him to split her in two with his sword is certainly a story she wouldn’t want circled around the Knights. Her pride could very well lead her to hunt Guts down till her dying breath. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned after all.

~AidanAK47~

Thunderbolt Fantasy – 02

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Thunderbolt Fantasy

Sometimes there’s a show that so campy and fun that you just can’t help but enjoy watching it, and then sometimes there’s a show that completely takes you by surprise by how unique it is. Thunderbolt Fantasy offers both of these in a neat package and further showcases the richness of animation as a medium too. As a guy who always support diversity in animation, the show like this is all I could ask for. The fact that Thunderbolt Fantasy got made in the first place is nothing but astonishing, but for me the most fascinating fact is how on earth this show falls into anime radar in a first place, because this is surely not an anime show (I suspect it’s all because of Gen Urobuchi here). Damn, it is not even technically ANIMATION to begin with. Theoretically speaking, animation requires photographing successive drawings or positions of models to create an illusion of movement, whereas puppetry usually recorded live so there’s an actual movement in puppetry. Here’s an example to illustrate the difference: to make 1-minute of a stop motion animation, it could take hours even days for a shot-to-shot sequence, since there’s usually 15-24 frames per second and you can do the math. But for 1-minute of puppetry it would take just that- a minute of actual filming.

Now let’s get to the actual episode. This second episode offers a much slower pace than the first, with the main storyline here concerns our main character Shang Bu Huan chit-chatting with the helpless girl Dan Fei, and the mysterious Lin Xue Ya, he then gets ambushed by the bad Xuan Gui Zong clan, and escaped with the help of the brothers Juan Can Yun (kind of show-off comedic relief guy) and Shou Yun Xiao (the one-eye archer. Look, I’m trying to familiar myself with those names here). So far this is a very standard wuxia affair, with the plot so far ticks all the boxes of many wuxia’s conventions. The villains of this show so far are sadly bland and over the top. But what the show succeeds is how it still maintains the sense of exciting, the staffs clearly had fun while they were making this and we can feel it too, from the way each of character has their own mannerism, the practical effect (the feeling that you can sense the weight of blood dripping and body exploding (no sh!t) is refreshing), to the utterly ridiculous dialogue; all in the service of making this show as unique and entertainment as ever. This is, after all, a very different medium so I really treasure the experience that I can only find in puppetry. My only complaint from the technique itself is how the camera tends to keep too close to the characters. There are very few long shots in these first 2 episodes, mainly medium shots and lots of close up. That is understandable since the staff has to create all the models, set decorations by themselves; but sometimes the lack of establish shots confuse the hell out of me.

On last note, I have watched many wuxia shows before, but all of them are 30 plus episodes based on already established franchise materials, so I’m eager to see how Gen Urobuchi pull this off: an original wuxia that condensed into 12 episodes. Although Gen Urobuchi is not my favorite writer, I have to tip my hat off to him on this series. Without him, Thunderbolt Fantasy couldn’t exist. Without him, the Taiwanese puppetry will always be a mystery outside of its homeland. Damn, I haven’t even heard of them before this show. That fact alone is already something worth celebrating.

~SuperMario~

Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya 3rei – 02

by AidanAK47, posted in Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya 3rei

It is safe to say that to get the most out of this series, you have got to be a Fate fan. There are numerous little easter eggs calling back to it, even Kirei’s signature “Rejoice” line. However I say even casual fans could get something out of this series as well. Provided they made it through the less tasteful parts of Zwei. I actually only recently finished Prisma Illya 2wei in preparation for the new season and I can certainly say it has serious problems. There are parts of it which are good, mainly the action scenes but that’s in a minority when you take into account the massive amount of time wasting that goes on in those two seasons. There was no real plot as the first part focused on the addition of Kuro/Chloe whose contribution to the plot seems to be just to make the best scene of the first season into a pointless character and to provide a brown skinned Illya for those interested. Then came Bazzett who while a great character seems to be shoved in as a conflict for the sole purpose of adding her to the cast and padding out Zwei. The rest was just a waiting game for when they would all go to retrieve the eighth card. Taking all this into account I am fairly certain we could have cut down Zwei into one season and lessened the pain of it’s existence. I understand if there are those who simply disregard this series as loli porn as it certainly has done things to earn that contempt. However I can promise this season of the show will be very different from it’s predecessors and already it’s looking promising.

With the introduction of the Ainsworths we now have a antagonist and a pretty good one at that. Plus we have two introductions of well loved fate characters. Kotomine Kirei is here displaying his love for spicy Mapo tofu for the first time. Here’s some fun little trivia about that. Kirei is a man that never takes pleasure in anything, not even eating. So the act of eating was much like refueling a car to him. However that changed when he tried super spicy Mapo Tofu for the first time and felt that it provoked a reaction in him that he never felt before. Henceforth it became his favorite food. What makes this most amusing is that it’s unclear if he genuinely likes it or if he misinterpreted the way the spicy food caused him to tremble and sweat profusely him as “enjoyment”. So having him in the middle of a dead city tormenting whatever travelers that pass by super expensive ridiculously spicy Mapo Tofu just brings a smile to my face.

