Is Garo The Animation Worth Watching?

The Animation is a phrase that a would've granted the anime coupled with it a trip to the firing squad, a couple of years ago. Of course that was before Ping Pong: The Animation not only escaped the orbit of the phrase but managed to make Ping Pong the most exciting thing since sliced bread. And that's not nothing. But while the advent of Ping Pong left me in a state of pleasure bordering on orgasmic, it was unable to quell my fears completely. So the question remains; does GARO escape from break free from the toxic grasp of its subtitle or will it pull a colony drop? 

With his mother burned at the stake as he was born and being the heir of a set off golden wolf armor that compels him to hunt monsters that feed on humanity's penchant for greed, a lust for power, and the other kind of lust, Leon would be the ideal poster boy for a hug donation drive. Coupled with a father that feels it his solemn duty to produce an heir to his own magical set of wolf armor, Leon should have more than enough reason to be that angstiest teen to have ever angst. Thankfully Leon substitutes than angst with anger and vengeance, and instantly becomes smoldering stare incarnate. Together with his father and allies he will gain in the future Leon will battle the sinister puppet-master of a totalitarian regime while struggling with his inner turmoil and 90's anime haircut.

GARO is kind of a like a fine wine; one that takes approximately 12 episodes to taste like heaven in a bottle. Pretty much everything is improved by the end; be it characters, pacing, stakes or fight scenes. To put this in perspective—it took me half a season to finish the first twelve episodes and half a day to finish the rest. 

Special attention is given to making Leon the most unlikeable dick in the first half, only so they can make the contrast in his character all the more stark by the end. Even his relation with his father, which seems like a vehicle for some needed comic relief is developed to a point where it felt real. The second half brings in a cast of characters that stay around for more than an episode and are able to be developed to the point where they matter both to the viewer and other characters. Which makes it all the more heartbreaking when they die. 

Animated by MAPPA the anime isn't a bad looker, although opinions may vary as to how well the copious amounts of CGI work during the fight scenes. At worst it's tolerable; at best it's this 

With both openings performed by JAM Project, the anime is no slouch in the sound department either with an OST that does its job well. 

So is GARO worth watching? If you can get through the first cour then definitely. With a great cast of characters, some damn good fights, and a world that grows darker with every passing episode, GARO makes me all the more anxious for second season coming this fall.

So thanks for reading! Likes follows and the likes are appreciated and with about fifteen minutes to midnight I've barely made good on my weekly update thing. Hope to see you again!

Should You Watch Tokyo Ghoul?

Alright well, let's get this over with quickly, okay? I've got better things to procrastinate on.

Ever wondered your neighbor might taste like if garnished with a side of brussel sprouts along side a side of backed potatoes?

Yes? Cool, well you might not get through all of it before the fuzz bust down your door, but it's better than twiddling your thumbs.

No? Really? This would have been so much easier if you had been honest y'know.

Anyhow the anime details the life of Ken Kaneki, just your average guy, who has the hots for a girl who goes to cafe he frequents. She turns out to be interested in him too. Just in a different sort of way. Long story short, she tries to eat him, he turns into a ghoul.

She's voiced by Kana Hanazawa?!

While it does fall into some familiar grounds when it comes to pacing, with 10 episodes out now, and only about two or three more on the way, you'll be pulled up from your cliffhanging a lot quicker than I was.

That being said the anime surprised me in ways I wasn't used to. Putting aside the cliffhangers and tendency to give arbitrary power-ups like the whole thing was meant to be an anime version of Mario Kart, the it displays a surprisingly griping storyline that has not failed to keep me on the edge of my seat.

A conflict that I thought would be filled with cartoonish mustache twirling villains against sweet-as-lambs misunderstood cannibals has turned into the sorta the same thing, but better. While the issue is sort of like the whole abortion thing, in that I know that it's supposed to be more centered in the grey, but is the sort of thing that we'll look back on and laugh at (Seriously, you don't see any pro-life anti-masturbation marches to protect the innocent sperm that lies wasted on someone's sheets), it again managed to surprise me.

Neither the ghoul hunting 'doves' nor the ghouls themselves are painted as wholesale evil nor stomach-turningly innocent. You can tell that there are actual people on the teams on both sides and that the actions of the few do not necessarily represent the mindset of the many.

