Back to metalhead33's Profile metalhead33's Profile

Legend of the Galactic Heroes is one of its kind, but if someone forced me at gunpoint to compare it to anything else, I'd say it's "like Game of Thrones, but in space"... which is kinda true, but it doesn't really do it justice. LoGH is really one of its kind. This anime tells the story of the final years of a 150-year struggle between the Galactic Empire and the Free Planets' Alliance. There is no "good side" or "bad side" - both of the aforementioned major teams contain their fair share of sympathetic/heroic characters and despicable/villainous characters, hence the comparison to Game of Thrones. ... The only exception is one unambigously evil minor faction, more on them later. Another thing both series have in common is named characters dying left and right: with two notable exceptions, none of them receive the luxury of a long, drawn-out and dignified death scene - all of them die the same short (but relatively painless) deaths their redshirt underlings die.

Let's start with the good: LoGH has an amazing soundtrack and amazing voice acting. The animation might not be everybody's cup of tea, but I believe it is very aesthetic, it has its own unique style and identity. Where LoGH really shines is plot and characters: the anime does an exceptional job getting you invested in the story and fates of the various characters, even minor characters (whom you don't except to live for long, given the nature of the series) are nicely fleshed out and have their own personalities and motives. Every time I was watching the anime, the endings of episodes had me going "just one more episode". The two main characters are the die-hard idealist Yang Wenli on the FPA's side and the (especially under the corrupting influence of his machine-eyed advisor) quasi-Machiavellian pragmatist Reinhard von Lohengramm on the Empire's side. Their struggle is also a struggle of ideologies and personalities: Democratic Republicanism with all its flaws (such as a government that constantly screws over Yang, who remains loyal to them nonetheless) versus Autocratic Monarchy with its potential for benevolent dictators and enlightened despots like Reinhard; Yang's blasé attitude towards the military (with his main motivation being to earn enough money to retire into a comfortable life) versus Reinhard's limitless ambition and personal vendettas. All in all, great anime, it really is a masterpiece...

... but even masterpieces aren't without their flaws, and LoGH has a few. First, the narrator. Yes, LoGH has a narrator, and in my humble opinion, it detracts from the experience. Show, don't tell! Secondly, the Earth Cult, oh god, the Earth Cult... In a show featuring nicely fleshed out characters and dominated by the eternal struggle between two morally ambiguous sides, both of which feature a mix of heroes and villains, the Earth Cult stands out as an underdeveloped yet overrepresented (when it comes to screentime) one-dimensional generic Bad Guy Cult that couldn't look more obviously evil if they tried, with the story arc that sees them at their most prominent being the weakest spot of the series in my humble opinion. Simply put, the Earth Cult doesn't deserve the amount of prominence and screentime it gets. The ending is slightly anticlimactic too.

All in all a great show, an eternal classic. As some other reviewers said it: this is the real Star Wars, George Lucas' franchise should be called something else.

So far, I have only seen 12 episodes from it, and I can confidently say, that it is one of the best anime I have seen in my life. The animation is great, voice acting is great, the story is great, the characters are great, everything is amazing.

The titular main character, Frieren, is not just a cute and beautiful elf waifu, but also very much relatable, at least to me. She struggles with comprehending how quickly time passes for others, which results both in funny and awkward moments that can be laughed at and emotionally traumatising tragedies. She is nostalgia personified, and is guaranteed ... to be instantly relatable to anyone who is over 25 and ever felt nostalgia, ever felt like re-living great and memorable moments of their life or re-tracing their previous steps.

The other characters are also good, both the posthumous and alive ones.

It's been ages since I saw a GOOD recently-made medieval fantasy anime (or maybe I just wasn't searching hard enough), and Sousou no Frieren impresses me on all fronts.

As another reviewer wrote: don't let the ratings dissuade you, this is a pretty solid anime.

Loosely based on a 1981 video game with the same name (I'm a big fan of old video games), this anime doesn't pretend to be anything more than what it is: a dungeon-crawling story about a party that decides to brave ancient ruins for treasure, fighting monsters, and also somehow saving the world in the process.

Is it a genre-defining, groundbreaking anime that will make you re-think your whole life? No. Does it have to be? Also no. You could rightfully accuse this anime of being "forgettable" or "mediocre", but all ... the things it does, it does well, and it does in a style.

It has some added sense of realism (e.g. delayed reactions to pain), it depicts magic quite well, is rather faithful to the source material, and I personally quite like the art style and sound design, even if it includes sound effects stolen from other anime (e.g. Gundam) and Star Wars. I particularly appreciate their choice in colour palette.

It's an anime for those who want to see a fantasy party defeat an evil villain within 50 minutes rather than 240 minutes. It's an anime for RPG lovers and appreciators of old games, chiefly fans of the original Wizardry series.

Now, obviously, this anime is not without its fair share of flaws either: if you expect a ton of character development, this anime is not for you. There is not much to the story (group of adventurers go underground to defeat bad guy and save the world, the end), but as I said, the anime manages to tell this story in a style. As lamentable is the lack of character development and worldbuilding, one has to understand that this is a 50-minute OVA. And honestly... It's still a recommended watch from me.