We also have Ko-Gil(AKA, Shota Gilgamesh) who is actually a canon part of the nasuverse. This may be somewhat attributed to Narita’s explanation in Fate/Strange fake but apparently Gilgamesh has a youth potion in his treasury which he drinks when he can’t be bothered to deal which the situation around him. His younger self is a lot more tolerant of people and less arrogant than his older counterpart but he still holds Gilgamesh’s talent for manipulation and thirst for entertainment. The Gilgamesh in this episode generally feels like a good kid but with hints of a hidden agenda, in this case wanting back his full power from the card one of the Ainsworths uses. The kid certain has a way with words having been able to charmed Illya by calling her “Onee-chan”. Some people are even shipping the two now which is awkward when you consider that Gilgamesh did happen to steal her heart before in a manner of speaking.

In terms of action we didn’t get much this week as it was mainly for getting to grips with who they were fighting and an idea of what happened in the past. Though a number of hints have been dropped. Tanaka is a welcome addition to the case namely because he’s comic relief with a purpose. Her insistence with destroying the Ainsworths despite having no memory seems to suggest she might be some kind of counter guardian. I also think it’s fairly obvious who happens to be in that jail cell at the end of the episode but just in case I won’t go into detail. Animation and art look great so far and it seems like Sliver link knows this is going be a season worth putting effort into. Next episode looking to be pretty good as we have Gilgamesh vs Gilgamesh and Thor vs Illya. If Silver Link plans to cover up to what I think they will then they may need to speed up a bit. Lets hope the action scenes are not sacrificed to gain momentum.

~AidanAK47~

Berserk(2016) – 02

by AidanAK47, posted in Berserk(2016), Currently Watching:

Well this isn’t going to be an easy watch for me. Back in the days I was just getting into anime and manga I happened upon a series called Berserk. I watched it, really liked it and then went to read the manga. Eventually I read it up to date but over time I lost interest in it due to the ever slow release of chapters and just the story being stuck in a dull arc with no end in sight. I truly pity the fans of the series as their suffering must be immense. To such a degree that just the act of Gut’s making it off a boat after seven years is a cause of massive celebration. To make matters worst it has not fared well in regards to animated adaptions. The first adaption is the best and manages to be a good watch. However the animation is bare bones and it left off on the cliffhanger of the century. Several years without a sequel until a new series of movies came out which covered the events of the anime series. The movies had better looking 2d animation but suffered from poor CGI during battle scenes. Regardless this gave fans hope that this could lead to the possibility of the rest of the manga getting adapted but sadly this wasn’t the case as the series was left to the side again. Now here we are with a brand new adaption covering material never adapted before and we shall finally see the rest of berserk in its true glory….right? We it’s times like this that I wonder if Miura named his manga series rather appropriately, for the fans are most certainly berserk and for good reason.

The episode reviews are likely going to beat this point to the ground but when it’s as glaring an issue as it is I must bring it up. The CGI animation is truly awful, there’s no getting around that. It’s ugly, jarring and unnatural. However the main issue with this animation choice is the lack of consistency for that is what is causing the vast majority of problems. I have watched fully CGI shows before and I can tolerant even bad CGI or awkward CGI. Bubuki Buranki I think did an excellent job with it’s CGI animation and Knights of Sidonia still had a compelling narrative that allowed you to look past stiff motions or off putting shots. But those two series had a consistently in it’s style whereas Berserk does not. Berserk switches between 3D animation, 3D animation with sketch overlays and 2D animation and in doing so it never allows the viewer to become accustomed to a style. It’s especially jarring because of the difference in quality between each style. When you finally start to accept the uncanny CGI models, the story switches to 2D animation and gives you a glimpse to the quality this series could have had. Even if this meant we would get more still frames and less animation, this is the Berserk the fans would be happy with. But then it jerks you back to the CGI which when it switches to a sketch style becomes somewhat passable but keeps jerking between passable and bad, never letting the viewer settle into a style. Berserks high quality art style is one of it’s highest points of praise for the manga and I like it the most for just how expressive it makes the characters. There may be some who say that we should give them a break and that the CGI is the best the studio can do but I say nay. For there is a Berserk Musou game coming out and the animation in that games trailer tops everything this series has displayed.

What makes this especially sad is that there are moments, moments when the quality of the story shines through. I look at this anime as a diamond covered in mud and at some times the mud slides off and the shine of the diamond flows through but a minute later they throw muck over it again. The scene with Guts getting integrated by the knight commander, him in the cage getting worried over the demons beginning to come after him, Guts running to attack the female commander, the moments of the manga adapted true then manage to help you forget about the quality of the shows visuals. However it isn’t only the visuals at fault for there are other problems. In particular the conversation between Guts and the vice commander had far too fast pacing, to a degree that it felt on fast forward. Puck tends to break immersion when her turns into his chibi form and overall his character isn’t very likable in his current form. Small details are getting lost such as the Female Knight commander actually enjoying whipping Guts which is a pretty big part of her character and this arcs theme overall. Which mainly has to do with religious fanaticism and how people use it to justify their own base desires. I am also not fond of the hint of tidings of more anime original content which regardless of whether it’s written by Miura or not isn’t what this series needs. For now I see Berserk as a tough watch in that it takes a lot of tolerance to look past it’s numerous flaws and see the good in it. The studio needs to step up and keep a consistent style, otherwise this will be as disappointing as when Miura inevitably once again puts the Manga on hiatus.

