First of all, I refuse to add “The Animation”. It would be like calling the Yugioh GX manga “The manga” since it’s a lot different than the anime. I don’t get the logic and I would sooner eat Spagetti with Cheese! (Actually tastes really good) That being said, I should get back on topic. With an anime that deals with Kaiju and Demons, you can bet that there is a lot to talk about. This is probably the first anime that I’ve watched that was basically an apocalyptic story about the end of the world. I can’t really think of any others like it and it’s also the first big monster show that I’ve seen. (Pokemon and Digimon don’t count because they are Magical Creatures and Digital Programs…….and because that’s a whole different genre in my humble opinion) The show was definitely a success, so let’s see why!

All right, first I should break the bad news. It’s….only 13 episodes!!!!!!! Don’t reach for the power switch yet and jump on the One Piece bandwagon folks! It may only be 13 episodes, but the series is still pretty exciting and cool. I know that it may be hard to believe, but we get a lot of battles in these 13 episodes. 13 episodes may be the ultimate slap in the face for the people who grew up only watching Naruto, One Piece, Pokemon, and Pretty Cure, but 13 episodes can still handle a lot. I’d probably faint if they announced a 13 episode series for something like Medaka Box or Gamaran, but it’s okay when you don’t need to adapt something extremely large.

That being said, the whole 13 episodes fad is tricky. Devil Survivor 2 made the most out of it since just about every cliffhanger was very epic and awesome. A 13 episode series should always feel very fast paced since they don’t have that much time. Short series have an advantage since it’s easier for people to just sit down and watch them since it won’t be a long commitment like Bleach, but it also means that we won’t get to see the characters that often. If Index or Medaka Box had just continued instead of constantly stopping for sequels, they would have adapted everything by now. We need more super long shows in the world. In the end, I think that 13 episode series as only good when you know that you can adapt everything in one shot. I don’t want to see a sequel being announced afterwards because they only adapted one arc. For that, just continue all the way through to the end.

The plot of the show is fairly simple, but also intense. See, Hibiki is a kid who has always led a fun life. His friend shows him a website where you get to watch your best friend die. The site will only send you a clip when the person is about to die so that you can have some advance warning and emotionally prepare yourself. They head into a train station and they both get a message that the other person will die. Hibiki quickly decides to run back above ground, but it’s too late and he gets hit by the train. Norman humans can’t tank such a blow and they both start to die.

Luckily, in a similar fashion as Pat’s revival thanks to Gemini Spark, they get a message asking if they want to live. It’s a tough call, but they both go for life and are revived. Unfortunately, it’s still dark in the subway station and the people around are still dead. Hibiki and his friend (Daichi) notice a classmate of theirs and she’s the only other person who lived. Her name is is Lo Nitta and the three of them decide to leave and figure out what’s happening. The only problem is that the people who died forgot to close their phones and now demons are coming out of them! Hibiki will have to unleash his true powers if he wants to stop them!

After some close calls, they find out that 7 Septentriones will attack the World. 1 Per day. It is the week of trials and tribulations for the humans. We have had it coming for millions of years and this is Polaris’s judgement. If we survive the 7 days and defeat the demons, then we can be granted one wish. It could be anything due to Polaris’s unlimited power. The problem is that the 7 demons are immeasurably powerful and just surviving the week can be difficult. Luckily, someone has mysteriously created the Dead Face program (The site that shows when your friends are about to die so that you can try and save them) and a demon program which allows you to summon demons depending on how strong of a person you are. (Inner strength, not outer strength)

That’s the plot in a nutshell, but there’s always something else right? A shady organization known as JP’s has known about this for years and they are ready. The only problem is that they don’t care about casualties and they don’t mind sacrificing a few billion people for the “greater good” The unfortunate part is that the other organization is really just a few guys with demons who can’t really fight. Both groups have their pros and cons, so Hibiki must decide who he will help. Then a bright idea comes…why should he have to join either group? You’ll want to find out what he decides! Also, the demons can be intelligent and they may not let everything go according to plan.

Hibiki is the main character of the series and he’s definitely a big change from your average hero. His design can be a little off putting at first and he looks more like a support character than a main one. His design reminds me of Lelouch. His personality is still solid, but he’s not the best lead for an anime. He has a lot of “rage” moments and they’re pretty well deserved. The only problem is the fact that he usually doesn’t seem to do anything about them and he actually makes a lot of the same mistakes as Eren Yeager. They both tend to stand back and let the “higher ups” make the decisions even when they know that the decisions aren’t very sound.

To put a perspective on this, Yamato (Who will be discussed later on) and the JP’s group decide that the best way to save the world is to murder Hibiki’s friend. (Lo) Hibiki doesn’t like this and he moves in to help, but let’s just say that he should have left sooner. Hibiki manages to pull himself together after the incident and yells at Yamato a bit, but Yamato quickly defeats him in the verbal fight and leaves…after vowing that he’ll destroy Hibiki. Hibiki doesn’t take the news too well and he’s knocked out before you know it. Not exactly the response that someone like Ichigo would have had.

Hibiki is still a good character and he can be compared to guys like Syaoran and Ichigo, but he just doesn’t manage to be as cool as them. Granted, he only gets 13 episodes to show what he’s made of, but he could have been better. I’d give him a 7/10 if I actually graded characters and he’s still someone that you can root for. He has two demons for the majority of the series. A Phoenix and a Thunder beast. They’re both pretty powerful, although I found the Phoenix to be a little more impressive. Hibiki can also fight on his own and comes equipped with the usual main character powers. Energy blasts, Super Speed, Flight, Barriers, Super Durability, etc.

Lo is one of the main characters and the train crash definitely changed her life! She is a solid character, but she can definitely be a little too nice for her own good. When the government approached her with a plan that will involve destroying her, she should not have accepted. That being said, she did it so that she could help her friends, but was it the right move? I don’t think so. It’s more of a negative for Hibiki, (Since he should have stopped it before things got dicey!) but some of the blame can be placed on her. It’s doesn’t affect her in a negative way since it shows that she’s definitely a true hero, but she just made a wrong call. She may not be as powerful as Hibiki or Yamato, but she can definitely hold her own in a fight and she’s one of the toughest characters in the series.

Daichi is Hibiki’s best friend from childhood and the two are pretty close. Daichi prefers to live life on a day to day basis and he doesn’t give much thought to the future. While Hibiki is always worrying about how he’ll protect Daichi and Lo, Daichi also wants to protect Hibiki. He desperately tries to fight the demons and help Hibiki throughout the series, but the results are usually tragic. His heart’s in the right place, but he was dealt a bad hand. His demons are far too weak to help anyone and that’s his big problem. He’s still a character that you can root for, but you’ve also got to feel bad for him at times. At least he manages to give it his all!

Yamato is the big rival/big villain of the series. He’s as ruthless as they come and no sacrifice is too great for him if it means that he can achieve his goal. His goal is incredibly ambitious and it’s something far tougher to achieve than simply ruling the world. Luckily, Polaris can grant any wish so nothing is too tough anymore. That being said, many people try to get him to warm up to people, but he doesn’t give an inch. He has been training for the demon invasion for many years and he actually does not need a phone to summon his main demon as they have been partners since he was a kid. He is the most advanced in how to use the phone demons and he can also fight on his own like Hibiki. Unlike Hibiki, he has tremendous experience in hand to hand combat and he has all of the powers that Hibiki does, but arguably he is stronger in each of them. This guy definitely can’t be considered as a hero, no matter what his end goal is. I consider him to be a villain, but one who means well and isn’t downright evil like the average villain. Yamato is the best character in the series and I can say that without question. His demon, Baal, is extremely cool and he has some other big hitters. His main monster is Cerberus and he’s as tough as he sounds.

Alcor is a mysterious figure who is around for a large portion of the series, but we don’t find out too much about him until we start to near the end of the series. He seems to know more than he lets on and his power is considerable. Without much effort, his subordinate was able to take out the entire rebellion. He is intrigued by humanity and he wishes to observe the 7 days of Tribulation. It’s similar to how Bass observed the battle with Lazerman and Shademan. Alcor is a pretty likable character and I gained a lot of respect for him during the final episodes. That being said, I was always a fan of the character. He just struck me as an interesting character. The main characters were definitely a little too mean to him at times, but they still got along in the end.

Keita is one of the demon wielders, but he doesn’t get to appear that much. He seems to have some decent acting ability and can be found on TV, but his fighting abilities are only okay. He’s very sure of himself, but this just ends up leading to crushing defeats. He was out of his league in this war and he’s not a very likable character. He’s basically a one dimensional rival and I like to think that he was about to get some character development, but it would be rather hard to prove. His monster is a humanoid who uses his weapon to smash people. It’s not a bad strategy…but not the greatest one either!

Hinako is not really Keita’s partner, but they do work together at times. Her demon, which is useful…but not extremely so. Flying is definitely great since it can compliment someone’s fighting style, but the demon can’t really fight so it’s moot. She’s a decent character, but like Keita..there’s just not much reason to root for her. She gives motivational speeches and tries to help others, but in the end…she should have just worried about her own fighting skills.

Jungo is a quiet person who doesn’t really talk that much. He has a cat demon that has some pretty powerful explosions, but it ultimately not very powerful. He’s a very skilled cook and he usually teams up with Airi on missions. He didn’t get much character, but in his case it seems to be intentional. He’s pretty dependable and fights to the end, but he’s still not a superb character. He does beat most of the other side characters.

Airi also uses a cat demon and she’s a little more head strong than the other demon wielders. She’s always ready for a fight and she’s one of the few who actually enjoys this situation. She also has an ice demon with considerable power and she’s one of the only members who can actually help out against the stronger opponents. She doesn’t actually get to meet up with the main character at all for the most part, but she gets to talk with his friends and Jungo. The four of them even got to team up at one point! (Although Daichi was a little hesitant)

Joe is easily the worst character in the series and he nearly brought the show down. He definitely brought the show into the hole known as fanservice, but he was luckily written out before that could happen. Still, he’s basically a filler character who shouldn’t be trusted and just isn’t cool. He’s also very weak and never really gets a fight for the entire series. He was likely just here so that we would have a hero to dislike and it did work. This is one guy that you’ll want to see go up against some powerful demons!

Makoto works for JP’s and she’s one of the higher ranked members. She gets her own backstory and will basically comply with whatever Yamato asks for. It’s one of those cases where she works for an evil person, but she still looks up to him and makes the bad calls. She was a nice person, but she puts the group first and ultimately that makes her no less responsible than Yamato for many of the situations. She was also the one who approached Lo with the suicide mission. In the end, that prevented her from being a likable character and she’s just another villain.

Fumi is a scientist and she starts out as an antagonistic character, but there are circumstances involved. From there, she becomes more of a main character and she always seems a little strange. That being said, she’s still the smartest character in the group when it comes to technology and she helps them out a lot with barriers. (Although, it’s ultimately futile to make barriers against universe busting demons) That being said, she’s another person who doesn’t mind sacrifices for the greater good and she continues to serve the corrupted organization known as JP’s.

The Animation for the show is quite good. It’s not overly impressive and considering that it’s 2013, it could probably be better. That being said, after a while, graphics don’t need to continue to get better and better. This show looks really good and that’s the bottom line. It may not stack up against Index or Bleach, but there are still many shows that is does defeat. Most of the series takes place in the dead of light so we get a lot of contrast between the dark setting and the bright energy blasts. The animation definitely rises to its peak during the final few episodes as the battles get more and more intense. The highlight of their animation was definitely in the effects as the blasts really stood out.

As I mentioned earlier, this is really my first horror/thriller anime. It also has some slasher elements in that you can expect most of the cast to be knocked off. Since it’s 13 episodes and the threat is real, you can imagine how fast they begin to be taken down. To put this into perspective, from the 13 main Demon Wielders (Including the main character), at least 11 of them will perish by the end. That’s a pretty big number and you can probably tell that the anime won’t be all fun and games forever. It’s surprisingly not that dark, (Animation aside) but it’s definitely not as upbeat as something like Naruto. Part of what keeps it light is the fact that there’s always hope since the survivors just need to last the 7 days. There still is a constant sense of dread since the human race is basically becoming extinct, but this happens in a good way. The heroes have to question whether it’s worth it to keep on fighting since most of the world has been incinerated anyway.

The show also manages not to fall into any holes. I can actually say that there are no real flaws to the show. Sure, some characters could be cooler and things can always be improved, but there is nothing really negative about it. There’s no fanservice (Will wonders never cease!) in the entire show and no unneeded animal violence. The creatures are mostly humanoid or look like objects and the ones that do look like animals tend to lost in unviolent ways. I got worried in one scene where one of their arms was bit, but the scene cut away and it appears that the bite was unsuccessful because he looks okay in the next scene. I was surprised that the show was so classy and it reminds me that there’s still hope for anime. After the abomination that was Space Dandy, I thought that things could be going downhill fast!

