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Nov 30, 2016
Story -3-
The story of Diabolik Lovers: More Blood follows Yui as she continues her life with the vicious vampires. However, this time a new group kidnaps her. They seem to think that her blood is that of ‘Eve’ and by drinking that blood she gives them the power of ‘Adam.' It is never really explained what these powers would do, and if they were, it was glanced over.
That is the whole story, with a lot of biting. There wasn’t real depth, and there truly was nothing unique about the story line. It was clear that it was pulling straight from the game that it
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was based on. There was no real attempt to make the boys relatable, nor the main character. There were some vaguely interesting points, as the threat of ‘werewolves’ and what was so different about Yui. The werewolves plot was the reason I bothered to stick around long enough. However, just when the werewolves were going to be introduced, the season ended. It was majorly disappointing and left an overwhelmingly sour taste in my mouth.
Art -4-
The art style was one of the better points of the season. While it was not that horrible of an art style, everyone was shining. The boys were attractive, but that was very much the point of the genre. If the boys were not the best point of the season, then something much have gone very wrong.
The blood when shown, was very well done as well and the character designs were interesting to look at. However, everything else lacks in comparison. The background was rather dull, and when something was not the main point of the scene, the studio blurred it out, so that the focus was again on the main point. It was quick and showed how little they were thinking about the show overall.
Sound -2-
The voice acting was all right, and there isn’t much to complain about there. Unless we are talking about Yui, who would pause and stutter through each and every one of her lines. That was nothing against the voice actor, but the character, in general, was just annoying. Also, the background music seemed only to have two tracks that would repeat over and over again, driving the viewer insane.
The sound that was the biggest problem, however, was whenever anyone would bite Yui. It happened every episode, and quite honestly, and it was the most ‘nails-on-chalkboard’ sound. There was most likely some meaning behind the sound being like biting into an apple (I doubt the producers would put that much thought into it, however), but it was so bothersome. Every time one of them would bite into her neck, I physically cringed.
This would not have been a problem if they did not bite into multiple times, in every episode. It bothered me so greatly that I could not get over it. It was repulsive and so out of place with the show in a whole that there is no way the sound could ever score higher than a 2.
Character -1-
Where to start with this one. Every single character was one dimensional and fulfilled some shoujo ‘bad boy’ arch type. Yui, the main character whom the girls are supposed to relate to, was as deep as a puddle. Not only that but she was most likely the weakest female lead. She never thought for herself and was always feeling sorry for other people. It was infuriating.
The boys from the first season were not expanded on, and they stayed overall the same as they were from the first season, other than Kanato. He seemed to get a little bit more sadistic than he was before, but that was only once and then he returned to being the same as always.
The new boys were all the same as well, only with a little bit less in number. They all had a horrible past, and they all were ‘hiding behind tough skin.' There is a much better way to make the romantic interests interesting, rather than just make them all mysterious. With the characters being so dull and having such simple motives, there was no way to get invested in the plot, let alone care enough about what happens with the characters.
Enjoyment -1-
It should be clear by now that this was not enjoyable in any way. With dull characters, a simple plot, and sound that physically makes someone cringe, there was nothing to enjoy in this, in any way. There were times that you could find yourself laughing at the sheer stupidity of it all.
Multiple shoujo harems do the whole idea much better than this one. Amnesia is the first one that comes to mind. The men are all mysterious, have multiple layers, and the heroine has a reason to be as clueless as she is. Yui has no excuse as she is a priest’s daughter.
This is a simple waste of time, the only interesting thing it has to offer is dangled in front of the viewer, only to be stolen away in the last few minutes.
Overall -2.2-
The only reason this does not score lower is simply that the art was not terrible and the plot at least had something it pretended to offer. Otherwise, this was a cash grab to those who might have enjoyed the game.