There are three kinds of people: those who hate RAG and its protatonigst Kazuya for being an indecisive wimp incapable of confessing; those who like RAG for its cute female characters (people who simp Chizuru or Sumi, mostly); and last but not least, my kind: people who understand why others hate RAG, but instead of hating RAG, we revel in it, understanding the premise of the series, understanding the characters, and most importantly, being able to put ourselves into the main protagonist's shoes. Those belonging to this third group loved the first two seasons, but by this third season, I think even our patience is ... starting to run thin.

The first two seasons were pretty good. Even the this third one was mostly okay. However, at this point, I think we're collectively starting to run out of patience. The first two seasons were mostly logical, but the third... I mean, it was enjoyable-ish to watch until the last few episodes, but they really have to drag it out and undo character development just to keep us from the awaited conclusion.

I didn't read the manga, so I don't know how the story proceeds, but what I was expecting was for Chizuru and Kazuya to finally become a real couple in the last episode. That didn't happen. What we effectively got was a return to the status quo, almost as if the whole season didn't even happen. This is especially egregious considering how the last couple episodes show Kazuya manning up, getting his act together and resolving himself to be there for Chizuru, with even she recognising her feelings for him. All of the season was building up for the big moment, when the two of them finally confess to each other and kiss.... except that never happens and we get a return to the pre-season status quo instead, for the most part. Just why?

People enjoy being teased to an extent. We don't mind it, when a romance between two characters gets dragged on for ages... however, I think even to that, there is a reasonable limit, and RAG is going way over the line there. And I'm saying that as someone who previously defended Kazuya's behaviour and depiction as perfectly human and believable, saying that the real reason others hate him is because he "hits too close to home".

TL;DR: To whoever wrote the source material: Just get it over with and make them kiss, ffs lol

Honestly? If you're a die-hard Slayers fan who can't get enough of Lina and Naga('s boobs), go watch it. Otherwise? Meh. It's arguably the weakest incarnation of Slayers I have seen so far, and as a stand-alone, it's pretty mediocre, at least plot-wise.

The animation is good, music is good, voice acting is good, but the plot and characters (other than the two main characters) are pretty forgettable. If Lina and Naga were swapped for two other randos, I wouldn't bother giving this anime the time of the day. Then again, the two main characters might as well be two other randos, because the plots of ... these three episodes are completely disconnected not just from each other, but from the Slayers movies they're supposed to be prequels to, and of course, the Slayers anime series (to which the movies are prequels) - they are all completely self-contained, each episode is its own separate entity without any connection to the other two.

Out of the three episodes, I'd say the third is the best (but it's still very meh), followed by the first, and the worst is the second.

The only saving graces of this otherwise very mediocre anime are the presence of Lina as the protagonist, and Naga the Serpent and her fanservice. Go watch it if you're a die-hard Slayers fan like me, otherwise, skip it.

I'm giving it an extremely generous 5/10, because it's still Slayers after all. Yes, I am biased.

As someone who was a big fan of the anime show.... It was alright. It was reluctant to watch it, because to me, Slayers ain't Slayers without Lina's familiar companions (Gourry, Zelgadis, Amelia, etc.), but I decided to bite the bullet and give it a try anyway, and I was positively surprised. It was alright. Not as outstandingly amazing as the anime show, but neither particularly bad.

If you want to get into Slayers, maybe start with this instead of the anime show, because this is a prequel to the anime show.

Animation is good (peak 90s animation), voice acting is good, the story is okay, but ... overall, it's nothing to write home about.

Ho boy... Shenmue, the anime. You can't write a review of it, without mentioning the fact, that this anime is an adaptation of a video game series, with episodes 1-5 being an adaptation of the plot of the first game (Shenmue I, 1999), episodes 6-13 being an apdatation of the plot of the second game (Shenmue II, 2001).

When adapting the storyline of an interactive piece of media (such as a video game) to a less interactive form of media (such as an anime, live-action movie or TV series), there are so many things that can go wrong, and much to my positive surprise, Shenmue ... the Animation did everything right.
It captured the essence of the story perfectly, it has all the important characters, and at times, it even expanded upon the story a bit, which is quite the feat given, given that...
Well, you see, both of the aforementioned games (Shenmue I and Shenmue II) have a run time of around 23 hours each (adding up to around ~46 hours for both games), while the entire anime series is made up of thirteen 23-minute episodes, adding up to a total playtime of roughly 5 hours. How do you compress 46 hours worth of story down to 5 hours? I don't know, but the creators managed to do it pretty well, if you ask me. In fact, some parts actually felt a bit drawn-out, so maybe they didn't compress it enough?

The animation, soundtrack, voice acting, etc. everything is perfect, no complaints there. The story is engaging and constantly keeps you thrilled and engaged. A ton of eye-candy too for those who are looking for fanservice amidst the serious plot.