The Kaiju/Demons (In the first episode, the villain is called a Kaiju by the general public and I tend to believe those guys. Still, they are all demons, but we always did need a demon kaiju!) are pretty cool. I don’t really care for the 7 Septentriones that much because they look more like objects than creatures, but they’re still tough. One of them was said to be able to consume the universe itself! That’s a pretty solid feat and he’s nearly unstoppable. It brings up the a little plot hax for the final member of the Septentriones since he should have been even stronger and they acted like he was, but he put up less of a fight. Maybe he forgot how to use that ability since he had so many of them to choose from.

The designs for the demons can be decently good, but none of them stand out that much as being incredibly awesome. Baal was really cool and definitely my favorite from the bunch. Others that were cool were Hibiki’s two demons, all of Yamato’s, Lorelei, Lugh, and Satan. Satan is probably the most monsterish as far as the monsters go. There aren’t a whole lot of them in the series, but there are only 13 episodes after all. They definitely made for solid fight scenes!

So, we’ve got Demons, Lucifer, and Satan. You may wonder if that means that we’ve also got Angels and God, but you’d be disappointed. We have a “god” in this universe, but his name is Polaris and he doesn’t seem to be much better than the demons. After all, he created them all to destroy the humans in the first place and he just seems to be bored of Earth. He has deigned the place to be irrelevant and it cannot exist anymore. It would have been nice to see Hibiki summon a holy being to take on Satan at the end and that could be a missed opportunity. People are always hesitant to show the holy side of things in any form of media, but demons and the devil are considered as safe characters. People seem to accept that they are real without accepting the full story. Of course, with the modern world as it is right now, things definitely don’t look like they’re changing. I’m still waiting for an anime to adapt Revelations, since that would be awesome. (Of course, there would definitely be a lot of pressure to adapt it correctly. One slip up could be very fatal in such a show)

The Soundtrack for the show is pretty good and it definitely gives the anime a horror vibe. That being said, it is pretty varied and accompanies the scenes pretty well. We have some fast paced techno music that is used for the fights and there’s also a great opera music theme that plays when the demons are first summoned. The show’s ending theme is also great and it makes for some really good music during the cliffhangers. It reminds you that the world is ending and that the heroes may not be able to win this time. The opening is all right and grew on me a little, but while the music is decent, the images are really lazy. The opening just shows them all and then shows them all again. The last bit is just clips from the show run at really high speeds. That is Not how you make an opening. Still, the soundtrack is solid overall.

I just need to mention one big missed opportunity that I was a little sad about. In Hibiki and Yamato’s inevitable clash, they didn’t actually get to fight. I wanted to see them pit their super powers against each other and see who was truly stronger. We got to see them both fight against other opponents, but never against each other. When their fight finally did come, only their monsters got to fight. I felt like I got a little cheated out of my epic fight. It would have been the best fight in the show and it definitely would have felt like I was back in DBZ world. Ah well, maybe in a sequel if we get one someday….maybe.

Overall, this is a pretty great anime. It’s short, but it managed not to make a lot of common mistakes and it was a lot of fun. That’s the main reason why it got such a high score. The fight scenes may not be as good as Gurren Lagann, the soundtrack may not be as solid as Accel World, and it may not have the theater quality feeling that Sword Art Online has, but the anime just did a great job of being fun and being unique. It stayed professional to the end and there were no bad episodes in it. (The first three all had that flaw along with others) They did a good job of knowing when to end each episode and we even got a scene after the credits in one of the episodes. The end theme worked pretty well as an ending to each episode and the fights were also solid. Hibiki’s design may still be a little tough to swallow, but the actual character is still pretty good. Yamato makes for a great villain and the characters can get a little high tier. The series starts to feel like DBZ once Lugh enters and Hibiki/Yamato definitely feel like DBZ fighters. I definitely recommend this anime since it’s a horror/action epic that stays classy and gives you some characters that you can root for. You also have to think about the choices that the main character has to make and decide which would have been the right one. Now, I can finally have a horror anime to recommend when I watch a horror film that makes me groan. Haunting in Connecticut

Overall 8/10

Digimon Frontier is the first Digimon show that I didn’t really watch back in the day. I caught one episode where JP was wrongly accused of being an awful person and Zoe has her climatic battle against her water rival from the villain side. Needless to say, it turned me off from the show and I did not give it another shot for years. Eventually, it was time to give it a new shot and it was a lot better than I remembered. It was just bad luck that I happened to catch one of the worst episodes of the show.

There are 5 main characters for this series and they each of the power of one of the 10 Legendary Warriors! Their abilities should not be underestimated and Takuya is the best main character that we’ve gotten in a while. He’s far superior to Mikey and Takato, but he is definitely not as good as Tai. He’s very close to Davis, but not quite a match for him either. I’ll go into the characters more as the review goes on, but now it’s time to talk about the plot!

Takuya is minding his own business and is extremely bored when his phone lets him know that it’s time for a game. Takuya likes games and he wants to end the boredom, so he quickly gets on a train and goes down 30+ floors in a huge building in Shibuya and then jumps on a train. It’s a pretty messy scene down there as one kid is shoved into the train. Takuya and 3 other kids meet up in the train, but the mysterious kid in the blue attire picked a different train and he vanishes. The 4 kids quickly realize that they are actually Legendary Warriors and they find Digimon spirits and become Digimon! Nobody can hope to stop them now!

Bokomon and Neemon arrive to tell the kids that there are 10 Legendary Warriors and that the other 5 are evil. The kid in blue by the name of Koji arrives and it’s now 5 on 5. Finally, the odds are actually fair for the heroes!….right? Well, there are three cosmic beings who are also around and two of them are good while one is evil. Let’s just say that this tips the balance…in the villain’s favor! Cherubimon leads the evil warriors and now Takuya must find strength within himself to end this once and for all!

That arc takes up almost the entire series, but we’ve still got time for one more arc. Lucemon is now awakened and he sends the Royal Knights to gather data from the Digital World. He can’t actually break free and destroy the world until he has every area from the Digital World. The two Knights head off to do this, but Takuya decides that it’s the end of the road for them. He’s going to show them what true power is! Thus, the ultimate battle for Digital Supremacy begins and marks the climax of the series.

Takuya is the main character of the show and as I’ve mentioned earlier; he’s a great character. He does have some moments where the pressure becomes too much for him and he ends up giving up. I’ll admit that it happens a little more than I’d like and he definitely needs to upgrade his strength of character. He seemed to be all set, but then he cracked in the final minutes of the series. Not a great way to end! Takuya transforms into Agunimon and from there his forms continue to get stronger and stronger. His strongest form where it’s just him (No fusion) is Emperor Greymon. (It’s a fusion with other spirits, but he’s still the only human) Emperor Greymon is definitely a powerful fighter and the form is useful for all forms of combat.

I actually like all of Takuya’s digi forms and he’s the only character where I can say that. That in itself is a feat and a pretty good one. He’s very powerful and easily the strongest of the Legendary Warriors. He’s a natural leader like Tai. He’s definitely the right guy for the job and it’s usually Takuya who needs to come up with the (good) plans to take down the villains.

Koji is the big rival of the series and while Takuya utilizes the immense power of fire, he uses the powers of light! Koji’s main digiform is Lobomon and he uses a Lightsaber to attack his foes. He’s a pretty solid character. He doesn’t start out so well since he seems to avoid the others for no real reason. He wants to be a hero deep down…but he’s not exactly a team player.

The fact that he got the element of light will probably hint to you that this will change. Soon, he learns that teamwork is completely for the win and it’s actually a good tactic to use in battle. He gets a pretty big subplot towards the end because his long lost brother appears and Takuya also needs some backup since his other friends won’t be able to help. Koji’s digi forms aren’t that cool looking, but they have their moments. They’re definitely powerful…and that’s what counts!

Zoe is another one of the Legendary Warriors and while her digi form is not quite as powerful as the others, she is still able to pack a punch when she needs too! Her normal digi form actually cannot really fight and her only good attacks are a spinning kick and her tornado abilities. To make up for this, she has a better fighter in Zephyrmon. She still has Hurricanes, but now she’s a very good hand to hand fighter. It’s tough for Zoe because JP and the others tend to be pretty annoying when she’s around. Takuya manages to keep his cool for the most part, but it must be tough to deal with those guys.

Zoe is the only member of the group without a tragic backstory aside from Takuya, but she did have some real life drama of her own before the Digital World. There’s not much to say about her in terms of development because for better or worse, she stayed pretty much the same for the entire series. She wasn’t bad and is definitely a step up from the final two members.

JP….JP…JJJJJJJPPPPPPPP! Everyone is constantly yelling that throughout the series. They keep on yelling for good reason since JP is easily the least professional of the Legendary Warriors. He constantly tries to bribe people with Chocolate Bars. He once tried to give a kid his chocolate bar if he would let JP share his umbrella. The kid was far too cool for that and he quickly dashed off.

JP’s emotional backstory isn’t very emotional. He was decently popular at school and he got along with everyone. The problem was that….there were no problems. The problem that JP imagined was that they weren’t really his friends. On that stormy day, they all left without offering him their umbrellas! I wouldn’t have offered him mine if I had been there. Sure, it was raining…but just grin and bear it. He forgot the umbrella so it’s not any of the kids’ fault. Plus, they were all friends and would have probably given him an umbrella, but none of them heard him in time. He just should have moved quicker.

I’m afraid that the worst part about JP is the fact that he’s very infatuated with Zoe. It’s one of those tiresome subplots that continues for the whole show. Zoe continues to tell JP to his face that she’s not interested, but he never stops. He also starts out as a pretty unlikable guy to the max! (Well, he was already unlikable, but in the beginning…he’s even more unlikable!) At one point, he refuses to help a village full of Digimon and suggests that they leave the Digimon to die. After all…it’s not his problem! He also tries to ditch the main characters a few times and until he gets his Digi Spirit, he’s pretty whiny about the whole thing.

JJJJJJJPPPPPPP is the thunder warrior and his normal form is actually pretty tough. He’s easily the third strongest of the group in that mode, but he suffers the same fate as Tommy and Zoe. After the first two forms, none of them get any more. Takuya and Koji get to have a few extra forms and it tips the scale of power pretty drastically. JP was definitely the worst hero and I won’t be a fan anytime soon, but his name still cracks me up and that’s the important thing.

Tommy is the final member of the 5 Heroic Legendary Warriors! He’s the weakest and he has the ice warrior. He definitely seems to be the youngest and his trials mostly revolve around that fact. The rest of the heroes always feel like they have to protect him and in a way…they’re right. He’s not suited for combat and he nearly gets beat up by some bullies in the final few episodes. He gives each episode his all, but he’s just not my kind of character. It helps that he has a really bad transformation sequence. It doesn’t even try to be epic. There’s not as much to say about him because….he’s just not an interesting character. It happens….right!?

Mercurymon is one of the 5 evil Legendary Warriors and he is one of the most powerful members. For most of the series, he messes around with the other members and likes to taunt the heroes. He even takes down a Mega level Digimon with a single blow. He doesn’t just beat the Mega, the one hit deleted him! Mercurymon is truly a force to be reckoned with and I guess you can see why Takuya had to give it his all. Mercurymon is an easy character to root for so I’ll give him that. His voice has a unique twist to it and he knows just how to make everyone take action. He gets two big power ups and the first one gets a lot of hype and “feats” while the other one is actually pretty tough and one of the stronger Digimon in the season. Besides Duskmon, Mercurymon is easily the best from the evil Legendary Warriors.

Grumblemon is the first of the big 5 to really get a lot of screen time and he is certainly impressive. He ends up wiping the floor with the 5 Heroes and it’s a testament to his strength. That being said, I believe that the victory used a lot of plot hax and I just didn’t buy it. His forms aren’t really that impressive to me and I can’t really say that I missed him. He just wasn’t a likable villain.

Duskmon is another one of the legendary warriors and he is the warrior of darkness. He is the secret weapon for the dark side, but he doesn’t get along with the other members. He rarely talks and his true motivations can definitely be put into question. He gets a very big role and he’s easily one of the best characters in the series. Some of his plots may drag on at times, but it’s nice to have another fight. He has a big battle where he goes up against the ultimate tag team of Takuya and Koji! His powers may even rival those of Cherubimon’s! His character reminds me of Beelzemon or Black War Greymon and that is a good thing!

Arbormon has a pretty neat voice, but that’s his only really redeeming quality. He did provide us with a solid Hamburger episode, but I still don’t like him as a character. He just doesn’t seem that powerful and he gets a very small role. I dare say that he gets the smallest role from the 5 evil warriors. It can just be more than a little hard to take him seriously at times. Still, he wasn’t a bad character. His voice would tilt him more into the good side, but it’s only by a small margin.

Ranamon is the final member of the Legendary Warriors and she isn’t much of a fighter either. She has a decent array of attacks, but she doesn’t really make the most of them. She has several fan clubs, but they all see the error of their ways at one point or another. She’s likely the worst of the 10 Legendary Warriors and that is unfortunate. Then again…someone had to be last! (Grumblemon got lucky this time!) She’s essentially Zoe’s rival, but since Water has never been that good against Wind….she may be doomed.