It is always difficult to change a game into an anime; however, this was just poorly done. Maybe it was simply a bad choice to turn into an anime in general. With such flat characters and a protagonist that makes one groan aloud from her idiotic decisions, it was so bad it appears the problem lies with the source material. This is to be doubted however as any good company can make bad source material into something much more attractive.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Nov 29, 2016
Story -6-
The story of Dagashi Kashi is nothing that is overly thrilling. It is about a young man, Kokonotsu, whose father runs a dagashi shop. Kokonotsu does not want to run the shop, as he has dreams of being a manga artist. However, the daughter of a huge dagashi manufacture, Hotaru, soon shows up, doing her best to try and convince Kokonotsu to take over the shop. This story is nothing special and isn’t something that would normally get anyone too excited. However, there were a few plot points that did make the anime a bit more fun to watch.
The most enjoyable part of the
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show would be when Hotaru or Kokonotsu are explaining where the different dagashi came from and the differences that are made from various companies producing the same candy. I also found much enjoyment in the small side story of the crush that Saya had on Kokonotsu. It was through this little side story romance that the characters managed to develop the most, which made the plot move forward.
Art -7-
The art style of Dagashi Kashi was rather enjoyable but nothing too impressive. I was personally turned off by the strange hair color from Hotaru, as the rest of the plot was in a rather normal universe. I also enjoyed the few times where they would take the extremes and just run with it into the art style, making some of the characters have incredible facial features and the such.
However, that was the most extreme that the show went, as they put minimal effort into the backgrounds and the world was almost entirely bare of any background characters. I think that if they had put some more effort into making the world a bit more realistic, the art would have been much better to look at rather than just solely the main characters.
Sound -6-
There wasn’t anything too amazing with the sound design. Personally, I find it rather annoying whenever there is background music while characters are talking, but nothing too extreme is happening. Dagashi Kashi does not do this all that often thankfully, but it does keep things light as it is a slice of life anime. The opening and ending songs were both rather nice, however, they never really did fit the feel of the anime.
The voice acting for the anime was also very nice, each character having a voice that seemed to fit each character. Hotaru was always upbeat and passionate. Kokonotsu appeared to be a bit airy or like he wanted to be doing something else. Saya had the right mix of caring and not caring. If the opening and ending fit the feeling of the anime more, however, the sound would have scored a bit higher.
Character -8-
I fully enjoyed watching these characters. While there isn’t much of a plot in the whole show, the two most important characters, Saya and Kokonotsu, do seemingly develop throughout the 12 episodes. Saya starts off as someone who just can’t tell Kokonotsu how she feels about him and is happy just to be his friend. However, by the end of the series, she is much more comfortable with expressing her romantic interest in him.
Kokonotsu also starts off as rather selfish, only wanting to complete his dream even if it means that he will be leaving a lot of important people behind. After talking to Hotaru and spending the summer with her, along with his friends, he is much more open to the idea of staying in the town and taking on the business. Though he has not given up the idea of being an artist, he is just more open to doing both things. It was fulfilling to watch these characters grow and step out of childhood and become young adults who have real reasonability.
Enjoyment -7-
Most of the enjoyment for me was not in the occasional fan-service. I had a great time learning the history of different Japanese snacks along with seeing Kokonotsu and Saya start to move out of their childhood and into adulthood. When I was learning about the snacks, Hotaru’s passion would catch hold of me, and I would be drawn into the story, and it would make me want to go out and order some of these snacks for myself so I could try them as well.
When watching Saya and Kokonotsu start to grow up, it gave me a warm feeling, remembering when I was just starting to step out of my comfort-zone and start to do things that I enjoyed, but was nervous about. They each had a tiny comfort zone and seemed very set in their ways. However, as they came to the realization that they could not stay like that forever, they started to take steps that as an audience, made me happy to see.
Overall -6.8-
Overall, I truly did enjoy Dagashi Kashi, but not for the reasons one might expect. The art was average, and the sound was not as amazing as it could have been. However, where I was waiting for an anime full of fanservice and flat jokes, I found an anime about coming of age and learning. I do not like slice-of-life animes because I get very bored of them rather quickly. It is more of a chore to watch them. With Dagashi Kashi, I did not get that feeling. It has the power to connect with the audience and make them remember those time when they were kids just starting to come to the grips of the world. While there isn’t a solid plot in the anime, I would recommend this to anyone who wants to have a rather fulfilled feeling at the end.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Nov 29, 2016
Story -7-
The story of Acchi Kocchi is one that follows a different plot every half episode, while also staying connected with the different stories. The overarching storyline, however, is the little romance that is slowly growing between Tsumiki and Io. The whole feel of the series is light and cheerful, but also gives a few moments where Tsumiki and Io can feel very close and bring out a reaction from the audience.