It also helps that the ghouls themselves aren't just a bunch of helpless damsels in distress, but pose a significant threat to Doves and humanity in general.

Yet for every ray of light there's a patch of rain, least that holds true in Belfast. So we come to the other part that's not so great, the freaking fight scenes.

You might be surprised that I'd say such a thing, given that the studio behind it practically built its reputation on fight scenes. But while the weapon designs are interesting and suitably blend the horror element and badass nature of the ghouls, our main character is such a pushover that if the anime was set in Chicago, we'd have the first anime to star a human kite.

Seriously though, here he is fused with a quote on quote 'S' level ghoul, but, for some arbitrary reason, can be damn picky about when he actually wants to actually use his godly powers and when he wants screw around a bit more because the beautiful face-print he was busy painting would look better in a more vibrant shade of red.

That being said the animation quality of the fight scenes themselves are actually pretty good. They may not blow your mind (especially while SAO II and Captain Earth are still airing) but I've been pretty entertained so far.  

Speaking of the main character, he's surprisingly not too bad. Aside from the fact that his pacifist nature would make Gandhi hurl a copy of 'On the Duty of Civil Disobedience' his head, his development is handled well.

For the most part he feels like the everyman that they're trying to portray, and as someone who really liked Mirai Nikki, I can appreciate that. In fairness to him he isn't as bad as Yuuki or Shinji, which is like claiming George Bush is competent relative to Caligula, but for what it's worth he generally stands up for what's right and puts others before his own safety.

The other characters are actually pretty phenomenal. Sure they aren't so complex as to need a Navajo code breaker to gain any understanding of them, but then they're side characters. So for side characters, I felt that they got enough development to flesh out their profiles to the point where their scenes were enjoyable to watch.

There are many ways to make interesting characters and one sure-fire way to do so is to give them one distinguishing trait and pump it up to 11. That's how we get characters like Gourmet whose voice actor combined with the animation and this image

makes him one of the most over-the-top characters until Nicholas Cage dubs a Trigger anime. What's great about a lot of the characters is that they start off interesting because of their singular overblown trait, and then slowly grow more complex as more subtle traits are introduced.

To give an example one ghoul who we think is just an asshole, suddenly turns into a nice guy and then back into an asshole. Later on we learn that he, like everybody, has someone he cares about that tethers him to his humanity. What's interesting is that it isn't some childhood friend or something, it's just someone who he met who managed to show him that, like ghouls, humans aren't as black and white as he has grown to believe.

But characters aside, let's get to the big one; the make-it-or-break-it; the plot.

Now as I've said before, I think the main conflict of the story is handled well and hasn't failed to keep me engaged, and even after a few paragraphs my opinion hasn't changed.

Coming into the show, I had one fear, and that was the pacing. This is studio Pierrot we're talking about. Who, as far as I know, are the only video game developers who work exclusively in the the anime industry, because it seems like they create anime with a 50:1 action to plot ratio.

Yet even while I wait for the the next twenty minute respite from hanging of cliffs, I will say that this is honestly one of the most well paced shounnen anime Pierrot has ever produced. After again referring to above joke about George Bush and Caligula, hear me out. The action scenes never drag on too long and no character ever feels as though they're just there to get bashed around a bit before becoming the most overpowered thing since the the Strike Freedom's personal rave party. The episodes give enough plot to let you know that it isn't Evil May Day, and yeah...

So do I like it? Yeah, I do. Interesting characters, a gripping plot, dual morality, pretty pretty animation combined with some pretty kick-ass fight sequences make for a pretty good all rounder. If I had any criticism it would be that it doesn't do anything outside of the morality that made my jaw drop so fast and hard that it would crack the Earth's crust. The characters are good, the animation is good, and plot is engaging. Nothing revolutionary, but I don't think it has to be. It's enjoyable, and for me that's enough.

Thank you for reading all the way to the end. Likes, Favorites but most importantly commenting are all things that I'd appreciate very much.

