Okay so here are my quick reviews for most of Winter 2012s anime series. Yeah, I ain’t reviewing all the series that came out or ended this season either because I didn’t watch them or I just don’t feel like making one for ‘em. BTW, I’ve already given Nisemonogatari its own review but I just copy-pasted it here just in case.
MIND YOU ALL, story and plot structure make up 55% of a score with 45% being everything else!! Also the score I give is more from a gut feeling I get from the series as a whole.
and I'll be putting up a "best character" for some of the series that do have them.
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Heres my scoring rubric, chart, thing-ama-jig, whatever you call it...1-3/10 - worthless
4/10 - wtf?
5/10 - meh~
6/10 - Good enough
7/10 - Really good to watch
8/10 - Awesome with Sauce
9/10 - Epicness is epic!
10/10 - Perfect~ duh!
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Highschool DxD
Highschool DxD
Two words: FAN SERIVCE!! Nuff said…
Let’s face it; this show takes some of the most cliché events in anime and sticks it up this shows ass. But I guess it’s a good thing since it obviously is what the producers are aiming for. Then again its overkill; really, too much of anything is deadly. Whether you like it or not is up to you, but I personally put up with this show because I want to watch something… BTW I hate the MC for being such a pervert; I’m tired of such creatures.
Favorite Character simply just cause...
Overall, with the overkill fan service and everything else being cliché, this show wont a get more than an average score. However as an overall composition the show holds up as any other average or cliché series, and personally, as long as a show has a well build plot structure and no scaring plot holes then I won’t deem such a show as bad or disgusting. This show isn’t awesome, but it does well for what it aims to be.
[6/10] Dragon Boob Z!
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Ano Natsu de Matteru
“Ano Natsu de Matteru”, as you must already know translates into “Waiting in that summer”. Okay so take the tittle then add it with the romance genre and the heroine being an Alien, and what have you got? Yeah, a sad ending… but then they gave us such a nice twist, it just amazing! From that one short scene at the end my impression of a sad ending was just “disintegrated”.
Throughout the series I’ve been torn between the two heroines Ichika and Kanna. And I must say, the director did a good job of making the view get torn between the two. Both were such lovable characters but the director wants to show that this is life, you sometimes have to disappoint others to reach your goal and such an idea was conveyed well.
Best character number 1
Aside from the considerably plain characters of our main couple, what made them stand out were their supporting characters. And Remon and Rinon, where the best, no~no, THE BEST characters I’ve ever known!! Well, one of the best… They are just sooooooo adorable! Rinon expressions and actions just make the surrounding events all the more lovable. And Rinon, who looks and acts so much like Morino Ichigo of “Onegai Sensei” has an appeal that makes her stand out of a crowd. Her monotonic voice, a face filled with schemes, and knowledge that make her oh so mysterious all come up together to create the awesome character that is Yamano Remon! Also, I must express how flawless they subtly foreshadowed Remon actually being part of the MIB.
Best character number 2
The story of the series, although not so complex and some may say it has already been done, is still a perfectly structured plot with all of its genres holding up to a good story. All together this is one of those really sweet series’ with an ending that won’t disappoint.
BTW Yes, this series was created my Nagai Tatsuyuki, the same creator of the Onegai Sensei series.
[8/10] ARGH!! SHA~BLA~BLAH~BLAH~ Watch it. NAO!!
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Brave 10
I am disappoint… (-.-)
Really I had high hopes for this series during the first few episodes. But it became apparent that the show didn’t have much production money from the bad art and the animations being terrible.
Story in this thing was very common and to be expected from a mere 12 episodes. But the show itself failed to properly build up a few things that would’ve made us attached to the characters and understand their motives as they did what they have done. Overall, the story and plot, though essentially nothing more than a “meh~”, could’ve done better if they put more effort into it.
[5/10] Meh~
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Gintama’
I CAN’T BELIEVE IT ENDED!! WHY?!??! Seriously, and they were about to start the most epic arc evAr!!
Anyway, this is the series that takes third place on my top list simply because of its perfect mixture of comedy and tragedy. You will laugh your guts out from watching this and you will tear up from its sad moments. This show takes the two genres (that are hard to put together!) and molds them perfectly to make you laugh and cry in just the perfect time!! Sorachi Hideaki’s “Gintama” series is a must see for anyone who loves anime!!
All of them are good characters but if I had to choose, it be Gintoki
There is so much in this show to talk about but I don’t have to time. But I highly suggest you take my advice and watch this epic series blow you brains out!
[9.5/10] Epic series is EPIC!
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Another
Okay so essentially everything was good in the series. Good character types, beautiful art, and the animations did way better than Brave 10 and Brave 10 was an action series, “Another” had a well laid plot that slowly but surely led to an interesting climax. So yeah, this show was really good!