Since this series does not have any deep messages, nor was the plot anything too special it does not rate all that high. However, it was able to keep continuity and keep the audience
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engaged. The short gags that they did also connect as most of the gags were due to certain traits from different characters. With this, one would be able to see a repeated gag whenever that character would show their tick, such as Io being excellent at spinning whatever was in his hands, be a pen, pencil, or a pair of chopsticks.
Art -7-
The art style of Acchi Kocchi is very palatable, and nothing overly special. With the pastel colors and very ‘chibi’ like drawings, the anime is easy to appeal to a middle-high school audience. There is also much use of hiragana to make it easier for the audience to feel relaxed. The use of very simple facial reactions made it so the different reactions of the cast were well received as well.
The main gag in the series is that Tsumiki’s reactions are always in reference to how a cat acts. Thankfully the anime can pull it off very well, as it could have been incredibly painful to watch if it had been done the wrong way. However, since it was done correctly, it was funny and also rather cute to see the reactions Tsumiki had, along with the other characters.
Sound -7-
The voice acting in the series was rather spot on. Each one of the characters could fully portray their personality through how they spoke. Also, they were able to hit quite a few gags due to how fast they were able to keep the thing going. The little side remarks or small sound effects the voice actors would do fully brought each character to life.
The opening and closing themes were also enjoyable as they fit the mood of the anime as a whole. The opening theme was a lot more upbeat and worked in the anime’s favor of trying to get the audience excited to watch. The closing theme wound everyone down, returning the attention to the over-arching plot of how Tsumiki wanted to be in a relationship with Io. Over all, the sound was able to keep the whole series rather nicely wrapped up.
Character -9-
Slice of life animes needs to have strong characters. Otherwise, they will fall flat and will be boring to watch; it will be pretty unentertaining to be blunt. That being said, the characters in Acchi Kocchi were extremely enduring and funny to watch. Tsumiki was adorable to watch in her attempts to try and express to Io how she was feeling, while Io was, while rather deadpan, an amazing friend. It was not hard to see why Tsumiki liked him, unlike in some animes where it is a mystery as to why the main character likes someone else.
Along with the two main characters, the side characters were also entertaining. Mayoi was always able to lighten the mood with one of her crazy inventions, or with teasing her best friend about her crush. Sakaki, while he was not in as many episodes once the series started to get rolling, was still rather funny whenever he would appear. Slap-stick humor is sometimes hard to pull off, as if it’s done wrong, the audience just feels sorry for the victim. However, Sakaki, the main victim of the physical humor, was always able to make the joke pull through. Overall, the characters of Acchi Kocchi were just an absolute pleasure to watch.
Enjoyment -8-
Slice-of-life anime is all rather similar, as the category isn’t one that’s supposed to fluctuate all that often. However, the enjoyment of Acchi Kocchi was a rather pleasant surprise. Following the main characters through a full year of their lives, the audience can see as they start to grow as people. Not only are they honest and hardworking, but they also know how to have fun and relax once they no longer have classes. It brings up memories of having to study for those days where it feels impossible to do so, the feeling of having a job and knowing the reasonability that one has.
One of the best moments of the series is near the end, where valentine’s day shows up again, as it had done in the 2nd episode. This repeat shows how Tsumiki and Io have grown in affection for each other, as Tsumiki makes chocolates that are special for just Io; Io returning the favor by putting a special treat in his gift to her. It warms the audience’s heart, ending the series with a feeling that those two will be all right, whatever happens.
Overall -7.6-
Acchi Kocchi is a nice anime just to sit down and watch a few episodes. By the end of the series, there is a warm feeling, knowing that the main characters will be okay, with fond memories of the past, and the sense of one’s first love. The pastel coloring and well-done voice acting will keep the anime in a good light. There isn’t anything too bad to say about the anime, as it is an excellent series, but it isn’t anything too amazing.