Lucemon is essentially the final boss of the series and his power is considerable. We start to enter DBZ world as he is able to unleash massive fist barrages and continue to devastate all who oppose him. Unfortunately, I do not like Lucemon as much as I did in the DS/PS2 games. There, he was a force to be reckoned with while also having a cool design/personality. In this show, I just didn’t like him. It was due to his voice and lack of a cool design. They just didn’t scream “Final Boss” the way that the previous games did. Still, his power should be respected and he’s definitely a tough opponent. His toughest form actually isn’t his final form, but that’s how the ball bounces sometimes.

Dynasmon is The coolest villain in the show. He’s completely awesome in every meaning of the word. His speed and power are so great that he was able to slaughter two ultimate level opponents with no effort. That’s basically unheard of and he took it all in stride. His episodes tended to be some of the best ones. He may not have appeared for a lot of episodes, but he was very good in the ones that he did appear in. His Final Smash involves an energy dragon, but his best abilities are his Repulsor Blasts. He can absorb energy attacks and also fire some pretty powerful ones. He’s definitely a well rounded fighter!

Crusadermon is Dynasmon’s partner and she’s also extremely powerful. She really wants to conquer the Human World and is ready to fulfill that goal. First, she helps Dynasmon to make short work of the main characters. She may not be quite as powerful as he is, but she’s excellent in close combat fights and her super punch was shown to deal critical damage. Whenever she uses that attack, her opponent’s armor/weapons are usually destroyed instantly. She is definitely not an opponent to be underestimated and she’s pretty awesome. It’s a shame that these two Digimon could not appear for a few more episodes, but these battles with them will definitely be remembered!

Skull Satamon was an interesting character to check out since he was such a cool character in Digimon Adventure 02. Not only did he clobber the whole cast in that show, but he did it without any effort. Now that’s what I call power right!? In this show, he was still impressive…but not quite as cool. I don’t really care for his personality and I preferred the silent but deadly appearance that he used to have. He talks a lot here and he can back it up to an extent, but not enough. Power wise, he’s still at a pretty high Ultimate tier level since a pair of Skull Satamon were taking on Koji and Takuya so I can settle for that. He’s definitely one of my favorite Digimon of all time, even if he wasn’t my favorite character in this show.

Ice Devimon is an interesting villain since he got a lot of hype when he appeared. After the climax of Arc 1, he announced that Cherubimon was a weakling compared to him. Naturally, this got the heroes very upset since nobody should dismiss their villains like that! (Similar to that Ichigo vs Yammy scene!) Unfortunately, Ice Devimon made short work out of Koji and Takuya….so the friends would need to come and help! He may not have been the strongest opponent in the end, but he was easily superior to the fighters at first and he nearly ended everything. He could have destroyed them all if he had not been holding back and he was definitely one of the cooler villains of the series.

Cherubimon is the first big villain of the series and he is pretty tough. His abilities are considerable and he is able to take on two ultimates at once. Not a bad showing of power eh!? He’s not the most likable villain out there, but at least he’s pretty smart and isn’t the type of villain who will allow himself to be betrayed. He’s a nice way to start the ball rolling and get the true villains to show themselves. Cherubimon was definitely a solid antagonist.

Karatenmon fought with Koji at one point and he definitely came out of nowhere! I’m sure that fans were shell shocked at the big appearance and I definitely couldn’t blame them. One second things are going smoothly for the heroes and the next…Karatenmon is completely destroying Koji. He seems to have a bit of a Pre-cog ability and he can predict your moves before you make them. Add to this his mastery of hand to hand combat and super speed….and you’ve got a very impressive villain. He was pretty awesome and I instantly became a fan. You just can’t not like that guy!

Ice Leomon is a very minor character, but he has to be mentioned since he keeps up the long standing Digimon tradition that a Leomon must die in each season. So far, that remains true in all seasons except for Data Squad because I have not seen that one yet, but I’m confident that it will happen. That being said, it was fun to see Ice Leomon try to take down Agunimon!

Seraphimon is one of the three legendary knights and his abilities should not be underestimated. Unfortunately, he only appears for a few scenes. In his first scene, he is destroyed without mercy by a single blow. Luckily we get a flashback to witness his true power, but then he is effortlessly defeated in a single shot. Well…..it’s tough being so tough right? He was definitely not impressive in this show and was easily one of the weaker characters. He’s not worthy of the Mega title!

Orphanimon is another one of the Three Big, Cosmic Digimon who tries to make things right. Her methods can be extreme and she risked the lives of many people “for the greater good”. She’s definitely no hero, but we didn’t expect her to be right? One scene that I definitely did not like was where she pretended to be sympathetic with Cherubimon and then stole his spirits. That was a pretty low blow and not exactly going to change how he sees humanity. In the end, Cherubimon was the only member of the big three who was actually pretty cool.

Bokomon is one of the main characters because he serves as a guide for the heroes. He gets a long subplot where he tries to father an egg and must deal with the drama and epicness that comes with being a parent. That being said, the subplot wasn’t very interesting and I didn’t care for the character. He was constantly pulling Neemon’s pants so that he could let it slam on the poor guy. Also, he had a moment where he seemed proud that his village was destroyed. I can’t even…..his mustache is cool though.

Neemon is Bokomon’s partner and Bokomon is always picking on him. Neemon likes to act like he’s not very smart and he’s pretty successful at this. His voice is pretty fitting and he’s just an epic character to be around. He doesn’t know the meaning of fear and he’s always ready to give it his all and aid the heroes. He just tells it like it is and he actually lets his pants slam on himself once in his big hero moment. He was a hero to the end and one of the more emotional characters. It would be nice to see him again in the future.

The Animation is pretty solid and while it doesn’t hold up quite as well as Digimon Tamers, it’s still really good. It still has that retro feeling to it and the fight scenes are good. That’s probably the most impressive part because the battles are easily some of the best in the series. The Digimon in this series are very powerful and this is definitely the strongest series for Digimon so far. The fights between the Royal Knights and the Legendary Warriors is pretty great and so is Lucemon’s fight against Takuya and pals. I also liked Koji’s fight against Karatenmon. The fights were consistently good and that was definitely a plus for the series.

I’m afraid that the biggest negative of the show would be the soundtrack. Unlike all of the other Digimon shows, this one just lacked a really cool/hardcore array of themes. They went for more of a tribal/mystical angle instead of the usual fast paced rock music. Big mistake if you ask me and I don’t think that it was worth it in the long run. It’s not that the music is downright terrible, but it’s just not very interesting and it’s wayyyyyy too slow. Not exactly battle music if you know what I mean.

One other negative can be the way that the main characters act around Zoe at times. Pretty much all of them tend to blush when in contact with her. (Or in JP’s case, whenever she’s around) Do all of the main characters need to have a crush on her? Takuya stays strong for the most part and he continues to show that they’re all just friends (Or rivals) to him. So, that plot can get a bit tiresome at times, but it’s not played too extremely. There is more “romance” than in previous Digimon seasons, but it’s still an extremely minor subplot at best. (Except for JP once again)

The series also has a decent amount of plot hax. I don’t mention it in every review, but to a degree…all anime have some plot hax in them. Still, in this show it was a little too strong for me to ignore it. At one point, the 10 Legendary Warriors fire blasts at the Royal Knights and it actually causes them to retreat. The blast actually should not have even affected them since the heroes were all in their champion forms. Before, the ultimate fusion forms that surpassed the fusion evolutions were completely crushed and couldn’t deal any damage. The power inaccuracy was just too much to bear. Their are other parts that can be iffy like the 5 Warriors having trouble with Grumblemon or Seraphimon being so easily defeated. Still, that was the main one that stood out to me and will likely stand out to you as well.

Overall, this is a very good season of Digimon! It’s a lot better than I could have hoped and the battle scenes are the best yet! The soundtrack may be weak, but the animation is still pretty good. If you can get around the fact that JP can get annoying pretty quickly and that everyone seems to have a crush on Zoe from time to time, the series is really all positive. The series quickly gets at its best once it enters the final arc with Lucemon. The very first episode has the heroes fight with Dynasmon and Crusadermon and it’s like a callback to the DigiDestined’s first fight against the Dark Masters in season 1. I highly recommend checking this series out and you won’t regret it. Takuya and Koji make for solid heroes and how can you resist the great battles and epic villains!? All anime fans can get a kick out of it! Even if you’re not a fan of the monsters, you should check out the first episode so that you can try and suspend your disbelief for a secret B-40th floor under one of the biggest buildings in Shibuya without any of the humans suspecting a thing! (Yes, in this show, you can go from the human world to the digital one by taking a train at Shibuya. Anyone can go as long as you remember to go to the elevator and head to the secret basement!)

Overall 8/10

Gurren Lagann is a legendary anime that can even compete with DBZ with its reputation. It’s famous for many reasons and one of those is the fact that it’s known to have the strongest fighters in all of media. This is not counting abstract beings like the One Above All or the Presence because these guys are still physical (for the most part) beings who rely on good ole punching and shooting. It may or may not have the strongest fighters out there, but that’s the general conception that you’ll get as you prepare to watch this anime. After the abomination that was FLCL; I’ll admit that my hopes for Gurren Lagann had definitely sunk. Luckily, this was nothing like that show and once the action really got going, things started to click. Is it the greatest anime of all time? No, but it does have some of the greatest fight scenes of all time and you won’t be forgetting the show once you’ve seen it!

The show is basically divided into two arcs. The first arc is longer and that’s where we shall begin to discuss the plot. Simon is a part of an underground colony of humans and his digging skills have proven to be very useful. Humans were chased from the surface eons ago and now they live underground. The world above ground is ruled by a being known as the Spiral King. He is protected by legions of Beastmen as they incinerate any human that dares to go above ground. Beastmen pilot giant mecha robots named Gunmen that have pretty impressive abilities. One day, Simon finds a robot named Lagann and he uses it to fight off the Beastmen that infiltrated his village and makes his way for the surface.

I should mention that he was goaded on the whole time by his pal Kamina. Kamina is the rebel of the village and he’s always telling Simon about how they should get back onto the surface. He got his wish and the two of them make their way to the planet’s surface along with a girl from another village named Yoko. She works with a group of humans who have some mild experience fighting Beastmen and they actually know how to deal some damage. The heroes deal with small threats for a while, until Kamina takes over one of the Beastmen and uses it to fuse with Simon’s Lagann to form…Gurren Lagann!

This is essentially when the series really starts and they face many enemies. The Spiral King has several generals at his command and a big character from his side is a Beastman known as Viral. Viral is very impressive and he will be discussed more as the review goes on. Needless to say that he’s a very cool character! Can Simon and his friends take down the Spiral King, or have they been destined to fail all along?

The second arc has a pretty big timeskip and Simon is now a lot older and more experienced. The world is now at peace and humans have managed to advance a lot in such a short amount of time. They’ve created many cities and have a lot of futuristic equipment. Is this a little too fast to be realistic? Well, I wouldn’t expect much realism in a show where robots can crush Galaxies, but there actually was something off about it. It’s because the humans all have the ability of the Spiral within them.

The Anti Spirals decide that Earth has grown too powerful and now that the population has reached 1 million, they are to be eliminated. After incinerating the city before Simon can stop them, the war begins. Arc 2 can be annoying at times because a traitor by the name of Russio has usurped control of the government and he nearly jeopardizes everything. Eventually, Simon and his pals are forced to team up with Viral as they head off to face this new threat. The leader of the Anti Spirals is a being that is made from the consciousness of billions of people and his powers are absolute. The Spiral King pales in comparison to this threat, but they must fight on!

Simon is the main character and he definitely improves as the series goes on. He starts out as Simon The Digger and he’s not a confident person. He relies on Kamina to help him through whatever problem arises and his catchphrase is basically “Bro!” It’s a catchy phrase, but Simon would always lose his confidence when things got dangerous. Kamina would usually have to snap him out of it with a speech or a punch, but what about when Kamina would no longer be around to help him? Luckily, Simon met a girl by the name of Nia. (Whose cosmic abilities were not fully explored until the second arc)

It was already near the end of Arc 1, but Simon quickly did a 180 and his attitude became more like one that you would expect from a fighter like Ichigo or Naruto. Simon was now brimming with confidence and he never looked back. From then on, Simon quickly rose up the character ranks until he finally became my favorite hero in the series. In Arc 2, Simon stayed as a very cool character. He made some errors and I don’t agree with his very ending, (Hermit) but he continued to inspire those around him until the very end. Breaking Galaxies is no small feat and Simon went up against some pretty steep competition, but he never let it stop him! I dare say that Simon is the best main character that I’ve seen in quite a while!