A must-watch anime for both Shenmue-fans and people who never played (or even heard of) the original games. Looking forward for the future sequel.

Basically a compressed mashup of the original 26-episode anime with an alternate ending, and not a good one at that.
You see, the original anime series has 26 episodes, each of which are 23 minutes long, which adds up to 598 minutes. All of that got compressed down into a 90-minutes anime film. This is roughly 664% reduction, and it shows - with so much content being cut, the overall story feels incoherent, character development that was well-shown in the original suddenly feels very sudden and abrupt. Memorable characters were removed in the process too.

I'm giving it a generous 4/10, because the animation, sound, voice acting, ... etc. are still good, and even as a standalone anime-film, it's not unwatchable per se, but it truly pales in comparison to the original anime series, to which I also meted out its fair share of criticism (I reviewed that one too).

I didn't like the original anime's pacing after Episode 12, believe that it went really went downhill after Episode 20 and I believe that its ending was a real letdown... but the film basically took all of those questionable stuff that I just criticised, and replaced them with absolutely nothing, which is even worse.

The first hour is of the film was made up of the first 12 episodes of the show (the parts from before our heroes visited Second Earth), albeit heavily cut, which makes it feel incoherent. The last 30 minutes - the parts after the heroes got to Second Earth - were changed, completely different from the original anime. The whole subplot about the Council Members being evil, or there being a schism against them, are gone. The whole subplot about the B-cells? Gone. Marlene and Yuji living happily ever after in a primitive village? Gone.
Instead, we get the aftermath of a battle, which our heroes just barely survive, with the Blue retreating. It's literally a cliffhanger, and not a good one at that.

All in all, I would NOT recommend this. Watch the series instead. If you've watched the series, I guess you can watch this if you're curious, but it's really not worth your time. None the less, I'm giving it an extremely generous 4/10, because I recognise some of its objective artistic merits, even if it's not really worth to watch.

Ho boy... Where do I even start?

This wasn't my first time watching Blue Gender - I remember watching it as a kid some time in the mid-to-late 2000s. For some reason, my kid self wasn't as shocked by this anime as my present-day 30-year old boomer self. Maybe I watched a censored version, or maybe I just couldn't conceptualise and comprehend all the violence and gore as a kid, but... I dunno. So basically, this was my second time watching Blue Gender.
Where was I going again?Right, so Blue Gender. Great anime, but absolutely not for the faint-hearted. It contains a ton of violence, gore and ... even sex, so if you find those stuff yucky, or are easily traumatized by character deaths, then this isn't the anime for you.

Let's start by facing the elephant in the room right away: to say that it was heavily influenced by both Starship Troopers and Neon Genesis Evangelion would be a huge understatement. It's practically a perfect marriage of those two, just without the humour - it is much more serious and deeper than either of those. The way the anime casually kills off named characters without any mercy reminds me of Game of Thrones (though we all know that the main protagonist and his love interest had the benefit of Plot Armor).

The animation is so good that it makes me want to cry - they sure don't make 'em like that anymore! I liked the intro song too. While there are several things I object to in this anime, if there's one thing the creators got right, it's visual storytelling: show, don't tell. And that is precisely what they did. They sure showed us. Sometimes, still shots tell more than even a thousand words of exposition, and the creators of Blue Gender understood that arguably better than anyone.

And here's where this review turns somewhat negative: plot, or rather, lack thereof. Spoiler alert, but here it goes: our story begins with Yuuji awakening in a world that is completely different from the one he slept in. He gets rescued, but things don't go according to plan, and he becomes part of a Starship Trooper-esque crusade against TEH BUGS... sorry, I mean, the Blues. Lots of characters die, and then the plot eventually turns into a copy of Neon Genesis Evangelion, just with a green, environmentalist message - a message I disagree with, by the way. Basically, things progress from bad to worse, and we end up with our main protagonist living as a Neolithic primitive, rejecting any and all technology more advanced than the wheel.
The way I see it, it was good(ish) until around the 20th episode, when it kinda began to turn downhill - I liked Episodes 1-12, I kinda liked 12-20 too (just less so), but it really started going downhill at 20 with the forced message. I'm still giving it a 7/10 though.

I don't want to get political at all on an anime review, but the idea that technology is evil is just silly. The role of technology is to reduce the impact each individual has on the planet - do you have any idea just how much land would be needed to sustain 8 billion hunter-gatherers? Do you have any idea just how many species of megafauna were driven into extinction by our Paleolithic hunter-gatherer ancestors? With this knowledge in your head, the notions of technology being "evil" and making Gaia sad or more primitive peoples being "more in tune with nature" and having less of a harmful impact on Earth just seem laughably silly and blatantly false, and rightfully so.
I loved the anime, but I strongly disagree with its Luddite message. But hey, it's just an anime, no need to get myself so worked up over that.
It's an otherwise decent anime whose last episodes and ending are ruined by a forced message delivered in a ham-fisted way.