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Jun 23, 2017
This review will be both for newcomers to Planetarian and those who already watched the 5 episode ONA. Please enjoy.
Story
Planetarian: Hoshi no Hito, or Planetarian: Stargazer- is a decent movie for those who have not watched the original Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet, 5 episode ONA. Though this movie is a sequel, it includes many scenes from the original, allowing for newer viewers to catch up. Unfortunately, I think it would be better to watch the original 5 episode ONA than to watch the movie. This is because all as the scenes from the ONA are flashbacks which in my opinion lose their
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effect because they are not being experienced in real time.
One big issue with this movie is that 80% of it is flashbacks from the ONA series, which could've been left out so the movie story could've been further developed. Honestly this didn't even need to be a movie but a 20 min episode if you cut out all the flashbacks from the ONA.
Character
The characters are new and only one (the main character of the ONA) has remained, though you'd see the original robot girl Yumemi (the other main character from the ONA) very often in flashbacks. The new main characters of the three children aren't honestly expanded a lot. No one from the new character was really developed sadly. However, the best character development has definitely been the now old the main character Kuzuya (The Junker/Old man in this movie). I would like to specify further, but that's a big spoiler.
Animation
Animation is good, though not as good as the original ONA series. Why does Ruth have no eyes? (They cover his eyes with hair) This just seems like a little lazy animation- they drew eyes for the other two kids, why can't they do it with him? The main character (the old man) Kuzuya also seems to suffer often from his hair covering his eyes. I would've liked to see his eyes more.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack is practically the same as the original ONA, especially the main theme from the Christian hymn "What a friend we have in Jesus".
Summary:
If you've already watched the ONA series: It's a decent movie and just skip all the flashbacks wherever you see them. I would not describe watching this movie as a big MUST, unless you're interested in what happens to the main character after the ONA series.
If you haven't watched the ONA series: Watch the 5 episode ONA first! You'll absolutely love it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Mar 31, 2017
Somewhere between a Hentai and an Ecchi sits comfortably the drama-romance anime Kuzu no Honkai. It borders on being hentai by featuring yes- some very arousing sex scenes but it never feels like a Hentai. It comes close to being an ecchi as its sex scenes are numerous and uncomfortable at times, but never flogs sex as a form of fanservice.
Why is there sex in this show? It is because one of the major themes featured is physical intimacy (sex) as a form of filling the void in one's life. For the sake of keeping spoilers out, one example of this theme is in
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the main characters' physical intimacy as they're using each other as substitutes for each other's reciprocated love as you may have read from the synopsis.
Furthermore as the synopsis may have indicated, this show is all about unreciprocated love. But it isn't the only kind of love explored as there is even destructive love, sexual love (lust), pure love, and unconditional love all found in the show. I hope to keep this review spoiler free as possible so I unfortunately can't go into specifics or talk about important events in the story.
Story 8/10
This is a mostly character driven story, so the characters's development are the focus. Put bluntly, it's about angsty teenagers with unreciprocated loves engaging in destructive and morally corrupt activities to sate their desires. The story is a dark twist on typical romance drama anime that take place in school touching on untouched parts of romance such as unreciprocated love and sexual love. Even taboo subjects such as student-teacher relationships, homosexuality, cheating are even included but executed well. If you are uncomfortable with these topics, then you may want to avoid this show.
I don't want to go into detail with the ending, but the ending was fitting for the show. I didn't want that ending, but it made sense and was suitable.
Character 8/10
Angsty, irrational, lustful, sick, sadistic, and promiscuous are all words that have no difficulty belonging to the cast of Kuzu no Honkai. I can almost guarantee you will hate nearly all the characters. These are not normal people and they are very broken. The decisions they make throughout the story will be bad and maybe sometimes irrational decisions. You likely cannot relate to them as even though they do reflect some of the negative parts of love, they are very exaggerated. Frankly none of them, bar for two which I like, are decent human beings and have good qualities. However even though the characters can be despicable it didn't stop me from watching the show but if it's too much for you to take then perhaps you should.
That said, every important character was extremely well developed. Entire episodes are dedicated to exploring the character's backstory, way of thinking, relationships with other characters and their views on love. There is the exception of one character who unfortunately didn't receive a full episode (though there was a flashback) and would be nice if there was an episode for them. However I interpret this character as a symbol of unconditional love and thus am less bothered about the lack of development.