Nia didn’t enter the series until the end of Arc 1, but she’s a decent character. Her personality isn’t one of my favorites for a character as she does not know much of human cultures and acts a lot like Starfire. It’s just not too amusing after a while, but Nia was the one who gave Simon the push that he needed. That is enough to make her a good character in the show, but she reached her height in Arc 2. She gained pretty impressive abilities in that part of the story and her personality did a 180. This was the true Nia, before she lost her memory…or even before that. It was her personality that was hidden inside of her until the time was right. The Perfect Double Agent technique! She gets one of the more tragic endings in the show, but she had a good run.

Viral is a character that was awesome right from the start. His theme music is easily the best theme in the show and you won’t be forgetting it. It’s only fitting that a character of his skill level should get such an incredible theme. He’s a solid hand to hand fighter and he also gave Gurren Lagann a pretty good fight back in the day. He was also around for the end arc fight in the first chapter and even had a hand to hand match against Simon in Arc 2. His abilities definitely outrank the average Beastman’s and he’s a great rival for Simon.

Yoko is the main heroine of the anime and she is one of the few main characters to not use a mecha. She does use them occasionally, but she prefers to just use her rifle. It’s not a bad gun, but I don’t see why she would use that against such powerful beings. She’s a decent character, but she associates with Kamina and he naturally drags her down with him. Once he’s gone, she manages to move past that and continue to help save the world. She’s a good character, but she would have been a lot better if she had decided to use her own mecha. Becoming a teacher was a solid idea and she can make a difference in the world!

Kamina is the worst character of the series and I can’t stand him. It’s unfortunate since Kamina is basically the fan favorite character of the series and he had the potential to be cool. Kamina never runs away and he’s always confident that they will succeed, no matter what the odds are. He defies authority and he might be the only human capable of fighting a Beastman on equal footing without the power of the Spiral. Those all sound like good qualities and he could have been the best character in the series.

What drops Kamina drastically down the ranks and into James Bond territory is the fact that he’s a very perverted character. He’s one of the main reasons why I can’t give this show a 9/10 like it would have gotten. Kamina falls for every trap in the book that involves Yoko and friends and he made for some pretty excruciating episodes. The Hot Springs episode is basically the only episode that you need to mention in order to know that Kamina is one of the worst characters out there. Kamina is pretty despicable and the show got so much better once he died.

The Spiral King is easily one of the cooler characters in this show as long as you remember that he is a villain. The thing is, The Spiral King is pretty awesome, but you have to ignore certain things to realize that. He does throw away his kids after he’s bored of them and he obtains many kids throughout the years. Automatically that means that he’s a really bad character and almost as bad as Kamina. It’s just easy to forget this because he is very cool when he fights Simon and he looks good throughout Arc 2. Still, we can’t just forgive and forget in this case, so I have to say that he’s not a good character overall. That being said, his sob story was very hard to sympathize with and I didn’t buy it at all. He basically just lost hope and fell for the old trap of believing in legends. His main fighting robot is Lazengann.

The Anti Spiral Leader is the final boss of the series and one of the best villains that you’ll come across. He is the will of his whole race as they went into eternal slumber. His goal is a little intense so try to keep focus as I explain. All creatures have the potential to develop the Spiral power and humanoids are able to use it best. The Anti Spirals believe that the Spiral Power will eventually destroy the universe because they can just tell. When you have the Spiral Power and are at a high enough level, you just know that the Universe will ultimately be destroyed. The power just becomes too great and the universe cannot contain it. After seeing the final battle of the series, you can also tell that the villain is right.

That being said, he is a villain. His race decided to go to sleep forever so that their spiral power would not destroy the universe and then they merged their souls into one being. The being was given infinite power and he can essentially wipe out reality with a thought. He erases any race that starts to grow too powerful with Spiral Power. When Earth cracked 1 million in their population, the Anti Spirals knew that it was time for them to die. The leader could have incinerated Simon and his pals instantly, but he wants them to know despair. So, he took a physical body and made his own mecha to fight the heroes. He reasons that humans will keep on trying to reach the stars unless they feel total and complete despair. Thus, it was time for the final battle to begin. I don’t agree with the Anti Spirals, but they are a really cool race of beings and the leader is pretty awesome!

Behind Kamina, Rossiu is the worst character of Gurren Lagann. He’s completely unlikable and also a total traitor to the cause. He was decent in Arc 1, but he quickly became one of the most despised characters that I’ve seen in quite a while. He ends up taking Kinon down with him and she becomes one of the worst characters in the series as well. He doesn’t learn from his mistakes and makes every possible mistake. He believes that it’s okay to sacrifice people for the “greater good” and he also starts to act exactly like the Spiral King.

He forces people to live above ground and chases them out of their safe homes. He also arrests Simon so that Earth can be defenseless and locks away Gurren Lagann. Making things even worse is the fact that he decides to destroy the mecha. He also steals Simon’s drill so that he can rub it in. He also kept the Spiral King’s head so that he can force him to do whatever he wants. Rossiu just keeps on sinking and sinking as the show keeps going further. Finally, he gives up on Earth and leaves everyone to die as he takes some people with him and they try to flee into space. Luckily the Anti Spirals were around to stop them, but it can be painful to watch him act as leader. Right up to the very end, Rossiu continues to show his true colors as he tries to leave Simon to die after Simon ends up saving him once again. He’s definitely not a true pal and I consider him to be a traitor. He gets a second sob story and a very happy ending, but I don’t think he really deserved one and Simon was way too nice to him. His second sob story was also one of the fakest things that I’ve seen in a while. It was added to make him sympathetic, but I didn’t buy that for a second.

Boota is around for a while, but he is just a supporting character that is around for a while. I never cared for him and his plot twist at the end came out of nowhere. He thought that he could fight the Anti Spiral Leader, but it was not to be. Boota is the animal mascot of the series, but I didn’t like when his tail was eaten and he wasn’t really needed in the show. Chalk up another negative hero for the series!

Kittan started out as a rival for Kamina and once Kamina died, he managed to become the field leader for the team. Simon is still the true leader, but Kittan leads the charges when he needs too. He wasn’t a bad character and I’m glad that he managed to make Russio look bad as always. He had his Hero moment at the end and he managed to do a lot of good. His robot may not have been my favorite, but it was still decently tough for a side character,

Leeron is the genius of the series, but he’s not likable either. He likes to mess around with the main characters. Simon typically ignores him, but he tended to get on Kamina and Viral’s nerves. I can see why and his character design can also be a little off putting. He is decently smart, but it’s not enough to save his character. So, in the end we had several “Heroes” that were not likable. Kamina, Boota, Leeron, and Russio were not good characters while Simon, Yoko, Nia, and Kittan were solid. That’s a little too close for comfort if you ask me! It can be a little tough to root for the heroes, but it’s easy to root for Simon.

Cytomander doesn’t appear for very long and I can barely remember him. He’s a decent villain, but you shouldn’t expect him to be a match for someone like Simon. Cytomander is tough in his own right, but by the time he is ready to fight…it’s too late! He is nice to the others and doesn’t fight unless he really needs too. Well, that didn’t really turn out so well for him.

Thymilph is another one of the generals and he is responsible for taking Kamina down for the count. He’s a decent villain and there’s nothing wrong with him. That being said, there isn’t much for him either and you’ll mostly just end up enjoying his mecha fights. This guy can definitely fight, but that’s all I can really say for him.

Adiane is the water general and she is able to create large amounts of water that help her mecha to have the advantage. She nearly defeated the heroes during their first encounter, but she had to leave because of the Spirit King. She beat up on Viral a lot and could only be considered as a decent villain. Again, there’s no real reason to root for her and her abilities are only a little impressive. She did manage to almost terminate the heroes, but Simon wasn’t quite himself at the moment.

Guame is the first of the four generals to be defeated (Or at least it felt that way!) and it’s easy to see why. He completely depends on his mecha because he cannot fight for beans. He is not a fighter and you can’t take him seriously. He’s just completely unlikable and you’ll be eagerly awaiting for the heroes to take him down so that the next villain can arise. His ship was also far too big to be a real fighting threat.

All right, characters aside…it’s time to talk about what kept this show from being a 9/10 and one of the greatest anime of all time. It all comes down to the Fanservice. There is just too much of it in the show to warrant such a high rating. This is at its worst during the first few episodes. The Hot Springs episode can be pretty traumatic in this area and Kamina doesn’t help matters. After Kamina’s death, the fanservice definitely dies down although there are still moments where it’s present. Unfortunately, like To Aru Majutsu No Index, it will always be present with the series. Still, if the first few episodes with Kamina had been completely erased; the series would have been that much better. I just can’t get past that Hot Springs episode because it was FLCL levels of awful. That’s definitely something that can pull a series down.

The fanservice is really the only big negative of the series. The fact that Simon and friends eat Boota’s tail can also be nauseating, but the scene is quick and you can try to forget it. I also place most of the blame of that scene on Kamina since he was the one who was complaining the whole time. Russio can also be considered a negative since his scenes were very cringe worthy and his ending is undeserved. He gives the viewer someone to dislike, but he got away with just about everything.

The series definitely started on an iffy note with the first few episodes. After seeing them, I also had to say that I thought their reputation was undeserved. After all, until the very final episode, you couldn’t really call them Star Busters, much less Galaxy Busters. The fial episode threw everything out of the window and that was epic. The series reached its high point during the climaxes of both arcs. Arc 2 was really epic since the scenario took place during a futuristic city and we got to have another hand to hand fight. If you can bear through the first part of the series (AKA, the part where Kamina is still alive) then you should enjoy the rest of the series. It only goes up from there after all! Arc 2 starts with a bang and part of the reason why it’s so cool is that it’s very different than Arc 1. It’s night time towards the beginning and we have to deal with an alien invasion. That is enough of a reason to love Arc 2 immediately, but the plot is also more engaging. Arc 1 had the best Simon, (Once he manned up) but Arc 2 definitely had the better plot. As far as final fights go, they were both really close so that’s harder to gauge. Still, how often does the main villain throw galaxies (Or was it universes?) at the main hero? It’s awesome to see how intense the power levels get in the final episode!

The Animation for this show is leagues ahead of FLCL and you won’t even know that it’s the same company. (Except for an extremely annoying character in the final seconds of the show who looks like Takun and I instantly didn’t like him) The animation really gets to shine during the fight scenes. Gurren Lagann’s fight against Lazangann is epic and one of the best anime fights out there. The same could be said for Simon’s fight against the Anti Spiral leader. Both of these fights can easily hold their own against any other anime fight and should not be missed. The anime may have come out years ago, but it holds up against any current anime and puts all of Marvel’s new animated adventures to shame. This is what I call true animation and it’s something that should be remembered.

The soundtrack is also pretty solid. The theme song is one of the best in the biz and it makes for a perfect insert song during the aftermath of the big battles. The lyrics also make sense and it’s very upbeat. Nikopol is another big song and it’s known as Viral’s theme. It’s definitely a solid battle theme and when it pops up in the show, you know that things are about to get real. The only part of the soundtrack that can be annoying is the “Fight the power” that they add into the mid episode bumpers towards the end of the show, but they wisely cut it out for the final. It can quickly get on your nerves and make you wince a little inside.

One of the reasons why the show is so fun is because it’s very upbeat. A lot of sad things happen like most of the cast being destroyed in one of the final episodes, but there’s always an underlying message about believing in one’s self and always trying. Failure is not an option and no obstacle is impossible to overcome. Those are the messages that the show continues to shoot out, but not in an obvious way as they’re just hidden in there. You’ll typically walk away from the show feeling good and ready for whatever comes next.

Overall, I can see why Gurren Lagann is known as a legendary anime. The fight scenes are definitely epic and will not be forgotten anytime soon. It may have started on an infamously low start, but once Kamina died, the series skyrocketed very quickly. (Ironic that the series got good once the fan favorite character was destroyed. He was my least favorite characters in the series though, so it makes sense) The very final timeskip may be a little sad to some and I definitely didn’t like how things ended up for Simon and Russio, but it could have been worse. The series definitely needs a sequel since Simon should be even stronger at this point. They’ll need to think up a really tough villain to fight him! The soundtrack is very good and the animation was definitely ahead of its time. The main cast may not have been too likable, but as long as we have great characters like Simon and Viral it’s okay. The series is fun enough to give it a 9/10, but I still have to deduct points for the fanservice and Kamina. That being said, I recommend it to mecha fans who can endure such negatives because the fights are really cool. I won’t say that they’re the strongest beings in media, but they are likely the strongest robots in media. (If you want to see the ultimate robot, you’ll need to watch the final movie, since that’s his only appearance) You can expect Simon to be fighting on the blog soon as well. When watching the series, make sure to be on the lookout for the alien invasion scene. (It was pretty awesome!)

Overall 7/10

Digimon is one of the better franchises out there and they have always come out with some pretty solid shows in the past. The first two Digimon Adventures both cracked a solid 8/10 which is pretty impressive. Digimon Tamera takes a few steps away from the previous two series as it uses a completely different approach in how the plot progresses. Would this be a welcome change or did they fix something that was not broken?

