Blazblue: Alter Memory - Roxas

Salutations all. Roxas here with my review on an anime that just ended a week or two ago.

Blazblue: Alter Memory is a 12 episode anime adaption of the Blazblue fighting series. I have not played the games in their entirety, so I will not be comparing the anime to the fighting series. This show will have to stand on its own right.

In the year 2199, humanity eagerly awaits the dawn of a new century following a series of devastating magic wars. When the world’s most wanted man—Grim Reaper—makes a move to destroy society, a ragtag group of powerful fighters make it their mission to stop him. - See more at: http://www.funimation.com/shows/blazblue/anime#sthash.G8Vd2UzW.dpu

Premise

"In the year 2199, humanity eagerly awaits the dawn of a new century following a series of devastating magic wars. When the world’s most wanted man—Grim Reaper—makes a move to destroy society, a ragtag group of powerful fighters make it their mission to stop him." This is the synopsis that Funimation gives on their website. Humanity has emerged from a great battle with the Black Beast and the civil wars that followed. Although it is said that peace has come, there is great tension in the air. Angry citizens and small caches of resistance are all around. The NOL, this world's government, says that all is well. Enter Ragna the Bloodedge. Ragna is a rebel with a huge bounty on his head. Ragna has taken it upon himself to use the great weapon he has been given, the Azure Grimoire, to destroy the different "branches" of the NOL "libraries." He moves swiftly, leaving destruction in his wake. The NOL, not too happy with the "Grim Reaper" destroying government property, send their agents to deal with this problem. One officer in particular, Jin Kisaragi, otherwise known as the "Hero of Ikaruga," takes it upon to track down Ragna. Keeping surveillance on the situation is Captain Hazama of the Intelligence Division, and Noel Vermillion, a subordinate of Major Kisaragi. This is a much as I can explain without making it any more confusing. This complex beginning is detrimental to the overall show. Their are many other important topics that are not explained until much later, the most important pieces of the premise not being revealed until the second to last episode. Other pieces of the puzzle are never explained, which will frustrate the detail-oriented.

Animation

Bloodless

Bloody

  This anime opts for a cleaner, glossier look. It is very clean, and at times the characters remind me of action figures. However, when blood is spilled, the characters take on a different look. Gone is the pristine beauty, opting for a duller, grittier, and darker flair. 
These contrasting images serve as a beautiful antithesis, and serve as a visual analogy to the contrast between the ego of the strong and the harsh reality when they realize that there are those greater than them.







Something that this anime succeeds at is meshing different styles and techniques whilst keeping a cohesive look overall. For instance, the animators gave Ragna a rough look, opting for sharp edges to compliment his crass behavior and social status. While some may see this as poor animation, it could be argued that this gives a distinct look to the anime.

The rough look.

Inversely, Jin and Noel have a much smoother look, putting them in an important and heroic light.

Very Smooth

Music

The music is a mixed bag in this anime. Some tracks get your adrenaline pumping, while others sound amateurish. The tracks tend to lend themselves to electric guitars more than anything, and this serves as a double-edged sword. It sounds strong, but lacks finesse and culture when the scene called for it.

Plot 

 The plot for the anime significantly improves as time goes on. At first, things are very confusing. While this is normally a good tactic to create intrigue in an anime, it felt sloppily done in this case. The side plots and humor throughout this are also very poor. Jokes are low level and fall flat, and when the show deviates from the main plot, I found myself wanting to do something else that didn't involve watching the show. However, the plot had its high points where I was enraptured, and the last 4-5 episodes were very well done. I loved every minute of the final episodes, though the ending was a cliffhanger, and didn't explain things that should have been explained, even if there is a possibility of a second season.

Characters

There was no character that I really liked throughout this story. Sure, the fight scenes were cool and the plot had its moments, but I didn't like the characters in this. Jin and Noel both had some moments, and Noel was definitely my favorite character in this story, but even she proved to be rather shallow. The comic relief character, Tao, was terrible. I hated every second she was on screen. Her dialogue sounded like it was written by over-tired 13 year-olds, and her story would make most doze off. Litchi did not fare much better. The whole enigmatic more than meets the eye shtick was so forced it hurt. Hazama was terribly done as well. Ragna did not make sense, and Rachel made me want to root against the good guys, and I would have had the villains not been just as poorly done. The writing in this anime was a huge problem. Noel, Makoto, Tsubaki, and Jin were the only reasons I kept watching (Makoto and Tsubaki  did not have nearly enough screen time).