One of the best aspects about the characters is watching them grow throughout the story. They start to realize their depravity and the destructiveness of their love and try to better themselves. They move on from past loves and harmful loves. They become wiser on their views on love and begin to make better decisions. This is remarkably cathartic and satisfying to watch, even though sometimes they may not make romantic decisions you are rooting for. Shoutout to a certain character's cousin and a certain teacher for being the catalysts for character growth and being my two favorite characters of the show.
If any criticism could be said about the characters is that they have really long monologues and sometimes their troubles when told to the viewer can sound a bit angsty, but this is to be expected when watching a show about teenage romance and drama. It isn't a big qualm for me though.
Art 9/10
The art is amazing. The backgrounds are beautiful and it is easily distinguishable that a remarkable amount of effort was put into animating the show. The characters are beautiful, especially the girls and Kanai is pretty handsome. I like the eyes as well which always seem to have some sort of depth to them, usually to indicate emptiness and loneliness. The OP and ED are fantastically animated and filled with meaning about the characters. The seemingly "cheap" way of using manga like panels in the anime doesn't come off as cheap and compliments the show. The use of black ink swirling over white and vice versa were a good artistic choice to help symbolize corruption or innocence. What I like best are the still shots of the characters where they're drawn with a lot of detail and color (I wish I could provide a screenshot) and help to emphasize a certain character's emotion/state very well.
Sound 10/10
Unfortunately the OST has yet to be released and when we don't know thus I can't refer to specific soundtracks, but it was pure excellence. Each track fitted each scene smoothly, helping to convey the tone of the scene and invoking strong emotional responses in the viewers.
The OP and ED are both very catchy and I very rarely skipped them. They are also brimmed with meaning in relation to the story. The OP speaks about the pain of loving someone but being too afraid to tell them because you may lose your existing relationship. The ED describes parallel lines, symbolic of the main characters.
Enjoyment and Conclusion
IN SHORT, it all boils down to enjoyment. It's what you're really looking for when wanting to start the a show. Then let me tell you. You're probably going to cringe, facepalm, and feel disgusted for about the first half of the show. Then in the second half you may become excited, sad, proud, and hopeful. It's an emotional rollercoaster which takes a dip down for the worse before bringing you up again stronger. Is it worth it? Heck Yeah!
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Feb 18, 2016
GET THIS:
Right now, there are 725 that have watched this movie. "Wow!", You say, "That's even less than Legend of The Galactic Heroes!" So here's THE deal I'm offering you. You get to be part of the exclusive 725 people (Now 726 if you watch it) who get to see something AMAZING. Care to hear my sales pitch?
Right now, 161 people, a good 21% percent of viewers, have rated this anime 10 OUT OF 10. Now that's not for no reason.
Lets kick this off with the story. Important background knowledge first: A young girl named Naruse stumbles upon a magnificent hilltop castle. Her
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curiosity makes her see something she should not have: Her father coming down from the castle with what seems to be a princess- but Naruse has never seen her father with this princess before. Excited, she goes tell her mother about the castle upon the hill and how her father was going down the hill with another princess. Having been told something Naruse shouldn't have said, her Father is kicked out and the family is torn apart. Then, a magical egg prince appears and seals her ability to speak because she wishes not to hurt people with her words anymore. [Words aren't very good to describe the aforementioned parts without spoiling it] HOWEVER this all changes when she is forced to sing in a musical, and much to her surprise, she finds herself able to express her feeling and thoughts through song.
The meat of the plot revolves around her, and a bunch of other individuals, having to organize and participate in a school musical after being unwillingly chosen to do it. Among them a baseball captain, Tasaki, and 2 other students, Sakagami and Nitou. They are all developed quite nicely in the time of 1 hour and 59 minutes. The dramatic conflict is quite well played out, tension rising between Sakagami and Tasaki at the start, Tasaki and his baseball team, along with romantic conflict forming between Naruse, Sakagami, and Nitou, this love triangle of uncertainty. Thus, I really enjoyed watching that. I could go into further detail about all of it but you'd rather save it for when you actually watch the movie. What I can say, is that there is a very strong sense of resolution to the story and the character development [How characters change] is absolutely spot on. Especially Naruse's, as she is the main focus, on how she transforms from a quiet, unnoticed, kind of girl to someone willing to stand up for others and express herself, ever so slowly, through sometimes moments where she forces herself to shout her feelings and moments where she just begins to sing at the most random of times. [This show is a little like a musical, or at least music and song focused at times]
The art was not bad even though art doesn't play much of a role in this sort of setting. But now we get to the music. The music shines when the characters are writing or singing songs. There is a rendition of "Somewhere over the Rainbow" in Japanese and the lyrics are altered to reflect what Naruse wishes to say, which is to express her thoughts and feelings [Even musical the characters organize is a retelling of Naruse's story made more child friendly]. This song isn't heard a lot throughout the movie, but I shed a tear when it was sung during the performance of their musical. Evoking emotions is what the creators intend to do, and they did it damn well.