Re: Mirai Nikki Anime Review (edited and finished)

Now before I start I have to warn you that this anime has now become one of my favorite anime series in existence. So as I will try to keep it as objective as I can, but in all likely-hood this review could be summed up in one line; OMG GUYSH GO WAHTCH THIS ANIME! !!! !! !111!111 ! AMAZING IT"S SO GOOOOOOODDDDD 



For those of you who don't know what you're getting into, this is not a happy anime. The characters don't walk on streets of rainbows, nor do they live in a world seemingly without rape, murder, torture, or any other crime. This is the world of Mirai Nikki, a world of mindf****, higurashi level characters, and  one of the best, and most strange romances that I've seen in recent years. So there; I warned you. However this is an awesome anime, so I urge you to check it out, after following and liking this review of course.

 What is Mirai Nikki? Hmmmm...Battle Royale with cell phones. Alright! We're done here, moving on! No, in all seriousness, it's a survival game anime that revolves around cell phones. You have Shin- I mean Amano Yukiterru, a sad shut-in that the otaku inside all of us can relate to. He likes to keep a diary on his cell phone detailing every little thing around him. He has no friends, and spends all of his time writing diaries and speaking with imaginary friends. Yes, he is basically a complete and utter loser.  One day while talking to said imaginary friend, he gets entered into a survival game. The object of the game is to kill all of the other players in the game in order to become the god of time and space. Here's the twist, each person has a diary that can tell the user the future. Each diary is tailored for a certain purpose. One diary can give a series of escape routes, while another can tell the user exactly how to corner a victim in order to commit murder. Un/fortunetly for Yuuki, he gets his very own over-attached girlfriend, and so it begins.

Animation- The first thing you'll notice when coming into this anime is the crisp animation. It's really good animation, though a bit understated. Is it Attack on Titan level animation, flashing its massive budget in your face every chance it gets? Does it make you have eyegasms, like a starry eyed fan-girl in a Doctor Who store? Am I asking too many questions? No. Is it still good animation? Yes. Very much so. Animation does pick up when it needs to into said eyegasm levels when it needs to, making a clear distinction from the rest of the anime. This is especially true for the characters, which are a standout in the series. Each character looks unique and at the same time appealing. Not in a sexual way, more from a artist's standpoint. This style of animation is most apprarent with the eyes, which allow the characters to tap into their own higurashi faces. As for action...well it's sorta non-existent. Okay well that's a bit of an exaggeration, but there is not a lot of action in this series. Instead we get a series of mind games, where it's more about your intelligence and wit, and less about how constipated you can get while transforming into Jesus Yamato Saiyan 9000+ Uzumaki Shonnnen Jr. This is certainly one of the highlights of the series.

Plot-- Hmm well the plot. It kind of doesn't have one. The anime focuses more on characters and less on plot. Depending on your point of view this could be a good or bad thing. However I would argue that it is a good thing seeing as how the characters are the best part of the series. Eventually the series comes into a final plot arc, and it is in fact really good, but until then, it really is a series of monter-of-the-week style mind games. I guess something to be said about the plot is that it's unpredictable. Take the plot of something like Naruto, which is like the streets of New York. From one end, with enough foresight, you can see fairly far ahead. Everything is straightforward and organized. Mirai Nikki, on the other hand is like Boston. Screw organization, it goes where it wants. Nothing is straightforward, or black and white. While the anime is often dark and gritty to the point of being heavy enough to sink the titanic, it can also be lighthearted. Now normally i would tear into this, accusing it of ruining mood and atmosphere a la Freezing, but it doesn't. The anime smoothly transitions right back into the action without a hitch. For some reason people put up a bunch of clips on YouTube, so I can actually support this with evidence. 

Sound- Hmmm, you know a pictures worth a thousand words, but I can't really show you a picture and expect you to get how amazing the soundtrack is, so I'll just show you.

The ending theme and openings are amazing, aside from the fact that there are some really screwed up pronunciations of English words in the second opening. The OST never fail to set the mood. In fact some times they can be good to a fault, meaning that I would give more attention to the OST than the anime itself. Voice acting is fantastic across the board for the Japanese sub. Yes, Yukii is voiced by a girl, but she still plays him very, very, very well. More than anything each and every actor is emotional. There are none that I can think of that are cheesy, unless deliberately meant to be. As for Sub vs Dub, I'm sorry Dub fans, but sub wins this one. In dub voices are too old for their characters, and they screwed up Akise, one of the best characters in the series. Oh, and they're missing Yuno, who sounds both cute, ditzy and terrifying all at once. 