~AidanAK47~

Schwarzesmarken – 65/100

by AidanAK47, posted in Anime Reviews, Reviews by AidanAK47, Schwarzesmarken

Schwarzesmarken is a strange title in that it has a setting with fantastic potential yet the story is dampened by a rushed pacing and Missing characterisation. Despite this there are signs of a greater story under the hood and at times that story can shine despite haphazard adaption. The Stasi make for a great villain in how they impose a level of Orwellian control over East Germany which makes characters hold suspicions about another being a Stasi spy. All the while an Alien threat pushes East Germany into a corner as it deals with enemies both inside and outside. On top of the divided west Germany standing on the sidelines to see who schemes his way to leadership. All the while other countries dip their fingers in attempts to use Germany for its own ends. It’s all a tangled web of power struggles for a country facing total destruction which makes for some great situations which this show can become most engaging.

The strongest element of this show is its setting which is surprisingly authentic to real Germany of that time. A good amount of research went into various elements of this show. From the type of cars used to trains and even stories read to children. The internal politics of the situation are engaging and it does have a strong set of episodes around its middle regarding a character called Lise. Watching the power struggle between the governing parties helps remedy the insufficient level of character development present in the series. Characters can have drastic changes and it often feels as though a chunk of their character arc had been tossed aside to fit a one cour series. Characters who barely shared two sentences can switch from indifferent to each other to being close trusting allies. Frankly it’s jarring and makes you feel as though you accidentally missed an episode. The thing that makes this disappointing is that it’s not as if the characters are boring, if anything they do seem quite interesting. But no time is devoted to letting the viewer get to know them. So when a character dies or faces tribulations you just feel indifferent to their plight because you don’t know enough about them to truly care. The art of the show is fairly basic but the Mecha battles are fairly impressive feats of CGI animation. Music is also good but lost in the level of noise in the Mecha battles.

There is currently a demo for the visual novel of this story on Steam Greenlight. If it is well received there’s a chance of the Schwarzesmarken visual novels being brought over to the west. If that happens in the future I would recommend those Visual Novels over this anime in a heartbeat. It is pretty much guaranteed that the story is done better in the VN than in this anime and I find myself disappointed that I experience this story in its current form. For Muv Luv fans this anime should be good fanservice and it does act as a cliff notes for those not interested in the visual novel alternative. Otherwise I wouldn’t recommend this as while it does have potential, its hampered by a need to rush its way through its story in order to cover its entirely. Which has resulted in an anime which feels detached and lacking.

Schwarzesmarken – 12

by AidanAK47, posted in Schwarzesmarken

So Schwarzesmarken ends and the cheesy speeches not withstanding it not a bad ending. The Stasi are dismantled, West and East Germany have joined forces and things are looking up. However it turned out we have some causalities. The first being that white haired girl pilot whose name I can never remember and Irisdina. Not much fanfare was give for miss white hair but Irisdina got the full works. She has the satisfaction of taking out Axemann and died overlooking the birth of a new Germany. All of which is touching…if it wasn’t undermined by how she died. I give credit to her for beating the hell out of Axemann while handcuffed but she truly was screwed over when her teammate arrived with a gun and threw it to her. Instead of that teammate you know…shooting Axemann herself. It’s really hard to feel for a death that could have so easily been prevented and no matter how I try to rationalize it I can’t see any reason why she would have thought throwing the gun was better than shooting it. You can’t say she wasn’t acostumed to firearms because firearms training is a requirement for pilots. Those previous seconds shouting and throwing could have so been used to save her life and I am pretty annoyed that girl doesent hold any guilt over this.

Beatrixs goal is revealed to be a desire for Germany to sacrifice all personal identity in order to become a well oiled machine for the sole purpose of destroying BETA. Thus saving the world at the cost of East Germany’s individuality. Meanwhile Katia puts forwards that East and West Germany should put aside their differences and fight BETA together and with both their powers combined they would truly prevail. Beatrix dismisses this as idealistic nonsense and here’s the thing. I agree. Katia’s plan is really not a solution but more of a optimistic approach. That said I don’t find Beatrixs plan much of a solution either. At most her plan would end up with the same result as Katia’s which is not winning the war but rather prolonging the impending defeat. Simply put, these two people have truly no idea just how doomed Humanity is. For you see the BETA have Humanity on its last legs at this time and they haven’t even brought out the big guns yet. It would take some massive world leaping timey wimey stuff to score what could be considered a victory against them. So when hearing all this talk about hope and such I can’t help but pity these fools. I read the visual novel, I know what you face and you don’t stand a hope in hell. So all that’s left is the final battle and I find my thoughts on this series to be mixed.