Overall this movie intended to be dramatic yet heartwarming, provoking the viewer's emotions to what it called for, and this show is all that. A beautiful piece of entertainment that will live on in the heart of the 726th viewer. What else do you expect from the writer of AnoHana?
[VIEWER WARNING: The drama is, to be honest, quite important when deciding if you want to watch this or not. It's a great part of the show. If you can't stand high school type drama, or you can't just click with it [essentially all drama we can't relate to we call "Melodrama"], perhaps you shouldn't watch this despite it being well portrayed and executed in my opinion. It's like people who don't like burgers will never eat any, no matter how good they are.]
[EDIT: At the time of this review I did not know that this hasn't been released in English subs for streaming/download. For those wondering, I watched it on Singapore Airline's in flight entertainment system in English subs. Sorry for not knowing and I hope it is available soon!]
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Dec 19, 2015
Darker than black is Japan's version of X-Men in an anime series form. They both share similar concepts like "mutants" and "contractors", and neither show explains how an individual gains supernatural powers. But I'm not here to make comparisons, because frankly, I like DtB more.
Story:
"Bearing the sins of the children of earth, the moon began to consume it's light."
The story is told in an episodic form, with 2 episodes covering one short arc. To be honest, the first episode in every arc is a bit boring because there's more dialogue than action. (I found myself dragging my feet to watch the first couple of
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episodes until you reach the end and realize that what you watched was a masterpiece) And when there is action, it's orgasmic with wonderful choreography and animation. That's not something you see usually.
You'll find yourself asking a lot of questions, a few will be answered later on but most will go unanswered. But that does NOT affect your enjoyment of the series. I guarantee you will be confused with the numerous terms and words thrown at you and you'll have to use the dictionary("Remuneration" was a word I didn't know) or search on the wiki to see what they mean. Although it doesn't bother you when you finally understand them or not.
You may worry if the story has a good closure, as anyone worries whether the main character will actually fall in love in a RomCom, I assure you the story ends with a satisfying conclusion
Art:
The art is well done and there are a range of different and distinct character designs, but kept simple. (Not like those disproportional eyes in relation to other facial features). Hei's attire is pure badass, a simple black trench coat and a white mask with a purple bolt to represent his power(hint: It's electrifying people). Many people compare him to batman, which he does look like slightly, with less emphasis on his theme (Batmans got well, bat ears and a bat logo across his chest) like an assassin should. (I swear April looks just like storm from X-men)
Fight scenes are beautifully choreographed as said before, and the different contractor powers unique to each character are sexy. Gotta love that blue outline and glowing red eyes when contractors activate their power. MHMMMM WEI'S BLOOD DISINTEGRATION POWERS SNAP SNAP SNAP coughroymustangcough.
Sound:
Yokko Kanno is the composer responsible for the music in this series. She's a renowned composer famous for her music and DtB is no exception. The jazzy themes that play during fight/chase scenes (e.g. see: Go Dark) are different from intense classical music you may usually hear during most of those kinds of scenes, but they fit well nonetheless. Some standout pieces are: "Go Dark", played during fight/chase scenes, "Yin No Piano", a piano piece that would be considered Yin's theme, and finally "Nobody's home", which plays initially at the end of the second episode(where a certain contractor's dead body is found by the police in a river) and during sad scenes. When it first played, it gave me chills down my spine, and that was when I knew this series was gonna be good.
Both openings aren't too bad either, and the second one's pretty catchy. Hope y'all enjoy the music.
Character :
Hei is a badass and fun to watch. That's all. (JK They're all great)
There are also many additional side characters such as comedic relief Gai and his assistant who was hilarious, April, July and November 11. One could argue that the presence of the police officer Misaki was unecessary, but I say it's to provide a different perspective through the eyes of an ordinary human. She also helps explain some detail the viewer will likely need.
