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domingo, 30 de maio de 2010
domingo, 23 de maio de 2010
sexta-feira, 21 de maio de 2010
Elfen Lied
Original title: Erufen Rito
Genre: Drama, Horror, Psychological.
Director: Mamoru Kanbe
Author: Lynn Okamoto
Studio: ARMS.
Original run: From July 25, 2004 to October 17, 2004.
Lenght: 13 episodes.
"Hurry up and take off your clothes.
Good girl.
Now, as you always do."
Elfen Lied was a great experience for sure, I didn’t found many fights on it, but its physiological side is something like: BIG! It may be just my guess, but such a condensed anime (only 13 episodes) and within such characteristic approaches, led to a stronger bet in drama and in human mind rather than in action and fight sequences.
The plot take place in Japan, at some isolated facility, where some experiences with the new human race “Diclonius” come about. One of these, Lucy, is the main character of the series and her actions in the first episode turned it, probably, in the best entertaining episode of all the 13.
Certainly, this story will grant you a couple of sad feelings sometimes. It’s hard to opposite this since all the characters have to deal with rejection, loneliness, and even torture and several bad treatments, not to mention other situations like even a rape scene. They don’t have much, and some even don’t have anyone who cares about. In spite of everything, you’ll find that they all are cute, kind and really good persons without any bad feelings like revenge. Well, we’ll open here an exception for Lucy perhaps, but notice that even she was a good one at start and through all the pain, she will emerge into a second personality, probably the most pure of all, and I bet that this only comes out because of her primary essence and her will to believe in a better world.
Elfen Lied, breathe from the emotions, views and interactions between humans and “Diclonius” within an environment where the leader of the research will constantly attempt for the retrieve and neutralization of the fled product. Harsh scenes of social alienation, violence, abuse or nudity complete the polemic profile of the animation.
It is definitely worth to watch, mainly for its high point: the story, since the main components of this anime are just average.
At the end, the value of the humanity achieved a really pleasant ground to struggle.
Story- 9.5
Design- 7
Action dynamics- 6
Soundtrack- 8.5
Sound effects- 8.5
Characters- 9.5
Voice performances- 9
Overall: 8,4
Claymore
Original title: Kureimoa
Genre: Fantasy, Supernatural, Action.
Director: Hiroyuki Tanaka
Author: Norihiro Yagi
Studio: Madhouse.
Original run: From April 3, 2007 to September 25, 2007.
Lenght: 26 episodes.
"Teresa... I'm still alive. I can almost hear you saying... that's the way it should be!"
Since Bleach that I didn’t had any anime like this… it got myself jammed, devouring episode after episode and this, is saying so damn much!
I’m expecting a second season and a couple of improvements since the actual ending would make it a bit weird and leave the feeling of something unfinished. Although, we already have 26 episodes within you’ll have some real fun watching the story flowing through many and well achieved, fighting scenes.
In the plot, humans coexist with the “Yoma”, sentient monsters that feed on human innards and are able to use the human form. There is also another kind, the half-yoma, half-human, mainly associated with an organization which trains them as warriors to protect humans from the yoma, for a fair amount of fee. These warriors are called “Claymores”
based on their swords and only half-yoma women’s are recruited to fulfill these duties. At some point, a claymore will become a yoma too, and for that reason she’ll send a letter to her closest friend, requesting this closest claymore to get to her and kill her. Ultimately, when a Claymore realizes that her human side it’s fading and that soon she will reach the yoma status, her only wish is to die with consciousness and with his human side alive yet.Each Claymore has a rank number which is based on their strength and ability within 47 possible ranks, each one corresponding to the number of regions of the world. They are also referred as the “Silver Eyed Witches”
based on their appearance and cold nature. Even so, you’ll find them much more sensitive while watching the series than they appear to at the beginning, specially the key character, the 47th ranked claymore, known as Clare, who saves a small human boy: Raki. In spite of a bit annoying, he will be her companion and probably her second source of hope and strength in this anime. Well, about the other source, you’ll have to watch it, but believe me, it’s the main reason why “Claymore” it’s above all, a tale of revenge, with the plus that this “other reason” hoist even further the level of the fighting sequences.The dynamic of the animation it’s really fluid and the graphics and colors also good. The story itself may not be the masterpiece of the decade, but its good enough and some of the remaining components lift to a lofty level.
Story: 8.5
Characters: 8
Voice performances: 8 (english version)
Design: 9
Animation dynamics: 8.5
Soundtrack: 9
Sound Effects: 8
Overall: 8,4
Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit
Original title: Serei no MoribitoGenre: Fantasy.
Author: Nahoko Uehashi
Director: Kenji Kamiyama
Studio: Production I.G
Original run: from April 7, 2007 to September 29, 2007
Lenght: 26 episodes.
"I cannot let someone who knows this secret go free."
It finished already, and yet, I still do not know if I’m honestly disappointed or if I’m just surprised that it didn’t went at all like I was expecting.
Well, at a first sight I figured that it was an animation with a plot focusing a distant past, a Japanese one, with a female focal character being a powerful warrior, and that seemed a truly uncommon approach. Well, as my bet for the context was right, I can’t say the same for the second part of my personal bet, as it doesn’t have the action that I was expecting. It starts like that, and she is really strong like her opponents but soon it will be over with the majority of the episodes being quite peaceful and polite.