The story takes place 10 years since the end of Digimon Adventure 02. The human world doesn’t really know about the Digital World aside from a government agency that tries to stop them from materializing. It’s their life’s work, but they are unable to stop just about anyone from actually appearing. Rookie level Digimon are more than a match for them which can make things a little dicey. To clarify the earlier statement, people do know about Digimon, but they believe that they are fake and from the TV show. They play with the cards and just have a lot of fun.

Takato decides to make his own Digimon and he uses his creative art skills along with his powerful imagination to create Guilmon and they quickly become pals. Unfortunately, the Digimon Queen (Rika) wants to destroy Guilmon and a third tamer steps in to stop this while claiming that his name is Henry. Whether or not he is telling the truth doesn’t matter as much as the fact that he seems to be one of the good guys. The three tamers must now team up to fend off the evils of the Digital World.

There are two main story arcs to Digimon Tamers. The first 10 or so episodes as the heroes leveling up and building their bonds of friendship. Once that is taken care of, then it’s time to take down the Devas. They work for the Digimon Sovereign and it would appear that he may be able to crush the whole world in an instant. At least, that’s how the Devas act as they oppose the legendary Tamers. There are several Devas and each one possesses abilities that are beyond Guilmon and friends. To stop them, it is time to Digivolve and unlock their true powers!

After the Tamers challenge the Digimon Sovereign and learn of the untold truths of the Digital World, they are attacked by the D Reaper. Right away, The heroes know that they are outmatched and the D Reaper begins to erase the universe. They must use all of the past experience that they have gained so far and unleash their ultimate power. Nothing seems to work against the D Reaper, but there’s got to be a way!

That’s the jist of the plot so let’s start talking about the Digimon Tamers. Takato is the main character and he’s a lot different than his predecessors. Tai was a bold leader who took charge and recognized the value of friendship along with the ability to protect his friends. Davis was always ready to act and he possessed courage that was basically unheard of along with his limitless self confidence. Takato doesn’t really possess any of those things or not in such large portions. He’s not exactly the bravest fighter and he’s not as bold or daring as the others. He lacks confidence and he’s definitely not a leader. He does tend to panic and he didn’t stand a chance against Rika when they fought the first time since he forgot to use his D Cards.

Arguably Takato gets better as the series goes on and arguably he gets worse. He’s pretty sad for the second half of the series because of what happens to Jeri and he never becomes the main character that you would have expected. This guy is definitely no Kaz Gordan, but he does have his “hardcore” moments. Unfortunately, they can’t be taken seriously because he just isn’t that guy. It may help that his voice just doesn’t have the same level of coolness as the other main characters. His main Digimon is Guilmon who is a fire type. Guilmon is a decent character, but he can also get a little annoying. He’s at his best when he’s in his Champion or Ultimate mode.

Rika is another one of the three Tamers and she’s a step up from Takato. She was at her best during her Digimon Queen days as she could quickly defeat opponents with Renamon. They were a dangerous combo and it’s not really known how many Digimon she deleted back in the day, but it was likely a lot. As the series went on, she started to bond with the other Tamers and showed them that it’s never too late to turn good. Unfortunately, she lost her edge and Renamon also seemed to lose power. Renamon’s ultimate form was easily the worst one from the three heroes and her champion form wasn’t really impressive either. Her mega form is pretty solid and that’s likely what counts in the end. Guilmon stole the best forms for each of the levels aside from Rookie anyway. Renamon is still superior in her rookie form and she seems like a pretty capable fighter. She has a good level of speed and she can fight in hand to hand combat.

Henry is the third tamer and he’s definitely a mixed bag. On one hand, he doesn’t really like to fight all the time and he’ll have his moments where he yells at Suzie and shows why he lacks the strength of heart that the other two have. By the end of the series he has gotten better at this, but he got fooled to the very end. At least now he will know better than to hand out his Digivice no matter what the reason may be. He’s pretty experienced, but he doesn’t have a lot of battle experience since he usually skips that part. I didn’t really care for Henry and he just wasn’t as likable as the other heroes of the past. Terriermon was pretty cool and he was the best from the three Digimon. He always knew when it was time to win and he could definitely hold his own in a fight. He was pretty cool and never backed down from a fight. That’s something that I won’t forget! Terriermon may have thought he was tougher than he actually was, but the idea that he could win is the important part.

Ryo is a tamer who came into the show during the final episodes. This guy was more experienced than the original three tamers combined and he was also the most skilled. Not even Rika could defeat him in the card game as he became the Digimon King. Ryo uses Cyberdramon and together they make a pretty deadly combination. He’s the best character in the show and it’s easy to see why. He basically takes the whole thing in stride and acts like how Tai probably would have if he were here. He also gets a pretty intense Mega form as well. He was a solid addition to the team and it makes me wish that he had come around a little sooner. This guy could have definitely used some more screen time. His Digimon partner is also pretty cool and he’s always ready for a fight. He reminds me of Black War Greymon and that’s definitely a good thing.

After those characters, there were other kids who tried to help in the ultimate fight against the villains. Jeri was a classmate of Takato and she used to be a pretty chipper character. After a traumatic event happens, she becomes sad and shuts herself off from the world for essentially the rest of the series. It can get a little tiring as she makes things a lot tougher for the heroes and was not strong enough to give the D Reaper a good fight. She definitely has the most traumatic history from the main characters, but I’m pretty sure that Tai or Davis would have tried to do something about it. There may not be anything that can be done, but they would still find a way. If Takato can turn a piece of paper into a Digimon, there is always hope.

We also have Kenta and Kazu who are basically around…to be around. They don’t really add anything to the show and there isn’t much of a point to really have them around. They provide the playful banter and try to keep the atmosphere light, but it’s not a very significant job. Kenta is the guy that Kazu messes around with a lot, but they’re still good friends deep down. Kenta gets his own Digimon by the end of the series, but he doesn’t really try to fight the D Reaper anyway. The Digimon is usually there for support and epicness. Kazu is more of a leader and aside from the fact that he was scared along with Kenta when Takato got a Digimon, he’s more of a decent character. I can’t really say that I care for him overall, but he’s a decent fighter. He tries his best and that’s what counts in the end I suppose. He ends up with a pretty weak Digimon which limits his fighting capabilities.

Suzie also gets a decent role as she helps to remind the other kids that they’re not the only ones who can put up a good fight. That being said, she is far too young to be a Digidestined and I don’t think that she should have been chosen. More often than not, she’s just a hindrance in battle and she really has no idea on how to fight. She’s not quite as motivated as the others and she doesn’t really realize the gravity of the situation. I think that she would make a wonderful Tamer if they had just let her train for a few more years.

Alice is a mysterious figure who appears during the final episodes of the series. She comes in with Dobermon to save the heroes and let them unlock their full potential. After saving them, she left and vanished back to where she had come from. She is shrouded in mystery and it would be interesting to get an OVA about her adventures and what happened along the way. Could it be that she’s stronger than she lets on? She seemed to be pretty experienced as she fought alongside Dobermon against D Reaper agents.

Yamaki is the leader of the Government squad that is dedicated to defeating Digimon once and for all. He starts out as one of the big villains who wants to defeat Digimon no matter what and he uses very extreme methods to get the job done. He was essentially another Light Yagami who thought that what he was doing was right. Luckily he turned over a new leaf and realized that Digimon can actually be pretty cool. Unfortunately his character development is arguably crushed in the final episode and makes him do a complete 360 which changes his character a lot. He’s a pretty fun character to watch and he tends to get the better of whoever he is talking too, but he also loses a lot. It’s a win/lose situation and you’ll either like him or you won’t.

One of the worst characters in the show is definitely Janyu. Janyu tries to get away from the whole Digimon business, but he’s quickly drawn back in and forced to make the “tough” calls. He chooses to make the call that banishes some people to another world from which they have no hope of returning. It’s supposed to be Heroic, but I couldn’t agree with the move at all and it just made him look like the next big villain. I had to take a few steps back myself as I realized the dire consequences of it all. Janyu is definitely not a character to look forward too and I didn’t like him even before the big decision.

Shibumi is another character that you can write off as an unlikable fellow. He talks a really good game and he is able to travel between worlds with ease which makes him look pretty cool. Unfortunately, those stunts don’t tend to impress me and I have to say that he could have looked better. He was purposely vague for a lot of the show and he knew a lot more about Digimon than he should have. It just wasn’t right!

Impmon is one of the bigger characters in the series and he has a lot of hardcore moments. He is another character who starts off as a villain and then sees the light. He wasn’t completely evil at first, but power quickly consumed him and brought him over to the dark side. While he was evil, Impmon had a pretty big fight with Gallantmon and he showed that he was one of the strongest Digimon in the Digital World. Once he turned good, Impmon continued to gain new abilities and he could defeat just about anyone. He was a pretty fun character to have around and he was one of the best members of the supporting cast.

Calumon is around for the majority of the series and he’s not someone to be trifled with. He is pretty oblivious to everything around him and he just liked to have fun. He is able to outsmart Mega Level Digimon which is a pretty good feat, but he’s not really any good in a fight. I don’t really mind the character, but he doesn’t really add anything to the show either. He’s just around.

Leomon is around, but he never really got the chance to be likable in this show. He put up a pretty good fight as per usual, but it was still hard to take him seriously. He’s only a Champion level, but he’s always hyped to such incredible levels that it’s a little scary. He really shouldn’t stand a chance against such powerful competition. He’s not an awful character, but not a really likable one either.

The D Reaper is the final boss of the series and he’s a being of unimaginable power. Some have said that he may even be a Universe Buster depending on how deeply you look at the episodes. While I’m not sure about that, he’s definitely a force to be reckoned with. The D Reaper is essentially a giant blob of goop that consumes everything that it touches. That doesn’t really sound impressive at first because you can just keep on blasting it while avoiding the goop. The Chunk could probably outrun the goop and that’s saying something! Well, the D Reaper is far more than just a giant blob of goop. The D Reaper has many forms and it can assimilate Digimon and use their abilities.

The D Reaper has a bunch of puppet creatures that it can shoot out to overwhelm weaker Digimon and it even has Sentries that can deal with Mega level Digimon. Justimon had a tough time and he was only fighting one of them! The D Reaper assimilated Jerry and created an evil clone of her that should not be underestimated by any means. Finally, the D Reaper also showed off its master form and it’s huge! That’s not necessarily a good thing, but it looked pretty cool and that’s what counts. It was a solid way to show off its power. The D Reaper may not really have much of a personality as it just wants to delete and find out the meaning of emotion, but it was a decent final boss. Beelzemon may have been a better final boss, but this was a way for Humans and Digimon to team up!

The Animation in this series was a large step up from the previous seasons. I’m not sure why, but the animation was just big improvement and also looks better than season 4’s animation. This one felt a lot more modern and like it could be a 2000’s anime while the others were more dated. The animation boost also meant that we could finally have some hand to hand fights like Gallantmon vs Beelzemon. That was definitely a big bonus and helped the season big time.

The Soundtrack is also top notch. I didn’t think that it would be possible to top season one’s themes, but this season managed to pull it off. The Digivolution theme is really intense and one of the best themes out there. The Biomerge theme isn’t that good, but it can be overlooked since the other forms were all pretty intense. The show used a lot of the same music as the 90’s Avengers show which was pretty interesting and very nostalgic. That’s how you win the fans over!

Continuity wise, you can make a lot of cases for the show. Personally, I would say that it takes place during or after Season 2. Basically, the fact that everyone could basically have a Digimon was a threat to the status quo so the Government decided to get rid of them. It’s pretty dark, but they must have tried to eradicate the Digidestined as well. I doubt that they would succeed so I like to think that Tai and friends are duking it out in another part of the Digital World. At least we know that Omnimon is okay so that’s a start. I would have liked some cameos from the first two seasons, but maybe next time.

Digimon Adventure has been my favorite season for a long time, but it has finally been surpassed. Digimon Tamers is just That good. It’s pretty different from the first season as its a lot darker and there’s more drama. The characters don’t take things in stride as much as the original main characters, but they’re decent in their own right. The show didn’t suffer from any bad insert songs like Season 2 and we got more high speed action. The animation also gave it a bit of an edge.

If I had to name a negative for the show, it would be the amount of drama. During the D Reaper arc, they definitely add a lot of it and it can be a little overdone. The series was actually similar to the first two seasons in tone during the earlier part of the series with the first few Devas. Things got more emotional once they went into the Digital World and during the D Reaper part. The Tamers also don’t look good since they actually give up at certain points and seem to lose their drive to win. The show could have used a little of the light atmosphere from the first two seasons during the climax with the D Reaper. The Tamers lacked the strength of heart and the determination that the older generations had and it would have helped a lot in the climax. Still, aside from some of the characters and the drama, there really isn’t much to negatives to mention in this show. There is a rushed romance between Rika and Takato that doesn’t really go anywhere and is just there for the lolz, but you can ignore it. You may not even count it since it’s only a few lines on it.