So overall this is a series definitely worth watching, though I have seen some things are off in the series. I noticed some inconsistencies’ like why the calamity prevention enforcer, Izumi Akazawa, didn’t tell Sakakibara about the class rules properly and immediately even though he has already recognized Misaki. Also I find it weird how some students just die in ridiculous ways, this was apparent in the final episode. But such things are small compared to the series as a whole.
I can't explain why but shes a quite the adorable character
Although my favorite character in the series was Misaki mei, it saddened me to know that Izumi Akazawa dies. I dunno why but she had her appeal, I guess its cause the story gave her a considerable amount of back story.
[8/10] Must watch!! At night….
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Zero no Tsukaima F
When I first got in to anime, this was one of the first series I’ve watched. And with me not knowing much, I fell in love the series. But now I know a bit more, so I can clearly say this… I hate Louise!! Yeah-yeah she’s tsundere. But I no carez brah!! She’s loud, obnoxious, and just beats the crap out of our hero then when he leaves her that’s when she wants him back, gosh!! BTW this is just my personal preference and I don’t hate tsuderes its just Louise that I hate.
This series was more or less just like its predecessors with everything being just average: average animation, below average design, average characters, average everything. However unlike Highschool DxD, its fan service wasn’t overblown, which makes this a decent series. But Story and plot wise, I’d say they could’ve done a better job of building a stronger impact for a finale series. Yeah, they don’t have a good story, but like Brave 10, they could’ve put more effort into the quality of what they got.
The most disappointing twist to the series was the fact that they didn’t make a Harem end!!! Yeah~yeah harem ends are way too cliché and what not. But I like I said, I hate the main Heroine, so I want our hero to end up with a harem instead. Oh well, at least I wasn’t too attached to the series so the end didn’t blow my head to too much disappointment.
[6/10] At least a harem end but nooooooooooooooooooo~~
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Inu X Boku SS
By far the only series with all of its characters having….well, a character!
As mentioned above, this series has all of its characters set with different character types. With the story being quite decent and more episodic this series focuses more on its characters, a little on their development and their daily lives. Of course for a finale they would make a more interesting story concerning the main characters and this series successfully creates this interesting finale.
The art style and music of the series suggests a shoujo genre but I beg to differ. The overall composition, and the way they laid everything out suggests that the series was for both shoujo and shounen. And from the way everything turned out, it works! And I like the art…. A lot!
I can’t express how awesome all of the characters just make the series stand out! We got Miketsugami being the obedient dog of Ririchiyo with a dark past while Ririchiyo herself is somewhat of a tsundere, incapable of showing her true feelings. Also, for some reason the character design and art style makes the fan services of Ririchiyo really hot. Well, most of the chicks in the series turn out to be really hot due to the art style, except the tranny... Surprisingly we’ve also got Chino Kotomura, a maid with uncanny resemblance to Hirasawa Yui; they even got the same VA! We also got the lazy Renshou Sorinozuka, the yuri Nobara Yukinokouji the sadistic Natsume Zange, and just—gah, just watch it; all the characters are real good!! But if I were to pick a character that stands out amongst them all, I’d pick Kagerou Shoukiin!! Yes! His remarks and actions just make the entire series so much livelier!
Are you an "S" or an"M"?
The only bad thing I’d say about the series was the fact the first few episodes didn’t properly introduce us to the entire situation of the hotel being a gathering place for youkai descendants with our main heroine also being one of those youkai. None the less this is another series worth your eyes!
[7.5/10] Character galore!!!
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Persona 4: The Animation
A series based off a game, a game I did not play. But personally, I feel games should stick to games unless producers bless the adaption with a ton of attention to detail!! So does the series build up to be as great as the game? Well, I’ve heard a ton of people love it but personally, I don’t see much in the series. There is this blandness I find in it that stops it from becoming great; to me there isn’t much anything that make it stand out. But worry not, though this series isn’t up there, I still feel that it does well with what it’s got, and for the most part everything is well built. In the end it’s an above average series that works I won’t really praise nor remember for too long simply because of personal preference.
[6.5/10] Fans may kill me, but I don’t Care!!!
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Last Exile: Fam the Silver Wing
The first season of the series “Last Exile” was also one of the first series I’ve watched when I first got into anime. And I did not understand it at all, though I’ve heard that people more or less liked that show. I was reluctant to watch this for reasons that escape me but in the end I did watched it and I’m quite glad that I did so.
This show has by far the best plot structure and direction than any on this list. Given that the story isn’t anything ground breaking, it still surfaces as a very good story due to way the director portrayed it. Though the characters and art can be quite iffy and need more work, I can forgive such things because of the structure as a whole, a whole that works really well.