It was not trying to be an outstanding anime, as its main goal was just trying to be a small series to consume and be satisfied with. While some of the gags may not make you laugh, and sometimes it can be a bit over the top, Acchi Kocchi will compel the viewer to finish. Even if they do not like the genre all that much, it’s a feel good anime that anyone feeling down on their luck should give a try.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Nov 29, 2016
Story -4-
07-Ghost follows a young man named Teito as he is in military training. While he is in the final stages of training, he overhears a conversation between some high-ranking military officials that trigger his memories of his past. This conversation lets him remember that this military is his enemy and he attacks. He escapes after his attack and hides at the church. However, after this point, the plot slows to a near standstill. It is after the 3rd or 4th episode that the whole plot is simply Teito wallowing in self-pity, with no real progress for 6 or so episodes. It was painful to
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try and enjoy the plot because nothing happened for a long time and even when something did happen, it would be entirely forgotten soon after.
A plot does not need to have much progress. However, it needs to be at least interesting enough to keep the audience’s attention. With 07-Ghost, it's plot was not deep enough to warrant the long times spent on certain details, nor was it interesting enough to have the audience want to have 25 episodes of nothing happening. The manga of 07-Ghost can keep the plot going. However, the anime tends to hang up on small little details that don’t matter. The whole problem with the story was just it went on for far too long and did nothing to keep the audience engaged.
Art -5-
The biggest problem with the art in 07 was the fact that it blatantly used CG where it should not have, or at least didn’t work on making it blend with the other animation. It is understandable to use CG with some items, however, in 07, where they used the CG made it gross to look at and just looked lazy.
Another issue with the art was that while, yes, when pausing randomly, sometimes animation frames can be funny to look at. However, whenever 07 paused, there can be some issue with the frame. Even if there wasn’t an issue with the frame, it was probably because they have been using the same frame for the past minute with a few small movements. The whole style was lazy and looked cheap. It was rather close to being a bit hard to watch.
Sound -7-
Out of all of the problems in the anime, the sound was the least problematic. The voices were all well done, the reactions sounded genuine, and no one sounded like he or she were reading off a script too much. However, it is the real strength was the different background music and also how the sound very much fit the atmosphere of the scenes.
The main background of the show was a church, so there was much choral music and soothing tones. It was enjoyable to hear, and when the characters were going over some plot point for the 7th time, the music was at least slightly entertaining and nice to listen to. However, it still had the problem where they did not bother to make enough variety for the music for 25 episodes, so they tended to use the same 4-7 tracks throughout all 25 episodes. So unfortunately by the end of the season, even the songs were starting to get dull.
Character -6-
A crucial part of the 07 plot in the manga was the development and the history of the main characters. However, the anime seemed to forget this and did little to nothing to develop the characters or explain their stories, and thus their motivations. The worst offender of this was the protagonist, Teito. In the manga, Teito can accept his faults and move on, using his past connections, along with his new friendships to become a better person and become the stronger man he wants to be. In the anime, however, as mentioned before, it is 25 episodes of Teito feeling sorrow for himself, getting a small insight into how he can become stronger, then immediately forgetting what he had just heard and felt sorry for himself again. It was aggravating because he is supposed to be the one the audience roots for, but the anime makes him seem like nothing but a small child who cannot do anything.
The only character that was worth any real investment was Frau, Teito’s mentor and newest friend/caretaker. Frau was complex, funny and often left a type of air as though he had more under his surface. He was the main catalyst that made Teito come out of his self-pity state, and often cast a different light on things. Frau as a character was one that would have been far more interesting to have as the protagonist as he was leaps and bounds more interesting.
Enjoyment -4-
Unlike in the manga, where the plot was compelling and offered something new to the audience, the anime was dull, uninteresting, and repetitive. The studio tried to keep the action alive by constantly having action scenes, however since the CG was poorly done, it was still painful to watch. Along with the dull plot, the studio thought it would be a good idea to stay in one arc for 25 episodes. If they were smarter, they would have taken those 25 and explored at least 2 or 3 arcs. There was plenty of time in the budget, not to mention the plot is not so complex that they could not have explained the major ideas of each arc.