Overall this was a pretty solid show and actually one of the all time greats. In the end, it actually managed to surpass the original two seasons. That was pretty impressive and this show is well rounded. It is pretty good to great in all areas and there aren’t really many negatives about the show. I recommend it to people who like to see some good action, watch a 90’s feeling anime, or just like Digimon and Pokemon. You won’t regret it and the soundtrack/animation also make it worth your while. I wonder if Season 4 can match up to this one.

Overall 8/10

Heroman is an interesting anime for many reasons including the fact that Stan (The Man) Lee had a lot to do with it. It was his big jump from comics to the manga world (Along with Ultimo) and it’s interesting to see his take on anime. Stan even makes a few appearences in the show and he can usually be seen at the coffee shop. That being said, will this be the next Spider Man or the next Spider Ham?

Well, the series has quite a few different story arcs even though its only 26 episodes. Joey Jones is your average school kid who gets bullied by the brother of one of his friends. His other friend is the tough guy who tries to protect him and that’s the inner cast for the first episode. The plot begins right away so the bullies are taken out of the picture pretty quickly. The brother (aka Will) gets a big role, but his friends fade into obscurity except for Nick. Joey finds a pretty neat toy and as he starts to fix it, a lightning bolt strikes the toy and grants it unimaginable power! He decides to call the toy Heroman and he gets an electronic glove which lets him give orders to Heroman and also comes with other perks that make Joey a true fighter.

Joey doesn’t have a lot of time to celebrate about this because Earth is attacked by an alien race known as the Skrugg. The Skrugg don’t have a great defense, but there is strength in numbers and they are able to fire compressed air which can rip a hole through a building. It’ll be hard to resist as you watch Heroman take them all down, but you should not underestimate these opponents. The government is basically overwhelmed in a short amount of time and it becomes painfully evident that Heroman is humanity’s last hope. Can he defeat Kogorr and the alien race or is he doomed to die? Meanwhile, Will believes that he can take down the Skrugg without any help!

The next arc deals with the government as they hire Agent Hughes to find out exactly what Heroman is and to take him down! That’s essentially what he is aiming to do at any rate as he puts Joey, Psi, and the Professor on the run. Did I mention Psi yet? He’s the tough guy who helps Joey, but an unfortunate accident put him on crutches and now things are dicey for him, but at least he has a hovering skateboard. This arc had a lot more tension than the previous one and while the action died down and essentially vanished, it was a pretty fun arc.

We had some mini adventures after that like an island arc and Will returning. It all led up to the ultimate showdown where the Skrugg decide to take down the planet…starting with The President. This time Heroman may not be enough to stop the Skrugg, but if he cannot….then who can!? Joey and friends will be there to back him up and that’ll just have to be enough this time.

Let’s talk about Joey Jones. He’s the main character of the show and he’s a pretty likable character. From the start of the show, you can already tell that he’s a pretty nice kid. He quickly makes a play for the toy robot once its discarded and it ends up paying off big time! He always looks out for his friends and he tries to save the world and help people whenever possible. There’s really nothing wrong with Joey and that’s why he’s a really solid character. He doesn’t really have any character flaws, but he’s still not perfect. It’s not that he does something wrong, but it’s what he hasn’t done. I could have used a little more rebellion against the government when they tried to frame him. With his super speed at the ready, Joey is more than a match for any government lackey that opposes him. Still, it’ll be tough to find a main character as heroic as Joey in a modern anime. Joey can’t fight for the beginning of the series as he uses his glove to give Heroman commands, but he finds out that it also grants him super speed and the ability to make powerful barriers. Joey quickly becomes a dangerous force with this weapon at his side.

We’ve also got Psy who is definitely one of the main characters, but he’s not very likable. He has a bit of a tragic back story and things didn’t always go his way, but it’s still hard to root for him. He looks really bad when the team went to find the Professor and he tends to get in Joey’s way during the fights. Professor Denton is also a pretty underwhelming character as he’s just there to get Joey into trouble. He doesn’t show his intelligence off that often and half of the time you can’t even take him seriously. He gets captured more than once and usually it ends up being his fault. He even ditched Joey and Psy once because they wouldn’t go with him on a crazy adventure!

Lina is Joey’s childhood friend and they go to the same school which is convenient for them. Will and her father don’t want Lina to hang out with Joey, but she realizes that he’s a true hero. Unfortunately, she can be a little gullible and has a fight with Joey because Will told her “his side” of the story that Joey neglected to tell her. That part was a little annoying and made you take a step back, but aside from that, Lina was a perfectly reasonable character. I dare say that she is one of the better main heroines, but that is largely up for debate as I’ve definitely seen better. (Rukia, Tokiko, Akiza are some examples of cool heroines.)

I should probably mention HerrrrrroMan! In the show they tend to really drag out the pronunciation of the word so I felt that I should do the same when I type his name. On the other hand, that would get old fast so I’ll go back to normal for now. Heroman’s origin is really sketchy and will stretch your imagination a little bit. I don’t mind that electricity turned him alive somehow, but how did that also materialize an electronic glove on Joey? How did it give Heroman super forms and a personality as well as the ability to become pure lightning? That must have been a really powerful bolt of lightning! Well, we shouldn’t dwell on it, but it will definitely give you something to think about. Heroman isn’t an incredibly likable character because his personality isn’t easy to cheer on. He doesn’t talk and he always has a really blank/mean expression on his face. He can fight to an extent, but his hand to hand skills are really sloppy and Joey has to bail him out with some quick commands. Heroman’s design is also pretty off putting which isn’t his fault, but it limits his abilities. In a hand to hand fight, he lacks the speed to finish off the smaller foes and he’s not good at long range for most of the series. He is pretty tough since he can use Burst Mode and a number of other techniques, but he’s not very likable. He also likes to brag and make an O shape sometimes for the thrills. He’s not the sharpest tool in the shed, but he always gives it his all and that’s what counts. (Heroman did have one rage moment when Joey got injured so I’ll give him props for that)

Will is one of the antagonists of the series. He may have good intentions at times, but that doesn’t excuse the fact that he’s your average bully. He also gives way to the dark power for a while and he becomes completely unreasonable during the later half of the show. He only backs down when he’s captured and is in no position to really do anything anymore. He is decently quick and the show gives him a lot of props since he’s constantly able to outfight Heroman, but I never really bought that. It just made Heroman look weak as opposed to making Will look tough. He is a lot cooler in the second half of the show design wise, but overall he’s not a character that will really get better through the course of this show. Perhaps Will will become a better character in a sequel show if this series ever gets one.

Will had a friend by the name of Nick, but he was even worse than Will. This guy had no strength of heart and his willpower is just sad. One could argue that he was already inherently evil and I wouldn’t really be able to disagree. He doesn’t get to appear for long which is a good thing, but at least he got some backstory. Joey had a sister by the name of Holly, but she didn’t really add anything to the show either. We got a very last minute history for the family as we got to see Joey’s parents and some character development but it wasn’t needed. Holly likes to mess with Joey a lot, but in the end it’s just playful fun. (Although Joey and Psy really overdo it with the acting sometimes) Joey’s grandma is also around a lot, but she never really realizes when anything is happening.

The government is definitely around and even the President gets involved! He was a decent character and he stayed firm as the White House started to be destroyed. With the aliens at his doorstep, he was still ordering his underlings to inform him on what was happening. For the most part, all of the government duties are actually carried out by Agent Hughes. Agent Hughes goes undercover at Joey’s Coffee Shop (It’s not his, but he does all of the serving) and digs up some info on Heroman. After that, he does a 180 and proceeds to try and annihilate Joey and friends for the betterment of society. Officially, he was just trying to take them alive, but bombs usually end up destroying the target! He’s supposed to be a pretty likable character by the end, but he looks so bad for the most of it. He caused Joey and the others a lot of trouble so it was hard to let him off the leash. (He was a lot like Rossiu although not quite that bad) I liked him a lot at first, but he went steadily downhill from there and the ending couldn’t really save him.

I barely even want to take about Dr Minami. He was really annoying and I couldn’t take him seriously at all. He was one of the end arc bosses in the show, but he’s just a human with a machine. Does he really believe that he could actually defeat someone as powerful as Heroman? The series actually ends on an epic note with an after type of scene, but because it involves Minami, I really can’t take it seriously. The President should have known that he was fishy.

Finally, Gogorr is the leader of the Skrugg. His abilities are in a league of their own and they can’t be compared to the average Skrugg. His speed is what makes Gogorr so deadly and he was completely destroying Heroman when they fought originally. Not even Joey’s barrier was a match for his power and Gogorr proved to be an intriguing opponent. He looked his best during his first big fight against the heroes and it’s the way that you should probably remember him. He was a little on the generic side as far as master villains go, but he had a cool design and he was a threat. In the end, I can’t really ask for any more from a villain. (We do have to ignore that he begs for his life towards the end of the first climax) An honorable mention for cool villain will go to the plant monster that was kind of alive through artificial intelligence.

The show had a pretty decent soundtrack. The music score is pretty limited so you will be listening to the same music themes a lot over the course of the series, but they’re decently fun. I found a handful of themes that I liked and they did introduce one new theme during the final few episodes of the series. It may not be 5 star material as far as soundtracks go, but it’ll definitely be enough to satisfy me in this area. The animation for the show is also pretty good and I’d say that it’s around average. Considering that it’s a modern anime, it doesn’t look spectacular, but it does have its moments. Whenever there is a scene with lightning, then it’ll typically look pretty good. I believe that the animation would look even better, but they seemed to have a bit of trouble animating fight scenes. It may be due to the character designs of the Skrugg and Heroman, but they didn’t really mesh well with the art. The humans looked pretty good which is why I think this. Again, the animation is definitely not bad, but it’s not great either. This isn’t exactly Bleach or Index, but it’s good enough.

Overall, Heroman is a pretty fun series to watch. It’s pretty lighthearted and it feels like more of a day to day adventure than most other shows. They manage to squeeze in a lot of things during this series and it has a good amount of replay value considering its size. It’s basically the definition of how a good anime should be as it’s about average in all categories, but more towards the positive side than the negative side. This won’t become one of your favorite anime, but you won’t dislike it either as you’ll either remember it as a good anime or just forget it because of its averageness. You should like this anime if you’re a fan of robot action, like alien invasions, or just want a cheery story about a kid and his adventures. There really isn’t much of a reason to dislike this show unless you go in with very high expectations or expecting the wrong thing. I definitely recommend this anime! (Oh yeah, Stan (The Man) Lee also gets to appear. He’s a reoccurring character as he’s always at the coffee shop asking for more coffee and acting a little loopy. He’s not a very likable character, but he’s Stan Lee so he’s still pretty awesome. It’s cool to see him in an anime!)

Overall 7/10

Accel World is an anime that had a great premise and an epic title as well. The fact that it was from the creator of Sword Art Online was another positive. With everything in its favor from the start, how could it not succeed? The posters for the anime have always looked really intense and the purple color scheme is definitely something that will hook you in. Time to see if the show could live up to all of the awesomeness that surrounded it.

Well lets get into the plot to start things off. Haruyuki is not a very popular kid and he is not very fond of the real world. He is excellent at online games and since this takes place in the future, the games are very intense. I wont get very technical but basically you can throw your consciousness into the game that you pick and live out the game. Its what every serious gamer has considered in the past. Haruyuki is great at video games and he even holds the record in one of them. Unfortunately, his life is about to change!

Kuroyukihime is basically the most popular girl at school and she decides to crush all of his dreams and aspirations by breaking his record in the reflex game online. She admits that she had to defy reality to do it and offers him a chance to learn the ability as well. With Brain Burst at his side, Haruyuki is now ready to enter the next level of gaming. Is there more to Kuroyukihime then she is letting on?

Haruyuki goes on to join Kuroyukihime’s group; The Nega Nebulous along with a few other members. She wants to defeat the 5 Kings which will enable her to become a level 10 and find out the true reason behind Brain Burst’s existence. Haruyuki agrees to help her and this begins their journey to defeat them all and discover the truth!

I should mention that this seems to be the plot for the entire franchise and not just this anime. (Since the anime ends very early on, this plot is nowhere near close to being completed) The last part of the anime is mainly about Haruyuki and his battle against Seiji. The clock is ticking and if Haruyuki doesn’t defeat him very quickly…his life will essentially be over.

That’s enough about the plot. It may not have been very clear, but the plot is excellent and you’ll completely understand it once you start to watch the series. The soundtrack is top notch for the show and nearly all of the themes are very memorable. This is one series where you will walk away whistling the tunes and keeping a lot of it in your memory. I particularly like the theme named Silvery Wings but there are many other spectacular ones as well.

The animation is some of the best out there, but only when they are in Accel World. How can that be? Well, in the human world, the animation uses an effect that I really do not like. All of the characters appear to be blushing fiercely for no reason throughout the whole series. It makes them look like they have a constant fever or are in awkward scenarios which isn’t the case. When was the last time someone was blushing while walking or thinking about battle strategies? I’m sure that the animation company was going for some sort of “realistic” look with this, but it failed miserably.