However, I must say the ending was very questionable and didn’t mold well with the rest of the show. As well as some of the deaths in the end, like the Sadri, Vasant, or even Luscinia. Their deaths were either “how she die from that?” or “the F did you have to die?”. These things really put a hurt on the overall feel of the show, especially with it being at the end.
[7/10] Good one...........
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Guilty Crown
The splendor that is Guilty crown, the power that is Guilty crown, the music that is Guilty crown, the art that is Guilty crown, the beauty that is Guilty crown, ahh~ the failure that is Guilty crown…. Yes, I will troll on the awesome series that is Guilty crown.
I have so many complaints to point at this series but I’ve better things to do so I’ll generalize everything. Imagine you favorite dish, multiply it by ten then imagine the cook cooking it half-assed then shoving the entire thing down your throat. That is Guilty Crown.
Yes, this series has really high production value, great artist and designers, the series also has exceptional plot twists and excellent character types, and they even have SuperCell do the series songs. But all of this is destroyed by a few simple but extremely important points: plot holes and story length. Due to this, the series looked more like eye candy with beautiful art and design (not to mention some “bouncing” fan service from time to time) rather than an epic series to remember.
Seriously, 22 episodes for a series with plot twists equal to a series with 50 episodes?! The action to squeeze together something that should have been longer does a great, great blow to the series as a whole. Not to mention that the lack of time means have to cut back on many extremely important developments and scenes that provide ample structure and pretext to surround the main plots. Due to all of its shortcomings, its pros are greatly outweighed by its cons. In fact I feel that its pros contribute and contrast the cons a lot more making it stand out and seem larger than it really is!
In this paragraph, what I put in is purely my personal preference since most of what I put up there is something you all must have noticed. Aside from my extreme and personal dislike towards where the story kept on going, I must say that I hate, no I really hate the MC, Shu! A friggin spineless whimp!! Yeah~ yeah it’s so he can further develop into an awesome character like Renton of “Eureka Seven”. But by the end of the episode do you see an awesome character? All I see is this plain ass who was played all the way through. From the very beginning right through to the end most of his decisions were purely for the Heroine, Inori, from the time he decided to join Undertaker to the time he wished to take down Gai. Yes, in the end he did something good and he redeemed himself but due to the lack of pretext and a short amount of time for me to see his change, all I end up seeing is an ass. But our MC is not the only problem, our heroine, Inori, lacked important development to properly show that she is changing and falling for our Hero. Also her character was all over the place in the beginning.
Shinomiya Ayase, She didn't have much development but she still is a real sweet.
One of two f my favorite characters here
I feel this series tried to combine the character development of Renton of “Eureka Seven” and the epic story of Code Geass but failed. One of the things they failed in was to notice that the two series worked because it was more than 22 episodes long and with most if not all of it plots well covered! Also I feel like character development with Renton was feasible due to the fact that he was trying hard, we can see it! And they lack the “epicness” of Code geass because again, the series was too short making the plot twists unfeasible and just plain wrong for the situation.
Waltz Segai, the other best character I got. An extremely aweosme character that didnt deserve to be in a series that failed.
So like I said, in the end this series could’ve raised higher than any other but the lack of attention to subtle detail, detail that are the foundation and building blocks of the series as a whole, make this series one purely for eye candy with nothing else to go for it. Also my personal dislike for the direction of the story and main characters add up to a score below average.
[5.5/10] It tried to fly higher than any other………. without gas……….. so it fell… heh~
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Nisemonogatari
As its title suggests “Nisemonogatari” is all about the fakes. “Nisemono” itself, translates into English as “impostor” which is the basis of the entire series. The fake ideals of the “Fire sisters”, the illusion of Karen’s “Bee oddity”, the con-man Kaiki and his argument that the “fake is of more value in its attempt to be real”, Araragis fake sister Tsukihi, and Yozuru talking about how humans doing good things are humans being untrue to themselves. This series is all about the fakes.
To that, I commend then in the way they portrayed such a concept as “Impostors” and “fakes” in to the story without over blowing or under blowing it. The concept flows with the story flawlessly, and everything just comes together complementing each scene with the rest without leaving any obvious plot holes or lack of pretext.
Shinobu <3!!!! Nuff said....
Overall, due to the series only having two arcs, I felt that I was shorter than Bakemonogatari. None the less the composition of plots and portrayal of characters though dynamic camera angles, excellent animations, and awesome designs the series was a ride worthy as a sequel of its predecessor, Bakemonogatari.
Next up in line is the prequel to Bakemonogatari, Kizumonogatari. Unfortunately Kizumonogatari is just an OVA or something. None the less, I’m looking forward to it with great expectations. With all the hype, fanbase, and money that the series reels in, hopefully they also adapt the rest of Nisio Isins “Monogatari” series into an anime. I could care less if it’s another TV series, an OVA, or even a movie, as long as they make MOAR!!
[8.5/10] Like I said… NEED MOAR!!
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