Personally, the way they stayed in the single arc, adding things on that they did not have to, and changing Teito into a character who would rather be sulking that improving himself, made the anime painful and lost the point of what the series was going for. The enjoyment of the series was to watch Teito develop and become a leader one would be glad to have, but that was forgotten instead of trying of having more fights with no real meaning.
Overall -5.2-
This anime was disappointing, a cash grab and had no real heart in it. The plot was thrown aside, the characters were the same through all of the episodes, and even the art style left much to be desired. It is a real issue for the anime if it is only solid fact is when that the audience is sure that there will be some fight within the episode. There is nothing wrong with having many fights within a show, but it becomes an issue when the fights have no real meaning.
The anime of 07-Ghost could have done so many good things, as the source material had a lot to explore, along with different concepts that there isn’t a lot of in anime. The problem arose when the studio decided that it did not want to try and make something different and just wanted to produce something to just make something for the season. This is not an anime that should be recommended, and if anything, one should just read the manga as it is much better quality.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Oct 12, 2016
Story -6-
The story follows two men that have the job as ‘Handymen’ in their city. Nikolas Brown and Worick Arcangelo are not the typical definitions of handymen in our world, as instead of fixing a sink or other appliances they are more like hired thugs. They tend to help the law more often other thugs, however, like most ‘handymen’ in the city. The officer Chad calling on them the most often. Now the story would have been rather bland, but it is introduced that one of the men, Nikolas is something more than human, a ‘Twilight.' He has pills that he must consume to keep
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his powers in check, but he regularly overdoses on them so that he can be stronger than he normally is.
The season mainly focuses on the upcoming war that is coming to a head in the streets. People like Nikolas, the Twilights, are often mistreated and have rather strict laws put upon them to control them. One of the three families that control the law on the streets starts to act out however and starts to break those laws. The story is interesting as it is dealing with the idea of mistreatment of minorities by those who are not part of the minority group along with how different people in a relationship, be it a friendship or sexual relationship, have different views of those who are in that relationship. An example of this is how Worick, Nikolas and Alex (a woman the men pick up in their work) all try and understand why the others are acting the way they are.
Art -6-
This anime was trying to seek to attract a bit of a women audience I say this because nearly every man was drawn in an attractive manner. Not to say that the artists did not try to appeal to a presumed straight male audience. However, it was also the type of anime that was trying to stick close to the original art style of the manga, which wasn’t bad. There wasn’t anything that stood out as amazing or downright horrible. The most I can say is that many characters dressed the same way. This was maybe because they did not want to design a lot of different clothing choices for a huge cast of characters, but that would have made it a lot more interesting as a lot of the environment was gray. A splash of color on the characters to make them stick out more would have gone a long way.
Sound -7-
Again, there wasn’t anything that completely took away from the anime. However, I do have to praise Nikolas’ voice actor, Tsuda Kenjirou, as Nikolas is a deaf character. Even though he uses sign language to communicate most of the time, some characters and events force him to use his voice. Tsuda did a wonderful job portraying the difficulty that Nikolas has when he uses a voice that he cannot hear.
It was also a job well done on the voice actor’s parts to speak in the slang that the characters would use. As this story mainly takes place in rough neighborhoods, many characters tended to use much slang. However, since Worick and a few other characters came from more privileged upbringings, they tended to use less slang. Keeping this in mind was critical as it kept Worick and the other character’s structure in tack and did not let me down.
Character -8-
The different types of characters that are portrayed in Gangsta were one of the high points for me. Nikolas was showing that disability was not something that can stop people that have it in their mind that they can do something. Nikolas and Worick’s relationship was partially interesting because they were two children when they meet, but both were abused horribly by their fathers. Their bond was made because they found each other and cared about each other, as Worick found someone else that knew what he was going through. However, the bond may be a bit tainted because once Worick discovered that Nikolas was deaf, he felt reasonable of taking care of Nikolas. Speaking of Worick, Worick is a character who brought up something new, at least in my experience, as he is the first character confirmed to be a gigolo or a male prostitute that I have seen. It is worth noting that he worked as a sex worker because of his abuse. It affected him every day, and it was shown rather clearly throughout the show. Alex displayed the aftereffects of drug addiction and being in an unhealthy relationship.