Luckily, the animation in Accel World cancels this out. All of the Accel World character designs are mecha warriors so there is no reason to make them blush, which takes away the only negative factor in the animation. The designs for 99% of the fighters are excellent and the fight scenes are where you really get to see the animation shine. At its best, Accel World can easily keep up with any anime that I’ve ever seen in animation. Aside from the awesome fights, the flying effects are also amazing. Silver Crow always looks awe-inspiring and especially in his final flight scene of the series. If it’s one thing that makes Accel World stand apart from Sword Art Online, it would definitely be the animation. The animation in the human world may be regrettable, but the animation in Accel World is so great that it easily cancels that part out.

Now, let’s talk about the characters! Haruyuki is a pretty bad main character. I actually did not mind him at first, but he quickly got worse as the series went on. At first you may feel a little bad for him since things aren’t going very well for him in the real world. He retreats into video games and that’s definitely not a bad thing, but that’s when things start to go downhill. After he meets Kuroyukihime, Haruyuki starts to have some pretty sad fantasies and loses his grip on reality as he slowly starts to lose all of his morals. He makes a lot of bad decisions during the later half of the series and I can’t say that he ever became likable after his descent.

I do like Silver Crow if we decide to count him as a separate character than Haruyuki. Hard yuk is controlling him but their personalities are completely different and aside from a few scenes, Silver Crow is a pretty solid character. He may not be great, but he is a big step up from Haruyuki. His attacks are always very flashy and his design is great. He is a pretty good fighter towards the end of the series. He has a bad habit of giving up hope early on, but a lot of main characters make that mistake.

Kuroyukihime is a pretty solid character. She is definitely a lot better than Haruyuki, she can be a little dramatic. Her romance with Haruyuki can definitely go a little over the top and I have to question her choice of friends. Her (filler) episode was probably the worst episode of the series or at least one of the worst thanks to a variety of reasons including: her friend, the insane amount of plot hax, and more reasons.

Black Lotus is a very good character and she is essentially the strongest character in the series. Her fight against the Yellow king was pretty intense and that has really been he only time that we have seen her true power. She did have a bit of a fight in the finale, but she wasn’t really focusing on the fight. Her avatar has one of the best designs in the show and I look forward to seeing her get some more fights. I was a little sad that she didn’t really get any action in this series, but I’m sure that she will get more as the sequels start to come out.

Chiyu was one of Haruyuki’s only friends for a long time and she’s a main character in the series. She gets a smaller role than the other characters since she did not get the Brain Burst program like the others. She wants to stay close to Haruyuki and Taku, but that becomes difficult when the three of them start to split up. I definitely did not care for Chiyu as she definitely made things hard for Haruyuki and kept trying to get him to go over to the wrong side. She was a good character during the very beginning of the series, but she quickly dropped after that.

Lime Bell isn’t a very likable character either as she may have had a good plan in the end, but it just wasn’t worth it. There were much better plans that could have been executed and this one was way too risky. She’s not very good in a fight either which can be a bad weakness.

Taku is Haruyuki’s other friend and he makes sure to get a lot of character development during the series. He starts out as a character who’s more unlikable than half of the villains. He’s evil in every sense of the word and while he may think that he’s on the side of justice…just look at Light! He does have some pretty intense scenes during his first big fight, but I still couldn’t take him seriously in the end. As the series progresses, he gets better. He’s a much different person than at the beginning, but I still couldn’t consider myself to become a fan. He was just too far gone by that time. His avatar is Cyan Pile and I do like the design. The problem is his choice of weapon for the majority of the series. He uses a spear which isn’t good for long range or close range and that means that he’s a liability in a fight. Hand to hand combat skills would have been an improvement for him and that’s saying something! I’m not sure how he got to his current level with his lack of ability, but he’s a decent character. He’s definitely not the strongest character out there, but he’s good as a blocker.

There were some fighters who weren’t a part of any group at the moment like Sky Raker and Aqua Current. I didn’t care for Aqua Current, but Sky Raker is a decent character. Sky Raker may have given up on fighting, but maybe she’ll change that in the future. Either way, it’s just a game I suppose….Aqua Current nearly had a great plot twist at the end, but it didn’t happen so her character couldn’t be saved.

Scarlet Rain is the current Red King and she gets the most action from the Kings…which is a bad thing for her. It’s common that the first of the “Super” villains will look really good, but will ultimately be the weakest or at least one of the weakest. She has a very large arsenal of long range weapons at her disposal, but her critical weakness is that she cannot fight in close combat situations. She does have her Incarnate abilities, but she hasn’t used them in actual combat yet. She’s a decent character for the most part, but she can definitely get on your nerves after a while. Blood Leopard is another member from the Red group and while she doesn’t appear for very long, we get to see her fight in one of the episodes. Her abilities aren’t very impressive, but she’s a decent fighter and a decent character as well. I will need her to have more scenes before I can really gauge how cool she is.

Yellow Radio is the Yellow King and he’s easily the strongest of the 5 Kings that we’ve seen in action. (This means that we are not counting the Blue King and Kuroyukihime is in a league of her own anyway) His fight scene is very impressive and he can move at speeds that are basically unheard of. His special ability isn’t offensive in its nature, but it can be very useful in combat although it seems easy to escape. I have a feeling that we’ll be seeing a lot more of this guy since he seems to be the most antagonistic of the 5 Kings.

There isn’t much to say about the Blue King except that he’s pretty awesome. He hasn’t really done anything yet and he’s already one of my favorite characters in the franchise. Mark my words, this guy is definitely going to be one of the strongest enemies that the heroes face and only Kuroyukihime really has a chance against him at their current level. I’m hyped for his fights and I hope that they happen soon. His design is incredible and his power level is likely off the charts. His two lieutenants are also pretty good and highly skilled, but we have not gotten to see them that much yet either. They won their battle, but it was against a pretty weak opponent.

Black Vise is one of the final villains to appear in the series yet he definitely makes a bold entrance. He was able to hold off Kuroyukihime for a while before making a retreat which is pretty rare. Kuroyukhime wasn’t fully concentrating on the battle, but it’s still an impressive feat. He seems like a higher up in the organization and he could prove to be trouble for the 5 Kings.

Dusk Taker is the final villain of the series so you can probably guess that he’s pretty skilled. His abilities may not be on the level of the 5 Kings, (Although he could possibly take on Scarlet Rain) but he is definitely a threat. His abilities enable him to permanently steal the ability of another fighter and add it to his collection. He’s limited in how many abilities he can keep at once, but that’s definitely not going to stop him from assembling an all star roster of powers. He’s very skilled in both hand to hand combat and long range abilities. His speed is definitely up there with the strongest fighters in the game thanks to his flying ability. His battle with Silver Crow is pretty spectacular and it would have been over sooner if not for the real life drama. Dusk Taker lasts for a very long time, but it is not due to his own level of ability and more due to Haruyuki’s failures.

Ash Roller is a pretty cool character and while he doesn’t get to appear very much, he’s a good guy to have around. Unlike most of the other characters who take this way too seriously, he realizes that this is just a computer game so he has a lot of fun. He’s easily one of the weaker characters, but that doesn’t stop him from giving it his all!

Chrome Disaster is one of the tougher opponents of the series and he’s a very solid villain. Chrome Disaster is a mantle that is passed on when a user dons the dreaded Disaster Armor. He was able to stand up to an opponent as skilled as Black Lotus and his speed is pretty good as Silver Crow had a tough time catching up to him. While I doubt that he could really defeat them in the end, he’s still a villain who should be taken seriously.

The character roster is definitely pretty solid for the most part, but we do have some characters who are unlikable as with all shows. Kuroyukihime’s friend, Megumi, can be particularly annoying and I didn’t care for Sulfur Pot either. We also did have a few throwaway villains throughout the series, but at least the designs tend to be pretty cool.

With most of the characters talked about already, I should also discuss the ending…or lack of ending. The series ends without adapting most of the material since the series was just too long. Even Naruto had to be split up into different anime to cover it all so that’s understandable and the ending is satisfying. None of the Kings have been defeated and at this rate, I’m starting to wonder if they will be defeated. There are many ways that they can still lose, but it’s hard to picture the good guys defeating them since they’re starting to get friendly. I’m guessing that the 5 Kings will have to team up with the heroes to fight the new organization which I would be fine with. I just want the Blue King to fight soon! For now we just have to wait for the sequel, but until then, this series ends on a solid note with a big fight resolved and several plot lines being wrapped up. (With dozens of others looming in the air)

One thing that can be hard to remember at times is that it’s all a game. Even if you destroy someone in the game, they keep their life in the real world, the game data is just deleted and they forget about it. The characters take everything a little too seriously at times and they act like it’s all real. This is why Accel World is one of the few exceptions where I’m okay with the heroes destroying their opponents. The opponents are okay in the real world so there’s no damage being done. I could go into the moral implications more if needed, but I don’t see anything wrong with that.

Accel World does have its negatives as well. There is a lot of romance in the series and they also add in some fan service. It’s not as excessive as other shows, (Index) but it can still be a bit much. It’s too bad that shows have to resort to this thing nowadays. Back in my day, things were different! (Justice League, Megaman NT Warrior, etc) There is also one episode in particular that was pretty bad and ironically enough, it was Kuroyukihime’s episode. They tried to make it relevant by adding villains and organization references, but it was really just filler and it was poorly done. It was the only episode that I could say was pretty bad. It’s too bad since an episode about Kuroyukihime should really be pretty awesome, but all anime make mistakes at some point I guess.

All right, time to compare this show to Sword Art Online for a little bit. I will compare them a lot more once I review Sword Art Online, but I may as well give you guys a little background before that time and we’ll see if I’ve changed my views on some things. Accel World definitely has the stronger fighters at this point and I believe that Kuroyukihime could effortlessly destroy everyone in SAO. Accel World also has the better villains although Sword Art Online has some pretty great monsters. Sword Art Online counters this with the fact that Kirito is infinitely better than Haruyuki as a main character. I would give Accel World the edge in animation as well although SAO doesn’t suffer from the faults of the human animation in Accel World. Both anime have a very solid 5 Star soundtrack but Accel World has the slight edge in this area as well. Accel World is also more engaging and has a better cast overall, but Sword Art Online has a lot more stakes. In SAO, if you lose…then you die. In Accel World, you just get your memories of the game deleted. That’s enough comparisons for now, but I’d say that Accel World seems to have the edge overall. There may be less stakes but it’s still more fun.

Overall, I would definitely recommend checking this anime out. The positives definitely outweigh the negatives and it’s pretty fun. The stakes may be pretty low compared to most of the other anime, but sometimes that just makes things more exciting. We don’t have to worry about the extra drama and we can just focus on the intense battles! The animation is definitely top notch and I haven’t seen such a great array of character designs in a long time. The anime isn’t very long and you’ll be able to blast through it pretty quickly. You don’t have to worry about a lot of violence as this show is actually decently tame. It’s not Pokemon, but neither is it something like Bleach or even Naruto. You can expect a few Accel World characters to make their debuts on the blog sometime during the week. Until then, go check out the anime and let me know how you enjoyed it!

Overall 7/10

IGPX is an interesting anime because the premise if unique. In the future, people race with robots of immense speed and power instead of with cars. When you’re inside of the robot, you are able to do things that would be impossible if you were outside. Communication between animals and humans is made possible among many other things. Can a racing series really be a lot of fun, or will it get old after a while?

Well that’s the premise and that’s basically the plot as well. I’ll elaborate a little more since there is some more plot in the show. Team Satomi consists of Takeshi, Liz, Amy, and River. Their team has finally made it to the IG 1. This is essentially the equivalent of going from a College Football Team to the National Football League level. They’re excited, but also terrified at the same time….can they win? The show revolves around them as they test their mettle against many different teams. There is deception, betrayal, and epicness as the season goes underway.

Season 2’s plot is essentially the same as season one’s, but with a few new wrinkles. This time, Team Satomi has proven that they are seasoned veterans, but a new team has jumped into the mix. These rookies really look up to Team Satomi, but there seems to be something shady about them. Are they really on the level? Team Satomi starts to have a lot of trouble with their mechs and they’re put into a very dangerous position. Friendships start to go awry and the team may fall apart at the seams!

The plot is very basic, which can be a good or bad thing. This means that their is more pressure on the animation, pacing, and characters than usual. The soundtrack is pretty good and there are a couple of catchy themes. This may not be 5 star material, but it’s still an above average array of songs.

How about the animation and the pacing? Well, the animation is good, although it’s nothing special. The robot fight scenes are fun to watch, but the human parts look really low budget for the most part. It could be that most of the other shows that I’ve been watching have far superior animation (Digimon, Soul Eater, One Piece, etc) but I think that the show could have done a little better in that regard. Some scenes just feel very dated. That being said, the robot fight scenes do hold up pretty well for the big battles. The pacing can be a little off at times, but it’s decent. The only times where it hurts are when we go for a long time without a fight.