Resuming the plot isn’t a hard task as I only need to say that this female, Balsa, is a wandering warrior who takes the mission of saving lives in atonement for a past sin. On her journey, the second Empress hires Balsa to protect the life of the second prince Chagum, guardian of the water spirit and the eight and last atonement for the spear wielder. Quite simple, actually isn’t it?Well, I will not recommend you this anime because of its action or because any of the common vectors. By opposite, I actually recommend this series for its environment. Serei no Moribito, more than a story, have history! The context, the places, the ways of being, all the court details, all the perspectives and traditions and even believes, turns this anime in a really educative piece of work and if you have any interest for more than superficial entertainment and if you want to acquire some reasonable knowledge about the Japanese native culture, Serei no Moribito welcomes you!
However, the emotionless of the plot as well as the lack of skirmish may decrease severally your interest.
Story: 7
Design: 8
Animation Dynamics: 6
Soundtrack: 7.5
Sound Effects: 6
Characters: 7
Voice Performances: 7.5
Overall: 7,0
sexta-feira, 14 de maio de 2010
Wolf's Rain
Original title: Urufuzu Rein
Genre: Adventure, Post-Apocalyptic, Supernatural.
Director: Tensai Okamura
Writer: Keiko Nobumoto
Studio: Bones.
Original run: From January 6, 2003 to February 25, 2004.
Lenght: 30 episodes (4 added later).
"There's no such place as paradise...
At the ends of the earth, there's nothing at all.
No matter how far you walk, the same road just keeps going on and on.
But in spite of that...
Why am I so driven to find it?
I hear someone's voice calling to me...
It says: Make your way to Paradise!"
A world flooded in chaos where hope it’s a really rare thing to endure. All the environments are covered in a deep grey or in a bitter white. Cold plus ruins, to emerge such desolate cities. The humans are extremely divided into nobles or commoners and the most powerful nobles are active in their own wars, spreading an oligarchic model where military power grants the lead.
Within this flux, you’ll find Paradise as the ultimate seek for the majority of the characters, main of them: wolves, taken as a far vanished kind, but they somehow lingered on, surviving by taking human form and, through the Flower Maiden, they’ll found themselves the key to achieve that common objective.
This resumes quite well the matrix of Wolf’s Rain. The plot its simple, wolves linked somehow to some curious creatures, the Flower Maiden,
and trying to pinpoint them, takes action the greedy human nobles which will seek the success of their own dreams. The interconnection of these 3 king pieces will give you a really nice game of chessboard. In fact, this is for me an uncommon and yet, very refreshing approach.Deeply, this anime plays much more with the concept of friendship, lifting that as the great conquest of the reunion of such lonely and independent characters, the wolves, uniting their common wish in the same path. Together they’ll become able to face the traps and enemies until some point. Yet, while friendship succeeds, the concept of love can’t manage the same results.
About the technical components of Wolf’s Rain, they are all average for me, never getting lower than 7 and never acquiring more than 8. I rather write about some inner curiosities, like the soundtrack, where you’ll find tracks in several languages such as Portuguese or Italian and being honest, this anime attempts clearly to loom as nearby as possible to the occident, specially pro-American and that also may explain why this anime is so similar in everything in the English version, which is actually some faithful work.
Down point: Right in the middle, around 17th episode you’ll have to be patient with the 4 recap episodes, which seemed a bit unnecessary in my opinion. And probably the path of the wolves, too far and that will decrease a bit the rank of the animation for a while.
High point: The final it’s really, really charming.
Story - 8
Soundtrack - 8
Sound Effects - 7.5
Design - 7.5
Dynamic - 7
Vocal performances - 7
Characters - 7.5
Overall - 7,6
Devil May Cry
Original title: Devil May CryGenre: Action, supernatural.
Director: Shin Itagaki
Studio: Madhouse.
Original run: From June 14, 2007 to September 6, 2007.
Lenght: 12 episodes.
"The smell of blood here is more cloying than the smell of alcohol though."
I would only say something like, “a bonus to all the fans of Devil May Cry”. And this could definitely compress this anime.
It doesn’t bring anything new, it’s too short and the plot can be a small line where you just have to say that Dante is broken, struggling under constant financial debt, and to face this, he works in a lot missions to kill the demons through his devil-hunting business.
The end.
Ah, and you have the appearances of 2 nice ladies too. The end, again? Well, if you want to hear something more accurate I can struggle here to bring you some other points.
One of them can already be found through the number of the episodes: 12. It is a short one alright, but its worst than that, you see, while you watch it, you’ll realize that one episode it’s a single mission without any connection between the others. Only at the final 2 or 3 episodes, and these ones, can only find some link with the first episode.
So, putting it clear, you have here 4 or 5 useless missions, which in such a short anime, can produce some damage. Even the fights could be better, and also the design of the demons. The games are so much fluid (ah, nostalgic mode now). And the script, well… is there even a script? Even the environment could be much more dark and twisted.
Yet, in spite of the bad aspects, the soundtrack was made to the image of the games (quite average), and the same to the sound effects along the animation. After all, it’s a mini-anime able to entertain you for a while, where you don’t have to think or expect much. Like I said, it’s really like a bonus to the fans.
You won’t kill your time if you like Dante or the girls, but you’ll easily find some other better anime to watch instead.
Design - 8Dynamic - 6.5
Sound Effects - 8
Voice performances - 7
Soundtrack - 7.5
Characters - 7
Story - 4
Overall - 6,5
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