Verdict

This anime had a lot of things going for it: An excellent pedigree, an intriguing plot, a rich crop of characters, and a great ending. However, horrible writing, murky side plots, and lack of explanation all but killed this anime.

Score - 5.5/10 

 Wallpapers:

 

3.bp.blogspot.com

3.bp.blogspot.com

wallpapo.com

wallpapo.com

AMVs (Can't find much from the show that's any good, so most of the content in these AMVs are from the video games):

This is the only quality video I could find. 

Sorry about that guys.

 I n the year 2199, humanity eagerly awaits the dawn of a new century following a series of devastating magic wars. When the world’s most wanted man—Grim Reaper—makes a move to destroy society, a ragtag group of powerful fighters make it their mission to stop him. - See more at: http://www.funimation.com/shows/blazblue/anime#sthash.G8Vd2UzW.dpu"

In the year 2199, humanity eagerly awaits the dawn of a new century following a series of devastating magic wars. When the world’s most wanted man—Grim Reaper—makes a move to destroy society, a ragtag group of powerful fighters make it their mission to stop him. - See more at: http://www.funimation.com/shows/blazblue/anime#sthash.G8Vd2UzW.dpuf

In the year 2199, humanity eagerly awaits the dawn of a new century following a series of devastating magic wars. When the world’s most wanted man—Grim Reaper—makes a move to destroy society, a ragtag group of powerful fighters make it their mission to stop him. - See more at: http://www.funimation.com/shows/blazblue/anime#sthash.G8Vd2UzW.dpuf"

Wolfe: Tumblr and Attack on Titan

Wolfe reporting.

Sorry guys, no review today. I might post it on Saturday instead; we'll see how things go. As things are, my schedule is overflowing with things to do. Don't do procrastination, kids.

Anyhow, our Tumblr is up! Check it out here.

As something of an apology, here's the coolest SnK (or Attack on Titan) video/AMV I've ever seen:
{warning: two or three curse words}

Wolfe out.

Wolfe: Steins;Gate・Fuka Ryouiki no Déjà vu (劇場版 シュタインズ・ゲート 負荷領域のデジャヴ)

Wolfe reporting.

Apologies for the long title! This is a review on the Steins;Gate movie that came out this year, a sequel to the anime series & OVA.

So, I just jumped back into the whole Steam thing. Also, Iorek and I are challenging each other to see who can have more posts. While I reckon he'll win, I'm going to put up something of a fight. This means I'll be doing the Saturday posts more often as well ^_^ ..Also, I decided to grab this review before he did. Muahahahah.

On with the review! Keep in mind that things will be a bit different, as I won't look at movies or manga under the same eyeglasses as the anime.

Plot: Well, the plot in Déjà vu is a tad unbelievable, but they did a good job trying to explain everything. If you're not familiar with the Steins;Gate anime, game, or manga, might want to check out Roxas' review on the anime. It's one of our most popular posts, after all.

Basically, Kurisu's visiting Japan from America because of some conference. It's also the first time in a year that she's gotten to hang out with the crew. So, after some Tsundere camaraderie between Kurisu and Kyouma, there's a nice barbecue (and Kurisu decides to be all adorable. Still getting over that). Then Kyouma is seemingly erased from the world line. Things happen, and it's discovered that, due to his Reading Steiner, Kyouma is wandering between the Steins Gate world line and one that is .0000005% (or something like that) divergent, and eventually ends up on the other one. So Kurisu gets to play Timelord and try to fix everything.

I actually seriously enjoyed this plot. The other day when talking with Iorek, I was saying that the only thing that could've made Steins;Gate better would've been to have Kurisu be the time-traveling-one saving Kyouma. So, here I got that wish, basically.

Animation Style: The animation style is exactly the same as the anime, and since I loved the anime animation style... that's good!

Examples nonetheless:

Kurisu being all cool. Source.

Mayuri and Kurisu reacting. Source.

Kyouma and Kurisu being serious. Source.

Kurisu being ridiculously adorable. Source.

Whoops. Accidentally had Kurisu in all of my examples.

Pace: Well, as a movie, there's a nice tight constraint on how long things can be. It had a nice long introduction piece, but took a while to get to the meat. Once it was there, though, there wasn't much progress towards a solution. Just like in the actual anime (excluding the OVA), the ending was happy, but too brief! It just hints at things to come. All in all, I loved the pacing, I just wish they could have expounded upon the ending.

Conclusion: If you loved the anime, you'll love this movie! You get to know Kurisu more, and some after-plot after Steins Gate was reached. Watch it! Use the link I sourced in my screenshots if you don't have a source.