Characters-- The characters are the best and worst parts of the series, why? Hmm I'll get to that. How to describe the characters, hmm. Got it. Take the cast of Higurashi and then just give them cell phones that can tell the future. Oh and throw Shinji in too. In all seriousness, this anime has some of the best character designs of any anime in recent memory. Each and every character is filled out. They are not the card-board cut out, mass produced, mustache twirling bond villain we have been so used to seeing as of late. They all have their motivations, with each one being more interesting that the last. No character is boring, and most are actually likeable in some way or another. This is not like Fate Zero, where the protagonist is obscured, and the victor is not clear from the outset. We all know who is going to win, it's obvious from the start. At the same time, I did not favor a particular character over the other. Most of them have very good and interesting motivations for doing what they do. Even the most despicable character has a reasonable motivation for wanting to win the game. Now I said that they are also the worst part of the series, this is true. You see the rest of the series is so good that this is truly one of my only gripes with the anime. Characters can be inconsistent, and sometimes completely defy themselves to further the plot.

Yuuki-- yes, i feel the need to dedicate an entire paragraph explaining exactly why Yukii is a good character. Why? Well, the amount of hate surrounding him is as much as Makoto, Shinji, and Relena Peacecraft combined so... I personally think that he is one of the best characters in an anime. The difference between him and all of the other characters above is development. He gets it. Lots of it in fact. By the end of the series, he is a completely different person. I mean in the beginning he might as well be Shinji Ikari for all the good it does him. To be honest, I hated him from the start. At the same time, he was one of those realistic characters that you know is going to get development so i stuck with him. The actual development doesn't truly start until a good ways in, but he does have flashes of badassery where he taps into his inner Neo. So he's not Shinji, he's way better. He has fantastic character development, and becomes not only a bad-ass in actions but also in words and ideals. Okay were done here.

Yuno-- Without a doubt the best character of the show. She is not a yandere, she is the Yandere. Yuno is a psychotic girl, with a personality disorder as fractured as a house of mirrors and a dude with really bad luck, and mood swings that are so frequent, they're might as well have been a strobe light labeled Emotions, and a five years old with too much energy behind it. She is fascinating, and makes up most of the intrigue throughout the anime. She is always unpredictable, up until the very last episodes of the anime.


Romance-- Well the romance in this anime is...interesting. at first I really wasn't sure if i actually liked the pairing. Why? Well as much as i like crazy psychotic girls with bizarre hair colors, considering my time spent with Elfen Lied, and Higurashi, this was sort of weird. No, that's not doing it justice, it was freaking messed up. Yes, it was cool to see Yuno go super-saiyan whenever Yukii so much as bats an eyelash at her.

At the same time, for the first half of the series the Romance is one sided. More than that it isn't really cute. Yuuki is really just using her as a tool to survive, and she is content with being that tool. Therefore, throughout most of the series i was more off-put by the romance rather than being enticed  by it.  That is not to say that the romance in the series is bad, in fact entirely the opposite. If you haven't noticed, I am someone who very much likes the romance genre. I have seen a lot of them, believe me. So trust me when I say that this is one of the best romance anime on the market. Is it as cute as something like Familiar of Zero? No. Even the cute parts of the romance are tainted by darkness.  I can't say more, but this anime has brought me to tears on multiple occasions. 

This paragraph may contain spoilers, read at your own risk!
Okay, so the elephant in the room is ready to trample my credibility as a reviewer, so i have to address it. The ending to this anime is sort of off. It's like the author wanted the anime to be emotional, without sacrificing the happy ending that we all want. Now this taps into what I said in my Oreimo review. The author is trying to be middle of the road, not wanting to pick sides in the matter. Now here's where I abandon all objectiveness and jump into my personal pod of praise. I loved the ending, the emotional part brought tears to my eyes, without sacrificing the happy ending I've come to know and love in romance anime. Dammit, even thinking about it is starting to make me tear up. Call me sappy, but the truth is the truth. I would rather have a poorly done happy ending, then a really well done sad ending. This is not a bad thing, it just shows how much I became attached to the characters. Oreimo's ending was made everything feel pointless, not only that but it was not happy for anyone. Now I just have to seal all of the anger and rage that is re-opening because of Oreimo, and re-focus on this. 