Enjoyment
I enjoyed this series so much I occasionally fantasize about being Hei, swinging from buildings with his grappling hook and electrocuting bad guys. Ain't that great? Thing is to be Hei takes a lot of effort, you gotta be a gymnast, be able to do parkour, martial arts, throw knives AND be a contractor. Sigh.
Overall
"If you pretend to feel a certain way, the feeling can become genuine all by accident."- Hei
This series is good and there's no need to pretend to feel it. So go watch it!
It would be great if there was a third season, or a movie, or a game, just give me more...
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Nov 30, 2015
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS. (But I tell you where they are at least)
Angel Beats! Is an anime about an afterlife high school that the souls of, teenagers(and why only teenagers?) go to after they die. The teenagers become ordinary students that take part in everyday school life like they would back on earth, however there are a group of them who choose to rebel against the god of the afterlife, I mean student council president, a little girl named Kanade("To play", which doesn't have much relation to the anime despite sounding meaningful). It follows the story of Otonashi, who wakes up without memory of his
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past, and joins the rebel group of students known as the Schutzstaffel- I mean SS- I mean SSS (anyone get the history reference?). I don't feel this series really deserves the high score it has- I'll explain why.
Story: You may not fully understand why the afterlife is set in a high school, but later on you learn why. The issue I have with the setting however, is that it only works for teenagers, which are the main characters of course, cause what's an anime without teenage protagonists and a high school setting. It's not terrible either. There are NPCs, stages for music concerts which come up quite often, a cafeteria, giant gun factories below the school, all the usual stuff.
I also don't fully understand why they had to throw in the shooty-shooty bang bang gun action-y part in the story. There really isn't much purpose but to attract more people(cause who don't like em' guns?). They could've done well without guns or actions.
The episodes consist of the rebel group doing some mission impossible operation, couple of people die in action (they respawn don't worry), and occasionally there are some episodes that cover character backstories. There is A VERY BIG PLOT HOLE AT THE END, bigger than that hole you were gonna dig to the other side of the earth, which COMPLETELY INVALIDATES THE WHOLE STORY. Skip to the art section to avoid the spoiler in the next paragraph.
If you didn't catch it for some reason, Kanade's heart is essentially Otonashi's donated heart. HOWEVER, that means Kanade died BEFORE Otanashi and she should appear AFTER Otonashi. C'mon Mr. Writer, you can do a better job. Just pop Kanade with another backstory. Or remove Kanade from the story completely (which would grind the plot to a standstill but hey) and have her appear at the end after everyone's disappeared and then Otanashi would be very pleased that he's saved someone.
Art: I'm not biased or anything, but I don't really like the art done by the studio that made this. I'm unsure of the name, but I think it's the same one that made Clannad(Coincidentally, I didn't understand crap about Clannad After Story's ending, and the death of Ushio was just forced to pile on the tragedy). It's just something about the large eyes and the hair that I don't really like about this studio's animation. But hey, this is 10x better than my stickmen!
Sound: Nothing about the soundtrack really caught my eye, or ears should I say. The first couple of piano notes in the opening are very pleasant, however they're ruined by the singing. Ugh. Should just make a whole song with just those couple of first notes.
Character: Big problem about characters are the un-expanded cast. There's a big cast of interesting people, however most of them don't get expanded on, save for the main characters. Otonashi's backstory was interesting (I spoiled it for myself before I even watched the series) but the scene where he writes his name and circles things on a certain card was empowering. Yuri's backstory was pretty brutal but they didn't expand much on it either, or maybe I missed something. There's a lack of development on her side, we can barely call her a main character. Kanade's backstory had such a big plot hole it made the whole show invalid(See above for explanation). Having expanded on the cast would really have boosted the enjoyment.
AND THEN WE HAVE YUI. Her backstory was good, but the episode focusing on her was even better. The final scene at the end of her episode was sadly moving. Can't spoil that though. 10/10 for that episode. (Death parade episode 9 ending scene trumps every episode of anime ever though)
Other:
I didn't sit down and watch this anime in one go. I kinda dragged my feet for this one, because the first couple of episodes weren't very important. There was Yui's episode which was really good. The rest was ok. The series' final scene wasn't a feelsfest. It wasn't very sad for me. It was more like -I'm gonna go now cya!- kinda thing. The ending was left open, and it implies that there is no "heaven" but characters get reincarnated (like Death Parade, heck Death Parade is like the universal anime standard for drama and feels anime, along with The Pet Girl Of Sakurasou).