Next time: So, for my post on Monday, your hint is "pink-haired psychopath". If that doesn't tell all, then... you clearly haven't seen it yet. Look forward to it!

Wolfe out.

Birdy The Mighty Decode - Demothis

Hello! Demothis here again! I will now be finally doing the Birdy The Mighty as I have been promising for many posts now. Hopefully something like this does not happen again(oh who am I kidding, of course it will).

Birdy The Mighty is an odd series. It has been discontinued and restarted again many times. It is a story that I'd really like to see finished. Hopefully the more recent version(also the version this anime is based on) of it actually goes through and completes. Each time I go into it I am always hesitant at first, and by the end I am glad that I watched it. Each time it does not meet my expectations despite already having seen it many times.

Plot/Premise
After a weapon that is capable of destroying all life on a planet within seconds is stolen and brought to Earth, Federation officer Birdy Cephon Altera is sent to investigate. While investigating she manages to accidentally kill a someone and has to share her body with him while his body gets reconstructed. Despite this she still has to investigate and stop the revival of the stolen weapon while also letting the person she killed live his life.

Them sharing a body

Characters
Despite having some characters that I found the show could have done without, I did not find any of them particularly bad. The only problem I found was that it only went into depth the three characters and sort of tossed aside the other characters and only used them the further the development of the three. Having other characters that only have the purpose of developing other characters is fine, but when almost every single character is like this, even the seemingly important characters it prevents the story from having the character depth necessary for an engaging story. However, it still manages to make due with what it has, but what it has could be expanded further if it truly wanted to. Hopefully this changes and more characters get expanded upon as more is added to the story.
                             

Animation/Art
The art of this show is among my favorite(again, probably due to me watching older anime). The way it is drawn and used in tandem with the glowing effects they use give it a neat Sci-Fi feel. At times though the artwork can seem to get rather dull, unpolished. Towards the end the artwork starts to deteriorate, leaving it with an incomplete feeling. It does not stay like that though.

An Example

Overall
I give this anime a 7/10. I feel this way because of how it just sort of started to slack off towards the end. Even if it was intentional, it still gives off the feeling that it was rushed.

Next Time
I will be posting a vague-ish One Piece review that will most likely be highly biased. I will also try and post some information on how I will be reviewing larger 100+ episode anime.

Tsukihime: Lunar Legend - Roxas

Hey guys, this Roxas. Merry Christmas Eve, and sorry for the large drought of content from me. Thankfully, my colleagues have been picking up my slack, so props to them. Today I'll be reviewing a Type-Moon anime (Fate/Zero, Fate/Stay Night, Carnival Phantasm, etc.) called Tsukihime: Lunar Legend. Be forewarned, this anime involves two things that have gotten a bad rap lately due to Twilight: Vampires and romance. Before you click to another page, just hear me out. This anime surprised me. It's actually very well done, so don't let the premise fool you. Now that we have that out of the way, we can move on.

Premise - Shiki Tohno is just your average high school kid. Your average high school kid who happens to have eyes of death. These eyes give Shiki to see lines running through everything, objects and organisms alike.

How would you like your entire world to look like that?
Screen Shot.

Thankfully, a kind sorceress gave Shiki enchanted glasses, which keeps him from seeing the lines. Fast forward a few years, and Shiki is in high school. When mysterious killings begin happening in town, with victims having their blood drained and bite marks on the neck, is when Shiki's adventure begins.

Animation - I wasn't particularly impressed with this animation. It felt a bit drab and uninspired, succeeding only in giving a bleak feel to the world. Despite accomplishing this, I wish they would have put more style into the animation, looking very run of the mill.

Eh
canime.files.wordpress.com

Music - The music was one of the high points of this anime. There was not a lot of it, but when it was there, it certainly set the mood. In fact, I do not think the music would have been so effective had it been playing more frequently. There is a lot of power in simplicity.

Plot - I will be clear that I am not a huge fan of vampires. The old stories are okay, but all the new twists on vampires I have seen have left me disappointed. Having said that, I really liked this story. This new perspective on vampires and vampire lore was not only well put together, it was interesting. I found myself constantly engrossed in the story, wondering what was coming next. My only qualm with the lore would be that I felt they did not explain enough. After the anime ended I was still left with questions about this world that I wish had been answered. The story following Shiki was genuinely touching while keeping an air of intensity, even at the softest of moments. I was large fan of this motif, and wish more anime would work with this. The ending of this anime felt very rushed to me, and although it was emotionally powerful and wrenching, I wanted it to go a little more in-depth.