So, there you have it. If i used a rating system, I would give this a ten out of ten. The anime is complex, it isn't a freaking harem, it has one of the best and most unique romances out there, a fantastic soundtrack, and some of the best characters in anime. Now excuse me, while I go weep over the fact that i have no more Mirai Nikki to watch. As always, a like, and a follow are always appreciated. If you liked this review, feel free to share it with someone else. 


Author's note---- Yes this is a republication of an unfinished review that I have been working on since roughly the beginning of time(give or take a few years) Whenever I have a vacation, I always think "WOW IMMA HAVE SO MUCH TIME TO WORK ON MY BLOG! YAY!" What actually happens is another story. So there it is, sorry for the massive delay. 

Another Anime Review

This is not another anime review, this is an anime review of Another. Was that punny? Another is a horror anime adapted from a popular Japanese novel. I am trying to keep this review as spoiler-free as possible, but some things are going to be needed to be spoiled, such as People die in this anime. Anyway, welcome to my review! The purpose of this review is to promote the popularity of a particular anime or something like that. That being said I guess Another is already pretty damn popular...ummmmm then this is to promote the horror-anime genre in general! That works.

Another is a horror anime adaptation of a popular horror novel of the same name. it follows Sakakibara, and his investigation into the ominous class of 3-3.

Animation-- How to describe the animation, well let's see..okay Half Life three running on Source engine 20 on the PS5000 being played on a theater screen with enough pixels to make Legend of Zelda: The Faces of Evil look good. You think I'm exaggerating, and I totally am, but it's still damn impressive. The whole time i was watching this show i was having eyegasms while still pissing my pants. First off character models look amazing, and every character is paid enough attention so that they don't look like cardboard cutouts, with microphones attached to their mouths. In other words, the world that the anime lives in is living. It's not as though one character is running around in a freaking Fuzetsu. Everything, and I mean everything gets more than enough detail for it to be on the cover of Glamor girl, this is especially true for the dolls. You see the guys who did the animation came up with a brilliant idea:maybe if we constantly switch to random pictures of porcelain dolls, it'll make things scary. In the very least we get to see some pretty dolls, I guess? This is sorta explained latter on, but for the first part of the series I thought I was watching Chucky the anime. Props given to the sky. Can't think of a joke for that, but it looks amazing. The environments are dark enough to invoke that primordial fear of saying 'I'll be right back' at a party, but colorful enough so that it doesn't look darker than black. Each frame of this anime has a ton of detail packed in. The probability of you appreciating it in the few seconds its there is about as likely as D-grayman getting another volume, but its there. The studio responsible is for anime such as Angel beats, Nagi no Asu Kara, so their a pretty well established studio. What haven't I mentioned? Ummmm it's really good? Ah, there's little to no fan-service in this anime, aside from the obligatory beach scene.

Interpret this however you like, but just look at the sky! Look at it!

 Sound--Well first the bad stuff. The opening, while it may be a nice song, kinda ruins the mood. Okay how to get you guys to understand...You're in the middle of a boss battle. You have been fighting this boss for the past week, and continue to fail it each and every time. this time is different. you can feel it. As you step out into the arena, glorious rays of light rain down upon you, seeping through your crimson visor, coloring your vision a bloody hue. Ahead of you it rears it's head bellowing a roar that shakes the very earth itself. Countless times have you laid petrified in fear of the impending massacre, but not this time. The creature lunges, its gigantic form filling the vast expanse of the arena. It brings its hammer down upon you, and death, cavalierly grasps your hand, bringing with it two words, eight letters everyone knows by heart...except this doesn't happen. You know its tricks, you've done this before. You will not lose. You will win. Your battle cry shakes the Earth itself, you sword glimmers with the light of countless hours never to be regained. You heave your sword, this is it, the time is now! Strike! Now your mom tells you dinner is ready. Your immersion is broken, your avatar frozen in mid-swing. That is Another's opening. It's really jarring, and it fits as well as Jar Jar Binks. As for the OST, well think about it this way. It's like this. Think Hannibal Lector. He's an awesome character, and a joy to see on-screen, but let's be honest, no-one wants to invite him over for dinner. Same thing goes with Another's OST. They set the mood perfectly, creating tension, when there seemingly is nothing happening on-screen, and furthering the atmosphere set by both the voice actors and the animation. And yet they aren't really elevator music material. The voice acting in this anime is phenomenal, with each character working well with the atmosphere. They further the mood, giving a melancholic feel to the series. They aren't monotone, but every character sounds like they're putting up a facade, like every clown that ever existed. While i would normally give props for this, the only exception to the stellar voice acting is Misaki. Now before I get pelted with the rotten tomatoes of hardcore another fans, let me explain why. For most of the series she does an amazing job, however, and this is down to animation as well, in the finale, she maintained her monotone voice to the very end. It would be nice for her to show a bit more emotion than a rock with a high-school uniform. 