Message - Here's an extra part you don't usually see in reviews. The message a show brings with itself is (in my opinion) the most important aspect of any show. When you've realised that you've finished watching that 12 episode anime, 20 mins per episode, and that's 4 hours of your life gone, you at least want to know what you've learned from it. There is probably some sort of message hidden in here and I wasn't able to spot it because I don't really think it had one, if it did they should've made it more obvious. Something about angst and accepting that you got screed by life? IDK
Possible improvements(There's no point criticizing without suggesting improvements)
+Kanade's character could be improved. When I mean improve I mean please change her backstory so she doesn't become invalid. Or actually she could have been removed and replaced with the other student council president character and the plot could still work if you think about it. Maybe Kanade's character could've had to do with her name's meaning, "To play". You could copy and paste the girl who first disappeared's backstory as her own, that would work. I can't really offer an alternate backstory cause my backstory writing skills are tired today. I'm sure they could've done better. Or just cough-remove her completely-cough.
+No singing in the opening. An instrumental can be beautiful enough.
+Why limit yourself to high schools and teenagers? Improve the diversity of your cast- young and old, all with different stories to share.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jul 21, 2015
Eh, so this is my first time writing a review cause I felt like I needed to review this anime. Sadly it will have to be on a bad note.
And here's the thing where you give scores and write very long paragraphs for different aspects.
I judge every category according to how it affected the enjoyment of the anime perceived by me.
Story:
The story is essentially nonexistent, or moves at the pace of a crippled snail. This is truly frustrating to watch because of the lack of plot progression, and the lack of change in character or character relationships. The show mainly consists of
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uneventful student council meeting scenes that Hikigaya attends and teenage edgy emotional melodrama(Drama is great, but this can't be considered drama. It's more like drama between teen girls who repress their feelings and refuse to share them, causing some awkwardly tense moments). Nearly every episode ends up forgettable and unexciting as I always have to search up on wikipedia what happened in the last episode to remind myself of it. It's that forgettable. Since the story gets nowhere I end up having to drag my feet to watch this, which really isn't a good thing if this anime is meant to be enjoyed.
It feels like the author of the novels, or at least the novels adapted this season, chickened out of trying to create some meaningful form of romance which was not blushing, because that doesn't count. There is a lot of ambiguity surrounding who the male MC is likely to have romance with, which is annoying because this is categorized under romance, so I expect to see romance. The author also forgot about the comedy tag as well, because there is little to none. You might as well rip off the comedy and romance tag on this show, because they've completely left it behind for some meaningless melodrama which I did not enjoy.
(I can't judge the story in full however, cause it isn't completed.)
Character:
The character with the most screen time was Hikigaya as always, with his ever famous pessimistic monologues. It's a pity that they didn't give up more time to explore what other characters are thinking such as the cold Yukino and semi-happy Yui.
They all seek the mystical "real thing", like true friendship with each other or something. Their relationships are all broken and superficial. The characters always talk and talk, very vaguely about the "real thing" and it's BORING. Heck, they barely change until the ending, where I still don't feel that anything has been truly resolved. This leaves space for a 3rd season, which I hope brings more meaningful development so I can actually like the characters and enjoy the dang show.
A lot of the other comedic purposed characters we don't see much of, the nerd white haired fat dude, tennis gender ambiguous dude and stuff. Those guys were funny...
Art:
Art doesn't really play a role in this anime in terms of enjoyment, but it was good nonetheless as terrible art would make watching this more unbearable.
Sound:
Nothing bad to say here either.
Other Comments:
At the end of every episode, there was always this bitter and tense atmosphere left behind and it felt like it was getting nowhere. I really hoped there would be romance. I really did. The author probably chickened out because he was too afraid for there to be a love interest which would cause some backlash of dissapointed fans.
How it should have been:
(There's no point complaining if you can't suggest a way to make it better.)
The first season was a good season that drew many people in and introduced the characters, which some of the comedic characters should have reappeared in S2 to balance the always tense atmosphere of the anime. The second season had actual romance, keeping the mood of the first season. Despite causing fans to rage, the author should make some romance build up between Hikigaya and one of the girls about halfway. The other half could have been the other girl trying to win his heart, which brings about some proper drama, but eventually accepting it.
Overall:
If you like melodrama with vague conversations on self discovery and fixing broken relationships that get absolutely nowhere, this anime is for you.
If none of the above, don't watch it. But do watch the first season, I think I enjoyed it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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