Characters - I have mixed feelings about the characters in this. Shiki and Arcueid, the main characters, were believable, connectable, and great to watch. Their interactions were great, in the caliber of Hououin Kyouma and Makise Kurisu from Steins;Gate (A very large compliment). However, the supporting characters were poorly written and not well executed. With occasional exception of Ciel and Akiha, the supporters stayed the same, and I never connected with any of them. The villains did not fair much better. The atmosphere gave a menacing feel, but the villains did not add much. The only villain that felt genuinely evil was gone fairly early on. Still the main duo manage to be good enough to make up for the shortcomings of the others.

Verdict - Tsukihime: Lunar Legend is an anime with good ideas, great main characters, and strong music, but is hampered down by flat villains, a one dimensional supporting cast, and poor follow-through on the good ides.

Score - 7/10

Wallpapers:

madman.co.nz

3.bp.blogspot.com

I love this one.
cartoon-excellence.com

cartoon-excellence.com

AMVs:

Really good one!

A bit long, but still great.

Wolfe: Another (アナザー)

Wolfe reporting.

Today feels really strange to me. 16 hours of sleep, for starters. And now here I sit in shorts and without a shirt, sweating, with the door open and not a drop of snow outside, not even a cloud in the sky... in December. Man, I miss the colder climates. Had trouble falling asleep last night, though, all these Japanese words flooding my brain. I seriously need to find some sort of "basics" website and study up.

So, I'm reviewing the anime Another today! I really, really enjoyed this anime, it's definitely in my top 10 of all time. I got to rewatch a lot of it yesterday, so it's nice and fresh to me. I'm still somewhat empty after having finished Shiki the other day, and I'm probably going to have to lapse into some lighter-hearted stuff before I go back to my beloved dark anime.

Logo! Source.

Anyhow, on to the review!

If I was to sum up the anime as simply as possible: there's lots of death because of a calamity because of reasons, high school setting.

When it comes to the Japanese, アナザー appears to be a phonetic spelling of the English word "Another" (pronounced "anazā").

There are 12 episodes for Another, each being roughly the standard 24-minute length. It appears to switch genres at one point [roughly halfway], but then changes back to how things were (though now more intense).

Personal/Subjective Opinion: 11.5 / 13 (=88.5%)!
Score Without Edges: 10.5 / 13 (=80.8%)!
Objective Opinion: 3.5 / 5 (=70%)!
Altogether Score: 25.5 / 31 (=82.3%)!

Concept: Similarly to Ergo Proxy and K (and what appears to be a common theme in anime), the concept is not immediately explained. In the first part of the first episode, you're told the first part of the story. It goes something like this: there was a popular person who died, and the classmates started acting like they were still alive. However, when the class graduated, the dead person showed up in the picture.

[From this point on, things are a tiny bit spoiler-y, in that the viewer doesn't learn about most of this until a few episodes in. You have been warned.]

So, since then, a "calamity" happens. You later begin to understand that this Class 3 is very close to death, causing a dead person to join the class each year. Memories are altered (including that of the dead person), so nobody can know who the dead person is, not even the dead person him/herself. If nothing is done, people will start to die each month. Those in danger of these deaths are two degrees of the students-- so, a student's parents, grandparents, aunts/uncles/cousins, as well as the student. The deaths are generally freakish accidents of sorts, but to give examples would be very spoiler-y, in my opinion.

So, what can be done? Well, the Head of Countermeasures chooses a student that everyone from that point on will pretend doesn't exist. This works about 50% of the time. There are a bunch of little rules about this, too.

Introduction Sequence: 2 / 2. This introduction sequence doesn't give you too good of an understanding of the anime, actually. You get to see some characters and some locations, and you get a taste of the ominous feeling that is present through most of the anime, though. Having said that, I love this introduction sequence! I watched it every single time, even though I was incredibly tempted to skip it when things got so very intense in the last few episodes. I'm giving it a 2/2 because it's so unusual for me to enjoy an introduction sequence like this. The song's good, too! You should check it out: Link to Another OP.

Animation Style: 1 / 1. The animation style is often pleasant, with the music giving you the chills. Occasionally, though, the style seems to bring out a pressured-feel, rather gloomy. I liked it!

Examples:

Something feels off, but looks normal. Source.

Mei Misaki is adorable to me. Source.

[Tension] Source.

Music: 1 / 1. The music is what makes this anime. If you took away the music, this wouldn't be nearly as good as I consider it to be. The music sets the tone, sends chills down your spine, forces tears from your eyes. Because I'm listening to the OST as I write this, if you listen to it as you read it, it might make things more... interesting. Link to Another OST, if you dare.