I fully enjoyed the character portrayal in this series and would solely recommend it based on these characters, whom I have come to care about and wish to see heal from these very real issues that they have to face.
Enjoyment -7-
Despite the fact that the story is nothing that is going to blow anyone’s mind, along with the art being rather unremarkable, I did enjoy this season. With the vocal work on Nikolas being very well done, along with the fun complex characters, it was something that I wanted to finish. I do find myself not totally sure of what is happening in the main story arc, though I am confident I know how each character feels about what is going on.
I am also sure of how the characters are affected by what is happening. The anime did a wonderful job in making sure that the characters felt like real people. This makes it easy to know who is being changed by what, and why I should care and so on. Also, while it does deal with rather serious issues, for its universe at least, and has a hefty tone sometimes, there are light, humorous times that make it, so it is not always a bitter pill to swallow.
Overall -6.8-
Gangsta is one of those animes where you either like it, or you do not. You are not likely to get into it because of the art style or for its plot, but if the characters can get your attention and make you care for them by the end of its first episode, then you are going to be hooked. The good thing is that Gangsta knows that its plot is not anything that’s very special and it does not pretend like it is trying to state a significant message. Sometimes while animes seek to make a big message, the characters and plot seem as through it is far too over thought. Since Gangsta is not trying to do anything like that, it leaves far more room for making characters much more relatable, or at least complex enough to keep the audience captivated.
Gangsta can play off what it knows it has going for it with its relatable characters, and that is what makes it good. It is easy to tell much effort went into making the characters; their backgrounds are as thoroughly explained to understand why there is gray area in their moral decisions. An important part of the characters is how biased they are and that you can see where they get this bias from. I would recommend at least trying it. If you find yourself attached to the characters, then by all means, keep watching, because otherwise, you will be bored and find it very hard to watch the whole season.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Aug 17, 2016
Story -7-
Satoru has always had the ability to go back in time, but only as far as 5 minutes, and he uses this power of his in order to change some type of outcome. He doesn’t know why he’s been given this ability, but he more often or not gets himself involved in these possibilities of changing the outcome, even while scolding himself for doing so. However, after he is framed for murder, the stress causes his ability, revival, to activate, teleporting him back in time to when he was a child. Now he must figure out what he must do to change the past
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so that the outcome is different when he becomes an adult once more.
Overall, the plot is simple to follow. However, it is very interesting, as there are many twists and turns that you’re not exactly expecting. The one down side is that I was personally able to figure who the ‘villain’ was rather easily, so the ‘surprise’ wasn’t so surprising. This does deal with somewhat pressing topics, such as child abuse and the responsibility people have for their actions. This makes the anime feel a bit more for adults in that sense, but it still is a wonderful watch.
Art -8-
The art style in Boku dake ga Inai Machi seemed to fall into the more ‘modern’ type of style, meaning that the characters looked a bit more realistic, but not to the point of classical anime style. I particularly liked how Satoru’s mother’s lips were drawn, because they were fatter and more pronounced as an older woman’s should be, making them different from other styles of thin mouths that other, younger, characters had.
As this anime does deal with time travel, there was some aging needing to be done to the characters. I was very impressed with how well they aged the characters. They didn’t just copy the face and draw around it, but kept parts that wouldn’t change as they got older and aged everything else, making it look more natural than other attempts I have seen before.
Sound -7-
The voice acting was pretty average throughout. There were no real points that I felt like the voice actors were straining or trying particularly hard. It was important that the younger and older voice actors for Satoru sounded like a younger and older version of the same character, rather than two different characters completely, and thankfully they were able to succeed in this. The background music was average, as there was no real soundtrack that stood out. They were able to keep the mood in mind while playing these background tracks, so there was nothing truly notable.
The reason the sound gets a bit higher is because the opening song was absolutely amazing. It really did capture the vibe of the whole anime, and was always a good way to start off the episodes. The opening theme of the anime is very important because it has to condense the view of the world and the feeling of the anime in the course of about a minute.
Character -8-
Satoru, as a main character, was actually one of the more tolerable main characters in an anime as of late. He was shown to be first very apathetic to the whole world, and as the series goes on, he grows emotionally, having him learn how to connect with people and what it means to really care for different people. His development as a person was interesting to watch and really did hold meaning to it. His friends were all important, though there were a few static characters, such as one of his friends who was just there, and never really did much within the anime.