Those dolls

Plot--So here is the first flaw in the series: IT NEVER EXPLAINS WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON! As intriguing as the plot was, there was no conclusion. It never explains why the events that happened, happened. Overall, this does little to hurt the series, but it still feels like either sequel baiting or shoddy writing. While the plot wasn't as good as it could've been, it was intriguing. I always wanted to know more, and the anime did a good job of making me want to know more. This made the ending all the more frustrating. Something else is that the anime seems to have a good amount of differences from the source material. This is especially aparant during the episode where they go to the beach, becasue it is only there for the fanservice. This was not in the novel at all. One thing this anime does have is pacing. Each episode left me wanting for more, and though yes this is due to a large amount of cliff-hangers, it was also just because the plot was so intriguing and well paced.

Characters--The cast of Another is large to say the least. Though this can mean that some characters are more detailed than others it also gives the writers a lot more people to kill. Oh and for some reason, the main character of this anime looks like Yuuta from Chūnibyō Demo Koi ga Shitai! and Misaki looks like Rikka from the same series. I haven't read the novels, but in the anime, there seems to be a tad of romance between Misaki and Sakakibara. Is this just for the fans? Who knows, but from someone who loves the romance genre, it's much appreciated. I don't want to get into the characters, becasue of spoilers, but there pretty solid all around. Here comes the second flaw with the series: the death. Deaths in this anime are well done, but the reactions to them are not. Characters seem to get over the fact that people are dying around them really damn fast. in one scene, Sakakibara views someone dying right in front of him, and then proceeds to shake someone's shoulder the next day asking what is wrong. I wish it showed a little more psychological breakdown on the part of Sakakibara as everyone around him is dying. As such there isn't really any character development throughout the series. There is relationship development, especially between Misaki and Sakakibara, but no character development.
 

No, this is just a coincidence, there's nothing implied here at all...

Characters--The cast of Another is large to say the least. Though this can mean that some characters are more detailed than others it also gives the writers a lot more people to kill. Oh and for some reason, the main character of this anime looks like Yuuta from Chūnibyō Demo Koi ga Shitai! and Misaki looks like Rikka from the same series. I haven't read the novels, but in the anime, there seems to be a tad of romance between Misaki and Sakakibara. Is this just for the fans? Who knows, but from someone who loves the romance genre, it's much appreciated. I don't want to get into the characters, becasue of spoilers, but there pretty solid all around. Here comes the second flaw with the series: the death. Deaths in this anime are well done, but the reactions to them are not. Characters seem to get over the fact that people are dying around them really damn fast. in one scene, Sakakibara views someone dying right in front of him, and then proceeds to shake someone's shoulder the next day asking what is wrong. I wish it showed a little more psychological breakdown on the part of Sakakibara as everyone around him is dying. As such there isn't really any character development throughout the series. There is relationship development, especially between Misaki and Sakakibara, but no character development.

Horror--The final item, and the most important, the horror aspect though I think I've already said a lot on the topic. Well as horror anime it's really good, as i think you've gotten from what I've said so far. Everything reflects the idea that everything is not what it seems. From the environment, to the soundtrack, to the voice acting. It immerses you in a creepy world. However I was never truly terrified in this anime, just creeped out. Maybe I've developed a tolerance for these things, but Another never truly scared me. 


Overall I really enjoyed my time with Another, regardless of some of the flaws it had. In truth this anime is really really good. The OST fills its role very well, the amin characters are interesting, the plot is intruiging, animation is spot on and the atmosphere is impressive. This recieves a strong reccomendation from me. 



Thanks for reading, and sorry for the delay in writing. I had a lot of stuff this week, and was sick on top of it. Anyhow if you enjoyed this, please drop a like, a follow or a recommendation. Oh and comment! Please comment!