Plot: 3 / 3. I found the plot to be interesting. Almost the entirety consists of a suspense-held feel, with the viewer asking a lot of questions. Whenever the viewer gets a hold of any answers, they come with more questions to ask.

Then things start happening. People start dying.

Your brain starts to draw conclusions. You say, "Oh, I think I've got this." Maybe you did, maybe you didn't. But the end result, whether you know it's coming or not, it has to happen.

If you're almost at the end, and you say to yourself "I know who it is!", you're wrong. Trust me, you're wrong. I thought I had everything in my palm, and the anime slapped me across the face and said "I've been playing you this whole time. Here're some details that make all the dots connect, and, by the way, you were wrong, so wrong." I like that in an anime.

Carrying over from the Concept, the main character Kouichi moves into the area and joins Class 3. The anime is from his perspective as events unfold and the calamity takes lives.

Similarly to Shiki, there's a lot of human nature present in Another. People's reactions seem very, very realistic to me. People react in different ways under different types of pressure, but the fear of death is the ultimate form of pressure. It twists people, changing them in ways that aren't pleasant or expected. It makes people do rash things.

With that cheerful note, I'll mention that there is a brief moment of mood-change at about the halfway point. Things seem happier and almost cheerful. Don't worry, this changes.

With three major arcs (arguably four), I adored everything.

Characters:  1.5 / 3. I found the characters to be interesting, although I'll be needing to mark down this anime for its characters. There were some characters who didn't need to be as they were (old lady at Yomi-Midnight-Whatever Store), and there were other characters who seemed thoroughly inconsistent (Izumi Akazawa). While I very much enjoyed the sheep-mentality of most of the students after things started happening, it didn't make much sense before then. These are kids, kids with naïve moral compasses and rebellious tendencies. Sure, I get that they're kids in a private school in disciplined Japan, but their actions were unsettling to me. Especially under the amount of pressure, there was a severe shortage in emotional outbursts-- I'm happy about that, but it made the characters seem less than human. In fact, only the two main characters really seemed to have distinct personality. We catch some hints as to other characters being their own persons, but I don't think it played out on the level it should have.

The main character isn't a wimp, though, and Mei Misaki is adorable. I also have mixed feelings about Izumi Akazawa. You add all that up, and the pros and cons cancel each other out, leaving the rating at 1.5/3. I almost gave it a 1, but the realistic portrayal of human characteristics (referencing to later episodes) is a real boost in my views.

Combat: - / 1. I actually think the addition of some sort of combat would be cool, though probably irrelevant to the story at hand. Regardless, there wasn't enough real combat (just killing and death) to give it weight here.

Power Balance: 0 / 1. See, there's a lot of death, but I never really felt as if the main character[s] was/were in danger. Iorek could probably name the Trope for that sort of thing (Main-Character-Invincibility would be my guess). He wasn't exactly over-powered (OP), but that's because there really wasn't much in the way of combat.

Addictability: 1 / 1. Heh. Another was ridiculously addicting. When it starts, you keep watching just because of the shivers and the questions, but as things carry on, you really can't stop watching. Questions become more intense and vital, and characters start dying off.

Darkness and Bloodiness: 2 / 1. Edge given. You could always feel the darkness; it was ever-present. And the animators were clearly not afraid of showing blood. When deaths happened, there was always blood, and in very nice amounts to boot.

Yes, blood. Source: me!

And lots of it. Source.

See? They were totally unafraid
of blood. Source: me!

Yay, darkness! Source: me!

Believability: Okay, I have two major points regarding believability. Firstly: the calamity seemed like a bit of a stretch, and the charms that could be used to stop it were definitely stretches. Second: if you assume the calamity and charms to be part of reality, everything is well played-out. I don't remember any defiance of physics or the laws of nature, besides the possibility of extra blood during deaths and Mei Misaki's eyes. Well, except for one more point: once everything's over, you're given a death count. This death count seems extremely and unusually small compared to what I had witnessed. That might be my fault as a human viewer, but that's just how I felt about things. Again, though, human nature is well-portrayed, and everything felt realistic enough. So, mixed feelings about this one, rather like dream logic. While you're watching, everything seems to follow reality; in retrospection, however, there are some obvious reality-breaches.

Philosophy: Unlike Shiki, there's not too much philosophy here. There's always the question of "is killing classmates to potentially save the remaining classmates morally right?", but that question isn't addressed too well.

Pros and Cons: Pros: plot, darkness & bloodiness! Cons: characters.

Objective Opinion: 3.5 / 5. Animation style was nice (1), music was nice alone (1), reality was represented somewhat-well (0.5), introduction sequence failed to accurately portray anime (0), and there was some good character development (1).