The one downside to the characters was the villain of the series. While they did a good job in describing their character, they left out the background, which was included in the manga. This being left out actually made the character’s motives a lot cloudier and honestly not that believable. In the end, the villain became more of a joke by the end of the series, even though they had done horrible things throughout the entire plot.
Enjoyment -9-
This series was something that either you loved or you hated. The subject matter was very sensitive and the way it dealt with child abuse was very blunt. Not to mention that most of the time when sexual assault is being talked about, one would expect it to be adults speaking about it. Instead, the series has children talk about these issues, which can make it very uncomfortable for some people.
However, when looking past these sensitive topics and uncomfortable plot points, it was very enjoyable. The story was well thought out and it was never truly clear where it was going to end up. The main issue it had however was that the ending episode was rather rushed and not that well thought out. It would have been far better if they had been able to work longer to make the villain less of a joke and make the ending a bit more thought out.
Overall -7.8-
Coming in at a close 7.8, this series was definitely something that deserves a lot of the praise that it was getting when it was the ‘thing’. From enjoyable art styles, to above average character development, it had every right to be considered so well done. The art style stayed particularly close to how the manga was drawn, which is always a good thing, as it was able to attract those who read the manga and kept a connection to its source material. The way Satoru slowly grew and was able to find out what was really holding him back in life made the anime connect to those who are also struggling to come to terms with what they did in the past.
This being said, the ending of the anime and how much it differs from the manga was not a good choice. I understand that animes have deadlines that they have to reach and often they have to change certain parts of the manga to compensate for the time crunch. However, the way that they changed the ending actually worked against them, as it wasn’t really clear why certain things were being done and what connection Satoru had to all of it. This was one of the few downfalls this anime had and that majorly effected how the anime was received. Overall, Boku dake ga Inai Machi was able to transition from manga to anime rather well, if not for a few bumps along the way.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Apr 24, 2016
Story -7-
The basic story of Another is that a new student moves in, only to befriend a girl that no one else seems to see. When he meets her and starts to seek her out to try and become friends with her, bad things start to happen. There isn’t much more that can be said about the story since that would give away far too many twists. Overall, the story was rather interesting, as it was not something I had seen before in a mystery horror manga. Many of the mystery horror mangas tend to follow the same story line of a lot of people
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dying from a mysterious cause and everyone has to figure it out, however, this took a different spin.
Art -7-
The art within the manga was also on par on what it should be, as the characters were distinctive and the art got the point across. This series was not supposed to make any artistic stretches, so the artist, Hiro Kiyohara, kept the details to a minimum. Since this was in the horror genre, there was some gore, and that is always hard to do correctly. They tended to stay away on drawing some of the more detailed aspects, such as skin being sliced and broken bones, but what they did do, they did well.
Character -8-
The characters in the manga all had a reason to their actions and it was clear to see why. The main character, Kouichi, was a more passive main character, which was different from many other horror mangas, where the main character is much more active and more of a leader. The other main character, Mei, also did not really develop through the series; rather she stayed the same as when she is first introduced in the first book. This wasn’t a series where the characters were supposed to develop however, so that cannot be counted against them. The only characters that deserved a bit more detail to be revealed about them was Izumi and Yuuya. Izumi was shown to have a rather destructive home life and not much was known about Yuuya, and these were two of the more interesting characters that were not really focused on.
Enjoyment -9-
Overall, the enjoyment of the manga was high, as it was interesting to try and figure everything out with the main character Kouichi. Since this manga is classified as horror, there is a lot of gore, which could take away some of the appeal toward those who are not a fan of the genre. However, as I am a very big fan of this genre, it was very enjoyable for me. The only real turn off was that it was so short and so many other avenues could have been explored through the other characters. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes mystery and doesn’t mind a little bit of blood along the way.