The problem with the characters is that their social lives aren’t interesting. Whenever the characters are not in their mechs, they become uninteresting. There are some exceptions to this, mainly thanks to Takeshi and Cunningham. Still, the exceptions are few and far apart, while the other human scenes can get very dramatic.

Takeshi is the main character of the series and he’s very unique. It’s hard to get a read on the character as he’s constantly changing. He’s different from the average main character as he’ll hype up his teammates a lot and give speeches when they win battles. He also acts like a hothead once in a while and also loses his cool quite a few times. He gets into more than one romance through the series and all of them were very forced. One episode he would be awesome and then he would look awful in the next one. By the end of the series, I would say that he’s a decent main character, but he isn’t higher than that because of all of his missteps. His robot skills are pretty good and he can fight in hand to hand combat which is always a plus.

Liz is also good at hand to hand and she’s one of the main three pilots for Team Satomi. She was my least favorite character from the three and her character development was never that interesting. We learn things about her past and she enters a contest at one point, but they all felt like filler in the end. She always talked a really good game, but then she would be a non factor in the actual races.

Amy is a much better character and she battles alongside her cat. Her cat is the brains of the group and helps them out of many tight jams. Amy is a decent racer and she showed a lot of potential, but the show never really got to give her the spotlight. She gets a smaller role than Takeshi and Liz, but she still wins when it counts. What she lacks in skill, she makes up for in heart and determination.

We have the supporting cast as well and I’ll go into several of those character. We have the Coach, who gets a pretty big plot twist towards the second half of the series. It’s a cool twist, but his back story is fairly uninteresting and could have been handled better. Needless to say, he does know what he’s talking about and he has a good grasp of the sport. We’ve also got the technicians and the head of the team. There are troubles getting sponsors for a while, but it’s hard to sympathize with them.

Fantine is the leader of Skylark and she’s a bit of a main character for a while. She ends up dating one of the main characters, (Gee, I wonder who…) but it’s a very forced romance. I won’t say if it continues for long, but those scenes could have definitely been left out. As far as racing goes, I never found her that impressive. We’ve also got River, who is one of Takeshi’s rivals. He’s all right, but not very impressive either. All he wants is to play IGPX and defeat Takeshi, but that’s just not enough. Unless he develops some news skills, that will basically be an impossible dream. The Rocket is also a racer who is legendary. He’s not currently in the league anymore, but back in his day…he was the very best! He’s a pretty impressive racer and he proves that you can take on superior technology if you have a decent plan. His methods for victory can be a little questionable.

Let’s go into the other teams a little bit. Team Velshtein is Satomi’s mortal enemy and it’s all because of Cunningham. Cunningham is an elite racer and I’d say that he’s easily the best character in the series. He’s better than Takeshi in hand to hand combat and no one is a better pilot. He battles with Takeshi many times and I’d say that it’s clear who the better pilot is. His mecha also looks really cool and his speed is leagues ahead of the other racers.

We’ve also got Team Sledge Mamma. They’re a bit of a joke to put it mildly. The show actually takes them seriously, but I would say that they’re easily one of the weaker teams. Their roster is beefed up when they get a new member, but they never really looked good. Their mecha designs are all right, but their gimmicks aren’t that cool.

Finally, we also have Team White Snow. (Yes, there are other teams, but they’re pretty much non existent. These were the main teams in the long run.) They debut in season 2 and they’re the new rookies that everyone is talking about. Their team members all look pretty suspicious and they can be annoying. That being said, it’s nice to have an actual villain in the series right? These guys have some powerful mechas and nearly defy the rules of the IGPX. They’re decently good at hand to hand combat and they’re tougher than they appear. (They also fight dirty)

All in all, IGPX was a pretty fun series. It’s not going to go down as one of the all time greats, but it’s a solid watch. There isn’t too much emotional baggage or complicated plots so it’s an easy anime to just pop in the dvd player and just watch a few episodes. The fights are solid and while the human interactions may not be that great, Cunningham’s scenes are pretty awesome. I’d recommend watching this anime if you like racing or mecha battles since it has both. The final episodes even feature an aerial battle that’s pretty intense and not even of this world!

Overall 7/10

Tsubasa is a pretty well known anime/manga. It’s created by Clamp which is an instant plus for many people. To think that Clamp would make a shounen series that featured a lot of intense action was a little out there right? Angelic Layer had some amazing fights as well, but this time the stakes were real. This anime doesn’t play out like an average shounen, so can it stand the test of time?

Well, the main plot stays for the entire series, but the subplots change according to each world. I’m getting a little ahead here so let’s go back. The series starts out with Cardcaptor Sakura and Li Syaoran as they’re in a desert world. Sakura seems to get possessed and ancient symbols of magic appear. Sakura floats into the air and then loses her wings as Syaoran saves her. Out of portals that seem to lead to another dimension, mecha guards with claws attack them. Good thing that we have a magician and a swordsman to back them up. The magician tells Syaoran to leave the planet and help Sakura. They do the only natural thing that could be done in this situation and escape the entire dimension.

One thing that I’ve got to mention is the fact that episode 1 was extremely good. It’s still one of the best episodes in the series and was a great way to start off the series. Not only was the episode fast paced, but a lot of things happened. The villains appeared (With an Awesome theme!) and acted pretty tough. They’ve got a nice plan that they won’t actually reveal for the entire series, but everyone likes a little mystery right? We also get to see glimpses of two other dimensions as Fai and Kurogane also leave their dimensions. Kurogane was forced out while Fai went willingly.

Again, I must stress that this is only the first episode! While things do slow down from this point, that was the perfect way to start off the series and must be one of the best series premieres out there. I really can’t think of many that could top this one. (Yugioh Zexal II (If you count it) could stack up against this one) Syaoran, Sakura, Kurogane, and Fai are the main characters of the series so let’s go into some detail about them.

The four of them meet the Space Witch who agrees to let them travel the dimensions, but at a cost. Syaoran wants to find all of Sakura’s memories that have turned into feathers and scattered across the dimensions. His price is the fact that Sakura can never remember the good ole times they had in the past, so Syaoran will be permanently cut out of her memories. Syaoran pays the price so he’s all set on that end.

Fai’s price is the seal on his back because it means a lot to him. Without the seal, Fai has decided not to use magic anymore. Kurogane is forced to give up his legendary sword and with that, all three prices have been paid. Sakura is unconscious, so she doesn’t have to actually pay a toll. The four of them head off with Mokona (A being who can travel across dimensions, sense emotions, and has around 107 techniques) to other dimensions. Mokona can sense if a feather (memory) is nearby and once they have found all of the feathers in the dimension, then they will head off to another dimension.

All right, now we’ve got our formula for the series! At first, Kurogane is really just tagging along because he can’t really do anything about it, but he comes around eventually. Fai is always extra cheerful, but it seems to be an act part of the time. Syaoran is really all business and he’ll do anything to get the feathers back. Sakura starts the series as a pretty weak character for a while, but whenever she gets a feather, more of her strength returns to her.

I can’t get into every dimension that they travel to, but I’ll mention some of the big ones. In one dimension, they head to a world where people can use the powers of Kudan! It’s essentially a way to summon animals and use elemental powers. Syaoran meets a guy named Shogo and they have some battles. This is the first dimension that they travel too, so they’re still a little rusty. Syaoran is definitely the best character at this point and he definitely intends to get all of the feathers back.

One scene that may be notable is the fact that Syaoran says that he’ll get the feather back no matter what. The feather is stuck inside one of the monsters, but Syaoran rips it out. He didn’t seem to care if the guy died, since the feather was the only thing that mattered. Perhaps, he cared a little bit, but not enough that he would pause in his quest. This was a pretty good dimension and a nice place to start things off.

Next up, they go to a dimension where evil dictators have harnessed the powers of the feather. (Did I mention that Sakura’s feathers are immensely powerful objects that have nearly unlimited power?) Syaoran and his friends go to stop these fiends and the battles commence. This arc possibly had even more action than the Kudan part and I’d say that it was more interesting. While Syaoran takes on the dictator and his son, Fai and Kurogane battle Kiishimu. Kiishimu is a witch whose abilities have never been seen in their entirety. Needless to say, she’s a pretty powerful opponent. Fai could possibly have defeated her with ease, but he has vowed never to use magic.

Oto Country is one of the next dimensions that they travel too and it’s pretty exciting for several reasons. One of these reasons is the fact that the plot seems to finally advance. This dimension has demons and the stakes enter their highest at the time. Kurogane teaches Syaoran how to fight with a sword and they take on many demons. Syaoran wields a fire sword while Kurogane wields a blue sword. A mysterious figure shows up and the plot really starts to thicken.

The man seems to know Syaoran and he’s also after the feathers. He manages to grab one and we find out that he can cross dimensions at will. This makes it virtually impossible to trap him and finding him could definitely be tough. He fights with Fai, Syaoran, and Kurogane in three separate battles. Let’s just say that one character may not have completely made it through that part. This guy definitely makes for a compelling villain and he was a pretty solid character. His sword has a very cool design and he’s possibly the strongest character at this point in the series.

Season one ends with a decent episode that wasn’t great, but it did have a nice battle at the end. For those who don’t read the manga, it may seem like a really important episode since Fei Wang sends his army in to take Syaoran and friends down. Fai and Kurogane stay back to stop the minions while Syaoran and Sakura make it to the top floor of the temple. Can Syaoran defeat the leader of the assassins? It definitely makes for a pretty epic fight and the episode was a nice way to end the season.

One of the dimensions that they visit in season two is a place where there’s a huge library. We finally see Kurogane’s origin and learn more about his reason for fighting. He has a debt to settle and he intends to settle it soon. This planet is pretty important since Fai also makes a crucial decision. Syaoran also starts to feel the influence of the other Syaoran a little more.

Quickly, I should talk about that part. Part of Fei Wang’s ultimate plan seems to involve Syaoran as he has a (Clone?) Syaoran locked away in a water tube. This Syaoran is able to take control of the other Syaoran from time to time and he seems to be a little…meaner! Beyond that, Fei Wang and his partner never reveal what their true plan is so I hope you like mysteries. We never learn why they want the feathers or why they just want to wreck Syaoran’s life.

Finally, the series ends with a dimension that involves royalty. Chaos is the King and he believes that Sakura should travel with him instead of Syaoran and friends. He has dozens of feathers and he can travel across dimensions. Obviously, he’s more qualified to help her on the quest right? Syaoran and friends don’t think so, but he is able to defeat all three of them. They put up a decent fight, but this is the final boss of the series! He’s immensely powerful and he seems to outrank them all in everything. With everything on the line, can Syaoran defeat this guy!?

Those are just some of the dimensions that Syaoran and friends visit during their travels so I recommend watching the series to see the rest. The animation is very good for the series and it holds up well. The soundtrack is dynamite and it has some really good themes in there. There are 3-4 different opera type music that I like a lot and we even get a battle theme. The villain theme is certainly the best in the series and you’ll find yourself looking to Youtube so that you can continue to listen to it.

Syaoran is a solid character and definitely someone that you can root for. He has several plot twists (As with everyone else) but none of them take away from the fact that he’s a good character. His fighting skills are pretty good and they keep on improving as the series goes on. The fact that there is another Syaoran is definitely an interesting plot point that may have been left hanging, but it was still epic.

Fai has a very high degree of magical ability, but since he decided not to use it anymore so we don’t really get to see his abilities in action. Even without them, Fai has shown that he’s very proficient at hand to hand combat. He tends to give Kurogane a hard time, but he’s pretty nice to everyone. He jokes around the most and Mokona always helps him. He seems to have a dicey past, since he has sealed someone away and had to hide by escaping the dimension. Unfortunately, the plot doesn’t return, but it’s a good concept.

Kurogane is the tough guy who has a lot of battle experience. He’s been wielding a blade for a while and he really just wants to go back home. The Princess of the land banished him from the dimension since he was hurting too many people and also cursed him. Whenever Kurogane destroys someone, he loses a bit of his power, which can definitely be distressing. Kurogane is definitely a solid character and he gets more friendly with the others as the series goes on.

There are several other characters who are pretty solid, but they’re scattered through the dimensions. Chaos and the other guy who could cross dimensions definitely made for some solid villains. The mysterious figure vanished and we never saw him again, so that plot should be interesting.

So, the only negative to the series would probably be the fact that most of the plots don’t end. The series ends with nothing being resolved and feels like it was cancelled. There is a sequel in the form of an OVA, and you can see the rest by checking out the manga, but it’s sad for those who were stuck with the anime. Even so, the anime is definitely solid and having an open ending could be a nice change of pace.

I wouldn’t really say that there are any other negatives. The soundtrack is great, the animation is superb, the characters are fun, and the series is over 50 episodes. Some of the characters may have some mild romance, but it’s really mild so you can ignore it for the most part. I highly recommend checking the series out. Since I own the series, I’ll likely be watching it again in the future. It’s the perfect anime for those who want fights, but a deep plot to go along with it.

Overall 8/10