Wallpapers:

The entire class! ...Or is it? Source.

Mei Misaki the Adorable! Source. 

I really like this one. Source. 

This is nice, too. Source.

AMV's:

Man, most AMV's for this suck. This is also an "oh darn" thing, because now I have an excuse to make one at some point. I'm really surprised that there weren't many good ones. So, I found these, but they're not even that good:

I Don't Wanna Die [Borgore Remix] (Hollywood Undead) - Meh.
Whisper (Evanescence) - It's decent.
Sick of It (Skillet) - Good cuts, at least.

Next time: Maybe Shiki, or maybe I'll redo Claymore. Or maybe even Future Diary. You'll have to wait and see.

Wolfe out.

Wolfe: Steins;Gate Manga

Wolfe reporting.

If I was a Pokémon, I'd be Koffing. Heavens, I'm really sick of being sick.

So, I'm finally getting to my Steins;Gate Manga review. I just finished downloading all of the Deadman Wonderland Manga, so I might review it some Saturday after I finish as well. Saturday's our "Misc." day, after all.

In other news, I just watched the S;G Movie, now that the official subs came out on Dec 13th. It was amazing in every way. If you watched S;G and loved it, you need to watch the movie.

As a Manga review, I'm going to do things differently. I'm hoping to have an inconsistent Manga review style, just to make some iota of my being feel like I can act randomly rather than by some elongated I/O algorithm.

Anyhow, on to the review.

Ferris is the same, though. Source.

Anime/Manga Differences: Well, I found the anime and the manga to be worlds apart. I haven't played the game, so I'm afraid I can't throw it into the mix, but I recall hearing someone say that it was significantly different than both the manga and the anime as well.

The anime seems to do a good job with the plot, with a nice long intro to get you used to things, and then introducing element after element to get you more and more interested. In the manga, it seems to assume that you've already seen the anime-- it jumps into things, and seems way too brief for most scenes. I don't recommend reading the manga until you've watched the anime, otherwise you're likely going to get very confused very quickly.

So much darker (and better). Source.

One thing I do prefer about the manga is the way it goes about Mayuri's first death. It was always so dark of a scene in the anime, but the camera angles didn't show us the wound, and that seemed to make the scene land poorly. In the manga, they show Mayuri's wound, and that sets the tone perfectly.

A second thing I enjoyed about the manga: different perspectives/mentalities. There were different conclusions made (including one about microwaving the entirety of Toyko) and different routes taken.

Moeka being adorable <3 Source.

I also enjoyed the different take on the IBM getting taken. While Moeka does send the text (as she does in the anime), another World Line shift happens before Kyouma suspects her. He then asks/interrogates her briefly, and she doesn't know what he's talking about (and looks so freaking adorable). This is because she actually doesn't know what he's talking about. I find this more realistic, because in the anime, she seems to be someone that should have been suspected. Of course, Kyouma's all guilty when he realizes she didn't do it, which would have probably made for a more climactic understanding later on when he realizes she did do it (though we'll never know, because the manga doesn't get nearly that far).

See? I'm telling you, adorable. Source.

This leads me to something I didn't enjoy about the manga: it ended way too early. I believe it was released before the game, and so once the game was released, they probably stopped releasing manga chapters. Since the game is based on your decisions choosing which chick Kyouma ends up with, there was a theory that the manga stopped at the mandatory point-- past that chapter, decisions and/or interactions would lead Kyouma on a path with one girl or another. Regardless, it ends pretty abruptly, ending shortly after the Time Leap is invented.

[intensity] Source.

Art Style: Okay, first off, I haven't read much manga (only some Steins;Gate spin-offs, Claymore, and starting Deadman Wonderland). I feel like the art style in the manga was pretty dang different than the anime, although it's not as different from the game. Since the order of release was manga > game > anime, that also seems to be the progression of the art style.

There's some chibi, and everything's definitely "softer" (less of the harsh/realistic feel of the anime). Kyouma seems downright strange in the manga, and definitely yelling more. I grew to really like that guy in the anime, and I have to say, I dislike the Kyouma of the manga.

However, Shining Finger (Moeka) is absolutely adorable in some frames of the manga, whereas she didn't seem to stand out as adorable in the anime.

Chibi isn't cute to me, even if it's my crush Kurisu =/
Source.

Examples: Here are some snippets from the manga to give you a taste.

I don't like this Kyouma
art style. Source.

Kyouma's really over-the-top. Source.

For Iorek! Suzuha is also
more adorable. Source.