Overall -7.75-
This manga only had a few flat points, being the somewhat common storyline within its genre and the art was average. If the story had been expanded upon more, making it a bit more complex than it was, the story would have felt a bit more original. The art also needed to go beyond drawing the characters well, but also needed to put more details into the gore and backgrounds. These two things however do not stop me from recommending the series, as it was rather well done for what it was and it is a quick and easy read once you get settled down.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Apr 23, 2016
Story -3-
The manga attempts to do a new story each chapter. There are mangas that can do this well, but this is not one of them, each story was half baked and never really followed a real story line. A repeat story within the manga was always that the main Vocaloids, Miku, Rin and Len, were always broke. One of the recycled plots was the three of them attempting to make money in different ways, only to gather just enough money for the concert that they wanted to have, but surprise, the money is used for Meiko and Kaito’s concert. The characters were always just
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all thrown in so they could all be there, there were one or two good stories, but they were far and few in between. Even the good stories tended to have recycled plots, as the good chapters often focused on the characters developing slightly as a person. The stories also had the feeling that they were just thrown in so that you could laugh at the characters or feel bad for them. For mangas that do a new story for each chapter, the chapter needs to be more than a few pages long so that the story can have a clear beginning, middle and end, without this the stories are often muddled and leave the reader confused and dissatisfied.
Art -8-
The art in the manga was rather good. Where the story falls flat, the art was able to make the manga at least bearable. The art was also constant; there were no times where the art would feel out of place. The characters were all different from one another, so there was no confusion between them.
Character -4-
I feel as though the characters were a bit underdeveloped, much like the stories. Miku was always the ditz, air headed idol, Rin the aggressive little sister, ect. These characters can appeal to many people and they could have worked better within the manga, but how they were presented made them very unappealing and made the characters feel as though they were simple stock characters, and in other words severely underdeveloped. The vocaloid characters are known, and they are known as somewhat like stock characters, but there is a way to make them feel as though they are more of original ideas. There is potential in the characters, they just need to be more thought out, they are currently more of a frame-work rather than a full character.
Enjoyment -2-
I did not enjoy the manga, because of the frame-work characters and the frantic stories. I found myself rushing to finish the manga just to be done with it, wanting to move onto a different manga. The art work was good and the one or two good stories that I would find every so often saved this from being a 1, but beyond that, I could not find myself enjoying the manga. I feel that if KEI had spent more time making the stories and more time making the characters a bit more realistic, than this manga would have had a lot more enjoyment in it.
Overall -4.25-
This manga feels as though it was someone’s attempt to try and make some money due to Miku’s popularity. If you see the manga for sale, I would not recommend one to buy it, rather try to find it online if you’re that interested in reading it. If you want to see the art work and try to study from it, again find it online, it is not worth the money that is asked for it. There are other mangas that do the one story per chapter better and have the same characters throughout the entire story line, such as Orenchi no Furo Jijou.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Apr 3, 2016
Story:
So this story starts off a bit strangely. As most people are use to the characters being of high school age, Tomu and his friends are actually all of middle school age. The story was well thought out with a lot of twists and turns. Of course it also made you feel smart as Tomu explained each one of the tricks to the games. The only downside to the story is when the games started to get a little TOO complex. It really took away from how Tomu really was outplaying his opponents and generally just lead to 'yay, he won, I guess?'
Art:
I personally am
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not a fan of the art style, but for what it was, it was well done. There were times were there was too much detail and it took away from the enjoyment, but other than those few times, nothing else was too distracting.
Characters:
Characters are some of the most important parts of the story, and every character was well thought out. Of course, almost every character had some flaw to them, along with some tragic background, except for Tomu's best friend. Even then, I never really lost sight as to why these characters were doing what they were doing. Every action was part of something meaningful to that character.
Enjoyment:
Like I previously stated, when the games started to get a little too complex and there were walls of text just trying to explain how the game was played, the enjoyment of the manga seemed to leak away. As much as I like details and knowing how things are working, when there is a whole chapter explaining how the game is played, I found myself skimming the chapters because it was rather boring to read. Then I found myself lost as Tomu is trying to explain how the game is beaten.
Overall:
This manga was something I had picked up a long time ago and came back to recently only to find it finished. It was rather enjoyable and the only thing that really ended up bothering me was just how I was no longer trying to find loopholes with Tomu, rather I was just waiting for him to explain to me how he had seen the 'trick' and he would win somehow.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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