Reviews & Features Discussion

[Spark Of Spirit]

Let me just say that I literally only watched this show because of exposure to asbestos and paint fumes during down time at my old job. I don't actually know why I watched this show.

I actually forgot how little this show actually explains things with this review and how human beings are actually treated as plot points and nothing else. Not to forget all the undeserved pretentious babbling for no reason.

By the way, this was made to advertise a card game in Japan. Can you tell?

But the sad thing is that even other anime made to advertise products have been much better than this. I mean, Pokemon is terrible but at least it doesn't do anything to make me hate it with a passion within the first 10 fucking minutes of the first episode. And then there are shows like Digimon which go far beyond just trying to advertise something and treat their audience seriously with some unique ideas and fairly solid writing that is more mature than what you'd expect from a typical kids show. The fact of the matter is that this show goes beyond an effortless series that's just there for making money, it actually really feels like the writers went out of their way to piss people off. I'm not kidding about this.

This was made by... Well, let me sum up what I've gathered on this show.

The people behind this have never watched anything beyond Dragonball Z and it's many clones. They were offered a deal to make a show based on these cards, but instead demanded they could make a deep and mature show without any limits on what they could do.

Because of their lack of any real talent, this was what they came out with. An incoherent mess of a story with characters straight out of "How to Write Tragedy 101" book, on top of a generic anime art style with a soundtrack that might as well consist of nothing but the Price Is Right loser horn.

Basically, it's a bunch of talentless hacks that got the idea they were given carte blanche to write a masterpiece. The only problem is... Well, that pesky lack of talent.

EDIT: Let me just repeat that it really does get FAR worse from this point.

[Foggle]

The OP is the only not terrible thing so far. That's not to say it's good, but it at least doesn't make my ears bleed.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, does anyone know if there are any decent anime this season worth keeping up with? As for me, I only plan on sticking with Level E so far, only because its a Togashi series, and its actually quite refreshing compared to all of the other generic comedies out there (I also like its "bizarre" style of humor better than most other series that try to be bizarre and funny). People who haven't read the manga may either love or hate the fact that the series gets progressively less serious and more comedy oriented later on. Personally I like it if only because Ouji works perfectly when clashing with the other characters, since he's the perfect ass-hole character who likes screwing with others for his amusement, and I especially like the arc where he messes around with the school kids who end up wanting to tear his throat out. The personality of the other characters themselves also made the manga a fairly enjoyable experience. I hope the anime improves on the manga in the same way that the anime series' for YYH and HXH also improved on Togashi's manga for both of those series. From the looks of it I may find this to be the best series of this season, even if only by default (It is still good in its own right, though, but of course I don't like it quite as much as I like YYH and HXH, even though this is the furthest Togashi has ever strayed away from typical shounen stuff).

Oh yeah, and even though its been mentioned a million times, I think that the Opening is great. I especially love its animation. Also, the opinions on this anime seem to be generally positive so far, even from people who aren't really a fan of Togashi's other stuff, which is kind of strange but still a good thing.

It'd be cool to see someone from this site do a review for this series when its done, like Desensitized or someone else, but if nobody else wants to do it then I probably will, only because its a Toagashi series.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I wouldn't mind writing about it, but if you want to do something on it you're more than welcome. I look forward to how this series progresses.

Maybe you would like to do a comparison piece on the differences between the anime and the manga when it's done? That might be cool.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. From the looks of it, the anime is bound to have some difference from the manga. It already at least feels a good deal different in its tone, even if it covers the same material from the manga.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Well, I got the first episode into the preview I'm doing, if that counts.

[Angus]

Was that Kiba thing an OVA or episode 1 of that series? It sounded very average.

Well if you need to review a pointless ecchi series, there's Popotan. Saw the two reviews on ANN and totally agree.


I like that idea of comparing to the manga or at least recommending which one to read or watch first for maximum enjoyment.

[Foggle]

Episode 1 of that series...

[Avaitor]

So how far are you now?

[Foggle]

So how far are you now?

Episode 6. It's slow going and also painful. It seriously gets worse with each passing episode.

[Dr. Insomniac]

And it is done.

You know. We should definitely get one of you guys to do this for Spring. We should also get somebody to watch all of Onii-chan for the Ludovico Trials once it ends.

[Spark Of Spirit]

If there is anyone out there who doesn't think anime is at an all time nadir... well, just look at those shows.

The best one is an adaption of an old manga story. I mean, WOW.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Great set of reviews. Its really pathetic how there is almost nothing exciting going on at all this entire season, but its even more pathetic to see how many of them involve copious amounts of fan-service and incest (yes....incest....fuck Japan).

I kind of find myself chuckling behind everyone's back in regards to Level E. I liked the premiere myself, but just be warned that its completely misleading as to what the rest of the show will be like. It....sort of changes genre completely by arc (keep in mind that these arcs will only last a couple of episodes each), and....well I best not spoil it for anyone.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I thought I should mention that JO (aka Hope Chapman of the ANN review staff) has officially claimed that Oniichan is the worst anime that she has ever seen in her review of the first episode. She gave it a rating of GFTO.

I find it kind of odd that a lot of the ANN critics took a liking to Beelzebub. I was sure that most of them hated most modern Shonen Jump stuff aside from One Piece.

[Angus]

If that's the best Japan has to offer this year, then I have to take back my statement refuting that anime was going downhill.