The blush is nice, though. Source.

All in all, it was an interesting thing to read after having seen and loved the anime. It doesn't stand too well on its' own, it skips over a lot, and Kyouma is a completely different person. Moeka and Suzuha are definitely more adorable, though.

Wolfe out.

Wolfe: K (K-Project)

Wolfe reporting.

I'm liking Iorek's irrelevant info at the top of his reviews, so I'm stealing it. We've got a great team here. I just finished watching Another, and am currently watching Shiki. I'm actually getting to stay in a place away from home for two weeks, and I'm so happy about this. I'm going to play some Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, watch some movies, and be away from people (for the most part). That starts today. I'll also finish up my Ergo Proxy AMV sometime this week, although I may not post it until a month or so. I was getting some sound advice from some friends of mine who work with Media, and I want to make sure the finished product lands well with them before I release it to the Web. Again: my next AMV will be fast-paced, though I'm not sure for which anime...

So, I wanted to review the anime Another today, but I'm worried that I'll forget everything I wanted to remember about K. See, I tend to remember the darker anime better, probably because I enjoy them more. I wander towards the lighthearted stuff when I need breaks from the dark (not often). I've been in the darks for a while now, so I want to review K before its' light fades.

It's odd asking people "Have you seen K?", so I usually call it K-Project aloud.

On to the review!

Logo! Source.

K was a fascinating anime, to me. When it first starts, there's some English, and then it's all Japanese for the rest of it. If I was to sum up the anime as simply as possible: clans/gangs and leaders (both with powers) fight because of reasons and they all want the main character dead.

When it comes to the Japanese, it's the letter "K" in English. End of story.

There are 13 episodes for K, each being roughly the standard 24-minute length. I will say that it seems to switch genre twice in the first 3 episodes, so if you intend to try it out and dislike some of it, I'd tough it out all the way through. More on that under "plot".

Personal/Subjective Opinion: 11 / 14 (=78.6%)!
Score Without Edges: 10 / 14 (=71.4%)!
Objective Opinion: 4.5 / 5 (=90%)!
Altogether Score: 25.5 / 33 (=77.3%)!

Concept: Similar to Ergo Proxy, K has an interesting concept that takes you a while to figure out. However, since the concept itself is relatively basic and not a surprise, I'll explain it anyway. Somebody figured out that, thanks to some special rune (whose background isn't explained), these odd groups will form around a leader-figure. The leader-figure has a lot of power, as well as a Sword of Damocles (I hope I'm spelling that correctly). Anyone who becomes a member of this leader's gang/clan/group-thing gets the powers of the group. We're not sure if you lose the powers when you leave the group, although one piece of data suggests that you get to keep at least some of it. Leaving the group appears extremely uncommon. Anyhoo, there are 7 of these leader-guys (called Kings). Each King and their group has a colour associated with them ("Hey! There're Blues over there!"). Each group not only gets powers, but some behavioral tendencies come along for the package (though we only learn of one groups' behavioral tendencies).

It's also put in a highly-technical era. Lots of robots do all the cleanup, for instance. And yet, guns are hardly used.

Based on this concept, there could be a ton of spin-offs from this storyline. In fact, most groups don't even get involved in this anime!

Introduction Sequence: 1 / 2. All-in-all, this intro really gives you a taste of the anime, though it focuses mostly on the characters (almost solely). I won't mark it up or down, but I really don't like it for some reason. I skipped it every time after the first one. No spoilers, at least. Link to K OP.

Animation Style: 2 / 1. Edge given for animation style! The animation style is always, at any point in time, drop-dead gorgeous. It's also colourful beyond what I thought was possible, like the antithesis of Ergo Proxy's monochromanity. Iorek'll love the colours here.

Examples:

Anna and the Reds. Source.

Shiro, the main character. Source!

See? Colours, and lots of them! Source!

Music: 0 / 1. The music for this is actually nice... once you've made it past the first two or three episodes. There's some sweet action and tension music later on. But when it starts, it sucks. There's some rap (which I dislike personally, though it was fitting). My real issue though is a particular soundtrack which repeated itself hundreds of times during the first two/three episodes. I've heard the full OST, and there're plenty of nice soundtracks they could've gone with (and used later on). Why did they have to repeat that one?!

I couldn't find a playlist on Youtube, so I downloaded the full OST. By the way, all the K's in the soundtrack titles are capitalized, regardless of where they are in a word.

Plot: 3 / 3. I actually thoroughly enjoyed the plot, personally. You see everything from the perspective of Shiro, a student at a nice, big, peaceful school. Things change when a guy starts trying to kill him, believing him to have murdered somebody. Things also change when one day Shiro asks a question aloud and gets an answer from a naked girl next to him. (That girl, by the way? That's Neko. More on that in a bit.)

Basically, there's a video with a person who looks exactly like Shiro killing someone else. So everyone's after Shiro, because they think he did it. Did he do it? If so, why doesn't he remember anything about it? Only Neko's on his side, casting her illusions to keep him safe. After the initial "he's trying to kill me, run!" bit, the arc finally moves onto some other stuff. Neko keeps her clothes on and the plot thickens, the solution only being reached very close to the ending.

There're all these sparks flying between the Reds and the Blues, so you're sure to see a lot of action happening between those two groups. Both want Shiro, by the way.

The ending was pretty dang good. Very climactic.

Characters:  2.5 / 3.

Neko eating. Cat-like symptoms recognized.
Source.

So, the characters actually got some great backstory. Especially the one that was killed; I actually got enough backstory to really like a character that isn't even alive during the anime. Most of the characters are really well thought-out. The main character is pretty dang passive, though.

Neko worried about something. Source.

Oh yeah, Neko. So, she's the eye candy of this anime.
They keep her at least somewhat-well-clothed as the anime goes on, but not at first. She can make and enforce illusions on people, illusions of basically any perception. She wasn't as provocative as she could have been, but that's really not saying much. However, unlike what I've found in other anime, the eye candy was actually relevant in this one. Shiro forces her to wear clothes, despite her dislike for them-- she's part-cat, hence the name "Neko". As a cat, she doesn't like feeling enclosed. Anyway, that's their excuse, and she's actually a very necessary character through the entirety of the anime, so...

There's also a higher-up in Blue's group that seems to be intentional eye-candy as well. That one feels more forced to me, though, and her place in the anime doesn't seem as vital. So, intentional-eye-candy-wise, I'm marking it down for her. I actually grew to like Neko, so I wanted an excuse to put pictures of her on here.

Side note: Anna is adorable.
1.5 + great characters + some backstory- intentional-eye-candy = 2.5.

Combat: 1 / 1. The combat in K is awesome!! I really wish there was more of it, but I really enjoyed what there was as well.

Combat! A skateboard is good for combat.
Source!

Power Balance: 1 / 1. The characters that have powers are really even, and the Kings all have almost-equal power levels as well. No OP guys here, unless you count the Kings. But since all the Kings are OP, I don't review that as "over-powered", just highly powered.

Addictability: 0.5 / 1. I'm not marking it up or down in this category. K had a really strange start, with the least explanation and the most eye candy and the worst music usage all occurring in the first three episodes. It gets really good and addictive later, but that's later. However, I actually watched it all the way through my first time, so the first episodes weren't that much of a turnoff for me.

Darkness and Bloodiness: 0 / 1. Not much darkness or blood to be found here, guys. It's all about delivery when it comes to this category. Situation: guy trying to chop your head off with a sword. Solution 1: fear-based music. Solution 2: comedy-based music. They chose 2, which is why I'm not giving them a 1 here (see what I did there?).

Believability: The believablity varied here. There were some tricks that were nice and believable, while others clearly surpassed the invisible line. If I'd had an explanation as to the roots of lack-of-gun-usage and the rune, I'd believe it better. (Note: while such weapons would be illegal, I highly doubt this would stop the Kings/Clans from using them.)

Philosophy: Not much philosophy here. There was the morality question of "what is right?" and, later on as the possibility of Shiro having killed that one character increases, the question of "should I let myself be killed, whether or not I have memory of committing murder?".

Pros and Cons: Pros: plot, animation style! Cons: consistency, darkness & bloodiness.

Objective Opinion: 4.5 / 5. Animation style was the definition of gorgeous (1), music was alright alone (1), reality was represented somewhat-well (0.5), introduction sequence accurately portrayed anime (1), and there was good character development (1).

Wallpapers:

[Red & Blue, Black & White] Source. 

The {small} team! Source.

Reds, Blues, and more. Source.

Found this somewhere, it's cool. Source.

AMV's:

Angel With a Shotgun (The Cab) - S'alright, I guess.
Radioactive (Imagine Dragons) - This one's really good!

Next time: Seems I keep forgetting about my S;G Manga review. As for the next Monday post, I'm hoping to review the anime Another. Look forward to it, because I sure am!!

Shout-out to Subdued Fangirling, another anime blog out there. I got a lot of pictures from there, because the Project-K-Wikia wasn't loading properly for me. That link is to her review of K.

Wolfe out.